Weird News

Thousands of Admissions in Doubt at University in Mexico After AI is Used to Prevent Cheating legalinsurrection.com
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EXCERPT:

AI is probably going to be an ongoing issue in higher education for years to come.

A top Mexican university used AI to prevent exam cheating. Now thousands of admissions are in doubt

Daniel Fernando García Velázquez took the admissions exam for Mexico’s most famous university four times before finally getting the result that should have guaranteed him admission.

On his first three attempts, he had no option other than to travel the 400 km (250 miles) from his native Veracruz to Mexico City to take the test, because the prestigious National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) insisted it had to be taken in person.

On his fourth – and what should have been victorious – attempt this June, he traveled up anyway, even though this time, for the first time in the university’s history, it would be administered online.

This time, Velázquez aced the exam – scoring 94 out of 120 in what should have secured him a spot on the Communication and Journalism degree program offered at UNAM’s Aragón School of Higher Studies.

Scientists looked 2,000 metres below the ocean and found microplastics in 92% of deep-sea animals, revealing plastic has reached Earth’s most remote ecosystems and could threaten marine food webs | timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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EXCERPT:

Scientists have uncovered plastic pollution in one of Earth’s most isolated environments, challenging the long-held belief that the deep ocean remains largely untouched by human activity. Analysing animals living more than 2,000 metres beneath the sea, researchers discovered that 92% contained microplastics, offering some of the clearest evidence yet that plastic waste has reached even the planet’s most remote marine ecosystems. The findings, published in the journal Water Research, also revealed a striking regional difference, with deep-sea animals collected from the Indian Ocean carrying significantly higher levels of contamination than those from the Pacific. The study raises fresh concerns about the growing reach of plastic pollution and its potential impact on fragile marine food webs.

The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Water Research, focused on hydrothermal vent ecosystems in the Central Indian Ridge and the North Fiji Basin. These underwater environments lie more than 2,000 metres (6,560 feet) below the surface and are among the most isolated habitats on Earth.Researchers from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) examined deep-sea snails and mussels collected from these locations to determine whether microplastics had reached their bodies. Their analysis showed that 92% of the animals contained plastic particles, with an average of 3.4 microplastic particles per individual.