Ep. 5 - Wikipedia's "Don't Write Like AI" Enables AI Writing, AI is Always "Disrupting", and Age Verification Methods

In this episode of the Future Tech & Policy (FTP) Podcast, the panel explores the Wikipedia community guidelines on spotting AI-written works to help with the editorial process only to have that set of guidelines used in a new plugin to make AI write less like AI, fake citations in AI papers (written by AI) and court cases, claims of disruption in jobs and the economy from AI leaders and how tech always promises different disruptions than we tend to actually see, and age verification technologies by tech companies to ensure child safety but are easily spoofable. *Links to articles discussed*- Wikipedia volunteers spent years cataloging AI tells. Now there's a plugin to avoid them. [Ars Technica] https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/new-ai-plugin-uses-wikipedias-ai-writing-detection-rules-to-help-it-sound-human/- GPTZero finds 100 new hallucinations in NeurIPS 2025 accepted papers [GPTZero] https://gptzero.me/news/neurips/- Anthropic Economic Index report: Economic primitives [Anthropic] https://www.anthropic.com/research/anthropic-economic-index-january-2026-report- Artificial intelligence tools expand scientists’ impact but contract science’s focus [Nature] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09922-y- Claude Is Taking the AI World by Storm, and Even Non-Nerds Are Blown Away [The Wall Street Journal] https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-claude-code-ai-7a46460e- Anthropic CEO says government should help ensure AI’s economic upside is shared [MSN] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/anthropic-ceo-says-government-should-help-ensure-ai-s-economic-upside-is-shared/ar-AA1UB0o4- Palantir CEO says AI “will destroy” humanities jobs but there will be “more than enough jobs” for people with vocational training | Fortune [Fortune] https://fortune.com/2026/01/20/palantir-ceo-ai-humanities-jobs-davos-alex-karp/- Our approach to age prediction [OpenAI] https://openai.com/index/our-approach-to-age-prediction/- Age Verification Laws Came for the Open Internet [Engadget] https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-year-age-verification-laws-came-for-the-open-internet-130000979.html?src=rss*Panelists*- Zachary McDowell, Associate Professor, Communication, University of Illinois Chicagohttps://comm.uic.edu/profiles/zachary-mcdowell/- Jeremy Riel (Host), Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology, University of Illinois Chicago & IGPA Science and Technology Working Group Co-Leadhttps://education.uic.edu/profiles/riel-jeremy/- Ken Suh, Adjunct Professor, Law, University of Illinois Chicagohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kensuh*About The FTP Podcast*The FTP podcast brings together a panel of interdisciplinary faculty experts across the University of Illinois System to discuss trends and news from recent weeks in tech and policy while looking toward the future. Produced by the Science and Technology Working Group, Institute of Government and Public Affairs (IGPA), University of Illinois System.https://igpa.uillinois.eduAll opinions expressed on the FTP Podcast are those of the individual panelists and not the opinions of the University of Illinois System, The Institute of Government and Public Affairs, or the three UI universities in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, or Springfield.