[Astro] Seminar this week

[Jesse Golden-Marx (staff)]

Hi Everyone,
      We hope that you're doing well!  We will have our first seminar this week.  Frazer will be leading a discussion about the use of AI in Astronomy.  The abstract/title are provided below.  The seminar will be in A113 at 15:45 on Wednesday.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Cheers,
Jesse, Luke, and Tutku


Write Faster, Think Harder: Surviving Academia in the Age of AI
The rapid integration of generative AI into research practice is transforming the career landscape for postdoctoral researchers (PDRAs) and postgraduate students. Tools such as GPT-5 collapse traditional bottlenecks in coding, data handling, literature review, and drafting, allowing individuals to achieve outputs that previously required larger teams or longer timescales. This shift poses both opportunities and risks. On one hand, researchers who embrace AI critically can accelerate their productivity, explore a wider range of projects, and sharpen originality by offloading routine tasks. On the other, over-reliance risks shallow understanding, loss of craft skills, and exposure when AI outputs are wrong or unexamined.
For early-career researchers, the implications are stark: career progression depends on measurable outputs, and AI adoption is rapidly becoming baseline. Those who resist risk being outpaced; those who adopt without discrimination risk producing volume without depth. Supervisors and institutions therefore face a duty to provide explicit training in critical, reflective AI use — not banning tools, but teaching researchers how to interrogate, adapt, and own what AI produces. This discussion will consider how PDRAs and postgraduates can position themselves in an AI-rich research environment, where the differentiator is no longer effort but judgement, framing, and insight.
[Disclaimer: this title and abstract were entirely written by ChatGPT]


Jesse Golden-Marx, Ph.D.
Senior Research Associate

Centre for Astronomy & Particle Theory
School of Physics & Astronomy
University of Nottingham
University Park, Nottingham, UK
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