Discussion Class

Discussion Class Topics

- Friday the 13th of June -

(12pm)

- Russia-Ukraine war -

It's been a while since we talked about the Russia-Ukraine war, and a lot has happened since the last time and especially in the last few weeks, so let's catch up with all the things that have been going on with Russia and Ukraine.

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Let's discuss this!

- Friday the 13th of June -

(8pm)

- Child marriage is un-Islamic -

A recent ban on child marriage in Pakistan has been criticised by an Islamic council as "un-Islamic".

What this seems to imply is that the religion of Islam believes that marrying child is not only acceptable, but all the morally correct thing to do. To critics of islam, this is not a surprise. The islamic prophet Mohammad infamously married a child when she was around 9 years old (amongst other young girls he married).

But to people who don't know much about islam and just think it's the "religion of peace", this comes as strange news. How do you feel about islam knowing this? Do you think islam is compatible with western countries and cultures? What about Japan?

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Let's discuss this!

- Sunday the 15th of June -

(11am)

- AI vs Copyright -

AI requires a massive amount of data to train the models we have come accustomed to using. However, as copyrighting materials is an automatic process that occurs immediately after a work has been created, this has led to much of the data used to train AI being copyrighted. Under the traditional definition of copyright, this would likely be a violation. However, as the U.S. is scared of China being the leading AI country, there has been little progress in fighting AI companies' use of copyrighted materials. Elon Musk has even called for the complete abolition of copyright. This has led to Trump firing the head of the US copyright office after said officer had some reservations about the impact of AI on copyright.

Was this firing justified? Do the ends justify the means in order to ensure that AI is made in a democratic country? Also, Japan, a country with notorious copyright laws, has also relaxed many of their laws in order to promote the development of domestic AI. Does copyright even have a place in the modern era?

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Let's discuss this!