|
Top headlines
Lead story
My job here at The Conversation consists largely of helping scholars share what they know about sometimes very niche topics. In fact, one major goal of The Conversation is to break expert knowledge out of academia and get it into – and ideally improve – the broader public discourse.
All that’s to say, expertise is a very big deal for us.
But as the years go by, being an “expert” has lost some of its shine. Trust in scientists, for instance, has declined since the pandemic. Some people think “doing your own research” is the best way to dig into a problem, not checking expert recommendations.
Micah Altman and Philip N. Cohen are social scientists who study the role of science in society. Acknowledging that there are times to be skeptical, Altman and Cohen point to the value of expert consensus. “A system based on expertise,” they write, “is the best one modern democracies have come up with to offer guidance on the various complex issues they face.” Here, Altman and Cohen walk through what makes an expert, what expert consensus means, and the difference between professional consensus and individual opinion.
[ Miss us on Sundays? Get a selection of our best and most popular stories (or try our other weekly emails). ]
|
Training and experience are the foundation for a group of experts to provide solid guidance.
Tashi-Delek/E+ via Getty Images
Micah Altman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Philip N. Cohen, University of Maryland
Expertise comes with training, experience and accreditation. And expert consensus is the best guide modern democracies have for making decisions about complicated challenges.
|
Arts + Culture
|
-
Ahmed Elgammal, Rutgers University
AI-mediated culture is already being filtered in ways that favor the familiar, the describable and the conventional.
|
|
Economy + Business
|
-
Murugan Anandarajan, Drexel University
More organizations are letting AI act on their behalf, but far fewer have mature governance to manage the consequences.
|
|
International
|
-
Mireille Rebeiz, Dickinson College; Josiane Yazbeck, Université La Sagesse
Ongoing conflict, particularly in a three-month period in late 2024, caused widespread environmental destruction and the spread of toxic materials.
|
|
Science + Technology
|
-
Saman Zonouz, Georgia Institute of Technology
The US used a cyberattack to turn off power in Caracas during the raid to seize Maduro. The US grid is also vulnerable to this kind of attack.
|
|
Politics + Society
|
-
David Lindsey, Baruch College, CUNY
Ambassadors play a middle role between the countries where they serve and the one they represent. Trump insists their loyalty must be to the US.
-
Stephanie A. (Sam) Martin, Boise State University
Renee Good’s death was the consequence, writes a First Amendment scholar, of a kind of politics in which the state survives by making dissenters illegitimate as citizens.
-
Shelley Inglis, Rutgers University
The Trump administration’s move to withdraw the US from these organizations risks undercutting lasting peace and global human rights accountability.
|
|
Education
|
-
Janice Mak, Arizona State University
The current landscape of AI use in K-12 schools is highly varied because there’s little specific policy guidance from the state and federal levels.
|
|
