Sports
Blind Brook Baseball Emerges Victorious in Game 1 of Semi-Finals By: Noah Dweck
The Blind Brook varsity baseball team hosted Croton-Harmon on Sunday, May 21st for the first game of the double elimination semi-finals. They played in front of their biggest crowd all season and had their ace pitcher, sophomore Andrew Rogovic, starting on the mound. In his last pitching outing, Rogovic put up 19 strikeouts in all seven innings, allowing zero runs. The Trojans had lots of confidence going into this game due to their pitching performances in their previous quarterfinals game. Senior Jack Vnenchak pitched four innings with nine strikeouts and freshman Asher Toll closed it out with 2.2 innings pitched and two strikeouts for the win. The Trojans have also been swinging red-hot bats. In the quarterfinals, Rogovic went three for four, senior Lucas Montesano two for three, and senior Michael Civetta went one for three.
tesano went two for three with a single and a solo home run, senior captain Vnenchak went two for three, having a triple, as well as 2 RBI’s. Junior Zach Schneider also went two for three. Blind Brook took game one of the double elimination semi-finals, but lost to Albertus Magnus High School on May 22nd. Despite the confidence and prior success, the Trojans locked in their focus on the upcoming game. Rogovic started the Trojans off with a strong first inning and completely shut down the Croton Harmon offense. By the second inning the Trojans started rolling in with their bats and put up a few runs. Fast forward to the sixth inning and the Trojans held onto a 3-0 lead with Rogovic dealing the Tigers. The Trojans got up to bat in the bottom frame and Montesano blasted a
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solo home run over the left field fence, giving the Trojans even more momentum. Rogovic took the mound in the top of the seventh, needing three outs to win the game. He delivered, striking out the side and finishing the job with a 75 mile per hour curveball that struck the final batter out, making Blind Brook victorious. Rogovic finished with all seven innings pitched, allowing only two hits with 14 strikeouts and zero runs. Mon-
Is Artificial Intelligence The End Of Writing As We Know It? By: Maya Vinikoor It's 2023. New technological advances are spreading like wildfire, primarily the development and evolution of artificial intelligence (AI). It always seemed like a futuristic scene that human jobs would be taken over by computers and robots, but here we are: cashiers, retail service workers, data analysts, public security guards, and even certain doctors have had their jobs replaced by the worlds’ most highly developed robots. One area that is being increasingly affected by the development of AI is the college application business. In the past few years, college applications have become a process students dread more and more. So many dynamics have come into play that are causing students to
have trouble displaying their strengths and strong suits when applying to universities. Standardized testing has become less utilized, students have been involved in cheating scandals (also due to AI), and now the future of the long-standing student essay may be in jeopardy. Considering the fact that the leading online AI chatbot, Chat GPT, is now able to score a perfect 1600 on the SAT, the world must understand how robots will continue to undermine the college admissions process due to cheating through AI. The undergraduate essay is a tradition that has put students’ writing and storytelling abilities to the test for generations, but admissions officers and administrators ha-
ven’t yet found the technology needed to ferret out which student essays have been written by the students themselves, and which have been written by chatbots. Students applying to colleges in the upcoming years are now worried that the threat that Chat GPT and similar AI pose to the integrity of the application essay could result in the elimination of the student essay as a whole. Kevin Bryan, associate professor at the University of Toronto, explained, “You can no longer give takehome exams/homework … Even on specific questions that involve combining knowledge across domains, the OpenAI chat is frankly better than the average MBA at this point. It is frankly amazing.” Truly no one is prepared for the effects of AI in the upcoming years, as
its unpredictability is proven daily. The world is having trouble deciphering the pros and cons of the artificial intelligence revolution. On the upside, it is true that students can now be tutored practically for free; the time to complete tasks has been significantly diminished; decision making has been made easier; and AI has 24/7 availability. However, AI is diminishing human ability, costly to develop, significantly increasing unemployment rates in the long-run, and is hindering many human opportunities. The question of whether AI is the end of writing as we know it is very controversial. When asking Chat GPT about the effects of AI on writing, Chat GPT acknowledged AI’s limitations, responding, “As an AI model myself, AI can be a helpful tool for writers, such as aiding in research or generating ideas, but it cannot completely replace the human touch. Writing is not just about coming up with words to fill up a page, it’s about communicating ideas and emotions effectively to connect with your audience. In short, AI may change the writing process, but it does not mean the end of it. It might even provide new opportunities for creativity and innovation in the writing industry.” With artificial intelligence becoming a substitute for original research and thought, individual creativity is diminishing in our lives. It is vital to ensure that people do not lose their unique voices and perspectives. 8