The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

Will AI ever become conscious?

March 13, 2023

The question of whether artificial intelligence is capable of understanding reality as humans do is more philosophical than technical. It depends entirely on how we even define consciousness. Since neural...

How ChatGPT actually works

March 13, 2023

Machine learning models generally learn by making slight modifications to their own layers as they receive more sample data to process; this technique is known as training a model. They know which changes...

The erosion of creativity

March 13, 2023

Just as ChatGPT allows its users to automate mundane writing tasks, it also makes cheating on essays and research papers easier than ever before. Honor Council representative Austina Xu (12) believes some...

The limits of AI

March 13, 2023

Understanding the technology behind ChatGPT makes it easier to understand why it has the limitations it does. For example, it’s so prone to responding to questions with inaccurate information because...

What are transformers?

March 13, 2023

Neural networks are by far the most powerful form of artificial intelligence we have today. They essentially attempt to represent complex problems by approximating them as massive mathematical functions....

A conceptual illustration of a transformer box commonly used by AI. While machine learning text generators like ChatGPT might seem impressive, they rarely understand the content they produce at the same level as humans.

The AI revolution isn’t here yet

by Arjun Barrett, Managing Editor March 13, 2023

Even if you haven’t had a chance to try OpenAI’s ChatGPT model yet, you’ve probably seen the unbelievably convincing text responses it can generate. Whether you ask it to compose a poem, answer an...

An illustration representing various motifs in some of Edgar Allan Poes most famous poems. Many regard Poe as the greatest poet to ever live.

Friday Five: Poe(ms)

by Jonathan Xue, Humans of Harker Profiler March 8, 2023

Edgar Allan Poe died of consumption. But even a century and a half later, his works continue to gnaw at me; their biting twists and subtle nuance are truly captivating. Each poem he writes is layered with...

“Everyone has to do their job and everything needs to work together for the team to be successful. On and off the court, its always fun to be around the team. Off the court, were making jokes and having fun, and on the court, we know how to be serious and play,” Tyler Beede (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Positivity packs the points

by Claire Zhao, Asst. Copy Editor February 13, 2023

It’s the final playoff round of the varsity boys volleyball Division 3 Central Coast Section (CCS) tournament. Zhang Gymnasium carries an air of anticipation and nervousness, with only the squeaks of...

“Art taught me that I can be good at things in different ways from other people. Art is really subjective, so there isn’t one way to go about it. Once I realized this, I started seriously thinking about art as something I could do for the rest of my life,” Vivian Bi (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Sketching a new self-image

by Ella Yee, Co-News Editor February 12, 2023

“You can talk to her whenever.” “I could tell her everything about myself.” “I drop my barriers when I’m around her.” When asked to describe Vivian Bi (12), people immediately point out her...

How Smart is ChatGPT?

February 8, 2023

To test ChatGPT’s accuracy and ability to imitate a high school student, Harker Aquila entered three sample free-response questions from past Advanced Placement (AP) exams and presented the AI’s solutions...

Cause is more significant than action in climate activism

by Hima Thota, Assistant Sports Editor December 23, 2022

Cake thrown at the Mona Lisa, soup splashed onto Van Gogh, body parts glued next to paintings, shouts of, “What is worth more, art or life?” — all acts of protests by climate activists captured in...

Climate activism should pursue the art of persuasion, not force

by Ananya Sriram, Co-Features Editor December 23, 2022

“Persuasion is often more effectual than force,” Greek storyteller Aesop said; “The triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society,” American economist Mark Skousen said; “If...

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