What it means to be an Expert in an AI World

Generative AI will redefine what we mean by expertise.  

Much as Google devalued the steel-trap memory, electronic calculators speeded up complex calculations, Wikipedia displaced the printed encyclopedia and online databases diminished the importance of a vast physical library, so, too, platforms like ChatGPT will profoundly alter the most prized skills.

According to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, an organizational psychologist and professor of business psychology at University College London and Columbia, the skills that will be most in demand (in an AI world) will be the ability to:   

1. Know what questions to ask. The quality and value of AI-powered tools’ responses hinge on the prompts it is asked. Better prompts elicit richer and more robust responses. 

2. Go beyond crowdsourced knowledge. Advanced and specialized domain and subject matter expertise will become more valuable, since AI-produced responses will inevitably contain errors or oversimplifications. The capacity to spot inaccuracies, miscalculations, mistakes in coding and other boo-boos and correct errors or complicate understanding will be highly valued.

3. Leverage AI-generated insights into decisions and actions. Information becomes most valuable when it is actually applied in real-world contexts: when we solve problems or translate ideas into tangible products and services. The ability to implement solutions is, of course, well beyond AI’s current capabilities.  

As Chamorro-Premuzic puts it succinctly, “If we want to retain an edge over machines, it is advisable that we avoid acting like one.” In other words, if a program can do a job as well as a person, then humans shouldn’t duplicate those abilities; they must surpass them.  

Michael Patrick Rutter and Steven Mintz writing in Inside Higher Ed

AI Can’t Fix the Student-Motivation Problem

Only about one in three students is highly engaged in school, according to U.S. census data—a share that has remained stable over the past decade. Even among the driven few, only a fraction of kids use ed-tech tools. About 5 percent of students use education technology as intended, thus reaping the learning benefits. That means that instead of democratizing access to affordable tutors, these tools could very well widen inequality by supercharging students who are already motivated to get ahead. - Jenny Anderson and Mike Goldstein writing in The Atlantic

"We’re using the wrong pronoun"

“We’re using the wrong pronoun. It’s not it. It’s them. Picture a single intelligence and you naturally fret about control, about the off switch and the leash and the one point where everything might fail. Picture a great many of them and the questions turn ecological. Imagine ‘a whole ecosystem of different species of AI’, each carving out its niche, each held in check by the others, the balance between them doing quietly what no central authority ever could.” -Matt Ridley

30 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism & Media

Mon, July 13 - AI for Everyday Automation: Practical Tools You Can Use This Week

What: Practical framework for finding where AI fits your actual workflows, based on how he uses it daily in his own nonprofit work — not just for drafting, but for automating repetitive tasks, connecting systems, and pulling insights out of data that used to take days.

Who: Daniel Lombardi, an "accidental techie" and author of “No Code Nonprofit .”

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: TechSoup

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Mon, July 13 - Trust on Trial: AI Output, Human Judgement

What: We will explore How leaders and professionals evaluate AI output; When speed gains ground over judgment—and when that's dangerous; How to maintain accountability in environments where machines influence decisions; Building trust in organizations where AI increasingly shapes what gets decided; Practical ways to balance AI efficiency with human judgment.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The AI Collective

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Tue, July 14 – Reimagining Media Literacy Through Neurodivergent Cognitive Pathways

What: What if instruction acknowledged that learners bring diverse ways of processing information, navigating ambiguity, organizing ideas, recognizing patterns, interpreting social cues, and constructing meaning? What if we intentionally designed media literacy moves with neurodivergent cognition in mind? By honoring cognitive diversity, we can design inclusive pathways, making media literacy practices more accessible, sustainable, and transferable beyond the classroom.

Who: Katie McNamara, a teacher librarian at a public high school in California and is the director of the Teacher Librarian Program at Fresno Pacific University.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: Media Education Lab

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Tue, July 14 - Making the Past Present: Strategies for Reporting on History

What: We will discuss how journalists can use historical research to power their own work, adding crucial perspectives and findings that can recast the present.

Who: Journalist and author Lee Hawkins

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism

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Tue, July 14 - How Nonprofits Are Using AI to Improve Marketing Performance

What: We will explore how nonprofits are using AI to improve marketing performance. Topics include personalization and segmentation at scale, AI-driven campaign optimization, and real examples of AI in marketing workflows. Attendees will gain clarity on how to apply AI in a practical way to drive stronger results and more effective campaigns.

Who: Joe DiGiovanni Co-Founder, Tapp Network; Sarah Bucci, Senior Account Manager, Tapp Network; Aretha Simons, webinar producer, nonprofit consultant & AI adoption strategist.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: Tapp Network

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Tue, July 14 - Introducing AI with Purpose and Practicality

What: Learn how libraries can introduce AI with purpose and practicality through makerspace activities, community conversations, curated guidebooks, strategic partnerships and other creative services.

Who: Amanda Sweet, the Technology Innovation Librarian for the Nebraska Library Commission.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Association of Southeastern Research Libraries

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Tue, July 14 - Actor-driven innovation to empower performers for the age of AI

What: As rapid advances in artificial intelligence reshape the creative economy, the goal is to empower actors, creators, and professionals across industries to harness these tools, while elevating the irreplaceable human qualities no technology can supersede. We support the idea that actor training represents one of the most underutilized frameworks for human development in the modern economy.

Who: Emily Roxworthy, Dean of the School of Dramatic Arts at the University of Southern California.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsors: USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, and the USC School of Dramatic Arts.

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Tue, July 14 - When AI Comes Knocking: A Decision Framework for Archival Collections

What: This webinar introduces the UVA Archival AI Protocol, a decision framework downloaded over 6,000 times since its release, and the Statement of Shared Practice, a coalition commitment now signed by 17 institutions and growing. Together, they reframe AI training access as a disposition decision rather than an access decision, a distinction that changes how libraries evaluate risk, obligation, and community trust.

Who: Leo S. Lo, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, University of Virginia.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: American Library Association

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Tue, July 14 - Chatbots and their informational needs

What: How the public is using AI chatbots to get informed.

Who: Jay Barchas-Lichtenstein, Senior Research Manager at the Center for News, Technology & Innovation.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free to members

Sponsor: Online News Association

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Tue, July 14 - Trust Is the New Moat. The Hidden Buying and Investing Criteria for Enterprise AI

What: Every enterprise AI deal has a hidden gate. Before a buyer signs or an investor writes a check, they're running the same quiet screen: can I trust this thing where it matters.

Who: ​Michael Luu runs risk for a major water utility; Vik Ghai, Managing Partner, G2C Ventures; ​Adelina Martiniuc, CEO, RoryPlans.ai.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The AI Collective

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Tue, July 14 - AI Basics for Journalists

What: We will cover the basics of large language models and show you how to set up custom preferences, design prompts and how to use the technology safely and ethically in a journalistic way.

Who: Mike Reilley Founder, JournalistsToolbox.AI, AI and Digital Trainer.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Public Media Journalists Association

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Wed, July 15 - How Dennik N built a reader-first subscription culture

What: We will explain how one of Europe’s most successful subscription news businesses nurtured a reader-first culture within the company, how that success centered on getting journalists to care about what readers value most, and how they used reader data to shape coverage priorities, hiring decisions, newsroom incentives, and editorial strategy.

Who: Tomáš Bella, one of Denník N’s co-founders and now CEO of EUobserver.

When: 10 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: International News Media Association

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Wed, July 15 - How to Leverage AI to Analyze Learning Metrics That Matter

What: We’ll show you how to tame platform sprawl, kill data silos and establish an insight-driven ecosystem that your stakeholders trust. You’ll leave with the metrics that actually matter today, a roadmap to consolidate your data and the confidence to drive data fluency across your L&D org.

Who: Gary Lamach II EVP, Chief Transformation Officer, ELB Learning.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Training Magazine Network

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Wed, July 15 - Copyright Essentials: Copyright 101

What: This event is the latest edition in our educational series designed to teach copyright basics and key concepts to creators within various disciplines. In this session, we will discuss the foundations of copyright law, the process of copyright registration, and Copyright Office programs supporting research, enforcement, and understanding concepts like fair use. They will also answer commonly asked questions; review educational resources and registration options, such as the Office’s Copyright Registration Toolkit; and share how the Copyright Office’s Public Information Office can assist along the way.

Who: Representatives from the Copyright Office.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: U.S. Copyright Office

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Wed, July 15 - Meet the Author: When the Declaration of Independence Was News

What: We will discuss how the newspapers of 1776 affected the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and how the world heard about America’s break with Great Britain.

Who: Emily Sneff is an early American historian and leading expert on the Declaration of Independence.

When: 6 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The DC chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists

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Wed, July 15 - Midterm Prep Webinar

What: We will give editors, broadcasters, producers and reporters actionable reporting strategies to strengthen their election coverage ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Who: Jon Greenberg, Beat Academy lead faculty; Caryn Baird, Poynter news researcher; Amy Sherman PolitiFact senior correspondent.

When: Not provided

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Poynter

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Wed, July 15 - AI foundations for legal aid professionals

What: This session is built for those who want to understand what the tools can do, how to prompt clearly, and where AI can help with day-to-day work while keeping professional responsibility and client trust front and center.

Who: Bright Kellog Program Manager, OpenAI; Kath Kennelly Program Manager, OpenAI.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsors: OpenAI Academy, Everlaw, the Legal Services National Technology Assistance Project

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Wed, July 15 - AI for Compliance: What Teams Are Using Today

What: How legal and compliance teams are putting AI to work today, the governance principles required to use it responsibly, and the emerging opportunities that will define the future of compliance programs. Attendees will gain practical insights into real-world AI workflows, learn what separates effective compliance-focused AI from generic solutions, and explore how organizations can improve efficiency while maintaining accountability, consistency, and oversight.

Who: Jeremy Hui, Kara Rayburn.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: NAVEX

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Wed, July 15 - Winning Brand Trust in the Age of AI: The IRL Media Advantage

What: We’ll explore new research on how IRL (in-real-life) media helps brands build credibility and connection in an increasingly synthetic world. From shared, real-world experiences that create collective validation, to the “proof of presence” that signals accountability, IRL offers a powerful counterbalance to growing digital distrust.

Who: Christina Radigan, Chief Research Officer, OUTFRONT Media; Stacy Lamkin, Partner Kantar Consulting.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Association of National Advertisers

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Wed, July 15 - Understanding the media: A starter guide for scientists

What: This webinar is designed specifically for media-curious scientists with little or no media experience—teaches the basics scientists need to know as they consider dipping their toes or diving deeper into media engagement. We provide an overview of the U.S. news landscape, including the different types of media outlets and reporters a scientist might encounter (and what each is looking for), professional similarities and differences between journalists and scientists, and the risks and benefits of participating in interviews.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsors: SciLine Media & the American Association for the Advancement of Science

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Thu, July 16 - Strategy First: How Micro-Enterprises Should Really Be Using AI

What: You’ll walk away with a practical framework for evaluating where AI can genuinely move the needle in your business — and where it can’t. We’ll work through how to translate big-picture goals into specific operational problems, how to audit your workflows for the bottlenecks that are actually costing you, and how to apply a simple decision filter before adopting any new tool.

Who: Isabel Krome, Temple Small Business Development Center.

When: 9 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Temple Small Business Development Center

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Thu, July 16 - Virtual Panel: AI in Practice for Small Business

What: Insights on how AI is shaping the future of work, business operations, marketing, customer engagement, and decision-making. Panelists will discuss current trends, real-world use cases, opportunities for growth, and important considerations as AI tools become increasingly accessible to organizations of all sizes.

Who: Experts from academia, business, and technology.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Bucknell Small Business Development Center

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Thu, July 16 - Practical Uses of AI in Your Small Business

What: Join us as we walk through examples for your small business to utilize AI, including: Starting a Business, Marketing Your Business, Creating Content, Responding to Prompts, and more.  

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Widener University Small Business Development Center

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Thu, July 16 - Introduction to Digital Marketing with AI

What: This beginner-friendly webinar is designed specifically for small business owners, solo entrepreneurs, and local service providers. You’ll learn the essentials of digital marketing, from setting up a Google Business Profile to boost local SEO, to using social media platforms

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: University of Pittsburgh Small Business Development Center

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Thu, July 16 - AI for Media Sales Professionals Overview: Working Smarter, not Harder

What: An overview of how AI can increase your productivity and sales at every step of the sales cycle including prospecting, pre-meeting research, audit to identify opportunity, industry trends and competitive intelligence, campaign ideas and value-added insights, proposal context and storytelling, objection handling and closing. We’ll look at a couple of tools that can really make a difference and how to maximize your use with SMART prompts.

Who: Shannon Kinney, a seasoned startup Founder and Executive with over 30 years of experience in digital marketing.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: $35

Sponsor: Online Media Campus

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Thu, July 16 - Builder Bootcamp: RAG

What: You’ll learn how to build a retrieval-augmented generation pipeline using OpenAI’s File Search, Responses, and Evals APIs. We’ll walk through how to structure source content, create a vector store, retrieve relevant context, and generate grounded answers. You’ll also learn how to evaluate answer quality, tune retrieval behavior, and use evals to understand whether your system is returning accurate, useful responses. This session is geared toward builders working on knowledge assistants, support workflows, or any application that needs to ground answers in trusted content.

Who: Benedict Kerres, AI Deployment Engineer, OpenAI; Lakshya Dhar, Builder AI Deployment Manager, OpenAI; Marcus Stallworth, Builder ADM, OpenAI.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: OpenAI Academy

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Thu, July 16 - AI Coding Assistants vs Cybersecurity Reality

What: We’ll share what we learned from building and testing a real application with AI—and explain why security is more important than ever.  You’ll learn: Why AI-generated code can still have many security gaps; New risks like prompt injection and fake packages; Simple ways to use AI safely with security checks in place.

Who: Steve R. Smith, CISSP, Black Duck.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: BlackDuck

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Thu, July 16 - Building Websites with Codex Sites

What: Learn how Codex Sites can help you create a website for a personal project, small business, community group, portfolio, or anything else you're passionate about. This session is open to everyone and does not require any previous experience with coding or web design. We'll walk through the process together and show how AI can help make building and publishing a website more accessible than ever.

Who: Keelan Schule, Education Solutions Engineer, OpenAI.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: OpenAI Academy

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Thu, July 16 - Reimagining News Audiences: The Role of Visuals in Developing Connection, Trust, and Growth with your Community

What: In this interactive webinar, we’ll explore how nonprofit newsrooms can use visuals to strengthen audience engagement and support growth, even with limited staff and budgets. Attendees will leave with practical ideas for integrating visual storytelling into their audience development efforts.

When: 4 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: New England Newspaper & Press Association

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Fri, July 17 - Improving engagement with new models and AI-formatted content

What: We will demonstrate an innovative, AI-supported “Smart Story Suite" designed to engage users across varying environments, time constraints and levels of interest — a model that’s already showing signs of success.

Who: Ronald Yaros, an associate professor of digital engagement at Merrill College, director of the Digital Engagement Lab; Reid Williams, Co-founder and Secretary, The Local Journalism Foundation.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: University of Maryland

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AI Definitions: Distillation

Distillation (also called knowledge distillation) – This is training an AI model using the outputs of another model. Small models can learn from larger teacher models. There is disagreement as to where to draw the line between using this technique for the legitimate study of how AI models work and unethical business practices. It is yet to be determined whether it violates any U.S law. Many Chinese AI models have been accused of using it to accelerate the development of their own models through overseas proxy services called transfer stations. Knowledge distillation was first discussed in a 2015 paper by three Google researchers. It will probably fade in importance as AI companies move toward developing AI agents.

More AI Definitions

Identifying AI Writing

You can’t always deduce what’s inside from what’s outside. A person might have rough features and a kind heart, just as a writer might use em dashes despite being human. It’s not a giveaway—it’s a style choice. (See?) And as AI models evolve, their ability to mimic human writing is sure to improve. People have reportedly begun to make deliberate spelling errors to show that they are not chatbots; it’s only a matter of time before the chatbots learn to follow suit. -Adam Kirsch writing in The Atlantic

AI Definition: Narrow AI

Narrow AI – The use of artificial intelligence for a very specific task or a limited range of tasks. For instance, general AI would reference an algorithm capable of playing all kinds of board games, while narrow AI would limit the range of machine capabilities to a specific game like chess or Scrabble. Google Search queries, Alexa and Siri answer questions by using narrow AI algorithms. They can often outperform humans when confined to known tasks, but often fail when presented with situations outside the problem space where they are trained to work. In effect, narrow AI can’t transfer knowledge from one field to another. Narrow AI techniques fall into two categories: symbolic AI and machine learning.

More AI Definitions

The demand for philosophers with AI training

While a plain-vanilla philosophy degree remains as hard to monetize as ever, David Chalmers, a prominent philosopher of consciousness at N.Y.U., observes: “I think the demand for philosophers with A.I. training is, if anything, outstripping the supply right now. It’s an area I encourage students to go into. I think these issues with A.I. will be front and center for a good while.” - New York Times

A Lesson from the history of technology

If there’s one lesson from the history of technology, it is that these changes are hard to predict. Everyone loves to point out that the number of bank tellers rose for decades after the invention of the ATM. But today, the bank-teller profession is indeed dying. It was killed not by the invention that was intended to replace it, but by one that no one expected: the iPhone. When it was invented, no one predicted that this new device would eventually transform how the whole world banked. Some of the most dramatic consequences of the AI revolution are guaranteed to be just as surprising. - Rogé Karma writing in The Atlantic

20 Articles about AI & Teaching

My Students Hate AI. But They Can’t Stop Using It. – Chronicle of Higher Ed

AI’s impact on cognitive ability: MIT study reveals more troubling data – MIT

The AI-Tutor Revolution That Wasn’t: It turns out bots aren’t great teachers. – The Atlantic

Can—and Should—Honor Codes Survive in the AI Age? – Inside Higher Ed

Cal State faculty push to prevent AI tools from replacing them as schools and staff experiment – Cal Matters

Student Cheating Is Becoming Impossible to Detect in an A.I. Era – New York Times

Can Colleges Make All Their Students ‘AI Fluent’? - Chronicle of Higher Ed

Colleges Are Building A.I. Degrees, Hoping Students Will Come – New York Times

A major university just banned AI detectors — here's why – Tom’s Guide

How to Fight AI Brain Rot at School? For One Country, It’s With Free ChatGPT – Wall Street Journal

A major teachers’ union is urging schools not to give students tech devices until at least the third grade, and to keep A.I. out of elementary schools. – New York Times

I Built an AI Grading Tool. Then a Student Thanked Me for Words I Didn’t Write. - EdSurge

Teachers aren’t getting formal guidance on AI, poll finds - Semafor

Your New AI Professor Is the Rapper From the Black Eyed Peas – Wall Street Journal

The ChatGPT era prompts a boom in A-graded coursework – Axios

Artificial Intelligence and Grade Inflation Center for Studies in Higher Ed – eScholarship

The High Cost of Silent Classrooms – New York Times

Teaching AI how people work is fraught with problems – The Economist

How to Use Paper to Teach About AI and Cutting-Edge Tech – EdWeek

‘All or Nothing’ Approach to AI ‘Risks Shutting Down Innovation’ - Inside Higher Ed

25 Articles about AI & Legal Issues

AI law startup Norm raises $120M - Tech Crunch

Governor JB Pritzker signs AI bill into law – ABC-7 Chicago

When The Lawsuit Fails, You License: Getty’s Forced Pivot To OpenAI – TV News Check

Newspapers sue OpenAI, Microsoft for mass copyright infringement – Courthouse News

AI-generated video of Vermont congressional race tests new state disclosure law – WCAX

AI models have a troubling knack for discovering legal loopholes – Science.org

For the First time, an AI Law Firm has Won a Case in the UK – The Guardian

Lawyers Have Been Hallucinating for Decades, Judges Say—AI Just Made It Faster – Law.com

The CNN-Perplexity Lawsuit Is Not Just Another AI Copyright Case – Data Innovation Center

Ninth Circuit on AI Hallucinations – Reason.com

Landmark German ruling declares Google's AI Overviews are Google's own words and makes it liable for false answers – The Decoder

Why legal teams are still growing in the age of AI – Wolters Kluwer

Artificial Intelligence Floods Court Dockets with Home-Brewed Lawsuits – New York Times

AI keeps inventing fake cases. Lawyers keep citing them – Scientific American

What jobs will AI destroy? Exhibit A shouldn’t be on the list. – Washington Post

The JPMorgan Sexual-Assault Lawsuit Was Already Messy. AI Is Making It Worse. – Wall Street Journal

AI and Data Privacy in Investigations: What Legal Teams Need to Know - JD Supra

US judicial panel delays action on AI-generated evidence, deep fakes – Reuters

CNN sues Perplexity over alleged AI copyright theft – CNN

3rd Circuit Mulls Fair-Use Defense in Westlaw's Copyright Suit Against AI Startup – Law.com

Judge rules both sides in lawsuit misused AI, disqualifies lawyers – Reuters

Copyright law ‘struggling’ to parse AI’s ascendancy – Harvard Law

Investors sue Adobe execs over AI copyright statements – Courthouse News

How US courts are addressing fair use questions in AI training and copyright disputes – IAM

A Court Has Ruled That Google Is Liable for False Statements Generated by AI Overviews – WIRED

AI is eating the academic publishing industry alive

If the exposure of AI-generated slop, hallucinated references, fabricated data and voiceless prose brings about the downfall of the Big Five (academic) publishing oligopoly, I cannot mourn it. An industry that profits so spectacularly from unpaid labour, that sells publicly funded research to the public at an enormous mark-up, that has used its stranglehold on prestige to distort what universities are for, well, this industry deserves disruption. - Sioux McKenna writing in the Daily Maverick

10 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism & Media

Mon, July 6 - AI and Human Dignity 

What: Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical (about AI) and the broader questions it raises about AI ethics, education, and our shared digital future.

Who: Wesley Fryer, a middle school STEM and media literacy middle school teacher at Providence Day School in Charlotte, North Carolina and educational technology early adopter.

When: 7 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Media Education Lab

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Tue, July 7 - Reporting on Rape

What: This webinar will cover:  Common myths and harmful narratives to avoid; How language choices influence public attitudes to sexual violence; Practical tips for ethical and accurate journalism – built on strong working practice; Best practice for working with survivors sharing their stories; Opportunities to ask questions and raise any challenges you face in reporting on this issue.

Who: Sophie Wilkinson, a freelance journalist with over 15 years’ experience working for a range of consumer titles; Alessia Tranchese, Associate Professor of Language, Feminism and Digital Media.

When: 9 am, Eastern 

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: End Violence Against Women Coalition

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Tue, July 7 - The Data Investigator’s Toolkit: Lessons from 2026’s Sigma Award Winners

What: Each winning team will have five minutes to showcase the approaches and breakthroughs that helped them uncover complex stories. The session will offer perspectives on the trends and practices redefining data journalism today.

Who: Moderated by Brant Houston, GIJN co-founder and Knight Chair in Investigative Reporting at the University of Illinois.

When: 9 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Global Investigative Journalism Network

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Tue, July 7 - Codex for Everyday Use  

What: We'll explore ways people are using Codex to support everyday projects and tasks—from organizing information and planning activities to creating simple tools that make life a little easier. We'll focus on practical examples and leave some time for questions and ideas from the audience.

Who: Angela Bunn, AI Deployment Manager, OpenAI.

When: 11 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: OpenAI Academy

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Tue, July 7 - AI Impact Hour for Nonprofits

What: A practical, interactive conversation designed for executive directors, staff, board members, and volunteers who want to understand what AI can realistically do in a nonprofit setting. You’ll see simple demonstrations and real examples, and you'll have a chance to share your experiences, challenges, and insights with the group.

Who: Aretha Simons, M.Ed., Webinar Producer, Nonprofit & Al Consultant.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: TechSoup

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Thu, July 9 - Uncover the Hidden AI Risks in Your Applications

What: In this webinar, we’ll discuss: The benefits of leveraging AI models to accelerate innovation; How to identify the models, license obligations, and risks in your applications; Ways to prevent vulnerable AI-generated code from impacting your business; How to customize your SBOMs to include AI models and fit your specific needs.

Who: Steven Zimmerman, DevOps Security Solutions Manager, Black Duck.

When: 5 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Blackduck

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Thu, July 9 - Health care affordability isn’t inflation, and AI may not serve us: What journalists need to understand

What: This practical session will provide reporters with data sources, story ideas and reporting frameworks for covering one of the most important economic issues facing American households.

 

Who: Marty Steffens, SABEW chair of business and financial reporting at the Missouri School of Journalism; Larry Levitt, Executive Vice President for Health Policy at KFF.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Society for Advancing Business Editing & Writing

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Thu, July 9 - How Rural Districts Are Using AI to Meet Real Needs: Lessons from the Rural AI Strategy Lab

What: You’ll hear from the three team leads from the Rural AI Strategy Lab, a cohort-based initiative where 13 rural school district teams are working through a human-centered design process to identify real problems and build AI-enabled solutions that fit their contexts. They walk through their experience from the inside. They’ll share the user-centered problems they identified, the AI tools they selected and why, what they learned when they started prototyping, and how they’re planning their pilots for fall 2026.

Who: David Huggins, an educator and United States Army veteran with more than a decade of experience in education; Jessica Gillespie, the Director of Instructional Improvement–Innovation at Griswold Public Schools; Ted W. Paton, a forward-thinking educator and innovator dedicated to bridging the digital divide for the next generation of rural leaders; Megan Benay, a Partner on the Practice and Implementation team at FullScale; Adam A. Phyall, III, a former high school science teacher.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: FullScale

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Thu, July 9 - How to Improve AI Visibility With Press Releases & Syndicated Articles

What: We’ll show you how to turn press releases and syndicated content into powerful drivers of AI visibility. Today’s AI search engines don’t rank content, they cite trusted sources. If your PR strategy isn’t built for that, you’re missing critical opportunities to get surfaced where your audience is searching.

Who: Melissa James, Senior Sales Director, Notified; Jeff Heisler, Senior Sales Director, Notified.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Public Relations Society of America

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Fri, July 10 - Strengthening Stories Workshop: Ledes, Nut Grafs, and Self Editing

What: Participants will learn: Practical tips to punch up languid ledes; Ways to quickly identify and focus nut grafs; Approaches to story structure to rethink — or reshape — the narrative A new framework for self-editing that will improve or tighten your copy, guaranteed; Additional tips for effective storytelling.

Who: Beth Francesco, Executive Director at NPCJI Elliot C. Williams, Training Manager at NPCJI.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: EventBrite

Cost: $20 members, $25 nonmembers

Sponsor: National Press Club

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AI Bias in Academic Publishing

A new study finds “academic publication reviewers continue to penalise authors from countries where English is less widely spoken, even after ChatGPT became widely available. Write naturally and risk being flagged as a non-native speaker; write with AI assistance and risk being flagged as an AI user. The problem was never purely linguistic but structural, and AI tools are not designed to address structural bias.” -London School of Economics

21 Articles about AI Fakes

Now we’re getting AI fake news complaining about how AI fake news is the death of real news – Harvard’s Nieman Lab

WIRED talks to author who included quotes made up by AI — in his book on AI.  – WIRED

AI-generated video of Vermont congressional race tests new state disclosure law – WCAX

One fake web page can be enough to trick AI shopping recommendations – Fast Company

Anyone can fake a scientific image with AI, tricking even academic journals – and undermining trust in science – The Conversation

Medical students are using a popular research tool (aided by AI) to pump out misleading studies – Science.org

In Age of AI, World’s Leading Deepfake Expert No Longer Trusts His Own Eyes - The New York Times

An explosion of AI deepfakes is redefining American elections - Axios

AI Supercharges Deepfake Nudes—Unleashing a New Form of Bullying Among Kids – Wall Street Journal

Cybercriminals Use Fake AI Guides and Dev Tools to Spread AsyncRAT Malware – InfoSecurity Magazine

Concern for study looking into whether conversations with AI could change viewpoints – Retraction Watch

Google Says Chinese Cybercrime Group Used Its A.I. in Scams - The New York Times

Telegraph, Sun and Mirror hoaxed by AI picture of Thai police in drag – Press Gazette

A.I. Is Making Scams Hard to Spot. Here’s How to Protect Yourself. - The New York Times

Fake academic journals are publishing AI-generated papers under real professors’ names – NBC News

Two New AI-Driven Impersonation Scams to Avoid – Writer Beware

Scammers using AI to create convincing fake delivery texts, emails | How to protect yourself – ABC7 Chicago

Cop Accused of Using AI to Fake Evidence – Futurism

Judge rules both sides in lawsuit misused AI, disqualifies lawyers – Reuters

AI-Generated Fake Receipts Now Make Up 71% of Expense Fraud – Pymnts

In Texas, AI-generated political ads are blurring the line between real and fake- Poynter

AI Definitions: AI Trainer

AI Trainer (or AI tutor) – This is the job of helping an AI find and digest the best, most useful data and then teaching it to respond accurately and in constructive ways. When AI companies were first launching, they often relied on workers in low-income countries to perform tedious data labeling, but now there's demand for more specialized knowledge. Some companies pay significant hourly rates for highly skilled experts to share their expertise with AI for training. This includes those working in computer science, real estate, law, medicine, writing, etc. 

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