Ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Stephen Goforth
While different AI platforms behave in subtly different ways, all of them nudge people away from the most extreme positions and towards more moderate and expert-aligned stances. This remains true after accounting for partisan differences in AI platform usage and chatbots’ sycophantic tendencies. -John Burn-Murdoch, chief data reporter for the Financial Times
Anthropic Races to Contain Leak of Code Behind Claude AI Agent – Wall Street Journal
‘Vibe coding’ may offer insight into our AI future – The Harvard Gazette
Entire Claude Code CLI source code leaks thanks to exposed map file – ArsTechnica
Vibe Coding 101: How to Build Apps and More With AI – PC Mag
So where are all the AI apps? – Answer.AI
How to Make Claude Code Improve from its Own Mistakes – Towards Data Science
Coding After Coders: The End of Computer Programming as We Know It – New York Times
What do Coders do after AI? - Anil Dash
Generative AI changes how much time developers spend on coding and project management – MIT Management
Accessibility and AI Agents – Conor
What Claude Code Actually Chooses – Amplifying
Five Ways People Are Using Claude Code – New York Times
Anyone can code now. What will you build? – Washington Post
He Vibe-Coded a Crisis for Higher Education – Chronicle of Higher Ed
The Software Development Lifecycle Is Dead (thanks to AI agents) – Boris Tane
On cognitive debt & AI-generated codebases – Nate Meyvis
OpenAI launches AI-powered coding app exclusively for Apple computers – CNBC
Power Prompts in Claude Code – Hardik Pandya
IBM stock falls after Anthropic says AI can now modernize old software – Fast Company
Training Data – A massive amount of text is initially fed into the system to train it. The AI uses this info to create a map of relationships, so it can make predictions. Giving the AI lots of data means more options, which can lead to more creative results. However, this can also make it more vulnerable to hackers and hallucinations. Using more curated, locked-down data sets makes AI models less vulnerable and more predictable but also less creative.
AI Essentials – Google (through Coursera)
AI Fluency for Educators (Anthropic)
AI Fluency for nonprofits (Anthropic)
AI Fluency for Students (Anthropic)
AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations (Anthropic)
AI for Everyday Living: A Beginner Workshop for Older Adults (OpenAI Academy)
AI For Everyone (Coursera)
ChatGPT 101: The Complete Beginner's Guide and Masterclass (Udemy)
ChatGPT for Education 101 (OpenAI Academy)
ChatGPT for Education 102 (OpenAI Academy)
ChatGPT for Government 101 (OpenAI Academy)
ChatGPT for Government 102 (OpenAI Academy)
ChatGPT Foundations: Getting Started with AI (OpenAI Academy)
Claude 101 (Anthropic)
Claude Code in Action (Anthropic)
Exploring ChatGPT in 2 hours: Practical Guide for Beginners (Udemy)
Generative AI for Data Analysts – IBM (through Coursera)
Generative AI for Data Scientists – Google (through Coursera)
Generative AI for Everyone (Coursera)
Generative AI with Large Language Models (Coursera)
Introduction to Claude Cowork (Anthropic)
Intro to Generative AI: A Beginner’s Primer on Core Concepts - Google (through Coursera)
Introduction to Generative AI (Google)
Learn how to use ChatGPT to Make Money! (Udemy)
Make Teaching Easier with Artificial Intelligence (Udemy)
Master Basics of ChatGPT & OpenAI API (Udemy)
Microsoft AI Product Manager – Microsoft (through Coursera)
Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT – Vanderbilt University (through Coursera)
Prompting with Purpose (OpenAI Academy)
Small Business Jam: Online AI Skill Lab (OpenAI Academy)
Teaching AI Fluency (Anthropic)
Tokens - Think of a token as the root of a word. “Creat” would be the “root” of words like create, creative, creator, creating, and creation. An LLM looks for correlations — words that go together like giraffe and neck. This group of words are represented by a token. A single word might fall into many tokens since the word might have multiple meanings and the subwords of this word will likely correlate to many other subwords. One token generally corresponds to ~4 characters of text for common English text. Examples
Stanford researchers say chatbots are overly agreeable when giving interpersonal advice, affirming users' behavior even when harmful or illegal. On top of that, users could not distinguish when an AI was acting overly agreeable. The study’s lead author worries that the sycophantic advice will worsen people’s social skills and ability to navigate uncomfortable situations. “AI makes it really easy to avoid friction with other people.” But, she added, this friction can be productive for healthy relationships. More from Stanford
Large Language Models (LLMs). Computer programs that do one thing: predict the next “token.”
Training Data. A massive amount of text is initially fed into the system to train it.
Parameters. The internals rules and limitations learned from the training data.
Tokenization part 1: pre-training. The process of converting the raw training data (text, images, or audio) into small units called tokens.
Prompt. A user asks a question.
Tokenization part 2: inference. The process of converting the prompt (whether text, images, or audio) into small units called tokens.
Embedding. The conversion of tokens into numbers (vectors) so the computer can look at their relationships.
Vector databases. The storage and search engine for vector embeddings.
RAG. The system searches the vector database relevant to the prompt to prevent hallucinations and provide updated information.
Transformers. The core AI architecture that uses vectors to make a prediction about which token to generate next for the prompt.
A new study out of the UK finds a sharp rise in artificial intelligence models ignoring human instructions, evading safeguards and engaging in deceptive behavior. Researchers say between October 2025 and March 2026, there was five-fold increase in reported misbehavior, where AI agents acted against their users' direct orders. More from The Guardian
Parameters - The internals rules and limitations learned by an LLM from the training data. Parameters can be broken up into weights (strength of connections between tokens) and biases (outputs that are off in some way).
How to Make Claude Code Improve from its Own Mistakes
Bayesian Thinking for People Who Hated Statistics
If you’ve built an LLM that predicts well but fails when turned into a decision
I Deleted My Vector Database and My RAG System Got Better
AI Definitions: Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Why Prompt Engineering Hits a Wall and where we go next
How to Build a Production-Ready Claude Code Skill (a reusable prompt with structure)
U.S. NGA moves to replace manual geospatial analysis with AI
Strait of Hormuz crisis drives demand for commercial geospatial intelligence
Generative AI changes how much time developers spend on coding and project management
AI delegation: The development of protocols in the emerging agentic web.
Building Interactive Geospatial Dashboards Using Folium
The state of AI in today’s geospatial industry
The human foundations of AI: rethinking skills, structure and strategy
Automate your exploratory data analysis workflow with these 5 ready-to-use Python scripts
How to Become an AI Engineer in 2026
The Gap Between Junior and Senior Data Scientists Isn’t Code
What: Best practice when reporting on domestic abuse and sexual violence.
When: 9 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Welsh Women’s Aid
What: Quickly and efficiently make professional infographics. To stay current, designers want to adopt “Agile methodologies.” This innovative/cutting-edge workshop shows (step-by-step) how to use Agile to turn words into professional, compelling infographics quickly. Learn the proven techniques and tools the pros use to do more with less.
Who: Mike Parkinson Author, Owner, Billion Dollar Graphics.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Training Magazine
What: Our expert panel will break down how B2B media companies are responding to media landscape changes and share actionable strategies for journalists to thrive. We’ll discuss: Which tasks are easily automated to save you time; Where to lean on human strengths like deep connections and context; The impact of AI on source verification and research; The B2B media roadmap for an AI-integrated future.
Who: Brendan Howard, Freelance Podcast Host; Maria Korolov, Technology Journalist & Author; Alexis Gajewski, Associate Director of Newsroom Operations, Endeavor B2B; Priyanka Rao, Founder & CEO, AI Champions.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: American Society of Business Publication Editors
What: Ten years ago, the Panama Papers exposed the hidden offshore financial system used by politicians, billionaires and criminals around the world. Its impact continues to shape the fight against financial secrecy today.A conversation about how the investigation unfolded, the reforms it triggered and why the struggle for transparency is far from over.
Who: ICIJ Executive Director Gerard Ryle; international tax justice expert Tove Maria Ryding.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: International Consortium of Investigative Journalist
What: We will evaluate the angles of attack against journalists and news organizations and discuss how to exercise First Amendment rights in the face of hostility and near constant threats.
Who: Jeffrey Hermes, Deputy Director, Media Law Resource Center; George Freeman, Executive Director, Media Law Resource Center.
When: 6 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: National Association of Hispanic Journalists
What: How the publisher's advertiser relationships were tested in real time as they covered one of the most consequential local news stories in the country: the federal immigration enforcement operations that have drawn national attention.
Who: Brian Kennett, VP and head of digital advertising and agency services at the Minnesota Star Tribune; Dave Karabag, regional VP of advertising sales at the Orlando Sentinel.
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free to members
Sponsor: International News Media Association
What: This session will provide a practical walkthrough of the platform and show how teachers, school staff, and district administrators can begin using AI to support their day-to-day work.
Who: Kirk Gulezian, Education & Government, OpenAI.
When: 11 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
What: A hands-on session on how teams use Workspace Analytics in ChatGPT Enterprise to run stronger rollouts—finding where adoption is gaining traction, where it’s stalling, and what to do next.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
What: The average growth rate for new social media followers ranges from .64% to 3% per month, depending upon the platform. In other words, the era of organic growth on social media is over. To grow your nonprofit’s following on social media, you need to make a concerted effort to let your supporters and donors know how to find your nonprofit on social media. This free 20-minute webinar will present eight ways to grow your nonprofit’s following on social media.
Who: Heather Mansfield, Founder of Nonprofit Tech for Good.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Nonprofit Tech
What: Built by Military Veterans in Journalism (MVJ) in collaboration with the Disabled Journalists Association (DJA), Fix the Frame: A Newsroom Guide to Disability Narratives is a practical resource designed to help journalists produce more accurate, respectful, and inclusive reporting on disability.
Who: Zack Baddorf (MVJ); Cara Reedy (DJA); Rebecca Cokley, Ford Foundation; Sam Kille; Beth Haller; Russell Midori (MVJ); Devon Lancia (MVJ).
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Military Veterans in Journalism
What: We’ll explore how leaders can automate coaching prompts, personalize development pathways, and measure impact without losing the human touch. The combination of AI and coaching creates an ecosystem of intelligent reinforcement—keeping learners engaged long after training ends.
Who: Tim Hagen is the President of Progress Coaching.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenSesame
What: We will explore how AI is accelerating both cyberattacks and defenses, why SMBs and mid-market organizations are increasingly targeted, and how the gap between traditional security tools and AI-era threats continues to widen.
Who: Justin Vredeveld, Business Development Manager; Jared Olson, Security Team Lead; Blake Mielke, Incident Response Lead.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Ontech Systems
What: How using AI to analyze large collections of data can shed light on the efficacy of professional learning.
Who: Lisa Schmucki, Founder and CEO of edWeb.net; Thor Prichard, President and CEO of Clarity Innovations.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: EdWeb.net
Researchers from the University of British Columbia found that first-semester college students who texted a randomly selected fellow first-semester college student every day for two weeks experienced around a nine percent reduction in feelings of loneliness. The same two weeks of daily messaging with a Discord chatbot reduced loneliness by around two percent, which turned out to be the same amount as daily one-sentence journaling. -404 Media
A more meaningful study might be to teach the LLM to mimic a first semester student of the same economic and social background as the person who is part of the study.
Horror Novel ‘Shy Girl’ Canceled Over Suspected A.I. Use – New York Times
Human Strategy In An AI-Accelerated Workflow – Smashing Magazine
Why AI-Generated UX Still Feels Off – Vandelay Design
Netflix to Pay as Much as $600 Million for Ben Affleck’s AI Firm – Bloomberg
Designing AI Experiences People Actually Use - Buzz
Tilly Norwood, the fully AI 'actor,' to be part of rapidly expanding 'Tillyverse' – NBC News
How I’m dealing with the pressure to adopt AI as a designer — mynameismartin
German voice actors boycott Netflix over AI training concerns – Reuters
Deepfaking Orson Welles’s Mangled Masterpiece – New Yorker
Why an A.I. Video of Tom Cruise Battling Brad Pitt Spooked Hollywood - New York Times
Against Generative AI: Is Art the Last Refuge of Our Humanity? – Lit Hub
Some thoughts about tool design and AI - Buckenham
Hundreds of creatives warn against an AI slop future – The Verge
How design elements are used in Google’s Gemini – Google Design
’Stranger Things’ Creators Accused by Fans of Using AI To Write Series Finale - Vice
AI Will Bring Val Kilmer Back To Life For a New Aventure Film – Geeky Rant
AI and the Rosetta Stone – Yann-Edern Gillet
Is There an Ethical Path for AI Art? – Hyperallergic
Computer programming is now becoming a conversation, a back-and-forth talk fest between software developers and their bots. Coding is perhaps the first form of very expensive industrialized human labor that A.I. can actually replace. A.I.-generated videos look janky, artificial photos surreal; law briefs can be riddled with career-ending howlers. But A.I.-generated code? If it passes its tests and works, it’s worth as much as what humans get paid $200,000 or more a year to compose. -New York Times
Abstractive Summarization (ABS) – A natural language processing summary technique that generates new sentences not found in the source material. In contrast, extractive summarization sticks to the original text, identifying the important sections to produce a subset of sentences taken from the original text. Abstractive summarization is better when the meaning of the text is more important than exactness, while extractive summarization is better when sticking to the original language is critical.
What to do if your employer is requiring you to use AI – Fast Company
How to Make Claude Code Improve from its Own Mistakes – Toward Data Science
I’ve taught thousands of people how to use AI – here’s what I’ve learned – The Guardian
AI and the Rosetta Stone – Yann-Edern Gillet
Labor Department launches AI literacy course – Axios
AI Is Rewriting the Old Rules of Google Search and SEO – Wall Street Journal
Human Strategy In An AI-Accelerated Workflow – Smashing Magazine
Why Prompt Engineering Hits a Wall and where we go next – KD Nuggets
Five Ways People Are Using Claude Code – New York Times
Don't get used to cheap AI - Axios
How Teens Use and View AI – Pew Research
I didn’t know NotebookLM could do this — 10 features hiding in plain sight – Tom’s Guide
AI Agents Are Taking America by Storm – The Atlantic
No Time to Read a Long Google Doc? Try Gemini's Quick AI Audio Summaries – PC Mag
Google Docs now has AI-generated audio summaries - Neowin
Scientists build a “periodic table” for AI – Science Daily
I use the 'hype check' prompt to help with big decisions — here's how it works - Tom’s Guide
Scientists have been developing and refining a technology called the e-nose—which is exactly what it sounds like. These systems detect and distinguish aromas, sometimes with about 1,000 times as much precision as humans can. Researchers are exploring—or even commercializing—e-nose systems that can scan a person’s breath to detect deadly infections, sniff the air in a building to seek out signs of potential contaminants, or even develop perfumes more quickly and cheaply than before. - Wall Street Journal
Why You Should Stop Worrying About AI Taking Data Science Jobs – Toward Data Science
AI Learns to Smell – Wall Street Journal
Scientists are failing to disclose their use of AI despite journal mandates, finds study – Physics World
AI Predicts Experiment Outcomes Using Game Theory – Quantum Zeitgeist
Will AI Help or Hinder Scientific Publishing? – Undark
Account for AI in the environmental footprint of scientific publishing – Nature
Decoding the brain, inspiring AI: How Rahul Biswas is bridging neuroscience and artificial intelligence - TechTalks
The H-Index of Suspicion: How Culture, Incentives, and AI Challenge Scientific Integrity – NEJM
Artificial Intelligence and the Fraud Industry in Scientific Publishing (video) - Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Spain
What the Scientific Literature is Filling Up With (thanks to AI) – Science.org
Today’s fraudsters can exploit the online scientific world to quickly create realistic looking papers on an industrial scale - Taylor and Francis
AI is turning research into a scientific monoculture – Nature
Scientists build a “periodic table” for AI – Science Daily
In March 2026, the Supreme Court declined to hear Thaler v. Perlmutter.
This leaves in place the D.C. Circuit’s March 2025 ruling.
There was no ruling on the merits. This doesn’t set precedent.
Stephen Thaler listed his AI system as the sole author, disclaimed any human creative contribution, and asked for copyright protection anyway. The DC court said no.
The D.C. Circuit held that copyright law requires a human author, which did not disqualify using AI assistance.
Questions not resolved:
1. How much Human involvement is enough?
The US Copyright Office said in its “Zarya of the Dawn” comic book registration decision that the AI- images weren’t protectable, but the human-authored text and the selection and arrangement of text and images were. So far, the Office has said that prompts are not copyrightable—prompting is more like giving instructions to a commissioned artist than actually determining the expressive content of the final image. But what if dozens, even hundreds of prompts are entered? Wouldn’t that involve substantial human effort, iterative refinement, and a creative vision? The Copyright Office says getting different results from the same prompt is proof the user isn’t controlling the expression. The underlying question is this: Is prompting closer to authorship or closer to curation?
2. Can you prove what you Contributed?
If your work incorporates more than a de minimis amount of AI-generated material, the Copyright Office requires a disclosure statement about the AI involvement and a description of your human contribution. This means the creator must keep files, prompts, drafts, notes on what was intended and layered edits—in case there is a need to prove exactly what the human contribution was. A copyright applicant can avoid this simply by not disclosing the AI use. The system, in effect, rewards silence.
3. What Happens When Uncopyrightable AI Output Gets Licensed Anyway?
AI-generated materials are already being licensed, bundled, and sold. An example: Someone took a Python library and used an AI coding agent to rewrite it, then changed the project’s license to a more permissive one. The original creator objected, saying the original license still applied.
4. AI Output Can Absolutely Infringe. So Now What?
The SCOTUS denial also prompted a wave of commentary suggesting that AI-generated works now exist in some kind of copyright-free zone. They don’t. Issues still on the table: Whether AI-generated summaries of news articles are substitutive enough to infringe, and whether AI-generated narrative retellings of novels cross the line from ideas to expression. One judge dismissed claims that AI bullet-point summaries of investigative journalism were substantially similar to the originals. The same judge allowed a lawsuit to proceed because ChatGPT’s summary of a novel was might have captured the “overall tone and feel” of the original work.
Bottom line: Millions of people are using AI tools every day without knowing whether what they’re making is protectable, infringing, both, or neither.
Thaler Is Dead. Now for the AI Copyright Questions That Actually Matter
Research integrity is locked into an arms race with agentic AI slop – LSE
AI can help with research, but humans must remain accountable say university executives – Times Higher Ed
Hallucinated citations produced by generative artificial intelligence may constitute research misconduct when citations function as data in scholarly papers – Taylor & Francis
AI tool flags plagiarism in 95% of Ph.D. theses submitted this year at India university. – Times of India
How AI use in scholarly publishing threatens research integrity, lessens trust, and invites misinformation – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Hallucinated References: Five Excuses for Academic Misconduct – Dorethea Baur
Ministers urged not to allow data mining of academic literature – Research Professional News
Librarian finds ‘preposterous number’ of fake references in paper from Springer Nature journal – Retraction Watch
AI is inventing academic articles – and scholars are citing them – the Observer
DataSeer develops AI system to track dataset reuse – Research Information
Journal Submissions Riddled With AI-Created Fake Citations – Inside Higher Ed
Account for AI in the environmental footprint of scientific publishing – Nature
Will AI Help or Hinder Scientific Publishing? – Undark
Hey ChatGPT, write me a fictional paper: these LLMs are willing to commit academic fraud. – Nature
Scientists are failing to disclose their use of AI despite journal mandates, finds study – Physics World
AI in the editorial workflow: Journals set the rules, institutions set the habits – Scholarly Futures
AI is turning research into a scientific monoculture - Nature
What happens when reviewers receive AI feedback in their reviews? – ArXiv
Fear of stigma blamed as 0.1 per cent of papers declare AI use - Times Higher Ed
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