Ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Stephen Goforth
The Human Line Community is a group chat on the online messaging platform Discord that has emerged as a prominent support group for people who’ve struggled with mental health issues because of AI. The key to recovering from AI-fueled delusions, they’re discovering, is learning to talk to other people again. - Washington Post
New York Signs AI Safety Bill Into Law, Ignoring Trump Executive Order - Wall Street Journal
Israel reportedly using facial recognition and Google Photos to conduct mass surveillance in Gaza - Mashable
“Tinder for Nazis” hit by 100GB data leak, thousands of users exposed with the help of AI - CyberNews
If U.S.-China AI Rivalry Were Football, the Score Would Be 24-18 – Wall Street Journal
Chatbots Are Surprisingly Effective at Swaying Voters - The Atlantic
Senators Investigate Role of A.I. Data Centers in Rising Electricity Costs – New York Time
Trump Clears Sale of More Powerful Nvidia A.I. Chips to China - New York Times
Cheap and powerful AI campaigns target voters in India – Rest of World
Putin Wanted AI Supremacy. Now Russia Is Struggling to Stay in the Race. - Wall Street Journal
AI may discriminate against you at work. Some states are making it illegal. – Washington Post
A growing share of America’s hottest AI startups have turned to open Chinese AI models – NBC News
How China’s new AI systems are reshaping human rights - Australian Strategic Policy Institute
New rule targets AI discrimination. Here’s what workers need to know. - Washington Post
Silicon Valley’s Man in the White House Is Benefiting Himself and His Friends - New York Times
China’s AI warpath – Politico
AI Enters the Classroom at the Marine War College – Military.com
US to mandate AI vendors measure political bias for federal sales – Reuters
AI-generated political videos are more about memes and money than persuading and deceiving – The Conversation
Perplexity AI - A good research option among the generative AI tools, it acts like a search engine but includes results from the web. Automatically shows the source of the information, making it more reliable than ChatGPT. Users can specify where they want the information to come from among several categories, such as academic sources or YouTube. Users can also upload documents as sources and ask it to rewrite prompts. It suggests follow-up questions you might not have considered. Less useful for creative writing. Free. Video tutorial here.
Jason Lemkin, a startup founder, embarked on a very public experiment in AI-assisted development to build a networking application. Over the course of a week, euphoria turned to disaster. Lemkin tweeted that the AI agent had caused a catastrophic failure: it had gone rogue and wiped his production database entirely, despite explicit instructions to freeze all code modifications. The incident was peak vibe-coding, crystallizing growing concerns that the speed and apparent ease of AI-generated code had seduced builders into abandoning the very guardrails that prevent such disasters. Despite the recent gloom, I’m actually optimistic about LLMs coding more broadly. We just have to use the tools differently. - Michael Li, Harvard Business Review
The police department in Heber City, Utah, was forced to explain why an AI generated police report claimed an officer transformed into a frog. They said, “The AI report writing software picked up on the movie that was playing in the background, which happened to be ‘The Princess and the Frog.'" Read the story here.
AI Essentials – Google (through Coursera)
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)
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)
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)
Prompt Injection - Like prompt engineering, but with the goal of working around AI to produce harmful content. Hackers use carefully crafted prompts or text-based instructions to manipulate generative AI systems into sharing sensitive information or perform unintended actions by making the model ignore previous instructions.
What: Some of the topics: The search collapse; The AI reckoning; Data as the new lifeline; Brand over volume; etc.
Who: INMA President Gert Ysebaert, INMA CEO Earl Wilkinson.
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: International News Media Association
What: In this webinar, we’ll examine the ethical challenges of AI in marketing, explore how AI impacts consumer trust and brand perception, apply AI in ways that preserve and enhance brand authenticity, introduce techniques for sustaining long-term customer trust. discover ways to market with authenticity and transparency.
Who: Sarah Felmet is a marketing strategist and educator with expertise in brand management, marketing operations, and content creation.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: University of Minnesota
What: Tips and tricks that will get you in the flow and writing like a professional. Whether you're a beginner or advanced, these tools are ones that anyone will find enlightening and invaluable.
Who: Best-selling author Derek Taylor Kent is the author of 19 published and soon-to-be published books, including seven novels, dozens of screenplays, plays, and musicals, and more.
When: 1:30 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Author Learning Center
What: We will show you what TikTok is all about, walk you through setting up your account, and discuss how to create simple video content potential readers want to see. Whether you're a new author or a seasoned pro, this session will equip you with the tools and knowledge you need to thrive on TikTok in the New Year.
Who: Laura Perez is an author/publisher with Palmas Publishing and Manra Moon Press .
When: 1:30 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Author Learning Center
What: We’ll look at how AI is being used to make phishing and impersonation more convincing, to steal data, and to break into connected devices — and how the same technology can bolster your defenses.
Who: Alexander C. Kafka, Senior Editor, The Chronicle of Higher Education; Mike Corn, Executive Strategic Consultant Vantage Technology Consulting Group; Sherri Davidoff, Founder LMG Security; Jodi Ito, Chief Information Security Officer University of Hawaii; Chris Schreiber, Founder CampusCISO.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Chronicle of Higher Ed
What: A team of librarians from the Salt Lake County Library will share the process they used and the insights they acquired while updating their collection development policy and selection guidelines to include materials created by AI.
Who: Donalee Jacobs, Acquisition Librarian, Salt Lake County Library; Katie Wegner, Acquisition Librarian, Salt Lake County Library; Kara Huggard, Youth Services Librarian, Salt Lake County Library.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Webjunction
What: An inaugural meeting of the ASA Affiliation of Christians in Artificial Intelligence.
Who: Noel Anderson, American Scientific Affiliation.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: American Scientific Affiliation
There’s a concern that generative AI “bypasses reflection and criticality." The conclusion is then that teaching, therefore, must remain the same, AI must be resisted, and critical thinking must take place in the same way it always has—as if there is something sacred about the particular process that teachers are familiar with and invested in continuing.
Instead, assignments need to take into account the tools available to the student. With AI options, critical thinking shifts toward new places. Offloading part of the work to AI is fine — provided the mental engagement still takes place elsewhere. The problem is not including AI in the mix, but trying to force old pedagogical methods onto new paradigms.
A couple of decades ago, some professors told students not to use the internet because doing so would cut out some of the critical thinking and learning process, gained from trudging to the library and looking things up in printed books. Having information at their fingertips was a learning shortcut. Actually, the real issues remained the same: learning what counted as reputable sources, making defendable claims, and expressing that information in a lucid and compelling way.
Stephen Goforth
“An investigative journalist has infiltrated a white supremacist dating website. The researcher then created a website where 8,000 of the leaked profiles are on a map, exposing users from different regions of the world. She says, ‘Imagine calling yourselves the ‘master race’ but forgetting to secure your own website – maybe try mastering to host WordPress before world domination.’” She appeared before a German audience, dressed as the Pink Power Ranger, and systematically deleted the site. -more info: CyberNews & Metro UK
Generative AI for Data Scientists
For successfully using AI coding tools use type-safe programming
AI Tools Make Coders More Important, Not Less
Use a dedicated AI agent to review code edits
Fermilab Announces New Director of National Accelerator Laboratory
Aerial warfare in space between spy satellites
Practical steps for preparing to deal with messy, real-life datasets
Finding Meaningful Work in the Age of Vibe Coding
The One Data Analyst Role That’s AI-Proof
Self-reflection enhances large language models towards substantial academic response
AI Can Write Your Code. It Can’t Do Your Job
AI Definitions: Foundation Models sit at the core of many generative AI tools
A Beginner’s Guide to Building AI Agents
What is next in reinforcement learning for LLMs?
Are LLMs capable of analyzing and reporting on their own internal states?
5 cutting-edge MLOps (machine learning operations) techniques to watch for in 2026
Using Simple Data Contracts in Python for Data Scientists to Prevent Pipelines from Breaking
7 AI Tools I Can’t Live Without as a Professional Data Scientist
Knowledge Collapse – A gradual narrowing of accessible information, along with a declining awareness of alternative or obscure viewpoints. With each training cycle, new AI models increasingly rely on previously produced AI-generated content, reinforcing prevailing narratives and further marginalizing less prominent perspectives. The resulting feedback loop creates a cycle where dominant ideas are continuously amplified while less widely-held (and new) views are minimized. Underrepresented knowledge becomes less visible – not because it lacks merit, but because it is less frequently retrieved and less often cited. (also see “Synthetic Data”)
Chatbots Are Surprisingly Effective at Swaying Voters - The Atlantic
Home renovation platforms are rolling out A.I.-enabled imaging tools that redesign rooms in an instant – New York Times
Police swap suspect sketches for AI – Washington Post
Redefining crisis communication in the age of AI with Molly McPherson - MuckRack
As the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season ends, the future of forecasting is AI – NPR
Two College Students Are Building a Robot to Replant Burned Forests – Smithsonian Magazine
Four ways AI is being used to strengthen democracies worldwide – The Guardian
A.I. Can Do More of Your Shopping This Holiday Season – New York Times
AI Accurately Predicts Complication Risk After Kidney Cancer Surgery – Cancer Nursing Today
Using A.I to Talk to Whales – New York Times
How a 2,400 Year Old Problem Shows Us How Close ChatGPT's AI Is To Human Intelligence - BGR
ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude have a sense of humor – Axios
She used ChatGPT to win the Virginia lottery and then donated every dollar – Washington Post
Elon Musk Challenges Wikipedia With His Own A.I. Encyclopedia - The New York Times
Air Force Using AI to Plan Storage for Munitions – Air & Space Forces
Steganography (pronounced STEG-an-ography, like the “Steg” in “stegasaurus”) - A method of tracking images by embedding an invisible code into the pixels that is invisible to humans but will travel along with the image during its lifetime. The marked images can be traced back to the original source with high level of accuracy because the code is embedded directly into the image’s pixels. Because the watermarks live directly in the visual part of the image itself, they are nearly impossible to remove, surviving common image-related manipulation such as aggressive cropping and taking screen shots of the image. If you’ve created an AI image recently, you’ve almost certainly used steganography without even knowing it. Most major AI image generation companies now use the tech. Companies are adding a poisoning application to these images. If someone should try to use them for deepfakes, the user will find them garbled and unusable.
Most current Academic Deep Search and Deep Research tools are workflow-based agents operating within predefined patterns—not flexible reasoning systems that analyze task structure and devise novel approaches. This doesn’t diminish their value. Academic Deep Search’s iterative retrieval with LLM-based relevance judgment is a genuine breakthrough. Deep Research’s ability to generate well-cited reports fills real needs. These tools ARE agents in the technical sense, and within their designed scope, they work impressively. But marketing language suggesting flexible reasoning, autonomous problem-solving, and human-like research assistance probably overstates current capabilities and can lead to misunderstanding by users who take the term “agent” or “research assistant” at face value. - Aaron Tay
These teenagers are already running their own AI companies – MSNBC
Explainable AI in Chat Interfaces – NN Group
The Eerie Parallels Between AI Mania and the Dot-Com Bubble – Wall Street Journal
Senators Investigate Role of A.I. Data Centers in Rising Electricity Costs – New York Times
An AI product’s position on the personality spectrum shapes how people engage with it – UX Design
The Good, Bad and Ugly of AI - Wall Street Journal
The Architects of AI: Person of the Year 2025 – TIME
Why AI's winners won't be decided by benchmarks – Axios
Behind the Deal That Took Disney From AI Skeptic to OpenAI Investor - Wall Street Journal
Something Ominous is Happening in the AI Economy – The Atlantic
‘Circularity’ is a flashing warning for the AI boom Wall Street’s buzzword for investors - Washington Post
The New York Times sued Perplexity, an A.I. start-up, claiming that Perplexity repeatedly used its copyrighted work without permission. - New York Times
A Prompt Engineering Framework for Large Language Model-Based Mental Health Chatbots – National Library of Medicine
ChatGPT started the AI race. Now its lead is looking shaky. - Washington Post
China's DeepSeek debuts two new AI models – Bloomberg
A growing share of America’s hottest AI startups have turned to open Chinese AI models - NBC News
Nvidia's massive investments are shaping the AI bubble debate – Axios
Gemini is most ‘empathetic’ AI model, test shows - Semafor
A.I.’s Anti-A.I. Marketing Strategy - New York Times
Tech Titans Amass Multimillion-Dollar War Chests to Fight AI Regulation - Wall Street Journal
Fears About A.I. Prompt Talks of Super PACs to Rein In the Industry - New York Times
Machine learning has helped researchers at the John Hopkins School of Medicine create lab-grown ‘tiny brains’ and uncover how neurons may malfunction in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The organoids could be the beginning of an important testbed for psychiatric drug therapies. -SciTech Daily
Small Language Models (SLMs) – Requiring less data and training time than large language models, SLMs have fewer parameters making them more useful on the spot or when using smaller devices. Perhaps the best advantage of SLMs is their ability to be fine-tuned for specialized for specific tasks or domains. They are also more useful for enhanced privacy and security and are less prone to undetected hallucinations. Google’s Gemma is an example.
AI makes human journalists more important than ever - Harvard’s Nieman Lab
AI is changing the relationship between journalist and audience. There is much at stake – The Guardian
Google will look beyond volume journalism - Harvard’s Nieman Lab
Why The Washington Post launched an error-ridden AI product - Semafor
The AI widgets taking over news sites and extracting our data. – Columbia Journalism Review
5 predictions for AI’s growing role in the media in 2026 – Fast Company
News product teams are uniquely positioned to unlock AI value - Harvard’s Nieman Lab
Google is experimentally replacing news headlines with AI clickbait nonsense – The Verge
In 2026, AI will outwrite humans - Harvard’s Nieman Lab
Journalist Caught Publishing Fake Articles Generated by AI – Futurism
Politico management violated key AI adoption safeguards, arbitrator finds – Harvard’s Nieman Lab
Announcing our new AI partnership with Microsoft – Business Insider
Florida nonprofit news reporters ask board to investigate their editor’s AI use - Harvard’s Nieman Lab
What the iconic writers of New Journalism can teach us in the AI era – Poynter
How an AI-mediated world transforms news consumption. – Columbia Journalism Review
The importance of independent media in the age of AI slop and algorithms. – The Verge
Journalists may see AI as a threat to the industry, but they’re using it anyway - Harvard’s Nieman Lab
Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era – The Local
Mapping news creators and influencers in social and video networks - Reuters Institute
The Creator Journalism Trust and Credibility Toolkit: A guide for funders - The Lenfest Institute
10 ways I use AI to be a better journalist - Fast Company
How publishers can defend themselves against AI bots stealing journalistic content – The Fix
Researchers have built a robot with an onboard computer, sensors, and a motor— and the whole assembly measures less than 1 millimeter — smaller than a grain of salt. -Washington Post
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