How People are Using AI
/Published Dec. 2025
ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
20 Articles about how AI is Affecting Jobs
/AI Can’t Touch These Skilled Trade Jobs. If Only Enough Humans Would Fill Them. – Wall Street Journal
The AI question every job candidate on interview should be prepared to answer – CNBC
The job replacement AI machine - Axios
Can AI do your job? See the results from hundreds of tests. – Washington Post
Behind the Curtain: The job replacement AI machine – Axios
The Problem With Letting AI Do the Grunt Work Artificial intelligence is destroying the career ladder for aspiring artists– The Atlantic
Workday and Alix Partners data shows AI's productivity paradox is real - Axios
Job Seekers Find a New Source of Income: Training AI to Do Their Old Roles – Wall Street Journal
Why the McKinsey layoffs are a warning signal for consulting in the AI age – Fast Company
There's new evidence that instead of bringing on a job apocalypse, AI is creating more work and jobs - Axios
Finding Meaningful Work in the Age of Vibe Coding - KD Nuggets
Entry-level tech workers describe the AI-fueled jobpocalypse – Rest of World
Replace your boss before they replace you – Replace your Boss
Say Goodbye to the Billable Hour, Thanks to AI – Wall Street Journal
AI may discriminate against you at work. Some states are making it illegal. - Washington Post
Spooked by AI and Layoffs, White-Collar Workers See Their Security Slip Away – Wall Street Journal
The Forrester AI Job Impact Forecast, US, 2025–2030 - Forrester
When A.I. Took My Job, I Bought a Chain Saw – New York Times
How AI is being Used by most users
/For most users, LLMs function as an enhanced search engine and writing aid, rather than as autonomous agents or virtual companions. While these tools are optimized for a wide range of tasks, such as coding and writing, there’s one use case that stands out by far — looking up information. -EpochAI
AI Definitions: Prompt Engineer
/Prompt Engineer - An advanced user of AI models who doesn’t possess special technical skills but is able to give clear instructions, so the AI returns results that most closely match expectations. This skill can be compared to a psychologist who is working with a client who needs help expressing what they know.
A way to create finished, bug-free programs without human intervention
/Users of Claude Code, Anthropic’s software-writing AI system, recently discovered a way to create finished, bug-free programs without human intervention. The trick: Write a small program that asks the AI, over and over again, to improve the code it has already written. Named the Ralph Wiggum technique, after the dimwitted but persistently optimistic “Simpsons” character, this simple trick is effective at forcing Claude Code to solve problems on its own. - Wall Street Journal
11 Articles about AI & the Bigger Questions
/AI can now 'see' optical illusions. What does it tell us about our own brains? – BBC
Humanizing AI Is a Trap – NN/G
What Is The "Divine Image" in the Age of AI? - Second Voice
On the Consumption of AI-Generated Content at Scale - Shreya Shankar Blog
An overview of emergent introspective awareness in large language models – KD Nuggets
If You Turn Down an AI’s Ability to Lie, It Starts Claiming It’s Conscious - Futurism
The People Outsourcing Their Thinking to AI - The Atlantic
Anthropic says its Claude models show signs of introspection – Axios
The Age of De-Skilling Will AI stretch our minds—or stunt them? – The Atlantic
Will AI destroy us? Consider the nature of intelligence. – Washington Post
16 Articles about the Limitations of AI
/Why does AI suck at making clocks? - PopSci
What are the limits to biomedical research acceleration through general-purpose AI? – Nature
Cops Forced to Explain Why AI Generated Police Report Claimed Officer Transformed Into Frog – Futurism
Hospitals Are a Proving Ground for What AI Can Do, and What It Can’t – Wall Street Journal
How A 2,400 Year Old Problem Shows Us How Close ChatGPT's AI Is To Human Intelligence - BGR
AI still fails at completing real-life work tasks, study finds - Semafor
AI is taking on live translations. But jobs and meaning are getting lost. – Washington Post
Scientific Writing in the Era of Large Language Models: A Computational Analysis of AI Versus Human-Created Content - AHA/ASA Journals
AI Gone Wrong: An Updated List of AI Errors, Mistakes and Failures 2025 – Tech.co
The AI Replaces Services Myth - Mert Deveci Blog
Everyone Is Using A.I. for Everything. Is That Bad? – New York Times
ChatGPT isn’t great for the planet. Here’s how to use AI responsibly. - Washington Post
Chatbots produce a more limited range of ideas than a group of humans - Axios
‘It destroys the purpose of humanity’: Customers are saying no to AI - Washington Post
What Makes an AI More Persuasive
/A new study “examined what factors make one chatbot more persuasive than another and found that AI models needn’t be more powerful, more personalized, or more skilled in advanced rhetorical techniques to be more convincing. Instead, chatbots were most effective when they threw fact-like claims at the user; the most persuasive AI models were those that provided the most “evidence” in support of their argument, regardless of whether that evidence had any bearing on reality. In fact, the most persuasive chatbots were also the least accurate.” -The Atlantic
AI Definitions: AI engineers
/AI engineers – AI engineers work on the front end of AI machines, building AI-powered applications. On the other side, data scientists help collect and clean data and work with AI to make sense of it. Unlike those working in traditional IT roles, AI engineers will fix the AI when it breaks by digging through the layers to determine why it went wrong and how to repair it. Like a plumber, they’ll snake the pipes to clear out the system and figure out how to avoid the problem next time. This will be particularly important for models that have been highly customized to an organization.
20 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism & Media
/Mon, Jan 12 - Report for America
What: Learn about Report for America opportunities and application process.
Who: Earl Johnson, vice president of recruitment and alumni engagement, Report for America.
When: 7 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free to CMA members
Sponsor: College Media Association, Report for America
Mon, Jan 12 - Report For America Corps in 2026
What: Participants will explore the possibilities that Report for America has to offer. Whether you’re considering a role in the RFA Corps or simply curious about the opportunities available to you, don’t miss this opportunity to learn more.
Who: Tim Lampley is Report for America’s recruitment manager.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Military Veterans in Journalism.
More Info
Tue, Jan 13 - Level up your journalism: How to thrive in 2026
What: This session will focus on the essential skills every journalist needs to thrive, not just survive, in 2026 (and beyond). This session will focus on building and strengthening your sources, managing the daily grind while tackling bigger stories, and charting your career trajectory. Our panel of journalists and editors will share tactics and offer lessons learned to help you level up.
Who: Phil Rosen, co-founder, Opening Bell Daily; Sara Salinas, senior business editor, CNBC; Laura Sanicola, senior energy writer, Barron’s Moderator Chris Roush, assistant vice president of strategic partnerships, Elon University
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free for members, $10 nonmembers
Sponsor: SABEW (Society for Advancing Business Editing & Writing)
Tue, Jan 13 - Designing Inclusive and Impactful Nonprofit Websites
What: Discover how to create nonprofit websites that inspire action and foster inclusivity. This session will provide strategies for designing user-friendly, visually compelling websites that connect with diverse audiences and reflect your mission. Learn practical tips to optimize layout, content, accessibility features, and navigation, ensuring that your website effectively engages supporters and serves your community. Whether you're revamping an existing site or building a new one, this workshop will empower your nonprofit to create a digital presence that is both impactful and inclusive.
Who: Melissa Stanely Pitts, Tapp Network, Director of Client Service; Kyle Barkins, Tapp Network, Co-Founder.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: TechSoup
Tue, Jan 13 - B2B Media SEO Playbook: More AI for SEO
What: This session breaks down the core principles of optimizing content for generative engines, including what these systems look for, how they interpret your site, and how shifts in AI search will impact your editorial strategy. You’ll learn practical steps that make your content more discoverable and more valuable in an AI-driven ecosystem. We'll also dig into prompt construction, using real examples to demonstrate how vague instructions can be transformed into precise, effective prompts that strengthen research, drafts, summaries and story planning.
Who: Erin Hallstrom, the director of content operations and visibility for Endeavor Business Media; Alexis Gajewski, the associate director or newsroom operations and development for Endeavor Business Media,
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free to members, $25 for nonmembers
Sponsor: American Society of Business Publication Editors
Tue, Jan 13 - News Journalism Workshop
When: 7 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: News Associates (UK)
Wed, Jan 14 - Bridging Innovation: Leveraging AI Research to Transform Industry
What: Join us for a research summit exploring how cutting-edge AI research is accelerating breakthroughs in health care and financial technologies.
Who: Shih-Fu Chang, Dean of Columbia Engineering; Vishal Misra, Vice Dean of Computing and Artificial Intelligence, RKS Family Professor of Computer Science; Wafaa El-Sadr, Executive Vice President of Columbia Global.
When: 8 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Columbia Global Centers
Wed, Jan 14 - Using AI Tools for Social Media
What: We will show you how to harness existing AI tools to plan smarter, create better content, and manage the process too. You’ll get real-world examples to help you understand how to make AI work for your social media campaigns. Your instructor will provide information, examples and demonstrate the process.
Who: Mary Joynt, Marketing Coach Loudoun SBDC.
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Small Business Development Center, Virginia
Wed, Jan 14 - Populism’s Challenge to Journalism Organization
What: An in-depth look at how populism is challenging journalism, what it means for the quality of our news, for trust in our news, for the work of journalists and the preparation of our students.
Who: Julie Firmstone, University of Leeds; Richard Tait, from Cardiff University; Tor Clark, Associate Professor in Journalism at the University of Leicester, co-editor, of the book Pandering to Populism? Journalism and Politics in a Post-truth Age; Sean Dodson, a contributor to that book, Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Leeds Beckett University.
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Association for Journalism Education, UK
Wed, Jan 14 - Navigating the Next Phase of AI Content Licensing Organization: International News Media Association
What: Why content is becoming the scarcest and most valuable resource in the AI ecosystem, how pricing models are emerging, and why publishers must act now to shape standards, rights, and commercial returns.
Who: Jonathan Roberts, chief innovation officer of People.
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: International News Media Association
Wed, Jan 14 - Getting Started With Datawrapper
What: You'll learn what Datawrapper's all about, and how to get started and create engaging visualizations.
Who: Guillermina Sutter Schneider, data scientist & information designer.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Datawrapper
Thu, Jan 15 - Content Marketing
What: This session focuses on content marketing—creating messages that connect, inform, and build trust with your audience. You’ll learn: What content marketing is (and what it isn’t); How to create content that supports your business goals; Easy ideas you can reuse across platforms.
When: 11:30 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Small Business Development Center, Gannon University
Thu, Jan 15 - 30 Minute Skills: Health Care Reporting 101 Organization
Who: Felice Freyer, formally Boston Globe & Providence Journal.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: New England First Amendment Coalition
Thu, Jan 15 - AI-Powered Learning with Video: Accelerating Skills and Impact
What: Gain insights from Panopto, recognized for advancing how learning becomes discoverable, meaningful, and seamlessly integrated into everyday work.
Who: Amy Clark, Chief Operating Officer, Panopto; Susy Martins Founder & CEO, Advise2Rise.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Panopto
Thu, Jan 15 - Small Business AI Jam
What: A fast, accessible introduction to the core skills and workflows taught at the in-person. You’ll learn step-by-step techniques and build a simple, ready-to-use workflow for your business.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Thu, Jan 15 - Untangling 2026 Privacy: New Laws, Amendments, Enforcement, and More
What: You’ll learn: The lessons we should take away from 2025’s privacy developments; Major features of the new California amendments and recently effective consumer privacy laws in Kentucky, Rhode Island, and Indiana; What recent privacy enforcement is telling us and what to expect in 2026.
Who: Osano’s Chief Privacy & Trust Officer Rachael Ormiston; Troutman Pepper Locke’s Privacy + Cyber Associates Shelby Dolen.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: JD Supra
Thu, Jan 15 - The 2026 Forecast for Data and AI
What: Annual predictions webinar, where we’ll break down these challenges and show you how to turn them into business opportunities.
Who: Dennis Buchheim, Global Head of GTM – Adtech/Martech, Communications, Media & Entertainment, Snowflake; Erin Foxworthy, Global Industry GTM Lead, Marketers & Advertisers, Snowflake.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Snowflake
Thu, Jan 15 - The Top Marketing Trends for 2026
What: This webinar breaks down the marketing trends that’ll shape 2026, from customer-led buying and early trust signals, to practical AI use and the expanding role of compliance. Designed for marketing leaders, this session focuses on what to prepare for now and where communication standards will matter most in the year ahead.
Who: Jennifer Herbison, SVP Global Marketing; Kyle Krone; Senior Manager - Regional Marketing.
When: 8 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Exclaimer
Fri, Jan 16 - Character Consistency Solved: AI Image Generation Workflows
What: You'll learn workflows for generating consistent characters using multiple AI image generation tools. We'll explore how to combine the strengths of different tools, such as using Midjourney, Flux, and Nano Banana. Different tools have strengths for initial character creation, generating additional poses, and combining multiple characters into scenes. You'll see several approaches for accomplishing these tasks so you can choose the workflow that fits your needs and budget. We'll also discuss current limitations of these tools and what they can't yet do reliably.
Who: Christy Tucker Learning Experience Design (LXD) Consultant.
When: 11 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Training Magazine Network
Fri, Jan 16 - Following the Money in the 2026 Midterms – Resources for Local Journalists
What: Participants will learn: How to find, download, and incorporate public data into their elections-focused storytelling on deadline; How to explore Open Secrets’ “Get Local!” donations tracker and other reliable tools; Strategies to strengthen their midterms coverage in 2026 through accountability journalism.
Who: Brendan Glavin is the Director of Insights at OpenSecrets.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The National Press Club
Study: Can Chatbots get People to Change their Vote?
/"Roughly one in 10 participants in a study said they would change their vote in highly contested national elections in Canada and Poland after talking with a chatbot. The AI models took the role of a gentle, if firm, interlocutor, offering arguments and evidence in favor of the candidate they represented. 'If you could do that at scale,' the senior author on the study said, 'it would really change the outcome of elections.'” -The Atlantic
AI Definitions: Data Scientist
/Data Scientist - A data scientist is responsible for gleaning insights from a massive pool of data. They help collect and cleanse data, then work with the AI to make sense of it, often through discovering patterns. Data scientists typically hold advanced degrees in quantitative fields such as computer science, physics, statistics, or applied mathematics. With a strong understanding of math and statistics, they can invent new algorithms to solve data problems. They typically use programming languages such as Python, R, and SQL. Data scientists will be familiar with big data tools such as Hadoop and Apache Spark and will have experience working with unstructured data. If someone doesn’t list these skills on their resume, then that person probably isn't an authentic data scientist. AI advancements have shifted the role from number crunching to one of supervisory, strategic, and ethical oversight. Instead of producing hand-crafted models by line-by-line coding, the data scientist of the future will likely audit AI outputs, manage data ethics, and translate algorithmic outcomes into boardroom decisions. (also see AI engineers)
7 Articles about AI & Facial Recognition
/ICE Is Using Facial-Recognition Technology to Quickly Arrest People - Wall Street Journal
Israel reportedly using facial recognition and Google Photos to conduct mass surveillance in Gaza – Mashable
How facial recognition for bears can help ecologists manage wildlife – The Conversation
BBC reporter tests AI anti-shoplifting tech – BBV
DHS Is Deploying a Powerful Surveillance Tool at College Football Games – 404 Media
Police secretly monitored New Orleans with facial recognition cameras – Washington Post
Detroit police falsely arrested woman after faulty facial recognition hit: lawsuit – Detroit News
Support Group for AI Recovery
/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
18 Articles about AI & Politics
/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
AI Definitions: Perplexity AI
/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.
The Vibe-Coding Guardrails
/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
AI Claims Police Officer Turned into a Frog
/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.
24 Free Online AI Classes of Note
/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)
AI Definitions: Prompt Injection
/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.