Performance Ratings Don’t Tell Us What You Think They Do

/

A significant body of research has demonstrated that each of us is a disturbingly unreliable rater of other people’s performance. The effect that ruins our ability to rate others has a name: the Idiosyncratic Rater Effect, which tells us that my rating of you on a quality such as “potential” is driven not by who you are, but instead by my own idiosyncrasies—how I define “potential,” how much of it I think I have, how tough a rater I usually am. This effect is resilient — no amount of training seems able to lessen it. And it is large — on average, 61% of my rating of you is a reflection of me. In other words, when I rate you, on anything, my rating reveals to the world far more about me than it does about you.  

AI Definitions: Vector Databases

/

Vector databases - The data is stored in a database as mathematical representations, making it easier for machine learning models to remember previous inputs, draw comparisons, identify relationships, and understand context. Vector databases enable machine learning models to identify objects that can be grouped, enabling the creation of advanced AI programs like large language models. It’s similar to being able to provide a purchase suggestion under the heading "Customers also bought..."  

More AI definitions here.

16 Articles about AI & Ethics

/

13 Articles about How Companies are using AI

/

Revealing ourselves without realizing it

/

When we talk about ourselves, telling others who we are, researchers say the same part of our brain lights up as when we brainstorm ideas, discuss our dreams, or speak extraneously. Scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found this to be the case, even when musicians improvise. The same area of the brain is at work in these off-handed dispatches, displaying a musical autobiography of sorts.

When we are engaged in these intensely personal pursuits, we not only reveal intimate parts of ourselves, researchers say a part of the brain involved in self-control and planning is shut down.

Stephen Goforth

A Dozen Webinars in the Next two Weeks about AI, Journalism, Social Media & More

/

 Mon, May 13 - Freedom to Learn

What: A look at the recent educational gag orders and Anti-DEI legislation that have become law in several states.

Who: Jacqueline Allain, Pen America; Heidi Tseu, American Council on Education; Johnny Sparks, president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication; Del Galloway, president of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications; Brian Butler, dean of the College of Communication and Information Sciences at The University of Alabama

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Assoc for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication

More Info

 

Tue, May 14 - Victim-first, Trauma-informed Reporting

What: Ways to inform without hurting, to advocate without re-traumatizing, and to talk to people in pain that may help them heal — versus leaving more agony in our wake.

Who: Krista Flannigan, OVC TTAC; Anastasiya Bolton, Victory Media; Coni Sanders, PFA Counseling; Adam Rhodes IRE & NICAR

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) & the Society of Professional Journalists

More Info

 

Thu, May 16 - Social Media and the First Amendment

What: An expert panel discussion exploring the intersection between digital policy issues and the First Amendment, the free speech implications of proposals to address online problems, and how lawmakers could address these problems without infringing on users' or companies' speech rights.

Who: Ashley Johnson, Senior Policy Manager, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation; Aaron Mackey, Free Speech and Transparency Litigation Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation; Kate Ruane, Director, Free Expression Project Center for Democracy and Technology; Nicole Saad, Litigation Center Associate Director

When: 12 noon, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Information Technology & Innovation Foundation

More Info

 

Thu, May 16 - How AI-Powered Data is Transforming the Future of Marketing

What: Discover how to leverage AI to transform the future of your marketing efforts. You’ll find out: How leveraging the right data can enrich your understanding of your customers; Why it’s essential to build a strong, AI-powered marketing foundation now Strategies to stay ahead in a fast-paced landscape.

Who: Ericka Podesta McCoy, CMO of Resonate.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: AdWeek

More Info

 

Thu, May 16 - AI Spotlight Series: Introduction to AI Reporting

What: This course is designed for reporters interested in getting started but with minimal or no knowledge of artificial intelligence. We will begin with the basics, covering the history of AI, how the technology works, and key technical concepts such as “neural networks” and “deep learning.” We will also dissect what makes a good AI accountability story, from quick turnaround stories to more ambitious investigations, and dig deeper into a few examples. At the end of the course, those who are interested in learning more are encouraged to register for the AI reporting intensive.

Who: Karen Hao is an award-winning journalist covering the impacts of artificial intelligence on society and a contributing writer at The Atlantic.

When: 3 am, Central

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The Pulitzer Center

More Info

 

Fri, May 17 - 30 Minute Skills: How to Develop a Beat

What: By attending this class, you’ll learn: How to identify key sources on your new beat and develop relationships with them over time; How to find the authoritative voice on a complicated beat to get exclusives and drive coverage; How to use social media to identify new stories and find sources within your beat without having a huge following.

Who: Alexa Gagosz, The Boston Globe 

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The New England Newspaper & Press Association

More Info

 

Fri, May 17 -Tips for Journalists: How to access & customize the LexisNexis database

What: With millions of articles within the LexisNexis database, it can be easy to get lost in the database. Knowing how to customize it for your reporting purposes is key.

Who: Award-winning investigative reporter and editor Brad Hamilton

When: 11:30, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The National Press Club’s Journalism Institute

More Info

 

Tue, May 21 - Understanding Instagram Analytics

What: This discussion will dive into the Instagram for Business interface and look at different parts of the analytics data offered and what you can do with the information.

Who: Sarah DeGeorge, a digital marketing specialist who works in paid and organic marketing, public relations, and social media marketing and management

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Small Business Development Center, Temple University

More Info

 

Tue, May 21 – Social Media 102

What: Advanced social media tips and tricks, elevate your social media presence through micro strategies and activate your advocates.

Who: Kiersten Hill, Director of Nonprofit Solutions

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: FireSpring

More Info

 

Tue, May 21 - Research Integrity and AI: Navigating Challenges and Leveraging Potential 

What: Understanding both the threats and the potential benefits of AI in ensuring reliable research outcomes. Examining the interplay between technology and human resources in maintaining research integrity. Recognizing the crucial role libraries play in fostering and upholding research integrity.  Discovering essential resources that aid research integrity efforts.

Who: Chris Graf, Research Integrity Director at Springer Nature

When: 11 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Springer Nature

More Info

 

Wed, May 22 - Prompt Writing

What: In this hands-on workshop on prompt writing best practices, we’ll start with a short presentation with tips, then examples and plug-play exercises on writing prompts for ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude.ai. We’ll discuss ethics, legal issues, and more along the way. We’ll cover how to write prompts that prevent hallucinations with AI tools, and how to train ChatGPT to present information in a format that you want it to.

Who: Mike Reilley Senior Lecturer, University of Illinois-Chicago

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free for members, $25 for nonmembers

Sponsor: Online News Association

More Info

 

Thu, May 23 - Introduction to AI Reporting 

What: This course is designed for reporters interested in getting started but with minimal or no knowledge of artificial intelligence. We will begin with the basics, covering the history of AI, how the technology works, and key technical concepts such as “neural networks” and “deep learning.” We will also dissect what makes a good AI accountability story, from quick turnaround stories to more ambitious investigations, and dig deeper into a few examples. At the end of the course, those who are interested in learning more are encouraged to register for the AI reporting intensive.

Who: Karen Hao is an award-winning journalist covering the impacts of artificial intelligence on society and a contributing writer at The Atlantic; Gabriel Sean Geiger is an Amsterdam-based investigative journalist specializing in surveillance and algorithmic accountability reporting.

When: 9 am, Central

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The Pulitzer Center

More Info

18 Articles about Politics & AI

/

The dos and don’ts of campaigning with AI – Washington Post

Nervous about falling behind the GOP, Democrats are wrestling with how to use AI — Associated Press

Deepfakes of Bollywood stars spark worries of AI meddling in India election – Reuters

AI sharpens political targeting in US presidential race – Voice of America

An A.I. Researcher Takes On Election Deepfakes – New York Times

What is propaganda? What's a deep fake? And can they influence elections? – Tennessean  

In Arizona, election workers trained with deepfakes to prepare for 2024 - Washington Post

Political operative and firms behind Biden AI robocall sued for thousands - The Guardian

‘Inflection point’: AI meme wars hit India election, test social platforms – Al Jazeera

Election disinformation takes a big leap with AI being used to deceive worldwide – Associated Press

With elections looming worldwide, here’s how to identify and investigate AI audio deepfakes – Harvard’s Nieman Lab

Underdog Who Beat Biden in American Samoa Used AI in Election Campaign – Wall Street Journal  

AI call quiz: see if you can spot the sham audio of Trump and Biden – The Guardian

Fake images made to show Trump with Black supporters highlight concerns around AI and elections – Associated Press   

How AI-generated disinformation might impact this year’s elections and how journalists should report on it – Reuters Institute

San Francisco Chronicle AI will shake up democracy — for better or worse – SF Chronicle

FBI warns that foreign adversaries could use AI to spread disinformation about US elections - Washington Post 

AI Threatens Elections by Capitalizing on Human Foibles, Officials Warn – Wall Street Journal

Eros as God

/

We must not give unconditional obedience to the voice of Eros when he speaks most like a god. The real danger seems to me not that the lovers will idolize each other but that they will idolize Eros himself. The couple whose marriage will certainly be endangered by (lapses), and possibly ruined, are those who have idolized Eros. They expected that mere feeling would do for them, and permanently, all that was necessary. When this expectation is disappointed, they throw the blame on Eros or, more usually, on their partners.

CS Lewis
The Four Loves

23 Articles about Journalism & AI: Uses, Ethics, & Dangers

/

66% of leaders wouldn't hire someone without AI skills, report finds - ZDnet

Meet AdVon, the AI-Powered Content Monster Infecting the Media Industry – Futurism

New AI and Large Language Model Tools for Journalists: What to Know - Global Investigative Journalism Network

AI is disrupting the local news industry. Will it unlock growth or be an existential threat? – Poynter

How Generative AI Is Helping Fact-Checkers Flag Election Disinformation, But Is Less Useful in the Global South – Global Investigative Journalism Network

AI-generated news is here from SF-based Hoodline. What will that mean? -San Francisco Chronicle

News industry divides over AI content rights - Axios 

8 major newspapers join legal backlash against OpenAI, Microsoft – Washington Post

The business of news in the AI economy – Wiley Online Journal

Nearly 70% of newsroom staffers are using A.I. in some capacity, leveraging the technology to generate headlines, edit stories, and perform other tasks – Poynter  

How AI-generated disinformation might impact this year’s elections and how journalists should report on it – Reuters Institute  

AI is already reshaping newsrooms, AP study finds - Poynter 

AI news that’s fit to print: The New York Times’ editorial AI director on the current state of AI-powered journalism – Harvard’s Nieman Lab

Watermarks are Just One of Many Tools Needed for Effective Use of AI in News – Innovating  

We’re not ready for a major shift in visual journalism - Poynter 

Axios Sees A.I. Coming, and Shifts Its Strategy – New York Times 

Newsweek is making generative AI a fixture in its newsroom - Harvard’s Nieman Lab 

Your newsroom needs an AI ethics policy. Start here. – Poynter

Is AI about to kill what’s left of journalism? – Financial Times

Pulitzer’s AI Spotlight Series will train 1,000 journalists on AI accountability reporting – Harvard’s Nieman Lab

AI newsroom guidelines look very similar, says a researcher who studied them. He thinks this is bad news – Reuter’s Institute 

AI’s Most Pressing Ethics Problem – Columbia Journalism Institute

Impact of AI on Local News Models – Local News Initiative

16 Recent Articles about the Dangers of AI

/

Love as Dependency

/

The second most common misconception about love is the idea that dependency is love. Its effect is seem most dramatically in an individual who makes an attempt or gesture or threat to commit suicide or who becomes incapacitating depressed in response to a rejection or separation from a spouse or over.

Such a person says, “I do not want to live, I cannot live without my husband (wife, girlfriend, boyfriend), I love him (or her) so much.” And when I respond, as I frequently do, “You are mistaken; you don not love your husband (wife, girlfriend, boyfriend).” “What do you mean?” is the angry question. “I just told you I can’t live without him (or her).” I try to explain. “What you describe is parasitism, not love. When you require another individual for your survival, you are a parasite on that individual. There is no choice, no freedom involved in your relationship. It is a matter of necessity rather than love. Love is the free exercise of choice. Two people love each other only when they are quite capable of living without each other but choose to live with each other.

M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

16 Articles about Social Media & AI

/

Mental shortcuts work — until problems get complex

/

Franck Schuurmans, a guest lecturer at the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, has captivated audiences with explanations of why people make irrational business decisions. A simple exercise he uses in his lectures is to provide a list of 10 questions such as, “In what year was Mozart born?” The task is to select a range of possible answers so that you have 90 percent confidence that the correct answer falls in your chosen range. Mozart was born in 1756, so for example, you could narrowly select 1730 to 1770, or you could more broadly select 1600 to 1900. The range is your choice. Surprisingly, the vast majority choose correctly for no more than five of the 10 questions. Why score so poorly? Most choose too narrow bounds. The lesson is that people have an innate desire to be correct despite having no penalty for being wrong.

Gary Cokins

A Dozen Quotes about AI & Academic Scholarship

/

AI chatbots have thoroughly infiltrated scientific publishing. One percent of scientific articles published in 2023 showed signs of generative AI’s potential involvement, according to a recent analysis - Scientific American 

The journey from research data generation to manuscript publication presents many opportunities where AI could, hypothetically, be used – for better or for worse. - Technology Network

Is ChatGPT corrupting peer review? There are telltale words that hint at AI use. A study of review reports identifies dozens of adjectives that could indicate text written with the help of chatbots. - Nature 

Should researchers use AI to write papers? This group aims to release a set of guidelines by August, which will be updated every year - Science.org

Generative AI firms should stop ripping off publishers and instead work with them to enrich scholarship, says Oxford University Press’ David Clark. - Times Higher Ed 

Here are three ways ChatGPT helps me in my academic writing. Generative AI can be a valuable aid in writing, editing and peer review – if you use it responsibly - Nature 

New detection tools powered by AI have lifted the lid on what some are calling an epidemic of fraud in medical research and publishing. Last year, the number of papers retracted by research journals topped 10,000 for the first time. - DW News (video) 

Estimating the prevalence of ChatGPT "contamination” in the scholarly literature: It is estimated that at least 60,000 papers (slightly over 1% of all articles) were LLM-assisted - ArXiiv 

AI-Generated Texts from LLM has infiltrated the realm of scientific writing? We confirmed and quantified the widespread influence of AI-generated texts in scientific publications across many scientific domains - BioRxiv 

Georgetown found that American scholarly institutions and companies are the biggest contributors to AI safety research, but it pales in comparison to the amount of overall studies into AI, raising questions about public and private sector priorities. - Semafor 

Google Books is indexing low quality, AI-generated books that will turn up in search results, and could possibly impact Google Ngram viewer, an important tool used by researchers to track language use throughout history. - 404Media

The Association of Research Libraries announced a set of seven guiding principles for university librarians to follow in light of rising generative AI use. - Inside Higher Ed

The oppressive Standard of Extroversion

/

The archetypal extrovert prefers actions to contemplation, risk-taking to heed-taking, certainty to doubt. He favors quick decisions, even at the risk of being wrong. She works well in teams and socializes in groups. We like to think that we value individuality, but all to often we admire one type of individual—the kind who’s comfortable “putting himself out there.” Sure, we allow technologically gifted loners who launch companies in garages to have any personality they please, but they are the exceptions, not the rule, and our tolerance extends mainly to those who get fabulously wealthy or hold the promise of doing so. Extroversion is an enormously appealing personality style, but we’ve turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.

Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking

Articles about Student Journalists Covering Gaza Protests

/