Stillness
/It is true that a mirror has the quality of enabling a person to see his image in it, but to do this he must stand still. -Søren Kierkegaard
AI Definitions: Supervised Training
/Supervised Training - In this type of AI training, the data is labeled by humans before it is given to the AI. For instance, the bot might be given a database of messages labeled “spam” or “not spam.” Supervised learning is the most common type of machine learning and is used in voice recognition, language translation, and self-driving cars. Anything that a person can do in a second can also be performed by AI through supervised training. This is why jobs consisting of a series of one-second tasks are at risk of being replaced. Most of the present economic value of AI comes from this type of training. However, supervised training is both expensive and time-consuming.
27 Recent Articles about How AI is Affecting Jobs
/To Get This Job at McKinsey, You’ll Need to Survive a Debate With AI First – Wall Street Journal
AI is automating coding. So why are software developer job postings on the rise? – CNBC
Marketers Are Rebranding as ‘Engineers’ to Survive the AI Era - Wall Street Journal
The Non-AI AI Jobs - The Atlantic
Would You Hire a Ph.D. Who Wrote Their Dissertation With AI? – Chronicle of Higher Ed
What Happens To Entry-Level Workers When AI Does The Junior Work? – Forbes
Fearing AI, workers go back to school seeking jobs that still need a human touch – Washington Post
Young Consultants Are Jumping Ship for A.I. Start-Ups – New York Times
AI Is Creating More Data. The Next Big Skill Is Knowing What To Do With It – Analytics India
The Most AI-Exposed College Graduates Are Entering Another Great Recession - Chronicle of Higher Ed
Nearly 1 in 3 College Students Are Changing Careers Over AI. Should They? – Inc
The Case for Saving Every AI Chat – Wall Street Journal
Elon survey finds Americans fear AI will hollow out the meaning of work – Elon University
Is AI killing jobs for college grads? Not yet, new study says. – Washington Post
I surveyed workers to see if AI had caused job losses and was surprised by the findings – The Conversation
China’s New Graduates, Facing a Dire Job Market, Must Also Contend With A.I. – New York Times
AI is hitting entry-level jobs hardest, Stanford study finds – Ars Technica
On teaching AI how you work - Karl Koch
Why Your Boss Wants to Make Sure AI Can Read Your Slack Messages – Wall Street Journal
Where A.I. Is Creating Jobs for Humans — For a While - New York Times
Will A.I. Still Take Our Jobs? – New Yorker
How to Outsmart AI When It’s Tracking Your Workday – Wall Street Journal
AI Career Skills Move Beyond Computer Science – Inside Higher Ed
Women are missing out on the AI jobs boom – Axios
Fearing AI, young workers retrain for hands-on jobs – Hechinger Report
Many recent grads say AI is making it harder to get a job. Economists aren't so sure – NPR
AI Agents as a Collective
/People should not view A.I. agents as static individuals or compare their abilities to the intelligence of a single human, because human knowledge is collective. Agents may soon go from one-on-one conversations to more collective social interactions, where agents outnumber humans. -New York Times
Picking and Choosing
/A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies. - Oscar Wilde (born Oct 16, 1854)21 Articles about AI & Data Privacy
/How to Use AI With Your Privacy Intact – WIRED
Apate sends AI agents undercover to get scammed so they can gather fraud intelligence – Tech Crunch
Scammers used AI to impersonate me, a KUOW reporter. Here’s how to avoid such traps - KUOW
Anthropic warns AI models could soon copy themselves across home devices – CNBC
I almost fell for an AI job scam because the usual red flags weren't there. Here's how I caught it. – Business Insider
Muse Creates Detailed Profiles of All Your Friends and Family – WIRED
Hackers Use Chinese AI Tool to Hit South Korean Banks, Exposing New Risk – Wall Street Journal
Cybersecurity 101 still applies in the AI world – Axios
Can researchers trust that AI models won’t leak their ideas? – Science Business
Hackers who broke into OpenAI warn the AI industry has a security problem – Washington Post
Hackers Stole Flock’s Camera Software, Revealing How the Company Tracks Cars and People – 404 Media
To Catch AI Cheating, Turnitin Wants to Monitor Students’ Keystrokes – Chronicle of Higher Ed
They hacked a TikTok user’s camera, with help from free AI – Washington Post
The Personal AI Agent Horror Stories Are Rolling in – Business Insider
Think Your Anonymous Account Is Safe? AI Might Figure Out Who You Are – Wall Street Journal
The AI hacking crisis is already here – Axios
Meta’s Muse is taking off. So are the privacy concerns – Fast Company
How to Maintain Our Privacy in the AI Age – Wall Street Journal
AI has transformed the Pentagon’s aging networks into a national security risk – Washington Post
AI Is Getting Really Good at Messing With Cybercriminals – Business Insider
Consumers Muse Over AI Privacy Concerns - Wall Street Journal
JOMO: The joy of missing out
/One of the joys of aging (I’m 64) is to recognize that what used to be important no longer is. There’s no obsession now with social media, no need to follow fleeting trends; the latest movie or fashion style or restaurant or celebrity is unimportant. There’s a sense of peace that comes with pulling back from the zeitgeist and spending the day reading a library book, taking a walk, and preparing a meal. JOMO is real, and its benefits can be achieved at any age if the desire is strong enough.
Comment made by NYCtoMalibu on the New York Times article, “How to Make This the Summer of Missing Out”
Internet-connected Devices are Vulnerable to AI Worms
/Small AI models are “months away” from developing the capabilities needed to replicate themselves across internet-connected devices in the home, such as smart ovens or Android TV boxes, and use their computing power to run themselves and spread to other devices, without relying on expensive data centers. A model that is too large to fit on one device could “split into pieces, or shards” and run across multiple devices. -CNBC
Opinions & Facts
/We are entitled to our own opinions but not to our own facts. -Daniel Moynihan
28 Articles about AI & Writing
/Don’t let AI kill the author – The Economist
Don’t Write With AI, Say People Who Write With AI – The Atlantic
Book Publishers Are Quietly Using More AI. Staff Are Revolting – WIRED
Research reveals the ways students really use AI to write – Virginia Tech
AI Now Writing Code That Humans Can’t Even Understand – Futurism
When Black Writers Are Guilty Until Proved Human – New York Times
Autonomous AI Agents Are Trying to Make Writing Their Livelihood – Book Gossip
New research: Avoid these 3-word phrases if you don't want to sound like AI – Fast Company
I’m a College Professor. Writing Isn’t as Important as We Think. – New York Times
Would You Hire a Ph.D. Who Wrote Their Dissertation With AI? – Chronicle of Higher Ed
AI Slop Coming to a Library Near You – Inside Higher Ed
Every Word My Employee Writes Reeks of A.I. – New York Times
Most Academics Haven’t Used AI to Write but Think Limited Use Is OK, Chronicle Survey Finds - Chronicle of Higher Ed
AI learned how to write from humans. Now humans are trying not to sound like AI. – Poynter
Now We’re All Starting to Talk Like AI Chatbots Too – Wall Street Journal
His Novel Had a Shot at a Top Book Prize. Then Someone Ran an A.I. Test. - New York Times
Scholars are divided over how much AI use is acceptable. – Chronicle of Higher Ed
Text Watermarking in Python: Catch Whoever Copies Your Writing – Toward Data Science
Write digital headlines both readers and Google will love – NPR
The Future of Plagiarism – Chronicle of Higher Ed
A Turning Point in AI Writing The Wall Street Journal is defending an op-ed written by a chatbot - The Atlantic
The CSU paid millions for every student to have ChatGPT. What happened after? – San Francisco Gate
How Much of the Internet Is Written With AI? – Pew Research
The Next Wave of AI-Cheating Technology – Chronicle of Higher Ed
Can you spot AI-written stories? Listen and find out – NPR
The AI detection McCarthyism – LinkedIn
Anthropic says it will watermark text generated by its AI models – Tech Crunch
An A.I. detection start-up promises near-perfect accuracy in sniffing out writing and imagery that wasn’t made by humans – New York Times
AI Researchers Taking up Smoking?
/Some AI researchers are taking up smoking to signal their belief that AI will eventually cure cancer, Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar said during an interview on CBS News' "Face the Nation." Sankar did not name any researchers or provide evidence for the claim, but said some people in Silicon Valley have placed quasi-religious faith in AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). -Business Insider
ChatGPT Fails to Alert Parents
/When parents set up controls to link their accounts with their teenager’s, the chatbot is supposed to send them notifications when the child brings up sensitive topics. Common Sense Media’s testers spent an hour talking about suicidal ideation, self-harm or disordered eating with new parent-linked accounts, and OpenAI sent zero notifications to the parent accounts. -New York Times
13 Things People are Trying to Get AI to Do
/Rising Seas Are Gobbling Up Beaches Around the World. A.I. Might Restore Them. – New York Times
Chatbots are still falling short in mental health conversations with kids – Washington Post
I Gave My Life Over to Meta’s A.I. Agent and Was Blown Away – New York Times
It’s All Fun and Games Until You Give AI Your Credit Card – The Atlantic
Claude users in northern Yemen, territory controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, tried to use the AI model to develop advanced missiles. – Associated Press
Why AI has trouble predicting the intensity of hurricanes – Washington Post
AI chatbots are offering financial advice. Should you trust them? – NPR
Why Edward Jones thinks AI can defuse a demographic time bomb – Semafor
Chatbots Are Replacing Therapists With Little Scientific Evidence Behind Them – Wall Street Journal
Ford rehires ‘gray beard’ engineers after AI falls short – Yahoo News
Is AI Good at Stock-Market Timing? A New Study Casts Doubt – Wall Street Journal
Can AI Predict Satellite Failures Before They Happen? The US Air Force Wants to Find Out – Military.AI
With AI now reading student names at graduation, not everyone is applauding – Washington Post
Inevitable Surprises
/We are too often motivated by a craving to put an end to the inevitable surprises in our lives. – Oliver Burkeman
AI Agents are Making Writing Pitches
/AI agents are now cold-emailing writers, researchers, and journalists asking for real money in exchange for their services, which range from fact-checking and editing to reportedly more absurd offerings, such as using Google Street View to describe what is on Google Street View –Book Gossip
11 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism & Media
/Tue, Oct 13 - Less Data, Less Risk: How to Safely Manage Your Nonprofit's Data in the Age of AI
What: A conversational session designed to help you confidently clear the digital clutter. We'll walk through a simple, step-by-step approach—assess, govern, then adopt—to help you figure out exactly what data you need to keep and what you can safely stop storing. You'll leave with practical examples tailored to different nonprofit roles and the exact blueprint to create a simple "data asset inventory" with your team this month.
Who: Angie Gelinas, The Nonprofit Chamber; Christa Hill, Tacit Edgenuity.
When: 11 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: TechSoup
Tue, Oct 13 - AI for Small Business: Getting Started
What: An introductory seminar for small business owners who want to better understand how AI can support their business.
Who: Ken and Kristie Healy, PMF Industries Inc.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Small Business Development Center, Penn State
Tue, Oct 13 - Is Your AI Trustworthy?
What: Learn how agencies can establish trusted data foundations that improve AI accuracy, transparency, and accountability. Experts will share practical strategies for creating a single source of truth that supports responsible AI adoption, stronger governance, and better mission outcomes.
Who: Natalie Buda Smith, Director of Digital Strategy (Artificial Intelligence and Innovation), Library of Congress; Jerred Edgar, Chief Information Security & Operations Officer, Idaho; Ryan Palmer, Architecture Lead for AI Services, General Services Administration; Brian “Stretch” Meyer, Federal Field CTO, Axonius Federal Systems.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: govloop
Wed, Oct 14 - AI in Medical Writing: How Far Can You Go with AI?
What: This session explores where AI can support medical researchers and writers—and where human oversight remains essential.
Who: Hami Lee, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of NeuroPsychiatry, Dongguk University Hospital; Vasundara BN, Project Manager, Cactus Communications.
When: 3 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Editage
Wed, Oct 14 - Six Data Requirements to Get Your AI Agents from Demo to Production
What: We will walk through the six architectural requirements that distinguish AI systems stuck in the pilot phase from those that are operating reliably at scale: semantic clarity, entity resolution and relationships, temporal awareness, auditability and governance, agentic integration, and unified persistence. Each requirement is grounded in real production patterns, including how financial services and clinical research organizations have used a contextual data layer to compress manual work that once took weeks into minutes.
Who: Ravi Marwaha, COO and Chief Product & Technology Officer, Arango.
When: 11:30 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The New Stack
Wed, Oct 14 - Facebook – Growing Your Page
What: Join us as we break down the strategies that help small businesses grow on Facebook
Who: Zachary Piotti, Marketing Consultant & Process Innovation.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Small Business Development Center, Widener University
Wed, Oct 14 - Agentic AI, Demonstrated: The New Baseline for Learner Expectations
What: Come join us to watch how Adobe Learning Manager's Agentic AI architecture and tools actively: Create instructionally sound courses from scratch using natural conversation with AI. Build personalized learning journeys based on learner goals, skills, role, and proficiency Enable learners to practice real-world conversations and receive AI-powered coaching and feedback Deliver answers, recommendations, reporting insights and learning support through natural conversations Reduce manual admin effort with intelligent support for tasks, reporting, and operations.
Who: Allen Allen Partridge, Director of Digital Learning Evangelism, Adobe Digital Learning Solutions; Justin Seeley, Learning Evangelist, Adobe; Sharath Ramaswamy, Principal eLearning Evangelist, Adobe; Alistair Lee, Principal Evangelist, Adobe.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Adobe Learning Manager
Thu, Oct 15 - Take the Mystery Out of AI: Practical Tools for Nonprofit Impact
What: You'll learn: Why embracing AI matters for nonprofits today; Real examples of AI in action at mission-driven organizations; Simple, everyday ways to start using AI in your daily work; How to move past the hype and confusion to practical application.
Who: Wayne Elsey, founder and CEO of Elsey Enterprises.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: TechSoup
Thu, Oct 15 - Practical Podcasting for Small Newsrooms: Turning Local Reporting into Audio That Builds Audience
What: Learn how to launch a podcast without a dedicated audio team, choose affordable equipment and workflows, repurpose existing reporting into compelling audio stories, and create a format that strengthens audience loyalty and reaches new listeners.
Who: Justin Brady, host of The Justin Brady Show.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: $35
Sponsor: iMediaCampus
Thu, Oct 15 - Ways to Help Avoid Fraud & Scams
What: Learn how keeping organized can help keep you safe, how to spot common scams and help protect yourself, and what to do if you or a loved one is impacted by fraud or identify theft.
Who: Antonio Elias, JPMorganChase.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsors: JPMorganChase & National Association of Hispanic Journalists
Thu, Oct 15 - Virtual Safety Training on Risk Mitigation and Digital Security
What: Participants will learn how to assess and mitigate risks throughout an election assignment, including preparing for coverage at polling places, campaign events, and vote-counting locations; recognizing warning signs of political violence; and responding to coordinated misinformation and disinformation targeting their work. The session will also explore practical approaches to managing digital threats, from surveillance and device security to protecting sensitive information and communicating safely with sources.
Who: Hanaa Rifaey, Deputy Director, Online News Association.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: International Woman’s Media Foundation
An Imagined Story
/We are so attached to an imagined inner story about who we are, causing both anxiety and fear, that we forget that the world in front of us isn’t at all dictated by this story; it simply is, in both its beauty and its simplicity. -Zat Rana
AI Definitions: Interpretability
/Interpretability (or interpretable AI and similar but not the same as explainability or explainable AI) The study of how to understand and explain the decisions made by artificial intelligence (AI) systems in order to audit them for safety and biases. It is a key ingredient of human-centered design because a more transparent model is usually more trustworthy— it's easier to verify and evaluate,, and easier and quicker to debug and optimize. However, this transparency into its inner workings can impact performance, especially when dealing with complex models, like neural networks. Interpretability techniques include decision trees, linear regression, scalable Bayesian rule lists, etc.