AI Definitions: Vector databases

Vector databases - The storage and search engine for vector embeddings. Language models use vectors (lists of numbers) with hundreds or even thousands of dimensions (characteristics of the data), allowing it to remember previous inputs, draw comparisons, identify relationships, and understand context. The vectors are grouped together if they relate to one another. For instance, the word "king" would relate to a man, while "queen" would relate to a woman. A deep learning model (typically through a transformer) will use these vectors to "understand" the meaning of words and their relationships. More than 1,000 numbers can be used to represent a single word. If there are many numbers, then the word vector has a high dimension, making it nuanced. A low dimension for a word vector means the list of numbers is low. While not as nuanced, a low-dimensional vector is easier to work with. Vector data bases is what allows a language model to “recall” previous inputs, draw comparisons, identify relationships, and understand context.

More AI definitions

Measure Up!

There is no way to quite describe the feeling that I got when I sat down to eat with my daughter at the school cafeteria for the first time. She looked up at me, and well, it was a look that said she completely adored me. That just blew me away. She couldn't hardly sit still or know what to do with her hands, as if she wanted to hug me. She had a searching look on her face, as if to say, "Who am I?"  "Tell me who I am."

Fathers have a way of planting life mottos in their daughters' heads. 

"Measure Up!" is one of the most often heard mottos. Perhaps it is never said out loud, but a daughter knows what's expected — and her attempts to live up to those expectations from her childhood can result in her running her life by guilt. She ends up serving a motto rather than fully becoming herself.  

Treating AI agents as human workers

Executives from IBM, Microsoft and other companies say thinking of AI agents as analogous to human workers is hindering attempts to get full value from the technology. Agents sWall Street Journalhouldn’t have human names. They shouldn’t be on org charts. And they shouldn’t be given a specific job title. Leaders should tackle AI the same way they’ve tackled earlier waves of digital transformation and automation. - Wall Street Journal

AI Definitions: Tokenization

Tokenization – The process of converting the raw training data (text, images, or audio) into small units called tokens. This takes place twice in an LLM: When it is being set up (pretrained). Raw training data (text, images, or audio) is converted into small units (tokens). It happens a second time (inference) when a user prompts the LLM and the prompt (whether text, images, or audio) is converted into smaller units (tokens).

More AI definitions

May you live

May you live all the days of your life. -Jonathan Swift

22 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism, & More

Mon, April 6 - AI, News & Education

What: We'll explore the pedagogical thinking behind these platforms, how they approach the challenge of balancing AI automation with human editorial judgment, and what responsible use might look like in 6–12 and higher education settings. Importantly, we'll also discuss the background and history of ITN, and broader questions educators should ask before recommending a platform to students. Come ready to think — not just about news and bias, but about the tools and organizations being built to navigate our news landscape today.

Who: Wesley Fryer, an educational technology “early adopter / innovator.”

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Media Education Lab

More Info

Mon, April 6 - Covering Police

What: Join our panel of journalism and legal experts to discuss the challenges of covering police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in local neighborhoods. Among other topics, we will discuss safety concerns for journalists on the scene; the importance of building trust with affected communities; the First Amendment protections at play; and how to best fulfill the critical need for local reporting.

Who: Erica Moura, Simmons University; Sawyer Loftus, Bangor Daily News; Alexa Millinger, Hinckley Allen; Renee Griffin, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: New England First Amendment Coalition

More Info

Tue, April 7 - The Formula for Social Media Success

What: This workshop will help you learn how to prioritize things and give you a clear formula to be successful on social media.

Who: Ray-Sidney Smith, Digital Marketing Strategist, Hootsuite Global Brand Ambassador.

When: 10 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: $45

Sponsor: Small Business Development Center, Duquesne University

More Info

Tue, April 7 - Following the Files: How Student Journalists Can Investigate Epstein Connections on Campus

What: How can student journalists effectively, responsibly and legally pursue those stories? This virtual event is open to any student journalist or educator, whether you’re just getting started on this topic or already deep into your reporting.

Who: Julie K. Brown, whose dogged reporting for the Miami Herald helped bring much of the Jeffrey Epstein story to light.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Student Press Law Center

More Info

Wed, April 8 - As Foundation Models Scale, What Role Do Publishers Play in the AI Ecosystem?

What: We will unpack our speaker’s latest work at the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford, where he is exploring how foundation models and publishers are reshaping the information ecosystem in the era of generative AI.  This conversation will move beyond headlines and deal announcements to examine power dynamics, long-term incentives, and the structural shifts underway.

Who: Madhav Chinappa, senior executive consultant and researcher at the Reuters Institute.

When: 10 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free to members

Sponsor: International News Media Association

More Info

Wed, April 8 - ChatGPT for Work 101: A guide to your AI superassistant 

What: In this session, we'll cover:  An overview of AI and ChatGPTs Best practices for writing good prompts Demos of content creation, data analysis, and image generation How to discover use cases of ChatGPT at work.

Who: Juliann Igo, GTM at OpenAI.

When: 11 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: OpenAI Academy

More Info

Wed, April 8 - ChatGPT for Teachers 102

What: In this session, we’ll move beyond the basics and explore more advanced ways to apply ChatGPT in your day-to-day work. You’ll see practical examples for improving productivity, supporting student engagement, and building efficient workflows using ChatGPT. We’ll also demonstrate additional features and real-world use cases that help teachers, staff, and administrators get more value from the platform in both classroom and operational settings.

Who: Kirk Gulezian, Education & Government, OpenAI.

When: 11 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: OpenAI Academy

More Info

 

Wed, April 8 - The Power of Voice: Storytelling, Journalism, and Women's Leadership

What: This session will combine reflections from Lina’s career with practical insights, encouraging participants to discover the strength of their own voices and use storytelling as a powerful tool for expression and change.         

Who: Lina Rozbih, Senior Editor and Anchor at Voice of America, and an award-winning Afghan. journalist,

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Nobel Navigators

More Info

Wed, April 8 - Delivering Real Learning Impact with AI — Live Demo

What: Join us to get a firsthand look at how Adobe Learning Manager brings AI to every stage of the learning journey - including personalized recommendations, deep semantic search, conversational AI Assistants, and AI‑driven coaching for role‑based practice.

Who: Justin Seeley, Learning Evangelist, Adobe.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Adobe Learning Manager

More Info

Wed, April 8 - Start Your Story Right: The Five Foundational Questions You Need to Answer Before Writing Anything

What: Good stories intrinsically have a structure our brains are looking for. With these 5 key questions, you can make sure you hit those key points on an idea you have, your work in progress, or a book you've already written.

Who: Jennifer Crosswhite, owner and CEO of Tandem Services.

When: 1:30 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Author Learning Center

More Info

Wed, April 8 - ChatGPT for Work 102: Leveraging AI to do your best work 

What: Learn how to conduct deep research for report writing, organize your work with Projects, and build custom GPTs to automate tasks.

Who: Juliann Igo GTM, OpenAI

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Open AI Academy

More Info

Wed, April 8 - How Agentic AI Elevates Digital Government Services

What: A practical discussion on how agentic AI can strengthen your digital experience. We’ll break down what this emerging capability really means for government, how it can empower your teams, and how to introduce it responsibly and transparently.

Who: Kimberly Brandt, Deputy Administrator & Chief Operating Officer, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; Kris Saling, Chief Technology Advisor, Manpower & Reserve Affairs, U.S. Army; Kelvin Brewer, Director, Public Sector Sales Engineering, Ping Identity; Andy MacIsaac, Senior Strategic Solutions Manager, Government & Education, Laserfiche; Luke Norris, Vice President, Platform Strategy & Digital Transformation, Granicus; Bryan Rosensteel  Head of Public Sector Product Marketing, Wiz.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: GovLoop

More Info

Wed, April 8 - Digital Open-Source Investigations: Open Search Webinar  

What: Participants will learn how search engines work, the varieties of search engines, and how to craft advanced search queries to find exactly what they are looking for on the internet, discover news sources of information, and uncover information hiding in plain sight.

When: 6 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free to members

Sponsor: National Association of Hispanic Journalists

More Info

Thu April 9 - Building AI-ready human expertise in academia 

What: This webinar will focus on building AI literacy in academia and exploring how AI can be responsibly integrated into research, teaching, and institutional practices. 

Who: Anjali Sam, Lead Product Manager, Cactus Communications; Vasundara BN Project Manager, Cactus Communications.

When: 6:30 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Cactus Communications

More Info

Thu April 9 - Securing Your AI Agents To Embrace Their Full Potential

What: In this session you will learn about the state of AI adoption around the world and the concerns it brings as those are reflected across the industry. You will also learn about several threats, some of which were discovered and published only latterly. We will review the solutions that an organization can and should put in place to allow it to utilize the full power of Agentic AI while still protect its data and business.

Who: Dror Zelber, VP Product Marketing, Radwre.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Solutions Review

More Info

Thu April 9 - Accessibility: How to Make Your Website Usable For Everyone

What: We delve into the core principles of accessibility, exploring real-world examples of disabilities and situational challenges users face. From understanding WCAG standards to addressing specific populations, we’ll equip you with actionable insights to create truly accessible websites.

Who: Jennie Martin, Front-End Development Manager, CPACC, DHS 508 Trusted Tester.

When: 1:00 pm

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Firespring

More Info

Thu April 9 - Introduction to Codex

What: Join us for a beginner-friendly introduction to Codex: the AI system that powers code generation. We’ll walk through what Codex is, how people are using it in real workflows, and how it can help you move faster across everyday tasks.

Who: Ankur Kumar, Codex Deployment Engineer, OpenAI

When: 1:00 pm

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Open AI Academy

More Info

Thu April 9 - AI in Book Publishing: How Does it Affect Indie Authors? 

What: Topics will include: The opportunities and savings it offers; Ethical as well as practical concerns;   Tips for safe and helpful usage; Red flags every author must be aware of.

Who: Book marketing advisor Beth Kallman Werner of Author Connections.

When: 1:30 pm

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Author Learning Center

More Info

Thu April 9 - How AI Agents May Change Campus Operations

What: Learn: How AI agents differ from other AI tools, and how they automate administrative tasks;  What safeguards to put in place to protect institutional data and maintain trust; Which strategies allow you to integrate agents into existing workflows; How to support staff members who may be concerned about AI’s impact on their roles.

Who: Ian Wilhelm, Deputy Managing Editor, The Chronicle of Higher Education; Phil Ventimiglia, Chief Innovation Officer; Georgia State University; David Weil, Senior Vice President for Strategic Services and Initiatives Ithaca College.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Chronicle of Higher Ed

More Info

Thu April 9 - 2026 State Policy Playbook for Newsrooms

What: We’ll begin with a briefing on emerging state-level policy initiatives, including small business advertising tax credits, government advertising set-asides, journalism fellowship programs and employment incentives, and highlight where momentum is building  cross the country. The session will also cover effective ways to engage policymakers.

Who: Matt Pearce, Director of Policy for Rebuild Local News; Susan Patterson Plank, Director of Government Affairs and Partnerships for Rebuild Local News.

When: 3:30 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Online News Association

More Info

Fri, April 10 - Consumer Reporting 101

What: By attending this class, you will learn: The breadth of consumer reporting; How to identify and evaluate potential stories; The process of verifying claims to build strong, accurate reports.

Who: Sarah Guernelli, WPRI 12.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: New England First Amendment Coalition

More Info

Fri, April 10 - Remote access to Film and Video for Research, Teaching, Exhibition and Learning in Libraries, Archives and Museums

What: Join a panel of experts to examine the possibilities that enable remote access, discuss the distinctions between identifiable audiences and the public, and the potential of virtual screening/access/reading rooms.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Open Copyright Education Advisory Network (OCEAN)

More Info

This is Love

"This is love: Not that we loved God. It is that he loved us and sent his Son to give his life to pay for our sins."  1 John 4:10

“In this is love..” or another translation could be “In this way is seen the true love."

God didn’t look down and say, “Boy, I see you love me. I think I’ll love you.” Or “You’re a nice guy, I really like that.”

Instead:

You were rebellious, arrogant, self-centered. God said, “I love you.”

You ignored him, fought him, were bored with him. God said, “I love you.”

You spit in his face, yelled at him, shook your fist. God said, “I love you.”

That’s what John means here.

We see what real love is by looking at what God did. He loved us with a desire to restore us, to make us whole.

The right community

You’ll know you have found the right community when all the talk is about Jesus and what he did with his life—not someone’s opinions about what you ought to be doing with yours -Bob Goff

AI Definitions: Embedding

Embedding - The conversion of tokens into numbers (vectors) so an LLM can look at their relationships.

More AI definitions

Most judges say they have used AI in their work

A study found over 60 percent of surveyed judges have used AI in their work. Around 22 percent of the judges said they used AI daily or weekly in their duties. All the judges said that they do not rely on AI to decide how they will rule in case, but that after they decide, the tools can provide a starting point to write a legal document — not unlike a template that judges or clerks might use when writing routine orders — that they can then edit. -Washington Post

19 Articles about AI & Ethics

The soul of a new machine Can AI be taught morality? – Deseret News

Evaluating the ethics of autonomous systems – MIT News

Prompt injection in manuscripts: exploiting loopholes or crossing ethical lines? – Springer  

The Catholic Priest Who Helped Write Anthropic’s A.I. Ethics Code – Observer

Is There an Ethical Path for AI Art? – Hyperallergic 

Does A.I. Need a Constitution? – The New  Yorker  

Claude has an 80-page “soul document.” Is that enough to make it good? - Vox 

Can You Teach an A.I. Model to Be Good? – New York Times  

AI aggregation without accountability corrupts knowledge – Forensic Scientometrics

AI Ethics Dilemmas with Real Life Examples – AI Multiple

Anthropic AI Safety Researcher Warns Of World ‘In Peril’ In Resignation – Forbes  

Meet the One Woman Anthropic Trusts to Teach AI Morals - Wall Street Journal

Publisher under fire after ‘fake’ citations found in AI ethics guide – The Times

Is it ok for politicians to use AI? Survey shows where the public draws the line – The Conversation

It’s Easier to Cheat When You Can Blame AI – Wall Street Journal

Views of AI Around the World  - Pew Research

AI can imitate morality without actually possessing it, new philosophy study finds – University of Kansas

How Rules for Publicly Available Data Are Shaping the Future of AI – Data Innovation

Senior European journalist suspended for publishing AI-generated quotes – Euro News

AI Definitions: Agents

AI Agents – These chatbots have the ability not only to answer questions and provide information, but to act on users' behalf in the background, autonomously. Users provide a goal (from researching competitors to virtual assistant functions like buying a car or planning a vacation), and the agent generates a task list and starting to work by breaking down the overall goal into smaller steps. The ability to understand complex instructions is crucial for agentic AI to be effective. Rather than passive processors of language, these proactive active agents can produce practical, real-world applications in uncertain but data-rich environments as it interacts with external tools and APIs. Agents are not the same as “AI copilots” which can collaborate with users but don’t make decisions on their own as agents can do. They are also not as powerful as Agentic AI, which can act more autonomously.

More AI definitions

“Social media is populist and polarizing; AI may be the opposite"

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

Your energy & time

Manage your energy, not just your time.

19 Articles about AI & Coding

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

AI Definitions: Training Data

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. 

More AI definitions

AI as Scientist

An AI system that wrote a paper without human involvement that passed peer review for a workshop at the 2025 International Conference on Learning Representations, a top-tier venue in the field of machine learning. The paper was mediocre, according to experts. But its existence marks a turning point that the scientific community is only beginning to grapple with: AI has quickly moved from assisting scientists to attempting to be one. What if one day the AI-generated papers stop being mediocre? -Scientific American

32 Free Online AI Classes

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)

Coursera’s AI courses

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)

AI Definitions: Tokens

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

More AI definitions

The AI Niceness Overload

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