Doing Stuff
/Stop doing stuff you already know how to do. Start doing things that only God could pull off. -Bob Goff.
AI writing feedback
/Providing information about a student’s background—their race, gender, language, disability status, achievement level, or even motivation—can significantly change the kind and quality of writing feedback the AI tool provides, according to the study. -EdWeek
28 Recent Articles about AI & Academic Scholarship
/AI’s top startups are barely publishing their research – Science
What AI’s usurping of the peer-reviewed publications means for medicine and pharmaceutical industry - The London School of Economics
Can we stop AI from flooding scientific journals? – C&EN
AI in scientific publishing: Slower, worse, and more expensive – Science
How to Research Technical Topics With AI - 0xkato
AI reviewers make it easier to get research published. US study calls it paper-laundering – The Print
Doctored data sets could trick AI agents – Nature
The case for researchers publishing less in the age of AI – University World News
Award-winning Korea studies scholar accused of using AI-fabricated citations – NK News
AI tools meant to vet science are surprisingly easy to fool – Science News
UK ‘should lean into research quality’ on AI, says Elsevier leader – Research Professional News
‘Humanizer’ tool can erase signs of AI-written text — alarming scientists – Nature
AI-assisted reviews will result in ordinary, uncontroversial research – The Times Higher Ed
AI Slop Is a Tenure Problem, Not Just a Tech Problem – Inside Higher Ed
In the AI era, the human struggle can no longer be the point of research - The Times Higher Ed
Artificial intelligence in scientific review and writing: What should we be doing? – Oxford Acamdemic
Research integrity in the age of AI (podcast) - The Lancet
University launches investigation into its faculty member's paper allegedly containing AI watermarks in graphics – Global Times
Scientists decry conference’s use of hidden prompts to snare AI peer reviews – The Transmitter
New AI Agents Pose ‘Existential Threat’ to How Grants Are Awarded – Inside Higher Ed
Publication fraud in the era of generative artificial intelligence – British Pharmacological Society
Anyone can fake a scientific image with AI, tricking even academic journals – and undermining trust in science – The Conversation
AI promised to democratise academic publishing – the evidence says otherwise – The London School of Economics
Journal investigating paper on cognitive impact of generative AI – Retraction Watch
Did AI write this article? Perish the thought. But we tracked how artificial intelligence is changing five creative fields – The Economist
Scientists want you to read their research papers—so they’re using gen AI to turn them into TikTok videos – Fast Company
AI Creates Viruses
/An A.I. was able to create 16 viruses not found in nature after scientists trained it on DNA libraries: “These viruses didn’t pose a threat to humans, but the adds to growing worries that artificial intelligence might enable the creation of a new generation of biological weapons, from deadly poisons to unstoppable pandemics.” -New York Times
Your Strength Zone
/Successful people know their strength zone and consistently works in it. Successful leaders know how to find the strength zone for the people they lead and help them consistently work in it. -John Maxwell
14 Articles about what to do on the job
/7 tips for being a happy and successful remote worker - Freelancers Union
16 simple things to do now to get a promotion this year - Fast Company
Engineer A Winning Attitude At Work With These 7 Critical Soft Skills - Forbes
How Do You Know When It’s Time to Leave a Job? - Medium
How to avoid burnout without quitting your job - Women & Home
How to handle your work jerk - McKinsey
How to know if it’s time to quit your first job - The Conversation
How to professionally say (a guide for your daily "professional" interactions)
How to Quit your Job - Harvard Business Review
‘I Was Turned Down for a Raise — Now What?’ - The Cut
Planning to quit your job? 3 key things to think about first - ZDNet
Should You Quit a Chaotic Job Right Now, or Stick It Out? - Wall Street Journal
'Soft skills': The intangible qualities companies crave - BBC
Want a better job and a pay rise? Eleven ways to progress at work – and avoid a ‘dry promotion’ - The Guardian
You Got The Promotion. Then Everything Went Downhill. - Forbes
How Digital Twins are being Used
/Digital twins can answer in the real person’s voice and apply their thinking on demand for anyone who wants to chat online or call. Some companies now build twins that sit on Zoom calls for C.E.O.s or manage projects while their owners are on vacation. Professors at Clemson University deploy them to answer student questions at 2 a.m. A sex therapist uses her digital twin to offer individual counseling to hundreds of people at once. A man in Berlin created a twin after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, so his wife could still talk to him before bed. -New York Times
20 Articles about How AI is Affecting Jobs
/AI is changing older workers’ careers, research finds — here’s how - CNBC
Workers are crossing job boundaries with AI, OpenAI research shows – Axios
How AI is impacting the job market – Harvard Business Review
Can AI can help job-seekers facing one of the hardest obstacles? – NPR
Why Gen Z May Have An Unexpected Edge In The AI Job Market – Forbes
Could AI take your job? Some workers in China already know the answer - The Guardian
AI Is Pushing Older Employees Straight Out of the Workforce, New Report Finds – Futurism
Could A.I. Do Your Job? We Put Agents to the Test. - New York Times
Despite AI hype, Google’s data shows workers aren’t automating themselves away – Arstechnica
Big Tech Has Suddenly Flipped on the AI Jobs Wipeout Scenario – Wall Street Journal
For those with criminal records, AI is breaking down barriers to employment – NPR
The number of job titles that involve AI, even outside the tech world, is surging – NBC News
How Top Economists Think AI Will Change the Job Market – Wall Street Journal
The Hidden Workers Most Threatened by A.I. – New York Times
AI Is a Boon to Ambitious Recent Grads – Wall Street Journal
Is AI putting graduates out of work already? – Economist
AI Prompts a Rise in Career Changes – Revolio Labs
You Can Now Get a Religious Exemption From Using AI at Work – Futurism
The AI jobs apocalypse probably isn’t coming anytime soon – The Guardian
‘Can AI Do My Job?’ Is the Wrong Question: Here are three better ones to ask. – The Atlantic
Laying a Foundation
/A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. -David Brinkley
AI & Formation
/The comment “AI could have done it in five minutes” is not really about speed. It is a moral revaluation. It assumes that what matters is the output, not the ordeal; the image, not the seeing; the product, not the person becoming capable of making it. AI offers competence without apprenticeship. Fluency without understanding. A student who internalizes that pattern does not become lazier; he becomes less formed, less present, less able to bear the weight of difficulty without reaching for a prompt. -Chris Sibben
20 Surprising Things AI can do now
/Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science – OpenAI
AI moves into family life – Axios
Google Earth now has image generation built in – Digital Digging
How AI Agents Broaden the Scope of Knowledge Work – Harvard Business Review
In This Costa Rican Forest, Monkeys Come Face-to-Face With A.I. – New York Times
New platforms in China are paying people to license their likeness for AI-generated dramas and ads – Rest of World
How AI is transforming the world of analytical chemistry – Chemistry World
How Teaching A.I. Endangered Languages Can Help Save Them – New York Times
A self-driving Waymo just reported its own passengers to police – Fast Company
Could A.I. Find Brazil’s Next Pelé? - New York Times
Social media’s next evolution: user-controlled algorithms with the help of AI – Tech Crunch
AI makes Pompeii victim’s final moments look shockingly real – PopSci
The AI-powered World Cup runs on thousands of data workers - Rest of World
They Spent Years on a Math Problem. Then They Were Scooped by A.I. - New York Times
How AI helps spot wildfires before 911 calls – Axios
A look inside Dataland in Los Angeles, dedicated entirely to A.I.-generated art - New York Times
How AI is helping fight the latest Ebola outbreak – Semafor
Doctors Inject Human Subjects With First Vaccine Designed by AI – Futurism
Concern for study looking into whether conversations with AI could change viewpoints - Retraction Watch
A.I. Chatbot Helps a $100 Thrift Store Painting Sell for Over $250,000 - New York Times
At an Angle
/Some things and some people have to be approached obliquely at an angle. -Andre Gide
Survey: AI Use Among Students
/A new longitudinal survey shows AI has moved from a novelty to a routine part of student life, with more than 80% of college students using AI academically in the past six months. Nearly a third of students are now using it 11 or more times a week for school or work-related tasks. Some professors are still putting blanket bans on AI. But employers are not: The share of job interviews that included AI-related questions has jumped from 11.6% to 42.6% over the past three years. -Axios
17 Articles about AI’s impact on Business Operations
/Corporate America may be using AI to cut jobs, but small businesses are using it to keep them – The Guardian
How AI Agents Broaden the Scope of Knowledge Work – Harvard Business Review
AI Is Writing Legal Filings. Some of Them Are Completely Made Up. Here Is What That Means for Your Business – Business Attorney Chicago
AI Is Changing How Customers Choose Your Business – Harvard Business Review
AI Knows What You Did Online. Now Your Employer Does, Too. – Wall Street Journal
Starting or running a business with AI? There are legal risks you can’t afford to ignore – The Conversation
26 Meta employees sue, alleging AI-driven layoff picks hit workers on medical and parental leave – AP
When AI Puts Gen Z in the C-Suite – Wall Street Journal
Ford rehires ‘gray beard’ engineers after AI falls short – Tech Crunch
Databricks Releases General AI Agents for Businesses – Wall Street Journal
How California is preparing for AI workforce disruption – Axios
How Companies Are Managing AI Token Spend – Wall Street Journal
A.I. doubles is the new productivity hack for CEOs and Harvard profs - New York Times
What AI Can’t—or Shouldn’t—Do for You – Wall Street Journal
Teaching AI how people work is fraught with problems – The Economist
AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making – Hermit-Tech
Tech Workers Maxed Out Their A.I. Use. Now They’re Trying to Minimize It. - New York Times
When you are angry
/Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. -Ambrose Bierce
Digital twins in Church
/To meet the growing needs of his congregation, Justin Lester created an A.I. duplicate of himself. “A lot of our churches are turning into beautiful museums,” Lester said. “We’re living in the future, whether we like it or not. We can’t afford to sit this one out.” -New York Times
11 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism & Media
/Tue, Aug 4 - Climate Blueprint: Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Climate Stories
What: We'll discuss the importance of understanding your journalism's impact, how to track impact and report it back to audiences, and why this work is so critical for ensuring that climate journalism becomes more of a priority within newsrooms.
Who: Nina Ignaczak, Planet Detroit; Heather May; Great Salt Lake Collaborative.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Solutions Journalism
Tue, Aug 4 - ChatGPT Work for Newsrooms
What: A virtual session on moving from one-off prompts to practical tools built around the work journalists already do. See how reporters and editors can use ChatGPT Work to research stories, analyze documents and data, prepare interviews, develop coverage plans, and turn dense source material into clear, sourced briefs. We’ll demonstrate how agents, skills, and custom apps can transform a useful workflow into something an entire newsroom can reuse.
Who: Evan Hirsch OpenAI for News, OpenAI.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Tue, Aug 4 - Get started with ChatGPT Work
What: We’ll show you how Chat and Work complement each other. You’ll see Work tackle two projects from start to finish: building an offsite planning workbook from scattered materials and creating a leadership presentation from business data and team updates.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Wed, Aug 5 - The Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
What: Whether you’re a small business owner, entrepreneur, or want to grow your marketing strategies, this session will equip you with the tools and strategies to elevate your online presence.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Small Business Development Center, Widener University
Thu, Aug 6 - 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
Thu, Aug 6 - AI and Local Ad Planning, Buying & Selling
What: Media buying agencies increasingly use AI to plan and execute their campaigns, while media sellers use AI to create proposals, design creative and manage assets. How are AI tools enhancing the planning, buying and selling process? Industry leaders from both sides of the transaction talk about this rising trend.
Who: Raj Khare, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, SureWaves; Evan Rutchik, President & Chief Strategy Officer; Viamedia; Jennifer Hungerbuhler, EVP, Head of Local Video and Audio Investment Denstu Media U.S.; Christopher Martinez, VP, Advanced Advertising, Hearst Television; Nicole Madtes, Senior Director National Sales, The E.W. Scripps Company; Joe Cerone, Founder, Cerone Advisory Group.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: TVNewsCheck
Thu, Aug 6 - Codex bootcamp 201: Team workflows
What: Build on the Codex fundamentals by learning how to configure Codex for consistent, repeatable team workflows. We’ll cover shared context and repository guidance, approvals and sandboxing defaults, MCP and tool connections, reusable skills, automations, and worktrees.
Who: Sean Lubbers Technical Success, OpenAI; Marcus Stallworth Builder ADM, OpenAI; Palash Sushil, Matey AI Deployment Manager, OpenAI.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Thu, Aug 6 - Measuring Impact for Civic Discourse: Ask Me Anything for News Leaders
What: An interactive briefing to learn about how dozens of local media are actively measuring journalism’s civic impact — and examining ways to build trust across audiences and geographies.
Who: American Press Institute Senior Vice President Samantha Ragland; American Press Institute Senior Director of Partnerships and Development Kevin Loker.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: American Press Institute
Thu, Aug 6 - Analyzing data
What: In this hands-on lab, you will practice turning that messy starting point into an operating plan your team can actually use. We will use AI to clarify the project goal, identify milestones, assign responsibilities, surface dependencies, name risks, and define the decisions that need owner input. You will also learn how to ask for a plan that stays reviewable, with assumptions, unresolved questions, and next steps clearly separated from confirmed information.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Thu, Aug 6 - ChatGPT Work for sales teams
What: Learn how sales teams can start using ChatGPT Work for common workflows. This session will focus on practical ways newly enabled users can begin exploring Work with the tools and context they already use.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Fri, Aug 7 – Meet Sisi Wei
What: IRE's Investigative Editors and Managers of Color Community is holding free ongoing webinars aimed at helping professionals connect. Please register below to sign-up! We will send you a link.
Who: Sisi Wei is the Chief Impact Officer of The Markup and CalMatters.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Investigative Reporters and Editors
The Value of Studying Language in an AI World
/Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has described an English major as possibly the most successful major, as it is the programming language of AI. Robert Goldstein, chief operating officer of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, said last year the company places greater emphasis on graduates who have studied history, English, and other humanities disciplines. -Rest of World
Make Him Mad
/To obtain a man's opinion of you, make him mad. -Oliver Wendell Holmes
Making fake satellite images just got easier
/Google spent twenty years building Google Earth’s reputation as the reference the world checks against. Today it added a button that makes things up. Google Earth on the web now has image generation built in, powered by Nano Banana 2. The forgery does not have to look convincing on its own. It inherits the credibility of the map it was born on. -Digital Digging