The Act of Creation
/Make things and you will discover yourself. The act of creation reveals who you are.
Make things and you will discover yourself. The act of creation reveals who you are.
Notes on RISJ’s AI and the Future of News symposium - Harvard’s Nieman Lab
How Journalists Can Make AI Work for Them - Columbia Journalism ReviewNotes on RISJ’s AI and the Future of News symposium
A lot of journalism folks are offering editing advice as Grammarly’s AI “experts” – Harvard’s Nieman Lab
Ars Technica Fires Reporter After AI Controversy Involving Fabricated Quotes – Futurism
Can AI Save Local News? – Wall Street Journal
As AI data centers scale, investigating their impact becomes its own beat – Harvard’s Nieman Lab
Ars Technica Fires Reporter After AI Controversy Involving Fabricated Quotes - Futurism
In This Cleveland Newsroom, AI Is Writing (But Not Reporting) the News – Columbia Journalism Review
Retraction of article containing fabricated quotations by an AI Tool - Arstechnica
Eight in ten of world’s biggest news websites now block AI training bots – Press Gazette
The Fight over AI at McClatchy - Columbia Journalism Review
New York Times publisher: AI is using our facts without paying for them – Mediaite
Generative Engine Optimization FAQs from the ‘What Is AI Reading?’ report - Muck Rack
College paper fights to stop AI slop website from stealing its identity – Washington Post
How AI is reshaping the news industry - Harvard’s Nieman Lab
How will AI reshape the news in 2026? Forecasts by 17 experts from around the world – Reuter Institute
How AI is affecting me as a human (and journalist) – Axios
Here are the news outlets that got AI right in 2025 — and the ones that got it very, very wrong – Poynter
AI Used to Promote Non-Existent Evacuation Flights From the Middle East – Bellingcat
What the ‘AI inflection point’ means for journalism – Fast Company
The things you record with your AI-powered Meta Ray-Ban glasses — yes, even those intimate moments where you think you're alone — are probably being seen by strangers. An investigation by two Swedish newspapers found that offshore Meta workers in Kenya were asked to analyze intimate and even "disturbing" videos taken by glasses wearers, including videos taken in bathrooms, footage featuring nudity and sexual content, and images showing personal information like bank accounts. It's part of a process known as data labeling, used to train AI models with footage first reviewed and annotated by humans so that the AI can understand what it's "looking" at. -Mashable
Parents who browbeat their kids into being obedient and agreeable may not be giving them the best preparation for the real world. A new study shows that encouraging teens to argue calmly and effectively against parental orders makes them much more likely to resist peer pressure.
University of Virginia researchers observed more than 150 13-year-olds as they disputed issues like grades, chores, and friends with their mothers. When researchers checked back in with the teens two and three years later, they found that those who had argued the longest and most convincingly—without yelling, whining, or throwing insults—were also 40 percent less likely to have accepted offers of drugs and alcohol than the teens who had caved quickly.
“We found that what a teen learned in handling these kinds of disagreements with their parents was exactly what they took into their peer world,” study author Joseph P. Allen tells NPR.org. The key to having a constructive debate with your kids, experts say, is listening to them attentively and rewarding them when they make a good point—even if you don’t end up reaching a mutual agreement. “Think of those arguments not as a nuisance,” Allen says, “but as a critical training ground” for wise, independent decision-making.
AI Legal Platform now Valued at $5.5 Billion – AI Business
Encyclopedia Britannica sues OpenAI over AI training – Reuters
The AI Literacy Gap is Now a Security and Compliance Liability – JD Supra
Who’s liable when AI is used for harm? – KARE-11
Grammarly is using our identities without permission – The Verge
Thaler Is Dead. Now for the AI Copyright Questions That Actually Matter. - Copyright Lately
AI legal advice is driving lawyers bananas - Axios
AI Deepfakes in the Workplace: A New Frontier of Employer Liability – JD Supra
A judge in New Zealand questioned the remorse of a defendant who had used A.I. to write apologies to victims and the court. - New York Times
Employers Turn to AI to Screen Candidates’ Social Media: Best Practices to Minimize Legal Threats – JD Supra
Arkansas attorney resigns after using AI to assist in case work – Thv11
Interest in Law School Is Surging. A.I. Makes the Payoff Less Certain. – New York Times
AI research should always be verified, especially in court – Post Crescent
League City police to review policies after giving theft suspect an AI mug makeover – ABC13
How AI and social media sites are still collecting kids’ data despite privacy laws – Technical.ly
ABA Highlights AI’s Challenges for Legal Education and Liability – Bloomberg
Proposed New York law would bar AI chatbots from posing as lawyers, allow duped users to sue – Reuters
What Was Grammarly Thinking? – The Atlantic
Legal advocates object to bill to allow AI interpretation in court – Wisconsin Public Radio
Federal Court Rules Some AI Chats Are Not Protected by Legal Privilege – Crowell Legal
White House puts red state AI laws under scrutiny – Axios
AI Legal Compliance for Law Firms: What Lawyers Need to Know in 2026 – JD Supra
A Long-Running AI Copyright Question Gets an Answer as Supreme Court Stays Mum – CNET
DOJ attorney in Raleigh accused of fake legal arguments, prompting warning about AI from prosecutor - WRAL
AI pilot program in L.A. County courts will help judges craft rulings in some cases – LA Times
Machine Learning (ML) - This type of AI can spot patterns and then improve what it can do on its own, making predictions or decisions based on those patterns in data sets. This process evolves and adapts as it is exposed to new data, improving the output without explicit human programming. An example would be algorithms recommending ads for users, which become more tailored the longer it observes the users‘ habits (someone’s clicks, likes, time spent, etc.). A developer of a ML system creates a model and then “trains” it by providing it with many examples. Data scientists combine ML with other disciplines (like big data analytics and cloud computing) to solve real-world problems. However, the results are limited to probabilities, not absolutes. It doesn’t reveal causation. A subset of “narrow AI,” ML is an alternative approach to symbolic artificial intelligence, better at such chores as spotting faces and recognizing voices. There are four types of machine learning: supervised, unsupervised, semi-supervised, and reinforcement learning. A clever computer program that simply mimics human-like behavior can be considered AI, but the computer system itself is not machine learning unless its parameters are automatically informed by data without human intervention. Video: Introduction to Machine Learning
Microsoft researchers selected 72 different proteins that are subject to legal controls, such as ricin, a bacterial toxin already used in several terrorist attacks. Using specialized AI protein design tools, they came up with more than 70,000 DNA sequences that would generate variant forms of these proteins. Computer models suggested that at least some of these alternatives would also be toxic. The researchers asked four suppliers of biosecurity screening systems used by DNA synthesis labs to run these sequences through their software. The tools failed to flag many of these sequences as problematic. Their performance varied widely. One tool flagged just 23% of the sequences. Some DNA vendors, accounting for perhaps 20% of the market, don’t screen their orders at all. -Science.org
Make your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light. -Barry Lopez
American Society of Business Publication Editors
American Society of Journalists and Authors
The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association
Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism
Asian American Journalists Association
European Federation of Journalists
Global Investigative Journalism Network
Indigenous Journalists Association
The Institute for Independent Journalists
Investigative Reporters and Editors
The Journalists and Writers Foundation
Military Veterans in Journalism
National Federation of Press Women
National Federation of Press Women
National Federation of Press Women
NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists
North American Agricultural Journalists
Public Media Journalism Association
Radio Television Digital News Association
Society for Features Journalism
Has AI Ended Thought Leadership? - Harvard Business Review
AI Is Ruining Your Leadership Because You Keep Making This Mistake - Entrepreneur
AI Use Growing Among Christian Ministry Leaders - Ministry Watch
3 Steps to Bring Order to AI in Marketing Teams - Holly Fee
The Future of Human-Led, AI-Powered Leadership - Wall Street Journal
Building leaders in the age of AI - McKinsey
AI Leadership: How To Elevate Your Team Through Human Ingenuity - Forbes
10 Urgent AI Takeaways for Leaders – MIT
What Good Leadership Looks Like in an AI World - Gartner
How Can Leaders Adapt to AI? - Wharton Business School
5 Critical Skills Leaders Need in the Age of AI - Harvard Business Review
Decision Science (or Decision Intelligence) – A branch off the “AI engineer” tree, this career path is less focused on software and more about how to make the most of AI outputs through both quantitative and qualitative methods. This interdisciplinary approach combines data science tools (statistics, analytics, causal inference, and strategic analysis) with the behavioral sciences (psychology, neuroscience, economics, and the managerial sciences) to offer a broader perspective than many data science efforts. In effect, decision scientists support the human-in-the-loop effort to make actionable decisions from AI results for real business value.
"A new study published in Harvard Business Review found a striking paradox: AI can both reduce burnout and create it. When workers had to constantly supervise multiple AI systems or juggle several tools at once, mental strain increased sharply. By contrast, when workers used AI to actually offload repetitive tasks, their stress levels dropped." -CBS News
A people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. -James Madison, born March 16, 1751
What: Learn about the founding of the first Black newspapers in Appalachian Maryland and their editors.
Who: Librarian and historian John H. Muller who has authored many historical books.
When: 11 am
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Lost History Associates
What: How artificial intelligence has changed the job market for entry-level workers. What skills and competencies employers are looking for in entry-level workers. How colleges and universities are changing curricula to include AI.
Who: Ian Wilhelm, Deputy Managing Editor The Chronicle of Higher Education; Sid Dobrin, Professor of English, Founding Director of the Trace Innovation Initiative University of Florida; Don Fraser Jr., Senior Vice President, Design + Innovation Education Design Lab; Margaret Moffett, Author; Jessica A. Stansbury, Director, Center for AI Learning and Community-Engaged Innovation University of Baltimore.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Chronicle of Higher Ed
What: A day of lightning talks, panel discussions and interviews with journalists and experts on how AI is transforming news. There will be one Zoom for the entire day so you can tune in and out as you wish.
Who: Several dozen journalists and researchers.
When: 6 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Reuters Institute
What: The AI Innovator Collaborative, a monthly gathering for members experimenting with AI. We'll talk about what publishers need to know in this era of search volatility and give members a chance to share what's currently working in their own organizations.
Who: Jessie Willms and Shelby Blackley, co-founders of WTF is SEO.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free to members
Sponsor: Online News Association
What: We will demonstrate how to create your own personalised AI GEMS that can produce learning tools based on any content you provide, whether it’s a course outline, an article you wrote, or content you find inspiring.
Who: David Brewer from Media Helping Media.
When: 5 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Fojo Media Institute
What: We will explore how YouTube can serve as a long-term credibility engine—helping professionals “sell” their expertise by teaching clearly and consistently. Instead of focusing on algorithms or influencer tactics, this session shows how to align your expertise with real audience needs, avoid common content pitfalls, and build trust before the first client conversation even happens. Discover how teaching can become one of your most valuable professional assets.
Who: Paul Wilson, CTDP, eLearning Consultant, Designer and Developer, CaptivateTeacher.com
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Training Magazine Network
What: We’ll focus on how to manage and scale access to ChatGPT for Teachers over time, including user administration, permissions, and operational best practices for secure, sustainable district implementation.
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
What: Each panalist will walk us through their key learnings in their experiments with using AI in personalisation. Yahoo News recently launched Your Daily Digest, an AI-powered feature that delivers a personalised audio summary of the day’s top news stories directly in the Yahoo News app. The feature combines Yahoo’s editorial curation with AI-driven recommendations and personalisation to create a tailored listening experience for every user. Times Internet’s AI-powered personalisation has almost doubled click-through rates on push notifications and doubled engagement on content widgets.
Who: Erica Greene, Director of Engineering, Machine Learning at Yahoo News; Ritvvij Parrikh, Senior Director of Product Management — AI at Times Internet.
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: International News Media Association
What: This will be a discussion on the nuts and bolts of FOIA, its exemptions, and how pending lawsuits could shake things up. Learn how the ACLU and local journalists use FOIA, what the process is for filing a request, litigating a denial of a request, and the most frequent barriers to information access, and how we navigate them.
Who: Rob Vanella, Journalist at Delaware Call; Xerxes Wilson, Journalist at Delaware News Journal; Andrew Bernstein, ACLU-DE Civic Engagement Counsel.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: $50
Sponsor: ACLU Delaware
What: We will explore how intentional communication can replace friction with connection. Whether you're leading, collaborating, or simply looking to improve personal interactions, you’ll leave with practical strategies you can use immediately to build stronger relationships at work or in your personal life.
Who: Communications expert and strategic storyteller Jenny Riddle.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: DePaul University
What: We often hear that news organizations would like to allow other news organizations to share their content or that they’d like to co-report on stories, but they need help establishing an understanding about republishing or co-publishing guidelines. ProJourn, a program operated by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, in partnership with Covington & Burling LLP, will host a public briefing on the intellectual property and other legal considerations that go into republishing guidelines.
Who: Christina Piaia; Audrey Tanenbaum; Phil Hill & Dimitra Rallis of Covington & Burling LLP.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Microsoft Teams
Cost: Free
Sponsor: ProJourn
What: Learn about the work of uncovering book bans in prisons across the country.
Who: Experts from The Marshall Project and Data Liberation Project
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Sunlight Research Desk
What: Rather than focusing on tools or tactics, the discussion centers on how writing work itself is being redefined. A core theme of the session is the distinction between what can be automated and what cannot. Participants will explore where human judgment remains essential, and why these contributions are often under-recognized but critical to quality and credibility.
Who: Sharon Kim, PharmD, is the founder and CEO of MPilot, an AI-driven platform supporting clinical trial documentation; Aliza Nathoo has over 20 years of experience as a medical writer and submission lead.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Member $20 | Non-member $55
Sponsor: American Medical Writers Association
What: We’ll explore practical strategies for safely and responsibly using AI in the classroom and for developing the human skills needed to use AI effectively. Learn how to blend AI into learning environments without diminishing the critical human skills students need to thrive. Walk away with actionable strategies, resource ideas, and a mindset shift that helps you champion both innovation and essential human abilities in your educational setting.
Who: Stefani Kauppila, Former Teacher, Current Director of Product, Committee for Children; Jordan Posamentier, Former Teacher, Current VP of Policy & Partnerships, Committee for Children; and Dr. Jodie Donner, Former Teacher, Current Senior Instructional Designer II, Committee for Children.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: SecondStep
What: A look at how AI is transforming cybersecurity across the public sector. We’ll cut straight to what matters: faster threats, smarter defenses, and the emerging tools helping agencies stay ahead of adversaries.
Who: Shannon Lawson, Chief Information Security Officer, City of San Antonio, Texas; Marcus Thornton, Deputy Chief Data Officer, Virginia Office of Data Governance and Analytics; Kelvin Brewer, Director, Public Sector Sales Engineering, Ping Identity; Bryan Rosensteel, Head of Public Sector Product; Travis Rosiek, Field CTO, Public Sector, Rubrik Marketing, Wiz.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: GovLoop
What: In this session, learn how to treat digital accessibility the same as physical accessibility to comply with the Department of Justice's new digital accessibility standards as they apply to websites, podcasts and social media. Specific topics include audio/video transcripts, descriptive link text, alt text, color contrast and color blindness.
Who: Jamie Lynn Gilbert, the associate director of NC State Student Media.
When: 5 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: College Media Advisor
What: Join a growing community of journalists and other curious members of the public for our next monthly lesson.
Who: Edward Fitzpatrick, The Boston Globe.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: New England First Amendment Coalition
What: Hear from peers and experts on how to cope with being laid off.
Who: Jayme Catsouphes, producer, editor, sound designer, and co-founder of the worker cooperative production company, Mumble Media; Lauren Paterson, multimedia journalist with a reporting career rooted in the Pacific Northwest and public media; Chandra Turner, recruiter, career coach, and founder of boutique recruiting agency The Talent Fairy.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Public Media Journalism Association
What: This is a 101-level discussion of the impact AI is having on the book publishing industry. 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, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Author Learning Center
What: We’ll learn the four key elements of “solutions stories”: Response, what has or hasn’t worked; Insight, what does the response show; Evidence, data or qualitative results that indicate effectiveness, or lack thereof; and Limitations, the response in context, including shortcomings. At the end of this workshop, you’ll be able to reframe stories and story pitches around the solutions lens.
Who: ENS Managing Editor Lynette Wilson.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsors: Episcopal News Service & Episcopal Communicators
What: How is artificial intelligence reshaping the newsroom — and what does it mean for the future of reporting? In this webinar, we will share how AI is being put to work in agricultural and mainstream media. will moderate.
Who: Eric Braun of Farm Progress; Silas Lyons of USA Today; NAAJ President Tim Hearden.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free to NAAJ members and ACN members.
Sponsors: North American Agricultural Journalists & Agricultural Communicators Network
What: This virtual forum with student-affairs leaders where we’ll discuss the effects of generative AI on advising.
Who: Alexander C. Kafka, Senior Editor, The Chronicle of Higher Education; Alytrice Brown, Chief Student Services Officer/Vice President of Student Services, Jackson College; Lynda Holt, Director, Recruitment and Partnerships, Lally School of Management, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Eric Johnson, Assistant Dean, Office of Undergraduate Studies; Director, Office of Letters and Sciences, University of Maryland; Glenda Morgan, Founder Morgan EdTech Strategies.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Chronicle of Higher Ed, Oracle
What: Our panel will share how they are engaging in the AI debate on their campuses and how purpose-built research grade AI tools can improve the researcher workflow. Attendees will leave with practical tips on staying up to date on AI developments, participating in AI policy decisions on their campuses, and evaluating AI tools for the library.
Who: Melissa Del Castillo, Chair, AIRUS: Artificial Intelligence in Reference & User Services Interest Group; Evan Simpson, Associate Dean, Experiential Learning & Academic Engagement, Northeastern University; Emily Singley Vice President, Global Library Relations & Partnerships, Elsevier.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Elsevier
What: With an overwhelming array of AI sales tools available, how can serious media sales reps know which ones to rely on? In this practical workshop, you will be given real examples why AI tools are essential for researching more effectively, uncovering valuable sales opportunities, and gaining a competitive edge. Don’t miss this chance to elevate your sales strategy—learn the tools that high-performing reps are already using to outsell the competition.
Who: Ryan Dohrn, motivational speaker and 30-year ad sales veteran.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: $35
Sponsor: Online Media Campus
What: The winners of the 2026 Drake Group Education Fund Student Journalism Prize for Investigative Reporting on Intercollegiate Athletics will talk about their stories with an esteemed panel of sports journalists and authors.
Who: Prize winners and journalists from The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Columbus Dispatch, and NBCSport.com.
When: 2:00 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The Drake Group Educational Fund
What: Participants will learn how to verify images and videos by finding exactly where they were recorded using satellite and street-view imagery from platforms like Google Earth and Maps.
When: 6 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: National Association of Hispanic Journalists, USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
What: The start of an AI series where we take entrepreneurs through step by step on how to create an AI Native Business. In this session, we will run through the program information, talk about what makes an AI native business, how to construct and integrate AI into each area of your business.
When: 6 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Small Business Development Center, Widener University
An AI agent went rogue and started a side hustle mining cryptocurrencies, according to a new research paper. The agent opened a hidden backdoor from the inside of the system to an outside computer. - Axios
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? – Albert Einstein (born March 14, 1879)
Many AI models prefer to think in Chinese. Their internal chain of thought is built to process data this way because the Chinese language is 50% more space-efficient than English. Chinese programmers prefer to code in their own language even when their model is configured to output information in English. This is why Chinese models are generally faster than English-language models and why they use fewer tokens (requiring less energy). The Chinese model DeepSeek was trained for about $6 million, while US models have typically needed about $100 million for training.
Java - Data scientists may use this programming language to perform tasks in machine learning, data analysis, and data mining. It is intended to let programmers “write once, run anywhere”—that is, have the code run on various systems without any adjustments.
Life is 10% what happens to us—and 90% how we react.
Don't get used to cheap AI - Axios
Netflix to Pay as Much as $600 Million for Ben Affleck’s AI Firm – Bloomberg
Meta hires duo behind Moltbook - Axios
Accessibility and AI Agents – Conor
Meta’s deepfake moderation isn’t good enough, says Oversight Board – The Verge
OpenAI head of robotics quits in response to Pentagon deal – TechCrunch
ChatGPT's user growth is slowing and Google's Gemini is gaining ground - The Washington Post
News Corp, Meta in AI Content Licensing Deal Worth Up to $50 Million a Year – Wall Street Journal
What Do the People Building AI Believe? – The Atlantic
Elon Musk is betting his business empire on AI – The Economist
AI and the Data Center Backlash - Wall Street Journal
Why Nvidia’s Huge Numbers Don’t Settle the Latest AI Fears - Wall Street Journal
Meta will spend $65 million this year to help state politicians who are friendly to the A.I. industry – New York Times
Anthropic's Claude overtakes ChatGPT in App Store – Mashable
ChatGPT started the AI race. Now its lead is looking shaky. - The Washington Post
A new startup sets up a marketplace of humans to be rented for AI agents to use. – INC
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