Ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Stephen Goforth
Adobe’s “Project Clean Machine” is an editing tool that “automatically removes annoying distractions in images and videos, like camera flashes and people walking into frames. For example, if a background firework causes a few seconds of the shot to be overexposed, Clean Machine will ensure the color and lighting are still consistent throughout the video when the flash itself is removed.”
More at The Verge
If all you know is how to be a gang member, that's what you'll be, at least until you learn something else. If you become a marine, you'll learn to control fear. If you go to law school, you'll see the world as a competition. If you study engineering, you'll start to see the world as a complicated machine that needs tweaking.
I'm fascinated by the way a person changes at a fundamental level as he or she merges with a particular field of knowledge. People who study economics come out the other side thinking a different way from people who study nursing. And learning becomes a fairly permanent part of a person even as the cells in the body come and go and the circumstances of life change.
You can easily nitpick my definition of self by arguing that you are actually many things, including your DNA, your body, your mind, you environment and more. By that view, you're more of a soup than a single ingredient. I'll grant you the validity of that view. But I'll argue that the most powerful point of view is that you are what you learn.
It's easy to feel trapped in your own life. Circumstances can sometimes feel as if they form a jail around you. But there's almost nothing you can't learn your way out of. If you don't like who you are, you have the option of learning until you become someone else. Life is like a jail with an unlocked, heavy door. You're free the minute you realize the door will open if you simply lean into it.
Suppose you don't like your social life. You can learn how to be the sort of person that attracts better friends. Don't like your body? You can learn how to eat right and exercise until you have a new one. You can even learn how to dress better and speak in more interesting ways.
I credit my late mother for my view of learning. She raised me to believe I could become whatever I bothered to learn. No single idea has served me better.
Scott Adams, Dilbert.com
Zoom will now use an AI-powered medical notetaker for telehealth visits – Fast Company
New JAMA channel highlights AI’s role in medicine - Washington Post
How Generative AI Is Transforming Medical Education – Harvard Medicine
AI in Medicine: Are Large Language Models Ready for the Exam Room? – Medscape
New JAMA channel highlights AI’s role in medicine – Washington Post
Why Surgeons Are Wearing The Apple Vision Pro In Operating Rooms - TIME
Cancer diagnostics' rapid evolution thanks to AI – Axios
Microsoft announces new AI tools to help ease workload for doctors and nurses - CNBC
As AI-powered health care expands, experts warn of biases – Semafor
How AI could monitor brain health and find dementia sooner – Washington Post
10 Uses Cases of Predictive Analytics in Healthcare - Appinventiv
New AI Tool Rivals Human Experts In Cancer Diagnosis And Prognosis – Science Blog
The AI revolution in health care - Washington Post
Enhancing fairness in AI-enabled medical systems with the attribute neutral framework – Nature
Generative AI-assisted Peer Review in Medical Publications: Opportunities Or Trap - JMIR Publications
Would you trust AI to scan your genitals for STIs? – the 19th
That Message From Your Doctor? It May Have Been Drafted by A.I. – New York Times
When AI looked at biology, the result was astounding - Washington Post
How AI can help — and hurt — when people fundraise for urgent medical needs – Marquette
Google’s AI-backed healthcare search tool now available for general use – Health Care Dive
Anthropic is rolling out a new experimental feature that controls a computer for you "by looking at a screen, moving a cursor, clicking buttons, and typing text." A video introduction.
God always has another custard pie up his sleeve. -Lynn Redgrave in "Georgy Girl"
Consider the difference between the person who has been toiling in the hot sun and is desperately thirsty and the wine connoisseur who wants to sample a new pinot noir from California. Both have a desire to drink something liquid, but the resemblance ends there. There desire of the first person is rooted in the raw structure of the body, which needs and craves water. No reflection or education is needed to have such a desire. In order to appreciate the difference between a pinot noir and a cabernet sauvignon, However, it may be necessary to have a cultivated taste, with an imaginative grasp of the vocabulary used to describe the subtle “notes” of the wines. The person who simply wants to get drunk every night as well as the person who prides himself on his refined and elegant taste in wine… are focused solely on the satisfaction of the desires the person happens to have and are thus in one sense “immediate.”
A person may know a great deal about ethical theory without having much in the way of ethical character. It is possible, then, for a person to be well-developed intellectually but existentially not developed at all, and therefore still immediate.
C. Steven Evans, Kierkegaard: An Introduction
OpenAI Inks Deal With Hearst, Marking Another Major Media Partnership - Hollywood Reporter
Three Mile Island owner seeks taxpayer backing for Microsoft AI deal – Washington Post
Nvidia and VAST pitch new AI method for companies to access their data – Semafor
Turning OpenAI Into a Real Business Is Tearing It Apart – Wall Street Journal
Why Is OpenAI Trying to Raise So Much Money? – New York Times
New OpenAI update brings advanced voice features to any app - Semafor
OpenAI to Become For-Profit Company - Wall Street Journal
Amazon releases a video generator — but only for ads – Tech Crunch
For Now, There’s Only One Good Way to Power AI – The Atlantic
OpenAI closes in on largest VC round of all time – Axios
Google Paid $2.7 Billion to Bring Back an AI Genius Who Quit in Frustration - Wall Street Journal
Microsoft’s Hypocrisy on AI – The Atlantic
New bidding war for AI's biggest brains – Axios
Three Mile Island’s Nuclear Plant to Reopen, Help Power Microsoft’s AI Centers - Wall Street Journal
Nvidia earnings show AI boom is still on, though cracks have formed - The Washington Post
The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2024 – TIME
Light-Based Chips Could Help Slake AI’s Ever-Growing Thirst for Energy – Wired
We need clarity about the deals between AI companies and news publishers. Here’s why – Reuters
Constitutional AI is similar to reinforcement learning but rather than using human feedback, the researcher presents a set of principles (or “constitution”) and asks the model to revise its prompt answers to comply with these principles.
More AI definitions here
Contrary to what we usually believe.. the best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times — although such experiences can also be enjoyable — the best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Struggling to overcome challenges, and then overcoming them, are what people find to be the most enjoyable times in their lives. People typically feel strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, and at the peak of their abilities. Find rewards in the events of each moment . . . to enjoy and find meaning in the ongoing stream of experience, in the process of living itself.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Blind woman tells how she is helped by Meta glasses. Meanwhile, Harvard students use Meta’s smart glasses to dox people in real time.
What: We will dissect what makes a good AI accountability story, from quick turnaround stories to more ambitious investigations, and dig deeper into a few examples. Held in English and Arabic.
Who: Gabriel Geiger, an Amsterdam-based investigative journalist specializing in surveillance and algorithmic accountability reporting.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Pulitzer Center and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism
What: The issues of copyright when using artificial intelligence (AI).
Who: Cheryl Coyle from Central Piedmont Community College
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: NC Library Assoc.
What: We'll explore simple, effective ways to use AI within PowerPoint and beyond, all to boost your presentation game.
Who: Geetesh Bajaj Microsoft, PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional). Owner, Indezine.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Training Magazine Network
What: Discover a range of AI tools like Perplexity.ai and Claude 3, and learn how to choose the right ones to address your specific needs and challenges.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Small Business Development Center, Widener University
What: We’ll share our challenges and successes in producing high-quality student journalism.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: University of Vermont
What: Learn to use imagery to expose hidden truths about their own communities and advocate for change.
Who: Nitashia Johnson, a multimedia artist and educator.
When: 5 pm, Pacific
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Pulitzer Center and the Las Fotos Project
What: We’ll look at the technical and content-focused tactics that will ensure you’re winning the local SEO game.
Who: David Arkin, CEO of David Arkin Consulting
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Local Media Association
What: Learn a new approach to social media marketing that gets straight to the heart of your audience and takes the pressure off posting! Each participant receives a fill-in-the-blank Content Creation Workbook to apply to your specific business, which makes showing up on social media consistently your new normal. Take the guesswork out of promoting your business online.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Small Business Development Center, Widener University
What: In this webinar, Roy will introduce us to media evaluation techniques he learned at CIA and show us how anyone—not just CIA analysts—can build their skills at evaluating the accuracy, credibility, logic, and argumentation of posts on social media. He will argue that these skills are critical for us to engage in civic discourse and build a stronger democracy.
Who: Roy Whitehurst, a former CIA analyst and instructor who spent 30+ years evaluating written information, photos, videos, and other media collected by the CIA and then taught media literacy skills to new CIA analysts. He is the author of the new book, Teaching Media Literacy with Social Media News: Practical Techniques for Middle and High School Classrooms.
When: 4 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Media Education Lab
What: Presentations of real-world applications of AI that are redefining the future of journalism.
Who: Nikita Roy, program lead, host of the Newsroom Robots podcast, and ICFJ Knight Fellow; Dustin Block – Former Audience Development Lead at Graham Media Group; Caiwei Chen– Freelance Journalist; David Cohn – Senior Director of Research & Development at Advance Local; Selymar Colón – Managing Director of Platea Media at Red Ventures Puerto Rico; Rodney Gibbs – Head of Audience & Product at the National Trust for Local News; Monsur Hussain – Head of Innovation at the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development; Ludwig Siegele – Senior Editor of AI Initiatives at The Economist; Clare Spencer – AI Delivery Manager at Newsquest Media Group
When: 10 am, Central
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The AI Journalism Lab at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
God made man because he loves stories. -Elie Wiesel
AI Agents Can Do More Than Answer Queries. That Raises a Few Questions – Wall Street Journal
AI assistants are blabbing our embarrassing work secrets – Washington Post
JPMorgan Chase is giving its employees an AI assistant powered by ChatGPT maker OpenAI – CNBC
How A.I. Can Help Start Small Businesses - New York Times
This AI humanoid robot helped assemble BMWs at US factory - Arstechnica
Why AI Risks Are Keeping Board Members Up at Night - Wall Street Journal
The Economics of Generative AI - Toward Data Science
Study finds that ai is adding to employees' workload and burning them out - Futurism
Over 80% of China’s businesses already use generative AI – Fortune
More than 40% of Japanese companies have no plan to make use of AI – Reuters
HP’s new AI computer raises the stakes in the battle of tech hardware – Semafor
Tech execs from Salesforce and Qualcomm share their best practices for implementing AI in the workplace – Business Insider
While imperative people may not have their list of regulations typed on a legal document to be signed, they have a mental agenda that they apply in a wide variety of circumstances. They know how others should behave, speak, and feel, and nothing else matters to them but meeting that standard. In the meantime, the relationship is lost.
(They are) in essence stating, “I’ll accept you only after you meet my conditions.” And since each of us responds negatively to this kind of emotional blackmail, we become angry or tense. There is a hidden message of conditional acceptance. It’s as if (they are) saying, ‘I don’t think you can be trusted to make good decisions; you’ll probably foul things up… If you’ll fit my mold and be what I think you should be, we’ll get along okay; but if you don’t, I’ll have to hound you until you shape up.”
Les Carter, Imperative People: Those Who Must Be in Control
Research in cognitive science, psychology and neuroscience has demonstrated that deep reading — slow, immersive, rich in sensory detail and emotional and moral complexity — is a distinctive experience, different in kind from the mere decoding of words. Although deep reading does not, strictly speaking, require a conventional book, the built-in limits of the printed page are uniquely conducive to the deep reading experience. A book’s lack of hyperlinks, for example, frees the reader from making decisions — Should I click on this link or not? — allowing her to remain fully immersed in the narrative.
That immersion is supported by the way the brain handles language rich in detail, allusion and metaphor: by creating a mental representation that draws on the same brain regions that would be active if the scene were unfolding in real life. The emotional situations and moral dilemmas that are the stuff of literature are also vigorous exercise for the brain, propelling us inside the heads of fictional characters and even, studies suggest, increasing our real-life capacity for empathy.
Unlike the ability to understand and produce spoken language, which under normal circumstances will unfold according to a program dictated by our genes, the ability to read must be painstakingly acquired by each individual. The “reading circuits” we construct are recruited from structures in the brain that evolved for other purposes—and these circuits can be feeble or they can be robust, depending on how often and how vigorously we use them.
This is not reading as many young people are coming to know it. Their reading is pragmatic and instrumental: the difference between what literary critic Frank Kermode calls “carnal reading” and “spiritual reading.” If we allow our offspring to believe that carnal reading is all there is—if we don’t open the door to spiritual reading, through an early insistence on discipline and practice—we will have cheated them of an enjoyable, even ecstatic experience they would not otherwise encounter. And we will have deprived them of an elevating and enlightening experience that will enlarge them as people.
Observing young people’s attachment to digital devices, some progressive educators and permissive parents talk about needing to “meet kids where they are,” molding instruction around their onscreen habits. This is mistaken. We need, rather, to show them someplace they’ve never been, a place only deep reading can take them.
Annie Murphy Paul writing in the Brilliant Report
New Score Uses AI to Rate Brands’ Inclusivity in Advertising - Wall Street Journal
Google Lens now lets you search with video – The Verge
This Google AI Tool Can Turn Your Research Into a 'Podcast' – Life Hacker
Warner Bros. Discovery to Use Google AI Tech for Captions Programming – Hollywood Reporter
How Perplexity AI is Transforming Data Science and Analytics https://tinyurl.com/4sez9uxj - Analytics Insight
Google Funds New AI-Assisted Satellites to Detect Wildfires Faster – AI Business
Podcast: AI and Voice Replication – Illusion of More
Amazon is allowing Audible narrators to clone themselves with AI - The Verge
No laughing matter - how AI is helping comedians write jokes – BBC
What can we learn from millions of high school yearbook photos? – NPR
Google Meet’s automatic AI note-taking is here - The Verge
What accelerates brain ageing? This AI ‘brain clock’ points to answers – Nature
These New AI Bots Will Do Just About Anything for You - Wall Street Journal
Google’s new Pixel 9 can search your screenshots with AI – Washington Post
An Anthropic scientist broke his hand on a bike and it forced him to write all his code with AI for two months. He is never going back. - Erik Schluntz
AI is surprisingly good at predicting narcissism based on LinkedIn profiles – PsyPost
A.L.S. Stole His Voice. A.I. Retrieved It. – New York Times
Drones could soon be working together in swarms to put out flames before they become wildfires – BBC
Foundation models – At the core of many generative AI tools today, data scientists are using foundation models as a new approach to develop machine learning models. In contrast to traditional ML models, which typically perform specific tasks, FMs are adaptable and able to perform a wide range of tasks with accuracy. These large deep-learning neural networks are trained on massive datasets. Foundation models are also known as Large X Models or LXMs. A video explanation.
More AI definitions here
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. –Oscar Wilde (born: Oct. 16, 1854)
A counselor once told me that our memories work like a cheerleader's megaphone—only in reverse. The opening is wide, but there is not enough room for very many memories to crawl through the tube to come out at the other end and stick in our heads. So, we unconsciously pick the memories we hang onto. This is why he suggested I try to recall my earliest memory tied to a strong emotion. It would tell me something about myself. The stories from our past that we hang onto are our way of reminding ourselves who we are.
At five or so, I walked with my grandfather to a playground near his home. The road was tarred but not paved. I was looking at the rough surface when I spotted a $5 bill. I remember gleefully looking up at my grandfather and proudly showing it to him. He offered an approving nod.
My counselor guessed that choosing to keep this memory might speak of my closeness to my grandparents and my optimism. The road may be rough, but if you keep your eyes open, you'll discover wonderful surprises—and there is joy in sharing them.
The very fact I choose to remember talking to my counselor about this story, out of the many hours that we chatted, could say as much about me as remembering that story does itself.
What's your youngest memory tied to a strong emotion? What does it tell you about yourself?
Stephen Goforth
Fake and AI generated images spread online after Hurricanes Helene, Milton – NBC News
Created an A.I. Voice Clone to Prank Telemarketers. But the Joke’s on Us. – New York Times
The Editors Protecting Wikipedia from AI Hoaxes – 404 Media
The rise of fake influencers - Axis
A proposal to enhance AI text detectors - Arxiv
Why Watermarking Text Fails to Stop Misinformation and Plagiarism – Data Innovation
How A.I., QAnon and Falsehoods Are Reshaping the Presidential Race - New York Times
Rice research could make weird AI images a thing of the past – Rice
How to Tell If What You're Reading Was Written By AI - Lifehacker
Chatbots can chip away at belief in conspiracy theories - Axios
AI tool claims 94% accuracy in telling apart fake from real research papers – Decca Herald
GPT-fabricated scientific papers on Google Scholar: Key features, spread, and implications for preempting evidence manipulation – Harvard’s Kennedy School: Misinformation
Teachers still can't trust AI text checkers – Axios
Is Detecting genAI in Scholarly Research Beside the Point? – Adam Day on Medium
LinkedIn says if you share fake or false AI-generated content, that's on you – Tech Radar
Becoming is a service of Goforth Solutions, LLC / Copyright ©2025 All Rights Reserved