Envisioning Failure

/

Our brains mix real imagery with mental and emotional baggage, which affects performance. Slugger Mickey Mantle is reported to have once said after hitting a long home run, "I just saw the ball as big as a grapefruit." In contrast, poor hitters may see the baseball as small. It’s not just out of reach for them physically but emotionally as well.

A Purdue University study tested the kicking ability of more than 20 athletes who don't play football. They were asked to estimate the size of the goalposts before and after each of 10 attempts to kick a field goal. The more successful the athlete, the more likely they were to overestimate the size of the posts and underestimate the distance.

Success biased the kickers’ perception of the difficulty of their task. Professor Jessica Witt says, “Before you kicked, you really didn’t know what your abilities were going to be.’’ She found the same effect in past experiments with softball players and golfers. University of Virginia psychologist Dennis Proffitt has put together tests that show the effect holds true even when it comes to dangerous situations.

Which are you imagining in your life—success or failure?

Stephen Goforth

Natural Language Video Editing

/

For the foreseeable future, we’ll still need pro video editors who master the technical details of visual storytelling. But for many everyday situations — trimming a meeting recording, pulling social media clips, or gathering quick highlights — natural language editing may soon be a widely-adopted accelerator of the process. It’s not mature yet, but it’s poised to make video editing accessible to everyone who can describe what they want. AI is beginning to democratize creative work that used to require technical expertise. 

Jeremy Caplan of WonderTools

AI Definitions: Tokenization

/

Tokenization - The process where an LLM creates a digital representation (a token) of a real thing—everything gets a number; words are translated into numbers. Think of a token as the root of a word. “Creat” is the “root” of many words, for instance, including Create, Creative, Creator, Creating, and Creation. “Create” would be an example of a token. Examples

More AI definitions here

Give people you don’t know a fair chance

/

When you look at a person, any person, remember that everyone has a story. Everyone has gone through something that has changed them, and forced them to grow. Every passing face on the street represents a story every bit as compelling and complicated as yours. We meet no ordinary people in our lives. If you give them a chance, everyone has something amazing to offer. So appreciate the possibility of new relationships as you naturally let go of old ones that no longer work. Trust your judgment. Embrace new relationships, knowing that you are entering into unfamiliar territory. Be ready to learn, be ready for a challenge, and be ready to meet someone that might just change your life forever.

Marc & Angel Chernoff

No one Thinks They are Average

/

Research shows just about all of us think we are more competent than our coworkers, more ethical than our friends, friendlier than the general public, more intelligent than our peer, more attractive than the average person, less prejudiced than people in our region, younger-looking than people the same age, better drivers than most people we know, better children than our siblings, and that we will live longer than the average lifespan.

(As you just read that list, maybe you said to yourself, “No, I don’t think I’m better than everyone.” So you think you’re more honest with yourself than the average person? You are not so smart.)

No one, it seems, believes he or she is part of the population contributing to the statistics generating averages. You don’t believe you are an average person, but you do believe everyone else is. This tendency, which springs from self-serving bias, is called the illusory superiority effect.

In 1999, Justin Kruger at the New York University Stern School of Business showed illusory superiority was more likely to manifest in the minds of subject when they were told ahead of time a certain task was easy. When they rated their abilities after being primed to think the task was considered simple, people said they performed better than average. When he then told people where were about to perform a task that was difficult they rated their performance as being below average even when it wasn’t .

No matter the actual difficulty, just telling people ahead of time how hard the undertaking would be changed how they saw themselves in comparison to an imagined average. To defeat feelings of inadequacy, you first have to imagine a task as being simple and easy. If you can manage to do that, illusory superiority takes over.

David McRaney, You are Not so Smart

The Last Person on Earth

/

Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?  If you are alone on a planet a hierarchical structure makes no sense.  There’s no one to impress.  So, if you’d still pursue that activity, congratulations. If we were the last person on earth, would we still show up at the studio, the rehearsal hall, the laboratory?

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

22 Articles about AI & Ethics

/

AI Jesus' avatar tests man's faith in machines and the divine – Associated Press

We need to start wrestling with the ethics of AI agents – MIT Tech Review

Military takes on question of when AI is the right thing to do – Military Aerospace 

The Technology for Autonomous Weapons Exists. What Now? – Undark

OpenAI is funding Duke University to research ‘AI morality’ – Tech Crunch

An Introduction to Explainable AI (XAI) – KD Nuggets  

Mickey Mouse Smoking: How AI Image Tools Are Generating New Content-Moderation Problems – Wall Street Journal

AI firms must play fair when they use academic data in training – Nature

Is Using AI tools innovation or exploitation? 3 ways to think about the ethics – The Conversation

Publication Ethics in the Era of Artificial Intelligence – Journal of Korean Medical Science 

Police officers are starting to use AI chatbots to write crime reports. Will they hold up in court? – Associated Press  

Shedding light on AI's black box – Axios

End-of-life decisions are difficult and distressing. Could AI help? – MIT Tech Review

UN adopts first resolution on artificial intelligence - AP 

How Pope Francis became the AI ethicist for world leaders and tech titans – Washington Post  

AI models can vastly increase job candidate pools. It might also improve diversity. – Semafor  

Can AI police itself? Experts say chatbots can detect each other’s gaffes. – Washington Post  

Is AI my co-author? The ethics of using artificial intelligence in scientific publishing – Taylor & Francis   

When it comes to using AI in journalism, put audience and ethics first - Poynter 

The role of legal teams in creating AI ethics guardrails – Legal Dive

New Book Explores Promise and Perils of AI for Scientific Community – Annenberg Public Policy Center  

AI without limits threatens public trust — here are some guidelines for preserving communications integrity - The Conversation

Resilient in the face of Trauma

/

For at least a century, psychologists have assumed that terrible events—such as having a loved one die or becoming the victim of a violent crime—must have a powerful, devastating, and enduring impact on those who experience them. This assumption has been so deeply embedded in our conventional wisdom that people who don’t have dire reactions to events such as those are sometimes diagnosed as having a pathological condition known as “absent grief.” But recent research suggests that the conventional wisdom is wrong that the absence of grief is quite normal, and that rather than being the fragile flowers that a century of psychologists have made us out to be, most people are surprisingly resilient in the face of trauma. The loss of a parent or spouse is usually sad and often tragic, and it would be perverse to suggest otherwise.

But as one group of researchers noted, “Resilience is often the most commonly observed outcome trajectory following exposure to a potentially traumatic event.” Instead, studies of those who survive major traumas suggest that the vast majority do quite well, and that a significant portion claim that their lives were enhanced by the experience

Why do most of us shake our heads in disbelief when an athlete who has been through several grueling years of chemotherapy tells us that “I wouldn’t change anything,” or when a musician who has become permanently disabled says, “If I had it to do all over again, I would want it to happen the same way,” or when quadriplegics and paraplegics tell us that they are pretty much as happy as everyone else? The claim made by people who have experienced events such as these seem frankly outlandish to those of us who are merely imagining those events—and yet, who are we to argue with the folks who’ve actually been there?

The fact is that negative events do affect us, but they generally don’t affect us as much or for as long as we expect them to.

Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling into Happiness

19 Recent Articles about AI & Journalism

/

Three experts discuss the rise of low-quality content and its implications for the profession, the news industry and the public sphere. – Reuters Institute

Discussing the future of journalism: From conflict to AI – Vatican News  

The AI Reporter That Took My Old Job Just Got Fired – Wired  

Creating an AI chatbot to speak to a country’s budget – Reuters Institute

Particle launches an AI news app to help publishers, instead of just stealing their work – Tech Crunch  

The Washington Post's new generative A.I. tool, "Ask The Post" – Washington Post  

AI firms need media more than they admit – Axios   

'Garbage in, garbage out': AI fails to debunk disinformation, study finds – VOA News

How Journalism Groups in Africa Are Building AI Tools to Aid Investigations and Fact-Checking – Global Investigative Journalism Network

Using AI to sift through federal regulations for news tips – Fast Company 

94% of people want journalists to disclose their use of Al – Trusting News  

Using AI in PR: Experts explain how AI is enhancing PR workflows – Muckrock

When it comes to using AI in journalism, put audience and ethics first - Poynte 

London’s Evening Standard Plans To Revive Art Critic In AI Form As It Stops Daily Presses & Fires Journalists – Deadline

Three predictions about AI’s impact on FOIA and how you can help – Muckrock

How is AI being used in journalism? – IBM

Lawrence student journalists recognized for fighting district’s use of AI surveillance – Lawrence Times

Five Canadian news media outlets sue OpenAI for copyright breach – Al Jazeera

Study of ChatGPT citations makes dismal reading for publishers – Tech Crunch

AI Jesus in Swiss Chapel

/

“Researchers and religious leaders released findings from a two-month experiment through art in a Catholic chapel in Switzerland, where an avatar of "Jesus" on a computer screen, tucked into a confessional, took questions by visitors on faith, morality and modern-day woes, and offered responses based on Scripture. Those behind the project said it was largely a success: Visitors often came out moved or deep in thought, and found it easy to use.” -Associated Press

Really Giving Thanks

/

Thanksgiving is more than just a long holiday weekend for watching eight consecutive hours of football or finding a few shopping bargains. It’s a time to reflect on the remarkable blessings showered upon us. Think back over the year; You’ll remember how often a crisis loomed. Perhaps you’re facing just such a situation now. And yet, how many of last year’s potential disasters are still with you? There is much for which to be thankful, and Thanksgiving is the perfect time to remind yourself and your family of what you are truly grateful. May you and your loved ones escape the daily grind and spend quality time together.  

Stephen Goforth