When failure becomes invisible
/When failure becomes invisible, the difference between failure and success may also become invisible. -David McRaney
ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Creativity’s link to dishonesty
/Creative people who can “think out of the box” are prized in the business world, the arts, and science. But a new study has found that creative thinkers are also more likely to cheat to get ahead, and to rationalize away less-than-ethical behavior. Harvard Business School researchers gave personality quizzes to hundreds of study participants and then asked them to perform quick games or other tasks for cash. Participants who scored high on a creativity test were more likely to falsify their results so they could earn more prize money. People who were merely high in intelligence, however, were not more dishonest. It appears that the same “divergent thinking” and “cognitive flexibility” that enable creative people to come up with innovative ways of looking at things also equip them to circumvent ethical norms—and to justify their cheating to themselves. “When you’re a creative person, you can use that creativity to come up with reasons for why unethical behaviors may be okay,” researcher Francesca Gino tells The Boston Globe. These “self-serving rationalizations,” she said, can include deciding that “other people would cheat under the same circumstances or that a little cheating will not hurt anyone.”
The Week magazine
19 Recent Articles about AI & Audio/Video
/Researchers Use AI To Turn Sound Recordings Into Accurate Street Images – University of Texas
Samsung has developed an audio eraser feature for smartphones that will allow users to erase unwanted sounds from videos – Data Company
Former OpenAI researcher raises $40 million to build more empathetic audio AI – Reuters
The Most Hyped Bot Since ChatGPT Remember Sora? – The Atlantic
OpenAI’s video generator, Sora, aims to kickstart the AI video era – Washington Post
NVIDIA's new AI model Fugatto can create audio from text prompts & modify existing sound files - Engadget
Randy Travis’s beautiful baritone was lost. AI helped him sing again. - Washington Post
Polish radio station ditches DJs, journalists for AI-generated college kids – The Register
Adobe Firefly Video Model: How AI is Changing the Future of Video Editing - Unite
There’s a New Hit Podcast That Will Blow Your Mind: The hosts aren’t human. – Wall Street Journal
Podcast: AI and Voice Replication - Illusion of More
Adobe’s AI video model is here, and it’s already inside Premiere Pro – The Verge
Talking through AI and the future of music with will.i.am – Semafor
Amazon is allowing Audible narrators to clone themselves with AI - The Verge
This Hit Music Radio Station Is Fully AI-Generated – Radio World
Amazon's AI Generator Tool Can Now Create Audio Ads – AdWeek
How To Create And Customize An AI Podcast With Google’s NotebookLM – Forbes
Zoom will let AI avatars talk to your team for you - The Verge
Mariah Carey Responds to Claims Her Spotify Wrapped Video Was Made With AI – Hollywood Reporter
Happiness Depends
/Happiness doesn't depend on how many external blessings we have snatched from life. It depends only on our attitude toward them. -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (born Dec. 11, 1918)
AI Definitions: Natural language processing
/Natural language processing - This is type of machine learning that makes human language intelligible to the machines. The first step is tokenization. Text is divided into units called tokens and then transformed into vectors—where the words are represented by numbers. These word vectors are lists of numbers. More than 1,000 numbers can be used to represent a single word—meaning that word vector has a high dimension—it’s very nuanced. A low dimension for a word vector means the list of numbers is low—not as nuanced but easier to work with. A deep learning model (typically a transformer model) uses these vectors to understand the meaning of words and determine how they relate to one other. For instance, king would relate to man while queen would relate to woman.
More AI definitions here
Possibility
/I dwell in possibility… –Emily Dickinson (born Dec. 10, 1830)
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.
18 Webinars this Week about AI, Journalism & Media
/Mon, Dec 9 - 30 Minute Skills: Freelance Photography
What: Learn: What to expect when working as an independent photographer. How you can attract clients and build your portfolio. The best business practices for new freelance photographers.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The New England First Amendment Coalition
Mon, Dec 9 - Teaching Students to Use Artificial Intelligence Ethically
What: Ways that teachers can build classroom structures and culture that promote the ethical use of AI.
Who: Paul Cancellieri, a National Board-Certified science teacher.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Solution Tree, Education Week
Mon, Dec 9 - Women in Writing, Editing, and Publishing
What: Hear from a panel of accomplished alumni discussing their work within the field of writing, editing, and publishing, including advice on getting hired and rewards and challenges of the industry. Participate in a lively Q&A session with the full range of panelists. Engage in interactive breakout sessions for personalized advice and valuable networking.
Who: Lucy Feldman, Senior Editor at TIME; Suzy Becker, Author & Illustrator; Natasha Noel AM Writer, Poet & Educational Leader; Taylor Michael Freelance Journalist & Adjunct Instructor.
When: 6 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Brown University Women's Network (BWN) and the Women's Launch Pad
Tue, Dec 10 - Sound Evidence with Lawrence Abu Hamdan
What: A webinar looking at how journalists can make use of technologies and techniques within forensic audio analysis to enhance their investigations.
Who: Founder and Director of Investigations of Earshot, Lawrence Abu Hamdan; Beauregard Tromp,
convenor of the African Investigative Journalism Conference.
When: 7 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The Wits Centre for Journalism, International Fund for Public Interest Media
Tue, Dec 10 - Lessons Learned from Investigating the 2024 Elections
What: Three senior reporters based in countries that have faced key elections during 2024 will discuss innovative techniques, cross-border collaborations, and the critical importance of investigative journalism in fostering transparency and accountability in elections. The panel will address why investigative journalists should remain hopeful and how their work is more essential than ever to protect the integrity of democracies worldwide.
Who: Poonam Agarwal is an acclaimed investigative journalist from India; Ewald Scharfenberg is an award-winning investigative journalist and co-founder of Armando.info, a leading investigative journalism outlet in Venezuela; Thandi Smith has worked for Media Monitoring Africa for about 12 years and is currently Head of Programmes for the organization; The moderator is Sheila Coronel, director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia Journalism School and a pioneering investigative journalist from the Philippines.
When: 9 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Global Investigative Journalism Network
Tue, Dec 10 - A Brand-Aware AI Content Strategy
What: Discover how AI is shaping the future of marketing, from content to experience and everything in between. You’ll find out: What brand-aware AI is, and how to leverage it for better content; Strategies to enhance your brand voice, rather than flatten it, using AI; Tips for integrating this approach into your existing workflows.
Who: Michele Fisher, Global Director, Business Strategy, Microsoft; Kelly Masters Senior Product Marketing Manager, Sitecore.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: AdWeek
Tue, Dec 10 - AI Innovator Collaborative
What: The December meeting of the AI Innovator Collaborative, a regular gathering for ONA members already using AI in journalism to connect and share ideas.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free to ONA members
Sponsor: Online News Association
Tue, Dec 10 - Global Trust in News
What: Global trust in news, the pace of technological change and the future of journalism.
Who: Bill Gross CEO, ProRata & Chair, Idealab; Faye D’Souza Journalist & Entrepreneur.
When: 10:30 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Washington Post, The Ey Organization
Wed, Dec 11 - Exploring ChatGPT and Conversational AI
What: We will explore what conversational AI is as well as the risks, benefits, and considerations when utilizing this technology. Key learning objectives for this session include: Understanding what conversational AI is and looking at examples, such as ChatGPT; Recognizing what responsible use of conversational AI looks like; Identifying strategies for educating adult patrons about the implications of using conversational AI.
Who: Michael Spikes, Director of the Teach for Chicago Journalism project and a lecturer at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism; Kristen Calvert serves as the Events & Programs Administrator for Dallas Public Library.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: American Library Association
Wed, Dec 11 - How to Build a Chatbot Using Gen AI: Accelerating Learning Through Conversation
What: We'll explore the fascinating neuroscience behind chatbot learning, walk you through the step-by-step process of designing your own chatbot, and equip you with essential dos and don'ts for effective implementation.
Who: Margie Meacham is an expert in adapting AI technology to accelerate learning and support performance. She teaches training organizations around the world how to leverage AI for education and training.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Training Magazine Network
Wed, Dec 11 - Leveraging Emerging Technologies for Equitable Content Creation
What: How to integrate new technologies like virtual reality, 3D printing, and podcasting equipment to foster equitable content creation. The session will highlight ways to ensure these technologies are accessible to all users and how they can be used to elevate underrepresented voices in media production. Following the presentation, attendees will join breakout rooms for further discussion and connection.
Who: Paris Whalon is the Student Success Librarian for Media Literacy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Media Education Lab
Wed, Dec 11 - Fact-Checking Tools and Best Practices
What: We’ll explore ways to fight back against misinformation and disinformation during post-election coverage. We’ll use tools such as Google Fact-Check Explorer to track fact-checked images and stories. We’ll use reverse image search and other Google tools to check election claims. We’ll break down doctored video and audio with WatchFramebyFrame and Deepfake-o-meter. We’ll also look at the innovative Rolliapp.com to track disinformation spreaders on social channels. Participants get a handout with links to tools and exercise materials.
Who: Mike Reilley Senior Lecturer, University of Illinois-Chicago.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: RTDNA/Google News Initiative
Wed, Dec 11 - Shaping Education for Generation Alpha in an Era of AI
What: Members of the National Council of Innovative Instructional Leaders will identify challenges, offer suggestions, and discuss the necessary mindsets and critical components of a successful AI launch and implementation. They’ll also highlight key takeaways from NCIIL’s recent report, Shaping Education for Generation Alpha in an Era of AI.
Who: Jeff McCoy, Associate Superintendent for Academics, Greenville County Schools (SC); Kimberley Markus, CEO, Education Advisors; Casey Rimmer, Executive Director of K-12 Curriculum and Instruction, Union County Public Schools (NC); Shawn Bird, Deputy Superintendent, San Antonio Independent School District (TX); and Jennifer Ferrari, CEO and President, ERDI.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Education Research and Development Institute
Thu, Dec 12 - Engaging Gen Z Audiences: Strategies for Local Newsrooms
What: This session will provide valuable insights into the current media landscape, Gen Z’s news consumption habits, and practical strategies for local newsrooms and independent publishers to effectively reach and engage this crucial demographic.
Who: Award-winning journalist and digital consultant Adriana Lacy.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free (though you have to sign up for a newsletter)
Sponsor: Indiegraf
Thu, Dec 12 - Teaching AI Ethics and Accountability: The Digital World is Ours
What: Should educators adapt and find ways to increasingly incorporate generative AI in the classroom? How do schools educate students about this ever-growing technology, its language models, prompt engineering, and the possible positive uses? Should an “Introduction to AI” course be incorporated into curricula? If so, what would be its content? We will explore these emerging questions during this session.
Who: Karen Rezach, Director of the Ethics Institute, Kent Place School (NJ); Kimberly Pearson, Director of Technology, Kent Place School (NJ); and a Panel of High School Students.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The Ethics Institute at Kent Place School, Artificial Intelligence in Education
Thu, Dec 12 - Unlocking Creativity: Using ChatGPT to Generate Gamification Ideas and Storylines
What: This session is designed to show you how to harness the power of ChatGPT, an advanced AI language model, to craft compelling gamification concepts and storylines that captivate your audience.
Who: Monica Cornetti, Founder and President, Sententia Inc.; Rasha Morsi, Ph.D. Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Creative Gaming and Simulation (CGS) Lab, Norfolk State University; Musbah Abdulgader, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Norfolk State University.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Training Magazine Network
Fri, Dec 13 - What are my digital protections? How to handle (and prevent) online threats as a journalist
What: How to recognize the types of online harassment journalists face most often; When to ignore online harassment and when to take action; What to do when online harassment crosses into illegal territory; Steps you can take right now to help protect your digital presence.
Who: Tat Bellamy-Walker, Program Manager of Digital Safety Training and Resources (Media) at PEN America; María Salazar Ferro, Director of Newsroom Safety and Resilience at The New York Times; Greg Lipper, a D.C.-based litigator with extensive experience in criminal defense and investigations, and First Amendment and media law.
When: 11 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: National Press Club Journalism Institute
Fri, Dec 13 - How to Find Journalism-Adjacent Freelance Work
What: Learn how to find work in content marketing, branding, communications and other fields that are adjacent to journalism, and how to adjust to the different demands of this work. Panelists will discuss how to network to good clients, handling yourself ethically, and what kinds of organizations are eager to hire journalists
Who: Ricardo Baca, founder and CEO of Grasslands; Mary Melton, Editor-at-Large, Alta Journal; Stacy Brooks Whatley, Chief Communications & Marketing Officer, American Counseling Association.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The Institute for Independent Journalists
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 intersection of Science & AI in 15 Articles
/AI scans RNA ‘dark matter’ and uncovers 70,000 new viruses – Nature
AI could soon be making major scientific discoveries. A machine could even win a Nobel Prize one day – The Conversation
AI's scientific path to trust – Axios
AI-Assisted Genome Studies Are Riddled with Errors – The Scientist
AI helps scientists track ‘twangy’ whales – Washington Post
Unleashing the power of AI in science-key considerations for materials data preparation - Nature
AI scientists are producing a host of new theories of how our brains learn – The Economist
Ex-Meta scientists debut gigantic AI protein design model - Nature
AI model harnesses physics to autocorrect remote sensing data - Phys.org
Could science be fully automated? A team of machine-learning researchers has now tried. - Nature
A new ‘AI scientist’ can write science papers without any human input. Here’s why that’s a problem – The Conversation
How do you tame AI? Scientist sees a need for regulating bots like drugs or airplanes - Geekwire
AI-generated images threaten science — here’s how researchers hope to spot them – Nature
Japanese scientists were pioneers of AI, yet they’re being written out of its history - The Conversation
AI System Spots Early Warning Signs Of Alzheimer’s Through Mouse Behavior – Science Blog
Tricking an AI Detector
/“Tricking an AI detector into labeling human-written content as machine-made is surprisingly simple. With just a little rephrasing, what was previously flagged with "100% confidence" as AI-generated can suddenly be labeled ‘Likely original.’" -Mashable
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
The Gender Gap in AI Use
/"Half of all men reported having used generative AI over the previous 12 months, while only 37% of women did. Studies show that women are less likely to trust technology and that men are more likely to be confident in their tech savvy." -Bloomberg
I have learned
/I have learned, that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. –Henry David Thoreau
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
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