Ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Stephen Goforth
The US Copyright Office says “the use of artificial intelligence tools to assist in the creative process does not undermine the copyright of a work. The announcement clears the way for continued adoption of AI in post-production, such as in the enhancement of Hungarian-language dialogue in “The Brutalist.” https://variety.com/2025/biz/news/copyright-ai-tools-filmmaking-studios-office-1236288969/
In the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day,” Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, a reporter who, confronted with living the same day over and over again, matures from an arrogant, self-serving professional climber to someone capable of loving and appreciating others and his world. Murray convincingly portrays the transformation from someone whose self-importance is difficult to abide into a person imbued with kindness.
But there is another story line at work in the film, one we can see if we examine Murray’s character not in the early arrogant stage, nor in the post-epiphany stage, where the calendar is once again set in motion, but in the film’s middle, where he is knowingly stuck in the repetition of days. In this part of the narrative, Murray’s character has come to terms with his situation. He alone knows what is going to happen, over and over again. He has no expectations for anything different. In this period, his period of reconciliation, he becomes a model citizen of Punxsutawney. He radiates warmth and kindness, but also a certain distance.
The early and final moments of “Groundhog Day” offer something that is missing during this period of peace: passion. Granted, Phil Connors’s early ambitious passion for advancement is a far less attractive thing than the later passion of his love for Rita (played by Andie MacDowell). But there is passion in both cases. It seems that the eternal return of the same may bring peace and reconciliation, but at least in this case not intensity.
And here is where a lesson about love may lie. One would not want to deny that Connors comes to love Rita during the period of the eternal Groundhog Day. But his love lacks the passion, the abandon, of the love he feels when he is released into a real future with her. There is something different in those final moments of the film. A future has opened for their relationship, and with it new avenues for the intensity of his feelings for her. Without a future for growth and development, romantic love can extend only so far. Its distinction from, say, a friendship with benefits begins to become effaced.
There is, of course, in all romantic love the initial infatuation, which rarely lasts. But if the love is to remain romantic, that infatuation must evolve into a longer-term intensity, even if a quiet one, that nourishes and is nourished by the common engagements and projects undertaken over time.
The future is open. Unlike the future in “Groundhog Day,” it is not already decided. We do not have our next days framed for us by the day just passed. We can make something different of our relationships. There is always more to do and more to create of ourselves with the ones with whom we are in love.
This is not true, however, and romantic love itself shows us why. Love is between two particular people in their particularity. We cannot love just anyone, even others with much the same qualities. If we did, then when we met someone like the beloved but who possessed a little more of a quality to which we were drawn, we would, in the phrase philosophers of love use, “trade up.” But we don’t trade up, or at least most of us don’t. This is because we love that particular person in his or her specificity. And what we create together, our common projects and shared emotions, are grounded in those specificities. Romantic love is not capable of everything. It is capable only of what the unfolding of a future between two specific people can meaningfully allow.
Todd May writing in the New York Times
I am quite happy when my kids whine that they are bored. Finding ways to amuse themselves is an important skill. -Sandi Mann
According to psychologist Richard Wiseman, luck – bad or good – is just what you call the results of a human beings consciously interacting with chance, and some people are better at interacting with chance than others.
Over the course of 10 years, Wiseman followed the lives of 400 subjects of all ages and professions. He found them after he placed ads in newspapers asking for people who thought of themselves as very lucky or very unlucky. He had them keep diaries and perform tests in addition to checking in on their lives with interviews and observations. In one study, he asked subjects to look through a newspaper and count the number of photographs inside. The people who labeled themselves as generally unlucky took about two minutes to complete the task. The people who considered themselves as generally lucky took an average of a few seconds. Wiseman had placed a block of text printed in giant, bold letters on the second page of the newspaper that read, “Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.” Deeper inside, he placed a second block of text just as big that read, “Stop counting, tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $250.” The people who believed they were unlucky usually missed both.
Wiseman speculated that what we call luck is actually a pattern of behaviors that coincide with a style of understanding and interacting with the events and people you encounter throughout life.
Unlucky people are narrowly focused, he observed. They crave security and tend to be more anxious, and instead of wading into the sea of random chance open to what may come, they remain fixated on controlling the situation, on seeking a specific goal. As a result, they miss out on the thousands of opportunities that may float by.
Lucky people tend to constantly change routines and seek out new experiences. Wiseman saw that the people who considered themselves lucky, and who then did actually demonstrate luck was on their side over the course of a decade, tended to place themselves into situations where anything could happen more often and thus exposed themselves to more random chance than did unlucky people. The lucky try more things, and fail more often, but when they fail they shrug it off and try something else. Occasionally, things work out.
10 Best AI Tools for Social Media – Unite AI
Instagram Begins Randomly Showing Users AI-Generated Images of Themselves – 404 Media
Here’s what to know before using AI to craft your brand’s social media posts - Technical.ly
Meta plans to flood social media with AI-generated users and content - SiliconANGLE
AI Social Media Users Are Not Always a Totally Dumb Idea – Wired
Instagram Ads Send This Nudify Site 90 Percent of Its Traffic - 404 Media
TikTok owner ByteDance plans to spend $12 billion on AI chips in 2025 - Reuters
Instagram’s head says social media needs more context because of AI – The Verge
Meta Permits Its A.I. Models to Be Used for U.S. Military Purposes - The New York Times
Does Anyone Need an AI Social Network? – NY Mag
The rise of fake influencers – Axios
Will AI Suck the Humanity Out of Social Media? – Social Media Today
Elon Musk’s X is a haven for free speech — and noxious AI images – Washington Post
Meta Launches Custom AI Bot Creation Platform in the US - Social Media Today
Facebook Is Already Mistakenly Tagging Real Photos as "Made With AI" – Futurism
Hot AI Jesus Is Huge on Facebook – The Atlantic
Meta Is Offering Hollywood Stars Millions for AI Voice Projects – Bloomberg
How Reddit Fits Into the AI World – Wall Street Journal
Meta Moves to End Fact-Checking Program – New York Times
Is it still 'social media' if it's overrun by AI? – CBC
AI and Social Media Fakes: Are You Protecting Your Brand? – Law.com
We are too often motivated by a craving to put an end to the inevitable surprises in our lives. This is especially true of the biggest "negative" of all. Might we benefit from contemplating mortality more regularly than we do? As Steve Jobs famously declared, "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way that I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose."
Oliver Burkeman
The second wave of AI coding is here – MIT Tech Review
OpenAI's new o3 model freaks out computer science majors – Axios
AI can improve on code it writes, but you have to know how to ask – The Register
What is the Best Language for Machine Learning? – Unite AI
The best AI for coding in 2025 (and what not to use) – ZD Net
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
In the age of AI, there's no future for workers content with being code monkeys — and they know it – Business Insider
The best Large Language Models (LLMs) for coding in 2024 – Tech Radar
AI and Design Systems – Brad Frost
AI Coding Assistants: 12 Do’s and Don’ts – The New Stack
AI’s coding promises, and OpenAI’s longevity push - MIT Tech Review
If all experience of beauty is merely subjective, we find ourselves in a position in which some people like rice pudding and other people do not like rice pudding, which is then the conclusion of the matter. In short, it would mean that no two people have ever differed or ever can differ on a question of beauty. When one person says the Philadelphia City Hall is more beautiful than the Parthenon and another person denies this, they are not, on the subjectivist theory, arguing at all.
One man is telling about his insides and the other is telling about his insides. If someone wishes to contend that the works of a contemporary leader of a dance band are aesthetically superior to the works of Beethoven, there is, subjectively speaking, no suitable rejoinder.
This situation, however, is too absurd to be accepted by thoughtful critics as the last word on the question. The fact is that people do argue about aesthetic judgments, and the subjectivists argue as much as anybody else.
Regardless of their philosophical position, those who take beauty most seriously tend to hold that those who fail to see what they see really ought to see it, and with sufficient clarification of sight would see it.
Kant goes beyond the mere rejection of the familiar maxim and points out the imperative note which is essential to aesthetic judgment, a note similar to that which we found in moral judgment. To assert that a thing is beautiful is to blame those who do not agree. If I am right, they are wrong.
It would be laughable of a man to justify himself by saying, "This object is beautiful for me."
Elton Trueblood, Philosophy of Religion
Using AI & computer vision to diagnose greenhouse crops with diseases or pests – Tech Crunch
OpenAI introduced a new tool, called Operator, that can autonomously perform tasks on the internet – New York Times
AI brings better odds and betting concerns to sports gambling – Semafor
AI model that can distinguish between Scotch and American whiskeys with 100 percent accuracy (better than humans)– New Scientist
Engineers Develop AI Tool to Automate Finding Defects in Sewer Lines – CU Denver
Google’s new AI tool uses image prompts instead of text - CNN
This new AI technology enhances video analysis by detecting human actions in real time – Tech Radar
Researchers Use AI To Turn Sound Recordings Into Accurate Street Images – Univ of Texas
New methane monitoring AI tool unveiled – Axios
AI helps uncover hundreds of unknown ancient symbols hidden in Peru’s Nazca Desert – CNN
Google's DeepMind unveils an AI model capable of predicting the weather more accurately than existing forecasting systems – MIT Tech Review
How Indigenous engineers are using AI to preserve their culture – NBC News
Explore the World’s First 3D Replica of St. Peter’s Basilica, Made with AI – Open Culture
New Microsoft Teams AI promises to translate speech in real time – Semafor
Can a fluffy robot really replace a cat or dog? My weird, emotional week with an AI pet – The Guardian
Want to speak Italian? Microsoft AI can make it sound like you do. – Washington Post
Google's AI Tool Big Sleep Finds Zero-Day Vulnerability in SQLite Database Engine – The Hacker News
AI’s Impact on Insurance Innovation – Expert AI
Anyone Can Turn You Into an AI Chatbot. There’s Little You Can Do to Stop Them – Wired
If you like the president’s politics, you probably like his voice and his appearance as well. The tendency to like (or dislike) everything about a person–including things you have not observed–is known as the halo effect. The term has been in use in psychology for a century, but it has not come into wide use in everyday language. This is a pity, because the halo effect is a good name for a common bias that plays a large role in shaping our view of people and situations. It is one of the ways the representation of the world that system one generates is simpler and more coherent than the real thing.
You meet a woman named Joan at a party and find her personable and easy to talk to. Now her name comes up as someone who could be asked to contribute to a charity. What do you know about Joan's generosity? The correct answer is that you know virtually nothing, because there is little reason to believe that people who are agreeable in social situations are also generous contributors to charities. But you like Joan and you will retrieve the feeling of liking her when you think of her. You also like generosity and generous people. By association, you are now predisposed to believe that Joan is generous. And that you believe she is generous you probably like Joan eve better than you did earlier, because you have added generosity to her pleasant attributes.
The sequence in which we observe characteristics of a person is often determined by chance. Sequence matters, however, because the halo effect increase the weight of the first impressions, sometimes to the point that subsequent information is mostly wasted.
Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow
What to know about an AI transcription tool that ‘hallucinates’ medical interactions – PBS
Manchester virtual reality blood transfusion training programme could help save lives – About Manchester
Lethal snake venom may be countered by new AI-designed proteins - Science News
Why isn’t AI transforming biopharma as fast as we’d like? – Stat News
AI will now read your medical school application - AAMC
Machine learning reveals how metabolite profiles predict aging and health - News-Medical.Net
AI could transform health care, but will it live up to the hype? – Science News
Trump, and tech tycoons, stoke health AI hype with Stargate - Stat News
AI-powered app accurately detects high blood pressure through voice recordings – The Brighter Side
AI trial to spot heart condition before symptoms – BBC
What Your ‘Face Age’ Can Tell Doctors About Your Health – Wall Street Journal
Should you trust an AI-assisted doctor? I visited one to see. – Washington Post
The companies paying hospitals to hand over patient data to train AI - Stat News
New algorithm is twice as accurate at predicting stroke timing compared to the standard of care – Health Imaging
AI-powered blood test spots earliest breast cancer signs - University of Edinburgh
When A.I. and Doctors Make the Diagnosis – New York Times
Researchers use AI to define new subtypes of common brain disorder – Washington University Medical
How AI is shaping the future of the healthcare industry – Data Science Central
AI predictive modeling of survival outcomes for renal cancer patients undergoing targeted therapy – Nature
A.I. Chatbots Defeated Doctors at Diagnosing Illness – New York Times
Should a Student Reporter Face Prosecution for Embedding with Protesters? – Columbia Journalism Review
Why AI in Healthcare Harkens Back to Early Social Media Use – Bank Info Security
If I had only…
forgotten future greatness
and looked at the green things and the buildings
and reached out to those around me
and smelled the air
and ignored the forms and the self-styled obligations
and heard the rain on the roof
and put my arms around my wife
… and it's not too late.
Hugh Prather, Notes To Myself
Neglect creates distance between partners and breeds resentment in the one who is being ignored.
Students and Instructors Say AI Tool Helps With Understanding, Confidence in Course Materials – Inside Higher Ed
AI is a game changer for students with disabilities. Schools are still learning to harness it – Associated Press
She lost her scholarship over an AI allegation — and it impacted her mental health – USA Today
Teens Are Doing AI Research Now. Is That a Good Thing? – Chronicle of Higher Ed
OpenAI's new o3 model freaks out computer science majors - Axios
Plagiarism detection software sparks widespread student concern – Phys.org
What Students Are Saying About Teachers Using A.I. to Grade – New York Times
Is Grammarly AI? Notre Dame Says Yes – Inside Higher Ed
Judge Rules in Favor of School That Gave Student a Bad Grade for Using AI – Gizmodo
To Use AI or Not to Use AI? A Student’s Burden – Inside Higher Ed
The Scary Ways AI Has Affected Their Classroom – BuzzFeed
New AI Tools Are Promoted as Study Aids for Students. Are They Doing More Harm Than Good? – Ed Surge
Employers Say Students Need AI Skills. What If Students Don’t Want Them? – Inside Higher Ed
Should You Still Learn to Code in an A.I. World? – New York Times
4 Free AI Tools Designed for Students – Slashgear
If we must have some continuity in our lives – and we must – let it be of the sort that does not prevent renewal. -John Gardner
Arizona’s getting an online charter school taught entirely by AI – TechCrunch
How a Campus Custom Built Its AI-Enabled Student Success Dashboard – Inside Higher Ed
AI Could Help Bring Down the Cost of College – Wall Street Journal
Higher ed growing more concerned with bias, data privacy violations of AI - Ed Scoop
AI May Ruin the University as We Know It – Chronicle of Higher Ed
How Will AI Influence Higher Ed in 2025? - Inside Higher Ed
AI is an existential threat to colleges. Can they adapt? – Washington Post
ChatGPT Doesn’t Have to Ruin College – The Atlantic
Nevada Asked A.I. Which Students Need Help. The Answer Caused an Outcry. - The New York Times
Colleges See Alarming Rates of Fake Applications. So They’re Turning to AI. - Chronicle of Higher Ed
Nevada Asked A.I. Which Students Need Help. The Answer Caused an Outcry. – New York Times
Most Campus Tech Leaders Say Higher Ed Is Unprepared for AI’s Rise - Inside Higher Ed
How Higher Ed Can Adapt to the Challenges of AI - Chronicle of Higher Ed
AI Is Taking Over College Admissions – The Nation
OpenAI is funding Duke University to research ‘AI morality.’ – TechCrunch
AI's Impact on College Cybersecurity - Chronicle of Higher Ed
Here are 4 options when dealing with false guilt.
1. Remove the Source of Guilt (the conscience)
This may only desensitize us to actual wrongs and could lead to a denial of real evil in our lives.
2. Emphasize Self-Potential
This fails to address the underlying problems and ignores any real wrongs.
3. Emphasize Punishment
This can lead to feeling guilt when caught, ignoring legitimate conviction.
4. Emphasize Forgiveness
If the guilt is false, there lacks a basis for forgiveness and the person may feel they haven’t suffered enough.
What’s bizarre about LLMs is that they act more like humans than we think they should. For example, some researchers have tested the hypothesis that LLMs perform better when offered a cash reward or threatened with death. It also turns out that some of the best ways to “jailbreak” LLMs (getting them to disobey their creators’ explicit instructions) look a lot like the kinds of social engineering tricks that humans use on each other: for example, pretending to be someone else or saying that the request is just a joke. But other effective jailbreaking techniques are things no human would ever fall for. One group found that if they used ASCII art (constructions of symbols that look like words or pictures) to pose dangerous questions, like how to build a bomb, the LLM would answer them willingly. - IEEE Spectrum
AI agents’ promise to arrange your finances, do your taxes, book your holidays – and put us all at risk – The Conversation
Coming soon: Ph.D.-level super-agents - Axios
AI could transform health care, but will it live up to the hype? – Science News
Using AI to talk to animals – Axios
The Firm That Wants to Power AI With Southern Yellow Pine – Wall Street Journal
Twelve Labs is building AI that can analyze and search through videos – TechCrunch
Samsung has developed an audio eraser feature for smartphones that will allow users to erase unwanted sounds from videos – Data Country
Extreme Weather Is Taxing Utilities More Often. Can A.I. Help? – New York Times
Are AI-created recipes hard to swallow? – BBC
The world-changing ‘killer app’ for AI could be nuclear fusion - Washington Post
OpenAI starts testing prototype of new AI search tool - Axios
OpenAI working on new reasoning technology under code name ‘Strawberry’ – Reuters
How AI could transform baseball forever – Washington Post
How generative AI could reinvent what it means to play – MIT Tech Review
Communicate with animals, win millions: Inside the wild new world of AI prizes – Semafor
Can AI make better chocolate chip cookie recipes than humans? We taste tested 2 – NPR
Can AI police itself? Experts say chatbots can detect each other’s gaffes. – Washington Post
Digital Twins and AI in Next-Gen Nuclear Reactor Operations - AI wire
Five Ways AI Will Break Software Development – Inside AI News
It's not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity. - Frances Bacon (born Jan. 22, 1561)
Becoming is a service of Goforth Solutions, LLC / Copyright ©2026 All Rights Reserved