Ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Stephen Goforth
In a bold move to position itself as a global leader in artificial intelligence, China will mandate AI education for all primary and secondary school students beginning September 1, 2025. The new policy requires even 6-year-olds to begin learning about AI as part of the national curriculum. -Asaaseradio
Quantum Computers – The computers we use today operate on a traditional binary code, which represents information with 0s and 1s. Quantum machines, on the other hand, use quantum bits, or qubits. The unusual properties of qubits make quantum computers far more powerful for some kinds of calculations, including the mathematical problems that underpin much of modern encryption.
More AI definitions here.
It seems reasonable to believe — and I do believe — that the more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us the less taste we shall have for the destruction of our race. Wonder and humility are wholesome emotions, and they do not exist side by side with a lust for destruction.
Rachel Carson acceptance speech for the John Burroughs Medal, April 7, 1952
I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show any human being, let me do it now. Let me not deter or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. -Stephen Grellett
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. -Thomas Edison
The emergence and impact of AI isn’t about replacing designers. It’s about repositioning them. The future designer won’t be the one who can code every micro-animation by hand. They’ll be the one who can see the big picture, communicate it crisply, and orchestrate a system toward that vision. They’ll be less like a craftsman and more like a director or editor. -Francesco Bertelli
Hearing captures the words a person speaks; listening captures the meaning and the feeling beneath those words.
As AI has grown more commonplace in everyday life, psychologists theorize that it reduces users’ engagement in deep, reflective thinking, causing their critical thinking skills to atrophy over time. If individuals use the cognitive resources freed up by AI for innovative tasks, the promise holds. However, studies suggest that many users channel these resources into passive consumption, driven by AI-enhanced content curation. This trend aligns with findings on digital dependence, where the convenience of AI fosters a feedback loop that prioritizes entertainment over critical engagement. While it enhances efficiency and convenience, it inadvertently fosters dependence, which can compromise critical thinking skills over time. -Ross Pomeroy writing in BigThink
When people get lost, they really do tend to walk in circles. German researchers discovered that volunteers who could not see the sun or moon often walked for hours in circles, sometimes in circles as small as 20 yards across. Some participants didn’t believe the researchers until they were shown proof.
What makes the difference are external signposts. Landmarks like the sun or moon completely changed the result.
One of the researchers offers this advice: “Don’t trust your senses. You might think you are walking in a straight line when you’re not.”
Isn’t that how life is? We know people who trust their senses and have no external guideposts to keep their lives on track. They believe they are marching forward, but all the while, they are going nowhere. They repeat the same mistakes. The people who get somewhere in life carefully choose their landmarks and trust these life-anchors.
Stephen Goforth
Introducing Claude for Education - Anthropic
Netflix Co-Founder Donates $50M to Launch AI and Humany Initiative at Bowdoin College – Hollywood Reporter
Business schools ease their resistance to AI – Financial Times
Schools use AI to monitor kids, hoping to prevent violence. Our investigation found security risks – Orange County Register
AI Surveillance Is Being Installed In Schools To Keep Kids Safe. But That’s Not All It’s Doing - MIC
Yale Suspends Scholar After A.I.-Powered News Site Accuses Her of Terrorist Link – New York Times
OpenAI Announces 'NextGenAI' Higher-Ed Consortium - GovTech
AI is changing college for good. Higher ed leaders have these concerns, NC survey says – Charlotte Observer
Community Colleges Join Forces to Expand Access to AI Training – Inside Higher Ed
College Leaders Are Divided on the Risks and Benefits of Generative AI – Chronicle of Higher Ed
UNC uses AI in admissions review process, documents show how – Daily Tar Heel
6 Policy Recommendations for School Administrators – Campus Technology
Unpacking the Role of AI in Physical Security – EdTech Magazine
Trump Administration Wants ‘AI Dominance’ But Lays Siege to Key Grant Agency - Chronicle of Higher Ed
AI influence on higher ed is growing, new survey shows - EdScoop
Although today’s AI products are cast in the role of assistants, AI might eventually come to dominate the peer-review process, with the human reviewer’s role reduced or cut out altogether. Some enthusiasts see the automation of peer review as an inevitability — but many researchers, as well as journal publishers, view it as a disaster. -Nature
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Psychological research shows that misinformation is cleverly designed to bypass careful analytical reasoning, meaning that it can easily slip under the radar of even the most intelligent and educated people. No one is completely immune. Indeed, there is now evidence that smarter people may sometimes be even more vulnerable to certain ideas, since their greater brainpower simply allows them to rationalise their (incorrect) beliefs.
David Robson writing in The Guardian
Literary agent Jamie Carr of the Book Group describes great storytelling as something that makes “connections between things and ideas that are totally nonsensical — which is something only humans can do.” Can ChatGPT bring together disparate parts of your life and use a summer job to illuminate a fraught friendship? Can it link a favorite song to an identity crisis? So far, nope. Crucially, ChatGPT can’t do one major thing that all my clients can: have a random thought. “I’m not sure why I’m telling you this” is something I love to hear from students, because it means I’m about to go on a wild ride that only the teenage brain can offer. It’s frequently in these tangents about collecting cologne or not paying it forward at the Starbucks drive-thru that we discover the key to the essay. I often describe my main task as helping students turn over stones they didn’t know existed, or stones they assumed were off-limits. ChatGPT can’t tap into the unpredictable because it can only turn over the precise stones you tell it to — and if you’re issuing these orders, chances are you already know what’s under the stone.
Sanibel Chai writing in New York Magazine
To say a person has worth or value formulates only half a sentence. It begs two questions and raises a third: Worth what? To whom? Who says? These questions reveal a search for a source, a valuer, an authority behind the action of attaching worth. This quest implies our awareness of a person larger than us, who initiates relationships with us. Our parents stood as the original superhumans in whose eyes we wanted much worth. Now as adults, when we feel worthless, we ache with the dangling half-question. Do I have any value? We used to seek evidence from Mom and Dad of our importance to them. Though we no longer look to them as our source, we have not yet identified a new one. We spin our wheels with the unanswered questions of our half-sentences. We wistfully yearn for some authority to come along and fill those gaps that our parents left.
Dennis Gibson, The Strong-Willed Adult
"Humans in the loop" make AI work, for now - Axios
We were promised “Star Trek,” so why did we settle for these lousy chatbots? – Big Think
Having AI Mock Up An Old Game Is Not The Same As Preserving It – Tech Dirt
"Humans in the loop" make AI work, for now - Axios
AI is ‘beating’ humans at empathy and creativity. But these games are rigged – The Guardian
The truth about DOGE’s AI plans: The tech can’t do that – Washington Post
The Cultural Backlash Against Generative AI – Toward Data Science
Why Do AI Chatbots Have Such a Hard Time Admitting ‘I Don’t Know’? – Wall Street Journal
China has more trust in AI than the United States – Axios
AI can solve math olympiad problems but flunks tic-tac-toe – Stat Modeling
The Words That Stop ChatGPT in Its Tracks Why won’t the bot say my name? – The Atlantic
7 ways gen AI can create more work than it saves – CIO
AI’s Trust Problem – MIT Tech Review
I'm the CEO of an AI company, and this is the BS behind AI – Fast Company
Despite its impressive output, generative AI doesn’t have a coherent understanding of the world – MIT
The Death of Search AI is transforming how billions navigate the web. A lot will be lost in the process. – The Atlantic
ChatGPT outperforms undergrads in intro-level courses, falls short later – ArsTechnica
AI polling company defends wrong predictions on the US election – Semafor
Detroit police falsely arrested woman after faulty facial recognition hit: lawsuit - Detroit News
I strongly suspect that doing nothing, if we can do it well, makes us happier too. -Arthur C. Brooks writing in The Atlantic
Is AI eroding our critical thinking? – Big Think
A neuroscientist makes the case that AI can think – Washington Post
AI Military AI is here. Some experts are worried – Fast Company
Your A.I. Lover Will Change You - The New Yorker
We’re Already at Risk of Ceding Our Humanity to AI - LitHub
The Cultural Backlash Against Generative AI – Toward Data Science
When A.I. Passes This Test, Look Out – New York Times
What Would a Stoic Do? An AI-Based Decision-Making Model - Toward Data Science
Logging off life but living on: How AI is redefining death, memory and immortality – The Conversation
Nvidia unveils $3,000 desktop AI computer for home researchers – Arstechnica
This AI Pioneer Thinks AI Is Dumber Than a Cat – Wall Street Journal
The AI Boom Has an Expiration Date – The Atlantic
Does Your Teen Recognize A.I.? Do You? - New York Times
Will ChatGPT Get Tenure? - Leiden Madtrics
“Some researchers have performed deception studies where the participants were falsely informed that something came from AI (when it was in fact human-made) or that something came from a human (when it was in fact AI-made). Flipping the claimed source from human to AI often caused study participants to give worse ratings to the deliverable.” -Jakob Nielsen
Ever wonder why your resolve to hit the gym weakens after you’ve slogged through a soul-sapping day at work? It’s because willpower isn’t just some storybook concept; it’s a measurable form of mental energy that runs out as you use it, much like the gas in your car.
Roy Baumeister, a psychologist at Florida State University, calls this “ego depletion,” and he proved its existence by sitting students next to a plate of fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies. Some were allowed to snack away, others ordered to abstain. Afterward, both groups were asked to complete difficult puzzles. The students who’d been forced to resist the cookies had so depleted their reserves of self-control that when faced with this new task, they quickly threw in the towel. The cookie eaters, on the other hand, had conserved their willpower and worked on the puzzles longer.
But there are ways to wield what scientists know about willpower to our advantage. Since it’s a finite resource, don’t spread yourself thin: Make one resolution rather than many. And if you manage to stick with it by, say, not smoking for a week, give your willpower a rest by indulging in a nice dinner. Another tactic is to outsource self-control. Get a gym buddy. Use Mint.com to regulate your spending or RescueTime.com to avoid distracting websites.
As John Tierney, coauthor with Baumeister of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength explains, “People with the best self-control aren’t the ones who use it all day long. They’re people who structure their lives so they conserve it.” That way, you’ll be able to stockpile vast reserves for when you really need it.
Judy Dunn, Wired Magazine
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