It is our choices
/It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. - J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (born July 31, 1965)
ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
29 Articles about AI & Data Science from July
/AI Has Flipped Software Development
Designing Software for AI Agents
How Distillation Makes AI Models Smaller and Cheaper
AI Comes Up with Bizarre Physics Experiments. But They Work.
Can large language models do accounting? Evaluating LLMs on real long-horizon complex business tasks
How to Run your LLM on your Laptop
Vibecoding a high performance system
Context Engineering for AI Agents: Lessons from Building Manus
AI Definitions: Machine learning
Do Large Language Models (Really) Need Statistical Foundations?
What is ‘compute-in-memory’ and why is it important for AI?
Budget cuts hit geospatial intelligence and analytics contracts
AI Definitions: Predictive Analytics
Forward-deployed engineering requires creativity combined with technical acumen
7 Python Statistics Tools That Data Scientists Actually Use in 2025
How to Perform Effective Data Cleaning for Machine Learning
How to Measure the ROI of AI Coding Assistants
Building a Personal AI Factory
Do large language models organize information in the same way humans do—and should they?
How to Start Learning Math for Data Science: A Simple Guide
Steps to building a simple RAG pipeline in Python, utilizing ChatGPT API, LangChain, and FAISS
AI Citing News Outlets
/"AI responses to fact-based queries and prompts are more likely to cite news outlets. The outlets most cited include Reuters, the Financial Times, Time, Axios, Forbes and the Associated Press. In this new GEO [generative engine optimization] world, recent content or news stories are what's driving the answers. LinkedIn, Reddit and Glassdoor — places where user-generated content and reviews can be found — can also influence an LLM's response." -Axios
The Path to Courage
/Can you stay in the hard conversation? Can you tell the truth? Can you give feedback when it's hard? Can you ask for feedback when it's hard? Vulnerability is … the only path to courage and it is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, trust, empathy.
Brené Brown in an interview with CBS News
20 Articles about how AI is Affecting Jobs
/Job listings looking for people with AI skills are rising fast – CBS News
How AI is impacting 700 professions — and might impact yours – Washington Post
One in 12 US/UK Employees Uses Chinese GenAI Tools – InfoSecurity Mag
Will AI really wipe out white collar jobs? Tech insiders are split - CNN
Gen Z's broken school-to-work pipeline – Axios
A robot stole my internship: How Gen Z’s entry into the workplace is being affected by AI – The Conversation
The rise of the AI-native employee – Elena’s Growth Scoop
The new hot job in AI: forward-deployed engineers – Semafor
AI is coming for entry-level jobs. Everybody needs to get ready. - Washington Post
Welcome to Your Job Interview. Your Interviewer Is A.I. – New York Times
AI is transforming Indian call centers. What does it mean for workers? - Washington Post
Which Workers Will A.I. Hurt Most: The Young or the Experienced? - New York Times
The four-day work week gets a new booster: AI - Axios
CEOs Start Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud: AI Will Wipe Out Jobs – Wall Street Journal
As if graduating weren’t daunting enough, now students like me face a jobs market devastated by AI – The Guardian
How AI Vibe Coding Is Destroying Junior Developers' Careers - Final Round AI
Will AI really wipe out white collar jobs? Tech insiders are split - CNN
AI is radically changing entry-level jobs, but not eliminating them – CNBC
‘Workforce crisis’: key takeaways for graduates battling AI in the jobs market - The Guardian
The AI-generated search Sweet Spot
/A key difference between AI-generated search results and traditional SEO is that paid marketing and sponsored links rarely populate. Instead of paid marketing, owned content like thought leadership, fact sheets or corporate blogs "seem to be the sweet spot for getting your content cited by these models." -Axios
Developing Social Skills on AI Platforms
/“If teens are developing social skills on AI platforms where they are constantly being validated, not being challenged, not learning to read social cues or understand somebody else’s perspective, they are not going to be adequately prepared in the real world.” - Michael Robb of Common Sense Media, quoted in the Associated Press
How to Make Yourself Miserable
/It is inevitable that life will be not just very short but very miserable for those who acquire by great toil what they must keep by greater toil. - Seneca
20 Recent Articles about the Impact of AI on Health Care
/An AI-Generated Protein Helps T Cells Kill Cancer – The-Scientist
AI is helping patients fight insurance company denials – NBC News
ChatGPT Tells Pregnant Woman To 'Call an Ambulance'—Saves Their Lives - Newsweek
An Artificial Intelligence Code of Conduct for Health and Medicine – National Academy of Medicine
Mayo Clinic develops AI tool that can identify 9 dementia types with a single scan – R & D World Online
Abridge, Whose AI App Takes Notes for Doctors, Valued at $5.3 Billion at Funding – Wall Street Journal
AI tool diagnoses nine types of dementia with 88% accuracy using a single PET scan – Technology Networks
Finding viable sperm in infertile men can take days. AI did it in hours. – Washington Post
AlphaGenome is an AI-powered platform aiming to predict how genetic code variants lead to different diseases – Stat News
Doctors Report the First Pregnancy Using a New AI Procedure – TIME
New Arizona law prevents AI from making health insurance denials – AZ Family
WVU researchers test AI’s limits in emergency room diagnoses – West Virginia University
The expanding role of AI in dentistry: beyond image analysis – Nature
AI faces skepticism in end-of-life decisions, with people favoring human judgment – Medical Xpress
Explainability in the age of large language models for healthcare - Nature
It’s too easy to make AI chatbots lie about health information, study finds – Reuters
AI companies have stopped warning you that their chatbots aren’t doctors – MIT Tech Review
Doctors at Cedars-Sinai develop AI-powered mental health ‘robot’ therapist – LA Times
Microsoft Says Its New AI System Diagnosed Patients 4 Times More Accurately Than Human Doctors – Wired
A GPT-powered medical device certified in Europe raises questions about generative AI in health care – Stat News
The fear that AI will Flatten Everything
/I understand the fear that AI will flatten everything — our voices, our culture, even our humanity. It’s a genuine concern. When algorithms prioritize patterns over personality, the result can be unnervingly uniform. Language becomes smooth but soulless. Distinctiveness gets edited out. And yet — I don’t believe the story ends there. History tells us something else: that when more people can express themselves, culture expands. The spectrum widens. And over time, we find new ways to value voice, not just polish. Yes, we’ll have to work harder to preserve individuality. To notice when we’re defaulting to the safe or generic. -Youjin Nam writing in Medium
AI & Liberal Arts
/In a liberal arts education, the student herself is the product.
Instead of creating a product, humanities education is different. The students themselves are what’s getting created and recreated through the learning process.
A liberal arts education is to be personally transformative by cultivating virtues.
Aristotle saw education as a pursuit that’s personally transformative. He believed the most fundamental goal was not just imparting knowledge, but cultivating virtues that make for a flourishing life.
A product-based, utilitarian vision of college is inadequate.
A college must be a place where the goal of flourishing lies underneath the assignments, the tests, the discussions, the feedback, the clubs, and the social structure. Using generative AI in the classroom threatens to leave out of the process something vital: friction. Cognitive automation threatens to minimize cognitive friction.
16 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism & Media
/Mon, July 28 - AI Literacy: A Toolkit for Family Engagement
What: Learn about a brand-new toolkit for family engagement around AI literacy. We’ll dive into videos, activities for hands-on learning moments, and conversation cards to spark thoughtful discussions.
Who: Valerie Brock, Former Educator, Current Director of Curriculum, Day of AI; Tali Horowitz, East Coast Education Director, Common Sense Education; Jennifer Ehehalt, Sr. Regional Manager, Midwest, Common Sense Education.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsors: Day of AI & Common Sense Media
Mon, July 28 - Building Agentic Systems With PydanticAI
What: Hands-on, high-level walkthrough of agentic system design using PydanticAI, a new open-source library that turns LLMs into structured, tool-enabled agents.
Who: Zhen (Tony) Zhao, Full-Stack Data Scientist, IDinsight.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsors: IDinsight & OpenAI Academy
Tue, July 29 - Learn how to host a community journalism training to keep local journalism thriving
What: Lessons from a community journalism seminar held earlier this year. We’ll offer practical tips and lessons learned in hosting the program, which featured guest lecturers, a field trip to a local newsroom and a finished piece of journalism from each participant.
Who: Jake Wittich, managing editor of Windy City Times; Anna DeShawn, coordinator of Windy City Times’ BLACKlines newsletter and founder of E3 Radio; Reyna Ortiz, program director at Taskforce Prevention and Community Services and a member of Windy City Times’ community journalism training cohort; Lindsey Young, co-owner of Kansas Publishing Ventures and instructor at Earn Your Press Pass.
When: 12:30 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The Reynolds Journalism Institute
Tue, July 29 - Solidarity Journalism – Reporting for Social Justice Beyond Taking Sides
What: Practical frameworks for journalists and editors to distinguish solidarity for basic dignity from partisanship, prioritize truth over both-sidesism, and build credibility through inclusive, justice-driven coverage. Learn how solidarity journalism can strengthen journalism’s pursuit of truth, deepen audience connection, and uphold the core mission of journalism to serve the public in an era of growing polarization and disinformation.
Who: Anita Varma, a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: New England Newspaper & Press Association
Tue, July 29 - How To Build Scalable Marketing During Lean Times
What: How to streamline marketing operations by connecting the right people, processes, and technology. This conversation will explore how to spot inefficiencies, reduce friction, and deploy technology that enhances, not hinders, your workflow. You’ll also hear how leading brands are building more agile teams and proving marketing’s value through smarter execution.
Who: Oliver Kimberley, General Manager, Managed Services, Quad. George Forge, SVP Client Technology & Development.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Quad
Tue, July 29 - Critical Thinking for Leveraging AI in Sales and Training: How Credible is AI?
What: How to master the skills that keep you ahead of the curve, trusted by your clients, and indispensable to your organization. Cut Through the Noise About AI in the Media: Discover what’s real, what’s risky, and what actually drives results for sales and marketing teams. Protect Your Credibility: Learn how to spot AI-generated errors before they undermine your client relationships and professional reputation.
Who: C. lee smith C. Lee Smith CEO of SalesFuel, Global Sales Credibility Authority.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: SalesCred
Wed, July 30 - AI in Libraries: Transforming Information Access
What: Explore how AI enhances library services, including automated cataloging, AI-driven search tools, and personalized recommendations. Discuss ethical considerations and best practices for implementation.
Who: Dr. Treg Hopkins Co-Founder of Connectable, an Indiana-based nonprofit; Meg Adams Central Regional Coordinator, Indiana State Library.
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Indiana State Library
Wed, July 30 - The 5 Ws of Research
What: Learn how to uncover public records and hard-to-find facts.
Who: Caryn Baird Researcher for PolitiFact; Loreben Tuquero Staff Writer, PolitiFact; Lane DeGregory Enterprise reporter, Tampa Bay Times.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Poynter
More Info
Wed, July 30 - Blending Creativity with AI - Advanced Story Design for Learning
What: Explore how blending AI with creative storytelling can revolutionize eLearning design in our session, "Blending Creativity with AI - Advanced Story Design for Learning." Discover the power of branching scenarios and AI-driven narratives to create personalized, engaging, and memorable learning experiences that cater to individual needs. We will walk through an example live with audience on how to write branching scenarios with AI as a helper and you can.
Who: Garima at atd Garima Gupta, M.Ed., B.E., CTDP Founder & CEO, Artha Learning Inc.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Open Sesame
Wed, July 30 - Generational Giving: How to Better Connect with Each Generation
What: Learn about: How different generations prefer to get involved with your organization. Communication preferences and strategies for Generation Z through Baby Boomers. Tips on how to account for donor preferences in your follow-up and retention efforts.
Who: James Goalder, Partnerships Manager at Bloomerang.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Nonprofit Tech for Good
Wed, July 30 - Disappearing Data and How Reporters Can Respond
What: We’ll review new changes and holes in the federal data landscape and discuss potential strategies for reporters looking to ground stories on a firm foundation of data and facts.
Who: Jarvis Chen is a social epidemiologist and senior lecturer on social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Julia Lane is a professor emerita at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service; Angeliki Kastanis is data editor at The Associated Press; J. Emory Parker is the data editor at STAT.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: USC Anneberg Center for Health Journalism
Wed, July 30 - Structuring your data for AI: what you need to know
What: Hear from experts about how to get your data in order before moving forward with AI. Specifically, you’ll learn: The elements of a good data governance strategy to empower AI. Where agencies are gaining productivity by harnessing their data. Where agencies can go awry when it comes to data formatting.
Who: Chris Burroughs, Director, Data Protection and Governance, Commonwealth of Virginia.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Govloop
Wed, July 30 – Strengthening Ties between Local History Organizations and News Media
What: Tips for history organizations looking to engage local journalists around potential stories and insight on other roles the press can play in community life. After about 15 minutes of presentation, attendees will participate in a facilitated conversation and Q&A centered around how to think about sharing your stories with local journalists, what to expect when engaging a local journalist, and what opportunities there may be beyond news stories, too.
Who: Samantha Ragland of the American Press Institute.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: $25 for members, $45 for non-members
Sponsor: The American Association for State and Local History
Thu, July 31 - New research: What news consumers want to know about journalists’ use of AI
What: Survey responses from actual news consumers in the U.S., Brazil and Europe and hear how the public responded to different versions of AI use disclosures used in new stories.
Who: University of Minnesota researcher Benjamin Toff.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Trusting News
Thu, July 31 - AI Tools That Make You More Money
What: We will discuss and demonstrate how the AdApt Media Sales platform increases efficiency and revenue for our local media partners.
Who: Dave Buonfiglio, Jeff Gallop Partners AdApt Media Sales.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Local Media Association
Thu, July 31 - AI-Powered Digital Twins: Transforming Learning & Development
What: Join us as we explore how AI-powered digital twins are revolutionizing the learning and development landscape by converting human expertise into scalable, durable, and accessible resources.
Who: Phylise Banner Director of eLearning, Champlain College Online; David James Clarke IV CEO and Co-founder, Praxis AI.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Open Sesame
Game Theory & Pascal’s Wager
/Pascal’s argument (written in the 1600’s) went like this: Suppose you concede that you don’t know whether or not God exists and therefore assign a 50 percent chance to either proposition How should you weight these odds when decided whether to lead a pious life? If you act piously and God exists, Pascal argued, your gain – eternal happiness - is infinite. If, on the other hand, God does not exist, your loss, or negative return, is small – the sacrifices of piety. To weigh these possible gains and losses, Pascal proposed, you multiply the probability of each possible outcomes by its payoff and add them all up, forming a kind of average or expected payoff.
In other words, the mathematical expectation of your return on piety is one-half infinity (your gain if God exists) minus one-half a small number (your loss if he does not exist). Pascal knew enough about infinity to know that the answer to this calculation is infinite, and thus the expected return on piety is infinitely positive. Every reasonable person, Pascal concluded, should therefore follow the laws of God. Today this argument is know as Pascal’s wager.
Pascal’s wager is often considered the founding of the mathematical discipline of game theory, the quantitative study of optimal decision strategies in games.
Leonard Mlodinow, The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
Gripped
/I could not say I believe. I know! I have had the experience of being gripped by something that is stronger than myself. something that people call God. -Carl Jung, born July 26, 1875
17 Recent Articles about the Dangers of AI
/AI Threatens Worldwide ‘Fraud Crisis’ Says OpenAI CEO - Tech.co
He Had Dangerous Delusions. ChatGPT Admitted It Made Them Worse. – Wall Street Journal
Is AI rewiring our minds? Scientists probe cognitive cost of chatbots. – Washington Post
The Global A.I. Divide: Only 32 nations, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, have A.I.-specialized data centers.- New York Times
Researchers Jailbreak AI – 404 Media
Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built an AI data center Next Door - New York Times
Anthropic research shows the insider threat of agentic misalignment – TechTalks
A.I. Griefbots Are Just Our Latest Attempt to Talk to the Dead - New York Times
Who’s to blame when AI spews hate? – Washington Post
AI-generated images of child sexual abuse are flooding the internet - New York Times
Here’s how Character.AI’s new CEO plans to address fears around kids’ use of chatbots - CNN
How AI bots are threatening your favorite websites – Washington Post
How Much Energy Does Your AI Prompt Use? I Went to a Data Center to Find Out - Wall Street Journal
A.I. Is Homogenizing Our Thoughts Recent studies suggest that tools such as ChatGPT make our brains less active and our writing less original. – The New Yorker
Losing Our Voice: The Human Cost of AI-Driven Language – LA Magazine
AI has probably already faked one of your memories. Here's what that means – BBC
LLM-as-a-judge easily fooled by a single token, study finds – TechTalks
Teens & AI Companionship
/“In interviews with The Associated Press and a new study, teenagers say they are increasingly interacting with AI as if it were a companion, capable of providing advice and friendship. ‘Everyone uses AI for everything now. It’s really taking over,’ said Kayla Chege, a high school student in Kansas, who wonders how AI tools will affect her generation. ‘I think kids use AI to get out of thinking.’ More than 70% of teens have used AI companions and half use them regularly, according to a new study from Common Sense Media.” -Associated Press
Every Artist
/Every artist was first an amateur. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
AI Definitions: Natural Language Processing
/Natural language processing - This type of machine learning transfers language into numbers to make it intelligible to machines. The first step is tokenization, where text is divided into word units called tokens. These tokens are then transformed into vectors. These vectors are lists of numbers. A single word token might be represented by more than 1,000 numbers in a vector. The vector is considered to have a higher dimension when many numbers are used. The meaning is therefore nuanced. A low dimension for a vector means the list of numbers is low. While a low dimension is not as nuanced, it is easier to work with. A deep learning model (typically a transformer model) can use these vectors to understand the meaning of words and determine how the words relate to one other. An example would be “king “relates to “man” while “queen” relates to “woman.”
More AI definitions here
What the Humanities are For
/As one student said to his professor at New York University, in an effort to justify using AI to do his work for him, “You’re asking me to go from point A to point B, why wouldn’t I use a car to get there?” It’s a completely logical argument — as long as you accept the utilitarian vision. The real solution, then, is to be honest about what the humanities are for: You’re in the business of helping students with the cultivation of their character. -Sigal Samuel writing in Vox
22 Articles about the Business of Running an AI Company
/The business of running an AI
Trump’s ‘anti-woke AI’ order could reshape how US tech companies train their models – Tech Crunch
Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results – Pew Research
OpenAI's data center ambitions collide with reality - Axios
Making Sense of the Billion-Dollar AI Mega Deals – The Wrap
AI's anything-goes moment - Axios
Google and OpenAI are vying for top AI mathlete - Axios
AI Is Dividing the Fortunes of the Magnificent Seven – Wall Street Journal
Anthropic launches its first big disruption to the finance industry - Axios
Reflections on OpenAI (from a recent employee) - Calvin French-Owen
OpenAI and Anthropic researchers decry ‘reckless’ safety culture at Elon Musk’s xAI – Tech Crunch
A coalition of funders say they will spend $1 billion to help develop AI tools for public defenders, parole officers, social workers – Associated Press
Google Discover adds AI summaries, threatening publishers with further traffic declines – Tech Crunch
Amazon launches AI agent-building platform for businesses to help boost productivity – Semafor
Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built an AI data center Next Door – New York Times
Amazon delays Alexa’s web debut — and a faceoff with ChatGPT – Washington Post
The Open-Source Software Saving the Internet From AI Bot Scrapers – 404 Media
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok launches into antisemitic rant amid updates - Washington Post
How Google AI Overviews is fuelling zero-click searches for top publishers – Press Gazette
OpenAI to release web browser - Reuters
Who’s to blame when AI spews hate? - Washington Post
Here’s how Character.AI’s new CEO plans to address fears around kids’ use of chatbots - CNN
AI chatbots’ content rules often frustrate users, study finds - Washington Post