A Great Story
/In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story. -Jeff Bezos
ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Study Finds the Best Prompters Aren't Software Engineers
/The data suggests that prompting is more about communication than coding. The best prompters weren’t software engineers. They were people who knew how to express ideas clearly in everyday language, not necessarily in code. -MIT Study
AI Definitions: Artificial Intelligence
/Artificial Intelligence (AI) – AI typically refers to computers that imitate the human thinking process, so they that are able to make some decisions on their own without the need of human intervention. The defining feature of artificial intelligence is that the behavior is learned from data rather from being explicitly programmed. AI can effectively mimic and mix established patterns in creative ways. However, it does not perform as well at breaking expectations and conventional forms to create entirely new things.
More AI definitions here
Your self-evaluations
/Your self-evaluations are important because they influence most areas of your behavior, defining the limits of what you will attempt. You avoid an activity if your self-concept predicts you will perform so badly as to humiliate yourself. For instance, if your self-concept includes the belief that you would be a poor ice skater, you might never try it, and will indeed remain a poor ice skater. Often people excuse themselves with “That’s just the way I am.” By using this excuse, they deny themselves opportunities for personal growth.
Sharon and Gordon Bower, Asserting Yourself
22 Recent Articles about Using AI
/How to Use AI for Website Content and Still Appear Human - JD Supra
Study: Generative AI results depend on user prompts as much as models – MIT
Google’s NotebookLM can now make narrated slideshows with AI – The Verge
I'm a college writing professor. How I think students should use AI this fall – Mashable
Startup Writer builds corporate AI agent that doesn’t go off-script - Semafor
Seriously, Why Do Some AI Chatbot Subscriptions Cost More Than $200? – Wired
How neurodivergent people are using AI tools – Reuters
We asked 2,000 Substack publishers how they’re using and thinking about AI. Here’s what we found. - Substack
YouTube Shorts is adding an image-to-video AI tool, new AI effects – TechCrunch
Do people click on links in Google AI summaries? - Pew Research Center
The AI Replaces Services Myth – Mert Deveci
Try these hidden ‘NOPE’ buttons to stop AI content How to turn off AI in Google – Washington Post
AI Search Is Growing More Quickly Than Expected – Wall Street Journal
OpenAI Unveils Agent That Can Make Spreadsheets and PowerPoints - Wall Street Journal
Google AI's new trick: Turn any image into a brief video - Axios
Building a Personal AI Factory – John Rush
The New Skill in AI is Not Prompting, It's Context Engineering – Philipp Schmid
6 tips to avoid using AI chatbots all wrong - Washington Post
How artificial intelligence is transforming the way people use the internet - NPR
AI chatbots’ content rules often frustrate users, study finds - Washington Post
Get Started With ChatGPT: A Beginner's Guide to Using the Super Popular AI Chatbot – CNET
Duke Just Introduced An Essay Question About AI—Here’s How To Tackle It - Forbes
The Question that Will Predict How AI Impacts Your Job
/A clarifying question: does AI look like it is going to do the most highly skilled part of your job or the low-skill rump that you’ve not been able to get rid of? The answer to that question may help to predict whether your job is about to get more fun or more annoying — and whether your salary is likely to rise, or fall as your expert work is devalued. -Tim Harford
What the Artist Sees
/The artist looks not on what a stone has been or is, but on what he is going to bring out of it—the living figure. -E. Stanley Jones
23 Surprising Things AI can do now
/Google DeepMind unveils an AI-powered model that creates interactive 3D worlds in real time - Google DeepMind
Parkland Shooting Victim Recreated as AI for Jim Acosta Interview.- The Guardian
AI can now beat polygraph tests to tell when you're lying – 311 Institute
The rise of AI tools that write about you when you die - Washington Post
AI Comes Up with Bizarre Physics Experiments. But They Work. – Quanta Magazine
Missionaries using tech to contact Amazon's Indigenous people – The Week
An AI-Generated Protein Helps T Cells Kill Cancer – The-Scientist
AI helps traditional Japanese fish-killing method get a robotic upgrade – Semafor
Google and OpenAI are vying for top AI mathlete – Axios
AI comes to California’s electric grid – Union-Tribune
AI is helping patients fight insurance company denials – NBC News
Dubai to debut restaurant operated by an AI chef – Reuters
Drones, AI and Robot Pickers: Meet the Fully Autonomous Farm – Wall Street Journal
ChatGPT Tells Pregnant Woman To 'Call an Ambulance'—Saves Their Lives - Newsweek
Large language models are proficient in solving and creating emotional intelligence tests – Nature
How A.I. Is Transforming Wedding Planning – New York Times
ChatGPT Is Changing the Words We Use in Conversation – Scientific American
Welcome to Your Job Interview. Your Interviewer Is A.I. – New York Times
LooksMapping, an A.I.-powered website, rates not the food, but the attractiveness of the diners. – New York Times
AI tool diagnoses nine types of dementia with 88% accuracy using a single PET scan – MIT Tech Review
AI Can Keep Truck Drivers Awake - Wall Street Journal
Finding viable sperm in infertile men can take days. AI did it in hours. - Washington Post
Everyone Is Using A.I. for Everything. Is That Bad? - New York Times
Using AI for Writing Obituaries
/Two days after Jeff Fargo’s mother died, he lay in bed, crying, at home in Nevada and opened his laptop to ChatGPT. Her friends had asked about an obituary, so for nearly an hour he typed about her life. “I just … emptied my soul into the prompt,” said Fargo, 55. “I was mentally not in a place where I could give my mom what she deserved. And this did it for me.” - Washington Post
20 Articles about AI & Academic Scholarship
/Why a hybrid AI-human approach is necessary to uphold research integrity – The Hindu
AI research journal with sham board, metrics holds researcher’s paper hostage – Retraction Watch
Artificial intelligence and the death of the academic author – Taylor & Francis
Springer Nature launches new tool to spot awkward, tortured phrases – Chemistry World
AI will soon be able to audit all published research – what will that mean for public trust in science? – The Conversation
AI, originality, and attribution: Researchers’ perspectives on distinguishing contributions– Taylor & Francis Online
AI-Enabled Cheating Points to ‘Untenable’ Peer Review System – Inside Higher Ed
AI, bounties and culture change, how scientists are taking on errors – Nature
China tops the world in artificial intelligence publications, database analysis reveals - Science.org
Researchers are cheating peer review by hiding AI prompts in papers - The Washington Post
AI ‘scientists’ joined these research teams: here’s what happened - Nature
Delving into LLM-assisted writing in biomedical publications through excess vocabulary - Science.org
'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers - Nikkei Asia
Springer Nature book on machine learning is full of made-up citations – Retraction Watch
454 Hints That a Chatbot Wrote Part of a Biomedical Researcher’s Paper – New York Times
Are AI Bots Knocking Digital Collections Offline? - The Scholarly Kitchen
AI, peer review and the human activity of science - Nature
Elsevier journal under fire over ‘AI-generated’ review comments – Times Higher Ed
There’s a tiger over there! (according to my phone)
/“Everybody is fighting for your attention, so your only real defense is to make it so that those stimuli don’t come in the door,” says Boston University cognitive neuroscientist David Somers. The idea that your technology should alert you when it thinks you should pay attention is relatively new, and, frankly, it’s a big step backward. You’re letting the bushes rustle nonstop, and telling yourself there’s a tiger over there.
“It’s so important that we define where we want to go as opposed to letting technology drive us and we’re just hanging on for dear life,” says author Amy Blankson, who works in the field of positive psychology, specifically on maximizing happiness.
Still, everyone gets a buzz from this high-octane news environment. Literally. Every notification, every tweet, every beep and buzz releases dopamine and other neurochemicals, providing a moment’s elation. As with any drug, your brain gets used to it. Perhaps even craves it.
Reclaim control of what you read.
Emily Dreyfuss, Wired
AI Definitions: Data Scientist
/Data Scientist - A data scientist is a person who is responsible for gleaning insight from a massive pool of data. Data scientists typically have advanced degrees in a quantitative field, like computer science, physics, statistics, or applied mathematics. With a strong understanding of math and statistics, they possess the knowledge to invent new algorithms in order to solve data problems. They will typically use programming languages like Python, R, and SQL. They will be familiar with using big data tools like Hadoop and Apache Spark and have experience working with unstructured data. If you don't see these skills on a resume, then that person probably isn't a data scientist. Advancements in AI has led the role of the data science to shift from number crunching to one of a supervisory, strategic, and ethical oversite role. Instead of producing hand-crafted models by line-by-line coding, the data scientist of the future will likely audit AI outputs, managing data ethics, and translate algorithmic outcomes into boardroom decisions.
More AI definitions here
Decline
/Decline is inevitable, and it occurs earlier than almost any of us wants to believe. But misery is not inevitable. -Arthur C. Brooks
A Prayer for Protection
/Lord, protect me from your followers! (unknown)
16 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism & Media
/Mon, Aug 4 - Using AI to Help Reporters
What: How reporters are using AI to find information, discover patterns in data, and brainstorm ideas. We will explore many of these use cases and the best practices around them
Who: Tim O'Rourke, Hearst Newspapers; Jaemark Tordecilla, Journalist and Technologist.
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free to members of INMA
Sponsor: International News Media Association
Mon, Aug 4 - Welcome to AI Fundamentals
What: In this workshop, we will explain generative artificial intelligence and discuss its impact. You will gain a basic understanding of its shortcomings, as well as the ways it can be used effectively. We will discuss some of the tools available to you through Duke. You will leave the session understanding how to create prompts that will get you the best results in your conversations with the AI.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Duke University
Mon, Aug 4 - Searching with AI
What: We will explore the promises and pitfalls of AI-powered search, the growing debate over AI guardrails, and what this means for media literacy and education.
Who: Wesley Fryer, an educational technology “early adopter / innovator.”
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Media Education Lab
Mon, Aug 4 - What Should We Say? New Research on AI Disclosures in Journalism
What: In this session, Trusting News will share its latest research on transparency around AI use in journalism. You’ll walk away with insight into what disclosures resonate and what pitfalls to avoid. This session is perfect for anyone navigating AI use in their newsroom or looking to build clarity and credibility with their community.
Who: Lynn Walsh, Assistant Director at Trusting News.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: free
Sponsor: Online News Association
Mon, Aug 4 - Journalist Safety Workshop: Protect Yourself, Protect Your Colleagues, Protect The Free Press
What: This workshop will equip media workers with the tools, knowledge, and resources to navigate dangerous situations—whether on assignment, online, or in the workplace.
When: 8 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The NewsGuild Committee to Defend the Free Press
Tue, Aug 5 - The Formula for Social Media Success
What: Our simple but comprehensive Social Media workshop will help you learn how to prioritize things and give you a clear formula to be successful on Social Media.
Who: Ray-Sidney Smith, Digital Marketing Strategist, Hootsuite Global Brand Ambassador, Google Small Business Advisor for Productivity, and Managing Director of W3C Web Services.
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: $45
Sponsor: Duquesne University Small Business Development Center
Tue, Aug 5 - Digital Marketing Strategy Development
What: This session provides a guided walkthrough of a complete Digital Marketing Strategy Plan, customized for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Using the planning template, we’ll show you how to align your marketing actions with your business goals.
When: 11:30 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Gannon University Small Business Development Center
Tue, Aug 5 - Respectfully Covering Military Sexual Trauma and Related Topics
What: A discussion of how to cover sexual assault.
Who: Jean Ibáñez Payne, author of “Reclaim Your Worth: A Story of Abuse, Empowerment, and Building a Life on My Terms.”
When: 6 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Military Veterans in Journalism
Wed, Aug 6 - Responsible AI Use
What: This session will explore what it means to use AI responsibly. We'll discuss how different groups-students, faculty, and professionals-are engaging with AI and unpack challenges facing us all. These include concerns around academic integrity, data privacy, bias, hallucination, and evolving expectations around citation and copyright. Participants will leave with practical strategies for establishing course or departmental policies, modeling responsible AI use, and supporting student AI literacy.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Duke University
Wed, Aug 6 - Canva Creator Series: Pro Version
What: Canva is a user-friendly graphic design platform that allows anyone to create professional-quality visuals using customizable templates, images, and tools—no design experience required.
Who: Rachael Wolfe with the Pennsylvania SBDC.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: PennWest University
Wed, Aug 6 - Press Briefing on Staff Declines and Dangerous Heat in Prisons
What: An on-the-record conversation with experts on prison staffing declines and sweltering heat, two dangerous conditions plaguing many facilities.
Who: Brian Dawe, National Director, One Voice United; David Eads, Data Editor, The Marshall Project; Wilfredo Laracuente, Workforce Development Specialist, Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow; Naseem S. Miller, Senior Editor for Health, The Journalist’s Resource; Clark Merrefield, a senior editor for The Journalist’s Resource.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsors: The Marshall Project & The Journalist’s Resource
Wed, Aug 6 - Introduction to ChatGPT
What: An introduction to ChatGPT designed for beginners; only a free ChatGPT account is required to follow along. Afterward, an OpenAI Solutions engineer will join the OpenAI Academy team for a live Q&A to answer your questions.
Who: Lois Newman Customer Enablement, OpenAI; Lauren Oliphant Solutions Engineer, OpenAI.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Wed, Aug 6 - Understanding the "Big Beautiful Bill"
What: We will guide journalists through the nuts and bolts of the law and the congressional procedures that were key to its passage, with a particular focus on what is helpful to know for ongoing coverage of the new law and its impacts. We’ll dive deeper into the reconciliation process itself, the fiscal impacts the new law is expected to have, and common points of confusion in understanding it all. We’ll look at common mistakes made in talking about the new law that journalists should avoid in their coverage and touch on issues that could surface in Washington again in the near term that could be relevant for future stories. This session will be off the record. By registering for it, you’re agreeing to those terms.
Who: Rachel Snyderman Managing Director of Economic Policy; Michael Thorning Director of Structural Democracy.
When: xxx
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsors: The Journalism Institute at the National Press Club; The Bipartisan Policy Center
Thu, Aug 7 - Boost Your Workflow with AI: Productivity Tips and Strategies
What: Explore how generative AI can streamline your daily work tasks in this practical, hands-on session. Whether you're new to AI or looking to expand your toolkit, this session will provide actionable tips and real-world examples to help you get started confidently.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Duke University
Thu, Aug 7 - Digital News Report 2025: North America Edition
What: We will unveil the latest findings from the world's most extensive study on news consumption, providing essential insights for media professionals across North America. This session offers a unique opportunity for journalists, editors, publishers, and media strategists to stay ahead of the curve with the freshest research and insights from industry leaders. Attendees are encouraged to join the conversation and calibrate their news strategies for 2025 and beyond.
Who: Nic Newman, Lead Author, Digital News Report, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism; Yasmín Ramírez, Head of Media Sales, Americas & Strategic Partnerships, Reuters.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Reuters Institute
Thu, Aug 7 - Leading Gen Z: Empowering the Next Generation to Thrive
What: A comprehensive learning and development framework to help leaders empower Gen Z with the skills and opportunities they need to excel.
Who: Todd Davis, senior consultant at FranklinCovey.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: FranklinCovey
AI definitions: Generative AI
/Generative AI (GenAI) - Artificial intelligence that can produce media content (text, images, audio, video, etc.) by predicting patterns based on huge amounts of data. It doesn’t actually think or create in the way humans do, but it mimics the human brain. As a statistical prediction engine, it operates like the “type ahead” feature on smartphones that makes next-word suggestions. You might say it is like autocomplete at scale that remembers what you've written or said, so the interaction between the user and the AI has a dynamic conversational feel. The ability for it to go back and forth allows users to refine and tweak the requests. Like Wikipedia, it mashes together various sources using statistics. The key difference between generative AI and other types of AI is that generative AI focuses on creating new data, rather than simply analyzing or processing existing data.
More AI definitions here
AI Writing Results
/We depend on a calculator to produce identical results no matter who uses it, but identical results in a writing context are boring at best. At worst, these identical AI results amount to an insidious reproduction of the tropes and stereotypes present in the source text. -LitHub
Difficult & Inconvenient
/It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too. -Josh Billings
25 Recent Articles about AI & Journalism
/Traffic Apocalypse Google’s AI Overviews are killing click-throughs to news sites. – Columbia Journalism Review
How journalists can spot and mitigate AI bias - Reuters
What Tools Can Newsrooms Use to Evaluate Generative AI Prompts? – Generative AI Newsroom
Amazon to Pay New York Times at Least $20 Million a Year in AI Deal - Wall Street Journal
Meta Exec Joins BBC News For Key Artificial Intelligence Role- Deadline
What Legacy Newsrooms Can Learn from Social Media Creators – Nieman Reports
iOS 26 beta 4 arrives, with Liquid Glass tweaks and AI news summaries – Tech Crunch
What news sources AI chat bots read – Axios
Beyond the Hype: What AI Can and Can’t Do for Journalism – What’s New in Publishing
The struggle over AI in journalism is escalating – Blood in the Machine
How Google AI Overviews is fuelling zero-click searches for top publishers – Press Gazette
Argentina’s President Joins A.I.-Fueled Smear Campaign Against Journalist – New York Times
ChatGPT referrals to news sites are growing, but not enough to offset search declines - Tech Crunch
The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work – 404 Media
Law360 mandates reporters use AI “bias” detection on all stories - Nieman Lab
AI, Search and the Future of News Once again, distinctiveness is the best defense – Second Rough Draft
News Sites Are Getting Crushed by Google’s New AI Tools – Wall Street Journal
A new tool lets your favorite AI model talk with 2 million articles from The Guardian - Nieman Lab
The Newspaper That Hired ChatGPT – The Atlantic
AI is giving local news a second chance. Will it be ready this time? – Poynter
Journalist says 4,000 fake AI news websites created to game Google algorithms – Press Gazette
AI is polluting truth in journalism. Here’s how to disrupt the misinformation feedback loop. – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Politico's Owner Is Embarrassing Its Journalists With Garbled AI Slop – Futurism
Generative AI models love to cite Reuters and Axios, study finds - Nieman Lab
TV channel launches Germany's first completely AI-generated news programme - NotebookCheck.net
Using AI to Flesh Out Half-Baked Ideas
/I’ve always found it easier to work out my ideas through dialogue, but not many people are interested in hearing my half-baked ideas. That is why I’ve found that talking through ideas is one of the best uses of AI for writers. NotebookLM takes the idea of talking to the archive to the next level: The archive you chat with is one you assemble yourself with sources for a particular project, which the AI can also help you collect to get started. -Jonathan D. Fitzgerald on Mashable