Which AI Should you Trust for Facts?
/A group of librarians tested AI search tools for accuracy. Here’s the results:
Read more at The Washington Post
ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
AI Advice for Students
/AI Advice for Students
1- Think Beyond Academic Integrity
Not just “Is this cheating or not cheating?”
But also, “Am I taking the opportunity to learn, practice, and cultivate my skills?”
To some students, college now feels like, “How well I can use ChatGPT.” Others describe writing essays as a coordination problem: get the prompt, feed it to the bot, skim the output, add some filler, hit submit. No thinking required, just interface management.
2-Define Your own Educational goals
Ask yourself: “Besides grades, what are my goals as a student?”
Prioritize learning and skill development
Seize opportunities to get the practice you need to become a better thinker, writer, and communicator.
3-Prompt to Challenge your Thinking
Instead of outsourcing your thinking (“Suggest a thesis statement I can use for my essay.”). Look for ways to think critically about the subject (“Ask me tough questions to help me figure out my thesis statement.”).
Don’t just ask, “Am I outsourcing the writing to AI?” Ask, “Am I outsourcing the thinking to AI?” We must use AI to expand our mind’s capacity to engage, rather than using it to outsource our thinking.
4- Focus on AI Literacy & Integration
Unless you want to build AI systems and become a data scientist, focus on taking outdated processes and updating them to make use of the available AI tools. Understanding the benefits and limitations of AI in light of ethics should be the goal, along with figuring out how to mesh it into your workday.
5- Double Down on your Humanity
• We can’t let it strip us of our humanity.
• Optimistically, AI may be “a piece of technology that, instead of replacing humanity, amplifies it.”
• We must retain oversight & not lose ourselves by depending on the machine.
• Doubling down on what makes you human may be what saves you from being replaced or minimized by AI.
6- Get Well-rounded
Be well- rounded in liberal arts: think of your gen ed classes as now core classes. Focus specifically on growing these skills: analytic thinking, creativity, information literature, resilience, agility, leadership, self-motivation, empathy, curiosity. Their value will rise as AI takes over routine tasks.
7- Distinguish between AI-generated content, AI-assisted content, & AI-supplemented content
Group A ❌ Group B ✅ Group C 🤔
AI-generated content AI-assisted content/writing AI-supplement content
Facilitated writing/learning
AI-generated content ❌ is entirely produced by the AI or sections are produced by the AI, based on detailed instructions (prompts) provided by the author. Some AI is best thought of as a set of automation tools that function as closed systems that do their work without oversight—like ATMs and dishwashers.
In academia, it is not acceptable under normal circumstances unless there are significant and clear reason why this was necessary. However, in business, it is likely to be treated as acceptable when the content is merely informational and not intended to be creative. The focus in this situation is accuracy and speed with minimal effort as opposed to authenticity. For instance, a summary of a business meeting or an email answering a particular question about the business, where it is assumed, the writer may incorporate AI-generated content.
Group B ✅ is work that is predominantly written by an individual but has been improved with the aid of AI tools. AI is part of the process. The author remains in control, and the AI merely acts as a polishing tool. As opposed to automation tools, these collaboration tools—like chain saws and word processors. In any given application, AI is going to automate or it’s going to collaborate, depending on how we design it and how someone chooses to use it.
This kind of assistance is generally accepted by most publishers as well as the Committee on Publication Ethics, without the need for formal disclosure. This includes: creating outlines, improving clarity, grammar, summarizing, brainstorming, generating transcription, condensing notes, creating study guides, practice questions, editing, and suggesting alternative approaches to a problem.
Group C 🤔 includes changing phrasing, generating a citation list, revising sentence structure, reducing word count, etc. Writers and publishers disagree about whether using AI in this way is ethical or not.
the small and the great
/Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. -Mark Twain
22 Articles about Relationships with AI
/OpenAI to safeguard ChatGPT for teens and people in crisis - Axios
ChatGPT-powered dolls are becoming caregivers in South Korea – Semafor
AI has passed the aesthetic Turing Test − and it’s changing our relationship with art – The Conversation
AI Chatbots Have New Boundaries, So I Tried to Get One to Break Up With Me - PopSugar
Dating an AI: How Much Is It Really Happening? – Wall Street Journal
The personhood trap: How AI fakes human personality - ArsTechnica
A Troubled Man, His Chatbot and a Murder-Suicide in Old Greenwich. – Wall Street Journal
They're Stuffed Amimals: They're also Chatbots – New York Times
ChatGPT is not your therapist – The Miami Hurricane
OpenAI Is Updating ChatGPT to Better Support Users in Mental Distress – Wall Street Journal
What My Daughter Told ChatGPT Before She Took Her Life – New York Times
Meta’s flirty AI chatbot invited a retiree to New York. He never made it home. – Reuters
The Looming Social Crisis of AI Friends and Chatbot Therapists – Derek Thompson
Illinois blocks AI from being your therapist – Axios
Support Group Launches for People Suffering "AI Psychosis” – Futurism
Teens say they are turning to AI for friendship – Associated Press
What Would a Real Friendship With A.I. Look Like? Maybe Like Hers. – New York Times
He Had Dangerous Delusions. ChatGPT Admitted It Made Them Worse. - Wall Street Journal
Large language models are proficient in solving and creating emotional intelligence tests – Nature
A.I. Griefbots Are Just Our Latest Attempt to Talk to the Dead – New York Times
He said, she said, it said: I used ChatGPT as a couple's counselor. How did we fare? – NPR
Can an AI Companion Substitute for Real Human Relationships? – Psychology Today
Does AI Replace the Expert?
/The question is not whether AI can do things that experts cannot do on their own—it can. Expert humans often bring something that today’s AI models cannot: situational context, tacit knowledge, ethical intuition, emotional intelligence, and the ability to weigh consequences that fall outside the data. The value is not in substituting one expert for another, or in outsourcing fully to the machine, or indeed in presuming the human expertise will always be superior, but in leveraging human and rapidly-evolving machine capabilities to achieve best results. -David Autor and James Manyika writing in The Atlantic
Places to Keep up with News
/Major Broadcast Networks
Aggregate Sites
eNewsletters
Aggregation Apps
Flipboard (you’ll need to mute weak & non-news sites)
Explainer Journalism
Wonkblog (WaPo)
the Conversation (articles written by university and research experts)
National News
NPR (morning edition)
Washington Post (list of daily print articles)
New York Times (list of daily print articles)
Tech
BBC (future section)
Politics
Washington Post (politics section)
Investigative Journalism
Education
Business
Economist (sub. req.)
Science
New York Time (science section)
Religion
Washington Post (Acts of Faith section)
Health
New York Times (health section)
News Media
Opinion
26 Articles from August about AI & Data Science
/Why RAG Might Actually Matter More Than Ever In 2025
Can AI systems that make accurate predictions in one area apply that process to other area?
Proposed method for the intelligent generation of lightweight QNN
Towards responsible geospatial foundation models
If You’re Trying to Get Into AI, This Is What You Need to Do
Corrected study rekindles debate over Microsoft’s quantum computing research
A problem-first approach rather than leading with AI solutions
How to Catch AI Failures Before They Destroy Your Product
How I Use AI Agents as a Data Scientist in 2025
A journey from corporate ML to freelance AI
The trajectory of Bayesian statistics
AI Definitions: Context Engineering
5 Routine Tasks That ChatGPT Can Handle for Data Scientists
Six Principles for Production AI Agents
Claude Code has considerably changed my relationship to writing and maintaining code at scale
Is your AI benchmark lying to you?
How NASA Is Testing AI to Make Earth-Observing Satellites Smarter
AI definitions: Artificial Intelligence
Data science is among the jobs most exposed to gen AI replacement
AI Definitions: Data Scientist
Top Skills Data Scientists Should Learn in 2025
A systematic review of multimodal models for satellite image captioning and geospatial understanding
This is daring greatly
/When we spend our lives waiting until we're perfect or bulletproof before we walk into the arena, we ultimately sacrifice relationships and opportunities that may not be recoverable, we squander our precious time, and we turn our backs on our gifts, those unique contributions that only we can make.
We must walk into the arena, whatever it may be—a new relationship, an important meeting, our creative process, or a difficult family conversation—with courage and a willingness to engage. Rather than sitting on the sidelines and hurling judgment and advice, we must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen. This is vulnerability. This is daring greatly.
Brené Brown, Daring Greatly
9 Webinars this Week about AI, Journalism & Media
/Tue, Sept 2 - Strengthen Your Nonprofit’s Social Media Presence: Best Practices
What: Social media is more than just posting — it's how nonprofits raise awareness, reach new supporters, promote events, and build trust with their communities. But without a clear plan or the right tools, it’s easy to fall behind or burn out. In this webinar, we’ll share the latest best practices for nonprofit social media in 2025: what platforms matter, what content drives engagement, and how to build a sustainable plan — even if you have a small team. We’ll also introduce Tapp Network’s brand-new social media services, designed specifically for nonprofits that need expert guidance, editable templates, or both. Whether you're just starting out or looking to improve your strategy, this session will give you practical steps to strengthen your presence and save time.
Who: Lisa Quigley, Tapp Network, Director of Account Strategy.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Tech Soup
Tue, Sept 2 - From Innovation to Infiltration: The Role of AI in Modern Cybersecurity
What: A look into the intersection of AI and its impact on organizations worldwide and explore how AI-powered attacks are reshaping the threat landscape. We will learn about cutting-edge strategies for organizations that are domestically and globally distributed, and discover how AI-driven security solutions can detect anomalies, mitigate cyberattacks, and protect critical infrastructure.
Who: Eva Abergel, Senior Solution Expert, Radware; Michael Morgensten, Partner, Dayblink Consulting.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Tech Target
Wed, Sept 3 - From Disruption to Domination: The New Ad Playbook for News Media
What: A look at the future of advertising and what it means for news media companies and the forces reshaping publisher revenue models and the strategies needed to thrive.
Who: INMA CEO Earl Wilkinson; Gabriel Dorosz, lead of INMA’s Advertising Initiative.
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free to members
Sponsor: International News Media Association
Wed, Sept 3 - Comms coach: The data to power your AI strategy
What: Axios HQ and Off the Record surveyed communicators to find out how they’re actually using AI at their organizations — and we’re bringing you a first look.
Who: Gab Ferree, Off the Record Founder; Jason Tomassini, Axios HQ Senior Vice President, Services.
When: 12:30 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsors: Axios & Off the Record
Wed, Sept 3 - Solutions Journalism for Beat Reporters: From Introduction to Implementation
What: The fundamentals of solutions journalism and how to integrate it into your beat or newsroom. You’ll learn the steps for crafting a solutions story for every platform, how to avoid common pitfalls, and how to use the 16,000 solutions stories in the Solutions Story Tracker, to discover promising responses in other communities.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Solutions Journalism Network
Thu, Sept 4 - The Future of Journalism
What: This session explores the rapidly evolving media landscape from a journalist’s point of view, with a particular focus on how PR and communications professionals can adapt to and navigate this new terrain.
Who: Guy Cocker, a seasoned journalist and former Editor-in-Chief at Maximum PC magazine (Future Publishing).
When: 8 am, Eastern
Where: Microsoft Teams
Cost: Free
Sponsor: epresspack
Thu, Sept 4 - Transforming Sales Performance with AI
What: We’ll go beyond traditional sales training to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping the way high-performing teams learn, adapt and close more deals. Our lineup of industry experts will share innovative methods for putting AI to work alongside your people, whether by turning data into actionable guidance, delivering tailored content at scale or freeing up time for sellers to focus on what matters most — relationships with clients. Don’t miss this opportunity to discover how you can equip your team with a powerful blend of human insight and technology to drive greater results in a world that’s constantly evolving.
Who: Lauren Nisbet, Sales Enablement Leader; Vyond Joel Fleet, Director of Sales Readiness, Salesloft;
Richard Barkey, Founder & CEO, Imparta; Tim Riesterer, Chief Strategy Officer, Corporate Visions; RK Prasad, MBA, Ph.D., CEO and Co-Founder, CommLab India; Andy Springer, Chief Client Officer, RAIN Group.
When: 11 am – 4 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Training Industry
Thu, Sept 4 - Reader-Driven Strategies for Local Engagement
What: Innovative approaches to fostering reader engagement and trust in local journalism. Learn how thoughtful reader engagement strategies are strengthening local newsrooms and deepening community ties.
Who: Chris Coates, senior director of local news, oversees newsrooms across several East Coast and Southern states; Allison Petty, director of local news, manages teams in the Midwest and leads digital production efforts.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: $35
Sponsor: I Media Campus
Fri, Sept 5 - Covering the Federal Takeover: Gathering arrest data, knowing the law, and other tips for journalists covering D.C.
What: Learn best practices for gathering arrest data, learn the D.C. Codes that address access to arrest records, and gain insight into covering the law enforcement agencies that are active in the capital city.
Who: Robert Becker, D.C. Open Government Coalition board member; Fritz Mulhauser, secretary and co-chair of the D.C. Open Government Coalition’s legal committee; Elliot C. Williams, National Press Club Journalism Institute Training Manager.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsors: National Press Club Journalism Institute & the D.C. Open Government Coalition
Invention
/Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos. -Mary Shelley (born Aug. 30, 1797)
The Trick
/The trick is, when there is nothing to do, do nothing. -Warren Buffett (born Aug. 30, 1930)
GoLaxy AI
/Generative AI is making it exponentially easier for China to create believable, engaging content. GoLaxy — which operates in close alignment with the Chinese government's interests — appears to be tapping generative AI to mine social media profiles and create content that "feels authentic, adapts in real-time and avoids detection. "Documents show that GoLaxy has created profiles for at least 117 members of Congress and over 2,000 American political figures and thought leaders. -Axios
The Compliment
/Let me pay you the compliment of being blunt. -From the 1987 movie The Untouchables
AI's impact on the job search by college grads
/"Recent history grads have a lower unemployment rate (4.6 percent) than recent computer science grads (6.1 percent), according to the New York Federal Reserve Bank. History is one of the most popular college majors among congressional staff members, and historians find work in some surprising places, such as the National Security Agency and the American Girl doll company." -Washington Post
loneliness & solitude
/Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self. -Mary Sarton
The victory speech of your opponent.
/Write the victory speech of your opponent. If you can’t, look again at what you’re asking of them.
Businesses Racing to Adopt AI: Speed without Control
/If you don’t take steps now to centralize AI strategy, you’ll be left with a patchwork of disconnected tools, uncontrolled costs, and compliance nightmares. The winners in this era won’t be the ones who adopt AI fast, they’ll be the ones who adopt it wisely. Shadow AI isn’t going away; it’s going to accelerate as AI becomes embedded. -Unite AI
18 Articles about how AI is Affecting Jobs
/AI is already taking jobs away from entry-level workers - Axios
Will historians really be replaced by AI? They remain skeptical. – Washington Post
21 Ways People Are Using A.I. at Work – New York Times
If You’re Trying to Get Into AI, This Is What You Need to Do – KD Nuggets
AI is already displacing these jobs - Axios
Meet your new office bestie: ChatGPT – Business Insider
Labor unions mobilize to challenge advance of algorithms in workplaces - Washington Post
AI Is Forcing the Return of the In-Person Job Interview - Wall Street Journal
These workers don’t fear artificial intelligence. They’re getting degrees in it. - Washington Post
The Bull Market for Economists Is Over. It’s an Ominous Sign for the Economy. - New York Times
AI Is Here, and a Quiet Havoc Has Begun – Wall Street Journal
The next jobs downturn could mean an AI-induced purge of millions of workers - Axios
Whose job is safe from AI? -Tim Harford
SEO Is Dead. Say Hello to GEO – New York Mag
Data Scientists on AI’s chopping block? Microsoft Research sounds a career alarm – Times of India
AI Skills Needed in Many Postgrad Careers—Not Just Tech – Inside Higher Ed
Painters, nursing assistants, and more: Microsoft’s top 10 most AI-safe careers – CNBC
AI is helping students be more independent, but the isolation could be career poison – The Markup
AI Definitions: Shadow AI
/Shadow AI - Generative AI use inside organizations without the approval or supervision of IT. While not typically malicious, it creates risks that can grow over time. For instance, customer data might end up being stored in a third-party AI’s training environment or proprietary code might be copy and pasted into an AI code assistant to debug an issue.
More AI definitions here
When you plan for Italy but Land in Holland
/It’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.
Emily Perl Kingsley