Discomfort & Progress
/The short-term discomfort of adopting a new routine will always be less than the ongoing stress and disappointment of not making progress on your most important goals. - Jeff Su
ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
22 Articles about AI & Legal Issues
/Agentic AI: From statistical patterns to strategic partners – Reuters
Stability AI largely wins landmark UK intellectual property lawsuit brought by Getty Images – Associated Press
AI startup Perplexity launches tool to speed up patent research – The Verge
Federal judges using AI filed court orders with false quotes, fake names – Washington Post
AI Works Do Not “Compete” with Works of Authorship – Illusion of More
Activist Robby Starbuck Sues Google Over Claims of False AI Info – Wall Street Journal
These people ditched lawyers for ChatGPT in court – NBC News
A novelist’s books were used to train A.I. chatbots. So she sued and won the largest copyright settlement ever. – New York Times
Disney sends cease and desist letter to Character.AI – Axios
Record labels claim AI generator Suno illegally ripped their songs from YouTube – The Verge
California’s New AI Regulations Take Effect Oct. 1: Here’s Your Compliance Checklist – Jackson Lewis
Rolling Stone Publisher Sues Google Over AI Summaries - Wall Street Journal
A federal judge blasted the $1.5 billion AI copyright settlement in the Anthropic case – Bloomberg
Anthropic tells US judge it will pay $1.5 billion to settle author class action - CNN
Almost Every State Has Its Own Deepfakes Law Now – 404 Media
AI Does Little to Reduce Law Firm Billable Hours, Survey Shows - Bloomberg
Texas attorney general accuses Meta, Character.AI of misleading kids with mental health claims – Tech Crunch
Anthropic Settles Major AI Copyright Suit Brought by Authors – Bloomberg
Large US law firm apologizes for AI errors in bankruptcy court filing – Reuters
10 FAQs About California’s New Algorithmic Discrimination Rules – National Law Review
California’s landmark frontier AI law to bring transparency – AL Jazeera
“Future of Professionals” report analysis: Why AI will flip law firm economics – Reuters
12 Articles about AI & Data Privacy
/The glaring security risks with AI browser agents - TechCrunch
OpenAI to launch ChatGPT for teens with parental controls as company faces scrutiny over safety – CNBC
How to use ChatGPT without giving up your data – Washington Post
The Impending Wave of Shadow AI - UniteAI
Age Verification Is Sweeping Gaming. Is It Ready for the Age of AI Fakes? – Wired
How churches use data and AI as engines of surveillance – MIT Tech Review
AI systems ‘ignorant’ of sensitive data can be safer, but still smart - Washington Post
Nearly 100,000 ChatGPT Conversations Were Searchable on Google – 404 Media
A data scientist on how AI is being used to profile you – NPR
AI therapy is a surveillance machine in a police state – The Verge
Are LLM firewalls the future of AI security? – Computer Weekly
AI takes the creativity out of cheating
/Confronted with allegations that they had cheated in an introductory data science course and fudged their attendance, dozens of undergraduates at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recently sent two professors a mea culpa via email. But there was one problem, a glaring one: They had not written the emails. Artificial intelligence had done the writing. -More in the New York Times
Never too Late
/It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.
Goals Need Systems
/You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. – James Clear
AI Misrepresentation of News
/New research has found that AI assistants routinely misrepresent news content no matter which language, territory, or AI platform is tested. Key findings:
45% of all AI answers had at least one significant issue.
31% of responses showed serious sourcing problems – missing, misleading, or incorrect attributions.
20% contained major accuracy issues, including hallucinated details and outdated information.
24 Articles about the Business of Running an AI Company
/Common Crawl: The Nonprofit Doing the AI Industry’s Dirty Work – The Atlantic
Anthropic says its Claude models show signs of introspection - Axios
xAI’s Wikipedia-like website is racist, transphobic, and loves Elon Musk – The Verge
Inside the Data Centers That Train A.I. and Drain the Electrical Grid – The New Yorker
Saudi Arabia’s New Power Play Is Exporting A.I. to the World - The New York Times
OpenAI sees chance to reindustrialize U.S. - Axios
Meta Cuts 600 Jobs at A.I. Superintelligence Labs - The New York Times
What happens when AI consumes too much clickbait.- Gizmodo
The hottest term in AI is completely made up - The Washington Post
OpenAI launches Atlas browser to compete with Google Chrome – Associated Press
OpenAI's metamorphosis from chat app to tech giant - Axios
Is the Flurry of Circular AI Deals a Win-Win—or Sign of a Bubble? – Wall Street Journal
OpenEvidence, the ChatGPT for doctors, raises $200M at $6B valuation – Tech Crunch
As tech companies build A.I. data centers worldwide, vulnerable communities have been hit by blackouts and water shortages. - The New York Times
The Fight Over Whose AI Monster Is Scariest - Wall Street Journal
Got a Windows 11 PC? Get ready to talk to it. - The Washington Post
Silicon Valley Is Investing in the Wrong A.I. - The New York Times
AI Data Centers, Desperate for Electricity, Are Building Their Own Power Plants - Wall Street Journal
Just How Bad Would an AI Bubble Be? – The Atlantic
China now leads the U.S. in this key part of the AI race - The Washington Post
'Very troubling': AI's self-investment spree sets off bubble alarms on Wall Street - Yahoo
Reflection AI, an A.I. Model Start-Up, Raises $2 Billion - The New York Times
How Google Is Walking the AI Tightrope - Wall Street Journal
The shift in the creative arts brought on by AI
/Pixar is an analogy to explain the potential benefits of the shift in the creative arts brought on by AI. Before Pixar, there were these folks who were really high-end in terms of their craft. Animators put a lot of energy into the drawings in each frame. But once computers could automate that work, the role of the animators shifted. They were able to spend a lot more time — and, for that matter, put a lot more resources toward — thinking about storytelling and plot development.” -New York Times
The Brooklyn Bridge
/I would rather be the man who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than the man who sold it. -Will Rogers, born Nov 4, 1879
AI Prompts & Verbalized Sampling
/A team of researchers have come up with an ingenuously simple method to get language and image models to generate a wider variety of creative responses to nearly any user prompt by adding a single, simple sentence: "Generate 5 responses with their corresponding probabilities, sampled from the full distribution." The method, called Verbalized Sampling (VS), helps models like GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini produce more diverse and human-like outputs—without retraining or access to internal parameters. -VentureBeat
Encouragement
/We appreciate what a person does, but we affirm who a person is. Appreciation comes and goes because it is usually related to something someone accomplishes. Affirmation goes deeper. It is directed to the person himself or herself. While encouragement would encompass both, the rarer of the two is affirmation. To be appreciated, we get the distinct impression that we must earn it by some accomplishment. But affirmation requires no such prerequisite. This mean that even when we don’t earn the right to be appreciated (because we failed to succeed or because we lacked the accomplishment of some goal), we can still be affirmed – indeed, we need it then more than ever. I do not care how influential or secure or mature a person may appear to be, genuine encouragement never fails to help. Most of us need massive doses as we slug it out in the trenches.
Charles Swindoll, Strengthening Your Grip
22 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism & Media
/Mon, Nov 3 - What Every Journalist Should Know About Climate Diplomacy
What: This session is a crash course on the UN climate negotiations, from how COPs work and their history to how decisions are made, who’s in the room and what makes the process so complex, interesting and, at time, frustrating. We’ll break down key terms, explain the roles of different countries and negotiating groups and offer historical context to help you feel confident covering climate diplomacy, whether you’re new to it or just need a refresher.
When: 11 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Covering Climate Now
Mon, Nov 3 - SCOTUS, tariffs, and the administrative state: What journalists need to know
What: This webinar is about the potential economic consequences of the case, important legal arguments, and the history and future of administrative authority in the U.S.
Who: Naomi Lamoreaux, the Stanley B. Resor Professor Emeritus of Economics and History at Yale University; Oren Tamir, an associate professor of law at the University of Arizona who teaches about administrative law, constitutional law and comparative public law; Michael Klein, the William L. Clayton Professor of International Economic Affairs at Tufts University and founder of Econofact; Clark Merrefield, senior editor for economics and legal systems at The Journalist’s Resource.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The Journalist’s Resource, Econofact
Mon, Nov 3 - Simple AI for Your Business: Unlocking the Power of Voice
What: In this short, practical webinar, you’ll see how using your own voice can be one of the most efficient ways to create better business content. Even if you’re a keyboard warrior, speaking your ideas out loud can unlock speed, clarity, and more authentic results that connect with your audience.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Small Business Development Center, Bucknell University
Mon, Nov 3 - Fact Checking with AI Superprompts
What: This session demonstrates how educators and learners can use “AI superprompts” to enhance fact checking, contextualization, and critical reasoning. We’ll explore the theory behind the method, see real-world demonstrations, and then move into an interactive breakout room activity where participants will get hands-on practice: entering a claim, deploying the Deep Background prompt in Claude (or a compatible LLM), iterating, and interpreting the responses.
Who: Wesley Fryer, a middle school STEM and media literacy middle school teacher at Providence Day School in Charlotte, North Carolina. As an educational technology early adopter and innovator.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Media Education Lab
Mon, Nov 3 - Awareness and Critical Thinking (ACT) for Media Literacy
What: Learn more about Awareness and Critical Thinking (ACT), a free educational resource (ideal for grades K-5) that offers school librarians and teachers a toolkit to combat misinformation through interactive, thoughtful activities that make critical thinking fun.
Who: Media literacy experts Faith Rogow and Tara Zimmerman
When: 4 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Media Education Lab
Tue, Nov 4 - Introduction to AI Prompting for Investment Writing & Research
What: We skip generic tech talk and share direct, real-life examples of what works and what doesn’t when prompting AI for investment writing and analysis.
Who: Nurhan Gecgil, PhD, who is currently training a Californian based LLM on its next model, specifically on investment writing and research.
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: EquityEdge Studio
Tue, Nov 4 - 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: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: $45
Sponsor: Small Business Development Center, Duquesne University
Tue, Nov 4 - Geo AI: Environmental Journalism Using Artificial Intelligence
What: This webinar will present examples of the current existing models deployed in environmental investigations, discussing their strengths and limitations.
When: 11 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsors: The Pulitzer Center, Cambridge Digital Humanites, Earth Genome, Watershed Investigations
Tue, Nov 4 - Fact Check the Chatbot: Spotting Misinformation in the Age of AI
What: You’ll learn how to support students in developing healthy skepticism without turning into cynics as they gain vital online reasoning skills to use in your classroom and their everyday lives. Then, together we’ll practice evaluating sources using a variety of methods. You’ll leave with ideas, teaching tips, and free, ready-to-use resources to help students find reliable sources no matter where they click.
Who: Rachel Roberson, Senior Program Manager, Education Content, KQED.
When: 5 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: KQED Education
Wed, Nov 5 - How Journalists Are Using AI
What: This 10-part programme is designed to equip you with the AI skills, ethical awareness, and practical tools needed to thrive in the fast-evolving media landscape.
Who: Harriet Meyer, an award-winning freelance journalist and the founder of AI for Media.
When: 7:30 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: £10 for members, £20 for nonmembers
Sponsor: Women in Journalism
Wed, Nov 5 - How to Make Scroll-Stopping Social Videos Solo
What: Journalists will learn how to script and produce a social video without the support of a full social team. This workshop will move quickly and focus on on-camera presence and filming techniques, with some curation, scriptwriting, and video editing advice. This will be participatory and a safe space to practice filming yourself on camera!
Who: Julia Munslow is a Senior Editor at The Wall Street Journal.
When: 11 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Online News Association
Wed, Nov 5 - A COP (Conference of the Parties) Journalist’s Toolbox
What: We’ll share practical tips and examples on how to follow the negotiations, find fresh angles, find expert sources, and bring the story to the ground so it resonates with your audience. You’ll leave with an array of useful tools, ideas, tips and leads to guide your reporting, plus lessons journalists on what works, and what doesn’t, when covering COP.
When: 11 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Covering Climate Now
Wed, Nov 5 - Beyond breaking news
What: A discussion of an upcoming collaboration which unites poetry from Gaza with photographs from the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Who: National Geographic photographer Michael Christopher Brown.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Reuters Institute
Wed, Nov 5 - How to Get AI to Recommend and Cite Your Brand
What: New insights into which companies and services ChatGPT cites, links to, and recommends, and why.
Who: Omri Shtayer, VP, Data Products and Daas, Similarweb; Ethan Smith, CEO, Graphite; Baruch Toledano, VP & GM, Digital Marketing Aolutions, Similarweb
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Similarweb
Wed, Nov 5 - AI, Inquiry, and Imagination: Designing Student-Centered Learning Quests
What: A framework for preparing students to engage thoughtfully and ethically with AI. Structured around three essential pillars—Teaching About AI, Teaching For AI, and Teaching With AI. Participants will be provided with the language, strategies, and confidence to harness the power of AI for education.
Who: Douglas Fisher, Professor of Educational Leadership, San Diego State University.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Education Week
Thu, Nov 6 - Nonprofit Year-End Sprint with ChatGPT
What: Join us for a session designed specifically for nonprofit professionals gearing up for year-end. From crafting donor-ready fundraising appeals to shaping annual reports and aligning organizational goals for the year ahead, we’ll show you how AI can help streamline your workflows and boost your team’s capacity during the busiest season.
Who: Rich Leimsider AI for Nonprofits Sprint @ Fund for the City of New York; Alex Nawar Head of OpenAI Academy @ OpenAI.
When: 11 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Thu, Nov 6 - AI as a Thought Partner: Strategies to Foster Critical Inquiry
What: In this interactive workshop, we will explore how AI can serve as a cognitive scaffold—both for instructors in their own teaching and as a tool to support student learning. Participants will engage with theoretical frameworks, live demonstrations, and discussions to examine how AI can enhance brainstorming, argumentation, and inquiry-based learning. Faculty will leave with practical strategies to integrate AI in ways that foster deeper critical engagement.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Duke University
Thu, Nov 6 - Cutting Attrition with Adaptive AI: A Personalized Model for Employee Engagement and Competency Assurance
What: You’ll learn how to implement a personalized training model powered by adaptive AI — delivering measurable impact and setting a new standard for competency assurance.
Who: Stephen King, head of talent development for Maximus UK; Manoj Kulkarni from Realizeit.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Realizeit
Thu, Nov 6 - How News Sites Can Build Community Credibility
What: How hyperlocal outlets can become the most trusted information source in their communities. We’ll talk about how hyperlocal sites have built credibility and civic engagement by consistently delivering useful, verified, and deep local news, often in places underserved by traditional media.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Local Media Association
Thu, Nov 6 - Publishing Success: Insights from Authors and the Editor of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
What: The disinformation battle how cynicism and conspiracy beliefs undermine government lead debunking. Plus, An overview of the peer review process with recommendations for strengthening future submissions to JMCQ.
Who: Xinzhi Zhang Associate Professor City University of Hong Kong; Daniela V. Dimitrova University Professor Iowa State University Editor of JMCQ.
When: 7 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: AEJMC (Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication) & JMCQ (Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly)
Sat, Nov 8 - Free Press Regional Workshop
What: This day-long crash course for student journalists and advisors so they're equipped with the knowledge they need to defend their rights. Programming includes presentations and interactive sessions on First Amendment and media law (and comes with free breakfast, lunch, and dinner).
When: 9 am – 5 pm, Eastern
Where: Ann Arbor, MI.
Cost: Free
Sponsor: FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression)
Sat, Nov 8 - Virtual film screening of 'Gaza: Journalists Under Fire'
What: Join us for a panel discussion of the film "Gaza: Journalists Under Fire," as our speakers explore the phenomenon of rising violence and aggression against journalists.
Who: Dion Nissenbaum, former Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent and filmmaker; Hena Zuberi, MuslimMatters editor-in-chief and lead anchor for Muslim Network TV Sara Qudah, Committee to Protect Journalists’ Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
We are offering two options for viewing the film: 1) Join us on Zoom at 12:15 p.m. Central; you'll have the opportunity to submit questions as we view it together. OR 2) Go to this site to view the film on your own at any time, then join us at 2 pm, Eastern for the panel discussion. https://vimeo.com/showcase/11728231
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsors: Houston chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists & The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association.
A Real Relationship
/It is only when we no longer compulsively need someone that we can have a real relationship with them. -Anothony Storr
AI Definitions: Facial recognition
/Facial recognition - This AI technology uses statistical measurements of a person’s face to identify them against a digital database of other faces. For instance, Clearview AI was trained on billions of images. These AI-powered systems are used to unlock phones, verify passports, and scan crowds at events for malicious actors. It’s used by many US agencies including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. It has a serious problem with false positives and a history of unintended harms and intentional misuse based on racial and gender bias.
More AI definitions here
What Counts
/It is not what you accomplish but how you behave that counts.
23 articles about AI & Data Science from October
/AI Definitions: Constitutional AI
5 Practical Examples of ChatGPT Agents for Data Scientists
Designing a Successful Agentic AI System
Stop Deploying General-Purpose AI Models For Everything
Why Geospatial AI Will Still Need Human Insight
AI Definitions: AI model collapse
7 newer data science tools you should be using with Python
AI Definitions: "AI assistance"
AI Definitions: AGI (Artificial General Intelligence)
How to run an R data visualization chatbot you can talk to
Here are five quality tips for using NotebookLM to make a data scientist's day a little easier.
DeepSeek has dethroned Meta’s Llama AI models as the favorite of developers
Is vibe coding ruining a generation of engineers?
10 Command-Line Tools Every Data Scientist Should Know
AI is enabling a new category of personal software. Welcome to the era of home-cooked applications
Making exploratory data analysis easier yet still effective
An approach to deep learning models inspired by predictive coding using two models
Here’s how to pick the right tools for machine learning projects
AI Definitions: Ethical Debt
/Ethical Debt - The result of not considering societal harms and unintended consequences. This can happen in the fast-moving production of AI tools. The people who incur it are rarely the people who ultimately pay for it. Related: Technical Debt
More AI definitions here
When people are Free
/When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. -Eric Hoffer
21 Recent Articles about AI & Robotics
/AI and digital twins to serve increasingly complex robot management – Computer Weekly
How robotics could turn e-waste into a tech goldmine – The Next Web
Amazon Testing New Warehouse Robots and AI Tools for Workers – Wall Street Journal
Black Harvard alumni invent hair-braiding robot – The Grio
AI drones are America's newest cops – Axios
Chinese AI robotics tech outpaces U.S., rest of world - The Washington Post
Foundation models could revolutionize dexterity in robots - McKinsey
‘I love you too!’ My family’s creepy, unsettling week with an AI toy – The Guardian
Humanoid robots were a sci-fi dream. Suddenly they’re everywhere. - The Washington Post
The future is bot versus bot - Axios
AI helps traditional Japanese fish-killing method get a robotic upgrade – Semafor
MIT's new AI can teach itself to control robots by watching the world through their eyes — it only needs a single camera – Live Science
I Pitted an AI Robot Massage Against the Real Thing – Wall Street Journal
Beijing hosts China’s first fully autonomous 3-on-3 AI robot soccer match – Associated Press
New tiny robots promise to fix underground water pipe leakage without excavation – Interesting Engineering
Robot industry split over that humanoid look - Axios
Amazon is reportedly training humanoid robots to deliver packages – The Verge
‘Nobody wants a robot to read them a story!’ The creatives and academics rejecting AI – at work and at home – The Guardian
I Tried the Robot That’s Coming to Live With You - Wall Street Journal
America's manufacturing future still needs foreign robots - Axios
Using generative AI to diversify virtual training grounds for robots – MIT News