27 Recent Articles about AI Fakes

AI Photo of Fake Fire Causes Panic at Texas High School – Gizmodo 

Can YOU spot the fake faces? – Daily Mail

New AI law used to charge middle school student who allegedly shared fake nude images of classmate - WWL-TV

What parents need to know about Sora, the generative AI video app blurring the line between real and fake – ABC News

Chatbots are surprisingly effective at debunking conspiracy theories  - MIT Technology Review

More AI actors are in development - Deadline

How conspiracy theories infiltrated the doctor’s office - MIT Technology Review

AI models remain easily distinguishable from humans in social media conversations – ArsTechnica

X Is Using AI Fact-Checkers – Columbia Journalism Review 

AI hallucinates because it’s trained to fake answers it doesn’t know – Science

US student handcuffed after AI system apparently mistook bag of chips for gun – The Guardian

Woman sent husband AI photos of intruder as a prank. He called 911. – Washington Post

Activist Robby Starbuck Sues Google Over Claims of False AI Info – Wall Street Journal  

How Trump Is Using Fake Imagery to Attack Enemies and Rouse Supporters – New York Times

My journey into the artificial world of Sora 2 – Poynter

Low-quality papers are flooding the cancer literature — can this AI tool help to catch them? – Nature  

OpenAI blocks Sora 2 users from using MLK Jr.'s likeness after "disrespectful depictions" – CBS News

AI video app tops the download charts —horrifying many families of dead celebrities - Washington Post

Deloitte to refund government, admits using AI in $440k report – Financial Review

Platforms are normalizing the practice of using public figures in AI video  – Columbia Journalism Review  

How Scammers Use AI and Cryptocurrency to Defraud Churches – Ministry Watch

How AI-powered hackers are stealing billions – The Economist

Fake microscopy images generated by AI are indistinguishable from the real thing. – Chemistry World

In an era of AI slop and mid TV, is it time for cultural snobbery to make a comeback? - The Guardian

A Short video from Particle6 in the UK that features AI ‘Actor’ Tilly Norwood (and is completely AI generated) – Particle6 

Creator of AI Actress Tilly Norwood Responds to Backlash: “She Is Not a Replacement for a Human Being” – Hollywood Reporter

Charlie Kirk's AI resurrection ushers in a new era of digital grief – Religious News Service

St. Pete police say woman faked crime using AI-generated image – Fox13

AI Definitions: Synthetic audience

Synthetic audience (or synthetic research) - The use of AI to create an artificial audience modeled on an actual human audience so that a company can use that synthetic audience like a focus group for research purposes.

More AI definitions

Which Jobs Will Change a lot Due to AI

When looking for jobs that will change a lot due to AI, I’d look at repetition of one rote task, each task being relatively independent, closed (not requiring too much context), short (in time), forgiving (the cost of mistake is low), and automatable given current capability. Even then, I’d expect to see AI adopted first as a tool. -Andrej Karpathy, the computer scientist who coined the term vibe coding

Love in Action

Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing - Fyodor Dostoevsky (Born Nov 11, 1821)

22 Articles about how Businesses are using AI

The Boss Has a Message: Use AI or You’re Fired – Wall Street Journal

Agentic brains and ‘digital gardeners’: How one CEO runs his AI office – Semafor

The British news publication The Times is using AI to model synthetic focus groups from human audiences – Digiday

AI Is Co-Writing Financial Reports. Here’s Why That Matters. – Wall Street Journal  

AI Is Teaching the Next Generation of M.B.A.s the Classic Case Study – Wall Street Journal  

By one estimate, 80 percent of U.S. stock gains this year came from A.I. companies. – Financial Times  

How Can Leaders Adapt to AI? – Wharton

‘Default to AI or Else,’ Says New Opendoor CEO in a Companywide Email. It’s a Lesson in Emotional Intelligence - Inc 

Visa preps for AI holiday shoppers, agentic commerce - Axios

Deloitte to refund government, admits using AI in $440k report – Financial Review

Morgan Stanley warns the AI boom may be running out of steam - Quartz

There Are Two Economies: A.I. and Everything Else - New York Times

An agreement with the AI startup to make AI movies can serve as a cautionary tale of the pitfalls of embracing a technology too early – The Wrap 

Why executives can’t afford to ignore Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) - MuckRack

Designing for humans: Why most enterprise adoptions of AI fail – Mark Greville  

Making cash off ‘AI slop’: The surreal business of AI video - The Washington Post  

Companies Are Pouring Billions Into A.I. It Has Yet to Pay Off. - New York Times 

GM Raided Silicon Valley to Build Its New AI Team. Here’s What It’s Doing. – Wall Street Journal 

An entrepreneurial revolution is coming across America - The Washington Post  

Taco Bell Rethinks Future of Voice AI at the Drive-Through – Wall Street Journal 

What's on the horizon for AI and public libraries? – Web Junction

AI’s Power Rush Lifts Smaller, Pricier Equipment Makers – Wall Street Journal

Podcasts about Journalism

The 404 Media Podcast —  A journalist-owned digital media company exploring the way technology is shaping–and is shaped by–our world. 

The Digiday Podcast — A weekly show about subscriptions, commerce, the modern newsroom, content creation, audio, streaming, and more.  

Freelancing for Journalists - How to approach freelancing, covering topics ranging from how to get started and what to include in pitches, to how to negotiate rates. Each episode includes guests on different career paths, and who have a variety of perspectives.    

IRE Radio Podcast (Investigative Reporters and Editors) — Behind the story with award-winning reporters, editors and producers to hear how they broke some big stories.

It's All Journalism — The series talks to working journalists about how they do their jobs, the latest trends in journalism, and the changing state of digital media. (not being updated) 

Journalism History — A scholarly journal covering the history of mass media.    

The Journalism Salute — A spotlight on interesting and important journalists and journalism organizations. 

The Kicker — This Columbia Journalism Review podcast explores serious and challenging topics related to journalism and media. (not being updated) 

Longform Podcast (longform.org) — A weekly conversation with a non-fiction writer on how they tell stories. (not being updated)  

Media Voices — Major media industry news each week from three experienced freelance journalists. The focus is on the business side of media and its impact on journalists’ work.

On the Media — Produced by WNYC radio, this is a weekly investigation into how the media shapes our worldview.  

Reveal (The Center for Investigative Reporting) — A look at CIR’s investigative reporting, focusing on real-world impact—from civil and criminal investigations to new laws and policies, better-informed conversations and community-driven solutions. 

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism — A discussion of the Institute's research on trends in media. Based at the University of Oxford, this think tank offers research on the future of journalism.   

The Tip Off — A behind the scenes look at standout investigative reporting from the journalists themselves. (not being updated) 

WriteLane (Tampa Bay Times and Poynter) — Some episodes explore a piece of the writing process: finding ideas, interviewing, seeking structure. Others dive deep into a single story, breaking down the how and why. Some include interviews with other journalists. (not being updated) 

Examples of older podcasts about journalists doing journalism: 

I'm Not A Monster (BBC Panorama and FRONTLINE PBS) — “How did an American family end up in the heart of the ISIS caliphate? Over four years, journalist Josh Baker unravels a dangerous story where nothing is as it seems.”   

The Other Latif (Radiolab)  — “How did this nerdy suburban Muslim kid come to be imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay?” 

The Canary | Washington Post Investigates —  “Two women and a shared refusal to stay silent. A seven-part podcast hosted by investigative reporter Amy Brittain.”

White Lies (NPR) — “In 1965, Rev. James Reeb was murdered in Selma, Alabama. Three men were tried and acquitted, but no one was ever held to account. Fifty years later, two journalists from Alabama return to the city where it happened, expose the lies that kept the murder from being solved and uncover a story about guilt and memory that says as much about America today as it does about the past.” 

The Line (Apple) — “Explore the impact of the forever wars on the U.S. Navy SEALs through the lens of the Eddie Gallagher case.”

The Lazarus Heist (BBC)  — “‘Almost a perfect crime.’ The hacking ring and an attempt to steal a billion dollars. Investigators blame North Korea. Pyongyang denies involvement. The story begins in Hollywood.” 

In the Dark (American Public Media) — “We investigate the case of Curtis Flowers, a Black man from Winona, Mississippi, who was tried six times for the same crime. Flowers spent more than 20 years fighting for his life while a white prosecutor spent that same time trying just as hard to execute him.”

Fluid & Crystallized Intelligence

British psychologist Raymond Cattell in the early 1940s introduced the concepts of fluid and crystallized intelligence. Cattell defined fluid intelligence as the ability to reason, analyze, and solve novel problems. Innovators typically have an abundance of fluid intelligence. It is highest relatively early in adulthood and diminishes starting in one’s 30s and 40s. Crystallized intelligence, in contrast, is the ability to use knowledge gained in the past. Think of it as possessing a vast library and understanding how to use it. It is the essence of wisdom. Because crystallized intelligence relies on an accumulating stock of knowledge, it tends to increase through one’s 40s, and does not diminish until very late in life. Careers that rely primarily on fluid intelligence tend to peak early, while those that use more crystallized intelligence peak later. 

Arthur C. Brooks writing in The Atlantic

It's Not

It’s not rocket surgery.

AI Supervision

One coding team spent 3 days fixing what should have been a 2-hour problem. They had "saved" time by having AI generate the initial implementation. But when it broke, they lost 70 hours trying to understand code they had never built themselves. The time you save upfront gets charged back with interest later. The best teams avoid this because the human engineer actually understands the code. They shaped it. They made the key decisions. The AI just handled the mechanical work of typing it out. The new constraint is: "Can we understand the code we're writing fast enough to keep moving?" Treat code review as a comprehension verification step, not just a bug-catching exercise. - Paul Sangle-Ferriere

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

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 in education's potential privacy nightmare - Axios 

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.

More at BBC News

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 

New AI battle: White House vs. Anthropic - Axois

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