Ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Stephen Goforth
There's a little bit of evidence that adults who are novelists or musicians, for example, tend to remember the imaginary friends they had when they were children. It's as if they are staying in touch with those childhood abilities in a way that most of us don't. Successful creative adults seem to combine the wide-ranging exploration and openness we see in children with the focus and discipline we see in adults.
Alison Gopnik, The Philosophical Baby
Hallucinations – When an AI provides responses that are inaccurate or not based on facts. Generative AI models are designed to generate data that is realistic or distributionally equivalent to the training data and yet different from the actual data used for training. This is why they are better at brainstorming than reflecting the real world and why they should not be treated as sources of truth or factual knowledge. Generative AI models can answer some questions correctly, but this is not what they are designed and trained to do. However, hallucinating AIs can be very useful to researchers, providing innovative insights that speed up the scientific process.
The line separating good and evil passes, not through states, nor between classes nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart. –Alexander Solzhenitsyn (born Dec. 11, 1918)
5 AI bots took our tough reading test. One was smartest — and it wasn’t ChatGPT. – Washington Post
If You Turn Down an AI’s Ability to Lie, It Starts Claiming It’s Conscious – Futurism
The People Outsourcing Their Thinking to AI – The Atlantic
What Is Agentic A.I., and Would You Trust It to Book a Flight? – New York Times
Staying Ahead of AI in Your Career – KD Nuggets
How to talk to grandma about ChatGPT - Axios
Research says being 'rude' to ChatGPT makes it more efficient — I ran a politeness test to find out – Tom’s Guide
SEO Is Dead: Welcome To GEO And Generative AI Search – Forbes
She used ChatGPT to win the Virginia lottery and then donated every dollar – Washington Post
The risks of giving ChatGPT more personality – Axios
The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation – McKinsey
Poll shows a generational divide in how Americans use AI for work, creativity, and personal connection – Milwaukee Independent
AI for therapy? Some therapists are fine with it — and use it themselves. – Washington Post
These students, tech workers and artists just say no to AI - The Washington Post
5 Tips When Consulting ‘Dr.’ ChatGPT – New York Times
A Googler explains how to “meta prompt” for incredible Veo videos – Google
A Beginner’s Guide To Building AI Agents - Bernard Marr
6 AI mistakes you should avoid when using chatbots - The Washington Post
I’m an A.I. Developer. Here’s How I’m Raising My Son. - New York Times
Is it ok for politicians to use AI? Survey shows where the public draws the line – The Conversation
When should students begin learning about AI? – K-12 Dive
It’s become common for writers to mock AI’s stilted, wooden, and em-dash-heavy writing style. But with some gentle coaxing, AI is much better at writing than professional writers want to admit. In one 2025 study, three top AI models were pitted against MFA-trained writers. In initial tests, expert readers clearly preferred the human writing. But once researchers fine-tuned ChatGPT on an individual author’s full body of work, the results flipped. Suddenly, experts preferred the AI’s writing and often couldn’t tell whether it came from a human or a machine. – Derek Thompson
Sitting at the core of many generative AI tools, a foundation model is starting point of many machine learning models. These deep-learning neural networks are trained on massive datasets. In contrasts with traditional machine learning models, which typically perform specific tasks, foundation models are adaptable and able to perform a wide range of tasks. These models are sometimes called Large X Models or LXMs. A video explanation.
For some people, the less likely an explanation, the more likely they are to believe it. Take flat-Earth believers. Their claim rests on the idea that all the pilots, astronomers, geologists, physicists, and GPS engineers in the world are intentionally coordinating to mislead the public about the shape of the planet. From a prior odds perspective, the likelihood of a plot so enormous and intricate coming together out of all other conceivable possibilities is vanishingly small. But bizarrely, any demonstration of counterevidence, no matter how strong, just seems to cement their worldview further.
Liv Boeree writing in Vox
Google to launch its first AI-powered glasses next year – CNBC
How artificial intelligence can help achieve a clean energy future – MIT
The AI model that uses sounds like coughs & sniffles to predict early signs of disease – Mashable
AI unreliable in identifying retracted research papers, says study – Retraction Watch
What Investing in the Age of AI Will Look Like – Wall Street Journal
OpenAI looks to replace the drudgery of junior bankers’ workload - Bloomberg
AI and the Fountain of Youth - Wall Street Journal
Police are drowning in data. Could a chatbot help? – Washington Post
AI Is Going to Consume a Lot of Energy. It Can Also Help Us Consume Less. - Wall Street Journal
ChatGPT-powered dolls are becoming caregivers in South Korea – Semafor
AI-driven private schools are popping up around the U.S., from North Carolina to Florida – Axios
IBM and NASA made an open-source AI model for predicting solar weather – Engadget
Want to take better photos? Google thinks AI is the answer. - Washington Post
Determining whether accurate AI systems can apply that process to a different area – MIT
Air Force aiming to turbocharge wargaming with AI – Defense Scoop
Replace your boss before they replace you. Generate thought leadership at the push of a button. AI CEO: Delivering total nonsense, with complete confidence.
World Models are AI systems that build up an internal approximation of an environment. Through trial and error, these bots use the representation to evaluate predictions and decisions before applying the results to real-world tasks. This contrasts with LLMs, which operate based on correlations within language and not on connections to the worth itself. In the late 1980s, world models fell out of favor with scientists working on artificial intelligence and robotics. The rise of machine learning has brought interest in developing these systems back to life.
An early look at the Pentagon’s plan to deliver AI at scale under Trump - Defense Scoop
A.I. Fighter Jets and Cockroach Spies: Inside the Changing Business of War – New York Times
Pentagon begins deploying new satellite network to link sensors with shooters – ArsTechnica
AI-Powered Drone Swarms Have Now Entered the Battlefield – Wall Street Journal
A band of AI innovators reimagines the spy game for a world with no cover – Washington Post
Air Force aiming to turbocharge wargaming with AI – Defense Scoop
Can AI and Drones Replace Soldiers and Jets? - Wall Street Journal
How Big Tech learned to love America's military – Quartz
Israel developed new A.I. tools to gain an advantage in the war in Gaza. - New York Times
Anthropic launches new Claude service for military and intelligence use – The Verge
Israel’s A.I. Experiments in Gaza War Raise Ethical Concerns - New York Times
AI drones are America's newest cops – Axios
Military experts warn security hole in most AI chatbots can sow chaos – Defense News
China’s AI warpath – Politico
Who will lead on military AI, the government or industry? – Breaking Defense
The Army’s linking big guns, drones, and AI with its new command system and testing how it’ll fight future wars – Business Insider
Air Force Using AI to Plan Storage for Munitions – Air & Space Forces
To live without hope is to cease to live. -Fyodor Dostoevsky (born November 11, 1821)
CalMatters this year launched a new feature that takes this kind of civic watchdog function a big step further. Its AI Tip Sheets feature uses AI to search through all of this data, looking for anomalies, such as a change in voting position tied to a large campaign contribution. These anomalies appear on a webpage that journalists can access to give them story ideas and a source of data and analysis to drive further reporting. - The Guardian
Moravec’s Paradox - What is hard for humans is easy for machines, and what is easy for humans is hard for machines. For instance, a robot can play chess or hold an object still for hours on end with no problem. Tying a shoelace, catching a ball, or having a conversation is another matter. This is why AI excels at complex tasks like data analysis but also struggles with simple physical interactions, and why developing robots that are effective in the real world will take time and extraordinary technological advances. This paradox is attributed to Hans Moravec, an Austrian who worked at Carnegie Mellon.
Listening is not thinking about what you are going to say when the other person has stopped talking. – H Norman Wright
There are many reasons why relationships fail, but if you look at what drives the deterioration of many relationships, it’s often a breakdown of kindness. As the normal stresses of a life together pile up—with children, career, friend, in-laws, and other distractions crowding out the time for romance and intimacy—couples may put less effort into their relationship and let the petty grievances they hold against one another tear them apart. In most marriages, levels of satisfaction drop dramatically within the first few years together. But among couples who not only endure, but live happily together for years and years, the spirit of kindness and generosity guides them forward.
Emily Esfahani Smith writing in The Atlantic
"The next time you encounter an unusually polite reply on social media, you might want to check twice. It could be an AI model trying (and failing) to blend in with the crowd. A new study reveals that AI models remain easily distinguishable from humans in social media conversations, with overly friendly emotional tone serving as the most persistent giveaway. Also, the AI models struggled to match the level of casual negativity and spontaneous emotional expression common in human social media posts." -ArsTechnica
When perfectionists become parents, their mindsets don't change; they just shift their unreasonable expectations onto their children. Now their kids must be perfect too. In fact, a number of studies have found that perfectionists are so busy worrying about the drive for excellence that they aren't sensitive are responsive to the children's real needs.
Perfectionist parenting is anxious parenting. So that their children never make mistakes, these parents are overprotective, controlling, authoritarian, intrusive and dominating.
(Not that any of it helps: Research at Macquarie University in Australia showed that perfectionist parents’ tendencies to admonish kids and emphasize accuracy didn't decrease errors in children's work.)
Unsurprisingly kids of perfectionists are perfectionists too, adopting the same unreasonable expectations and exaggerated responses to failure. As a result, they're more likely to be anxious and obsessive. According to the University of Louisville researchers Nicholas Affrunti and Janet Woodriff-Borden, every time parents rush into fix something their kids learn their mistakes of threatening and they come to believe they can't be trusted to handle new experiences on the run.
And through their parents’ disengagement, kids learn that love is conditional. The only way to get it? Achieve.
Ashley Merryman, co-author of Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing
Woman Scammed by Ad With Deepfake of Her Doctor – NBC’s Today Show
What the next generation of doctors needs to know about AI – WBUR
AI Accurately Predicts Complication Risk After Kidney Cancer Surgery – Cancer Nursing Today
AI fails to reliably detect pediatric pneumonia on X-ray – Univ of Wisconsin Medicine
People Are Uploading Their Medical Records to A.I. Chatbots – New York Times
Instead of an AI Health Coach, You Could Just Have Friends – Wired
The AI model that uses sounds like coughs & sniffles to predict early signs of disease – Mashable
The right place for AI companions in mental health care – Stat News
We found what you’re asking ChatGPT about health. A doctor scored its answers. – Washington Post
How AI can monitor your movements to improve your health – Fast Company
The perils of politeness: how large language models may amplify medical misinformation – Nature
How conspiracy theories infiltrated the doctor’s office - MIT Technology Review
Microsoft launches 'superintelligence' team targeting medical diagnosis to start – Reuters
AI steps in to detect the world's deadliest infectious disease – NPR
Agentic AI advantage for pharma - Mckinsey
5 Tips When Consulting ‘Dr.’ ChatGPT – New York Times
AI May Be the Cure for Doctor Burnout, After All – Newsweek
Answering your questions about using AI as a health care guide – Washington Post
RTP startup uses AI to fight health insurance denials – Axios
OpenEvidence, the ChatGPT for doctors, raises $200M at $6B valuation – TechCrunch
Low-quality papers are flooding the cancer literature — can this AI tool help to catch them? – Nature
How AI is taking over every step of drug discovery - Chemical & Engineering News
Coalition for Health AI faces escalating attacks by Trump officials, loss of founding member Amazon – StatNews
Empathetic, Available, Cheap: When A.I. Offers What Doctors Don’t – New York Times
How AI scribes could usher in higher medical bills - StatNews
Review of Large Language Models for Patient and Caregiver Support in Cancer Care Delivery – ASCO
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