Shame & Lament
/Shame drives me to hide in my room. Lament pulls me into tomorrow. -Ryan Shoemaker
19 Articles about Using AI
/I Gave an AI Agent Access to My Passwords. Here’s What Happened. – Wall Street Journal
Prioritize routing over model choice. Most AI work runs on cheap local models. - Tomasz Tunguz
The 5 types of AI queries and what they mean for your GEO strategy – MuckRack
Marketers grappled with how to influence A.I. chatbots. – New York Times
I added one sentence to every ChatGPT prompt I write — and the results were immediately better – Tom’s Guide
Google Answers Question About SEO For AI Agents – Search Engine Journal
In the age of AI, knowing what not to build might be the most important skill of all. - Jakub Krehel
1.5M people use GenAI.mil, the Defense Department’s enterprise generative AI platform – Defense Scoop
Can Your AI Pass the Accessibility Test? – Aaron Gustafson
When Americans choose Chinese AI – Rest of World
Loop Engineering & AI - Addy Osmani
A.I. doubles is the new productivity hack for CEOs and Harvard profs - New York Times
How AI citations have changed in the last 6 months: New insights from ‘What is AI Reading?’ – MuckRack
These AI models are free, private, and will never say 'no' – NPR
Since chatbots hallucinate their own facts, it’s useful (and easy) to have a second, nitpicking AI that can audit the results for errors - Wall Street Journal
How to retain your humanity and embrace AI - Axios
Teaching AI models to say “I’m not sure” – MIT
Stop asking ChatGPT to rewrite your drafts. Try this prompt instead – PC World
AI & Teaching
/Learning is a largely social and relational enterprise, and bots have yet to replicate the value of a human touch. Teachers are still our best source of motivation for students, not only because strong ones know how to push kids to learn new things, but also because education works best when it happens in a group. - Jenny Anderson and Mike Goldstein writing in The Atlantic
Self-Respect
/Self-respect is the fruit of discipline: the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. -Abraham J. Heschel
Job Search Tips 2026
/Based on recent research:
· Apply directly on the company’s website rather than through LinkedIn, Indeed, etc.
· Make your resume computer readable and easy to for software to ingest.
· Avoid including your address, especially if you don’t live near the company. Just contact info.
· Write short declarative sentences in your submission materials.
· Quantify achievements with specifics.
· Include a special skills section, especially soft skills.
· Active verbs.
· Make sure the resume includes most but not all the keywords in the job description.
· Resume headings: Summary, experience, education, skills, certifications, special skills.
· Avoid breaks in job employment (especially more than six months).
· Don’t use prompt injections.
Based on material from Hilke Schellmann, Associate Professor of Journalism at New York University and author of the book The Algorithm
The Work Product is Judgment
/We are not watching the death of programming. We are watching programming stop being a job title and become a capability, the same way "typist" stopped being a job title when it became a thing everyone was expected to know. The jobs disappearing are the ones where the work product is code written to spec. The jobs growing are the ones where the work product is judgment about what code should exist. - Laurie Voss writing in Seldo.com
Rejection
/See rejection as feedback.
21 Recent Articles about the Dangers of AI
/One of sci-fi’s most difficult questions about AI is becoming real – Washington Post
How AI Advice Is Undermining Eating-Disorder Therapy – Wall Street Journal
Who decides when AI is too dangerous? – The Verge
Age bias discovered in AI – Phys.org
AI Data Centers Use Far More Water Than Most Tech Giants Report - Wall Street Journal
AI’s impact on cognitive ability: MIT study reveals more troubling data – MIT
AI is eroding science’s foundations—we must act – Research Professional News
Medical students are using a popular research tool (aided by AI) to pump out misleading studies – Science.org
The Cloud Has Sound: The Unrelenting and Unseen Cost of A.I. Data Centers - The New York Times
Nvidia says AI's water challenge is largely solved – Axios
AI models have a troubling knack for discovering legal loopholes - Science.org
AI Supercharges Deepfake Nudes—Unleashing a New Form of Bullying Among Kids – Wall Street Journal
Was This the Moment That AI Psychosis Began? – Futurism
The Data-Center Panic Is Overblown – The Atlantic
Scientists Find Way to Supercharge Dangerous Computer ‘Worms’ With A.I. - The New York Times
Disparate privacy risks from medical AI – Nature
Are ChatGPT and other AI chatbots politically biased? We tested them. - Washington Post
AI Changes Its Feedback on Students’ Writing When It Knows Their Race, Gender – EdWeek
New York Times Publisher’s A.I. Warnings - The New York Times
Cop Accused of Using AI to Fake Evidence – Futurism
The first grand surprise of LLMs
/The first grand surprise of LLMs is that the intelligence we experience in AI derives from the intelligence we have inadvertently coded into human text, rather than from any explicit software code. There appears to be a seminal, fundamental relationship between language and thinking. Human writing is thus not only a reflection of the structure of language, but to some degree also a reflection of human thinking. Distill the patterns in human writing at scale, and you also get some patterns of human thinking. Imitate human writing and conversation, and you can imitate human intelligence — at least in part. -Kevin Kelly
28 Articles about using LinkedIn
/3 Brilliant LinkedIn Summaries That Will Inspire You to Update Yours Right Now - The Muse
4 Tips for Reaching out to Someone you admire on LinkedIn - The Muse
4 ways you should be using LinkedIn to take the next step in your career - Fast Company
Before you use the 'Open to Work' badge on LinkedIn, read this - Fast Company
Finding Freelance writing on LinkedIn - Twitter
How to Craft the Perfect LinkedIn Profile - (infographic)
How to Make Your LinkedIn Profile Stand Out - Entrepreneur
How to Promote Yourself on LinkedIn as a Writer: 7 Tips and Tools - MakeUseOf
How to use LinkedIn after being laid off - The Washington Post
How To Write A Bio For LinkedIn: Introduce Yourself With A Story - Forbers
How to Write an SEO-Enhanced LinkedIn Profile - SHRM
Job seekers: A 50-year-old social theory could be the key to your success on LinkedIn - Fast Company
LinkedIn Author Has Strategic Advice To Improve Your Profile - Forbes
LinkedIn expands its generative AI assistant to recruitment ads and writing profiles – Tech Crunch
The LinkedIn job scam is global. The hook is local - Rest of World
The LinkedIn Makeovers That Actually Get People Hired - Wall Street Journal
LinkedIn Profiles Vs. Resumes: What You Need To Know - Forbes
LinkedIn taps AI to make it easier for firms to find job candidates – Reuters
LinkedIn’s ‘career break’ feature - Washington Post
LinkedIn’s job-matching AI was biased. The company’s solution? More AI - MIT Tech Review
LinkedIn's new feature offers people 13 ways to explain their career gap - Business Insider
A Massive LinkedIn Study Reveals Who Actually Helps You Get That Job - Scientific American
The Perfect Professional Headshot is worth $1000, and maybe even a job - WSJ
This is what an A+ LinkedIn Summary Looks like - GirlBoss
What Really Works On LinkedIn? Answers From The Experts - Buffer
Why are women gender-swapping on LinkedIn? - The Washington Post
Your LinkedIn network’s huge! Here’s why that’s a red flag - SmartBrief
Your LinkedIn Profile Probably Features These 5 Mistakes - Entrepreneur
Increasing Motivation
/People feel motivated when they are put in situations that give them autonomy (I’m in control of my choices), competence (I’m developing my skills), and relatedness (people here care about me). In my experience, motivation increases with admiration, such as when students are confronted with great people or great works of art. Motivation also increases with apprenticeships, such as when a mentor not only teaches a person how to engineer, but also how to be the kind of person who loves engineering. -David Brooks writing in The Atlantic
AI Definitions: Neural Networks
/Neural Networks (or artificial neural networks, ANNs) – A computer system modeled loosely on the human brain, inspired by brain cells (neurons). The artificial network finds complex associations, identifying patterns in text, images and sounds. In this type of machine learning, which underpins deep learning, scientists can train systems to “learn” human tasks by analyzing training examples. It processes information in layers, with the deepest layers doing the most complex work. Most recent developments in artificial intelligence have centered around neural networks (such as voice recognition, autonomous navigation, and drug discovery), though symbolic artificial intelligence was the dominant area of research for most of AI’s history.
Critics say our physical embodiment may be difficult if not impossible for symbolic processing systems to capture. If understanding is inseparable from physical experience, then the usefulness of neural networks will hit a limit.
Neural networks were first proposed in 1944 by two University of Chicago researchers (Warren McCullough and Walter Pitts). They moved to MIT in 1952 as founding members of what has been referred to as the first cognitive science department. Neural nets remained a major research area of neuroscience and computer science until 1969. A decade later, it enjoyed a resurgence, fell out of favor again in the first decade of the new century, and has since returned in the second decade, fueled by the increased processing power of graphics chips (or GPUs— graphical processing hardware) because of their use in video games.
15 Articles about AI & Science
/AI tools meant to vet science are surprisingly easy to fool – ScienceNews.org
‘Humanizer’ tool can erase signs of AI-written text — alarming scientists – Nature
Biologists Should Articulate Their Position on AI – Undark
AI is eroding science’s foundations—we must act – Research Professional News
Medical students are using a popular research tool (aided by AI) to pump out misleading studies – Science.org
AI makes Pompeii victim’s final moments look shockingly real - PopSci
No humans allowed: scientific AI agents get their own social network – Nature
Fraud and the false optimism of AI for science – StatModeling
OpenAI launches new AI model for life sciences research – Axios
If a Large Language Model can replicate your scientific contribution, the problem is not the LLM – Nature
Bloodhound code sniffs out copied-and-pasted numerical data – Retraction Watch
Scientists used AI to crack one of water's biggest mysteries – ScienceDaily
How to build an AI scientist: first peer-reviewed paper spills the secrets – Nature
Claude Science, an AI workbench for scientists, is now available – Anthropic
AI can help scientists publish less – Nature
Chatbots Are Replacing Therapists With Little Scientific Evidence Behind Them – Wall Street Journal
Not Enough
/To me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is “I didn't get enough sleep.” And the next one is “I don't have enough time.” Whether true or not, the thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it. We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don't have enough of ... Before we even set up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we're already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something. And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds are racing with a litany of what we didn't get, or didn't get done, that day. We go to sleep burdened by those thoughts and wake up to that revelry of lack ... This internal condition of scarcity, this mindset of scarcity, lives at the very heart of our jealousies, our greed, our prejudices, and our arguments with life.
Lynne Twist, The Soul of Money
What it means to be an Expert in an AI World
/Generative AI will redefine what we mean by expertise.
Much as Google devalued the steel-trap memory, electronic calculators speeded up complex calculations, Wikipedia displaced the printed encyclopedia and online databases diminished the importance of a vast physical library, so, too, platforms like ChatGPT will profoundly alter the most prized skills.
According to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, an organizational psychologist and professor of business psychology at University College London and Columbia, the skills that will be most in demand (in an AI world) will be the ability to:
1. Know what questions to ask. The quality and value of AI-powered tools’ responses hinge on the prompts it is asked. Better prompts elicit richer and more robust responses.
2. Go beyond crowdsourced knowledge. Advanced and specialized domain and subject matter expertise will become more valuable, since AI-produced responses will inevitably contain errors or oversimplifications. The capacity to spot inaccuracies, miscalculations, mistakes in coding and other boo-boos and correct errors or complicate understanding will be highly valued.
3. Leverage AI-generated insights into decisions and actions. Information becomes most valuable when it is actually applied in real-world contexts: when we solve problems or translate ideas into tangible products and services. The ability to implement solutions is, of course, well beyond AI’s current capabilities.
As Chamorro-Premuzic puts it succinctly, “If we want to retain an edge over machines, it is advisable that we avoid acting like one.” In other words, if a program can do a job as well as a person, then humans shouldn’t duplicate those abilities; they must surpass them.
Michael Patrick Rutter and Steven Mintz writing in Inside Higher Ed
AI Can’t Fix the Student-Motivation Problem
/Only about one in three students is highly engaged in school, according to U.S. census data—a share that has remained stable over the past decade. Even among the driven few, only a fraction of kids use ed-tech tools. About 5 percent of students use education technology as intended, thus reaping the learning benefits. That means that instead of democratizing access to affordable tutors, these tools could very well widen inequality by supercharging students who are already motivated to get ahead. - Jenny Anderson and Mike Goldstein writing in The Atlantic
"We’re using the wrong pronoun"
/“We’re using the wrong pronoun. It’s not it. It’s them. Picture a single intelligence and you naturally fret about control, about the off switch and the leash and the one point where everything might fail. Picture a great many of them and the questions turn ecological. Imagine ‘a whole ecosystem of different species of AI’, each carving out its niche, each held in check by the others, the balance between them doing quietly what no central authority ever could.” -Matt Ridley
God is a comedian
/God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. (attributed to Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and H. L. Mencken)
30 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism & Media
/Mon, July 13 - AI for Everyday Automation: Practical Tools You Can Use This Week
What: Practical framework for finding where AI fits your actual workflows, based on how he uses it daily in his own nonprofit work — not just for drafting, but for automating repetitive tasks, connecting systems, and pulling insights out of data that used to take days.
Who: Daniel Lombardi, an "accidental techie" and author of “No Code Nonprofit .”
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: TechSoup
Mon, July 13 - Trust on Trial: AI Output, Human Judgement
What: We will explore How leaders and professionals evaluate AI output; When speed gains ground over judgment—and when that's dangerous; How to maintain accountability in environments where machines influence decisions; Building trust in organizations where AI increasingly shapes what gets decided; Practical ways to balance AI efficiency with human judgment.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The AI Collective
Tue, July 14 – Reimagining Media Literacy Through Neurodivergent Cognitive Pathways
What: What if instruction acknowledged that learners bring diverse ways of processing information, navigating ambiguity, organizing ideas, recognizing patterns, interpreting social cues, and constructing meaning? What if we intentionally designed media literacy moves with neurodivergent cognition in mind? By honoring cognitive diversity, we can design inclusive pathways, making media literacy practices more accessible, sustainable, and transferable beyond the classroom.
Who: Katie McNamara, a teacher librarian at a public high school in California and is the director of the Teacher Librarian Program at Fresno Pacific University.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Media Education Lab
Tue, July 14 - Making the Past Present: Strategies for Reporting on History
What: We will discuss how journalists can use historical research to power their own work, adding crucial perspectives and findings that can recast the present.
Who: Journalist and author Lee Hawkins
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
Tue, July 14 - How Nonprofits Are Using AI to Improve Marketing Performance
What: We will explore how nonprofits are using AI to improve marketing performance. Topics include personalization and segmentation at scale, AI-driven campaign optimization, and real examples of AI in marketing workflows. Attendees will gain clarity on how to apply AI in a practical way to drive stronger results and more effective campaigns.
Who: Joe DiGiovanni Co-Founder, Tapp Network; Sarah Bucci, Senior Account Manager, Tapp Network; Aretha Simons, webinar producer, nonprofit consultant & AI adoption strategist.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Tapp Network
Tue, July 14 - Introducing AI with Purpose and Practicality
What: Learn how libraries can introduce AI with purpose and practicality through makerspace activities, community conversations, curated guidebooks, strategic partnerships and other creative services.
Who: Amanda Sweet, the Technology Innovation Librarian for the Nebraska Library Commission.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Association of Southeastern Research Libraries
Tue, July 14 - Actor-driven innovation to empower performers for the age of AI
What: As rapid advances in artificial intelligence reshape the creative economy, the goal is to empower actors, creators, and professionals across industries to harness these tools, while elevating the irreplaceable human qualities no technology can supersede. We support the idea that actor training represents one of the most underutilized frameworks for human development in the modern economy.
Who: Emily Roxworthy, Dean of the School of Dramatic Arts at the University of Southern California.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsors: USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, and the USC School of Dramatic Arts.
Tue, July 14 - When AI Comes Knocking: A Decision Framework for Archival Collections
What: This webinar introduces the UVA Archival AI Protocol, a decision framework downloaded over 6,000 times since its release, and the Statement of Shared Practice, a coalition commitment now signed by 17 institutions and growing. Together, they reframe AI training access as a disposition decision rather than an access decision, a distinction that changes how libraries evaluate risk, obligation, and community trust.
Who: Leo S. Lo, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, University of Virginia.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: American Library Association
Tue, July 14 - Chatbots and their informational needs
What: How the public is using AI chatbots to get informed.
Who: Jay Barchas-Lichtenstein, Senior Research Manager at the Center for News, Technology & Innovation.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free to members
Sponsor: Online News Association
Tue, July 14 - Trust Is the New Moat. The Hidden Buying and Investing Criteria for Enterprise AI
What: Every enterprise AI deal has a hidden gate. Before a buyer signs or an investor writes a check, they're running the same quiet screen: can I trust this thing where it matters.
Who: Michael Luu runs risk for a major water utility; Vik Ghai, Managing Partner, G2C Ventures; Adelina Martiniuc, CEO, RoryPlans.ai.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The AI Collective
Tue, July 14 - AI Basics for Journalists
What: We will cover the basics of large language models and show you how to set up custom preferences, design prompts and how to use the technology safely and ethically in a journalistic way.
Who: Mike Reilley Founder, JournalistsToolbox.AI, AI and Digital Trainer.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Public Media Journalists Association
Wed, July 15 - How Dennik N built a reader-first subscription culture
What: We will explain how one of Europe’s most successful subscription news businesses nurtured a reader-first culture within the company, how that success centered on getting journalists to care about what readers value most, and how they used reader data to shape coverage priorities, hiring decisions, newsroom incentives, and editorial strategy.
Who: Tomáš Bella, one of Denník N’s co-founders and now CEO of EUobserver.
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: International News Media Association
Wed, July 15 - How to Leverage AI to Analyze Learning Metrics That Matter
What: We’ll show you how to tame platform sprawl, kill data silos and establish an insight-driven ecosystem that your stakeholders trust. You’ll leave with the metrics that actually matter today, a roadmap to consolidate your data and the confidence to drive data fluency across your L&D org.
Who: Gary Lamach II EVP, Chief Transformation Officer, ELB Learning.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Training Magazine Network
Wed, July 15 - Copyright Essentials: Copyright 101
What: This event is the latest edition in our educational series designed to teach copyright basics and key concepts to creators within various disciplines. In this session, we will discuss the foundations of copyright law, the process of copyright registration, and Copyright Office programs supporting research, enforcement, and understanding concepts like fair use. They will also answer commonly asked questions; review educational resources and registration options, such as the Office’s Copyright Registration Toolkit; and share how the Copyright Office’s Public Information Office can assist along the way.
Who: Representatives from the Copyright Office.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: U.S. Copyright Office
Wed, July 15 - Meet the Author: When the Declaration of Independence Was News
What: We will discuss how the newspapers of 1776 affected the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and how the world heard about America’s break with Great Britain.
Who: Emily Sneff is an early American historian and leading expert on the Declaration of Independence.
When: 6 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The DC chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists
Wed, July 15 - Midterm Prep Webinar
What: We will give editors, broadcasters, producers and reporters actionable reporting strategies to strengthen their election coverage ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Who: Jon Greenberg, Beat Academy lead faculty; Caryn Baird, Poynter news researcher; Amy Sherman PolitiFact senior correspondent.
When: Not provided
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Poynter
Wed, July 15 - AI foundations for legal aid professionals
What: This session is built for those who want to understand what the tools can do, how to prompt clearly, and where AI can help with day-to-day work while keeping professional responsibility and client trust front and center.
Who: Bright Kellog Program Manager, OpenAI; Kath Kennelly Program Manager, OpenAI.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsors: OpenAI Academy, Everlaw, the Legal Services National Technology Assistance Project
Wed, July 15 - AI for Compliance: What Teams Are Using Today
What: How legal and compliance teams are putting AI to work today, the governance principles required to use it responsibly, and the emerging opportunities that will define the future of compliance programs. Attendees will gain practical insights into real-world AI workflows, learn what separates effective compliance-focused AI from generic solutions, and explore how organizations can improve efficiency while maintaining accountability, consistency, and oversight.
Who: Jeremy Hui, Kara Rayburn.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: NAVEX
Wed, July 15 - Winning Brand Trust in the Age of AI: The IRL Media Advantage
What: We’ll explore new research on how IRL (in-real-life) media helps brands build credibility and connection in an increasingly synthetic world. From shared, real-world experiences that create collective validation, to the “proof of presence” that signals accountability, IRL offers a powerful counterbalance to growing digital distrust.
Who: Christina Radigan, Chief Research Officer, OUTFRONT Media; Stacy Lamkin, Partner Kantar Consulting.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Association of National Advertisers
Wed, July 15 - Understanding the media: A starter guide for scientists
What: This webinar is designed specifically for media-curious scientists with little or no media experience—teaches the basics scientists need to know as they consider dipping their toes or diving deeper into media engagement. We provide an overview of the U.S. news landscape, including the different types of media outlets and reporters a scientist might encounter (and what each is looking for), professional similarities and differences between journalists and scientists, and the risks and benefits of participating in interviews.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsors: SciLine Media & the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Thu, July 16 - Strategy First: How Micro-Enterprises Should Really Be Using AI
What: You’ll walk away with a practical framework for evaluating where AI can genuinely move the needle in your business — and where it can’t. We’ll work through how to translate big-picture goals into specific operational problems, how to audit your workflows for the bottlenecks that are actually costing you, and how to apply a simple decision filter before adopting any new tool.
Who: Isabel Krome, Temple Small Business Development Center.
When: 9 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Temple Small Business Development Center
Thu, July 16 - Virtual Panel: AI in Practice for Small Business
What: Insights on how AI is shaping the future of work, business operations, marketing, customer engagement, and decision-making. Panelists will discuss current trends, real-world use cases, opportunities for growth, and important considerations as AI tools become increasingly accessible to organizations of all sizes.
Who: Experts from academia, business, and technology.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Bucknell Small Business Development Center
Thu, July 16 - Practical Uses of AI in Your Small Business
What: Join us as we walk through examples for your small business to utilize AI, including: Starting a Business, Marketing Your Business, Creating Content, Responding to Prompts, and more.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Widener University Small Business Development Center
Thu, July 16 - Introduction to Digital Marketing with AI
What: This beginner-friendly webinar is designed specifically for small business owners, solo entrepreneurs, and local service providers. You’ll learn the essentials of digital marketing, from setting up a Google Business Profile to boost local SEO, to using social media platforms
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: University of Pittsburgh Small Business Development Center
Thu, July 16 - AI for Media Sales Professionals Overview: Working Smarter, not Harder
What: An overview of how AI can increase your productivity and sales at every step of the sales cycle including prospecting, pre-meeting research, audit to identify opportunity, industry trends and competitive intelligence, campaign ideas and value-added insights, proposal context and storytelling, objection handling and closing. We’ll look at a couple of tools that can really make a difference and how to maximize your use with SMART prompts.
Who: Shannon Kinney, a seasoned startup Founder and Executive with over 30 years of experience in digital marketing.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: $35
Sponsor: Online Media Campus
Thu, July 16 - Builder Bootcamp: RAG
What: You’ll learn how to build a retrieval-augmented generation pipeline using OpenAI’s File Search, Responses, and Evals APIs. We’ll walk through how to structure source content, create a vector store, retrieve relevant context, and generate grounded answers. You’ll also learn how to evaluate answer quality, tune retrieval behavior, and use evals to understand whether your system is returning accurate, useful responses. This session is geared toward builders working on knowledge assistants, support workflows, or any application that needs to ground answers in trusted content.
Who: Benedict Kerres, AI Deployment Engineer, OpenAI; Lakshya Dhar, Builder AI Deployment Manager, OpenAI; Marcus Stallworth, Builder ADM, OpenAI.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Thu, July 16 - AI Coding Assistants vs Cybersecurity Reality
What: We’ll share what we learned from building and testing a real application with AI—and explain why security is more important than ever. You’ll learn: Why AI-generated code can still have many security gaps; New risks like prompt injection and fake packages; Simple ways to use AI safely with security checks in place.
Who: Steve R. Smith, CISSP, Black Duck.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: BlackDuck
Thu, July 16 - Building Websites with Codex Sites
What: Learn how Codex Sites can help you create a website for a personal project, small business, community group, portfolio, or anything else you're passionate about. This session is open to everyone and does not require any previous experience with coding or web design. We'll walk through the process together and show how AI can help make building and publishing a website more accessible than ever.
Who: Keelan Schule, Education Solutions Engineer, OpenAI.
When: 3 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Thu, July 16 - Reimagining News Audiences: The Role of Visuals in Developing Connection, Trust, and Growth with your Community
What: In this interactive webinar, we’ll explore how nonprofit newsrooms can use visuals to strengthen audience engagement and support growth, even with limited staff and budgets. Attendees will leave with practical ideas for integrating visual storytelling into their audience development efforts.
When: 4 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: New England Newspaper & Press Association
Fri, July 17 - Improving engagement with new models and AI-formatted content
What: We will demonstrate an innovative, AI-supported “Smart Story Suite" designed to engage users across varying environments, time constraints and levels of interest — a model that’s already showing signs of success.
Who: Ronald Yaros, an associate professor of digital engagement at Merrill College, director of the Digital Engagement Lab; Reid Williams, Co-founder and Secretary, The Local Journalism Foundation.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: University of Maryland
AI Definitions: Distillation
/Distillation (also called knowledge distillation) – This is training an AI model using the outputs of another model. Small models can learn from larger teacher models. There is disagreement as to where to draw the line between using this technique for the legitimate study of how AI models work and unethical business practices. It is yet to be determined whether it violates any U.S law. Many Chinese AI models have been accused of using it to accelerate the development of their own models through overseas proxy services called transfer stations. Knowledge distillation was first discussed in a 2015 paper by three Google researchers. It will probably fade in importance as AI companies move toward developing AI agents.