Laying a Foundation
/A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. -David Brinkley
AI & Formation
/The comment “AI could have done it in five minutes” is not really about speed. It is a moral revaluation. It assumes that what matters is the output, not the ordeal; the image, not the seeing; the product, not the person becoming capable of making it. AI offers competence without apprenticeship. Fluency without understanding. A student who internalizes that pattern does not become lazier; he becomes less formed, less present, less able to bear the weight of difficulty without reaching for a prompt. -Chris Sibben
20 Surprising Things AI can do now
/Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science – OpenAI
AI moves into family life – Axios
Google Earth now has image generation built in – Digital Digging
How AI Agents Broaden the Scope of Knowledge Work – Harvard Business Review
In This Costa Rican Forest, Monkeys Come Face-to-Face With A.I. – New York Times
New platforms in China are paying people to license their likeness for AI-generated dramas and ads – Rest of World
How AI is transforming the world of analytical chemistry – Chemistry World
How Teaching A.I. Endangered Languages Can Help Save Them – New York Times
A self-driving Waymo just reported its own passengers to police – Fast Company
Could A.I. Find Brazil’s Next Pelé? - New York Times
Social media’s next evolution: user-controlled algorithms with the help of AI – Tech Crunch
AI makes Pompeii victim’s final moments look shockingly real – PopSci
The AI-powered World Cup runs on thousands of data workers - Rest of World
They Spent Years on a Math Problem. Then They Were Scooped by A.I. - New York Times
How AI helps spot wildfires before 911 calls – Axios
A look inside Dataland in Los Angeles, dedicated entirely to A.I.-generated art - New York Times
How AI is helping fight the latest Ebola outbreak – Semafor
Doctors Inject Human Subjects With First Vaccine Designed by AI – Futurism
Concern for study looking into whether conversations with AI could change viewpoints - Retraction Watch
A.I. Chatbot Helps a $100 Thrift Store Painting Sell for Over $250,000 - New York Times
At an Angle
/Some things and some people have to be approached obliquely at an angle. -Andre Gide
Survey: AI Use Among Students
/A new longitudinal survey shows AI has moved from a novelty to a routine part of student life, with more than 80% of college students using AI academically in the past six months. Nearly a third of students are now using it 11 or more times a week for school or work-related tasks. Some professors are still putting blanket bans on AI. But employers are not: The share of job interviews that included AI-related questions has jumped from 11.6% to 42.6% over the past three years. -Axios
17 Articles about AI’s impact on Business Operations
/Corporate America may be using AI to cut jobs, but small businesses are using it to keep them – The Guardian
How AI Agents Broaden the Scope of Knowledge Work – Harvard Business Review
AI Is Writing Legal Filings. Some of Them Are Completely Made Up. Here Is What That Means for Your Business – Business Attorney Chicago
AI Is Changing How Customers Choose Your Business – Harvard Business Review
AI Knows What You Did Online. Now Your Employer Does, Too. – Wall Street Journal
Starting or running a business with AI? There are legal risks you can’t afford to ignore – The Conversation
26 Meta employees sue, alleging AI-driven layoff picks hit workers on medical and parental leave – AP
When AI Puts Gen Z in the C-Suite – Wall Street Journal
Ford rehires ‘gray beard’ engineers after AI falls short – Tech Crunch
Databricks Releases General AI Agents for Businesses – Wall Street Journal
How California is preparing for AI workforce disruption – Axios
How Companies Are Managing AI Token Spend – Wall Street Journal
A.I. doubles is the new productivity hack for CEOs and Harvard profs - New York Times
What AI Can’t—or Shouldn’t—Do for You – Wall Street Journal
Teaching AI how people work is fraught with problems – The Economist
AI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-Making – Hermit-Tech
Tech Workers Maxed Out Their A.I. Use. Now They’re Trying to Minimize It. - New York Times
When you are angry
/Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. -Ambrose Bierce
Digital twins in Church
/To meet the growing needs of his congregation, Justin Lester created an A.I. duplicate of himself. “A lot of our churches are turning into beautiful museums,” Lester said. “We’re living in the future, whether we like it or not. We can’t afford to sit this one out.” -New York Times
11 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism & Media
/Tue, Aug 4 - Climate Blueprint: Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Climate Stories
What: We'll discuss the importance of understanding your journalism's impact, how to track impact and report it back to audiences, and why this work is so critical for ensuring that climate journalism becomes more of a priority within newsrooms.
Who: Nina Ignaczak, Planet Detroit; Heather May; Great Salt Lake Collaborative.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Solutions Journalism
Tue, Aug 4 - ChatGPT Work for Newsrooms
What: A virtual session on moving from one-off prompts to practical tools built around the work journalists already do. See how reporters and editors can use ChatGPT Work to research stories, analyze documents and data, prepare interviews, develop coverage plans, and turn dense source material into clear, sourced briefs. We’ll demonstrate how agents, skills, and custom apps can transform a useful workflow into something an entire newsroom can reuse.
Who: Evan Hirsch OpenAI for News, OpenAI.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Tue, Aug 4 - Get started with ChatGPT Work
What: We’ll show you how Chat and Work complement each other. You’ll see Work tackle two projects from start to finish: building an offsite planning workbook from scattered materials and creating a leadership presentation from business data and team updates.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Wed, Aug 5 - The Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
What: Whether you’re a small business owner, entrepreneur, or want to grow your marketing strategies, this session will equip you with the tools and strategies to elevate your online presence.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Small Business Development Center, Widener University
Thu, Aug 6 - The Formula for Social Media Success
What: This 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.
When: 10 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: $45
Sponsor: Small Business Development Center, Duquesne University
Thu, Aug 6 - AI and Local Ad Planning, Buying & Selling
What: Media buying agencies increasingly use AI to plan and execute their campaigns, while media sellers use AI to create proposals, design creative and manage assets. How are AI tools enhancing the planning, buying and selling process? Industry leaders from both sides of the transaction talk about this rising trend.
Who: Raj Khare, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, SureWaves; Evan Rutchik, President & Chief Strategy Officer; Viamedia; Jennifer Hungerbuhler, EVP, Head of Local Video and Audio Investment Denstu Media U.S.; Christopher Martinez, VP, Advanced Advertising, Hearst Television; Nicole Madtes, Senior Director National Sales, The E.W. Scripps Company; Joe Cerone, Founder, Cerone Advisory Group.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: TVNewsCheck
Thu, Aug 6 - Codex bootcamp 201: Team workflows
What: Build on the Codex fundamentals by learning how to configure Codex for consistent, repeatable team workflows. We’ll cover shared context and repository guidance, approvals and sandboxing defaults, MCP and tool connections, reusable skills, automations, and worktrees.
Who: Sean Lubbers Technical Success, OpenAI; Marcus Stallworth Builder ADM, OpenAI; Palash Sushil, Matey AI Deployment Manager, OpenAI.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Thu, Aug 6 - Measuring Impact for Civic Discourse: Ask Me Anything for News Leaders
What: An interactive briefing to learn about how dozens of local media are actively measuring journalism’s civic impact — and examining ways to build trust across audiences and geographies.
Who: American Press Institute Senior Vice President Samantha Ragland; American Press Institute Senior Director of Partnerships and Development Kevin Loker.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: American Press Institute
Thu, Aug 6 - Analyzing data
What: In this hands-on lab, you will practice turning that messy starting point into an operating plan your team can actually use. We will use AI to clarify the project goal, identify milestones, assign responsibilities, surface dependencies, name risks, and define the decisions that need owner input. You will also learn how to ask for a plan that stays reviewable, with assumptions, unresolved questions, and next steps clearly separated from confirmed information.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Thu, Aug 6 - ChatGPT Work for sales teams
What: Learn how sales teams can start using ChatGPT Work for common workflows. This session will focus on practical ways newly enabled users can begin exploring Work with the tools and context they already use.
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: OpenAI Academy
Fri, Aug 7 – Meet Sisi Wei
What: IRE's Investigative Editors and Managers of Color Community is holding free ongoing webinars aimed at helping professionals connect. Please register below to sign-up! We will send you a link.
Who: Sisi Wei is the Chief Impact Officer of The Markup and CalMatters.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Investigative Reporters and Editors
The Value of Studying Language in an AI World
/Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has described an English major as possibly the most successful major, as it is the programming language of AI. Robert Goldstein, chief operating officer of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, said last year the company places greater emphasis on graduates who have studied history, English, and other humanities disciplines. -Rest of World
Make Him Mad
/To obtain a man's opinion of you, make him mad. -Oliver Wendell Holmes
Making fake satellite images just got easier
/Google spent twenty years building Google Earth’s reputation as the reference the world checks against. Today it added a button that makes things up. Google Earth on the web now has image generation built in, powered by Nano Banana 2. The forgery does not have to look convincing on its own. It inherits the credibility of the map it was born on. -Digital Digging
17 Articles about AI & Data Science from July 2026
/How to Efficiently Prompt Claude Code
A hands-on guide to tracking machine learning experiments, logging models, and reproducing results
How Much Does It Actually Cost to Run a Local LLM?
How I’m Making Sure My Analytics Career Doesn’t Get Eaten by AI
How to Write a Data Scientist Resume in 2026: Complete Guide
Why “Neural” Processing Could Enable the Next Big Leap for Geospatial
Data Scientists Are Becoming AI Managers, Not Model Builders
Why Convolutional Neural Networks Still Matter in Modern AI
The Beginner's Guide to Neural Networks
Demystifying loop engineering: Get more from AI agents, avoid loopmaxxing
That's Just the Way I Am
/“Sorry, but that is the way I am.. I was like this in the beginning, am now, and ever shall be…” is a handy motto and delusion to hang around your neck when you don’t want to grow up.
Opportunity
/Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. -Henry Ford (born July 30, 1863)
AI Definitions: The Scaling Laws
/The Scaling Laws - These laws essentially say, “The more data and computing power you feed an AI system the better it would perform.” It is the expectation that AI can take on more human responsibilities and solve increasingly complicated tasks if given more computing power.
Knowledge only takes you so far
/My guess is that our creativity and leaps of insight come not from what we know — knowledge — but from how we know it. Unlike current LLMs, our brains are capable of continuous learning. Right now, the smartness of LLMs is based primarily on their encyclopedic knowledge — on extracting the intelligence humans have structured into our encyclopedias, books, and everything we write. That will probably not be enough to go all the way to the kind of creativity and insight human brains can produce. That variety of intelligence will likely require algorithms for continuous learning, or a different design than neural nets alone. -Kevin Kelly
Your Pain
/Finding a different way to interact with your pain is hard. People have the most difficulty embracing the paradox of acceptance. Our instinct is to run as far away from our pain as possible, to be as safe as we can be. Making a decision to step into it rather than trying to get rid of it can be excruciatingly difficult. Feeling the intensity of those difficult, painful emotions and sensations can feel very dark and very lonely. I see it in all forms of suffering. The depression that never seems to lift, the drink that has to be drunk, the highway we cannot drive on, the hands that must be washed over and over and over. The reality is that most people are willing to embrace acceptance only when they have run out of options – when what they have been doing, often for years, simply doesn’t work anymore. This is a dark place that feels like there is no light to guide you out. It can be devastating.
To be able to connect and embrace a lifetime’s worth of suffering in service of a valued end, that – in its very essence – is acceptance.
Joseph Trunzo writing in Aeon
Already Dead
/Some people have already died. They just haven’t bothered to set the funeral date. -John Maxwell
Default Mode
/Our brains never get into what scientists call “default mode.” That default mode allows your mind to wander, which is good for solving problems, exploring creativity and ultimately finding meaning. The reason people would rather pick up their phone than enter default mode is that it can be uncomfortable in the moment. -Arthur Brooks quoted in the Washington Post