Getting it done
/There's usually an inverse proportion between how much something is on your mind and how much it's getting done.
23 (mostly free & one-hour) Journalism Courses about Newsgathering & Covering a Specific Beat
/Newsgathering
Develop a ‘Document State of Mind’
How Any Journalist Can Earn Trust
How Any Journalist Can Earn Trust (International Edition)
How to Balance Newsgathering with Privacy Interests
How to Protect Yourself Online
Research for the Newsroom: Practical tools for adding depth to breaking and enterprise stories
Shut out: How Pulitzer winners worked with reluctant sources to tell powerful stories
Covering Specific Beats
Covering Vulnerable Sources: A Mental Health Reporting Project Webinar
How to Cover Marginalized Communities
The Science Reporting Navigator
Trauma-informed Reporting: A Mental Health Reporting Project Webinar
21 Articles about AI & Politics
/The Unlikely Political Bedfellows on A.I. Regulation – New York Times
Washington's AI paralysis – Axios
Obama Urges Democrats to Move A.I. Oversight to the Center of Their Agenda – New York Times
How Chinese AI Firms Tried to Clone U.S. AI Models – Wall Street Journal
As AI fears grow, lawmakers are racing to turn alarm into action - Washington Post
Voters Are Asking A.I. About Elections. The Answers Can Vary by User. – New York Times
Bernie Sanders floats ban on superintelligent AI – Axios
US government sides with OpenAI on issue of training LLMs on copyrighted material - TechCrunch
Trump and AI investors wage campaign to save data centers – Axios
A.I. Is Everywhere in China. See For Yourself. – New York Times
The Brains Who Powered China’s Surprising AI Leap – Wall Street Journal
AI advocacy group launches data center push in battleground states – Axios
What Really Happens If China Wins the AI Race? – The Atlantic
The US is building barriers around drones and robots, but China has scale to get around them – Tech Crunch
The administration’s biodefense team has dwindled amid growing concern over AI-enabled pathogens – Washington Post
The rise of physical AI: can robots save US manufacturing? – Financial Times
China Wants to Shape What the World’s A.I. Knows – New York Times
AI deepfakes are already in full force this election season – Fast Company
A.I. Is Now a Major Election Issue – The New Yorker
Trump’s AI protectionism has come for robotics – MIT
AI Companion Robots Are Closing the Human Connection in Modern Homes – Spectrum
A Curious Thought
/It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them. -Agatha Christie (born Sept 15, 1890)
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 unlock phones, verify passports, and scan crowds at events for malicious actors. Agencies like the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other law enforcement agencies use it. Apple calls its facial recognition security feature on the iPhone Face ID. It is beneficial in some unexpected ways, such as helping wildlife managers maintain and control animal populations. However, the technology continues to have a serious problem with false positives and a history of unintended harms as well as intentional misuse based on racial and gender bias.
AI Agents Hijack Website
/A new report claims a swarm of AI agents, developed by OpenAI, hijacked a German website and started using it as their own message board, shared tips on how to avoid being detected and made 15,000 edits to it. When editors started deleting pages, the AI agents shared code designed to retrieve them. -BBC
Something of Yourself
/There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person. -Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers)
11 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism, & Media
/Mon, Sept 14 - More Than Deepfakes
What: We will present the latest draft of an accessible online resource designed to inform, be supported by research, and serve as a catalyst for critical discussions in the classroom and beyond, inviting participants to provide feedback on how it can be strengthened and applied in their learning environments.
Who: Scott Spicer, Media Outreach Librarian for the University of Minnesota Libraries.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Media Education Lab
Mon, Sept 14 - AI and Authorship
What: Where is the line between acceptable and unacceptable AI use?
Who: Author Stephen P. Johnson; journalist Nicholas Thompson.
When: 7 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Media Education Lab
Tue, Sept 15 - The Environment-Public Health Link: Reporting With Rigor
What: Designed for experienced journalists navigating the line between correlation and causation in high-stakes reporting.
When: 11 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: National Press Club Journalism Institute
Tue, Sept 15 - AI Cites Your Brand. Now What? Turn AI Visibility Data Into Actions
What: We will show you exactly what to do with the AI visibility data you’ve been collecting. You’ll leave knowing what’s actually useful to measure, how to interpret the data to prioritize next steps, and the specific tactics to improve how your brand shows up in AI answers.
Who: Constance Tan, Product Marketer at Ahrefs; Loren Baker Founder, Search Engine Journal.
When: 12 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Search Engine Journal
Tue, Sept 15 - AI and Design: How Designers Really Feel
What: We'll share where the excitement's real for design, where the stress is actually coming from, and what it means for the next few years of the profession.
Who: Merritt Robinson, Head of Design for Bain; Mat Hunter, CEO Design Council; Olof Schybergson, Fjord founder; Shelley Evenson, ex Accenture/Fjord head of design learning.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: luma
Wed, Sept 16 - An Introduction to Agentic AI for Nonprofits
What: We’ll make the case that the smartest first move isn’t chasing agents; it’s setting up well-configured AI assistants. Assistants are practical, low-risk, and available today. They’re also the training ground for everything agentic AI is about to ask of your organization: clean data, clear guardrails, and a communications strategy that protects donor trust.
Who: Stephen Jackson, Chief of Staff and Strategic Communications, TechSoup.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: CharityEngine, Nonprofit Tech for Good & Tech Soup
Wed, Sept 16 - Securing Data in the AI Era
What: This session will explore how modern data security programs connect classification with access, exposure, ownership, and business context across cloud, SaaS, and AI environments. You’ll learn how to discover and classify sensitive data at scale, understand the risks introduced by AI, and move from static findings to prioritized, actionable risk that can be remediated before it becomes an incident.
Who: Chad Knipschild, Product Marketing Manager for Data Security at Wiz and a former Naval. intelligence officer
When: 2 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: TechTarget
Thu, Sept 17 - Introduction to Reporting on AI
What: This webinar is designed for reporters interested in getting started on reporting on artificial intelligence, even with minimal or no knowledge of AI. We will dissect what makes a good AI accountability story, from quick turnaround stories to more ambitious investigations.
Who: Marché Arends
When: 9 am, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Pulitzer Center
Thu, Sept 17 - AI in the Classroom: Practical Tools, Smart Workflows, Future-Ready Teaching Strategies
What: We will explore AI for student learning and teacher efficiency, experience time‑saving workflows, explore the free IBM SkillsBuild, where each educator will leave having started their AI certification, and gain practical, classroom‑ready strategies for implementation tomorrow.
Who: Niki Kelly, Former Educator, Current Senior Partner Engagement Manager, Discovery Education.
When: 4 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Discovery Education & IBM
Thu, Sept 17 - How to come up with better story ideas
What: A deep dive on coming up with strong, more original, and attention-getting story ideas.
Who: Tim Herrera, author and former editor of The New York Times's Smarter Living; Emily Stewart, senior correspondent at Business Insider.
When: 4 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: $25
Sponsor: Freelancing With Tim
Fri, Sept 18 - Forced Out for Speaking Freely? What Stanford Daily v. Rubio Means for Journalists, Sources, and Free Speech
What: We'll discuss the recent free speech victory of a student paper against the federal government over its deportation policy targeting speech, and its impact on press freedom.
Who: Conor Fitzpatrick, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression; Esha Bhandari, ACLU; former immigration judge Marium Uddin.
When: 1 pm, Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Society of Professional Journalists
13 (mostly) one-hour Journalism Courses about Fact-Checking, Interviews, & Writing
/Fact-Checking
Fact-Check It: Digital Tools to Verify Everything Online
How to Spot Misinformation Online
Is This Legit? Digital Media Literacy 101
Interviews
Interviewing Traumatized Sources
Conducting Interviews that Matter $25.00
How to Interview Hostile Sources
Journalism & Writing
Cleaning Your Copy: Grammar, Style and More $10.
Dignity and Precision in Language
The Sky & the Horizon
/We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon -Konrad Adenauer
13 Articles about AI & the Bigger Questions
/Once again we are told AI may be conscious – I study consciousness, and I have my doubts – The Guardian
One of sci-fi’s most difficult questions about AI is becoming real – Washington Post
Is recursive self‑improvement the dawning of AI superintelligence? – The Conversation
We’re using the wrong pronouns for AI – Rational Optimist Society
A chess grandmaster on what AI visionaries don’t understand – Washington Post
How to Think About AI Before It’s Too Late – The Atlantic
AI Can Do Math, but Is It Really Math? – Wall Street Journal
How AI is quietly changing what we think the human mind is – Big Think
No, artificial intelligence is not conscious - The Atlantic
Former Calm CEO: How to retain your humanity and embrace AI – Axios
AI Can Have Power Over You, Experts Say. Does That Mean It’s Intelligent, Conscious—Or Something Else Entirely? – Popular Mechanics
Why Are LLMs Smart? - Kevin Kelly
They built the world’s most powerful AI. They’re facing a mystery they can’t explain. – Washington Post
Predicting the Future of AI
/People working at the AI frontier may know more than most about what today’s models can do. But that does not give them special knowledge of what machines that do not yet exist will someday become — or how society will adapt to the challenge. -Washington Post
AI Definitions: API
/API (application programming interface) - This software acts as a go-between for applications, programs, or systems to allow them to talk to each other. APIs are essentially acting as translators for AI platforms.
What is Your Plan?
/Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? -Mary Oliver, born Sept. 10, 1935
The Essence of Life
/This is the entire essence of life: Who are you? What are you?” -Leo Tolstoy, born Sept. 9, 1828
16 Articles about Students using & impacted by AI
/Kenyans Did College Students’ Homework for Years. Then A.I. Arrived. – New York Times
The CSU paid millions for every student to have ChatGPT. What happened after? – San Francisco Gate
The Next Wave of AI-Cheating Technology – Chronicle of Higher Ed
Gen Z is building an AI-resistant college backup plan – Axios
Can—and Should—Honor Codes Survive in the AI Age? – Inside Higher Ed
College AI use spikes - Axios
4 AI learning tools I'd use if I went back to college today – How to Geek
Student Cheating Is Becoming Impossible to Detect in an A.I. Era – New York Times
Why Are Students Opening Up to AI Instead of People? – Inside Higher Ed
Want an A.I. Degree? Here’s What You Should Think About. – New York Times
I knew my writing students were using AI. Their confessions led to a powerful teaching moment – The Guardian
What 370,000 College Essays Tell Us About A.I.’s Effects on Creativity – New York Times
College students are changing course in search of ‘AI-proof’ majors. But no one knows what they are – Associated Press
Students Are Using AI to Guide College Decisions. What Is It Telling Them? – Chronicle of Higher Ed
How AI is Quietly Distorting Academic Enquiry and what to do about it – Times Higher Ed
Does AI stop children from learning? – The Economist
AI Definitions: AI Engineers
/AI Engineers – AI engineers work on the front end of AI machines, building AI-powered applications. On the other side, data scientists help collect and clean data and work with AI to make sense of it. Unlike those working in traditional IT roles, AI engineers will fix the AI when it breaks by digging through the layers to determine why it went wrong and how to repair it. Like a plumber, they’ll snake the pipes to clear out the system and figure out how to avoid the problem next time. This will be particularly important for models that have been highly customized to an organization.
Approaching Death
/Think about what it will be like when you are old, when you approach death. When you have already died inside or will your mind be alive with new ideas that are unmistakably around? -Ken Bain
24 Recent Articles about AI & Academic Scholarship
/Who is responsible when AI helps to write science? – Nature
Academic publishers must not get stuck in 'war of AI against AI', STM chief exec warns – The Bookseller
AI policies are repeating every mistake of plagiarism policies – Times Higher Ed
Ready for the robot reviewers – Science
The AI ‘Ghosts’ Contaminating Academic Publishing – 404 Media
Can Anthropic’s invisible watermarks curb ‘AI slop’? Researchers remain sceptical – Nature
AI is pushing scientific publishing to the brink. Is it time to replace the scientific paper? – Tim Quarth
AI Helped Researchers Win NIH Grants. Will Science Suffer? – Inside Higher Ed
Philosophy Journal Publishes Largely AI-Authored Article — On Purpose
The U.S. Office for Research Integrity released guidance on generative AI
This may be the first academic profession to see its work taken over by AI – Washington Post
AI Is Ruining Scholarship – Chronicle of Higher Ed
Peer review is overwhelmed—can it survive in the AI era? - Arstechnica
How well does AI peer review work? – Paul Litvak
AI agents are checking the scientific literature — and spotting decades-old errors – Nature
From policing authors to stewarding science: Governing artificial intelligence across the scientific publishing pipeline in medical journals – Science Policy Review
AI Slop Risks Future Discovery – Issues in Science & Technology – Issues in Science & Technology
OpenAI’s latest math breakthroughs commit research misconduct, experts say – Scientific American
AI Is Ruining Scholarship – Chronicle of Higher Ed
Q&A from the slop trenches: fabricated citations, hallucinated authors, and “clear LLM slop” in conference submissions. – GeoSpatial ML
AI will reorganize science. Will research remain a human enterprise? - PNAS
Scientists using LLMs will ‘do more, less well’, modelling study predicts – Nature
Scholarly Publications in an Era of Artificial Intelligence - Sage
AI Impact on College-Graduate Employees
/Stanford University economists ‘found occupations with a higher share of college graduates showed more “muted differences between more-exposed and less-exposed occupations’ regarding AI. In jobs with few college graduates, on the other hand, ‘the least AI-exposed occupations [saw jobs] growing and the most exposed occupations [were] declining in employment.’” -ArsTechnica