AI Definitions: Apache Spark

Apache Spark - This data processing tool can be used on very large data sets. Its “cluster computing” uses resources from many computer processors linked together for rapid data processing and real-time analytics. Thus, it supports predictive analytics, a data science tool. For instance, it can analyze video or social media data automatically. It's a scalable solution so that users can easily introduce more processors into the system to make it more powerful.  

More AI definitions here.

Stress can do a body good

Kelly McGonigal, a psychologist at Stanford University and the author of “The Upside of Stress”, helps people rethink stress by telling them that it is what we feel when something we care about is at stake. She asks them to make two lists: of things that stress them; and of things that matter to them. “People realise that if they eliminated all stress their lives would not have much meaning,” she says. “We need to give up the fantasy that you can have everything you want without stress.”

In 2012 a group of scientists in America looked back at the 1998 National Health Interview Survey, which included questions about how much stress the 30,000 participants had experienced in the previous year, and whether they believed stress harmed their health. Next, they pored over mortality records to find out which respondents had died. They found that those who both reported high stress and believed it was harming their health had a 43% higher risk of premature death. Those who reported high stress but did not believe it was hurting them were less likely to die early than those who reported little stress.

The study shows correlation, not causation. But since much stress is unavoidable, working out how to harness it may be wiser than fruitless attempts to banish it.

Read more in the Economist

22 Recent Articles about Using AI

An AI Prompting Trick That Will Change Everything for You – Information Week

How to use Perplexity AI: Tutorial, pros and cons – Tech Target

What are the best AI tools for research? Nature’s guide - Nature

How DeepSeek’s Lower-Power, Less-Data Model Stacks Up – Wall Street Journal  

Adobe’s Sora-rivaling AI video generator is now available for everyone – The Verge

ChatGPT Search is now open to everyone — no account required – Tom’s Guide

ChatGPT's Deep Research is a promising intern - Axios 

I let ChatGPT’s new ‘agent’ manage my life – Washington Post

AI bots enter the group chat – Axio 

ChatGPT vs. Claude vs. DeepSeek: The Battle to Be My AI Work Assistant – Wall Street Journal 

How Helpful Is Operator, OpenAI’s New A.I. Agent? – New York Times

How DeepSeek and ChatGPT differed in our hands-on test - Axios

AI Mistakes Are Very Different From Human Mistakes – Spectrum  

How to use AI to keep your New Year's resolutions – Axios  

What Is Agentic AI, and How Will It Change Work? – Harvard Business Review

Google Unveils A.I. Agent That Can Use Websites on Its Own – New York Times

OpenAI’s video generator, Sora, aims to kickstart the AI video era – Washington Post

Why Are Women Less Likely to Use AI? – Bloomberg

The Many Ways WSJ Readers Use AI in Their Everyday Lives – Wall Street Journal

How To Create And Customize An AI Podcast With Google’s NotebookLM – Forbes

Using AI in PR: Experts explain how AI is enhancing PR workflows – Muck Rack

How to Get a New Headshot Using AI – CNET

Who is Using AI?

Who’s most likely to embrace AI in their daily lives? Many assume it’s the tech-savvy – those who understand how AI works – who are most eager to adopt it.  Surprisingly, our new research finds the opposite. People with less knowledge about AI are actually more open to using the technology.  - Read more at The Conversation

Hidden Weeping

Let my hidden weeping arise and blossom. – Rainer Maria Rilke 

20 Articles about Relationships with AI

The AI relationship revolution is already here – MIT Tech Review 

What Spike Jonze’s ‘Her’ got right about AIs & modern love – The New York Times

AI chatbots can help you flirt and date – but don’t forget to be human - The Washington Post \

ChatGPT: Will you be my Valentine? More users are falling for AI companions – Semafor 

The Rise of AI Boyfriends in China – Observer Voice

My Girlfriend Won’t Stop Using ChatGPT for Relationship Advice – VICE  

She Is in Love With ChatGPT - The New York Times

An Autistic Teenager Fell Hard for a Chatbot – The Atlantic  

An AI companion suggested he kill his parents. Now his mom is suing. - The Washington Post  

Friend or Foe? – The Verge  

AI Jesus' avatar tests man's faith in machines and the divine – Associated Press  

What Does It Mean to ‘Love’ an AI? – Sixth Tone

Madeline recreated the voice of her deceased husband with AI - The New York Times 

Robotic pets are bringing some older people real comfort - The Washington Post

The Therapist in the Machine – The Baffler

Can a fluffy robot really replace a cat or dog? My weird, emotional week with an AI pet – The Guardian

Scientists Find That Yelling at AI Chatbots Can Make You Feel Better – Futurism  

Teenagers turning to AI companions are redefining love as easy, unconditional and always there – The Conversation

AI friendships claim to cure loneliness. Some are ending in suicide. - The Washington Post

2025 Dating Trend Predictions from Relationship Experts - The New York Times

AI Definitions: Algorithms

Algorithms - Direct, specific instructions for computers created by a human through coding that tells the computer how to perform a task. Like a cooking recipe, this set of rules has a finite number of steps. More specifically, it is code that follows the algorithmic logic of “if”, “then”, and “else.” An example of an algorithm would be: IF the customer orders size 13 shoes, THEN display the message ‘Sold out, Sasquatch!’; ELSE ask for a color preference.     

Algorithms make one of two approaches:

1. Rule-based algorithms – direct, specific instructions are created by a human.  

2. Machine-learning algorithms – The data and goal is given to the algorithm, which works out for itself how to reach the goal. There is a popular perception that algorithms provide a more objective, more complete view of reality, but they often will simply reinforce existing inequities, reflecting the bias of creators and the materials used to train them.

More AI definitions here.

How to Grieve

There are recovery programs for people grieving the loss of a parent, sibling, or spouse. You can buy books on how to cope with the death of a beloved pet or work through the anguish of a miscarriage. We speak openly with one another about the bereavement that can accompany a layoff, a move, a diagnosis, or a dream deferred. But no one really teaches you how to grieve the loss of your faith. You’re on your own for that.

Rachel Held Evans, Searching for Sunday 

18 Articles about AI & Academic Scholarship

What are the best AI tools for research? Nature’s guide - Nature

Exploring the Impact of Generative AI on Peer Review: Insights from Journal Reviewers – Springer

OpenAI unveils a new ChatGPT agent for ‘deep research’ – TechCrunch

AI-Generated Junk Science Is a Big Problem on Google Scholar, Research Suggests – Gizmodo 

What happens when you let ChatGPT assess impact case studies? – London School of Economics  

Generative AI in the research process – A survey of researchers’ practices and perceptions – Science Direct 

Springer Nature offers to sell authors “AI Summaries of Their Own Work” – Futurism

Teens Are Doing AI Research Now. Is That a Good Thing? - Chronicle of Higher Ed

How is content generated by ChatGPT infiltrating scientific papers published in premier journals? – Wiley

Elsevier denies AI use in response to evolution journal board resignations – Retraction Watch  

Springer Nature reveals AI-driven tool to 'automate some editorial quality checks' – The Bookseller 

Nvidia unveils $3,000 desktop AI computer for home researchers - ArsTechnica 

Generative artificial intelligence and academic writing: friend or foe? - Elsevier

Detecting Research Misconduct in the Age of Artificial Intelligence – The Scientist

Can AI-generated podcasts boost science engagement? – Nature

AI-Authored Abstracts ‘More Authentic’ Than Human-Written Ones – Inside Higher Ed

Scholars Are Supposed to Say When They Use AI. Do They? - Chronicle of Higher Ed 

Will ChatGPT Get Tenure? - Leiden Vladtrice

Do You Know what an AI Cannot Do? Try this Multiple Choice Question

If you write a prompt asking an AI to do each of these things, which would it be good at doing? 

a. Give me a cube root of a seven-digit number.

b. Write text backwards.

c. Give me a 5x12 animated GIF of green, falling Matrix letters in Python code.

d. I have a stack of Fiesta ware plates of these colors: green, yellow, orange, red, purple. Two slots below the purple one, I placed a yellow one, then one slot above the green one, I placed a black one. What is the final stack of plates?

e. Give me a list of 10 examples of something.  

Riley Goodside, lead prompt engineer for Scale AI gives the answer in a conversation with Semafor

The Secret

Perhaps the secret of living well is not in having all the answers but in pursuing the unanswerable questions in good company.  - Rachel Naomi Remen

The intersection of Science & AI in 18 Articles

AI Is Coming Up With Brand New Molecules, Fueling Drug Discovery  - Science Friday

Blurry Authorship: Originality in Science before and after Large Language Models – University of California Press 

How are researchers using AI? Survey reveals pros and cons for science – Nature  

Google’s X spins out Heritable Agriculture, a startup using AI to improve crop yield – Tech Crunch 

OpenAI’s ‘deep research’ tool: is it useful for scientists? – Nature

AI Comes to the Apple Orchard—From Pollinating to Picking – Wall Street Journal

With generative AI, MIT chemists quickly calculate 3D genomic structures – MIT 

How should the advancement of large language models affect the practice of science? – PANS 

Scientists trained AI to predict gene activity, a potentially powerful tool – Washington Post

Using AI to talk to animals – Axios

How Hallucinatory A.I. Helps Science Dream Up Big Breakthroughs – New York Times

Can AI-generated podcasts boost science engagement? - Nature 

New methane monitoring AI tool unveiled - Axios

AI helps uncover hundreds of unknown ancient symbols hidden in Peru’s Nazca Desert – CNN  

AI Scientists Have a Problem: AI Bots Are Reviewing Their Work – Chronicle of Higher Ed 

Two biotech companies claim they use AI to design drugs from scratch. Do they? – Stat News  

Exploring the Impact of Generative AI on Peer Review: Insights from Journal Reviewers – Springer  

Scientists Harness AI to Help Protect Whales, Advancing Ocean Conservation and Planning – Rutgers

AI Reveals Hidden Interior Design Rules of the Cell - IEEE Spectrum

I believe

I believe in the sun when it's not shining, I believe in love even when I feel it not, I believe in God even when he is silent.  – Irish Saying

Imagination

Imagination is more important than knowledge. – Albert Einstein

Janitor AI

"People are increasingly falling for their favorite chatbots, spending hours each day building relationships with their artificial lovers. Chatbot site Janitor AI says users have started 2.1 million conversations with its Valentine’s Day bots." -Read more on Semafor

20 Recent Articles about AI Fakes

Russian TV falls for fake report on DeepSeek's 'Soviet code' -  Reuters 

DeepSeek hallucinates alarmingly more than other AI models – Semafor

Low quality books that appear to be AI generated are making their way into public libraries – 404 Media  

Trump deepfake message to Putin fooled Russians - VOA News 

Meta’s fake AI users are here and they’re giving everybody the creeps – Sherwood  

YouTube launching new tools to help celebrities manage AI copycats - Semafor

Apple urged to axe AI feature after false headline - BBC

Instagram’s head says social media needs more context because of AI – The Verge

How to identify AI-generated text: 7 ways to tell if content was made by a bot – Mashable  

Stanford Professor Accused of Using AI to Write Expert Testimony Criticizing Deepfakes – Gizmodo  

Experts fail to reliably detect AI-generated histological data – Nature    

A Survey on the Use of Large Language Models (LLMs) in Fake News - MDPI    

Combating misinformation in the age of LLMs: Opportunities and challenges – Wiley  

A meta-analysis of correction effects in science-relevant misinformation – Nature  

Meta Moves to End Fact-Checking Program – New York Times 

AI and Social Media Fakes: Are You Protecting Your Brand? – Law.com

Cyber expert weighs in on spotting fake, AI-generated information on social media and online – ABC

Phishing with AI is cybersecurity’s new hook – McKinsey  

No. 42 law firm by head count could face sanctions over fake case citations generated by AI – ABA Journal 

Fake AI hedge fund manager admits fraud in U.S. – Investment Executive

AI Definitions: Imitation Learning

Imitation Learning – This is a popular method for training robots, along with reinforced learning. The robots learn by watching humans or by being given data on other robots which are being operated by humans. Out of fashion for decades, it has recently come back into favor in robotics as a result of AI. The downside to this technique is the need for large amounts of data in order for the robots to imitate new behaviors.

More AI definitions here

What does she see in him?

It happened years ago, but I've never forgotten it. I was singing and speaking at a small Midwestern college. During an informal seminar in one of the dorm lounges, a couple came in late.

I couldn't help noticing something odd about them. The girl was very attractive, close to cover-girl standards. The guy looked as if he had just walked off the set for The Nerds. He was short, wore thick horn-rimmed glasses and a plaid short-sleeved shirt. He was definitely a candidate for getting sand kicked in his face.

But the strangest thing of all was that these two were obviously in love. What could she possibly see in him? I asked myself. Suddenly I realized — she was blind.

But what did she see in him? Everything. Everything that's important about who a person is, what love is, and what a real man is. She saw everything she needed to know about him.

Blessed are the blind, for they can see people as they really are. Woe to those who can see, for they will constantly be tripped up by the image.

John Fischer

19 Articles about AI Bias

Autocorrect, Other AI Applications, Are Biased Against Rural Language Like Hunting And Fishing Terms – Above the Law 

Bias in Large Language Models—and Who Should Be Held Accountable – Stanford Law

AI’s Racial Bias Claims Tested in Court as US Regulations Lag – Bloomberg  

How AI Bias Shapes Everything from Hiring to Health Care – Oklahoma University   

AI Bias Through the Lens of Antidiscrimination Law – Vanderbilt Law  

I talked to Meta’s Black AI character. Here’s what she told me. – Washington Post 

Inducing anxiety in large language models can induce bias - Arxiv 

As AI-powered health care expands, experts warn of biases – Semafor

Meta’s AI image generator really struggles with the concept of interracial couples – CNN 

How AI reduces the world to stereotypes – Rest of World 

Tests show AI acting on Subtle stereotypes – arXiv

Black teenagers twice as likely to be falsely accused of using AI tools in homework - Semafor

Microsoft's Copilot AI Gladly Generates Anti-Semitic Stereotypes – Futurism

AI generated images are biased, showing the world through stereotypes - Washington Post 

Team develops a new deepfake detector designed to be less biased - Techxplore

What AI thinks a beautiful woman looks like – Washington Post

The Voices of A.I. Are Telling Us a Lot: stubborn stereotypes about women are re-encoded again and again – New York Times

Generative AI bias poses risk to democratic values, research suggests – Phys.org

Is AI Biased against Some Groups and Spreading Misinformation and Extreme Views? – The Brink

Expert Performance

Expert performance is built through thousands of hours of practice in your area of expertise, in varying conditions, through which you accumulate a vast library of such mental models that enables you to correctly discern a given situation and instantaneously select and execute the correct response.

At the root of our effectiveness is our ability to grasp the world around us and to take the measure of our own performance. We are constantly making judgments about what we know and don't know whether we're capable of handling a task or solving a problem. As we work at something, we keep an eye on ourselves, adjusting our thinking or actions as we progress.

Monitoring your own thinking is what psychologists call metacognition (meta is Greek for "about".) Learning to be accurate self-observers helps us stay out of blind alleys, make good decisions, and reflect on how we might do better next time. An important part of this skill is being sensitive to the ways we can delude ourselves. One problem with poor judgment is that we usually don't know when we've got it. Another problem is the sheer scope of the ways our judgment can be led astray.

Peter C. Brown and Henry L. Roediger III, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning