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

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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

14 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism & Media

Tue, Sept 8 - Ethical Reporting Saves Lives

What: Guidance on responsible reporting on suicide and suicidal behavior.

Who: Christine Yu Moutier is the chief medical officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

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Tue, Sept 8 - An AI-Powered Trends System That Finds Stories Before the Audience Does

What: How an automated Google trends alert system was built to deliver search-driven story opportunities directly to editors inside Microsoft Teams.  

Who: Zack Zerndt, the Product Director who leads search and SEO strategy for USA TODAY ; Meghan Murphy, ONA’s Head of Programs.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: Online News Association

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Wed, Sept 9 - What Endangered Languages Can Teach AI

What: A lively conversation on what the world's low-resource and endangered languages have to teach AI in terms of design logic, not just translation.

Who: Arvinder Singh Kang, Panjabi AI/NLP advocate; Wakanyi Macharia-Hoffman, Ubuntu ethics, African Indigenous Knowledge; Barbora Bromova who leads the United Nations Development Programme’s work on linguistic diversity in AI

When: 10 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: UNESCO

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Wed, Sept 9 - Storytelling in 60 Seconds: How to Turn Your Reporting into a Compelling Social Video

What: A hands-on webinar about transforming traditional reporting into engaging social video.

Who: Fiona Murphy, a New York-based multimedia journalist and national reporter at Religion News Service.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: Religion News Association

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Wed, Sept 9 - Foundation First: Where to Start with AI

What: What you’ll learn: Identify Invisible Tools: Understand what AI programs and features are already running inside your organization under the radar; Pinpoint Impactful Automation: Discover specific, high-friction tasks AI can genuinely take off your team’s plate to save measurable hours each week; Mitigate Risk First: Learn how to avoid the dangerous trap of adopting tools before setting ground rules, protecting your nonprofit from irreversible risk; Establish Core Governance: Draft the single most critical AI usage rule your organization needs to implement this week to safely guide your team.

Who: George Mackenzie & Scotti Klett, co-founders of Uncharted AI.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: Nonprofit Hub

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Wed, Sept 9 - Human-Centered AI: Balancing Innovation, Ethics & Equity in Fundraising

What: In this session, participants will examine how AI can empower organizations of all sizes while safeguarding trust, exploring bias, privacy, and inclusion. Real-world examples will show how to integrate IDEA principles into AI strategy, preserve donor dignity, and strengthen leadership in a data-driven world.

Who: Kenya Roberts, CFRE, a nonprofit executive and fundraising leader with more than 20 years of experience in fundraising.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: Association of Fundraising professionals

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Wed, Sept 9 - Social Media Boot Camp: Day 1

What: We’ll teach you practical tips and tools for extending your cause and mission via social media. We cover the basics of using social media for your nonprofit organization and give you handy tips for the most useful social media platforms for nonprofits.

Who: Kiersten Hill, Director of Nonprofit Solutions.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: Firespring

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Thu, Sept 10 - Social Media Boot Camp: Day 2

What: Using social media to stand out from the crowd. You’ll learn a few advanced social media tips and tricks, elevate your social media presence through micro strategies and activate your advocates.

Who: Kiersten Hill, Director of Nonprofit Solutions.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: Firespring

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Thu, Sept 10 - Understanding US News Creators with CNTI

What: The latest report from the US Indie Info Providers — a group of former journalists, scientists, subject-matter experts and community members working to deliver verified information through personality- and voice-driven brands. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 26 news creators, the discussion will focus on two of the most actionable areas of the study: how news creators approach multiplatform distribution and audience reach, and how they're working — often struggling — to build sustainable revenue.

Who: Jay Barchas-Lichtenstein, Center for News, Technology & Innovation.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: Online News Association

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Thu, Sept 10 - Localizing National News: Helping Communities Navigate Issues

What: Simple, practical strategies for localizing national issues and engaging audiences in ways that inform communities and foster constructive dialogue.

Who: Lynn Walsh, Assistant Director of Trusting News.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: $35                                                    

Sponsor: Online Media Campus

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Thu, Sept 10 - AI Impact Hour for Nonprofits

What: This is meeting with nonprofits from around the world coming together to learn, share, and explore how AI can support their missions. If your organization has used AI in any way (big or small), or if you’re just getting started, we want to hear from you. 

Who: Aretha Simons, TechSoup’s Webinar Producer.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: TechSoup

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Thu, Sept 10 - From Authors Alliance: “Open for Whom? Access to Knowledge in the Age of AI”

What: We’ll explore the growing tension between access and control in the age of AI. Library infrastructure is under strain as large-scale data use accelerates. Publishers who once embraced openness are facing hard conversations with authors concerned about how their work is being used to train AI systems. At the same time, advocates of Open Educational Resources are navigating a paradox: wanting their materials to reach students widely, even as those same materials are absorbed by powerful commercial tools. This is a timely, nuanced conversation at the front lines of one of the most important questions facing the future of knowledge.

Who: Chris Bourg, MIT Libraries; Lisa Petrides, ISKME; Charles Watkinson, University of Michigan Press.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: Association of Southeastern Research Libraries

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Thu, Sept 10 - The potential and peril of generative AI

What: This session will give an overview of how to work, live, and thrive in a world with GenAI. Panelists will share resources librarians can use to continue their own professional development and support their communities.

Who: Jevin West, Professor and the Associate Dean for Research, University of Washington Information School; Carl Bergstrom, Professor, University of Washington Department of Biology; Stacey Wedlake, Senior Research Scientist, University of Washington Information School.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: WebJunction

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Fri, Sept 11 - From Policy to Practice: Responsible AI in Business Schools

What: This webinar takes participants through the three domains where AI decisions get made every day in a business school: research and thought leadership, pedagogy and assessment, and administration and governance. Each block combines frontier research, lived administrative experience, and a concrete exercise that participants can take back and adapt at their own institutions.

Who: Liad Wagman, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute;

When: 10 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free                                                   

Sponsor: The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business

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