Taking Beauty Seriously

If all experience of beauty is merely subjective, we find ourselves in a position in which some people like rice pudding and other people do not like rice pudding, which is then the conclusion of the matter. In short, it would mean that no two people have ever differed or ever can differ on a question of beauty. When one person says the Philadelphia City Hall is more beautiful than the Parthenon and another person denies this, they are not, on the subjectivist theory, arguing at all.

One man is telling about his insides and the other is telling about his insides. If someone wishes to contend that the works of a contemporary leader of a dance band are aesthetically superior to the works of Beethoven, there is, subjectively speaking, no suitable rejoinder.

This situation, however, is too absurd to be accepted by thoughtful critics as the last word on the question. The fact is that people do argue about aesthetic judgments, and the subjectivists argue as much as anybody else.

Regardless of their philosophical position, those who take beauty most seriously tend to hold that those who fail to see what they see really ought to see it, and with sufficient clarification of sight would see it.

Kant goes beyond the mere rejection of the familiar maxim and points out the imperative note which is essential to aesthetic judgment, a note similar to that which we found in moral judgment. To assert that a thing is beautiful is to blame those who do not agree. If I am right, they are wrong.

It would be laughable of a man to justify himself by saying, "This object is beautiful for me."

Elton Trueblood, Philosophy of Religion

22 Articles about Amazing Things AI can do now

Using AI & computer vision to diagnose greenhouse crops with diseases or pests – Tech Crunch  

OpenAI introduced a new tool, called Operator, that can autonomously perform tasks on the internet – New York Times 

AI brings better odds and betting concerns to sports gambling – Semafor

A new tool uses AI to transcribe video recordings from police officers’ body-worn cameras to create initial drafts of police reports - Gov Tech 

AI model that can distinguish between Scotch and American whiskeys with 100 percent accuracy (better than humans)– New Scientist

Engineers Develop AI Tool to Automate Finding Defects in Sewer Lines – CU Denver

Google’s new AI tool uses image prompts instead of text - CNN 

This new AI technology enhances video analysis by detecting human actions in real time – Tech Radar 

Tennessee Sheriff’s Department implements AI-enabled dashcams to detect up to 15 different driving behaviors – Gov Tech

Researchers Use AI To Turn Sound Recordings Into Accurate Street Images – Univ of Texas

New methane monitoring AI tool unveiled – Axios  

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

Google's DeepMind unveils an AI model capable of predicting the weather more accurately than existing forecasting systems – MIT Tech Review

How Indigenous engineers are using AI to preserve their culture – NBC News   

Explore the World’s First 3D Replica of St. Peter’s Basilica, Made with AI – Open Culture

New Microsoft Teams AI promises to translate speech in real time – Semafor   

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

Want to speak Italian? Microsoft AI can make it sound like you do. – Washington Post 

Google's AI Tool Big Sleep Finds Zero-Day Vulnerability in SQLite Database Engine – The Hacker News

AI’s Impact on Insurance Innovation – Expert AI

Anyone Can Turn You Into an AI Chatbot. There’s Little You Can Do to Stop Them – Wired  

AI robot helps recover and recycle beverage cans – Axios

AI Definitions: Open Source AI

Open Source AI – This is when the underlying source code of an AI is available to the public, including other businesses and researchers. It can be used, modified, and improved by anyone. Closed AI means access to the code is tightly controlled by the company that produced it. The closed model gives users greater certainty as to what they are getting, but open source allows for more innovation. Of course, once it’s out in the wild open-source AI is impossible to corral. It could be used to spread disinformation or cause other serious harm. Open-source AI would include Stable Diffusion, Hugging Face, Llama (created by Meta), and DeepSeek (from China). Closed Source AI would include Google’s Bard and, despite its name, OpenAI (creator of ChatGPT).

More AI definitions here

The Halo Effect

If you like the president’s politics, you probably like his voice and his appearance as well. The tendency to like (or dislike) everything about a person–including things you have not observed–is known as the halo effect. The term has been in use in psychology for a century, but it has not come into wide use in everyday language. This is a pity, because the halo effect is a good name for a common bias that plays a large role in shaping our view of people and situations. It is one of the ways the representation of the world that system one generates is simpler and more coherent than the real thing.

You meet a woman named Joan at a party and find her personable and easy to talk to. Now her name comes up as someone who could be asked to contribute to a charity. What do you know about Joan's generosity? The correct answer is that you know virtually nothing, because there is little reason to believe that people who are agreeable in social situations are also generous contributors to charities. But you like Joan and you will retrieve the feeling of liking her when you think of her. You also like generosity and generous people. By association, you are now predisposed to believe that Joan is generous. And that you believe she is generous you probably like Joan eve better than you did earlier, because you have added generosity to her pleasant attributes.

The sequence in which we observe characteristics of a person is often determined by chance. Sequence matters, however, because the halo effect increase the weight of the first impressions, sometimes to the point that subsequent information is mostly wasted.

Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

23 Articles about AI & Health Care

What to know about an AI transcription tool that ‘hallucinates’ medical interactions – PBS

Manchester virtual reality blood transfusion training programme could help save lives – About Manchester   

Lethal snake venom may be countered by new AI-designed proteins - Science News

Why isn’t AI transforming biopharma as fast as we’d like? – Stat News

AI will now read your medical school application - AAMC

Machine learning reveals how metabolite profiles predict aging and health - News-Medical.Net

AI could transform health care, but will it live up to the hype? – Science News  

Trump, and tech tycoons, stoke health AI hype with Stargate - Stat News

AI-powered app accurately detects high blood pressure through voice recordings – The Brighter Side  

AI trial to spot heart condition before symptoms – BBC 

What Your ‘Face Age’ Can Tell Doctors About Your Health – Wall Street Journal

Should you trust an AI-assisted doctor? I visited one to see. – Washington Post  

The companies paying hospitals to hand over patient data to train AI - Stat News 

New algorithm is twice as accurate at predicting stroke timing compared to the standard of care – Health Imaging  

AI-powered blood test spots earliest breast cancer signs - University of Edinburgh

Self-improving generative foundation model for synthetic medical image generation and clinical applications – Nature  

When A.I. and Doctors Make the Diagnosis – New York Times

Researchers use AI to define new subtypes of common brain disorder – Washington University Medical  

How AI is shaping the future of the healthcare industry – Data Science Central

AI predictive modeling of survival outcomes for renal cancer patients undergoing targeted therapy – Nature

A.I. Chatbots Defeated Doctors at Diagnosing Illness – New York Times 

Should a Student Reporter Face Prosecution for Embedding with Protesters? – Columbia Journalism Review

Why AI in Healthcare Harkens Back to Early Social Media Use – Bank Info Security

AI Definitions: Interpretability

Interpretability (or interpretable AI which is similar but not the same as explainability and explainable AI) – The study of how to understand and explain the decisions made by artificial intelligence (AI) systems in order to audit them for safety and biases. It is a key ingredient of human-centered design because a more transparent model is usually more trustworthy—it's easier (than explainable AI) to verify and evaluate as well as easier and quicker to debug and optimize. However, this transparency through its inner workings can impact performance, especially when dealing with complex models, like neural networks. Interpretability techniques include decision trees, linear regression, scalable Bayesian rule lists, etc.

More AI definitions here

9 Webinars this week about AI, Journalism & Media

Mon, Jan 27 - How to Acquire Free Satellite Imagery for Your Investigations

What: This GIJN webinar brings together leading experts to share practical advice and tips on navigating this often-overwhelming field. Attendees will learn the best platforms and techniques for obtaining free imagery, strategies for analyzing and processing the data, and ethical considerations when using it in investigative stories. Whether you’re looking to track deforestation, document urban expansion, or investigate geopolitical conflicts, this webinar will equip you with the skills to get started.

Who: Carl Churchill is a journalist at The Wall Street Journal; Yao Hua Law is an award-winning journalist from Malaysia; Laura Kurtzberg is a data visualization specialist, cartographer, and news applications developer with a particular interest in environmental stories; Manuela Andreoni, Chief Correspondent at Reuters based in Brazil.

When: 9 am

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Global Investigative Journalism Network

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Tue, Jan 28 - Disinformation takeaways from the 2024 elections and starting points for future investigative reporting

What: This session with Factchequeado, a fact-checking organization filling the gap of reliable information in Spanish in the U.S., will highlight the team’s takeaways from investigating disinformation impacting Latino communities during the 2024 elections. The team will share starting points for your investigations and tools to help with your reporting. They’ll also provide examples of Factchequeado investigative reporting to help inspire you.

Who: Laura Zommer, Factchequeado CEO and Co-founder; Rafael Olavarría, Factchequeado Politics and Immigration Fact-checker.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free to members

Sponsor: Investigative Reporters & Editors

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Tue, Jan 28 - Empowering the marketers, entrepreneurs, and creators in your classroom

What: We'll explore strategies for nurturing the next generation of business leaders, creative thinkers, and storytellers. Discover techniques and resources to support students in developing job-ready skills to launch their careers, as well as the marketing acumen and entrepreneurial spirit to find long-term success in a dynamic workforce landscape.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Pearson, Adobe, Meta

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Tue, Jan 28 - Journalists are First Responders: Mental Health in Times of Crisis

What: Ways to stay attentive to your mental health during your day-to-day work cycle and especially during a crisis.  

Who: Gretchen Schmelzer, ICF certified senior coach, licensed psychologist, co-founder of the Center for Trauma and Leadership, and the author of Journey Through Trauma.

When: 3 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Radio Television Digital News Association

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Wed, Jan 29 - Science Essentials for Local Reporters 

What: The key do’s, don’ts, and pitfalls to watch for when including science in your news reporting. Among the topics covered:  Knowing whether and how science can enhance your story; Different kinds of studies and what each can—and cannot—reveal; Practical tips for identifying credible scientist-sources and interviewing them; and How to get the essentials from scientific reports, studies, and press releases.

Who: Freelance science reporter Elena Renken and Ph.D. neuroscientist Dr. Tori Espensen.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: SciLine, a free service for journalists and scientists based at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society.

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Wed, Jan 29 - The First Amendment in the 21st Century

What: This class is a First Amendment primer for students new to the topic and a great refresher for those whose work or volunteer service involves the Five Freedoms.

Who: Gregory V. Sullivan, Esq. is the President of Malloy & Sullivan, Lawyers Professional Corporation and teaches First Amendment Media Law at Suffolk University Law School in Boston.

When: 6:30 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications

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Thu, Jan 30 – PR Trends 2025: Building Strategies That Drive Results

What: A discussion of key trends that are shaping the future of PR. Gain actionable insights into crafting a high-impact PR strategy for 2025, including leveraging AI with a human touch, bringing authenticity to media relations, and embracing data-driven approaches for effective communication. The discussion will also cover strategies for crisis management to build brand resilience and insights into using social media platforms to engage audiences, manage reputation, and address challenges.

Who: Hajira Amla, Nectar Marketing Communications; Michelle Garrett is a public relations consultant; Bill Byrne, founder of Remedy PR.

When: 11 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Cision

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Thu, Jan 30 - Source tracking fosters responsive engagement and improves your journalism

What: Learn from the American Press Institute’s experience supporting news organizations to track sources in order to build community trust, improve reporting strategies and attract new revenue.

Who: American Press Institute Director of Product Strategy Liz Worthington; Sherkiya Wedgeworth, Managing Editor of Accountability and Outreach for Colorado Public Radio; Leigh Munsil, Editor in Chief at San Antonio Report; and Blanca Méndez, Community Engagement Editor at San Antonio Report.

When: 12:30 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: American Press Institute

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Thu, Jan 30 - Report for America

What: This informative opportunity will cover the top newsrooms’ work culture, newsroom environment, salary, day-to-day routines, and much more. It will also provide a unique opportunity for members to network and ask direct questions to newsroom managers.

Who: Tim Lampley, Recruitment Manager, with Report for America, for a conversation about Report For America’s beat options, corps culture, and the application process.

When: 5:30 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: National Association of Hispanic journalists

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If I had only…

If I had only…

forgotten future greatness

and looked at the green things and the buildings

and reached out to those around me

and smelled the air

and ignored the forms and the self-styled obligations

and heard the rain on the roof

and put my arms around my wife

… and it's not too late.

Hugh Prather, Notes To Myself

Neglect

Neglect creates distance between partners and breeds resentment in the one who is being ignored.

15 Recent Articles about Students Using AI

Students and Instructors Say AI Tool Helps With Understanding, Confidence in Course Materials – Inside Higher Ed  

AI is a game changer for students with disabilities. Schools are still learning to harness it – Associated Press

She lost her scholarship over an AI allegation — and it impacted her mental health – USA Today

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

OpenAI's new o3 model freaks out computer science majors - Axios

Plagiarism detection software sparks widespread student concern – Phys.org

What Students Are Saying About Teachers Using A.I. to Grade – New York Times

Is Grammarly AI? Notre Dame Says Yes – Inside Higher Ed

Judge Rules in Favor of School That Gave Student a Bad Grade for Using AI – Gizmodo

To Use AI or Not to Use AI? A Student’s Burden – Inside Higher Ed

The Scary Ways AI Has Affected Their Classroom – BuzzFeed

New AI Tools Are Promoted as Study Aids for Students. Are They Doing More Harm Than Good? – Ed Surge

Employers Say Students Need AI Skills. What If Students Don’t Want Them? – Inside Higher Ed

Should You Still Learn to Code in an A.I. World? – New York Times

4 Free AI Tools Designed for Students – Slashgear

Continuity

If we must have some continuity in our lives – and we must – let it be of the sort that does not prevent renewal. -John Gardner

AI Definitions: Deep Neural Network

Deep Neural Network – A computer system with a structure inspired by neurons, or brain cells. It processes information in layers, with the deepest layers doing the most complex work. Scientists can train systems like these to “learn” human tasks, such as interpreting sounds. However, if understanding is inseparable from experience, then our physical embodiment may be difficult if not impossible to capture in symbolic processing systems.

More AI definitions here

16 Articles about AI’s impact on College Faculty & Administrators

Arizona’s getting an online charter school taught entirely by AI – TechCrunch

How a Campus Custom Built Its AI-Enabled Student Success Dashboard – Inside Higher Ed 

AI Could Help Bring Down the Cost of College – Wall Street Journal

Higher ed growing more concerned with bias, data privacy violations of AI  - Ed Scoop

AI May Ruin the University as We Know It – Chronicle of Higher Ed 

How Will AI Influence Higher Ed in 2025? - Inside Higher Ed

AI is an existential threat to colleges. Can they adapt? – Washington Post

ChatGPT Doesn’t Have to Ruin College – The Atlantic

Nevada Asked A.I. Which Students Need Help. The Answer Caused an Outcry. - The New York Times

Colleges See Alarming Rates of Fake Applications. So They’re Turning to AI. - Chronicle of Higher Ed

Nevada Asked A.I. Which Students Need Help. The Answer Caused an Outcry. – New York Times

Most Campus Tech Leaders Say Higher Ed Is Unprepared for AI’s Rise - Inside Higher Ed

How Higher Ed Can Adapt to the Challenges of AI - Chronicle of Higher Ed

AI Is Taking Over College Admissions – The Nation

OpenAI is funding Duke University to research ‘AI morality.’ – TechCrunch  

AI's Impact on College Cybersecurity - Chronicle of Higher Ed

Dealing with False Guilt

Here are 4 options when dealing with false guilt.

1. Remove the Source of Guilt (the conscience)
This may only desensitize us to actual wrongs and could lead to a denial of real evil in our lives.

2. Emphasize Self-Potential
This fails to address the underlying problems and ignores any real wrongs.

3. Emphasize Punishment
This can lead to feeling guilt when caught, ignoring legitimate conviction.

4. Emphasize Forgiveness
If the guilt is false, there lacks a basis for forgiveness and the person may feel they haven’t suffered enough.

When AIs are Bribed or Threatened

What’s bizarre about LLMs is that they act more like humans than we think they should. For example, some researchers have tested the hypothesis that LLMs perform better when offered a cash reward or threatened with death. It also turns out that some of the best ways to “jailbreak” LLMs (getting them to disobey their creators’ explicit instructions) look a lot like the kinds of social engineering tricks that humans use on each other: for example, pretending to be someone else or saying that the request is just a joke. But other effective jailbreaking techniques are things no human would ever fall for. One group found that if they used ASCII art (constructions of symbols that look like words or pictures) to pose dangerous questions, like how to build a bomb, the LLM would answer them willingly. - IEEE Spectrum

19 Things People are Trying to Get AI to Do

AI agents’ promise to arrange your finances, do your taxes, book your holidays – and put us all at risk – The Conversation

Coming soon: Ph.D.-level super-agents - Axios

AI could transform health care, but will it live up to the hype? – Science News 

Using AI to talk to animals – Axios  

The Firm That Wants to Power AI With Southern Yellow Pine – Wall Street Journal

Twelve Labs is building AI that can analyze and search through videos – TechCrunch 

Samsung has developed an audio eraser feature for smartphones that will allow users to erase unwanted sounds from videos – Data Country 

Extreme Weather Is Taxing Utilities More Often. Can A.I. Help? – New York Times  

Are AI-created recipes hard to swallow? – BBC

The world-changing ‘killer app’ for AI could be nuclear fusion - Washington Post  

OpenAI starts testing prototype of new AI search tool - Axios

OpenAI working on new reasoning technology under code name ‘Strawberry’ – Reuters

How AI could transform baseball forever – Washington Post

How generative AI could reinvent what it means to play – MIT Tech Review

Communicate with animals, win millions: Inside the wild new world of AI prizes – Semafor

Can AI make better chocolate chip cookie recipes than humans? We taste tested 2 – NPR

Can AI police itself? Experts say chatbots can detect each other’s gaffes. – Washington Post

Digital Twins and AI in Next-Gen Nuclear Reactor Operations  - AI wire

Five Ways AI Will Break Software Development – Inside AI News

It's Not

It's not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity. - Frances Bacon (born Jan. 22, 1561)

AI Dementia

Researchers have discovered that some of the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence systems might be experiencing their own version of cognitive decline. A new study finds that leading AI chatbots, including ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, performed poorly on the same cognitive tests used to screen elderly patients for dementia. -Study Finds

24 Articles about the Business of Running an AI Company

Amazon AI deal leaves ‘zombie’ start-up in its wake, whistleblower says – Washington Post

Coming soon: Ph.D.-level super-agents - Axios

Google’s Resolution for 2025: Catch Up to ChatGPT – Wall Street Journal

China's AI keeps getting better — and cheaper – Axios

Joe Biden signs executive order to speed AI data center construction – The Verge

Google is forming a new team to build AI that can simulate the physical world – Tech Crunch

Nvidia sends less powerful AI chips to China – Tom’s Hardware

OpenAI, Google and Runway race to generate AI video – Axios

AI-powered avatars can gesture naturally as they speak – New Scientist

OpenAI says it needs ‘more capital than we’d imagined’ as it lays out for-profit plan - CNBC

Microsoft Is Forcing Its AI Assistant on People—and Making Them Pay - Wall Street Journal

Nonprofit group joins Elon Musk’s effort to block OpenAI’s for-profit transition – Tech Crunch   

Tech dollars flood into AI data centers - Axios

Don’t Look Now, but China’s AI Is Catching Up Fast - Wall Street Journal 

OpenAI Unveils New A.I. That Can ‘Reason’ Through Math and Science Problems – New York Times

Google DeepMind unveils a new video model to rival Sora - TechCrunch  

Your Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses just got a massive AI upgrade – ZDnet  

The year in AI: Catch up on the top AI news of 2024 – Tech Target

Mobile pioneers say they’ll make ‘agentic AI’ a reality with new platform – Semafor  

OpenAI launched a 1-800-ChatGPT hotline, allowing users to interact with its chatbot over the phone - CNN

OpenAI says it has no plans to release an API for Sora - TechCrunch

Databricks co-founder offers $1 million prize to solve AI coding problems – Semafor

Sam Altman on ChatGPT’s First Two Years, Elon Musk and AI Under Trump – Bloomberg  

Google introduces a new quantum computing chip called Willow, designed to be faster and more reliable than previous chips – Tech Crunch

Why We Lie

A life of total dedication to the truth means.. a life of total honesty. It means a continuous and never-ending process of self-monitoring to assure that our communications – not only the words that we say but also the way we say them-invariably reflect as accurately as humanly possible the truth or reality as we know it. Such honesty does not come painlessly. The reason people lie is to avoid the pain of challenge and its consequences.  

M Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled