Motivated by Screaming

I had the most satisfying Eureka experience of my career while attempting to teach flight instructors that praise is more effective than punishment for promoting skill-learning. I was telling them about an important principle of skill training: rewards for improved performance work better than punishment of mistakes. This proposition is supported by much evidence from research on pigeons, rats, humans and other animals.

When I had finished my enthusiastic speech, one of the most seasoned instructors in the audience raised his hand and made a short speech of his own. He began by conceding that positive reinforcement might be good for the birds, but he denied that it was optimal for flight cadets. This is what he said,

“On many occasions I have praised flight cadets for clean execution of some aerobatic maneuver. The next time they try the same maneuver they usually do worse. On the other hand, I have often screamed into a cadet’s earphone for bad execution, and in general he does better one his next try. So please don’t tell us that reward works and punishment does not, because the opposite is the case.”

This was a joyous moment of insight, in which I saw in a new light a principle of statistics that I had been teaching for years. The instructor was right – but he was also completely wrong! His observation was astute and correct: occasions on which he praised a performance were likely to be followed by a disappointing performance, and punishments were typically followed by an improvement. But the inference he had drawn about the efficacy of reward and punishment was completely off the mark.

What he had observed is known as regression to the mean, which in that case was due to random fluctuations in the quality of the performance. Naturally, he praised only a cadet whose performance was far better than average. But the cadet was probably just lucky on that particular attempt and therefore likely to deteriorate regardless of whether or not he was praise. Similarly, the instructor would shout in to a cadet earphones only when the cadet’s performance was usually bad and therefore likely to improve regardless of what the instructor did. The instructor had attached a causal interpretation to the inevitable fluctuations of a random process.

Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow

26 Articles about Amazing Things AI can do now

How Google Used AI to Re-Create ‘The Wizard of Oz’ for the Las Vegas Sphere – Wall Street Journal  

New AI chips transfer data using light instead of electricity for greater speed – Reuters

New AI algorithm to predict risk of cardiovascular events, heart-related death – AP 7am

AI is shaking up the hidden world of earthquake forecasting – The Star

This new AI tool changes a speaker's accent to American English in real-time - hear for yourself – Zdet  

Doctors Told Him He Was Going to Die. Then A.I. Saved His Life.- New York Times

Arizona Supreme Court taps AI avatars to make the judicial system more publicly accessible – Associated Press 

Agibot unveils AI model that allows humanoid robots to perform real-world tasks – SCMP  

How A.I. Is Changing the Way the World Builds Computers - New York Times

Artificial intelligence finds 5,000-year-old civilization beneath Dubai desert – Jerusalem Post

AI made its way to vineyards. Here’s how the technology is helping make your wine – Associated Press 

Google Cloud unveils AI-powered weather predictions - Axios 

The New Leverage: AI and the Power of Small Teams – Jarango

Duke Health develops AI model that predicts mental health illness risks for adolescents – CBS 17  

AI can outperform humans in predicting correlations between personality items – Nature

McDonald’s Gives Its Restaurants an AI Makeover - Wall Street Journal

These AI powered earbuds pack a secret — you can record and translate speech – Tom’s Guide  

Earth AI is using AI algorithms to identify overlooked deposits of critical minerals – Tech Crunch   

Surveillance software uses machine learning and motion analysis to help retailers catch shoplifters – Financial Times

A weather model that offers a faster and more efficient alternative to traditional forecasting methods – The Register 

A small robot can be used to detect and potentially treat cancers found in the large intestine – Medical Express  

A new AI tool helps recruitment agencies automate outreach and follow-ups - Financial Times

Krisp is using AI to change user accents during phone calls in real-time. - Tech Crunch  

Scientists in the UK have developed an AI model that speeds up the diagnosis of coeliac disease – The Guardian

AI and satellites help aid workers respond to Myanmar earthquake damage – Associated Press

Meta Unveils Mind-Reading AI That Types Your Thoughts with Shocking Precision – The Brighter Side

24 Recent Articles about AI & Writing

Independent says readers ‘often prefer’ stories provided by new AI service to human-written versions of those articles– Press Gazette 

Why AI can’t take over creative writing – The Conversation  

NaNoWriMo shut down after AI, content moderation scandals – TechCrunch

The best AI email writing assistant: We tested 5, and only one beats a human - The Washington Post

Researchers surprised to find less-educated areas adopting AI writing tools faster - Ars Technica

ChatGPT firm reveals AI model that is ‘good at creative writing’ – The Guardian

OpenAI’s ‘creative writing’ AI evokes that annoying kid from high school fiction club - TechCrunch

AI Search Has A Citation Problem – Columbia Journalism Review

Break through writer’s block with an AI-powered creativity hack – Mashable

What is interesting writing and can LLMs create it? – Stat Modeling

AI Anxiety Can writing at Harvard coexist with new technologies? – Harvard Magazine

Hollywood writers say AI is ripping off their work. They want studios to sue – LA Times

Is There A Place For AI In Creative Writing? – Caversham Writers

AI won't remove the need for human editing – Times Higher Ed

New AI tool could redefine book charts and bestseller lists – Jerusalem Post  

Dow Jones negotiates AI usage agreements with nearly 4,000 news publishers – Harvard’s Nieman Lab  

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

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

Every doctor is a writer: On the end of note-writing and meaning-making in medicine – Stat News

University students describe how they adopt AI for writing and research in a general education course – Nature  

Meta Is Experimenting With AI-Generated Comments, for Some Reason – Life Hacker

Writers respond to the short story written by AI – The Guardian  

People say they prefer stories written by humans over AI-generated works, yet new study suggests that’s not quite true – The Conversation  

How Scottsdale police are using AI to help write crime reports – Arizona’s Family  

Effectively Remixing Other People’s Materials

According to Austin Kleon’s Steal Like An Artist, the so-called “original” thinkers and creators are simply people who effectively learned to remix other people’s materials.

Originality isn’t about doing what’s never been done in a strict sense, but it’s about the unique way in which each individual gives expression to his or her artistic influences. Quoting Jonathan Lethem, Kleon argues that “when people call something ‘original,’ nine out of ten times they just don’t know the references or the original sources involved.”

It’s a simple idea, but not as simple as “copy the people you like” and you’ll be an instant genius.

The kind of stealing Kleon refers to is not about pretending you came up with somebody else’s idea or just modifying a few details, but it’s about being strategic and selective with the process of choosing your influences, taking what resonates with you, making other people’s ideas your own, and being diverse enough to find unexplored points of intersection between your various influences.

TK Coleman, 5 Ways to Steal Like An Artist

AI Definitions: AI Agents

AI Agents – These chatbots have the ability not only to answer questions and provide information, but to act on users' behalf in the background, autonomously. Users provide a goal (from researching competitors to virtual assistant functions like buying a car or planning a vacation), and the agent generates a task list and starting to work by breaking down the overall goal into smaller steps. The ability to understand complex instructions is crucial for agentic AI to be effective. Rather than passive processors of language, these proactive active agents can produce practical, real-world applications in uncertain but data-rich environments as it interacts with external tools and APIs. Agents are not the same as “AI copilots” which can collaborate with users but don’t make decisions on their own as agents can do. They are also not as powerful as Agentic AI, which can act more autonomously.

More AI definitions here.

Obsessed with Image

As Americans, we're obsessed with images. Who we are isn't as important as how we appear. In fact, we spend so much time and effort on appearances, we lose the ability to recognize the true identity of another person, or even ourselves. We've become more familiar with the image than we are with the real thing.

Dating relationships are especially vulnerable to this problem. A person isn't evaluated on character or individuality, but on how close he or she measures up to the other's image of the ideal mate. Real people take second chair to the ideal; they measure up to the image or they don't.

Have you ever noticed the excitement at the beginning of a romance that later faded with growing familiarity? In the early stages of any new friendship, we're usually seeing more of the image than we are of the real person. We've seen enough of the surface to see similarities between the object of our affections and the ideal we seek, but not enough to show us that our ideal and the new friend are not the same person. In essence, we're falling in love with the image, with the idea that this one person might be "it." Sooner or later the real person is going to start breaking through that image, and disillusionment will set in.

The success of a marriage comes not in finding the "right" person, but in the ability of both partners to adjust to the real person they inevitably realize they married. Some people never make this adjustment, becoming trapped in an endless search for an image that does not exist.

John Fischer, Real Christians Don’t Dance!

29 Articles about the Impact of AI on Health Care

Arguing the pros and cons of AI in healthcare - TechTarget

Randomized Trial of a Generative AI Chatbot for Mental Health Treatment – New England Journal of Medicine

Apple Readies Its Biggest Push Into Health Yet With New AI Doctor – Bloomberg

Adaptive deep brain stimulation uses AI to reduce Parkinson’s symptoms - The Washington Post

Retracted articles on cancer imaging are not only continuously cited by publications but also used by ChatGPT to answer questions – Science Direct

Open-Source AI Matches Top Proprietary LLM in Solving Tough Medical Cases – Harvard Medical School 

Doctors Told Him He Was Going to Die. Then A.I. Saved His Life. – New York Times 

AI-Powered Test Reveals Biological Age from Small Blood Sample – Inside Precision Medicine

AI failed to detect critical health conditions: study - Axios 

Algorithm may reduce racial, ethnic inequalities in MS treatment: Study – Multiple Sclerosis News Today  

The Hologram Doctor Will See You Now – Wall Street Journal

Machine learning outperforms deep learning in audiometry in a new study – Dev Discourse

Duke Health develops AI model that predicts mental health illness risks for adolescents – CBS17

Pre-trained convolutional neural networks identify Parkinson’s disease from spectrogram images of voice samples – Nature

Can AI predict the next pandemic? A new study says yes – News Medical

Train clinical AI to reason like a team of doctors – Nature

An AI-powered model that accurately predicts blood sugar levels in diabetes patients – Deccan Herald

An AI clinical assistant that automates pre-surgery assessments for cataract patients – BBC

How health insurers are using AI today – StatNews

A diagnostic tool that uses DNA sequencing and machine learning to detect multiple diseases from a single blood sample - Inside Precision Medicine

A Versatile AI System for Analyzing Series of Medical Images - Cornell Medicine

Cancer could be spotted early on thanks to new 'human-defying' AI-powered body scan – Daily Record

AI-based pregnancy analysis discovers previously unknown warning signs for stillbirth and newborn complications – University of Utah

Reid Hoffman Raises $24.6 Million for AI Cancer-Research Startup - Wall Street Journal

From Prediction To Practice: AI’s Role In Healthcare 2025 – Forbes

Assessing AI-Driven Approaches to Student Mental Health – Dartmouth

6 ways AI is transforming healthcare – World Economic Forum

Trump’s early actions imperil efforts to improve AI’s performance in medicine – Stat News

Medical students use AI to practice communication skills - Cornell Chronicle

Wearable AI to enhance patient safety and clinical decision-making – Nature

AI Definitions: Quantum Computers

Quantum Computers – The computers we use today operate on a traditional binary code, which represents information with 0s and 1s. Quantum machines, on the other hand, use quantum bits, or qubits. The unusual properties of qubits make quantum computers far more powerful for some kinds of calculations, including the mathematical problems that underpin much of modern encryption.

More AI definitions here.

Wonder and humility

It seems reasonable to believe — and I do believe — that the more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us the less taste we shall have for the destruction of our race. Wonder and humility are wholesome emotions, and they do not exist side by side with a lust for destruction.

Rachel Carson acceptance speech for the John Burroughs Medal, April 7, 1952

17 Webinars This Week about AI, Journalism, & Media

Mon, April 7 - Safeguarding your journalism against legal threats 

What: An in-depth discussion on safeguarding journalism amidst escalating legal challenges. Get answers to your most pressing questions and identify the best practices from experts on the frontlines of journalism defense.

Who: David McCraw, Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at The New York Times; Victoria Baranetsky, General Counsel at the Center for Investigative Reporting.

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Poynter Institute

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Mon, April 7 - Writing Compelling Stories

What: Some of the techniques journalists and nonfiction writers can use to make their work more cinematic and, in the process, more engaging to their readers.

Who: Author Lee Gutkind, the founding editor of Creative Nonfiction Magazine.

When: 6 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Society of Professional Journalists, DC Pro Chapter

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Tue, April 8 - Why the UK Needs a Broad Text and Data Mining Exception to Support AI Innovation

What: A discussion on the potential consequences of the UK government’s proposed option and how creating a more permissive text and data mining exception would advance the UK’s goals of being competitive in AI without undermining the rights of creators. 

Who: Ayesha Bhatti, Head of Digital Policy, UK & EU, Center for Data Innovation; Julia Garayo Willemyns, Founding Co-Director, UK Day One Project; Bertin Martens, Senior Fellow, Bruegel; Benjamin White, Founder, Knowledge Rights 21.

When: 9 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The Center for Data Innovation

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Tue, April 8 - The Formula for Social Media Success

What: Our simple but comprehensive social media workshop will help you learn how to prioritize things and give you a clear formula to be successful on social media. The topics will be covered are: Learn the key differences between social networks; Identify your target market; Set your social media goals; Build your content strategy; Create your Ad Strategy; Measure your results; Discover must-have social media tools; Leverage Social Media Marketing, start engaging with your customers, and increase your sales. 

Who: Ray-Sidney Smith, Digital Marketing Strategist, Hootsuite Global Brand Ambassador, Google Small Business Advisor for Productivity, and Managing Director of W3C Web.

When: 10 am, Eastern (2 hours)
Where: Zoom

Cost: $45

Sponsor: Duquesne University Small Business Development Center

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Tue, April 8 - AI for Older Adults: AI All Around

What: In this lecture, we’ll explore many of the digital platforms and websites generative AI is now available. We’ll discuss how the tools try to make tasks easier and go over privacy considerations to keep in mind when using them.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: OpenAI Academy, Senior Planet from AARP

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Tue, April 8 - Teacher Perspectives on Media Literacy

What: A discussion with the researchers who published "ELA and Social Studies Teachers’ Perspectives on the Importance of Media Literacy for Student Learning" in the latest issue of the Journal of Media Literacy Education about how middle- and high-school teachers perceive the importance of media literacy in their classrooms and which aspects are most important to them.

Who: Hillary Gould, a PhD Candidate in Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri, who primarily researches and designs educational video games; Sam von Gillern, an Assistant Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Missouri who researches digital literacies, digital citizenship, and game-based learning; Matthew Korona, a Research Assistant at George Mason University as well as a school-based instructional technology facilitator in a district in the suburbs of Wash, DC; Alicia Haywood is the founder and executive director of iSpeakMedia, a nonprofit organization that promotes media literacy as a lifestyle through student-centered curriculum and community education for parents of adolescents.

When: 4 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Journal of Media Literacy Education, Media Education Lab

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Tue, April 8 - Generative AI Guidelines for Student Media Making: Centering Youth Voice, Ethics, and Productivity 

What: We’ll explore the generative AI landscape through the lens of youth voice. We’ll unpack new guidelines developed by the Education Team at KQED and take a closer look at how to apply these guidelines across the curriculum in ways that are productive, ethical, and student focused. This session will examine ways to customize ChatGPT when your students are developing audio and video scripts and writing in other genres, including a common use case: how chatbots like ChatGPT can provide supportive and valuable feedback on students’ writing.  

Who: Rachel Roberson, Senior Program Manager, Education Content, KQED; Rik Panganiban, Program Manager, Online Learning, KQED.

When: 5 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: KQED Education

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Tue, April 8 - Don't Get Hacked: Essential Digital Security for Journalists

What: The dangers of password reuse and how to prevent account hijacking; Best practices for using password managers and creating strong master passwords; The importance of Two-Factor Authentication (2FA); Smartphone security tips and why system updates matter; A comparison of secure messaging apps: Signal, WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack, and more.

Who: David Huerta, senior digital security trainer, Freedom of the Press Foundation.

When: 5 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free to members ($25 for students to join)

Sponsor: National Association of Hispanic Journalists

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Wed, April 9 - What the Heck is Coaching and Why Do Journalists Need It?

What: How coaching is transformative and a leading-edge resource for journalists.

Who: Aquiline Coaching’s Founder, Stephanie Cassidy.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: New England Newspaper & Press Association

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Wed, April 9 - Getting Started with AI for Nonprofits

What: This informal session will introduce key concepts, share several useful demos, and introduce a basic framework to help you and your organization safely and ethically get immediate use from off-the-shelf AI tools like ChatGPT.

Who: Rich Leimsider AI for Nonprofits Sprint, Fund for the City of New York; Mohammed Husein Solutions Engineer, OpenAI.

When: 12 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: OpenAI

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Wed, April 9 - The 2025 state of internal comms

What: A look at what's going right in work places, what's going wrong, and where organizations are headed next along with advice from some of the nation’s top communication minds.

Who: Axios HQ VP of Brand and Strategy Emily Inverso.

When: 12:30 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Axios

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Wed, April 9 - How to meet Americans where they are: Communicating effectively about public health

What: A discussion about how to effectively communicate about public health to the American public.

Who: Katy Evans is a Senior Program Officer with the de Beaumont Foundation and will soon start a new role as Senior Director of the Health Justice Program at The FrameWorks Institute. 

When: 1 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom (and in person)

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Stanford Health Equity Media Fellowship and Harvard Chan School’s Health Communication Concentration

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Wed, April 9 - Mini-Lab: Advanced Prompt Writing

What: We’ll design a no-code website using AI and use tools to test the code for any malware. You can choose the site topic you want to build (news, entertainment, promotional or business site). Participants get a handout with links to all the prompt templates.

Who: Mike Reilley  Senior Lecturer, University of Illinois-Chicago.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Online News Association

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Wed, April 9 - The First Amendment and Libraries

What: This webinar is about developing and updating library policies and offering spaces and services with the First Amendment in mind. Starting with the founding of the Bill of Rights, there will be a discussion of many of the rulings and legal cases that have molded the way the First Amendment affects libraries.

Who: Matt Beckstrom, the Systems Librarian at the Lewis & Clark Library in Helena, Montana.  

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Nitch Academy

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Wed, April 9 - Harnessing Your Motivators to Thrive in the Age of AI Speaker 

What: How to use the science-backed Motivators Assessment to navigate AI’s impact with confidence. By uncovering what truly fuels your work satisfaction and performance, you’ll learn how to align AI with your passions, curiosity, and ambitions—turning it into a career accelerator rather than a roadblock.

Who: Paul Yoachum Co-founder and Managing Partner, FindMojo.

When: 2 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: FindMojo

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Wed, April 9 - Cracking the Code: How AI Shapes What We See (and What We Miss)

What: An in-depth conversation about the evolving role of AI and algorithms in news and social media. We’ll explore the rise of AI-generated content, machine learning systems that use data to shape our information bubbles, and the challenges posed by deepfakes. Throughout this edWebinar, we’ll equip you with strategies to help students develop a more critical approach to digital news consumption. By the end of the session, you’ll be armed with information about the ongoing evolution of AI, a deeper understanding of how we shape—and are shaped by—algorithms, and a toolbox of resources to support you in teaching your students.

Who: Mia Sato, Reporter, The Verge; Dr. Brittney Smith, Senior Manager of District Partnerships, East, The News Literacy Project.

When: 5 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The News Literacy Project

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Thu, April 10 - Understanding Global Events: A Q&A Session with GlobalPost Media

What: Understanding global events is crucial, but let's be real; sometimes the headlines leave you with more questions than answers. Here's Your Chance to Get the Inside Scoop. Hear from people with years of experience who can help you make sense of a complicated world. No filters, no scripts, just experienced journalists ready to break down.

Who: GlobalPost Media's editorial team.

When: 10 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: GlobalPost Media

More Info

23 Recent Articles about the Business of Running an AI Company

ChatGPT users have generated over 700M images since last week, OpenAI says - TechCrunch

Are LLM firewalls the future of AI security? – Computer Weekly

Google Gemini is shaking up its AI leadership ranks – Semafor  

More pre-training data may not always lead to better large language models - VentureBeat

A Big Coal Plant Was Just Imploded to Make Way for an AI Data Center – Wall Street Journal

Open source devs are fighting AI crawlers with cleverness and vengeance – TechCrunch

The AI Data-Center Boom Is Coming to America’s Heartland - Wall Street Journal 

We were promised “Star Trek,” so why did we settle for these lousy chatbots? – BigThink

Nvidia CEO Says AI Computing Needs to Surge 100-Fold - Wall Street Journal 

The Quest for A.I. ‘Scientific Superintelligence’ – New York Times  

Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, acquires a generative AI video startup – TechCrunch 

OpenAI urges U.S. to allow AI models to train on copyrighted material – NBC  

Delays cast a cloud over Apple Intelligence - Axios

The tiny chips behind Amazon’s big AI investment – Semafor

China tells its AI leaders to avoid US travel over security concerns, WSJ reports – Reuters

ChatGPT firm reveals AI model that is ‘good at creative writing’ – The Guardian

Google looks to give AI its arms and legs - Axios 

New Chinese AI agent draws DeepSeek comparison - Axios 

A.I. Is Changing How Silicon Valley Builds Start-Ups - New York Times  

What the Dot-Com Bust Can Tell Us About Today’s AI Boom - Wall Street Journal 

GenAI synthetic data create ethical challenges for scientists – PNAS  

Turing Award Goes to 2 Pioneers of Artificial Intelligence – New York Times  

Just how badly OpenAI and Perplexity are screwing over publishers - Forbes

The Designer as Conductor

The emergence and impact of AI isn’t about replacing designers. It’s about repositioning them. The future designer won’t be the one who can code every micro-animation by hand. They’ll be the one who can see the big picture, communicate it crisply, and orchestrate a system toward that vision. They’ll be less like a craftsman and more like a director or editor.  -Francesco Bertelli