The market is rough for college grads, and especially rough for computer-related majors that the STEM-first mindset pushed as a guaranteed safe career track. According to a recent report, employment for journalism majors is not only better than CS and computer engineering, but also a notch or two better than the average employment rate for…
This is what we have to look forward to, as a torrent of AI-generated slop that’s good enough for the CEOs to monetize squeezes out the human-generated content that actually matters. Former NBA player Brandon Hunter passed away unexpectedly at the young age of 42 this week, a tragedy that rattled fans of his 2000s…
On road trips in my youth, watching the Bob’s Big Boy signs transition to Shoney’s Big Boy was often part of the adventure. As the franchises close, the cheerful burger-wielding statues have been rounded up and corralled, presumably for their own safety. Source: The Big Boy Graveyard Similar:Unemployment rates for recent college grads: Overall, 5.8%;…
The newest and most powerful technologies — so-called reasoning systems from companies like OpenAI, Google and the Chinese start-up DeepSeek — are generating more errors, not fewer. As their math skills have notably improved, their handle on facts has gotten shakier. It is not entirely clear why. Today’s A.I. bots are based on complex mathematical systems that learn…
In the halls of power at Amazon, busy executives have no time for PowerPoints. At the start of a meeting, everyone gets a printed 6-page memo, and spends 20-25 minutes reading it silently and marking it up. After the discussion, the printouts (typically with detailed hand-written comments) are handed back to the person who called…
Donald J. Trump sued ABC because a journalist truthfully described Trump on air as a convicted rapist. The legal definition of rape absolutely does cover what Trump was found guilty of doing to E. Jean Carroll. Instead of taking the case to court, where legal experts say they would have won easily, ABC agreed to…
Similar:How to be a Medieval Spectator (Intro to Toronto York Plays 2025)Unemployment rates for recent college grads: Overall, 5.8%; Computer science, 6.1%; Comput…York Corpus Christi Pageant, Toronto, June 7Why Even Try if You Have A.I.? Now that machines can think for us, we have to choose wheth…Spring 2025 Final Grades Submitted!Microsoft Publishes Garbled AI Article…
Two years after the release of ChatGPT, it may not be surprising that creative work is used without permission to power AI products. Yet the notion remains disturbing to many artists and professionals who feel that their craft and livelihoods are threatened by programs. Transparency is generally low: Tech companies tend not to advertise whose…
As part of an ongoing bid to get his hands on Vantablack, the super dark, light-absorbing material to which Anish Kapoor controversially has the exclusive license, artist Stuart Semple has legally changed his name to… Anish Kapoor. “It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Semple told me. “I like the idea of being able to try a name…
My job is often to help students understand things that they aren’t good at doing yet. If a student arrives in my classroom with a solid ability to construct clear sentences and summarize difficult readings, using an AI tool that helps them spot grammar mistakes with less effort and capture the gist of a reading…
What is this? I do not like this change, @duolingo (For some reason I can’t practice to recover from an error.) Similar:Unemployment rates for recent college grads: Overall, 5.8%; Computer science, 6.1%; Comput…Microsoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically Deceased NBA Player "Useless"The Big Boy GraveyardA.I. Is Getting More Powerful, but Its Hallucinations Are Getting…
I used to spend time in class teaching students about how your act of choosing to link from your blog to someone else’s blog was part of the formula Google used to rank its search results. The words you picked when you crafted your hyperlink was a way of conveying or withholding value. Tagging is…
Glenda Morgan does not sound that impressed with Google’s latest promises about AI and education. [T]hus far I am unconvinced that the kinds of tutoring currently offered via AI matches the concept of watching a student’s thought processes and identifying the core issues they aren’t understanding. Instead, AI tutoring today seems to consist of breaking…
When scholars of journalism study the effects of the shrinking press corps, they usually focus on how it hurts civil society. Vast swaths of the country are at risk of becoming “news deserts,” with limited access to reliable local journalism. This state of affairs makes it harder for people to make educated decisions and is…
I was never really a fan of MTV, I assume because I grew up without cable TV as a teenager in the 80s, and because I was very busy with grad school and starting a family in the 90s. I didn’t really feel like I had much in common with my “Gen X” cohort (most…
Apple has apologized, but like writer Peter C. Baker, I’m not quite ready to let go of that really horrifying ad depicting a roomful of beautifully displayed musical instruments, sound gear, art supplies, and even toys being slowly squashed by a huge hydraulic press (ostensibly to highlight the creative potential of the latest iPad). Picture…
Already facing scandal, the Washington Post‘s new-ish CEO and publisher, Will Lewis, has announced that the newspaper will be pivoting to artificial intelligence to turn around its dismal financial situation. […] The paper’s chief technology officer, meanwhile, announced to staffers that going forward, WaPo is to have “AI everywhere in our newsroom,” according to Tani. It’s unclear,…
The new AI advanced version of Google Search, aka Google SGE or Search Generative Experience, provides wicked smart AI answers to your queries. And if you ask it how to pass kidney stones quickly, Google will tell you to drink at least two quarts of urine every 24 hours. Source: Google SGE Recommends You Drink…
I guess now we know why for the past decade or so Google doesn’t seem to be valuing what used to be magical about Google — the ability to rank pages so effectively and connect users to web pages that met their needs. That’s just not what’s driving Google these days. With AI search results…
Have you seen Apple’s “Crush” ad? It features a huge huge hydraulic press crushing musical instruments, art supplies, google-eyed toys, and other beloved artifacts of imagination and creativity. I remember seeing a video years ago that showed how a smartphone replaced a desktop full of tools like a calculator, notepad, rolodex, and so forth. But…