AI is already 10x-ing academic research. How do we get to 100x? Agentic AI could unlock social science abundance

"The current format—a static PDF published in a gated journal—is a relic." newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/ai-is-alre...

The uncomfortable truth about Copilot: Microsoft knows it's useless Microsoft integrates Copilot across its ecosystem, yet limits where and how it should be trusted.

"Microsoft's fine print says you shouldn't trust Copilot: A glorified chatbot 'for entertainment purposes'" www.howtogeek.com/microsoft-co...

"There can also be uncertainty around softer etiquette, whether they should change into pajamas immediately, when they can recline, and whether snacks are included or how often it is acceptable to ask for something."

How Do Cabin Crew Recognize First-Time Business-Class Travelers? "The biggest tell is going to be hesitation."

Here's What Cabin Crew Notice About Passengers Flying Business Class For The 1st Time Premium cabin demand has only continued to grow.

So challenging! "First-time business-class passenger may not know when to board, how to stow stuff, how dining works, whether pajamas are complimentary. Cabin crew notice that instantly, and often have to guide those passengers without making them feel out of place." simpleflying.com/what-cabin-c...

"Assessing AI’s impact on jobs, 73% of U.S. experts are positive, compared with only 23% of the public, a 50 percentage point gap...."

Why opinion on AI is so divided AI power users are pulling away from everyone else.

"The Stanford report notes that Google DeepMind’s top reasoning model, Gemini Deep Think, scored a gold medal in the International Math Olympiad but is unable to read analog clocks half the time." www.technologyreview.com/2026/04/13/1...

Exclusive | Tucker Carlson Books Imprint To Launch With Skyhorse Publishing The imprint is set to include books from Russell Brand, Milo Yiannopoulos and Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong

“I think most people don’t read books anymore because they’re too absorbed in all the other available media,” said Carlson. “But some people do (and they) tend to be disproportionately influential in policy conversations and conversations about ideas.” www.wsj.com/business/med...

Next Wednesday (4/15): U.S. House of Rep. Committee Hearing: The State of Scientific #Publishing: Assessing Trends, Emerging Issues, and Policy Considerations science.house.gov/hearings?Con... #scholcomm #libraries

AI Stole 7M Books…Why This Publishing Insider Is Still Bullish My guest today is Thad McIlroy, author of The AI Revolution in Book...

🎙️ Just published a new episode of Media and the Machine: AI Stole 7M Books…Why This Publishing Insider Is Still Bullish. Have a listen:

"To put it bluntly, an X post today receives less than 3% of the views a single tweet delivered seven years ago." HT @stevenlevy.bsky.social www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

‘From high flyer to dead parrot’: former billion-dollar eco-shoe brand Allbirds sold for $39m Once-hyped, celebrity-backed company snapped up by American Exchange Group for fraction of former value

“Allbirds has gone from being a high flyer to a dead parrot.” www.theguardian.com/business/202...

From Arundhati Roy’s ‘Mother Mary Comes to Me’ to Dan Brown’s ‘Secret of Secrets’: How one man printed thousands of fake bestsellers Jwala Prasad was arrested after police uncovered a sophisticated printing facility in Anand Parbat and recovered over 20,000 pirated books, including titles by Arundhati Roy and Dan Brown.

A pirate tale. indianexpress.com/article/citi...

Publishers' metadata quality varies: Elsevier 36, Oxford 20, Informa 21 | Rob Johnson posted on the topic | LinkedIn Elsevier scores 36 out of 100 on metadata quality. Oxford University Press scores 20. Informa (aka Taylor & Francis) scores 21. These are some of the world's largest scholarly publishers. The figures...

Lots of metadata problems, even at the largest scholarly publishers. www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Understood.

Thank you for your kind remark.

Much appreciated!

Academics Need to Wake Up on AI Ten theses for folks who haven't noticed the ground shifting under their feet

"Much of the opposition to AI is status protection dressed up as principle." www.popularbydesign.org/p/academics-... @ALEXANDER KUSTOV

Come hear him talk all about it at Duke tomorrow!

Authors Guild Launches Expanded "Human Authored" Certification Program - The Authors Guild The Authors Guild announces the official public launch of its groundbreaking “Human Authored” certification program with a modified logo for international use. The program was launched in beta exclusi...

Here's a group still in full-denial mode: trade-published authors, both of fiction and non-fiction. This week, to great huzzahs, the Author Guild announced their 'Expanded “Human Authored” Certification Program.' authorsguild.org/news/human-a...

Our Tools – Post45 Data Collective

We presented on our tool for enriching and clustering book data at Code4Lib today. Check it out, and let us know what you think!

data.post45.org/our-tools.html

Huge thanks to @thisismattmiller.com for leading development on this project.

#code4lib #c4l26

Giancarlo DiTrapano, Tyrant Books Founder, Dies at 47 The founding editor and publisher of the influential independent press Tyrant Books died suddenly on March 30 while visiting New York City from his home in Naples, Italy.

Giancarlo DiTrapano "Nothing should be for everyone,... nothing that’s worth anything. You know what’s for everyone? Water. Water is for everyone. And if you’re publishing something for everyone, well, you’re publishing water." www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Opinion | The A.I. Disruption We’ve Been Waiting for Has Arrived

Very good thought piece: "All of the people I love hate this stuff, and all the people I hate love it." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/o...

The Geometry of Truth: How AI Spontaneously Learns to Separate Fact from Fiction CDS researchers uncover how LLMs learn to physically encode truth — without being told what’s true.

"New research...reveals exactly how and why (AI) models learn to construct this internal “truth” compass without explicit instruction." nyudatascience.medium.com/the-geometry...

Something Big Is Happening A personal note for non-tech friends and family on what AI is starting to change.

"Judging AI based on free-tier ChatGPT is like evaluating the state of smartphones by using a flip phone." shumer.dev/something-bi...

The One Book Every Editor Wants to Publish The Commercial/Literary Spectrum and the Invention of the Upmarket Book

Excellent analysis of the state of fiction publishing today: @dearheadofmine.bsky.social dearheadofmine.substack.com/p/the-one-bo...

Guest post: Forget pickles and ice cream. I published a fake paper on pregnancy cravings for prime numbers Image generated by Google Gemini I had grown weary of the constant stream and abuse of spam invitations to submit manuscripts to journals and to attend fake conferences on the other side of the wor…

This one is fun: "Accepting the challenge, I decided to submit a deliberately nonsensical, AI-generated manuscript in response to observe how the individuals behind these supposed journals operate." retractionwatch.com/2026/01/30/g...

"We imagine a world where AI models can think at the level of humans without ingesting half the internet." flappingairplanes.com

From the horrorlit community on Reddit: Shy Girl by Mia Ballard. Does anyone else think this was written by ChatGPT? Explore this post and more from the horrorlit community

The "Shy Girl" (Mia Ballard) controversy "I called it quits when she called Farrah Fawcett 'Farah Faucet'” www.reddit.com/r/horrorlit/...