Neither theory, history nor the latest data suggests a recession driven by AI job dislocation is likely, WSJ’s Greg Ip writes. on.wsj.com/4u5dM6Q

Bad Bunny's gift of multiplicity "Regardless of one’s feelings about Bad Bunny, we know the backlash isn’t really about the Super Bowl halftime show," writes Evy Peña. "The real political battleground is the idea of belonging — who g...

Essay: "The thing about democracy is that it depends on our ability to embrace the multitudes we contain, not to trim them," writes Evy Peña.

“I guess that’s worth poisoning our water for.” Erin Cullie, Massage Scheduler

New Social Network Exclusively For AI Bots theonion.com/new-social-network-exclu...

Avoid the lure of working on metrics over constructs I should know better, but even I catch myself doing this.

This week on Counting Stuff, a bit of reflection on a mistake I still catch myself making, where I take a shortcut and jump directly to metrics and measurement without pausing to ask what construct we're interested in, esp for more novel problems
#dataBS
www.counting-stuff.com/avoid-the-lu...

Are female economists treated differently than males in academic seminars?

These authors wanted to know whether gender shapes how scholars are treated when presenting research.

So they built a massive dataset of 2,000+ economics seminars, job talks, and conference presentations from 2019–2023...

Genuinely laughed that the answer is 'Bali'. Cheers for the hot tip

A Pedagogy of the Inevitable Over the last couple of years, two altogether incompatible discourses of “AI literacy” have emerged. One seeks just enough literacy to support a smooth, perhaps even joyful, integration with new techn...

One of the best AI critiques I’ve seen read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/...

House Republicans propose stricter voting rules as Trump administration eyes midterms The package released Thursday reflects a number of the party's most sought-after election changes, including requirements for photo IDs before people can vote and proof of citizenship, both to be put ...

House Republicans are proposing sweeping changes to the nation's voting laws, a long-shot priority for President Donald Trump that would impose stricter requirements, including some before Americans vote in the midterm elections in the fall. https://to.pbs.org/4kdTLGM

I wonder if you can even get much higher than this: 'Some 94.2 per cent of respondents wanted the people to directly elect district heads and mayors; only 4.4 per cent preferred selection through the DPRD.'

Gender differences in sense of belonging in four STEM fields across five past studies in the mega-analysis. Gender gaps were largest in CS and engineering, and in middle/high school.

So we combined 5 large datasets from our lab with >6,000 students in Grades 1-12 in a mega-analysis. Key findings: gender gaps began in middle school, were largest in middle and high school, and were largest in CS and engineering (all STEM fields are not the same!). (5/N)

“As educators, the more we know about who we teach, the more effective we will be with what we teach. Taking time to get to know our students isn’t fluff time, it’s academic time.” —Dr. Justin Tarte

The relationship between childhood exploration and population-level innovation in cultural evolution Abstract. The societal effects of children’s learning in cultural evolution have been underexplored. Here, we investigate using agent-based models how a pr

Really great new paper using agent-based modelling to show how an exploratory childhood can lead to innovation in the population at large.
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

The silicon gaze: A typology of biases and inequality in LLMs through the lens of place - Francisco W. Kerche, Matthew Zook, Mark Graham, 2026 This paper introduces the concept of the silicon gaze to explain how large language models (LLMs) reproduce and amplify long-standing spatial inequalities. Draw...

"Drawing on a 20.3-million-query audit of ChatGPT, we map systematic biases in the model's representations of countries, states, cities, and neighbourhoods. From these empirics, we argue that bias is not a correctable anomaly but an intrinsic feature of generative AI”.

ht: Dagmar Monett

We really need to come up with better metaphors for AI agents than junior developers and interns. It’s far more of a reflection of how disrespectfully we treat those roles than it is a useful metaphor for how agents behave

The two hardest problems in Computer Science are

1. Human communication
2. Getting people in tech to believe that human communication is important

Despite Crackdown on Activism, Tech Employees Are Still Picking Fights

Over the past few years, tech companies have laid off hundreds of thousands while many tech executives have embraced the ruthless management style of CEOs like Elon Musk. Yet tech workers keep standing up to their bosses. What gives? I try to explain here www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/b...

This supports my early theory about why people are obsessed with LLM tech. The underlying value proposition.

"What if you didn't need to interact with other humans in order to get what you want?"

Is the humble pigeon a mascot for our time? All of a sudden, my social media feed has been taken over by pigeons, writes Tove Danovich. It was enough to make me look more closely at these birds and what I found delighted me.

Essay: Pigeons care for their young, writes Tove Danovich. They purr when they’re happy. They like to cuddle. They can be potty-trained.

Most of all, they’re survivors — something people can relate to.

Young people aren't getting hired — but AI isn't to blame, an economist says A hiring freeze, not AI, is pushing youth unemployment higher as firms pause expansion amid uncertainty and tariffs.

A hiring freeze, not AI, is pushing youth unemployment higher as firms pause expansion amid uncertainty and tariffs.

LinkedIn is scrapping its associate product manager program and rebuilding around full-stack talent LinkedIn is ending its associate product manager program. Now, it will train new hires to code, design, and ship products as "full-stack builders."

LinkedIn is ending its associate product manager program. Now, it will train new hires to code, design, and ship products as "full-stack builders."

South Korea's Experiment in AI Textbooks Ends in Disaster The South Korean government's billion-dollar AI textbook initiative has been a complete failure from start to finish.

Who could have seen this coming except literally everyone

share.google/GFaMy3K2Jjlo...

The U.S. faces a dire connection shortage, but the issue is demand not supply. People are waiting to help, commune and commiserate, but not enough of them are asking for what they need.

🔗 on.wsj.com/4ii6ZkH

Thoughtful people are capable of asking themselves:
- do I think gatekeeping is the path to shared safety?
- do I think x degree is the only way to select for y behavior?
- is there a reason I think Being Technical never has to be explained or defined?
- who is the one who gets to enforce it, then?

He’s Been Right About AI for 40 Years. Now He Thinks Everyone Is Wrong. Yann LeCun invented many fundamental components of modern AI. Now he’s convinced most in his field have been led astray by the siren song of large language models.

An AI pioneer is convinced that most in his field have been led astray by the siren song of large language models.

The new AI warnings popping up in SEC filings A growing number of SEC filings now list AI as a material risk, reflecting both its rapid adoption and the uncertainty surrounding how to control it.

A growing number of SEC filings now list AI as a material risk, reflecting both its rapid adoption and the uncertainty surrounding how to control it.

Opinion | Capitalism Is Constantly Reinventing Itself. That’s Why Things Feel So Volatile. We are in the middle of the capitalistic order reinventing itself.

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

“If Americans want to challenge their country’s illiberal turn, they need to stop clinging to the recent past,” Sven Beckert says in a guest essay. “Like other economic regimes before it, it is gone. Resurrection is impossible and to aim for it is politically disastrous.”

Sound analysis from economist Muhamad Chatib Basri on Indonesia's good economic growth but fragile middle class. He helps to describe why millions of young Indonesian were involved in street protests nationwide
carnegieendowment.org/research/202...