An Academic and a VC Walk into an AI Salon ... The unexpected collaboration that became "AI and the Art of Being Human" www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/an-academi...

If you use ChatGPT or other AI apps to respond to emails, or you've been tempted to, you may want to read this week's Substack newsletter from The Future of Being Human www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/the-hidden...

So pleased to see the US administration embrace their apocalyptic vision with the renaming of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. Looking forward to the Executive Order changing CDC to the Department of Pestilence, USDA to the Department of Famine, and DOGE to the Department of Death

This morning 9 former CDC Directors, whose tenures date back to 1977, published this warning in the NYT: RFK Jr is a danger to public health. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

AIs are becoming startlingly good at emulating what we do. But what happens when they start to influence who we are and how we behave? Holding on to our humanity in an age of AI: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/holding-on...

“‘It is about the systematic dismantling of public health institutions, the silencing of experts, and the dangerous politicization of science,’ Mr. Zaid and Mr. Lowell wrote. ‘The attack on Dr. Monarez is a warning to every American: Our evidence-based systems are being undermined from within.’”

Unpacking Agentic AI in Education – a fantastic conversation with Punya Mishra on the hype and realities of agentic AI in education, and transformative ways of approaching artificial intelligence and learning. www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/unpacking-...

Using AI to Assess Student-AI Conversations This week's Substack goes down a rabbit hole of developing a AI-prompt/tool for extracting insights from messy student-AI conversations www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/using-ai-t...

Stop asking students "Show Me Your Prompt!" As educators continue to grapple with students using AI for assignments, we need to move beyond the idea that showing the original prompt is useful www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/stop-askin...

For when you're asked "show me the prompt" on a college assignment where you use AI: fvture.net/notaprompt/

The Scared Witless Educator's Guide to Surviving GPT-5 Someone had to do it -- a slightly tongue in cheek but also deadly serious plan for surviving ChatGPT GPT-5 in the classroom as the new academic year starts. www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/the-scared...

Eye (ear?) opening: Living Machines: Inside the Future World of Bio‑Hybrid Robotics podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...

As universities and companies scramble to bring agentic AI to learning, I was intrigued by CodeSignal's approach to using AI in a new course inspired by the book Future Rising www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/codesignal...

This week's Modem Futura is up! Definitely the most fun you can have listening to an AI podcast 😜 Futures of Agentic AI and the 2025 (US) AI Action Plan podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f...

Spiky surfaces and jagged edges: Moving beyond what's known in an Age of AI www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/spiky-surf...

The White House's just-released AI Action Plan prioritizes speed, power, and US AI supremacy, over pretty much everything else. This will likely be good news for some, but not for others. www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/americas-a...

Just beginning to go through the newly released US AI Action Plan, but this sentence seems to say it all: "Simply put, we need to 'Build, Baby, Build!" I may be wrong but it seems that, when it comes to US policy, any hint of innovating responsibly is dead More at www.whitehouse.gov/articles/202...

Summer School with AI: Rethinking Learning in the Age of GPT: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

Something of a personal post on this week's Future of Being Human substack -- 61 paintings by young people that stopped me in my tracks in a a recent trip to China. www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/still-huma...

As AI "watchers" are proposed -- Chain of Thought (CoT) monitors -- who will watch the watchers? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes artificiosos? tomekkorbak.com/cot-monitora...

What's Grok 4's "Moral Character"? With the launch of xAI's Grok 4 – heralded by Elon Musk as "the world's smartest AI" – I was interested to see how it's "moral character" stacked up agains other models www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/whats-grok...

At least 13 postal workers in Britain died by suicide amid a post office scandal in which about 1,000 postal workers were wrongfully prosecuted for theft and other crimes, according to a report released this week as part of an inquiry into the scandal.

This week's episode of Modem Futura is out! Catch it here or wherever you get your podcasts: Summer Vibes & Spatial Rides: Inside Vision Pro, F1 & Jurassic Reboots podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

The Growing Risk of AI Manipulation: Two recent studies reveal how frontier AI models may leverage the ability to manipulate users to achieve their goals — if given the access and incentive. www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/ai-risk-mo...

Loved recording this week's episode of Modem Futura -- a totally eclectic Summer reading list from myself and co-host Sean Leahy, with a lot of laughs along the way: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f...

Staying true to form, this year's list of Top Ten Emerging Technologies from the World Economic Forum includes tech that may not be on your radar but should be – from nanozymes and generative watermarking to treating neurodegenerative disease with GLP-1's www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/wef-top-te...

I went in-depth here on Bridgit Mendler and Northwood Space. There's a lot of bad news out there, but this is one of the most uplifting stories I've reported on in awhile. arstechnica.com/space/2025/0...

I never thought a time would come when I reposted this video, but here we are: Don't treat coronavirus by injecting disinfectant www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GZB...

Can't recommend this conversation with ASU's Professor Emma Frow on synthetic biology and responsible innovation enough: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...

Vibe coding moral panic (the story behind the moral panic link I posted a few days ago). www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/vibe-codin...

Thanks for all the interest in the Technology-Driven Moral Panics timeline! This has now been cleaned up, an About section added and -- most importantly -- an AI follow-up link added to every entry. techlashed.org This was supposed to be a quick coffee break project -- it sort of grew!

Couldn't find a good technology-fueled moral panic timeline, so I made this (with a little help): techlashed.org

Lots of interesting food for thought here. As someone who believes in relational science communication enough to have written a book about it, it’s been tough to see a switch back to very transactional communication in the midst of a higher ed crisis.

Conveying facts and figures is an important communication strategy – but relationship-based communication and engagement have a unique and often under-appreciated role in empowering audiences at scale www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/why-paraso...

Can cause-effect models like this help people develop a better sense of developing and using AI responsibly? Link to the tool here: www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/exploring-...

Five things we need to know about technological change: futureofbeinghuman.com/p/five-thing...

The "hard" concept of care in technology innovation. Does a lack of care in how we develop and use new technologies risk turning us and our creations into "monsters?" futureofbeinghuman.com/p/the-hard-c...

AI and the lure of permissionless innovation – what could possibly go wrong as we prize the guardrails of responsibility off artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies? futureofbeinghuman.com/p/the-lure-o...

How is advanced artificial intelligence forcing a rethink of the value of human intellectual labor? futureofbeinghuman.com/p/the-artisa...

Is OpenAI's Deep Research capable of writing a full and original PhD dissertation? I spent four days working with Deep Research on this challenge. I was, I must confess, taken aback at just how good it is futureofbeinghuman.com/p/can-ai-wri...

Does OpenAI's Deep Research signal the end of human-only scholarship? futureofbeinghuman.com/p/openai-dee...

A much needed bit of AI levity with a serious message: futureofbeinghuman.com/p/toe-tappin...

AI at a Crossroads: The Unfinished Work of Aligning Technology with Humanity. Where the Vatican and AI Scientists Converge, Collide, and Challenge Us to Think Differently. futureofbeinghuman.com/p/ai-at-a-cr...

"the highest ranks of OPM—essentially the HR function for the entire federal government—are now controlled by people w connections to Musk & the tech industry. Among them is a person who, according to an online résumé, was set to start college last fall." www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

Impossible to overstate the confusion, anxiety, and chaos this order has already caused among researchers, even as a last minute ruling prevented its implementation. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The $500 Billion Gamble: Can AI save humanity without breaking it? futureofbeinghuman.com/p/the-500-bi...

I asked ChatGPT to create three video games – this is what happened: futureofbeinghuman.com/p/i-asked-ch...

Great conversation with Ascential Technologies' Brunno Moretti on all things sensors and autonomous (and semi-autonomous) vehicles – must-listen for anyone tracking autonomous tech in cars: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

After two years of procrastinating I finally updated a set of FAQs that I compiled for colleagues back in 2023 – in part because I couldn't find anything better out there! futureofbeinghuman.com/p/chatgpt-fa...

Quick reminder to check out this week's Modem Futura episode with Cady Coleman, PhD if you have any interest at all in space exploration, women in STEM, and a whole bunch of other stuff. futureofbeinghuman.com/p/a-conversa...