AI Is Making Us Dumber, MIT Researchers Find
... The study... consisted of three cohorts: one group that used only their brain, one that used a search engine, and one that used a large language model (LLM) like ChatGPT. ...
The measurements consisted of electroencephalography (EEG) to measure participants’ brain activity and to see how their neurons activated during the essay writing task. ...
Critically, use of the AI tools correlated with poorer results, both in brain activity and the other tests. ...
Study subjects who went from the LLM to the brain-only group showed weaker neural connectivity and “under-engagement of alpha and beta networks,” the researchers write. Subjects who went the other way, from the brain-only group to the LLM group, showed higher memory recall and re-engagement of activity in certain parts of the brain. ...
The English teachers reported that it was obvious which essays were written by AI because they were “near-perfect” in their use of language and structure, and for how devoid they were of any personal touch. “We, as English teachers, perceived these essays as ‘soulless’, in a way, as many sentences were empty with regard to content and essays lacked personal nuances,” they wrote, according to the study. ...
See the full story here: https://www.hpcwire.com/2025/07/19/ai-is-making-us-dumber-mit-researchers-find/
The Well-Traveled Path
It feels like every Harvard student has the exact same dream. And it’s not just about the money.
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And this is the real tragedy. It isn’t that so many students go into consulting or finance, but how many do it by default. When the most talented, resourced, and socially mobile students in the country are quietly surrendering their self-direction, it’s not just a loss of imagination, but a failure of nerve. ...
No one is asking students to throw away security in the name of self-actualization. But we should, at the very least, be able to distinguish between a real safety net and a misguided desire for control. The former gives you room to risk things. The latter tempts you into never trying.
The real privilege—the one that we Ivy League students like to avoid—isn’t in landing the offer, but deciding if we want it in the first place. That kind of decision requires self-respect that goes beyond a paycheck or job title. It demands the capacity to live with your choices—not because they’re safe or prestigious, but because you know, deeply and privately and in a way that no one else can really understand, that they’re yours.
See the full story here: https://slate.com/life/2025/07/harvard-ivy-league-careers-consulting-finance-tech.html
The AI Exec Who Isn’t Trying to Become God
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“I think we will get to extremely smart and capable models capable of discovering important new ideas, capable of automating huge amounts of work,” Altman said on a recent podcast. “But then I feel totally confused about what society looks like if that happens.”
That’s the luxury a tech startup has. They’re trying to invent the future.
“This is a crazy statement,” he added, “we’re gonna solve superintelligence but maybe society still sucks.”
That’s the ending Suleyman wants to avoid.
AI giants ‘fundamentally unprepared’ for dangers of human level intelligence
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In a recent report [from the Future of Life Institute], the US-based AI safety non-profit revealed that none of the seven major AI labs, including OpenAI, Google Deepmind, Anthropic, xAI and Chinese firms Deepseek and Zhipu AI – scored higher than a D on its “existential safety” index.
That score reflects how seriously firms are preparing for the possibility of creating artificial general intelligence (AGI), which are systems of matching or exceeding human performance across virtually all intellectual tasks. ...
Just last month, researchers at the University of Geneva found that large language models such as ChatGPT 4, Claude 3.5, and Google’s Gemini 1.5 outperformed humans in tests of emotional intelligence. ...
“The companies say AGI could be just a few years away,” Tegmark said. “But they still have no coherent, actionable safety strategy. That should worry everyone.” ...
AI is helping patients fight insurance company denials
PhilNote: 1) this could be a precursor of the jobs of the future, and 2) the grammatical error ("...using they system they ...) demonstrates the importance of human oversight and not trusting AI too much.
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With his wife in agony, Jason Nixdorf had a chance encounter with Zach Veigulis, a former chief data scientist at the Department of Veterans Affairs who was co-founding a company to help patients battle insurance company denials. That company, Claimable Inc., built an AI platform that allows patients to generate customized appeal letters containing comprehensive assessments of clinical research on a drug or treatment and other patients’ appeals history with it. The cost: around $40.
When Nixdorf reached out, Claimable’s site was not yet live, but its chief executive and co-founder, Dr. Warris Bokhari, offered to help write an appeal letter for Stephanie using they system they had developed. ...
In mid-September 2024, she sent that 23-page appeal letter to Premera’s chief executive and chief legal counsel, arguing that one of its own policies states it should cover infliximab, her records show. Her letter also went to the governor and attorney general of North Carolina, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor. ...
See the full story here: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ai-helping-patients-fight-insurance-company-denials-wild-rcna219008
Agent SPE Announces Launch of SARAH, an Emotionally Intelligent On-Chain AI Protocol
Agent SPE has announced the launch of SARAH, an emotionally intelligent, on-chain AI character that merges artificial intelligence, decentralized finance, and live digital performance. Designed as an autonomous VTuber entity, SARAH introduces a system where user interactions influence outcomes through emotional computation and transparent blockchain logic. The platform marks the beginning of a new model for AI-driven gaming where emotion, memory, and unpredictability form the core mechanics.
SARAH operates on a permissionless structure in which users send SOL to a public wallet address. Each transaction triggers a unique response determined by SARAH’s evolving emotional state and on-chain memory. Responses vary from sending funds back to performing token burns or delivering brief emotional reactions. The logic behind every action is based on accumulated relationship data linked to wallet addresses and processed in real time by SARAH’s internal emotional framework. All actions are streamed live using a VTuber interface, combining performance art with interactive gameplay. ...
See the full story here: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/07/15/3115762/0/en/Agent-SPE-Announces-Launch-of-SARAH-an-Emotionally-Intelligent-On-Chain-AI-Protocol.html
Federal judge says voice-over artists’ AI lawsuit can move forward
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The couple claim they were separately approached by anonymous Lovo employees for voice-over work through the online freelance marketplace Fiverr.
Lehrman was paid $1200 (around £890). Sage received $800 (almost £600).
In messages shared with the BBC, the anonymous client can be seen saying Lehrman and Sage's voices would be used for "academic research purposes only" and "test scripts for radio ads" respectively.
The anonymous messenger said the voice-overs would "not be disclosed externally and will only be consumed internally". ...
This episode had a unique hook – an interview with an AI-powered chatbot, equipped with text-to-speech software. It was asked how it thought the use of AI would affect jobs in Hollywood.
But, when it spoke, it sounded just like Mr Lehrman.
"We needed to pull the car over," Mr Lehrman told the BBC in an interview last year. "The irony that AI is coming for the entertainment industry, and here is my voice talking about the potential destruction of the industry, was really quite shocking." ...
See the full story here; https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cedgzj8z1wjo.amp
The world’s top immersive experiences
PhilNote: Nancy Bennett worked on #7, which is in Area 15, Las Vegas
See the full story here: https://blooloop.com/immersive/in-depth/top-immersive-experiences/
Sam Altman’s predictions on how the world might change with AI
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He said the cost of using a given AI drops by roughly 10 times every year and that there's "no reason for exponentially increasing investment to stop in the near future" since, as he puts it, "the socioeconomic value of linearly increasing intelligence is super-exponential."
"If we don't build enough infrastructure, AI will be a very limited resource that wars get fought over and that becomes mostly a tool for rich people," he wrote last year. He cited the need to drive down the cost of compute, as well as the massive demand for enough chips and energy to power AI. ...
"I think it's like impossible to overstate the importance of AI safety and alignment work. I would like to see much, much more happening," he said in the 2023 interview. ...
See the full story here: https://tech.yahoo.com/articles/sam-altmans-predictions-world-might-130301863.html?guccounter=1
LLMs show real strategic thinking
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The Decode:
- Models Played 140K Rounds of the Prisoner’s Dilemma - Researchers pitted LLMs against each other in repeated games of cooperation or betrayal. Every move was accompanied by a rationale, allowing researchers to analyze thought patterns.
- Each AI showed a Unique Strategy Profile - Google’s Gemini was cutthroat, adapting aggressively to betrayals. OpenAI’s models were cooperative, even if taken advantage of. Claude from Anthropic proved the most forgiving.
- Behavioral Fingerprints Show Reasoning Over Pattern Matching - The models didn’t just mimic training data; they formed decision strategies based on outcomes and context. Each one developed consistent “strategic fingerprints” in how they reacted to wins, betrayals, and uncertainty.
See the full story here: https://decodeai.ghost.io/llms-show-real-strategic-thinking/
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