Weekly Link Roundup #49
Live, from 20 minutes in the future...IFYKYK
10,000+ Historical Images Are Now Free To Explore and Use in New Public Domain Image Archive: Yes. Sometimes I do include things that aren’t related to AI.
I shared a newsletter issue a couple days ago on what I thought it would take to actually make use of all the trend reports we see come out at this time every year. That made me think of the recent 20 Books That Impacted You, In 20 Days challenge. These were mine and no, I didn't read a book a day but these are ones that are my favs and whose stories and lessons have stuck with me - sometimes for decades. I think maybe one way to get value out of trend reports is to develop the mental muscles to see the futures suggested by those trends.
working collaboratively and learning cooperatively by Harold Jarche: Harold is always smart but I really love this bit “The sharing of complex knowledge — the type of which creative knowledge workers use — requires strong social ties and trusted professional relationships.” It touches on so many key things like the knowledge that we have to work with is increasingly complex and we need trusted relationships to navigate and realize value from it. This means, as Harold frames it, moving away from a focus on reducing errors and more toward generating insights.
Turbocharging Organizational Learning With GenAI: I LOVE this article. Why you ask? Great question. I love it because it starts to get at the organizational changes that we need to consider to move forward with incorporating AI intelligently into our organizations > > “In this article, we’ll argue that leaders need to embrace generative AI as a new organizational capability, and not just because it automates a variety of tasks economically. Combined with traditional AI, generative AI expands the scope of potential improvement in many processes and decisions and the ease with which this new knowledge can be applied. This, in turn, creates the potential for a positive compounding effect on organizational learning, with human and machine agents working in concert to create new competitive advantages.”
AI isn’t very good at history, new paper finds: I hope AI doesn’t feel bad, there are lots if humans who are really bad at history too. “The main takeaway from this study is that LLMs, while impressive, still lack the depth of understanding required for advanced history. They’re great for basic facts, but when it comes to more nuanced, PhD-level historical inquiry, they’re not yet up to the task,” said Maria del Rio-Chanona, one of the paper’s co-authors and an associate professor of computer science at University College London.”
In China, social media apps are changing how people buy and read books—selling more than physical bookshops do: File this one as a signal that we need to be smarter than ever both in personal and professional lives, about how the algos that feed us information, work. “Douyin's algorithm, which promotes engaging content regardless of follower count, has empowered many creators—and even ordinary readers—to share their reading experiences, while gaining visibility and sometimes income. In fact, influencers with follower counts between 10,000 and three million contributed to over 70% of total book sales on Douyin.”
A new research program is Indigenizing artificial intelligence: This is SO important and critical > > “A new initiative steered by Concordia University researchers is challenging the conversation around the direction of artificial intelligence (AI). It charges that the current trajectory is inherently biased against non-Western modes of thinking about intelligence—especially those originating from Indigenous cultures. As a way of decolonizing the future of AI, they have created the Abundant Intelligences research program: an international, multi-institutional and interdisciplinary program that seeks to rethink how we conceive of AI. The driving concept behind it is the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge systems to create an inclusive, robust concept of intelligence and intelligent action, and how that can be embedded into existing and future technologies.”
Designing the Sublime: Boullée and Ledoux’s Architectural Revolution: Yes, another article that’s not about AI or learning per se. I think architecture can teach us a great deal about how we live in all kinds of spaces both physical and online. We are, by birth, physical creatures and occupy physical space. That means that since birth, we have been conditioned to think in 3 dimensions. Architects and architecture grapple with this and how to imbue physical spaces with certain feelings. As we live increasingly in other spaces, we can leverage the hard-won knowledge of the physical space to help us be more inclusive, welcoming, and engaging.
New Google education tools for 2025: Here’s the thing, this is a great example of not being able to get the toothpaste back in the tube. For classrooms or for corporations, this technology is not going away. So, that means the only rational way forward is to be doing rigorous experimentation to find what can best be applied to yield the best results. Here’s the kicker, if you’re in Learning and Development, you need to be doing the experiments and talking to senior leadership about the results before folks over in IT or Finance are doing them. Nothing against those fine folks but they have a different set of outcomes they are looking for than you do. Whoever gets to senior leadership first, with data-driven results will be able to set the agenda.
Perplexity launches Sonar API, taking aim at Google and OpenAI with real-time AI search: This talks about access to info during meeting which is cool but what I here is we could build real-time access to information into web courses or any online instruction. Might start looking for vendors from #EdTech that are building this capability into their platforms > > “Zoom has already integrated Sonar into its AI Companion 2.0 product, allowing users to access real-time information without leaving video conferences — a capability that could reshape how businesses conduct remote meetings and research. What sets Sonar apart is its real-time web connection, a feature absent in many competing APIs that rely solely on training data. This approach could prove particularly valuable for enterprises requiring current information, although it may face challenges in applications requiring deterministic outputs.”
Of course you can run DOOM in Word.
This Just In: Chopstick Sleeves as Emissaries of Japanese Typography and Culture: Look, you should have known that if you subscribed to a newsletter written and curated by an anthropologist, you were going to get these kinds of items. The question to really ask, is what kind of artifacts is your organizational culture creating and what meaning is being inscribed on them. From branded coffee mugs to the pixelated phone tool icons at Amazon, there are artifacts all around. How are they made and who can make them and what meaning do they carry? Want to influence a culture, look to the artifacts (and the language). “The chopstick sleeve originated in the Imperial Court of Japan sometime during the Heian period (8th–12th century). Ladies-in-waiting are thought to have wrapped chopsticks in scraps of silk or other fine fabrics as it was considered impolite to pass unwrapped objects from one hand to another. Hundreds of years later, hashibukuro (“chopstick envelopes”) graced the banquet tables of shoguns, and by the Edo period (17th–19th century), establishments in the Yoshiwara red light district furnished hashibukuro to their regulars.”
In African Publishing, ‘There Is a Renaissance Going On’ (gift link): Folks, we all work in a global environment. Take a minute, expand your reading list. I promise, only good will come from it.
Writing notes instead of typing pits scholars against each other: So the tl;dr - the debate continues.
This was a good one, Mark! 👍👍