Is an Emergent Synthetic Intelligence Already Here?

The more I engage with large language models (LLMs), the more I’m convinced they’re doing something beyond statistical pattern-matching. These systems feel intelligent.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.stevehargadon.com/2025/04/is-emergent-synthetic-intelligence.html

Demis Hassabis Is Preparing for AI’s Endgame

This story is part of the 2025 TIME100. Read Jennifer Doudna’s tribute to Demis Hassabis here. Demis Hassabis learned he had won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry just 20 minutes before the world did.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://time.com/7277608/demis-hassabis-interview-time100-2025/

When Will AI Be Smarter Than Humans? Don’t Ask

If you’ve heard the term artificial general intelligence, or AGI, it probably makes you think of a humanish intelligence, like the honey-voiced AI love interest in the movie Her, or a superhuman one, like Skynet from The Terminator. At any rate, something science-fictional and far off.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/features/2025-04-13/when-will-ai-be-smarter-than-humans-don-t-ask

DeepMind’s 145-page paper on AGI safety may not convince skeptics

Google DeepMind on Wednesday published an exhaustive paper on its safety approach to AGI, roughly defined as AI that can accomplish any task a human can. AGI is a bit of a controversial subject in the AI field, with naysayers suggesting that it’s little more than a pipe dream.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/02/deepminds-145-page-paper-on-agi-safety-may-not-convince-skeptics/

An AI Model Has Officially Passed the Turing Test

One of the industry's leading large language models has passed a Turing test, a longstanding barometer for human-like intelligence.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://futurism.com/ai-model-turing-test

The New Student in Class: Generative AI

For three McGill professors in the Faculty of Arts, the conversation around artificial intelligence (AI) in teaching took off in 2023. ChatGPT, an AI chatbot built on OpenAI’s foundational large language models (LLMs), had become popular one year earlier.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.mcgilldaily.com/2025/03/the-new-student-in-class-generative-ai/

AI and the Paradox of Education: Generative Teaching, Agentic Learning, and Education's Singularity

"It’s true - @stevehargadon is a national treasure." @markjotter "Steve is an amazing facilitator. He brings this wonderful combination of humility, hospitality and insight to conversations that matter in education.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.stevehargadon.com/2025/03/ai-and-paradox-of-education-generative.html

https://www.anthropic.com/research/tracing-thoughts-language-model?utm_source=www.therundown.ai&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=openai-nears-record-funding-round&_bhlid=4c0bce5ba4bff771ed63a8fe44a5527656a6548e

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.anthropic.com/research/tracing-thoughts-language-model?utm_source=www.therundown.ai&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=openai-nears-record-funding-round&_bhlid=4c0bce5ba4bff771ed63a8fe44a5527656a6548e

A New Old Way: Learning in Conversation with AI

There is a line in Charles Handy’s The Age of Unreason where he quotes an anonymous Irishman: “How do I know what I think until I hear what I say?” (Others have said similar things.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.stevehargadon.com/2025/03/a-new-old-way-learning-in-conversation.html

Session 123: "AI and Libraries: with Lib2.0"

Steve Hargadon joins as host of the 56,000-member Library 2.0 online community, for a discussion on the evolving role of artificial intelligence in libraries. Drawing from two years of hosting free large-scale mini-conferences on AI and libraries as well as paid webinars and workshops. Steve will

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZl17i1kuoE&t=177s

You’ll Laugh at This Simple Task AI Still Can’t Do

Most human children learn how to tell time around ages six and seven — but artificial intelligence still, apparently, can't parse a clock face.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://futurism.com/ai-simple-task-fail-clock

Your A.I. Lover Will Change You

A future where many humans are in love with bots may not be far off. Should we regard them as training grounds for healthy relationships or as nihilistic traps?

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/your-ai-lover-will-change-you

https://www.perplexity.ai/page/notebooklm-introduces-interact-AG6Ijc1IT0mzAyXGj8aBiw

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.perplexity.ai/page/notebooklm-introduces-interact-AG6Ijc1IT0mzAyXGj8aBiw

Webinar: "How to Read a Book (and More) With AI"

"It’s true - @stevehargadon is a national treasure." @markjotter "Steve is an amazing facilitator. He brings this wonderful combination of humility, hospitality and insight to conversations that matter in education.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.stevehargadon.com/2025/03/webinar-how-to-read-book-and-more-with.html

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/18/enterprise-ai-tension-workers-execs

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.axios.com/2025/03/18/enterprise-ai-tension-workers-execs

AI and the "Cliff Clavin Problem"

On the TV show Cheers, Cliff Clavin was the character who worked very hard to say sophisticated sounding things but who most of the time was just making up facts. AI, specifically large language models (LLMs), have a Cliff Clavin problem.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.stevehargadon.com/2025/03/ai-and-cliff-clavin-problem.html

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chatgpt-ai-cheating-students-97075d3c

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chatgpt-ai-cheating-students-97075d3c

Alibaba Releases AI Model That Reads Emotions to Take On OpenAI

In two demonstrations, Alibaba’s Tongyi Lab researchers showed their new open source R1-Omni inferring the emotional state of a person in a video while also offering descriptions of their clothes and environment.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/alibaba-releases-emotional-intelligence-model-102013293.html

A DeepSeek Ban is Absolutely Coming

The existence of DeepSeek AI makes absolutely no sense. The entire United States government, and most recently the Supreme Court, have worked themselves into a tizzy over concerns about TikTok.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://medium.com/the-generator/a-deepseek-ban-is-absolutely-coming-2167119732f2

The AI Image Generation Mistake 99% of People Make (5-Minute Fix!)

Imagine trying to be a good carpenter, but you only know how to use a hammer and a screwdriver. It would be impossible!

ORIGINAL LINK: https://ai.plainenglish.io/the-ai-image-generation-mistake-99-of-people-make-5-minute-fix-05b80830ebf4

I Tried Google’s Generative Search. It Will Change Blogging Forever.

This week, I finally got an invitation to beta test Google’s new generative AI-powered search experience, dubbed Search Generative Experience (SGE). It's a total game-changer.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://medium.com/the-generator/i-tried-googles-generative-search-it-will-change-blogging-forever-e95bdf753106

Google just confirmed the AI reality many programmers are desperately trying to deny

Now Google’s Chief Scientist just made a telling revelation: AI now generates at least 25% of their code. Can you see — it’s happening now at top software companies with billions of active lines of code.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://medium.com/coding-beauty/ai-writes-google-codebase-00e6ad35ac7c

How Gen AI Could Change the Value of Expertise

As the deployment of generative AI automates away elements of some jobs and augments workers’ abilities in others, the skills, experiences, and credentials that employers use to evaluate job candidates will change rapidly.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://hbr.org/2025/03/how-gen-ai-could-change-the-value-of-expertise

The Fate of the Lawyer Who Cited Fake Cases from ChatGPT

It says a lot about how society (and the law) will treat AI's mistakes

ORIGINAL LINK: https://ai-in-real-life.beehiiv.com/p/the-fate-of-the-lawyer-who-cited-fake-cases-from-chatgpt

I tried the most realistic AI voice companion ever created - if ChatGPT or Gemini ever gets this good, reality is in trouble

I have spent a lot of time talking to AI. I’ve tested every voice assistant, every chatbot, and every “next-generation” conversational AI that tech companies love to hype up. But I’ve never encountered anything quite like Sesame.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/i-tried-the-most-realistic-ai-voice-companion-ever-created-if-chatgpt-or-gemini-ever-gets-this-good-reality-is-in-trouble

Fiverr’s New Suite Of AI Tools Could Reshape The Freelance Economy

, Contributor. Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about the economics of AI.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kolawolesamueladebayo/2025/03/07/fiverrs-new-suite-of-ai-tools-could-reshape-the-freelance-economy/

ChatGPT gets ‘anxiety’ from violent user inputs, so researchers are teaching the chatbot mindfulness techniques to ‘soothe’ it

BYResearchers are working to find ways to apply AI to mental health interventions.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://fortune.com/2025/03/09/openai-chatgpt-anxiety-mindfulness-mental-health-intervention/

AI tools are spotting errors in research papers: inside a growing movement

Late last year, media outlets worldwide warned that black plastic cooking utensils contained worrying levels of cancer-linked flame retardants.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00648-5

AI is creating 'overly compliant helpers,' not revolutionaries, said the top scientist at Hugging Face

AI excels at following instructions — but it's not pushing the boundaries of knowledge, said Thomas Wolf. The chief science officer and cofounder of Hugging Face, an open-source AI company backed by Amazon and Nvidia, analyzed the limits of large language models in a Thursday post on X.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-not-revolutionaries-thomas-wolf-science-breakthrough-agent-hugging-face-2025-3

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-generative-ai-upending-freelance-safe.html

ORIGINAL LINK: https://phys.org/news/2025-03-generative-ai-upending-freelance-safe.html

China’s Autonomous Agent, Manus, Changes Everything

, Contributor. Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Craig S. Smith, Eye on AI host and former NYT writer, covers AI.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.forbes.com/sites/craigsmith/2025/03/08/chinas-autonomous-agent-manus-changes-everything/

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt sounds the alarm over a ‘Manhattan Project’ for superintelligent AI

BYEric Schmidt, Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, and Center for AI Safety Director Dan Hendrycks are sounding the alarm about the global race to build superintelligent AI.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://fortune.com/2025/03/06/eric-schmidt-warning-manhattan-project-superintelligent-ai/

AI and the Public

As artificial intelligence becomes more embedded in work, creative pursuits, and the generation of online misinformation, public libraries have a major new role to play in digital literacy. “Make your photos pop with Magic Editor” reads the landing page for Google’s new Pixel 9 smartphone.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/ai-and-the-public

I asked ChatGPT to work through some of the biggest philosophical debates of all time – here’s what happened

There’s endless debate about AI replacing human creativity, judgment, and decision-making. But what if, instead of replacing us, it could help us think more clearly? I expect that’ll be met with a resounding “no thanks!” from some of you (I get it), but bear with me.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/i-asked-chatgpt-to-work-through-some-of-the-biggest-philosophical-debates-of-all-time-heres-what-happened

Humanoid Robots Are Starting to Work Human Warehouse Jobs

We may now be nearing the point where humanoid robots are no longer just clumsy curiosities, but genuine candidates — if not outright replacements — for human jobs.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://futurism.com/humanoid-robots-warehouse-jobs

I stopped saying thanks to ChatGPT – here's what happened

The first time ChatGPT responded to me, I instinctively typed, “Thank you, ChatGPT!” It just felt natural.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/i-stopped-saying-thanks-to-chatgpt-heres-what-happened

OpenAI May Have Really Screwed Up With GPT-4.5

OpenAI is trying to have it both ways: calling GPT-4.5 its "largest and most knowledgeable model yet" while managing expectations, cautioning that it's "not a frontier model." Why? Probably because the company knew what the public response was going to be: muted.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://futurism.com/openai-screwed-up-gpt-4-5

AI Likely to Increase Inequality, Sam Altman Admits, or Control the "Population Through Mass Surveillance and Loss of Autonomy"

In a new post on his personal blog, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned that AI could lead to plenty of economic inequality while allowing authoritarian governments to "control their population through mass surveillance and loss of autonomy.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://futurism.com/ai-increase-inequality-sam-altman-admits

AI-designed chips so weird that 'humans cannot really understand them' — but they perform better than anything we've created

Engineering researchers have demonstrated that artificial intelligence (AI) can design complex wireless chips in hours, a feat that would have taken humans weeks to complete.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.livescience.com/technology/computing/humans-cannot-really-understand-them-weird-ai-designed-chip-is-unlike-any-other-made-by-humans-and-performs-much-better

Week in AI Summary from Perplexity

• : Amazon unveiled its "Ocelot" chip, based on "cat qubit" technology, which significantly reduces quantum computing errors. This advancement could accelerate the commercialization of quantum computing, especially in industries like pharmaceuticals and logistics3.

• : The latest AI model, Grok 3, excels in logic and programming tasks but struggles with humor and ethical reasoning. It represents a step forward in reasoning capabilities but still faces challenges in creative and ethical contexts25.

• : The market for AI in drug commercialization is growing rapidly, with a projected CAGR of 24% by 2032. AI is being used to optimize pricing, market access strategies, and patient engagement, particularly in North America, which leads the sector4.

• : Researchers at the University of Florida developed an algorithm capable of predicting dominant COVID-19 variants 10 weeks in advance. This highlights AI's potential in global health security through predictive analytics and outbreak modeling1.

• : A new hybrid AI system combines deep learning and automated reasoning to design proteins with specific functionalities. This innovation could lead to breakthroughs in medicine, such as tackling antibiotic resistance or designing custom enzymes11.

• : Columbia University hosted a summit showcasing interdisciplinary AI research addressing challenges like healthcare, climate change, and ethics. The event emphasized responsible innovation and preparing future AI leaders

• : The upcoming NVIDIA conference will feature over 1,000 sessions on topics like generative AI in e-commerce, industrial automation, and digital twins. Keynotes will explore the future of AI across industries25.

• : A recent survey revealed skepticism about achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) with current technologies. Most respondents prioritized creating safe and beneficial systems over pursuing AGI at all costs. Some even advocated halting AGI development until safety measures are established9.

• : Ongoing discussions worldwide focus on balancing innovation with ethical considerations to ensure AI technologies are deployed responsibly7.

• : AlphaFold continues to revolutionize biochemistry by predicting 200 million protein structures. This accelerates drug discovery and enables solutions for global challenges like plastic degradation25.

• : OpenAI launched "Deep Research," an agentic AI tool capable of conducting complex online research tasks in minutes. It showcases advancements in automating intricate information-gathering processes6.

The past week has highlighted significant strides in AI across commercial applications, academic research, and ethical considerations, underscoring its transformative potential across industries.

Citations:

1. https://news.ufl.edu/2025/03/ai-can-help-predict-the-next-pandemic/
2. https://substack.com/home/post/p-157628840
3. https://www.shrm.org/enterprise-solutions/insights/other-tomorrowist-trends-news-march-6-2025
4. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/03/03/3035901/0/en/Global-Artificial-Intelligence-in-Drug-Commercialization-Market-to-Observe-Stupendous-Growth-at-a-CAGR-of-24-by-2032-DelveInsight.html
5. https://drstorm.substack.com/p/ai-breakthroughs-from-biomedicine
6. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/technology/openai-deep-research-tool.html
7. https://www.eversheds-sutherland.com/en/united-states/insights/global-ai-regulatory-update-march-2025
8. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025/1/28/why-chinas-ai-startup-deepseek-is-sending-shockwaves-through-global-tech
9. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00649-4
10. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/01/industries-in-the-intelligent-age-ai-tech-theme-davos-2025/
11. https://www.inrae.fr/en/news/major-breakthrough-biology-hybrid-generative-ai-designs-new-molecules
12. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/superagency-in-the-workplace-empowering-people-to-unlock-ais-full-potential-at-work
13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSUKqqRzxnY

I tried the most realistic AI voice companion ever created - if ChatGPT or Gemini ever gets this good, reality is in trouble

I have spent a lot of time talking to AI. I’ve tested every voice assistant, every chatbot, and every “next-generation” conversational AI that tech companies love to hype up. But I’ve never encountered anything quite like Sesame.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/i-tried-the-most-realistic-ai-voice-companion-ever-created-if-chatgpt-or-gemini-ever-gets-this-good-reality-is-in-trouble

OpenAI Admits That Its New Model Still Hallucinates More Than a Third of the Time

If a partner or friend made stuff up a significant percentage of the time that you asked a question, it would be a huge problem for the relationship. But apparently it's different for OpenAI's hot new model.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://futurism.com/openai-admits-gpt45-hallucinates

46% Of Knowledge Workers Tell Their Bosses To Take A Hike When It Comes To GenAI

By, Contributor. John Sviokla covers GenAI/AI's impact on commerce and society. The firm Software AG just conducted a study of 6,000 employees that said 75% of knowledge workers are using GenAI and 46% would not stop using these tools even if the company forbade their use.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnsviokla/2025/02/20/46-of-knowledge-workers-tell-their-bosses-to-take-a-hike-when-it-comes-to-genai/

Is AI Really Thinking and Reasoning — or Just Pretending to?

The best answer — AI has “jagged intelligence” — lies in between hype and skepticism.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/400531/ai-reasoning-models-openai-deepseek

As Tech Companies Keep Pouring Money Into AI, Signs May Be Pointing to Disaster

Fourth quarter earnings season is in full swing, and despite budgets larger than some countries' GDPs, big tech companies' financial statements are looking grim.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://futurism.com/tech-investment-ai

Allstate Is Demanding That We Delete These Quotes by Its Exec About Using How It's Using AI to Write Insurance Emails

We were struck this week when the Wall Street Journal reported that Allstate, a major insurance company, had largely handed over the task of writing claims emails over to an AI system.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://futurism.com/allstate-demanding-delete-quotes-ai

OpenAI Researchers Find That Even the Best AI Is "Unable To Solve the Majority" of Coding Problems

OpenAI researchers have admitted that even the most advanced AI models still are no match for human coders — even though CEO Sam Altman insists they will be able to beat "low-level" software engineers by the end of this year.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://futurism.com/openai-researchers-coding-fail

Y Combinator deletes posts after a startup’s demo goes viral

A demo from Optifye.ai, a member of Y Combinator’s current cohort, sparked a social media backlash that ended up with YC deleting it off its socials.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/25/y-combinator-deletes-posts-after-a-startups-demo-goes-viral/

New study identifies differences between human and AI-generated text

A team of Carnegie Mellon University researchers set out to see how accurately large language models (LLMs) can match the style of text written by humans. Their findings were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://techxplore.com/news/2025-02-differences-human-ai-generated-text.html

The Important Difference Between Agentic AI And AI Agents

If you’ve been reading about business technology recently, then “AI agents” and “agentic AI” are terms you’ve probably come across with increasing frequency.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2025/02/25/the-important-difference-between-agentic-ai-and-ai-agents/

The Insurmountable Problem of Formal Reasoning in Large Language Models

Today we are going to talk about reasoning models and their capabilities. Anthropic the makers of Claude, have released this week a new ‘hybrid reasoning’ AI model.

ORIGINAL LINK: https://www.ai-supremacy.com/p/the-insurmountable-problem-of-formal