NEWS YOU CAN’T MISS

Why Your Brain Needs an AI Detox

Relying too much on AI tools like ChatGPT can weaken cognitive strength, warn Paul Rust and Nina Vasan in The Wall Street Journal. Their solution: “AI fasting”: regular breaks from AI to keep memory, creativity, and problem-solving strong.

Why it matters: Generative AI is transforming how we work and learn, but constant use risks “cognitive offloading.” A study found students who trained with ChatGPT performed better at first but worse when later tested without it.

The Mastery Effect: Psychologists emphasize the value of “mastery experiences” - the effort and satisfaction of solving problems without shortcuts. These struggles forge confidence, resilience, and true capability. Overuse of AI bypasses this process, risking gradual atrophy of critical problem-solving skills.

Here’s How To Train Your Thinking Muscles

• Draft solo first: outline before AI. Example: write your intro, then ask AI to polish.

• Use AI as a tutor: ask for reasoning, not just answers. Example: request step-by-step math guidance.

• Pause and critique: review outputs. Example: fact-check an AI summary against the source.

• Go AI-free: work without AI at times. Example: brainstorm slides or sketch by hand first. (This one is hard for me but I’m going to try!)

Bottom line: The answer isn’t quitting AI but using it wisely. Om! 🧘🏽‍♀️

Authors Just Won Big Against AI

One of the year’s biggest AI stories just dropped: Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion, pending court approval, to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by authors who accused the company of using pirated books to train its Claude chatbot.

The deal, roughly $3,000 per book across 500,000 titles, also requires Anthropic to delete the disputed data.

It follows a federal judge’s ruling that training AI on legally purchased books may qualify as fair use, but stockpiling pirated copies does not.

With Anthropic valued at $183B and set to make $5B this year, this case marks one of the largest copyright recoveries ever and a sharp warning that copyright risk is no longer hypothetical for AI companies.

Rivals like OpenAI have already inked licensing deals with publishers and platforms. Anthropic’s settlement underscores why securing consent is not just ethical, it may be the only sustainable business model.

The message is clear: the age of “train now, ask later” is ending. In its place, licensing and creator rights could decide who leads the next era of AI. Amen to that.

AI Jungle Party: Future of Ads or Just Weird?

Argentine e-commerce giant Mercado Libre and the South Korea’s Samsung have teamed up for a ad campaign in Brazil and Mexico with a twist: the whole thing was made using generative AI.

In the ad, a Mercado Livre package lands in the middle of a jungle. Suddenly, parrots, monkeys, and even a jaguar start playing with Samsung gadgets while dancing to Brazilian funk rapper MC Fioti’s popular song “BumBumTamTam.”

From the animals’ quirky expressions to their synchronized dance moves, every frame was generated with AI tools.

Some see it as the future of advertising: faster, cheaper, and more playful. Others think it makes ads feel fake and less human. What’s your take?