AI for Consumers - 20250304
What went on this week with AI, and how it affected (non-)consumers.
Top 10-ish Articles
How AI was used in the making of some of this year’s Oscar favorites
John Yang & Andrew Corkery, PBS
At this year’s Oscars, there is a subplot of controversy over the use of artificial intelligence in the production of a number of nominated films, including some in the running for best picture. See also Why an acting voice coach isn't angry about Adrien Brody's AI-assisted Oscar win.
From ChatGPT to Gemini: how AI is rewriting the internet
Verge Staff
[I]n the words of James Vincent, a human person: “These AI tools are vast autocomplete systems, trained to predict which word follows the next in any given sentence….” [¶] But there are so many more pieces to the AI landscape that are coming into play (and so many name changes….
The Great AI Art Heist
Kelley Engelbrecht, Chicago
A lab at the University of Chicago is protecting artists from theft by a new adversary: the machines. See also Some artists are embracing AI and David Hajdu Explores AI in Art in His New Book.
Researchers surprised to find less-educated areas adopting AI writing tools faster
Benj Edwards, Ars Technica
Stanford researchers analyzed 305 million texts, revealing AI-writing trends.
AI now ‘analyzes’ LA Times articles for bias
Wes Davis, The Verge
Yesterday morning, billionaire Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong published a letter to readers letting them know the outlet is now using AI to add a “Voices” label to articles that take “a stance” or are “written from a personal perspective.” He said those articles may also get a set of AI-generated “Insights,” which appear at the bottom as bullet points, including some labeled, “Different views on the topic.”
AI chatbots can cushion the high school counselor shortage — but are they bad for students?
Tara García Mathewson, CalMatters
As California considers regulating AI companions for young people, policymakers, tech companies and schools must consider how the burgeoning market for AI-driven college and career guidance could inadvertently become the source of a new problem.
How New AI Agents Will Transform Credential Stuffing Attacks
The Hacker News
Credential stuffing attacks had a huge impact in 2024, fueled by a vicious circle of infostealer infections and data breaches. But things could be about to get worse still with Computer-Using Agents, a new kind of AI agent that enables low-cost, low-effort automation of common web tasks — including those frequently performed by attackers.
Train clinical AI to reason like a team of doctors
Christopher R. S. Banerji, et al., Nature
As the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act takes effect, AI systems that mimic how human teams collaborate can improve trust in high-risk situations, such as clinical medicine.
New survey gathers concerns of implementing tech in healthcare
Innovation News Network
Independent research by health technology consultancy nuom has found that while the UK public is largely open to innovative uses of tech in healthcare, trust drops significantly when AI is involved in more personal aspects of care.
The AI Future Is Here
Andrea Gawrylewski, Scientific American
AI’s integration into everything—untangling traffic snarls, dictating drug prescriptions, rewriting the rules of scientific discovery—is accelerating quickly
How unchecked AI could trigger a nuclear war
Michael E. O’Hanlon, The Brookings Institution
In all three cases, AI might have elected to start a nuclear war. See also How the risk of AI weapons could spiral out of control.
Articles/Books
Opera’s new AI agent web browser just reinvented web browsing - here’s 5 ways it could completely change the internet
Eric Hal Schwartz, TechRadar
Popular browser provider Opera has joined in to offer a tool that will actively do tasks on the web for you. If this catches on, the way we interact with the internet might never be the same, especially if it's baked right into the browser like Opera's is. See also Opera's AI 'Browser Operator' Will Complete Tasks for You and Opera unveils impressive preview of AI agentic browsing - see it in action.
From ChatGPT Central: Video Ads From Product URL with AI, The Renaissance of Prompting Part 1, and The Best AI Tutorials of 2025.
Stocks
Veteran analyst has blunt response to AI-spending worry
Todd Campbell, TheStreet
Is Amazon Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold Ahead of Alexa+ Launch?
Anushka Mukherji, Barchart
The Best AI Investment Today: My Top Picks
Samuel Smith, Seeking Alpha
2 No-Brainer Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy With $200 in March
Trevor Jennewine, The Motley Fool
Apps to check out
AI Bots
Amazon
Anthropic / Claude AI
Apple Intelligence
Apple launches new iPad Air with AI features to stoke demand
Reuters
DeepSeek
Google / Gemini
7 examples of Gemini’s multimodal capabilities in action
Anirudh Baddepudi & Logan Kilpatrick, Gemini from Google
Google’s cofounder tells AI staff to stop ‘building nanny products’
Alex Heath, The Verge
Grok
Leonardo
Meta
Microsoft / Copilot
Microsoft’s new Copilot app for Windows has an improved UI
Tom Warren, The Verge
Microsoft’s new Dragon Copilot is an AI assistant for healthcare
Wes Davis, The Verge
OpenAI / ChatGPT
I stopped saying thanks to ChatGPT – here's what happened
Becca Caddy, TechRadar
How GPT-4.5 justifies itself
Ina Fried, Axios
Perplexity
Audio
Audio / Video
Avatar
Books
Coding
Course creation
Dance!
Data analysis
DeepFakes
Detect DeepFakes: How to counteract misinformation created by AI
Contact Matt Groh, MIT Media Lab
Education
Quino
Turn your docs into a game. Learn and play while on the go
Emails
Games
Health
Home Design
I used Claude's new AI model to design my dream home — here's what happened
Kaycee Hill, Tom’s GuideImages
Images
MagicQuill
Magically edit your images by drawing on an existing image. Free.
black-forest-labs
A host of image manipulation tools.
CGDream
Take full control of your visuals with our AI image generator, creating stunning images with various customization options, filters, and 3D controls.
FLORA
All of the top text, image, and video AI models in one infinite canvas.
Images / Text
Napkin beta
Napkin turns your text into visuals, so sharing your ideas is quick and effective.
Images / Video
AI Art Prompt Generator – PROMPTCACHE
Unlock the full potential of AI-generated art with my curated collection of Midjourney SREF codes and AI artwork prompts.
Interviews
Jobs
Let AI explain your job to your family
Brian Klein, Coda
Languages
langotalk
Transform your language learning experience through 24/7 immersion with personalized AI chat-based tools.
Legal
Maps
Math
Miscellaneous
News
Notes
Personal assistant
Phone
Podcasts
Presentations
Proficiency
Search
Shopping
Spreadsheets
Startups
Text
5 simple ways to repurpose written content using AI
Ben’s Bites
Text/Images
Translation
Travel
Video
GenFM
Tune in as AI co-hosts generate smart podcasts from any of your PDFs, articles, ebooks and more. Now available in the ElevenReader App.
Argil
Get a perfect video for social media of you or a generic avatar in 2 minutes.
Magicroll.ai
Auto b-roll generation with AI. Instant backdrop swapping. Auto-subtitles.