An M.I.T. study found that 95% of companies that had invested in A.I. tools were seeing zero return. It jibes with the emerging idea that generative A.I., “in its current incarnation, simply isn’t all it’s been cracked up to be,” @JohnCassidy writes. nyer.cm/FUZwzw8

My overall view at this point (slightly more positive than @LuizaJarovsky below) is that generative AI chatbots (distinct from domain-specific tools like AlphaFold) will on net increase productivity to a moderate degree in many domains, with large benefits in a few areas. (I also agree with all of Luiza’s cautions round the costs in making this work.) But those productivity benefits will also come with strong costs to society (misinformation undermining democracy, deep fakes for scams and politics, disruption of high school and college education, delusions that bring some to mental illness, nonconsual deepfake porn, increased cybercrime, greater surveillance, negative environmental impact, etc, to say nothing of an increasingly oligarchical society) Overall, I am not convinced that GenAI will be of significant net benefit to society. I would welcome @emollick’s latest take on this.

🚨 Unpopular opinion: generative AI’s overall productivity gain is probably close to zero. Companies that want to justify their "AI-first" strategy often conveniently ignore the time, effort, and costs involved in making sure AI-assisted work meets minimal standards. They can ignore it, but the additional work will not disappear. 2026 will likely be a year of reality shocks and budget adjustments. - 👉 NEVER MISS my analyses and curations on AI: sign up for my newsletter below (67,500 subscribers).

A VC firm I had a Zoom meeting with used Otter AI to record the call, and after the meeting, it automatically emailed me the transcript, including hours of their private conversations afterward, where they discussed intimate, confidential details about their business.

SARS-CoV-2 infection causes persistent cognitive damage. 34 healthy, young volunteers were inoculated and monitored for cognitive changes over a year. They showed lower cognitive scores, w/ significant differences in memory and executive function tasks. thelancet.com/journals/eclin…

In 2017 we wrote a 10-simple-rules paper to teach researchers how to structure scientific papers for clarity and impact. One million English-version downloads later ( translations) and it feels like we see its reflection in worldwide writing training. journals.plos.org/ploscompbi…