While I focus on Technology, Innovation, and Publishing, because I have a platform, I also flag items that I think are important. I also try to include some resources & opportunities. Please let me know what you think.

Innovation

A neural brain implant provides near instantaneous speech

Focusing on sound production instead of word choice makes for a flexible system.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/06/a-neural-brain-implant-provides-near-instantaneous-speech/

Technology

Will AI destroy entry-level jobs in publishing?

Aspiring publishing people don’t need to panic, but they do need to start honing their AI skills.

https://www.thebookseller.com/comment/will-ai-destroy-entry-level-jobs

Meta rolls out AI-powered translations to creators globally, starting w English & Spanish

Meta’s AI-powered voice translation feature for Facebook + Instagram reels allows creators to dub content in other langs using their own voice & optional lip-syncing.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/19/meta-rolls-out-ai-powered-translations-to-creators-globally-starting-with-english-and-spanish/

Marketers Using Generative AI to Customize Video Ads

https://www.emarketer.com/chart-of-the-day/

Creators hire AI like interns as they look to save costs on the creative process

Over 80% of digital content creators use an AI tool in their workflow, according to Wondercraft, an AI audio-generation company.

https://digiday.com/media/creators-hire-ai-like-interns-as-they-look-to-save-costs-on-the-creative-process/

21 ways that people use generative AI at work.

ICYMI HT @benedictevans

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/08/11/upshot/ai-jobs.html?unlocked_article_code=1.gk8.H9Rp.wQ7yRuu64MHG&smid=url-share

Runway AI’s film festival

Runway AI paired up with Imax to screen 10 AI-generated winning selections. The festival has been derided by some cinephiles, while others insist it’s part of a natural technological evolution.

https://www.wired.com/story/cream-of-the-slop-an-ai-film-festival-screening-left-me-with-more-questions-than-answers/

Microsoft, OpenAI & Anthropic Fund A National AI Academy For Teachers

ICYMI National Academy For AI Instruction is a 5-yr initiative to train 400K teachers to use AI in classroom

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danfitzpatrick/2025/07/08/microsoft-openai–anthropic-fund-a-national-ai-academy-for-teachers/

Stanford University: Chatbots Are Contradicting Therapy Best Practice

In one example, OpenAI’s GPT-4o model gave a user who had said he had suffered a job loss a list of the tallest bridges in New York City.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/stanford-university-chatbots-are-contradicting-best-practices-in-therapy

Research leaders urge tech industry to monitor AI’s ‘thoughts’

Researchers believe AI systems that ‘think’ in human language offer unique opportunity for AI safety as chains of thought can be monitored for intent to misbehave.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/15/research-leaders-urge-tech-industry-to-monitor-ais-thoughts/

Excel’s new Copilot function transforms data handling with AI’s natural language processing

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/microsoft-office/microsoft-excel-gets-more-ai-and-this-time-its-actually-useful

Deutsche Telekom launched its own AI smartphone

It operates w no visible apps, relying entirely on a voice asst powered by Perplexity, for €149. Matching AI tablet is €199.

https://www.eweek.com/news/deutsche-telekom-ag-t-phone-3-perplexity-ai/

Google doubles down on ‘AI phones’ with its Pixel 10

The new Magic Cue feature “lets the AI be more proactive by offering contextual suggestions in real time, across apps like Gmail, Calendar, Messages, Screenshots, and others.”

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/20/google-doubles-down-on-ai-phones-with-its-pixel-10-series/

Google Gemini can now read your Docs aloud

Google Docs will now let users generate an audio version of their documents using Gemini.

https://www.theverge.com/news/761920/google-docs-gemini-ai-read-aloud

Google to Pay Up in Data Lawsuit at YouTube

Google has agreed pay $30 million to settle a class action lawsuit claiming it violated children’s privacy on YouTube.

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/google-settles-youtube-childrens-privacy-lawsuit-2025-08-19/

Google will pay Australia $36 million over anticompetitive search deal with mobile carriers

https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-will-pay-australia-36-million-over-anticompetitive-search-deal-with-mobile-carriers-110956889.html

They’re Stuffed Animals. They’re Also A.I. Chatbots.

New types of cuddly toys, some for children as young as 3, are being sold as an alternative to screen time — and to parental attention.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/15/arts/ai-toys-curio-grem.html?unlocked_article_code=1.g08.cXu8.D-Yp6MV5Aujq&smid=url-share

Dex AI-powered camera helps children learn new languages

$250 gadget for kids 3–8, works like a high-tech magnifying glass, using AI image recognition to identify objects, translate words to multiple languages, + engage kids w interactive stories & games.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/20/dex-is-an-ai-powered-camera-device-that-helps-children-learn-new-languages/

Embodied AI robots with ‘common sense’ will be poised to tackle complex tasks: AI² Robotics

AI² Robotics Gou Yandong outlines how next-generation embodied robots stand apart from the current range, with potential for broader commercial use.

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/06/05/embodied-ai-based-robots-are-a-new-generation-of-robots-that-will-have-acommon-sensea-to-handle-complex-tasks-aia-robotics.html

Two former Harvard students are launching a pair of AI smart glasses that listen to, record and transcribe conversations in real time.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/20/harvard-dropouts-to-launch-always-on-ai-smart-glasses-that-listen-and-record-every-conversation/

Publishing & Media

Fewer People Are Reading for Fun, Study Finds

From 2003 to 2023, the share of Americans who read for pleasure fell 40 percent, a sharp decline that is part of a continuing downward trend

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/well/reading-pleasure-decline-study.html?unlocked_article_code=1.fk8.E6i8.paWo8LyMgZ-2&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

News Media Newspapers Find Life Preservers

A dozen recently shuttered newspapers in Wyoming and South Dakota are set to publish again, after buyers stepped up to prevent “news deserts.

https://apnews.com/article/rural-newspapers-closed-saved-wyoming-south-dakota-76bbff7d0d56647b8de207797fe24f91

As local news faces mounting challenges, a new report spotlights reasons for optimism

A sweeping ASU report from Leonard Downie Jr. argues local news can survive — but only with innovation and reinvention

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2025/good-news-local-journalism-asu-report-len-downie/

MSNBC Will Change Name to MS NOW After NBCUniversal Split

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/msnbc-new-name-ms-now-1236491621/

Resources & Opportunities

WMG Luncheon with Molly Jong-Fast

9/10 12-2pm, Barbetta Restaurant, NYC. $65 members, $75 non-members. Join WMG for a very special luncheon featuring outspoken journalist, political commentator, columnist, and podcaster Molly Jong-Fast. Jong-Fast returns to WMG to discuss her New York Times bestselling book, How To Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir. The only child of the groundbreaking feminist writer Erica Jong, whose influential 1973 novel, The Fear of Flying, influenced the founders of WMG, Jong-Fast examines her childhood of privilege set against the backdrop of an erratic mother who was often inaccessible and focused primarily on herself. When her mother slips into dementia, Jong-Fast struggles with “the bereft, broken feeling of something ending before it ever got the chance to start.”

https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-6277261

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