Ramin Skibba

Researchers Weigh the Use of AI for Mental Health Chatbots weren't designed for mental health, but they are increasingly used for therapy. What are the risks an benefits?

People keep using ChatGPT and other AI bots for mental health questions. Is it actually helping them? Here’s my take in Undark magazine, assessing new research by psychologists and computer scientists. undark.org/2025/11/04/c...

Language models cannot reliably distinguish belief from knowledge and fact - Nature Machine Intelligence Suzgun et al. find that current large language models cannot reliably distinguish between belief, knowledge and fact, raising concerns for their use in healthcare, law and journalism, where such disti...

ChatGPT and other AI chatbots cannot reliably distinguish belief from knowledge and fact, according to this new study. Seems important! www.nature.com/articles/s42...

How Journalists Reveal Science as a Human Process through Storytelling - Science Journalism Forum This panel will explore how journalists can portray science as a human process, with all its uncertainties, challenges, and discoveries. Featuring contributors to The Open Notebook’s forthcoming book,...

Plus, join us for a panel on reporting strategies and storytelling techniques to reinforce public trust in science with @siricarpenter.bsky.social, @scchak.bsky.social, Emily Laber-Warren, and @raminskibba.bsky.social.

You can snag tickets for 50% off with code TON50.

Come join me for the national Science Writers meeting in Chicago! Discounted registration ends tomorrow. #SciWri25

Are We Offloading Critical Thinking to Chatbots? Research, much if it by companies with deep investment in AI, suggests that chatbot interactions alter how users think.

Does using generative AI, like ChatGPT, affect our critical thinking? Check out my new piece, where I sift through initial research and figure out what we know and don’t know. undark.org/2025/09/12/c...

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Is Golden Dome, Trump’s missile shield plan, destined to be a pillar of U.S. defense or a trillion-dollar boondoggle? Even the experts don’t know—which probably isn’t a good thing. Important story by @raminskibba.bsky.social.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-...

IMO, too many people, who should've known better, were swayed by AI industry hype.

US tech stocks hit by concerns over future of AI boom Warning from OpenAI’s Sam Altman and MIT paper puncture Wall Street’s enthusiasm

Finally looks like the AI bubble is reaching its limit. Most AI companies are not profitable, and according to a new MIT report, 95% of companies investing in generative AI are getting zero returns on all that money. www.ft.com/content/3391...

The in-person meeting will be in Chicago two weeks later. Looking forward to seeing colleagues and friends there!

Come join me, @jasonkoebler.bsky.social, @sabs.bsky.social, and @maddiebender.bsky.social on October 24, for a virtual session discussing “How Worker-Owned Media Outlets Can Work.” It’s one of a bunch of events kicking off the national Science Writers meeting! #SciWri25
sciencewriters2025.org

The Militarization of Silicon Valley

This is described as a "major shift" that's happening now, but Silicon Valley companies have been working with the military-industrial complex for a decade. It's not new!
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/t....

Nuclear Experts Say Mixing AI and Nuclear Weapons Is Inevitable Human judgement remains central to the launch of nuclear weapons. But experts say it’s a matter of when, not if, artificial intelligence will get baked into the world’s most dangerous systems.

Well this is troubling. Eighty years after the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with a horrific civilian toll, it seems like we've learned nothing. www.wired.com/story/nuclea...

Duffy to announce nuclear reactor on the moon This is the first major agency effort by the interim NASA administrator, who is also the Transportation secretary and a former Fox News host.

NASA's been talking about nuclear vs solar on the moon for years, and I guess they're now committed to launching and building a nuclear reactor. I don't know, maybe it'll work? Seems much more expensive than solar, though yes, it won't come with location limitations. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

No second "Harper's Letter" has emerged, and only a few writers, like Viet Thanh Nguyen & Kaveh Akbar, have dared voice uncomfortable truths. As Akbar put it (quoted by Mishra), we cannot afford "shitty cynicism or breezy despair."

Speaking Reassurance to Power, by Pankaj Mishra

I liked this Harper's essay by Pankaj Mishra, excoriating American intellectuals, writers, and institutions, for failing to resist imperialism and authoritarianism at home — a failure that began before the Trump era.
harpers.org/archive/2025...

Yeah, I'm VERY skeptical about these numbers! I'm surprised the Washington Post published this, but I guess there's a reason it's in the opinion section.

Tom Lehrer, acclaimed musical satirist of cold war era, dies aged 97 A child prodigy in mathematics who graduated Harvard at just 19, his darkly prophetic and cynical show tunes won him a cult following in the 50s and 60s

I always loved “Poisoning Pigeons In The Park”! We need more musical satire today! www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

These people think Trump is too liberal on climate Climate change skeptics are pushing the administration to reopen a major scientific finding.

I wrote eight years ago about how Trump allies at the Heartland Institute would love to overturn the endangerment finding and undermine environmental protections at the EPA. It seemed unthinkable. But now they’re trying to make it happen. www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-...

Google’s AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain Google’s AI Overview, which is easy to fool into stating nonsense as fact, is stopping people from finding and supporting small businesses and credible sources.

"There’s no indication in Pew’s research that people understand how faulty the technology that powers Google’s AI Overview is, or how it is quietly devastating the entire human online information economy that they want and need." www.404media.co/googles-ai-i...

Why Fire Island Has Seen an Explosion of Feral Cats In New York’s only federal wilderness area, the loss of a key predator has led to the rise of a new one—with dire consequences for the island’s native birds

Why Fire Island Has Seen an Explosion of Feral Cats www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

Thanks, Chris! And that's cool. Sounds like a fun job!

Congress rolls back $9 billion in public media funding and foreign aid The House approved a Trump administration plan to rescind $9 billion in previously allocated funds, including $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

This is so upsetting. My family and I have always loved PBS programs and NPR stations in the states we’ve lived in. Many local news stations will be hit hard by this, and some in rural areas may close. Support your local news! They need it. www.npr.org/2025/07/18/n...

Kronos Quartet Enlist Ringo Starr, Iggy Pop, Willie Nelson, and Many More for Star-Studded Bob Dylan Covers Two new renditions of Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” memorialize the 80th anniversary of the Trinity test

I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’

Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world

Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’

Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’

pitchfork.com/news/kronos-...

The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work AI is not going to save media companies, and forcing journalists to use AI is not a business model.

Media outlets can't pivot to AI to save themselves. It's not a business strategy and it's not going to work. The only path forward is for journalists to lean into their humanity, to do things AI can't, and to make clear they are writing for people, not algorithms:

www.404media.co/the-medias-p...

Fire Island Has Gone to the Cats - bioGraphic In New York’s only federal wilderness area, the loss of a key predator has led to the rise of a new one—with dire consequences for the island’s native birds.

I’m a cat person, but I must reluctantly admit that invasive cats can be harmful—in this case to piping plover shorebirds on Fire Island. Check out my story for @biographic.bsky.social magazine! www.biographic.com/fire-island-...

Fire Island Has Gone to the Cats - bioGraphic In New York’s only federal wilderness area, the loss of a key predator has led to the rise of a new one—with dire consequences for the island’s native birds.

Fire Island Has Gone to the Cats

In New York’s only federal wilderness area, the loss of a key predator has led to the rise of a new one—with dire consequences for the island’s native birds.

by @raminskibba.bsky.social

www.biographic.com/fire-island-...

This seems like a bad idea to me. Yes, it's a huge problem that refugees have often been dehumanized for political gain, but AI avatars cannot rehumanize them.

The Gates Foundation’s Global Reach Expands, to Mixed Reviews As the U.S. and other countries cut funding for global health initiatives, what role will philanthropy take?

What's happening to global health now that Trump's withdrawing the US from...everything? The Gates Foundation—already a major player—is now filling that power vacuum, for better or worse. Check out my new piece for @undark.org! undark.org/2025/07/02/g...

I fear the inevitable escalation.

Trump has now unilaterally bombed Iran, despite the entire US intelligence community’s longtime consensus that Iran has no military nuclear program.