AI Adoption Surges and Social Risks Loom

WSJ: Meet Mark Zuckerberg’s Right-Hand Man Who’s Unleashing AI at Meta (May 24, 2026)
Andrew Bosworth, a blunt Zuckerberg lieutenant, is leading Meta’s aggressive shift to AI. He pushed employee tracking to train agents, refused opt-outs, and oversaw mass layoffs.
NY Times: Soundtrack to 8,000 Job Cuts: A Meta Worker’s Layoff-Themed A.I. Songs (May 20, 2026)
After Meta cut 8,000 jobs, an employee used internal A.I. tools to create “520 FM,” an internal radio station of A.I.-generated songs about the layoffs. Colleagues said it offered distraction, comfort, and dark humor.
Andy Masley: I think I figured out exactly how the “AI used a bottle of water per prompt” miscalculation happened (May 24, 2026)
A Washington Post graphic, using a rough GPT‑4 estimate, spread the myth that each AI prompt uses a whole bottle of water. It mixed onsite, offsite, and hydroelectric evaporation, so real use is only a few milliliters per prompt.
NY Times: Artificial Intelligence Floods Court Dockets with Home-Brewed Lawsuits (May 25, 2026)
A.I. helps self-represented litigants file many more, longer, and more complex complaints, flooding federal dockets and overwhelming courts.
WSJ: AI Expands From Multibillion-Dollar Enterprises to Main Street (May 25, 2026)
By the Way Bakery adopted an AI planning tool to replace sprawling spreadsheets, tracking ingredients, labor, and production schedules to fill supermarket orders. A low-cost AI app and automation freed staff to bake.
NY Times Opinion: As a Doctor, I Can Understand the Allure of ChatGPT (May 24, 2026)
A physician used ChatGPT to interpret lab results and received practical, personalized advice, steady encouragement, and nonjudgmental availability.
WSJ: AI Can Help Debunk Conspiracy Theories and Pull People From the Brink (May 24, 2026)
AI chatbots that clearly marshal facts can persuade people to abandon conspiracy theories, with effects lasting months. They work best when informative, not condescending, and can be used in conversations.
NY Times: Pope Leo Warns of Risks From A.I. in 42,300-Word Encyclical (May 25, 2026)
Pope Leo XIV published an encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, warning that A.I. threatens human dignity, work, and social stability. He called for regulation, worker protection and retraining, education, child safeguards.
NY Times: As A.I. Fever Rises in Silicon Valley, Pope Leo Has a Few Words (May 25, 2026)
Pope Leo XIV issued an encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, urging caution about A.I., saying it amplifies the power of the few.
WSJ: Pope Leo Compares AI Threat to Biblical ‘Tower of Babel’ (May 25, 2026)
Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” warns that AI threatens human dignity, risks reducing people to cogs, and concentrates power in few private hands.
Dean W. Ball: Dean Ball on Encyclical
The Vatican’s AI encyclical is Eurocentric, enamored of academic talking points, and evasive about where AI is headed.
WSJ: Venture Capitalist John Doerr Says AI Is the Biggest Tech ‘Tsunami’ Ever (May 23, 2026)
John Doerr calls generative AI the biggest innovation tsunami, and he backs AI to address climate and healthcare.

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