@MahiraKhan

Despite widespread predictions of AI-driven disruption, mass layoffs and a jobpocalypse for new graduates have not yet arrived, as companies struggle with effective AI adoption and recent college-grad unemployment remains comparable to prior summers. In computer science and related fields, AI is mainly automating routine tasks while shifting emphasis toward human strengths such as judgment, leadership, creativity, and directing AI systems, marking a period of transition rather than wholesale replacement. Over time this could free people from repetitive work and open new opportunities, provided organizations invest in re-skilling and rethink entry-level roles.

https://www.library.hbs.edu/working-knowledge/ai-hasnt-spurred-widespread-layoffs-yet-why-not

Nearly 90% of fictional stories generated by current large language models like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and OLMo recycle the same handful of elements—most often a lighthouse, a keeper, and names such as Elias, Mara, or Elara—according to new research that analyzed 20,000 AI-written tales. More than half of the outputs feature a lighthouse, a pattern the authors trace partly to mode collapse from overlapping training data and possibly to a small cluster of conversations in Cornell’s earlier WildChat dataset

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/10/who-elias-lighthouse-keeper-ai-fiction-tells-same-old-story

Large language models can develop cognitive declines similar to human “brain rot” when trained on highly engaging but low-quality social media content, such as short, attention-grabbing posts full of all-caps urgency and trivial claims. Researchers led by Dr. Zhengzhong Tu in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University showed that this junk data causes models to skip reasoning steps, shift ethical responses, and become difficult to recover even with cleaner training—findings detailed in this paper and accepted at the 2026 Conference on Language Modeling. The work underscores that data quality may matter more than model architecture, warning of a potential feedback loop in which AI both absorbs and amplifies the same shallow content that affects human attention.

https://news.engineering.tamu.edu/news/2026/10/19/ai-models-can-get-brain-rot-too/

The Graduate Certificate in Artificial Intelligence Engineering offered by the College of Engineering provides professionals and degree-seeking students a streamlined way to specialize in AI. Drawing from Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Software Engineering, the program covers core AI principles, advanced machine learning and deep learning for engineering challenges, and the hardware and software foundations for building AI systems. With hands-on, industry-focused training, it prepares graduates for expanded opportunities in the fast-growing AI sector.

https://catalog.arizona.edu/programs/AIECRTG

Texas voters were asked in October 2026 how personally concerned they are about the impact of AI as an economic issue facing the country. The responses are broken down by party, ideology, race, gender, community type, age, education, and religiosity.

https://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/set/concern-about-the-impact-of-artificial-intelligence-ai-october-2026