Jane Rosenzweig
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janerosenzweig.bsky.social
Jane Rosenzweig
@janerosenzweig.bsky.social
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Writing in the age of AI stuff
Newsletter: writinghacks.substack.com
Also curate theimportantwork.substack.com
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janerosenzweig.bsky.social
Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 13d
I have a short piece about what I've learned from teaching my AI course in this @chronicle.com forum on how AI is changing higher ed, along with some very interesting reflections from others, including a lovely piece on why writing matters by @zey.bsky.social . www.chronicle.com/article/how-...
Opinion Forum | How AI Is Changing Higher Education
The technology is reshaping every aspect of university life. Fifteen scholars weigh in on what happens next.
www.chronicle.com
Reposted by Jane Rosenzweig
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
Just reading through this new OpenAI "teen literacy blueprint document." A few things jumped out. 1) document mentions multiple times that rigorous instruction must be protected but also seems to be suggesting/1
cdn.openai.com/pdf/openai-t...
cdn.openai.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:26 AM
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
Just reading through this new OpenAI "teen literacy blueprint document." A few things jumped out. 1) document mentions multiple times that rigorous instruction must be protected but also seems to be suggesting/1
cdn.openai.com/pdf/openai-t...
cdn.openai.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Reposted by Jane Rosenzweig
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
Time to reread Roald Dahl's "The Great Automatic Grammatizator"
In the end, after several months of work, he had persuaded something like seventy per cent of the writers on his list to sign the contract. He found that the older ones, those who were running out of ideas and had taken to drink, were the easiest to handle. The younger people were more troublesome. They were apt to become abusive, sometimes violent when he approached them; and more than once Knipe was slightly injured on his rounds. But on the whole, it was a satisfactory beginning. This last year—the first full year of the machine’s operation—it was estimated that at least one half of all the novels and stories published in the English language were produced by Adolph Knipe upon the Great Automatic Grammatizator. Does this surprise you? I doubt it. And worse is yet to come. Today, as the secret spreads, many more are hurrying to tie up with Mr Knipe. And all the time the screw turns tighter for those who hesitate to sign their names. This very moment, as I sit here listening to the howling of my nine starving children in the other room, I can feel my own hand creeping closer and closer to that golden contract that lies over on the other side of the desk. Give us strength, Oh Lord, to let our children starve.
November 19, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Jane Rosenzweig
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
Discussion on here this morning about 1)whether Gemini is good at "creative writing" and 2)a study showing people preferred AI imitations of writers to the writers themselves. I come back to my trusty all-purpose question: What problem are we solving when we outsource "creative writing"?
November 19, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Jane Rosenzweig
markcshea.bsky.social
For an ongoing ed activity in our peer writing center, mentors met in pairs to discuss this post. Here are the discussion prompts we used--please use and adapt as you like!

marksheaappliedlinguistics.com/2025/11/19/g...
janerosenzweig.bsky.social Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · Oct 12
I’ve been reading a lot of good discussion about the problems of using AI to grade student work, which has left me thinking again about how embedded these tools are becoming while many students are still learning little/nothing about them. theimportantwork.substack.com/p/at-my-high...
At my high school no one is talking about AI
But everyone is using it
theimportantwork.substack.com
November 19, 2025 at 10:07 PM
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
Discussion on here this morning about 1)whether Gemini is good at "creative writing" and 2)a study showing people preferred AI imitations of writers to the writers themselves. I come back to my trusty all-purpose question: What problem are we solving when we outsource "creative writing"?
November 19, 2025 at 2:22 PM
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
Time to reread Roald Dahl's "The Great Automatic Grammatizator"
In the end, after several months of work, he had persuaded something like seventy per cent of the writers on his list to sign the contract. He found that the older ones, those who were running out of ideas and had taken to drink, were the easiest to handle. The younger people were more troublesome. They were apt to become abusive, sometimes violent when he approached them; and more than once Knipe was slightly injured on his rounds. But on the whole, it was a satisfactory beginning. This last year—the first full year of the machine’s operation—it was estimated that at least one half of all the novels and stories published in the English language were produced by Adolph Knipe upon the Great Automatic Grammatizator. Does this surprise you? I doubt it. And worse is yet to come. Today, as the secret spreads, many more are hurrying to tie up with Mr Knipe. And all the time the screw turns tighter for those who hesitate to sign their names. This very moment, as I sit here listening to the howling of my nine starving children in the other room, I can feel my own hand creeping closer and closer to that golden contract that lies over on the other side of the desk. Give us strength, Oh Lord, to let our children starve.
November 19, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Jane Rosenzweig
thevogelman.bsky.social
I’m happy to share my new essay, full of student voices, about using a transparency survey as a tool for reasoning on AI.

Reflection is more valuable than ever right now. Maybe this will be of use in your classroom?

@janerosenzweig.bsky.social

theimportantwork.substack.com/p/the-transp...
The Transparency Survey
A tool for reasoning about AI in writing
theimportantwork.substack.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Reposted by Jane Rosenzweig
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
Went down rabbit hole trying to predict how AI overviews get things wrong but could not have predicted this one. I never taught at Vassar; she didn't go there; we don't know each other. The source mentions her once, someone else named Rosenzweig, not Vassar. But people use these results as fact.
AI Overview Jane Rosenzweig and Olivia Nuzzi's relationship stems from their time at Vassar College, where Rosenzweig was Nuzzi's professor and the director of the college's Writing Center. Olivia Nuzzi, now a prominent political journalist for New York Magazine, has publicly cited Jane Rosenzweig as a significant influence and mentor in her education and career. Nuzzi has mentioned that Rosenzweig taught her fundamental journalistic skills, such as interviewing techniques and developing story ideas, during her time at Vassar. Their professional relationship highlights the mentor-mentee dynamic between a college professor and a student who went on to achieve success in her field.
November 18, 2025 at 3:37 AM
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
Put in "Olivia Nuzzi Sam Altman" and got this. If you wanted to know if she had ever written about him, you'd be out of luck (seems to be referring to things she said about RFK) but also this tool needs to be retired.
Google AI overview result. Olivia Nuzzi's recent memoir includes anecdotes about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, describing their conversations and interactions . The book details a level of personal intimacy in their interactions, including Nuzzi observing Altman flossing his teeth
November 18, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Jane Rosenzweig
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
New in The Important Work: @thevogelman.bsky.social shares his AI Transparency Survey and writes about what he learned when he asked his 10th and 12th grade students to reflect on their AI usage. Here's a bit of what his students shared. Read it here: theimportantwork.substack.com/p/the-transp...
Alaina: After a few drafts of my conclusion, there were two sentences that I couldn’t find a clear wording for and I felt they were getting too convoluted for my presentation. I decided to ask AI to give me a few options for ways to rewrite them so I combined some of those ideas to make what I was trying to say more articulate. Talia: Personally, I do not think AI usage is ethical, especially in a literature situation. . . Everything AI can tell me from a prompt I can learn from my own research. Smaran: I always use the Microsoft Word Editor after every essay or project . . . Also, I used AI to try to find a scholarly source based on my thinking. Ainslie: I’m not sure how to use AI in a way that maintains my thinking and voice and the integrity of the project. I also don’t see the [point of ] wasting that sort of energy and adding to my carbon footprint if I could use my brain. Erin: I do not like AI and do not like using it in regard to my writing. I think it takes away the work of real writers and is harming us a lot more than it’s helping us. Johan: I used the Google AI on my phone to look for different examples of Norse mythological influences in contemporary media. Cassie: I didn’t use AI at all in this project. I don’t like using AI because it feels as though I am cheating myself out on my learning. This is an AP class; things are supposed to be difficult.
November 18, 2025 at 1:25 PM
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
New in The Important Work: @thevogelman.bsky.social shares his AI Transparency Survey and writes about what he learned when he asked his 10th and 12th grade students to reflect on their AI usage. Here's a bit of what his students shared. Read it here: theimportantwork.substack.com/p/the-transp...
Alaina: After a few drafts of my conclusion, there were two sentences that I couldn’t find a clear wording for and I felt they were getting too convoluted for my presentation. I decided to ask AI to give me a few options for ways to rewrite them so I combined some of those ideas to make what I was trying to say more articulate. Talia: Personally, I do not think AI usage is ethical, especially in a literature situation. . . Everything AI can tell me from a prompt I can learn from my own research. Smaran: I always use the Microsoft Word Editor after every essay or project . . . Also, I used AI to try to find a scholarly source based on my thinking. Ainslie: I’m not sure how to use AI in a way that maintains my thinking and voice and the integrity of the project. I also don’t see the [point of ] wasting that sort of energy and adding to my carbon footprint if I could use my brain. Erin: I do not like AI and do not like using it in regard to my writing. I think it takes away the work of real writers and is harming us a lot more than it’s helping us. Johan: I used the Google AI on my phone to look for different examples of Norse mythological influences in contemporary media. Cassie: I didn’t use AI at all in this project. I don’t like using AI because it feels as though I am cheating myself out on my learning. This is an AP class; things are supposed to be difficult.
November 18, 2025 at 1:25 PM
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
Went down rabbit hole trying to predict how AI overviews get things wrong but could not have predicted this one. I never taught at Vassar; she didn't go there; we don't know each other. The source mentions her once, someone else named Rosenzweig, not Vassar. But people use these results as fact.
AI Overview Jane Rosenzweig and Olivia Nuzzi's relationship stems from their time at Vassar College, where Rosenzweig was Nuzzi's professor and the director of the college's Writing Center. Olivia Nuzzi, now a prominent political journalist for New York Magazine, has publicly cited Jane Rosenzweig as a significant influence and mentor in her education and career. Nuzzi has mentioned that Rosenzweig taught her fundamental journalistic skills, such as interviewing techniques and developing story ideas, during her time at Vassar. Their professional relationship highlights the mentor-mentee dynamic between a college professor and a student who went on to achieve success in her field.
November 18, 2025 at 3:37 AM
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
If you are using google AI overviews for medical advice, cooking advice, car advice, any advice, note that this is not a PhD level intelligence but a word prediction machine that draws from separate articles in the same NYT evening newsletter to produce output like this mixture of multiple stories.
Specifically: A recent article mentions Nuzzi's concern over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s health issues, noting that a "concern over lover RFK Jr.'s brain worm had him soothing ... Larry Summers in July 2018—went unanswered". This context is related to Nuzzi's recent personal and professional controversies rather than any direct interaction or connection between her and Summers. Another piece related to Nuzzi's situation mentions that the late Jeffrey Epstein unsuccessfully tried to reach out to figures like Larry Summers and Reid Hoffman.
November 18, 2025 at 3:14 AM
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
No entry level jobs, no opportunity to get experience doesn't seem like a great recipe for society. @nymag.com: nymag.com/intelligence...
If the number of entry-level jobs dwindles across industries, naturally, the supply of experienced employees will wane. Without entry-level positions, how will the next generation of middle managers and executives get training? Millennials would be the last keepers of unwritten workplace knowledge, the intangible lessons and institutional know-how that haven’t been, or can’t be, fed into LLMs. What would the economy look like then?
November 18, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Reposted by Jane Rosenzweig
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
A great thing about kids having imaginary friends is that their conversations are based on the kid's understanding of the world not on training data. futurism.com/artificial-i...
After testing three different toys powered by AI, researchers from the US Public Interest Research Group found that the playthings can easily verge into risky conversational territory for children, including telling them where to find knives in a kitchen and how to start a fire with matches. One of the AI toys even engaged in explicit discussions, offering extensive advice on sex positions and fetishes. In the resulting report, the researchers warn that the integration of AI into toys opens up entire new avenues of risk that we’re barely beginning to scratch the surface of — and just in time for the winter holidays, when huge numbers of parents and other relatives are going to be buying presents for kids online without considering the novel safety issues involved in exposing children to AI.
November 17, 2025 at 12:45 PM
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
A great thing about kids having imaginary friends is that their conversations are based on the kid's understanding of the world not on training data. futurism.com/artificial-i...
After testing three different toys powered by AI, researchers from the US Public Interest Research Group found that the playthings can easily verge into risky conversational territory for children, including telling them where to find knives in a kitchen and how to start a fire with matches. One of the AI toys even engaged in explicit discussions, offering extensive advice on sex positions and fetishes. In the resulting report, the researchers warn that the integration of AI into toys opens up entire new avenues of risk that we’re barely beginning to scratch the surface of — and just in time for the winter holidays, when huge numbers of parents and other relatives are going to be buying presents for kids online without considering the novel safety issues involved in exposing children to AI.
November 17, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Jane Rosenzweig
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
This below is in the context of computer science but we all need to be having this conversation about whether "using AI" in classes prepares you for future jobs or whether actually doing the thing yourself prepares you for a world in which you may or may not use AI. The idea that using AI to write/1
A degree in CS mostly prepares students to become computer scientists, just as a history degree mostly prepares students to be historians. The idea is not that every student will become an academic— few do—but that the initial training in this direction will prepare students for varied pursuits. When the world changes, Erat argues, the student who studied CS will have the creativity to “learn how to search, how to integrate things.” But for the student who just used AI to make programs, he said, “It’s going to be impossible.” Conversely, CS professor Lin Zhong thinks Yale’s core CS curriculum is “stuck in the 1980s.” He wants students to develop the AI expertise that they would need as professional software engineers. “If your student[s] don’t learn how to use [AI], they lose their job,” he said. Students in Zhong’s Computer Systems Design course earn extra credit for using AI creatively to do their homework.
November 16, 2025 at 5:24 PM
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
This below is in the context of computer science but we all need to be having this conversation about whether "using AI" in classes prepares you for future jobs or whether actually doing the thing yourself prepares you for a world in which you may or may not use AI. The idea that using AI to write/1
A degree in CS mostly prepares students to become computer scientists, just as a history degree mostly prepares students to be historians. The idea is not that every student will become an academic— few do—but that the initial training in this direction will prepare students for varied pursuits. When the world changes, Erat argues, the student who studied CS will have the creativity to “learn how to search, how to integrate things.” But for the student who just used AI to make programs, he said, “It’s going to be impossible.” Conversely, CS professor Lin Zhong thinks Yale’s core CS curriculum is “stuck in the 1980s.” He wants students to develop the AI expertise that they would need as professional software engineers. “If your student[s] don’t learn how to use [AI], they lose their job,” he said. Students in Zhong’s Computer Systems Design course earn extra credit for using AI creatively to do their homework.
November 16, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Jane Rosenzweig
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
Interesting that an AI introduced to avoid corruption is being framed as a human who has given nepo baby jobs to her 83 kids. www.euronews.com/next/2025/10...
By Euronews Published on 30/10/2025 - 12:14 GMT+1 Share Comments Diella, the country’s first AI system that is now a minister in Edi Rama’s cabinet, will have 83 “children,” who will become parliamentary assistants. Albania’s first non-human minister made up entirely by artificial intelligence (AI) is “pregnant” with 83 children that will become parliamentary assistants, according to the country’s prime minister. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama toldthe Global Dialogue Forum in Berlin that the parliamentary assistants will participate in parliamentary sessions, keep notes on what goes on and then give advice to members on how they should react to specific pieces of legislation. “These children will have their mother’s knowledge regarding EU legislation and everything else,” Rama said. “This child will say what was said when [the member] is not in the hall and if [the member’s] name was mentioned and [they] have to counterattack someone who mentioned you for the wrong reasons,” he added.
November 15, 2025 at 12:58 PM
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
Interesting that an AI introduced to avoid corruption is being framed as a human who has given nepo baby jobs to her 83 kids. www.euronews.com/next/2025/10...
By Euronews Published on 30/10/2025 - 12:14 GMT+1 Share Comments Diella, the country’s first AI system that is now a minister in Edi Rama’s cabinet, will have 83 “children,” who will become parliamentary assistants. Albania’s first non-human minister made up entirely by artificial intelligence (AI) is “pregnant” with 83 children that will become parliamentary assistants, according to the country’s prime minister. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama toldthe Global Dialogue Forum in Berlin that the parliamentary assistants will participate in parliamentary sessions, keep notes on what goes on and then give advice to members on how they should react to specific pieces of legislation. “These children will have their mother’s knowledge regarding EU legislation and everything else,” Rama said. “This child will say what was said when [the member] is not in the hall and if [the member’s] name was mentioned and [they] have to counterattack someone who mentioned you for the wrong reasons,” he added.
November 15, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Reposted by Jane Rosenzweig
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
today in automation. discuss
📚 Teachers & Counselors — this one’s for you! If you’re swamped writing college recommendation letters right now, you need to try educator.kollegio.ai 💡 Upload your brag sheets (or use their built-in template) and let AI help you: ✍️ Draft personalized rec letters faster 🪄 Polish and organize with real-time suggestions 📄 Download as a ready-to-send PDF Save hours this application season — it’s 100% free and built with feedback from real counselors & teachers 👩‍🏫👨‍🏫 #KollegioAI #EducatorTools #TeacherLife #CounselorResources #CollegeAdmissions #LetterOfRecommendation #EdTech #AIforEducation
November 14, 2025 at 11:29 PM
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
today in automation. discuss
📚 Teachers & Counselors — this one’s for you! If you’re swamped writing college recommendation letters right now, you need to try educator.kollegio.ai 💡 Upload your brag sheets (or use their built-in template) and let AI help you: ✍️ Draft personalized rec letters faster 🪄 Polish and organize with real-time suggestions 📄 Download as a ready-to-send PDF Save hours this application season — it’s 100% free and built with feedback from real counselors & teachers 👩‍🏫👨‍🏫 #KollegioAI #EducatorTools #TeacherLife #CounselorResources #CollegeAdmissions #LetterOfRecommendation #EdTech #AIforEducation
November 14, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Jane Rosenzweig
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
This does not seem like efficiency: "proposals written with the platform’s native AI-writing tool exhibit a negative correlation between effort and signal, and signals no longer predict successful job completion"
Leveraging this unique setting, we provide new descriptive evidence that LLMs have dis- rupted previously informative labor market signaling. We organize our descriptive evidence into three main findings. First, we show that before the mass adoption of LLMs, employers had a sig- nificantly higher willingness to pay for workers who sent more customized proposals. Estimating a reduced-form multinomial logit model of employer demand using our measure of signal, we find that, all else equal, workers with a one standard deviation higher signal have the same in- creased chance of being hired as workers with a $26 lower bid.1 Second, we provide evidence that before the adoption of LLMs, employers valued workers’ signals because signals were predictive of workers’ effort, which in turn predicted workers’ ability to complete the posted job success- fully. Third, we find, however, that after the mass adoption of LLMs, these patterns weaken significantly or disappear completely: employer willingness to pay for workers sending higher signals falls sharply, proposals written with the platform’s native AI-writing tool exhibit a nega- tive correlation between effort and signal, and signals no longer predict successful job completion conditional on being hired. Taken together, these findings suggest that workers’ job-specific pro- posals functioned as Spence-like signals of worker ability prior to the advent of generative AI, but that LLMs disrupted this signaling mechanism on which employers previously relied to make hiring decisions.
November 14, 2025 at 12:39 PM
janerosenzweig.bsky.social
This does not seem like efficiency: "proposals written with the platform’s native AI-writing tool exhibit a negative correlation between effort and signal, and signals no longer predict successful job completion"
Leveraging this unique setting, we provide new descriptive evidence that LLMs have dis- rupted previously informative labor market signaling. We organize our descriptive evidence into three main findings. First, we show that before the mass adoption of LLMs, employers had a sig- nificantly higher willingness to pay for workers who sent more customized proposals. Estimating a reduced-form multinomial logit model of employer demand using our measure of signal, we find that, all else equal, workers with a one standard deviation higher signal have the same in- creased chance of being hired as workers with a $26 lower bid.1 Second, we provide evidence that before the adoption of LLMs, employers valued workers’ signals because signals were predictive of workers’ effort, which in turn predicted workers’ ability to complete the posted job success- fully. Third, we find, however, that after the mass adoption of LLMs, these patterns weaken significantly or disappear completely: employer willingness to pay for workers sending higher signals falls sharply, proposals written with the platform’s native AI-writing tool exhibit a nega- tive correlation between effort and signal, and signals no longer predict successful job completion conditional on being hired. Taken together, these findings suggest that workers’ job-specific pro- posals functioned as Spence-like signals of worker ability prior to the advent of generative AI, but that LLMs disrupted this signaling mechanism on which employers previously relied to make hiring decisions.
November 14, 2025 at 12:39 PM