New music video about hedonic adaptation | AI better at some forms of knowledge work than at others | AI increasingly used for sensemaking among corporate users | Users want to approve certain autonomous actions | For exploratory creation, a branching UI beat the traditional linear chat interface to the AI backend model | Base-rate neglect: one vivid anecdote outweighs a thousand statistics | The ***** UI for user ratings | Experimental system connects specific words in the u

Show a progress indicator when response time exceeds 10 seconds, preferably as a percent-done bar. It tells users two things: the system heard you, and here’s how long the ordeal will last. But never let the bar stall, lie, or reset. AI agents that work for hours have raised the stakes: progress indicators must now serve users who walked away. Follow the 12 design guidelines in this article.

Agent-ready web design lifts AI task success | Shoppers now pick AI assistants over brand websites, 41% to 38% | Learn from reality: build and iterate | AI getting better at business strategy, but still not good enough to run your company | AI raised the floor but lowered the ceiling in children’s storytelling | Infinite canvas as a UI space for organizing and collaborating on unstructured information | My Hero: Scott McCloud, comic book artist and theorist | AI animates clas

AI narrows skill gaps by helping weak performers the most. Employers are reacting: hiring in AI-exposed job categories now weights human capital 7.8% less and price 1.1% more than before ChatGPT and the demand premium for highly skilled workers is shrinking. Competence has become commodity, so sell judgment. Agentic AI will reverse the equalization and widen skill gaps again.

AI agents expand user tasks | Agentic AI makes expertise more valuable, not less | Users need control over the complexity of AI results | Constraints help users | Meta launched a new image model, Muse Image | ByteDance upgrades its image model to Seedream 5 Pro | Comparing the leading image models | GPT receives a major upgrade to v. 5.6 Sol

Halfway through 2026, AI is evolving faster than expected, but usability is struggling to keep pace. I graded my 18 predictions on autonomous agents, compute shortages, and interface design to separate the hype from reality.