Wednesday, May 27, 2026

AI research papers are getting better, and it’s a big problem for scientists - Joshua Dzieza, the Verge

“It’s a huge burden on the peer-review system, which is already at the limit,” Degen said. “There’s just too many papers being published and there’s not enough peer reviewers, and if the LLMs make it so much easier to mass produce papers, then this will reach a breaking point.” Optimists about generative AI have high hopes for its ability to produce future scientific breakthroughs — accelerating discovery, eliminating most types of cancer — but the technology is currently undermining one of the pillars of scientific research, inundating editors and reviewers with an endless stream of papers. Paradoxically, the better the technology gets at producing competent papers, the worse the crisis becomes.

The AI assembly line: Strategic imperatives for CEOs - Gianmarco Cilento, Steffen Fuchs , and Varun Marya; McKinsey

Just as Ford’s production line transformed physical labor, agentic AI—systems that can act autonomously rather than just responding to prompts—is now reshaping cognitive work, including engineering design, supply chain planning, and risk assessment. (We will refer to agentic AI simply as “AI” throughout this article.) With AI, companies no longer need to depend solely on the judgment and availability of a small number of experts to make complex decisions or create sophisticated products. Instead, knowledge becomes broadly accessible to anyone with the right AI capabilities, accelerating decision-making, product customization, and other tasks once limited to experts.

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Quantum’s bold promise: What business leaders need to know - Henning Soller and Sven Smit with Anna Heid, McKiney

For years, business leaders and corporate boards have viewed quantum computing (QC) as a threat—and for good reason: It has the potential to break today’s strongest encryptions. That moment, commonly known as Q-Day, will occur when quantum computers succeed in factoring exceptionally large numbers, undermining the math that public-key cryptography depends on. Though business leaders are keeping Q-Day top of mind, they are viewing QC through a new lens—less a threat and more an opportunity. Many are spurring their companies to experiment with QC now so that they will be ready to deploy it at scale once quantum computers become mainstream, which could happen within the next five years.

Landscape of Emerging Technologies in Higher Education: A Review - Sharin Jacob, Heather Miceli and Hannah Schneider, Digital Promise

This literature review explores the rapid integration of artificial intelligence in higher education, examining both institutional influences and instructional practices. It highlights how governance frameworks, resource allocation, and faculty attitudes shape access and responsible technology adoption. Pedagogically, the paper emphasizes the necessity of embedding AI literacy, critical evaluation, and ethical reasoning into curricula to prevent student overreliance on AI tools. Ultimately, institutions must balance innovation with accountability by carefully aligning AI tools with educational values to advance authentic learning.


Monday, May 25, 2026

The Third Wave of Online Education: Why AI-Powered Adaptive Learning Could Disrupt Universities, Corporate Training, and Workforce Development - Tim King, Solutions Review

The Third Wave of Online Education Has Begun. Artificial intelligence is beginning to fundamentally reshape education. Not simply classroom technology. Not digital homework systems. Not video-based e-learning platforms. Education itself. During a recent episode of Inside Jam, Solutions Review President Doug Atkinson sat down with Jonathan Cornelissen to discuss what may become one of the defining transformations of the next decade: the rise of AI-powered adaptive learning systems capable of personalizing education at scale. The discussion explored the evolution of online learning, enterprise AI upskilling, workforce disruption, higher education economics, AI-native tutoring systems, and the growing realization that traditional educational models may no longer align with the pace of technological change.


Quantum’s bold promise: What business leaders need to know - Henning Soller and Sven Smit with Anna Heid - McKinsey Quarterly

For years, business leaders and corporate boards have viewed quantum computing (QC) as a threat—and for good reason: It has the potential to break today’s strongest encryptions. That moment, commonly known as Q-Day, will occur when quantum computers succeed in factoring exceptionally large numbers, undermining the math that public-key cryptography depends on. Though business leaders are keeping Q-Day top of mind, they are viewing QC through a new lens—less a threat and more an opportunity. Many are spurring their companies to experiment with QC now so that they will be ready to deploy it at scale once quantum computers become mainstream, which could happen within the next five years.

Sunday, May 24, 2026

The AI industry is still in flux, and university programs are trying to keep up - Marketplace

Welcome to May — the job market is currently awash in fresh graduates looking for that first post-college job, and it’s not an easy task. The unemployment rate for young college graduates jumped to 5.6% at the end of last year, entry-level job postings in the U.S. are down by a third since 2023, and grads are even up against artificial intelligence outsourcing. At the same time, some universities, and the students within, are making a big bet on AI to secure their future. When Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, unveiled a new program in 2022 called “AI and decision-making,” students showed up. Professor Asuman Ozdaglar is an engineering professor and a deputy dean of academics at MIT. She joined “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal to discuss how universities are staying ahead of the curve with the labor market, and how professors think about teaching for an industry that’s still changing so rapidly. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

5 Things to Know About the Changing Cybersecurity Landscape in Higher Education - UMass Amherst

Recent incidents affecting institutions nationwide, including the widely used Canvas learning management system, have reinforced the importance of cybersecurity not only as a technical priority, but as a shared community responsibility. For Jeremy Pelegrin, Chief Information Security Officer at UMass Amherst, the conversation around cybersecurity today extends far beyond firewalls and software updates. It’s about protecting teaching and research, strengthening digital trust, and helping the university community develop habits that support a safer digital environment for everyone. “We have reached a point as a society where cybersecurity must be a responsibility for every person on the UMass campus,” Pelegrin said. “As we navigate through a changing landscape of threats and compliance requirements, it’s really about developing good cyber habits that can be applicable regardless of where the world is going to lead us.” As technology, artificial intelligence, and online threats continue to evolve, UMass Amherst is approaching digital safety as an ongoing partnership across campus. Here are five things the community should know about how the landscape is changing and how the university is adapting alongside it.


Saturday, May 23, 2026

Assessing students when artificial intelligence is ubiquitous - Michelle Seref, Times Higher Education

If we continue to prioritise memorisation in an age of wall-to-wall information, we send the wrong message to our students and employers. Michelle Seref offers advice on assessment that builds critical thinking skills. For much of higher education’s modern history, assessment has followed a familiar formula: a midterm and a final exam, with a heavy emphasis on whether students can retain and reproduce information. That model made sense in a world where knowledge was scarce and expertise lived primarily in textbooks and lectures. That world no longer exists. With students’ early access to technology, they can find most information from Google, YouTube and, now, AI chatbots. The rapid rise of generative AI hasn’t made assessment obsolete, but it has made its misalignment impossible to ignore. The real question is no longer what students know, but how they think, decide, adapt and apply judgement. Yet many assessments still measure recall rather than application.


AI and the Employment Outlook for College Grads - Jim A. Jorstad, GovTech

It’s that time of the year when graduation ceremonies take place at colleges and universities throughout the country. Students will fill auditoriums, gymnasiums and stadiums, each with their own dreams and hopes of landing that ideal job they’ve been working toward. Some will have taken certification courses, served as researchers or graduate assistants, or participated in internships. Hopefully, they received the necessary education and training to be successful in their careers of choice. But they're among the first graduating classes to have had most of their college experience upended by artificial intelligence. What will be the impact of AI? Are students graduating with the necessary AI skills, and what kind of employment environment are they entering? I want to focus specifically on IT-related jobs, although many of the same hiring trends can be applied to other disciplines. Let’s consider what factors are affecting the job market, and what graduates may experience during their job and career search.


Friday, May 22, 2026

The Case for Data Centers in Space- McKinsey

Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston on the potential role orbital data centers could play in meeting growing AI compute demand—and the technical and economic uncertainties that remain. Philip Johnston, a McKinsey alumnus and cofounder of orbital compute infrastructure provider Starcloud, believes that space-based systems could become a meaningful part of the future compute landscape. He recently spoke to McKinsey Partner Luca Bennici about how the space-based data center technology is evolving, the challenges involved, and what needs to happen for orbital data centers to become a viable complement to terrestrial infrastructure. The interview transcript has been edited for clarity and style.

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-case-for-data-centers-in-space

From Restriction to Integration: Practical Strategies for Embracing AI in Online Courses - Taoufik Ennoure, Faculty Focus

Instead of prohibiting the use of AI, it is more effective to assign tasks that require students to use AI tools and then have them critically assess the outputs. In asynchronous online courses with less frequent instructor interaction, I have adopted a new approach to enhance engagement in weekly discussions. I ask students to use AI tools to generate practice questions and sample answers, allowing them to self-assess their understanding. Students then post their AI-generated questions and answers as original discussion posts, reflecting on which questions were most helpful and identifying any gaps in the tool’s knowledge. Additionally, they evaluate at least two other question/answer sets created by their peers. This method fosters a peer dialogue focused on critical assessment, reducing the instructor’s workload in creating every quiz while encouraging collaborative learning. 

Thursday, May 21, 2026

Layoffs down from early '25 — except in this one field - Emma W. Thorne, Editor at LinkedIn News

Layoffs fell 50% from the first third of 2025 to the first third of 2026 — with one glaring exception. Tech was hit the hardest, laying off more than 85,000 workers in the first four months of the year, according to a new report out Thursday from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That's a 33% jump year-over-year. The main culprit? Artificial intelligence, which was the top-cited reason for the second month in a row. A separate release from the Labor Department showed continuing unemployment claims hit a two-year low last week.

‘Student Guide to AI’ returns for third year with a new focus: Human capabilities - Elon University News Bureau

“Human Wisdom for the Age of AI: A Field Guide to Cultivating Essential Skills”, a publication by Elon University, the American Association of Colleges and Universities and The Princeton Review, is provided to students and institutions free of charge. The new publication, “Human Wisdom for the Age of AI: A Field Guide to Cultivating Essential Skills,” helps students cultivate the human skills they need to thrive in a digital world, whether working with AI technologies or learning independently of those tools. The guide includes engaging and fun exercises on curiosity, critical and deep thinking, creativity, ethical perspectives, communication and relational skills, among others. Like the 2024 and 2025 editions, this year’s guide is provided to students and institutions free of charge and is available for download at: www.studentguidetoai.org. The guide draws on 10 voices across centuries and cultures — from Aristotle, Cicero and Descartes to Mencius and Ptahhotep — whose enduring insights into human judgment, creativity, ethics and wisdom take on new urgency as AI reshapes how we learn and work.