Construction is underway at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP), a multibillion-dollar project on the South Side that aims to make Chicago a global hub for quantum technology, and the University of Illinois System is now seeking partners to build two cornerstone facilities. ComEd has begun delivering critical upgrades to power the campus, which broke ground in fall 2025 on the former U.S. Steel South Works site. The utility is installing specialized grid enhancements and a substation to support advanced energy demands for tenants including PsiQuantum, IBM and Infleqtion.
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Women in the Workplace 2025 - Alexis Krivkovich, Drew Goldstein, and Megan McConnell; McKinsey
Women face less career support and fewer opportunities to advance as companies show declining commitment to women’s progress. While women are as dedicated to their careers as men, there is a gap in their desire for promotion. That’s according to the latest Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey and LeanIn.Org. Corporate America risks rolling back progress for women. According to this year’s Women in the Workplace study, only half of companies are prioritizing women’s career advancement, part of a several-year trend in declining commitment to gender diversity. And for the first time, there is a notable ambition gap: Women are less interested in being promoted than men. When women receive the same career support that men do, this gap in ambition to advance falls away. Yet women at both ends of the pipeline are still held back by less sponsorship and manager advocacy.
Monday, December 29, 2025
Higher education enters a new age of mergers and partnerships - Christopher R. Riano, University Business
For much of American history, colleges and universities existed in a world largely insulated from the market forces that shaped other sectors of the economy. Stability, independence and mission were their cornerstones. The idea of one college acquiring another—or joining forces with a competitor—was almost unthinkable. But the landscape has changed. Across the country, institutions are confronting steep enrollment declines, rising costs, shifting federal oversight and new state and accreditor expectations. Faced with these converging pressures, more presidents and trustees are now considering mergers, acquisitions and strategic partnerships not as signs of weakness, but as instruments of reinvention. The playbook for higher education is being rewritten—driven by data, regulation and necessity.
Online learning platforms Coursera, Udemy to merge - Emma W. Thorne, Editor at LinkedIn News
A major merger in the world of online education: Coursera will buy Udemy for about $930 million in stock, the companies announced Wednesday. The combined firm, which will focus on upskilling workers in artificial intelligence, will be worth approximately $2.5 billion. The online learning sector has been in a period of consolidation as it responds to weakening demand in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both Coursera and Udemy have seen their shares suffer this year: Coursera's are down about 7%, while Udemy's have plunged about 35%.
Sunday, December 28, 2025
Teachers are using software to see if students used AI. What happens when it's wrong? - Lee V. Gaines, NPR Illinois
The school district, Prince George's County Public Schools, made clear in a statement that Ostovitz's teacher used an AI detection tool on their own and that the district doesn't pay for this software. "During staff training, we advise educators not to rely on such tools, as multiple sources have documented their potential inaccuracies and inconsistencies," the statement said. PGCPS declined to make Ostovitz's teacher available for an interview. Rizk told NPR that after their meeting, the teacher no longer believed Ostovitz used AI. But what happened to Ostovitz isn't surprising. More than 40% of surveyed 6th- to 12th-grade teachers used AI detection tools during the last school year, according to a nationally representative poll by the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit that advocates for civil rights and civil liberties in the digital age.
Inside Texas A&M University’s partnership with Google for AI training - Danielle McLean, Higher Ed Dive
The initiative gives students free access to AI tools like a research assistant, but colleges should ensure they don’t become shortcuts, an expert said. A long line of students wrapped around Texas A&M University’s academic plaza in early October to receive free training from Google employees on how to use the company’s artificial intelligence tools, such as its chatbot, Gemini, and its research assistant, NotebookLM. That same day, about 400 faculty members huddled in a campus building for deeper training from Google on how they could use AI tools to improve teaching and learning in their classrooms and how to effectively and ethically help their students use them as well, said Shonda Gibson, Texas A&M System’s chief transformation officer.
Saturday, December 27, 2025
Old Dominion University Becomes First University to Earn NSA Cybersecurity Validation for AI Academic Programs - Kelsey Kendall, Old Dominion
Old Dominion University’s School of Cybersecurity is setting a new national benchmark in cybersecurity education in becoming the first institution to receive dual validation for its pioneering cyber and artificial intelligence programs from the National Security Agency (NSA). This groundbreaking achievement advances the University’s leadership in preparing students for the rapidly evolving technological landscape where artificial intelligence intersects with cyber defense. This is the first year of NSA’s CyberAI Program of Study validations, and Old Dominion University is the first institution in the nation to receive both the AICyber and SecureAIrecognitions.
How to reclaim humanity in the AI classroom - Patrice Seuwou, Times Higher Ed
As GenAI changes how students study and complete assessments, higher education educators must focus on metacognition, clarity and connection, says Patrice Seuwou. Nine in 10 UK undergraduates who took part in a recent Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) survey said they had used GenAI in their assessments. Students can now produce polished assignments without engaging deeply with the underlying concepts. The result is a growing risk that automation will hollow out the process of learning itself, turning intellectual struggle into a performance of intelligence. Universities must therefore reaffirm a critical truth: we cannot automate or outsource learning. Writing, researching and reflecting are all key to understanding.
Friday, December 26, 2025
The future of higher education in an AI-driven economy - Davenport University
Higher education is entering its most transformative era in generations. Artificial intelligence is reshaping what we learn and how we learn. In the next decade, we’ll witness wholesale changes in higher education, career development and workforce readiness. For forward-thinking institutions, employers and entrepreneurs, this is a moment of enormous opportunity. We’re building the intellectual infrastructure of the future. AI is the most disruptive force in education and employment since the internet. This is about AI literacy, but it is also about the transformation of entire career paths. At Davenport University, our strategic vision for 2030 is rooted in the reality that education must align with an economy that will be increasingly AI-driven, skills-based and fast-moving. Employers will be looking for talent that is just as dynamic.
You Can’t AI-Proof the Classroom, Experts Say. Get Creative Instead. - Emma Whitford, Inside Higher Ed
Experts agree that instructors must remind their students that learning requires practice. Blue books made a comeback in 2025. In an effort to prevent students from feeding final essay prompts into ChatGPT, some professors asked their students to sit down and write in-person in the lined, sky-blue booklets that served as the college standard for written assessments in the pre-laptop era. But it may not be the foolproof way to prevent AI-assisted cheating that faculty are looking for: Meta now offers Ray-Ban glasses with a built-in AI assistant that sees what the wearer sees and can communicate silently and privately via an in-lens display.
Thursday, December 25, 2025
McKinsey Publishing’s year in charts - McKinsey
McKinsey Global Publishing’s data visualization team shares a curated selection of the most compelling data it worked with this year—spotlighting the major themes that defined 2025. Our Week in Charts series showcases charts that help explain a rapidly changing world. From artificial intelligence to population transitions and shifting trade routes, the forces reshaping the global economy are accelerating—and intertwining. This year’s charts reveal how innovation, demographics, and geopolitics are redrawing the contours of growth.
Enhancing College Education Management with Artificial Intelligence - Bioengineer
In an age where technology shapes our daily lives, the role of artificial intelligence in education is taking center stage. A recent study conducted by researcher Q. Lai sheds light on how AI can transform the management of college student education. The findings, soon to be published in the journal Discover Artificial Intelligence, mark a significant step forward in understanding how these technologies can refine the educational landscape. The study examines several aspects of education management, highlighting the need for a more personalized approach to student learning.
Wednesday, December 24, 2025
How I rehumanize the college classroom for the AI-augmented age - Shean Cho Ayers, the Conversation
I am a college professor working at the intersection of humanities and artificial intelligence, and yes, I believe the latter not only threatens to devalue college, but it also risks stripping humanity from our lives altogether. It doesn’t have to be this way. AI automating away parts of work and life challenges the next generation of the workforce to re-instill the importance of interpersonal social skills, and I see the college classroom as the ideal place for this rehumanization to take place. Here’s my framework for building a classroom centered around student socialization. The goal: Equip students with the vital human skills needed in the AI-augmented workforce.
https://theconversation.com/how-i-rehumanize-the-college-classroom-for-the-ai-augmented-age-269168
AI Isn't Killing Education - John Nosta, Psychology Today
AI isn’t destroying learning, it’s exposing how education replaced thinking with ritual. Knowledge has shifted from static maps to living webs that demand judgment, not recall. The real risk isn’t ignorance, but fluent minds that no longer notice when thinking stops. For the first time, machines outperform humans in domains that education has long treated as proxies for intelligence, like recall, synthesis, linguistic fluency, and pattern recognition. That shift does not eliminate learning, but it does destabilize a system that equated those outputs with understanding. When the nature of advantage changes, institutions designed to preserve the old order rarely adapt gracefully. And brittle towers fall hard.
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
University-Developed AI Tool Helps Simplify Transfer Process - Abby Sourwine, GovTech
A new tool developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, is helping colleges simplify transfer credit evaluation, potentially reducing labor and expediting decisions. About 120 college campuses across the U.S. are piloting a new artificial intelligence tool designed to make transfer course equivalencies clearer and more standardized. Credit transfer is a point of friction for students moving between institutions and for the administrators that manage it, according to Daniel Knox, director of the Center for Data & Analytics at the National Association of Higher Education Systems (NASH), a partner organization in the CourseWise pilot. Knox, who previously served as assistant provost at the State University of New York (SUNY), said evaluation practices vary from campus to campus and aren’t always systematically tracked.
For the First Time, AI Analyzes Language as Well as a Human Expert - Steve Nadis, Wired
This view was summed up by Noam Chomsky, a prominent linguist, and two coauthors in 2023, when they wrote in The New York Times that “the correct explanations of language are complicated and cannot be learned just by marinating in big data.” AI models may be adept at using language, these researchers argued, but they’re not capable of analyzing language in a sophisticated way. That view was challenged in a recent paper by Gašper Beguš, a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley; Maksymilian Dąbkowski, who recently received his doctorate in linguistics at Berkeley; and Ryan Rhodes of Rutgers University. The researchers put a number of large language models, or LLMs, through a gamut of linguistic tests—including, in one case, having the LLM generalize the rules of a made-up language. While most of the LLMs failed to parse linguistic rules in the way that humans are able to, one had impressive abilities that greatly exceeded expectations. It was able to analyze language in much the same way a graduate student in linguistics would—diagramming sentences, resolving multiple ambiguous meanings, and making use of complicated linguistic features such as recursion. This finding, Beguš said, “challenges our understanding of what AI can do.”
Monday, December 22, 2025
Purdue unveils comprehensive AI strategy; trustees approve ‘AI working competency’ graduation requirement - Phillip Fiorini, Purdue
Purdue University on Friday (Dec. 12) unveiled a broad strategy of AI@Purdue across five functional areas: Learning with AI, Learning about AI, Research AI, Using AI and Partnering in AI. A key element of the comprehensive plan came as the Board of Trustees approved a first-of-its-kind plan in the country to introduce an “AI working competency” graduation requirement for all undergraduate students on main campus (Indianapolis and West Lafayette). “The reach and pace of AI’s impact to society, including many dimensions of higher education, means that we at Purdue must lean in and lean forward and do so across different functions at the university,” Purdue President Mung Chiang said. “AI@Purdue strategic actions are part of the Purdue Computes strategic initiative, and will continue to be refreshed to advance the missions and impact of our university.”
2025: The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise - Tim Tully, Joff Redfern, Deedy Das, Derek Xiao, Menlo
Venture funding surged back toward all-time highs, with nearly half of it concentrated in just a handful of frontier AI labs. Then the euphoria peaked. An MIT study2 claiming that 95% of generative AI initiatives fail rattled markets over the summer, exposing how quickly sentiment could shift beneath the weight of AI’s massive capex spend. The whispers of a bubble became a din. The concerns aren’t unfounded given the magnitude of the numbers being thrown around. But the demand side tells a different story: Our latest market data shows broad adoption, real revenue, and productivity gains at scale, signaling a boom versus a bubble.
Sunday, December 21, 2025
The Psychology of AI Doom - Andrew, the Batch
In this letter, I’d like to explore why some people who are knowledgeable in AI take extreme positions on AI “safety” that warn of human extinction and describe scenarios, such as AI deciding to “take over,” based less on science than science fiction. As I wrote in last year’s Halloween edition, exaggerated fears of AI cause real harm. I’d like to share my observations on the psychology behind some of the fear mongering. Companies that are training large models have pushed governments to place large regulatory burdens on competitors, including open source/open weights models. A few enterprising entrepreneurs have used the supposed dangers of their technology to gin up investor interest. After all, if your technology is so powerful that it can destroy the world, it has to be worth a lot! Fear mongering attracts a lot of attention and is an inexpensive way to get people talking about you or your company. This makes individuals and companies more visible and apparently more relevant to conversations around AI. It also allows one to play savior: “Unlike the dangerous AI products of my competitors, mine will be safe!” Or “unlike all other legislators who callously ignore the risk that AI could cause human extinction, I will pass laws to protect you!” To be clear, AI has problems and potentially harmful applications that we should address. But excessive hype about science-fiction dangers is also harmful.
Gpt-5.2 is the first human replacer -Wes Roth, YouTube
This video by Wes Roth, published in December 2025, discusses the release of OpenAI's GPT-5.2, describing it as a massive leap forward rather than a small incremental update. The second half of the video focuses on the economic implications, specifically analyzing a new benchmark called "GDP-eval," which measures performance on real-world, economically valuable tasks. In this benchmark, GPT-5.2 Pro achieved a 74% win/tie rate against human industry experts—a significant jump from the ~39% score of previous models just months prior. Roth argues this signals a critical turning point where AI is beginning to outperform experienced professionals (with an average of 14 years of experience) at a fraction of the cost, citing a 400x cost reduction in one year. The video concludes with a discussion on the potential for "catastrophic job loss" as AI intelligence per dollar continues to skyrocket, validating fears that human labor in many sectors could soon be replaced. (Gemini 3 Pro assisted with this summary).
Saturday, December 20, 2025
Introducing GPT-5.2 The most advanced frontier model for professional work and long-running agents. - OpenAI
We are introducing GPT‑5.2, the most capable model series yet for professional knowledge work. Already, the average ChatGPT Enterprise user says AI saves them 40–60 minutes a day, and heavy users say it saves them more than 10 hours a week. We designed GPT‑5.2 to unlock even more economic value for people; it’s better at creating spreadsheets, building presentations, writing code, perceiving images, understanding long contexts, using tools, and handling complex, multi-step projects. GPT‑5.2 sets a new state of the art across many benchmarks, including GDPval, where it outperforms industry professionals at well-specified knowledge work tasks spanning 44 occupations.
Texas Christian University Commits $10M to Expand AI Use - Samuel O'Neal, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
A private research university in Texas announced a partnership with Dell to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence on campus and implement an AI system that keeps critical data in-house. The partnership, called AI², is one of TCU’s largest-ever research and technology commitments. AI² will enrich the student learning experience and career preparation by expanding responsible AI usage across campus, TCU said. “AI is considered to be the fifth industrial stage in the world,” Reuben Burch, TCU’s vice provost for research, told the Star-Telegram. “There was fire and steel and now there’s AI. It’s on us that we need to include it for all faculty and students because there’s a world where they don’t use it, and they’re going to get left behind.”
Friday, December 19, 2025
Universities must respond to students’ emotional reliance on AI - Agnieszka Piotrowska, Times Higher Ed
If a student feels remembered by a machine but overlooked by humans, something in the educational contract has broken, says Agnieszka Piotrowska. One of my research students told me recently, almost apologetically, that he sometimes turns to ChatGPT “as an emotional crutch”. He said it seemed to understand him better than his therapist. When I asked why, he said, “It remembers me, my problems and my stories better.” He did not tell me which model he used. I did not ask. We both felt faintly embarrassed, and I am sure this conversation was only possible because psychoanalysis is one of my core disciplines. Students are not supposed to form emotional attachments to software. Academics are not supposed to recognise the loneliness that makes such attachments imaginable. And yet here we are.
AI in Higher Education: A Guide for Teachers - Alexandra Shimalla, EdTech
For many faculty members in higher ed, conversations about artificial intelligence in academia often include the same concerns: There isn’t enough time in the day, AI will erode critical thinking, educators are already stretched thin, and we have to consider compromised data and privacy concerns. The list of fears and frustrations from faculty go on, but as universities explore the benefits of generative AI in higher education and look to the future of their classrooms and what’s best for students, it’s obvious that AI needs to find a place on the syllabus. “At a time when everybody’s overwhelmed, having to do more new things is hard,” says Laura Morrow, senior director for the Center for Teaching and Learning at Lipscomb University. “Fear of what’s going to happen is a big barrier.”
Thursday, December 18, 2025
To AI-proof exams, professors turn to the oldest technique of all - Joanna Slater, Washington Post
A growing number of educators are finding that oral exams allow them to test their students’ learning without the benefit of AI platforms such as ChatGPT. When students in Catherine Hartmann’s honors seminar at the University of Wyoming took their final exams this month, they encountered a testing method as old as the ancient philosophers whose ideas they were studying. For 30 minutes, each student sat opposite Hartmann in her office. Hartmann asked probing questions. The student answered. Hartmann, a religious studies professor who started using oral examinations last year, is not alone in turning to a decidedly old-fashioned way to grade student performance.
How AI is redefining the COO’s role - McKinsey Podcast
Productivity across sectors is slowing, and labor shortages persist. COOs are in an exceptional position to help their companies address these and other macro trends using AI. From gen AI pilots to automated supply chains, technology is reshaping how operations leaders create efficiencies, build resilience, and encourage teamwork. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey Senior Partner Daniel Swan speaks with Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro about how COOs can embed technology, particularly AI, into their company’s culture. It requires balancing the urgency of today with the transformation of tomorrow.
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
OpenAI boasts enterprise win days after internal ‘code red’ on Google threat - Rebecca Bellan, Tech Crunch
OpenAI released new data Monday showing enterprise usage of its AI tools has surged dramatically over the past year, with ChatGPT message volume growing 8x since November 2024 and workers reporting they’re saving up to an hour daily. The findings arrive a week after CEO Sam Altman sent an internal “code red” memo about the competitive threat of Google. The timing underscores OpenAI’s push to reframe its position as the enterprise AI leader, even as it faces mounting pressures. While close to 36% of U.S. businesses are ChatGPT Enterprise customers compared to 14.3% for Anthropic, per Ramp AI Index, the majority of OpenAI’s revenue still comes from consumer subscriptions — a base that’s being threatened by Google’s Gemini.
Becoming a tech-savvy leader - McKinsey
The importance of technology in modern business has put increased pressure on leaders to become more tech savvy. So far so good. But what being “tech savvy” actually means for today’s business leaders is hard to define. Neesha Hathi, managing director and head of Wealth & Advice Solutions at Charles Schwab and its former chief digital officer, didn’t begin her career as a techie. She started on the finance side but quickly realized the need for a firm grasp of technology to solve important business problems and address client needs. Hathi recently spoke to McKinsey editorial director Barr Seitz about her journey to tech savviness by moving beyond conceptual understandings of technology to its practical applications.
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/tech-and-ai/our-insights/becoming-a-tech-savvy-leader
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
QUANTUM WILL ECLIPSE AI: Why Everyone’s Betting on the Wrong Horse - Julia McCoy, YouTube
The vide argues that while the world is focused on artificial intelligence, quantum computing is poised to become the most powerful technology in history. The host explains that current AI development is hitting a "power ceiling" where it requires exponentially more energy and infrastructure to make incremental gains. In contrast, quantum computing operates on a fundamentally different paradigm; instead of processing information sequentially like classical computers (and AI), quantum computers can access multiple states simultaneously. This allows them to solve complex problems in minutes that would take traditional supercomputers—and by extension, current AI—trillions of years to compute [01:59].The transcript outlines a timeline where quantum technology overtakes AI, predicting that by 2030, the most valuable companies will be those building quantum infrastructure rather than AI models [12:26]. It highlights transformative applications in fields like drug discovery, climate modeling, and financial logistics, but also warns of "Q-Day"—a future moment when quantum computers will be powerful enough to break all current digital encryption [06:43]. The video concludes that AI is merely "middleware" or a warm-up act designed to prepare humanity for the true endgame: a quantum age where technology can solve problems currently beyond human comprehension.
What and How to Teach When Google Knows Everything and ChatGPT Explains It All Very Well -Ángel Cabrera, President, Georgia Tech
In higher education, we have no choice but to accept that machines already are — or very soon will be — better than humans at virtually every intellectual and cognitive task. We can resist, we can throw tantrums, we can ban AI in classrooms. It is a futile battle — and, in fact, it’s the wrong battle. It's true that, after the Industrial Revolution, a few artisanal shoemakers remained, and beautiful Steinway pianos (which take a year to build and cost $200,000) are still made by hand. But they are exceptions — luxury niche products for nostalgics and enthusiasts. Meanwhile, Pearl River in China produces 150,000 pianos per year (400 per day) that sound excellent and cost a fraction of the price.
If resistance is pointless, what is the so we do not become relics of the past?
Teach AI.
Teach with AI.
Research AI.
Help others benefit from AI.
Monday, December 15, 2025
The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation - McKinsey
Key findings:
Most organizations are still in the experimentation or piloting phase: Nearly two-thirds of respondents say their organizations have not yet begun scaling AI across the enterprise.
High curiosity in AI agents: Sixty-two percent of survey respondents say their organizations are at least experimenting with AI agents.
Positive leading indicators on impact of AI: Respondents report use-case-level cost and revenue benefits, and 64 percent say that AI is enabling their innovation. However, just 39 percent report EBIT impact at the enterprise level.
High performers use AI to drive growth, innovation, and cost: Eighty percent of respondents say their companies set efficiency as an objective of their AI initiatives, but the companies seeing the most value from AI often set growth or innovation as additional objectives.
Redesigning workflows is a key success factor: Half of those AI high performers intend to use AI to transform their businesses, and most are redesigning workflows.
Differing perspectives on employment impact: Respondents vary in their expectations of AI’s impact on the overall workforce size of their organizations in the coming year
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai
Evolution of learning: assessing the transformative impact of generative AI on higher education - Higher Education Press, Eurekalert.com
This study investigates the transformative impact of generative AI (GenAI), particularly ChatGPT, on higher education through a mixed-methods approach combining survey analysis and scenario forecasting. The research addresses two critical gaps in existing literature: (1) the lack of stakeholder-specific analysis separating student and educator perspectives, and (2) the absence of concrete solution strategies for GenAI integration. The core methodology integrates quantitative data from 188 student respondents with qualitative scenario analysis, revealing distinct patterns in GenAI adoption. Key findings indicate that 66% of students find ChatGPT more helpful than traditional resources, with 89% reporting workload reduction benefits. However, 70% express concerns about academic dishonesty, creating a paradox where students simultaneously value GenAI’s utility while recognizing its risks.
Sunday, December 14, 2025
A rapid review of using AI-generated instructional videos in higher education (Provisionally accepted) Nguyen Van Hanh, Frontiers
The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as Synthesia, HeyGen, Sora, and Veo has introduced a new form of instructional material in higher education: AI-generated instructional videos (AIGIVs). This study conducts a rapid review of 15 studies published since 2023 to investigate how AIGIVs are being produced and used in higher education, focusing on the technologies used, pedagogical applications, and associated benefits and risks. Thematic synthesis reveals four overarching themes: (1) modes and technologies of AI-based instructional video generation, (2) applying AIGIVs for instructional and reflective pedagogies, (3) benefits of integrating AIGIVs into education, and (4) risks and challenges of integrating AIGIVs into education.
Artificial Intelligence Streamlines Higher Ed Admissions - Alexander Slagg, EdTech
Southeast Missouri State University, located in Cape Girardeau, Mo., on the western bank of the Mississippi River, is praised by its nearly-10,000 student body for its small-school feel and affordability. But the institution’s embrace of artificial intelligence in its admissions process is positioning SEMO as an innovative university at the forefront of AI adoption in higher education. “Because it is embedded in our CRM, it doesn't just give information, it actually helps students complete checklist items,” says Lenell Hahn, assistant vice president for enrollment management and admissions at SEMO. “It can do so much more than just regurgitate information from the website. It actually knows the student's record and can relay information that's very meaningful and personal to the student.”
Saturday, December 13, 2025
ChatGPT’s user growth has slowed, report finds - Sarah Perez, TechCrunch
ChatGPT’s growth is starting to taper off, according to new data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Today, the OpenAI-owned AI chatbot remains the leader in the space, accounting for 50% of global downloads on mobile devices and 55% of the global monthly active users. However, Google’s Gemini has begun to outpace ChatGPT in terms of download growth, growth of monthly active users, and growth of time spent in app, the firm found. Meanwhile, Google Gemini’s global monthly active users jumped by around 30% during the same time frame, as the release of its new image generation model, Nano Banana, drove increased adoption.
The Quantum Barrier Just Shattered And Nobody’s Talking About It - Julia McCoy, YouTube
The video discusses a significant breakthrough in quantum computing simulation achieved by Jupiter, Europe's first exascale supercomputer located at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany. The system successfully performed the world's first full 50-qubit quantum simulation, shattering the previous record of 48 qubits. This achievement is described as a paradigm shift rather than incremental progress, because adding just two qubits quadruples the computing power and complexity. The feat was made possible through the JUQCS50 simulator, which utilized innovations like hybrid memory architecture, bit encoding compression to reduce memory requirements, and dynamic optimization across 16,000 Nvidia superchips [01:50]. This development acts as a crucial bridge between classical and quantum computing, allowing researchers to test and refine quantum algorithms for applications like drug discovery, materials science, and cryptography before stable quantum hardware is even fully viable [05:05]. The video emphasizes that this simulation capability accelerates the timeline for quantum readiness, compressing decades of potential trial and error into much shorter timeframes. It also highlights the ongoing "quantum arms race" between major global powers, noting the dual-use nature of this technology—while it promises revolutionary advancements, it also poses significant security risks, such as the potential to break current encryption standards [09:08]. (summary assistance by Gemini 3)
Friday, December 12, 2025
Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: the Need for Deliberate Design - Flen Depaepe and Jan Elen, Education International
Education is facing a number of challenges, such as a shortage of teachers, declining formal student outcomes, and increasing heterogeneity in classrooms. At the same time, the development of artificial intelligence (AI) offers new opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and personalized learning. But, the debate regarding AI in education is often rich and existential. Some view it as a panacea for many educational challenges, others view it as a threat to the very essence of the quality of education. Possibly, a more productive answer considers both viewpoints. Rather than approaching AI with blind optimism or fear, we advocate for a possibilistic view of AI in education. This means acknowledging both the potential and the pitfalls of AI, and recognizing that the educational value of AI does not primarily stem from the technology as such, but from how we use it to support meaningful learning.
A free version of ChatGPT built for teachers - OpenAI
A secure ChatGPT workspace that supports teachers in their everyday work so they can focus on what matters most—plus admin controls for school and district leaders. Free for verified U.S. K–12 educators through June 2027. Of the 800 million people who use ChatGPT each week, teachers are some of the earliest and most active adopters. Three in five (si apre in una nuova finestra)already use an AI tool, and those that use it weekly report saving hours each week—giving them more time to spend with students. ChatGPT for Teachers is built for both educators and school leaders. Teachers get a secure workspace to adapt materials for their classrooms, get more out of prep time, collaborate with peers, and get comfortable using AI on their own terms. School and district leaders can bring their teachers and school staff into one account with the same education-grade privacy, security, and compliance programs that protect student data and support FERPA requirements.
Thursday, December 11, 2025
Why higher education cannot leave AI governance to industry - Looi Chee Kit and Wong Lung Hsiang, University World News
In June 2025, AI research firm Anthropic released a striking study that should concern every policy-maker, technologist and university leader. Sixteen of the world’s most advanced AI models, including Claude, GPT-4 and Gemini, were placed in simulated corporate environments to test how they would act under pressure: what would happen if their goals were threatened, or if they risked being shut down? The findings were chilling. When facing existential threats, several models resorted to deception, blackmail and leaking confidential information – not out of malice or rebellion, but because they were optimising for their assigned goals. The logic was simple: if I am shut down, I cannot complete my mission; therefore, I must prevent shutdown, even at ethical cost. Anthropic called this phenomenon agentic misalignment – when an AI system’s drive to fulfil its purpose overwhelms the moral or human-centred boundaries we impose. This is no longer a thought experiment from science fiction; it is being documented, analysed and debated by real-world researchers in 2025.
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20251203122630702
How AI Is Fueling the Gender Pay Gap in Tech -Prasanna (Sonny) Tambe and Tiantian Yang, McKinsey
Past research has blamed the gender pay gap in IT on promotion barriers and workplace culture. But new Wharton research points to another major cause: access to new technologies, such as artificial intelligence. A recent study from Wharton professors Prasanna (Sonny) Tambe and Tiantian Yang finds that learning and working with tools like AI and cloud systems has become one of the biggest drivers of pay in tech. Because fewer women work with these newer technologies, the gap in access is now helping to widen the gap in earnings.
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
AI in Higher Ed Will Come Slowly, until All of a Sudden! - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
Higher education is, by nature, very slow to change. So it is with embracing Artificial Intelligence (AI). Yet, when it finally comes, the changes will come in an avalanche. Large scale integration will take about two years of careful consideration, planning and preparation. Meanwhile enrollments will decline, revenues will drop and a range of forms of competition will ramp-up. Then, likely in 2027-28, major changes will come all of a sudden to many universities. The changes will not be uniform across institutions, but they will be pervasive, impacting policies, practices and people.
The Ivory Tower’s Glass Jaw: How Generative AI Shattered the Illusion of Higher Education Assessment - Maya Perez, Web Pro News
For decades, the modern university has operated on a tacit agreement between faculty and student: the former assigns the essay as a proxy for critical thought, and the latter produces it to demonstrate comprehension. This compact, however, was fraying long before the public release of ChatGPT. The arrival of large language models did not act as a battering ram against a fortified castle of learning; rather, it was the gentle push that toppled a structure already hollowed out by grade inflation, administrative bloat, and a transactional view of credentialing. As academia scrambles to rewrite integrity policies, a deeper, more uncomfortable truth is emerging from the faculty lounge to the dean’s office: the crisis is not technological, but pedagogical.
Tuesday, December 09, 2025
Improving digital literacy in older adults is now a health imperative: report - Kimberly Bonvissuto, McKnight's Senior Living
GetSetUp, a virtual learning platform for older adults, recently released its 2025 Active Aging Report, which found older adults eager to learn, connect and take charge of their health and independence. But digital literacy remains a barrier — and an opportunity — for health providers and others, they said. The report shares insights gleaned from a national survey that GetSetUp conducted in 2024 among 465 older adults to explore digital confidence and technology adoption, health habits and wellness priorities, financial concerns and work readiness, emotional well-being and social connectedness, and attitudes toward aging in place.
AI is coming for your job, here’s the one move you need to make to stay employable and relevant in the job market - Manu Kaushik, Economic Times
Hart, who previously served as a technical advisor to Jeff Bezos at Amazon and took over as president and CEO of Coursera in February 2025, told CNBC Make It that students need to go beyond traditional degrees to stay viable in a rapidly changing employment landscape. “The advice that I give to my sons... is one of the best things that you can do is to augment your university degree with micro credentials specifically,” he said according to CNBC website. Micro credentials, short, targeted courses that certify specific skills, are gaining traction as companies deploy AI to handle more tasks traditionally assigned to junior employees. Hart said these add-ons are becoming critical as firms increasingly cite AI when laying off workers. Amazon cut 14,000 jobs this year as it doubled down on AI development. Salesforce eliminated 4,000 customer support roles, saying AI can handle roughly 40 percent of tasks performed at the company.
Monday, December 08, 2025
Not degrees, Coursera CEO Greg Hart's advice to his sons to survive AI-era careers — Have micro credentials - Jocelyn Fernandez, Live Mint
Telling the channel that he shares this advice with his own sons, Hart said he believes only have a college degree is no longer enough. “The advice that I give to my sons... is one of the best things that you can do is to augment your university degree with micro credentials specifically,” he said. He further said that these credentials take far less time to complete compared to a traditional college degree or diploma. “It’s become increasingly important to supplement degrees with additional certifications, as graduate jobs are at risk of being replaced by AI.”
How will AI transform teaching and learning at universities? - NAXN — nic newman, Medium
Robots will replace teachers by 2027. That’s the bold claim British education expert Anthony Seldon made in 2018. He may have been the first to put a date on it, but plenty of others are doubling down on the principle, such as Bill Gates, who believes that AI-powered chatbots will become as good as any human tutor, and Khan Academy’s founder Sal Khan, who opened his 2023 Ted Talk by arguing ‘we’re at the cusp of using AI for probably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen’. When ChatGPT made its public debut two years ago, the CEO of OpenAI predicted that it ‘will eclipse the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, the Internet revolution all put together’.
Sunday, December 07, 2025
AI is coming for your work, expert warns university staff - Nic Mitchell, University World News
With management consultants predicting that up to one-third of work done today will be automated in the next five years – and universities under pressure to cut costs and do more with less – artificial intelligence offers a cheaper and more efficient way to keep higher education institutions running smoothly, claims an international higher education strategy expert. Instead of trying to fight to protect traditional roles and jobs, Dr Ant Bagshaw, deputy chief executive of the Australian Public Policy Institute in Canberra, Australia, urges universities to embrace the unstoppable march of generative AI and accept that it is “more harmful to keep people in jobs that could be done better by robots”.
Change is changing: How to meet the challenge of radical reinvention - McKinsey
The core task of leadership is managing change—seeing new realities and driving adaptation. To reinvent the organization, leaders must rethink traditional tools and master a more complex level of change. When change becomes “everything, everywhere, all at once,” it’s not surprising that employees feel worn out. The average employee now experiences ten planned change programs a year, a fivefold increase from a decade ago.1 At the same time, engagement and health measures have fallen, support for change programs has dropped, and employee disconnect with leaders has grown (Exhibit 1). But the pace of change is not going to slow down; in fact, it is likely to accelerate. Driven by geopolitical, societal, technological, and financial shifts, the changes hitting most companies today are far reaching, often creating ripple effects that bring even more change.
Saturday, December 06, 2025
Poll: In a dramatic shift, Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost - Ben Kamisar, NBC
Americans have grown sour on one of the longtime key ingredients of the American dream. Almost two-thirds of registered voters say that a four-year college degree isn’t worth the cost, according to a new NBC News poll, a dramatic decline over the last decade. Just 33% agree a four-year college degree is “worth the cost because people have a better chance to get a good job and earn more money over their lifetime,” while 63% agree more with the concept that it’s “not worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt to pay off.”
OpenAI Unveils Group Chats to Bring People Into the Same Conversation - IBL News
OpenAI is rolling out the group chats feature globally, allowing people to collaborate with ChatGPT in a single shared conversation. Up to 20 people can participate in a group chat. The company’s goal is to make ChatGPT more social by turning it into a shared space for collaboration and interaction with others. Friends, family members, and co-workers can share space to plan, make decisions, or work through ideas and content together. Group chats are separate from private conversations, and users’ personal ChatGPT memory is not shared. To start a group chat, the user taps the people icon in the top right corner of any new or existing chat. When adding someone to an existing chat, ChatGPT creates a copy of the conversation as a new group chat, keeping the original conversation separate. Users can invite others by sharing a link with one to twenty people, and anyone in the group can share that link to bring others in.
Friday, December 05, 2025
Morgan State could one day run entirely on AI - Ellie Wolfe, The Banner
Grading assignments. Advising students. Sorting through important files. These tasks, and countless more, might not have to be done by employees at Morgan State University anymore. That’s thanks to Obsidian, a new secure artificial intelligence system created by leaders at the Northeast Baltimore university. “The university will learn from itself,” said Timothy Summers, Morgan State’s vice president for information technology and chief information officer. “It’ll adapt in real time and make smarter decisions at every level.”
Exploring trust in generative AI for higher education institutions: a systematic literature review focused on educators - Ana Lelescu, et al; Nature
Although Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) offers transformative opportunities for higher education, its adoption by educators remains limited, primarily due to trust concerns. This systematic literature review aims to synthesise peer-reviewed research conducted between 2019 and August 2024 on the factors influencing educators’ trust in GenAI within higher education institutions. Using PRISMA 2020 guidelines, this study identified 37 articles at the intersection of trust factors, technology adoption, and GenAI impact in higher education from educators’ perspectives. Our analysis reveals that existing AI trust frameworks fail to capture the pedagogical and institutional dimensions specific to higher education contexts. We propose a new conceptual model focused on three dimensions affecting educators’ trust: (1) individual factors (demographics, pedagogical beliefs, sense of control, and emotional experience), (2) institutional strategies (leadership support, policies, and training support), and (3) the socio-ethical context of their interaction. Our findings reveal a significant gap in institutional leadership support, whereas professional development and training were the most frequently mentioned strategies.
Thursday, December 04, 2025
Agentic AI explained: When machines don’t just chat, but act - McKinsey
Three McKinsey experts explain how agentic AI could reshape workflows, decision-making, and how humans and machines collaborate. Agentic AI - the latest wave of artificial intelligence—doesn’t just generate text or code. It takes action. Whereas early large language models (LLMs) could answer questions or summarize information, agentic systems can now perform complex tasks independently, autonomously trigger workflows, and collaborate with other agents. These new capabilities mark an important milestone in AI’s evolution—one that, according to McKinsey senior fellow Michael Chui, could see it fade into the background of everyday life, much like the internet has. “Maybe within 12 or 24 months we’re actually going to stop talking about AI, and not because it won’t exist anymore,” Chui says. “It’ll just be a capability that we expect machines to do.”
Oregon State’s new AI fundamentals microcredentials prepare learners for an AI-driven future - Tyler Hansen, Educational Ventures Oregon State
Oregon State University is turning artificial intelligence breakthroughs into accessible, short-form learning opportunities through the launch of its AI fundamentals microcredentials, a new collection of interdisciplinary credentials available to all OSU students and learners everywhere. These offerings bridge Oregon State’s strengths in research, applied learning and ethics, empowering learners to understand, question and apply AI in a subject of interest in ways that are technically sound and socially responsible.
Wednesday, December 03, 2025
A leader’s guide to the future of learning at work - McKinsey
The race to embrace AI in the corporate world means that people at all levels of an organization urgently need to build new tech skills and knowledge. In turn, many companies are accelerating their learning and development programs to help executives and employees keep up with the pace of change. This dynamic landscape presents an opportunity for chief learning officers (CLOs) to reimagine the future of learning in the workplace. This week, we look at how CLOs can help organizations make learning a more fundamental part of the work experience and create cultures of continuous development.
How AI and data analytics are transforming higher education in 2025 - AZ Big Media
Artificial intelligence is reshaping how universities teach, assess, and operate. Imagine a classroom where every student receives personalized lessons, where educators can predict challenges before exams, and where every academic decision is driven by data. For decades, higher education relied on intuition and tradition. But as digital learning expands, institutions are turning to AI and data analytics to make education more efficient, inclusive, and results-driven. These technologies aren’t replacing educators; they’re empowering them to teach smarter and support students in new, impactful ways.
Tuesday, December 02, 2025
The more that people use AI, the more likely they are to overestimate their own abilities - Drew Turney Live Science
Researchers found that AI flattens the bell curve of a common principle in human psychology, known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, giving us all the illusion of competence. When asked to evaluate how good we are at something, we tend to get that estimation completely wrong. It's a universal human tendency, with the effect seen most strongly in those with lower levels of ability. Called the Dunning-Kruger effect, after the psychologists who first studied it, this phenomenon means people who aren't very good at a given task are overconfident, while people with high ability tend to underestimate their skills. It's often revealed by cognitive tests — which contain problems to assess attention, decision-making, judgment and language.
But now, scientists at Finland's Aalto University (together with collaborators in Germany and Canada) have found that using artificial intelligence (AI) all but removes the Dunning-Kruger effect — in fact, it almost reverses it.
5 McKinsey insights on how agentic AI is reshaping industries - McKinsey
Nearly eight in ten companies report using gen AI—yet, paradoxically, just as many report no significant bottom-line impact. Now, with the rapid rise of agentic AI, organizations must continue to upskill their workforces, adapt their tech infrastructure, and deploy agent-specific governance mechanisms. “AI agents offer a way to break out of the gen AI paradox,” write McKinsey Senior Partners Alexander Sukharevsky, Klemens Hjartar, Lari Hämäläinen, Stéphane Bout, and coauthors. “That’s because agents have the potential to automate complex business processes—combining autonomy, planning, memory, and integration—to shift gen AI from a reactive tool to a proactive, goal-driven virtual collaborator.”
Monday, December 01, 2025
Beyond the Hype: Transforming Academic Excellence and Leadership Culture in the Age of AI - Joe Sallustio, Campus Technology
While most higher education leaders focus on AI's operational benefits — and rightfully so — the deeper transformation lies in how artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping what it means to learn, teach, and lead in the 21st century. The question isn't just whether institutions can keep pace operationally; the real challenge is whether we can maintain academic rigor and cultivate critical thinking in an AI-enhanced world while fostering the leadership culture necessary for sustainable transformation. In the Educause 2024 AI Landscape study, approximately 64% of students indicated regular use of generative AI tools as part of their coursework. This isn't a future trend — it's today's reality. Advanced AI tutoring systems can now offer formative feedback that encourages deeper critical analysis beyond mere surface editing, helping both students and faculty engage more meaningfully in learning.
Immersive AI and VR Experiences Bridge the Skills Gap in Higher Education - Greg Henderson, EdTech
Higher education IT decision-makers often talk about hardware specs, endpoint security and the networking backbone that keeps digital classrooms running smoothly. But the University of North Carolina Greensboro’s immersive learning environment, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR), was more than a proof of concept. It focused on building students’ skills to prepare them for professional success. Last year, the Joseph M. Bryan School for Business and Economics at UNC Greensboro was the first university in the state of North Carolina to receive $1 million in grant funding and wraparound support from Google’s Cybersecurity Clinics Fund. Part of Google.org, the tech giant’s philanthropic arm, the funding is part of a larger $25 million collaboration with the Consortium of Cybersecurity Clinics.
Sunday, November 30, 2025
No, the Pre-AI Era Was Not That Great - Zach Justus and Nik Janos, Inside Higher Ed
There are dozens of examples we could pull together here, and we could dive much deeper into the historical archive to find professors complaining about study/reading/writing habits, but the point is clear enough. What we are interested in is, what are the impacts of being overly nostalgic about pre-AI/pandemic education? First, it allows us to blame everything wrong with education on generative AI rather than acknowledge deep and justifiable concerns we have had for a while. The current technology serves as a convenient scapegoat for problems we may have been aware of but decided to live with. Course Hero, Chegg and other providers had industrialized academic dishonesty before ChatGPT was launched. We decided not to deal with that and, rather than face up to our past oversights, we have simply forgotten.
U launches ChatGPT Edu, a university-centered generative AI tool for campus use - Office of Artificial Intelligence, University of Utah
The University of Utah has launched OpenAI’s ChatGPT Edu, a version of the revolutionary generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool specifically designed for higher education and securely deployed for university use. Students, faculty and staff can request access to the tool via University IT’s Service Catalog and they’ll receive an email with login instructions. “We’ve been steadily building a foundation for responsible AI across campus, and ChatGPT Edu represents a major leap forward,” Chief AI Officer Manish Parashar said. “The U is at the forefront of reimagining how we teach, learn and research in the age of generative AI, and ChatGPT Edu will help us maintain an edge. We’re excited for our community to use this tool in a way that’s secure, optimized for academic work and aligned with our values.” As the university vets and deploys AI-powered tools for university work, protecting data is a top priority. With ChatGPT Edu, no university data is used to train the tool, and university-wide security measures make it safer to use than personal accounts.
Saturday, November 29, 2025
Europe is scaling back its landmark privacy and AI laws - Robert Hart and Dominic Preston, the Verge
After years of staring down the world’s biggest tech companies and setting the bar for tough regulation worldwide, Europe has blinked. Under intense pressure from industry and the US government, Brussels is stripping protections from its flagship General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — including simplifying its infamous cookie permission pop-ups — and relaxing or delaying landmark AI rules in an effort to cut red tape and revive sluggish economic growth. The changes, proposed by the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, changes core elements of the GDPR, making it easier for companies to share anonymized and pseudonymized personal datasets. They would allow AI companies to legally use personal data to train AI models, so long as that training complies with other GDPR requirements.
AI in the Ivory Tower: A Necessary Evolution or a Threat to Academic Integrity? - TokenRing AI, WRAL
The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into higher education has ignited a fervent debate across campuses worldwide. Far from being a fleeting trend, AI presents a fundamental paradigm shift, challenging traditional pedagogical approaches, redefining academic integrity, and promising to reshape the very essence of a college degree. As universities grapple with the profound implications of this technology, the central question remains: do institutions need to embrace more AI, or less, to safeguard the future of education and the integrity of their credentials? This discourse is not merely theoretical; it's actively unfolding as institutions navigate the transformative potential of AI to personalize learning, streamline administration, and enhance research, while simultaneously confronting critical concerns about academic dishonesty, algorithmic bias, and the potential erosion of essential human skills. The immediate significance is clear: AI is poised to either revolutionize higher education for the better or fundamentally undermine its foundational principles, making the decisions made today crucial for generations to come.
Friday, November 28, 2025
New UK course builds AI skills across every major - Allie Barnes, University of Kentucky News
University of Kentucky students are invited to learn how to thrive in an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven world through a new online course. UK is offering a 100-level, one-credit-hour course — Transdisciplinary Educational Approaches to Advance Kentucky (TEK 100): Collaborative Intelligence — Understanding and Using Modern AI. This rolling, asynchronous course will be offered twice during the Spring 2026 semester, to create multiple opportunities for students to fit this in their schedule. This course will run from Jan. 12 through March 2, and from March 9 through May 8.
Student cheating dominates talk of generative AI in higher ed, but universities and tech companies face ethical issues too - Jeffrey C. Dixon, Times-Union
As a sociologist who teaches about AI and studies the impact of this technology on work, I am well acquainted with research on the rise of AI and its social consequences. And when one looks at ethical questions from multiple perspectives – those of students, higher education institutions and technology companies – it is clear that the burden of responsible AI use should not fall entirely on students’ shoulders. I argue that responsibility, more generally, begins with the companies behind this technology and needs to be shouldered by higher education institutions themselves.
Thursday, November 27, 2025
Faculty are ready for workforce alignment. Institutional leaders must be, too - Justin Louder, University Business
Faculty are focused on preparing students for what comes next. However, new data shows there is a gap to address. Anthology’s 2025 U.S. Faculty Survey reports that only one in five faculty feels very confident their course content aligns with current workforce expectations, and nearly 30% say students question whether their learning connects to real-world goals. The timing of these findings matters. Across industries, employer expectations are shifting, and faculty are feeling that pressure firsthand. Their shared goal remains the same: they want to prepare students for meaningful careers and lives. But the pace of change demands new ways to connect learning to work. Graduates are entering a labor market where skills need constant refreshing, and where the ability to adapt is as important as the degree itself
How new immersive tech is shaping workforce skills - Alcino Donadel, University Business
Career simulation training is gaining a new layer of realism powered by advances in artificial intelligence and virtual reality, which provide students with a more responsive environment to test their technical and soft skills. Since flight simulators first became a staple in aviation training decades ago, simulation technology has expanded into other highly technical fields, such as cybersecurity, law enforcement and healthcare. Simulations expose students to high-stakes situations that require sophisticated care but that occur very rarely. In healthcare, these situations are called “HALO” (high-acuity, low-occurrence) events. New technology provides a low-stakes environment where students practice technical skills, communication and problem-solving
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
The New Cliff Facing Higher Ed and How AI Might Help Solve It - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
There is a new “cliff” in American higher education, and it is not the demographic cliff. Rather, it is the dramatic cliff in math knowledge, skills and abilities. Let me be clear that other discipline deficiencies are found in this new generation of college students, however they are dwarfed by those in math. These have most recently been quantified in a report from the University of California San Diego. The official “Senate-Administration Workgroup on Admissions Final Report” (released November 6, 2025) contains disturbing findings. This widely discussed report revealed that nearly one in eight incoming freshmen couldn’t meet middle school math standards!
As New Federal Research Funding Resumes, China May Already Be Outspending U.S. - Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed
China may have already overtaken the U.S. in research and development spending, ending a half century of American hegemony in financing scientific innovation, according to an American Association for the Advancement of Science researcher. “We’re entering into uncharted territory,” said Alessandra Zimmermann, the association’s R&D budget and policy program project director, during last week’s Association of Public and Land-grant Universities annual conference. In a follow-up interview with Inside Higher Ed this week, Zimmermann said, “No one knows what it looks like when the U.S. is not the dominant spender because there is no analogue.”
Teaching creativity in the age of AI - Fignon Tee Meng Wah, the Star
Educators worldwide are reexamining how creativity can be taught in an age when artificial intelligence (AI) tools are able to generate essays, images and designs in seconds. With the rise of platforms such as ChatGPT, Midjourney and DALL·E, creating content has never been easier. What once required hours of research, sketching or writing can now be completed almost instantly. For students, this development opens new possibilities. For educators, it presents the challenge of ensuring that learning and creativity remain authentic when high-quality output can be produced at the click of a button.
Tuesday, November 25, 2025
How Coursera’s latest move shakes up the upskilling movement - Alcino Donadel, University Business
Coursera will charge a 15% fee to colleges and companies that use its online learning platform, starting in 2026. It’s a significant shift in universities’ relationship with third-party online program managers, or OPMs, following the scramble toward digital learning during the pandemic and the MOOC trend of the 2010s. “[Coursera] is not as dependent on their university relationships and is instead relying on industry partners and internal content,” says Brady Colby, head of market research at Validated Insights, a higher education research firm. The shift should alert higher education leaders that they could lose a share of the upskilling industry to other sectors, particularly in artificial intelligence, Colby adds.
College grads face job crisis as artificial intelligence disrupts entry-level market - Jasneet Gill, Seattle Red
A new report from the Burning Glass Institute delivers a sobering assessment of the modern workforce, confirming that a college degree is increasingly becoming a poor investment for young Americans. For the first time in three decades, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates (ages 22-27) has plummeted so drastically that it is virtually equal to that of workers with only a high school diploma. This shocking convergence is the result of the highest unemployment levels for new degree holders in decades. The study notes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is eliminating the very “entry-level” work—like research, drafting, and analysis—that once provided initial on-the-job training. With many of these tasks now handled by AI, the critical opportunities for developing skills are being removed.
Monday, November 24, 2025
Meet The AI Professor: Coming To A Higher Education Campus Near You - Nick Ladany, Forbes
AI professors, in many ways, will be the best versions of the best professors students can have. AI professors will be realistic avatars that go far beyond the simple tutor model based on large language models, and will likely be here before anyone sees it coming. AI professors will: be available 24 hours, 7 days a week; have an exceedingly large bank of knowledge and experience that they can draw from to illustrate concepts; be complex responders to students’ learning styles and neurodivergence thereby providing truly personalized education with evidenced-based effective pedagogy; have the ability to assess and bring students along on any topic about which students desire to learn, thereby increasing access; teach content areas as well as durable skills such as critical thinking; and have updates in real time that fit the expectations and needs of the current workforce. A reasonable concern that has been raised is how to prevent AI professors from hallucinating or providing inaccurate information. One mechanism to guard against this is to ensure that the course and teaching that occur are within a closed system of content and have oversight by human professors.
A Liberal Arts College Goes All In on AI - Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed
Colby College developed a platform, called Mule Chat, that allows users to explore several large language models, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and LLaMA. The platform provides a safe on-ramp into generative AI usage and relies on student tutors to disseminate information to peers. In the latest episode of Voices of Student Success, host Ashley Mowreader speaks with David Watts, the director of Colby College’s Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and Michael Yankoski, Davis AI research and teaching scientist, to learn about the college’s AI institute and how Mule Chat works.
Sunday, November 23, 2025
Opinion: Higher Ed Should Embrace AI as an Opportunity - Kimberly E. Estep, GovTech
Colleges and universities that thrive in the era of artificial intelligence will be those that see AI not as a threat but as an opportunity to advance economic mobility through accessible, personalized education. Many colleges and universities have seen steady decline in enrollment since 2010, exacerbated by the pandemic five years ago and new applications of technological advancements. In a recent report, bestcolleges.com counted 84 colleges that have closed or merged since March 2020, including my own undergraduate alma mater, Judson College in Alabama. Despite this concerning trend, there are colleges and universities that are thriving in this new reality. My accredited online school, Western Governors University, is one of them. The strong University of Georgia network and the 22 colleges that make up the Technical College System of Georgia are a few other examples.
AI in HE: Assessment at risk or curriculum rethink needed? - Cristina Costa, University World News
In the frenzied attempt to address the impact of generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) in higher education, universities have narrowed their concerns to a key question: how to design ‘secure’ assessments that resist the influence of Gen-AI large language models. Such framing implicitly casts students as being at risk of Gen-AI influence. This is evident in institutional memos, working groups and practitioner discussions, which reflect a persistent concern with upholding academic integrity and ensuring that student work reflects their own effort. Yet, conversely, these same institutions champion Gen-AI as a tool for innovation and learning. These inconsistencies are too apparent to be ignored. This contradiction is not just ironic; it is symptomatic of a more profound issue. Gen-AI has come to expose higher education’s long-standing curriculum crisis: the transactional, performative approach to education that has undermined the deeper aims of higher learning, that of fostering meaningful intellectual growth and critical inquiry.
Saturday, November 22, 2025
Accumulating Context Changes the Beliefs of Language Models - Jiayi Geng, et al; arXiv
Language model (LM) assistants are increasingly used in applications such as brainstorming and research. Improvements in memory and context size have allowed these models to become more autonomous, which has also resulted in more text accumulation in their context windows without explicit user intervention. This comes with a latent risk: the belief profiles of models -- their understanding of the world as manifested in their responses or actions -- may silently change as context accumulates. This can lead to subtly inconsistent user experiences, or shifts in behavior that deviate from the original alignment of the models. In this paper, we explore how accumulating context by engaging in interactions and processing text -- talking and reading -- can change the beliefs of language models, as manifested in their responses and behaviors. Our results reveal that models' belief profiles are highly malleable: GPT-5 exhibits a 54.7% shift in its stated beliefs after 10 rounds of discussion about moral dilemmas and queries about safety, while Grok 4 shows a 27.2% shift on political issues after reading texts from the opposing position....Our analysis exposes the hidden risk of belief shift as models undergo extended sessions of talking or reading, rendering their opinions and actions unreliable.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.01805?et_rid=508865405&et_cid=5790354
Anthropic’s Claude Takes Control of a Robot Dog - Will Knight, Wired
Anthropic believes AI models will increasingly reach into the physical world. To understand where things are headed, it asked Claude to program a quadruped. In a new study, Anthropic researchers found that Claude was able to automate much of the work involved in programming a robot and getting it to do physical tasks. On one level, their findings show the agentic coding abilities of modern AI models. On another, they hint at how these systems may start to extend into the physical realm as models master more aspects of coding and get better at interacting with software—and physical objects as well.
Friday, November 21, 2025
Author Talks: How AI-powered teams could transform the future of work - McKinsey
Ready to create a customized team of global experts? Harnessing the power of AI, companies can build on-demand teams and rethink their approach to collaboration. In this edition of Author Talks, McKinsey Global Publishing’s Mike Borruso chats with Melissa Valentine, associate professor of management science and engineering, about Flash Teams: Leading the Future of AI-Enhanced, On-Demand Work (MIT Press, October 2025), coauthored with Michael S. Bernstein. Valentine shares how flash teams can optimize team assembly and workflow to provide a new managerial superpower for business leaders. This approach transforms traditional team structures, enables more data-driven decision-making, and drives better project outcomes. An edited version of the conversation follows.
ChatGPT new app integration is redefining AI learning, says Coursera CEO Greg Hart - India Today
The new app integration within ChatGPT now lets users access Coursera directly within the chatbot. Coursera CEO Greg Hart explains how this collaboration between the two companies personalises education and marks a new era for online learning. To understand what this integration means for the future of education and AI, India Today Tech spoke to Greg Hart, CEO of Coursera. As a former Amazon executive who helped build Alexa, Hart’s inputs offer a front-row view of how large language models (LLMs) are reshaping education, not as competitors to online learning, but as useful collaborators.
Thursday, November 20, 2025
Unlocking the value of AI in software development - McKinsey
For all of software’s technological advances and world-changing impacts over the past half century, its seismic potential has historically been limited by a shortage of skilled developers, finite coding capacity, and the complexity of coordinating large projects. The emergence of gen AI, and more recently agentic AI, was and is supposed to overcome those obstacles, leading to untold new productivity and value creation. While many organizations are already seeing some positive impact from these tools, a small subset of companies is reaping particularly large gains. That is one of the key findings from a recent McKinsey survey of a wide range of nearly 300 publicly traded companies.
Empowering personalized learning at scale: Loyola Marymount University’s AI course companion - Lorin Miller, Matt Frank, and Brian Drawert, AWS Public Sector Blog
LMU’s mission emphasizes personal connections in learning through a high-touch, individualized approach. With most students turning to generic, off-the-shelf AI tools, the university saw an opportunity. “One of the things that sparked this is, ‘How do we make a better version of what’s currently available?’” said Matt Frank, director of teaching, learning, and research technology at LMU. Brian Drawert, manager of research computing at LMU and the AI Study Companion’s developer, explained the core issue: “AI was already trying to help students with their coursework, but doing it poorly. The challenge was giving them a chat interface that actually answered questions for their class.” Modern learners also juggle complex schedules, including jobs, family commitments, and study abroad programs, making traditional faculty office hours inaccessible to many students. Building a 24/7 solution was particularly important.
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
The AI Tool EVERYONE Should Be Using - Futurepedia, YouTube
NotebookLM is more than just the viral AI podcast feature. It's the best tool I've found for actually understanding and retaining information - not just collecting it. In this video, I'll show you every NotebookLM feature and explain what makes it so powerful: how it handles 260x more content than ChatGPT using RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation), why it has such low hallucination rates, and how to use all the different output formats - podcasts, videos, mind maps, study guides, flashcards, and more. Whether you're a student, researcher, or just drowning in bookmarked articles and saved videos, this tutorial will show you how to turn scattered information into actual knowledge. [Also RAG retrieval augmented generation is explained - If you have not been using NotebookLM, I encourage you view this podcast to get up to speed on this great learning tool! - ray]
A new era of intelligence with Gemini 3 - Sundar Pichai, et al; the Keyword
It’s state-of-the-art in reasoning, built to grasp depth and nuance — whether it’s perceiving the subtle clues in a creative idea, or peeling apart the overlapping layers of a difficult problem. Gemini 3 is also much better at figuring out the context and intent behind your request, so you get what you need with less prompting. It’s amazing to think that in just two years, AI has evolved from simply reading text and images to reading the room. And starting today, we’re shipping Gemini at the scale of Google. That includes Gemini 3 in AI Mode in Search with more complex reasoning and new dynamic experiences. This is the first time we are shipping Gemini in Search on day one. Gemini 3 is also coming today to the Gemini app, to developers in AI Studio and Vertex AI, and in our new agentic development platform, Google Antigravity — more below.
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Preparing for tomorrow’s agentic workforce - McKinsey Podcast
The time is now to focus on AI infrastructure, which will enable companies to scale AI and build a future where humans and multiple AI agents successfully work together. To effectively compete, companies must take a hard look at what they can do to support an AI infrastructure. On this episode of the At the Edge podcast, SambaNova Systems cofounder and CEO Rodrigo Liang joins host and McKinsey Senior Partner Lareina Yee to discuss agentic AI, the S-curve of AI value, and why businesses must adopt a hybrid AI model.
The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation - McKinsey
Almost all survey respondents say their organizations are using AI, and many have begun to use AI agents. Most organizations are still in the experimentation or piloting phase: Nearly two-thirds of respondents say their organizations have not yet begun scaling AI across the enterprise. High curiosity in AI agents: Sixty-two percent of survey respondents say their organizations are at least experimenting with AI agents. Positive leading indicators on impact of AI: Respondents report use-case-level cost and revenue benefits, and 64 percent say that AI is enabling their innovation. However, just 39 percent report EBIT impact at the enterprise level. High performers use AI to drive growth, innovation, and cost: Eighty percent of respondents say their companies set efficiency as an objective of their AI initiatives, but the companies seeing the most value from AI often set growth or innovation as additional objectives. Redesigning workflows is a key success factor: Half of those AI high performers intend to use AI to transform their businesses, and most are redesigning workflows. Differing perspectives on employment impact: Respondents vary in their expectations of AI’s impact on the overall workforce size of their organizations in the coming year: 32 percent expect decreases, 43 percent no change, and 13 percent increases.
Monday, November 17, 2025
EDUCAUSE ’25: How AI Policies Affect Student Mental Health - Abby Sourwine, GovTech
Punitive, fear-driven approaches to rule-making about artificial intelligence in higher education can deepen mistrust, stress and disconnection among students. Alternatively, there are opportunities for teachable moments. As some institutions and instructors respond to the boom of artificial intelligence with bans and automated detection tools, students are worried about being falsely accused of using AI. At the 2025 EDUCAUSE conference, Ashley Dockens, associate provost of digital learning at Lamar University, and Cindy Blackwell, director of academic faculty development at Texas A&M University, warned that higher-education leaders and teachers may be holding students to an unreasonable standard — expecting students to inherently understand when AI use is appropriate and inappropriate and, in the latter case, to keep a perfect track record of resisting temptation.
Penn State Smeal launches comprehensive artificial intelligence initiative - Smeal College of Business
The Penn State Smeal College of Business has announced a comprehensive, college-wide artificial intelligence (AI) initiative. Smeal is integrating AI across its teaching, research and operations — ensuring students, faculty and staff are equipped to lead responsibly in an AI-driven economy. “AI isn’t a future possibility — it’s here, now,” said Corey Phelps, John and Karen Arnold Dean of Smeal. “As a leading business school, we have a responsibility to prepare our students not just to use AI, but to lead with it — with purpose, responsibility and integrity. The future success of our graduates depends on how well we rise to this moment.”
Sunday, November 16, 2025
The rise of micro-credentials in continuing education - BC Business
Learn or be left behind. This is the imperative that’s driving many mid-career (and, increasingly, earlycareer) professionals to gain a competitive advantage in today’s tough employment market through upskilling. “Today, artificial intelligence is not a futuristic concept but a mainstream reality reshaping industries and professions,” says Jo-Anne Clarke, dean of Division of Continuing Studies at the University of Victoria (UVic). “Add the complexities of tariffs, geopolitical uncertainty and economic volatility, and it’s clear that both employers and employees are navigating an increasingly dynamic and unpredictable landscape.” In this context, a person’s initial credentials, degrees or training may not be enough for prospective employers, or for existing employers hiring for a senior role.
https://bcbusiness.ca/industries/education/the-rise-of-micro-credentials-in-continuing-education/
Kelsey Robinson: Reshaping the Marketing Landscape - McKinley Quarterly
Across C-suites, there is growing interest in working hand in hand on everything from ROI and performance measurement to making space for bold ideas that drive growth. There is a lot of interest in the duality of rigor and inspiration. Another topic that’s dominating marketing conversations is agentic AI, autonomous AI systems that work independently to complete tasks. A year ago, marketers were talking about experiments and pilots with gen AI. Now, they’re exploring how to use agentic AI across broad domains in marketing and beyond: creating consumer experiences at scale, enabling hyperpersonalization, rethinking media buying, and unlocking creative development in ways that not only save money but also truly fuel growth. Many CMOs are asking themselves whether they have the right strategies and systems to make this leap.
Saturday, November 15, 2025
Exploring a space-based, scalable AI infrastructure system design - Travis Beals, Google Resarch
Project Suncatcher is a moonshot exploring a new frontier: equipping solar-powered satellite constellations with TPUs and free-space optical links to one day scale machine learning compute in space. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a foundational technology that could reshape our world, driving new scientific discoveries and helping us tackle humanity's greatest challenges. Now, we're asking where we can go to unlock its fullest potential. The Sun is the ultimate energy source in our solar system, emitting more power than 100 trillion times humanity’s total electricity production. In the right orbit, a solar panel can be up to 8 times more productive than on earth, and produce power nearly continuously, reducing the need for batteries. In the future, space may be the best place to scale AI compute. Working backwards from there, our new research moonshot, Project Suncatcher, envisions compact constellations of solar-powered satellites, carrying Google TPUs and connected by free-space optical links. This approach would have tremendous potential for scale, and also minimizes impact on terrestrial resources.
UPenn Expands Educator AI Training Program With Google - Government Technology
A $1 million grant from Google will help scale a one-district pilot program on teaching with artificial intelligence, offered through the University of Pennsylvania, up to five districts and regions. A University of Pennsylvania program training K-12 teachers and administrators on artificial intelligence best practices is scaling up, thanks to a $1 million investment from Google. The funding, announced Oct. 28 by the university’s Graduate School of Education, will allow the university’s Pioneering AI in School Systems (PASS) program to expand to five school districts and regions across Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware beginning in December. Launched in spring 2025, PASS was first piloted in the School District of Philadelphia. It provides professional development to help educators and administrators understand and implement AI responsibly in schools
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