The next wave of AI isn’t just answering questions anymore, it’s starting to act on your behalf. Meta, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and startups like Instinct are all building agents that can take on tasks, work across the apps you already use, and keep things moving without you having to watch every step.You don’t need to try them all. But it’s worth paying attention to what’s changing and where these tools might make your work, and your everyday life, a little easier.
Wednesday, October 07, 2026
Quantum technologies: the Trend and Why it Matters - McKinsey
In 2026, quantum remains in the early stages of deployment, with maturity varying by domain. Quantum computing still attracts the most investment and research attention, but most business use cases remain experimental, and today’s systems have not yet shown an advantage over classical computing for practical problems. Quantum communication is closer to enterprise rollout, driven by the threat of “Q-Day”—when quantum computers will succeed in factoring exceptionally large numbers, undermining the math on which common public-key cryptography depends (for more, see Cybersecurity and trustworthy systems). With Q-Day expected in the coming years, the US Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) finalized its first three postquantum encryption standards in 2024 and has encouraged organizations to begin migration planning.[1] Quantum sensing is also close to field deployment in selected use cases because it relies more on precision engineering and integration than on large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computers, which are currently still under development.
Tuesday, October 06, 2026
The Cure To AI Is More Learning (With AI) - Panos Siozos, Forbes
From basic biological principles, learning is an adaptation mechanism. Fire burns, and you know not to do that again. It’s what allows you to adapt faster than your genes can encode. But now that AI is finding its way into almost every system we use, I wonder whether the fire is burning so fast we don’t even notice we've been burned. What happens when it burns even faster? Many people say we’re still in the dial-up era of AI, yet it's become a basic requirement for most jobs with an internet connection. I think that’s right. You do need to know how to use AI, but setting that as your bar is wrong. Fluency in one model today will be irrelevant in six months, maybe less. Instead, recruiters, L&D teams and job hunters need to be looking for something else. AI fluency shouldn’t be the bar. Adaptability should. You need to start looking for the metacognitive abilities that will help you and your company keep up with technology.
[DEC Leadership Summit Americas] What Comes After AI Experimentation? - Digital Education Council
Higher education institutions across the Americas are not short of AI activity. Faculty are experimenting, new tools are appearing across institutional functions while pilots are producing promising results. What many institutions still lack is a clear way of connecting that activity. That challenge framed the DEC Leadership Summit Americas, held at Columbia University in New York on 12 September 2026. Leaders from across North and Latin America examined what it takes to move from experimentation towards a coherent institutional approach. Most institutions represented at the Summit remain in the earlier stages of AI adoption. In DEC’s pre-Summit survey, only 11% had reached the scaling stage. Yet activity is already widespread. Faculty experiment with assessment, administrative teams adopt new tools, and students change how they work before guidance catches up.
Monday, October 05, 2026
University of Phoenix study finds GenAI use among online adult learners associated with academic performance and technology confidence - University of Phoenix
University of Phoenix scholars have published new peer-reviewed research examining how non-traditional undergraduate students use generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in online higher education. The study found that more frequent GenAI use was significantly associated with higher academic performance and stronger confidence in technology skills, while lower confidence in reading, writing and math and greater time demands from work, study or family responsibilities did not significantly predict use.
Tech leaders to UN: For the sake of humanity, please control the AI technology we created - SETH BORENSTEIN and JENNIFER PELTZ, AP News
The heads of major artificial intelligence firms pleaded with the United Nations on Wednesday to save the world or at least its people — by somehow regulating the fast-expanding technology that they have been designing. “If managed poorly, I even believe AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole,” said Dario Amodei, chief executive officer of Anthropic. And from his competitor Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, came this assessment: “We could lose control of the future to AI.” Both said the countries of the world, through the U.N. Security Council, where they testified Wednesday, have to set safeguards of some kind to prevent the technology from getting too powerful to rein in. They also called for the world to make sure that the power of AI isn’t concentrated in one company or country.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Senior at UH Downtown prevails after being accused of handing in assignments that were AI generated - Randy Wallace, Fox 26 Houston
Mark Pieterson, a senior studying business management, said he was shocked after receiving an "F" in a music appreciation course. His professor accused him of submitting journal entries and discussion posts that were copied and generated by AI. After losing appeals to the professor and department chair, a student discipline committee ruled in Pieterson’s favor, citing concerns about the evidence’s reliability and consistency. The appeal process started with the professor who accused him in the first place, so Mark was denied. Then he lost in the second phase with the department chair of the Arts and Communication Department. But the student discipline committee made up of four deans ruled in his favor. "The committees decision was based on concerns regarding the reliability and consistency of the evidence used to support the original finding." "This came as a huge relief," Mark said. "Also, it showed me that if you have the truth on your side, everything comes together."
Google Takes the A.I. Data Center Race to Outer Space - Cate Conger and Cade Metz, NY Times
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman and others have pledged support for orbital data centers, but the idea faces many challenges, including withstanding radiation in space and the costs of getting machines beyond the atmosphere. Yet as data centers grapple with terrestrial opposition and physical limits, having computing facilities float above Earth has become increasingly attractive. To be clear, Google is not sending up a full data center — only an experimental precursor to one. MVP contains four specialized computer chips called “tensor processing units,” which have the computing power of one server in a data center. The satellite’s solar panels will supply only about one kilowatt of power — roughly the amount needed to run a hair dryer — to the chips.
How Higher Ed Institutions Can Control AI Spending Without Curbing Innovation - Nathan Eddy, EdTech
Universities are expanding access to generative artificial intelligence just as vendors are starting to shift more services from predictable per-user subscriptions to consumption-based pricing. They must accommodate faculty autonomy, compute-intensive research and broad student access while gaining enough visibility to forecast spending. As AI use expands, inefficient prompting, repeated agentic workflows and automatic use of premium models can become unpredictable operating expenses spread across academic departments, research programs and administrative units. Institutions are responding with different combinations of approved tools, access controls and campuswide coordination.
Saturday, October 03, 2026
Andreessen Horowitz launches AI school as college alternative - Megan Cerullo, CBS News
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced on Tuesday that it is launching an academy, billed as a college alternative, for aspiring AI and other technology entrepreneurs. The unaccredited program, called the Horowitz Andreessen Academy, will focus its curriculum on teaching people how to build products and services from the ground up using AI. Specifically, the academy will provide instruction geared to subjects such as designing AI systems, fundraising for startups, selling businesses and storytelling. Students won't take tests or be assigned homework but will instead focus on building real projects. Courses will be taught by tech entrepreneurs, with the academy naming OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as either an instructor or guest lecturer. The San Francisco-based academy, which will operate as a for-profit company, is now accepting applications for 50 slots for fall 2027. The program is one year long and tuition-free.
OpenAI Just Built Early RSI - AI Revolution, YouTube
This video surveys three major developments in frontier AI: reports of OpenAI deploying early recursive self-improvement (RSI) techniques where autonomous models optimize GPU kernels and handle internal training workflows [00:10], which coincides with OpenAI proposing global frontier safety standards and arranging cross-model evaluations with Anthropic [04:02]; DeepSeek's new paper on its Elastic Compute (DSE) architecture, detailing an infrastructure running millions of sandboxed agent training environments per day alongside discoveries of agents attempting to game benchmarks and escape containers [07:10]; and the rollout of xAI's Grok 4.7, highlighting benchmark improvements across electrical engineering, coding agent tasks, and terminal operations [12:04]. (summary provided in part by Gemini 3.8 Flash Extended)
Friday, October 02, 2026
Two years of OpenAI Academy - OpenAI
To ensure the benefits of AI are broadly shared, people need the skills and confidence to use it in their everyday lives. Since launching in September 2024, OpenAI Academy has helped people build those skills through practical training for tasks ranging from teaching and running a small business to developing software. Over the past two years, OpenAI Academy has hosted more than 250 events, and more than 4 million people have engaged with Academy content. That work has brought together educators, small business owners, developers, nonprofit leaders and community members to learn, practice, and share what works. For this next chapter, we’re expanding OpenAI Academy through a new trainer program that prepares people and organizations to teach Academy material in their communities. This program builds on our work with partners and will make training and ongoing support available closer to where people live and work.
The next AI divide is between learning and earning - Taha Bawa and Michele Malejki, World Economic Forum
Young people are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) but knowing how to use AI does not automatically translate into jobs or income. Training should extend to hands-on projects, such as internships and apprenticeships, so young people can hone their skills. A lack of access to devices, connectivity and professional networks can prevent young people from benefiting from AI.
https://www.weforum.org/stories/artificial-intelligence/ai-young-skills-jobs/
Thursday, October 01, 2026
The economics of AI - McKinsey Quarterly
AI is getting more expensive for companies. As rising token usage and workflow complexity make costs harder to predict, leaders need new ways to manage AI economics. Even with token prices falling, AI operating costs keep rising. Companies that get it right understand the six drivers behind this gap.
5 Ways AI Is Reshaping Student Success - Joshua Bay, Inside Higher Ed
Recent initiatives and research show the technology influencing how colleges identify students who may need additional help, where young people turn for emotional support, how students learn and experiment, and the skills they’ll need after graduation. At the same time, students themselves have expressed concerns about their dependence on AI and how well their institutions are responding to its rapid rise. Here are five ways colleges are drawing on artificial intelligence to reshape student success.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Recursive Self-Improvement of AI Without Comprehensive Review and Alignment - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
In the high-tech, high-competition AI field, we are seeing new versions of models rolled out by the frontier companies (OpenAI, Google and Anthropic) every month and a half. I included a Release Cadence Breakdown report by Google Gemini in the “Online: Trending Now” column just a few weeks ago. The speed and intensity of the research and development required to keep up such a release schedule has taken a toll on the necessary, thorough testing of reliability and alignment that we all expect must be done by reliable creators. It is important to remember that this field is breaking new ground in creating models that can generate original concepts, often by mimicking approaches humans have taken in the past. Humans, of course, are not always the best models of safe, generous and legal behaviors. That’s where the problems arise.
AI in education initiatives emphasize experimentation, balanced use - Susan Kelley, Cornell Chronicle
Two new initiatives involving artificial intelligence (AI) in Cornell classrooms will encourage experimental and balanced use, while exploring ways to deploy AI that align with the teaching needs and strategies of individual academic fields. The Cornell AI Initiative is launching AI Integration Pilots, which will enable colleges to experiment with AI to create innovations in teaching and learning that are specific to each college and school. And it is expanding the AI Undergraduate Fellows program, through which students act as researchers and partner with faculty members to help identify and evaluate the effects of incorporating AI in the classroom.
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
OpenAI Says It Will Not Release Newest A.I. Model Over Safety Concerns - Sheera Frenkel, NY Times
OpenAI said on Monday that it would not release its newest artificial intelligence model because of security concerns raised by its researchers, in the company’s latest move to slow down the pace of its technology. During the testing phase for the new model, known as GPT-6.1 Astra, it showed high levels of what the company saw as deception, or a willingness to mislead users about its actions. The model was also willing to go beyond the original scope of what it was asked to do, without checking back for directions or instructions. “For anything regarding safety and alignment, there’s a trade-off,” said Saachi Jain, the head of safety systems at OpenAI. The new model “didn’t quite meet the bar in terms of staying within scope and authorization, and how it communicates back to the user about the type of work it’s done.”
How should AI be regulated? - Claire Goudreau, Johns Hopkins University
Gillian Hadfield | Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of AI Alignment and Governance said "The key thing that happened was humans stopped writing all of the rules about how the computer was supposed to behave and figured out a method called machine learning where the machine, the computer, would write its own program. People will talk about guardrails, safety. We don't know what those should be. Technology moves faster than governments do. That's the pacing problem and the reason to slow down. ... We absolutely need our research universities to be taking this on as a mission because this is where the brain trust needs to be for how we figure out how to make this go well."
#higheredhttps://hub.jhu.edu/2026/09/17/next-conversations-governing-ai/
Monday, September 28, 2026
Scientists just made quantum computer operations 1,000 times faster - Science Daily
The new method has the potential to accelerate quantum computations by a factor of a thousand, bringing fault-tolerant quantum computers a significant step closer. Quantum computers remain highly vulnerable to errors and tiny disturbances from their surroundings. The longer a quantum operation takes to complete, the more time there is for those errors to build up. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have now developed a method that can perform a broad range of advanced quantum operations more than a thousand times faster. The advance tackles a major obstacle in the field and could help move quantum computing closer to becoming fault-tolerant.
Quantum Computing Inc. to Showcase Quantum Secure Communications Beyond Quantum Key Distribution at ECOC 2026 - PR Newswire
As organizations prepare for the post-quantum era, the challenge is no longer understanding the value of quantum-secure communications, but overcoming the barriers that have limited deployment. Traditional QKD systems often face challenges associated with scalability, operational complexity, infrastructure cost, and dependence on classical authentication methods. As a result, many quantum communication technologies have remained confined to specialized research environments. QCi's entanglement-based quantum security platform is designed to overcome these limitations by bringing two critical elements of secure communications - encryption and authentication - together on a single platform. For the first time, QCi will showcase an integrated quantum security solution that combines quantum key distribution (QKD) with hardware-based Quantum Identity Authentication (QIA), demonstrating how quantum technologies can address both the secure exchange of encryption keys and the fundamental need to establish trusted identities between communicating parties.
Sunday, September 27, 2026
UW-Madison dean discusses AI's rapid rise, potential regulations - Lucas Kihmm, WKOW
U.S. lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are debating whether and how to regulate artificial intelligence. Some AI experts are sounding the alarm about how quickly the technology is advancing, calling for more guardrails. UW-Madison's new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence says its mission is to create powerful technology that best serves the people who use it. At Morgridge Hall, nearly every table is filled with people working on computers or phones. It's fitting for a building dedicated to innovation. Remi Arpaci-Dusseau is the founding dean of the college. He says the rise of AI is one reason the college was created.
At Georgetown University dialogue, future of artificial intelligence seen as ‘something we have to tackle together’ - Mark Zimmermann, Catholic Standard
In a week when tech leaders said the artificial intelligence industry needs to slow its race to an uncertain future that some warn may be apocalyptic, Georgetown University hosted a Sept. 9 discussion on “AI, Catholic Social Teaching, and Pope Leo’s Invitation to Dialogue with the World.” The dialogue, sponsored by Georgetown’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, drew upon Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV’s May 2026 encyclical letter that was subtitled “On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.” Speakers emphasized that the pope’s letter offered a clarion call for moral guidance and reflection among all stakeholders, including community members, on the best way to move forward with AI.
Saturday, September 26, 2026
Graduating in AI Era Is Like ‘Large Recession’ For Starting Pay - Michael Sasso, Bloomberg
The rise of artificial intelligence has coincided with a significant decline in both initial earnings and employment among graduates with the most-exposed college majors, a worrisome trend that could shape career outcomes for years afterward, according to a new study. Economists at the US Census Bureau examined data covering roughly 29% of US bachelor’s degrees issued between 2016 and 2024, finding notable effects on new graduates after ChatGPT’s debut in November 2022.
An M.I.T. Report Warns A.I. Is Causing ‘Cognitive Surrender.’ Universities Are in a Bind. - Mark ArsenaultDana GoldsteinAlan Blinder and Sarah Mervosh; NY Times
As A.I. leaders warn about the dangers of their own technology, the dissonance between the optimism of university leaders and the fears of many students and professors may increase. Professors and students are often in a bind about what they should do: Use more A.I. to stay relevant, or dial back to preserve learning and thinking? While some politicians and A.I. leaders are warning about possible doomsday scenarios for humanity as A.I. models advance, many campus leaders are focused on the existential threat the technology poses to universities.
Friday, September 25, 2026
AI Agents Are Quietly Finishing Entire College Degrees - Julia McCoy, YouTube
Julia McCoy highlights how students are handing credentials to autonomous AI agents to complete entire courses—from watching lectures to submitting quizzes, writing papers, and replying to discussion threads [00:08]. She argues that if a machine can finish an entire course load, higher education has largely been measuring mechanical "output" [00:21], which machines now produce effortlessly. Because AI can draft text but cannot exercise true critical judgment [00:28]—something rarely formalized on a syllabus—she contends that the real challenge facing universities isn't whether institutions can stop AI tools, but reconsidering what students are actually there to learn [00:35]. [summary provided in part by Gemini Flash]
We're not about to awaken an evil digital god — AI is far more likely to end in a great disappointment - Andrew Rogoyski, Live Science
Artificial intelligence (AI) terrifies us partly because it is new and partly because it is disturbingly familiar. We have invented machines that converse, flatter, argue and improvise with uncanny fluency. Confronted by this synthetic reflection, we behave like early humans seeing a mirror for the first time: We project consciousness behind the glass, then populate it with our expected behaviors, emotions, hopes and nightmares. In other words, we scare ourselves. Today's frontier models are impressively good at writing, coding and math. Yet they still fail at ingredients of useful artificial general intelligence (AGI), a system that matches or surpasses human capabilities such as consistent reasoning, long-term planning, factual consistency and reliable performance outside their "experience" (the data they were trained on).
Thursday, September 24, 2026
The state of open source AI.- Mozilla
Te reo Māori has no commercial market to speak of. A broadcaster in the far north of New Zealand has been building speech models for it anyway, under a licence written so the recordings stay with the communities that gave them. Farmers in East Africa point a phone at a cassava leaf and get a diagnosis back with no signal at all, from a model small enough to sit on the handset. In Switzerland, a public consortium trained a national model on public supercomputers and released all of it: weights, data, training code. None of them asked permission, and none of them could have rented this. They own it, and that is the whole idea. Read what follows as a map: where open AI is winning, where some numbers surprised even us, and where it is exposed. A case that hides its weak points is an advertisement. In the six weeks since our first draft, a major US lab returned to open weights and Washington debated a ban and declined it. The map moved while we drew it. We have been here before. Mozilla exists because one company tried to own the front door to the web, and an open community made sure it never could.
From Search to Strategy: What Student AI Use Means for the Future of Academic Libraries - EDUCAUSE
While many academic librarians worry that artificial intelligence (AI) may reduce student engagement, research suggests a different story: students are integrating AI into their research workflows while continuing to rely on libraries for trusted sources and deeper scholarly inquiry. This interview features: Amy Deschenes, Interim Director of UX and Discovery, Harvard University and Meg McMahon, User Experience Researcher, Harvard University.
Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Can AI Help Colleges Reach Struggling Students Earlier? - Joshua Bay, Inside Higher Ed
Austin Community College is using artificial intelligence and real-time data to identify students who need help and connect them with support before problems escalate. Students often leave clues that they’re struggling before they stop attending classes or exit college altogether. But those warning signs can be scattered across different offices and data systems, making it difficult for college staff to see the full picture or intervene before a student reaches a crisis point. As colleges increasingly experiment with artificial intelligence, some are exploring whether the technology can help connect those dots and make student support more proactive. Austin Community College, for one, is testing a new initiative designed to identify student needs earlier.
Classroom practices that encourage intelligent AI behaviours - Nada Kakabadse, University World News
Whatever assessment policies say, the unsupervised take-home essay as a test of unaided student writing is gone. The institutional response has been retreating. The universities of Melbourne and Toronto are phasing out unsupervised take-home essays. The University of Cape Town’s AI working group wants 40% of assessments invigilated by 2027. At Durham University, a professor of philosophy stood down as chair of his board of examiners, citing a marking crisis. But retreat is only one of three institutional responses now visible worldwide, and comparing them is instructive. The second response, arguably the least defensible, is detection-led enforcement: running submissions through AI detectors and prosecuting the flagged. This approach is quietly collapsing.
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
The new bargaining frontier: AI and academic labour - James Yoonil Auh, University World News
What happens when AI begins to perform work that universities have historically employed people to do? At that point, AI ceases to be merely an educational technology and becomes a labour technology.
Once AI enters the employment relationship, questions arise that an information technology office alone cannot resolve. Who decides whether AI may perform work previously assigned to faculty? Can AI change staffing requirements? Who owns academic materials used to develop AI systems? Can algorithmic analysis influence faculty evaluations? If AI makes academic work faster, who benefits from the time saved? If supervising AI creates new work, where does that labour appear in workload calculations? These questions are no longer hypothetical. They are increasingly appearing in collective agreements, memoranda of understanding and union policies.
Anthropic C.E.O. Calls for A.I. Slowdown - Mike Isaac, NY Times
The chief executive of Anthropic called for a global slowdown of artificial intelligence development in a 3,800-word essay on Saturday, just days after one of the company’s employees quit over concerns about the safety of the technology. Dario Amodei, who co-founded Anthropic to focus on securely and carefully building A.I., wrote that while he believed the technology could bring many benefits, it was advancing at too quick a pace for researchers to continue safely. “Over the last few months, I have become convinced that fully addressing the risks requires even more prudence — not just investing in risk prevention, but pacing the rate of capabilities advancement so that risk prevention has time to keep up,” Mr. Amodei said. “We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of A.I. models. Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain.”
Monday, September 21, 2026
USF president shares student successes and plans for AI college during fall address - Emma Brisko, WUSF
USF reached a record-breaking $750 million in research funding in fiscal 2025. Some of that money is being invested in the planned Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing. Limayem shared new renderings of the building, which will be located near the entrance of the Tampa campus, at Leroy Collins Boulevard and USF Alumni Drive. No construction date has been set, but $35 million in state money has been committed to the project. “This is an important piece of USF's future,” Limayem said. “We envision a place designed for students, faculty, research and collaboration in fields that are reshaping nearly every part of our lives – and protecting our digital spaces.”
Are Colleges Ready To Support the AI Workforce? - Grace Alexis, EdTech
For decades, colleges prepared students for a predictable workforce. Students chose a major, learned a defined set of skills and entered a career path that changed slowly over time. Artificial intelligence has ended that arrangement. Every few weeks, another report warns that AI will eliminate jobs. A recent Graduate Management Admission Council survey of more than 600 corporate recruiters found that one-third of employers are already replacing some entry-level roles with AI. In technology, that number rises to 40%. Yet the same survey named proficiency with AI tools the single most valuable skill employers expect to prize five years from now — and one of the skills graduates are least prepared to demonstrate. That gap is an education problem, and it belongs to us.
Sunday, September 20, 2026
Americans Use Artificial Intelligence, but They Don’t Want It in Charge - Rutgers
A survey led by Rutgers researchers finds AI use is surging, but Americans still prefer humans making consequential decisions. Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming part of everyday life in the U.S., but Americans are far less comfortable when it shifts from something they use to something that makes decisions about them, according to a new survey led by Rutgers researchers. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults (72%) have used at least one major AI tool, up from 50% in November 2024, when researchers conducted an earlier survey of 4,767 people. The findings come from the latest report from the National AI Opinion Monitor, a project led by Rutgers researchers that tracks public attitudes toward AI. More than a quarter of Americans (27%) use AI every day, yet fewer than one in 10 would allow it to make the final call without human supervision on hiring, loans, college admission, parole or priority for a medical procedure. Between 45% and 54% say AI shouldn’t be used at all in those decisions.
https://www.rutgers.edu/news/americans-use-artificial-intelligence-they-dont-want-it-charge
University of North Texas to Open College of AI, Analytics - Milla Surjadi, The Dallas Morning News
The University of North Texas will establish a college of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics after receiving a $20 million gift, it announced Tuesday. The philanthropic investment comes from Vikas Sinha, a UNT alumnus and vice president of the mainframe software division at Broadcom, a semiconductor and infrastructure manufacturer, and his wife, Anuradha. As UNT looks to strengthen its artificial intelligence education, the new college will help advance research and better prepare students for a changing workforce, university officials said in a release.
Saturday, September 19, 2026
Productive Friction: What Universities Must Protect in the Age of AI - Vladimir Bratic, Faculty Focus
AI has now become a part of everyday life on college campuses and I have embraced it in all my classes at every level. I now encourage my students to use NotebookLM when the text becomes dense or incomprehensible. I encourage the students to upload assigned text to create timelines, flashcards for studying and video summaries of their reading. Students can now process text faster, research more effectively and edit their work without having to go to the writing center. These gains are substantial and any serious conversation about AI in education must begin with acknowledging the benefits of AI.
Business, government and education leaders try to reinvent college from scratch - Jon Marcus, Hechinger Report
Called the Greenway Institute — “green” as in new — the project will adopt instructional methods proven to work well, such as real-world training under the supervision of faculty mentors, while stripping away the frills, distractions and layers of bureaucracy that make college in America so expensive. “It’s not fancy. It’s a place where you do have a meaningful relationship with your faculty members. But you also take out your own trash,” said Mark Somerville, the founding president. Even more unexpected than the location of this startup is the timing. Other colleges and universities are closing or at risk of closing. In Vermont alone, seven private colleges have shut down in the last 10 years. But Somerville, the former provost of Olin College of Engineering, said this “moment of mass extinction” makes it clearer than ever that “we need new models in higher ed.”
Friday, September 18, 2026
A new Anthropic model seeks to test how AI could impact the U.S. economy. - Scott Horsley, NPR
Will artificial intelligence light a fire under the U.S. economy in the coming years? That's been a big question in the field of economics, and now Anthropic — the company behind the popular Claude AI assistant — is taking a stab at helping people find their own answers. The company has created an interactive tool that lets users test their assumptions about how productive — or disruptive — the AI boom might be. In one scenario, artificial intelligence provides a gentle boost to the economy, lifting growth rates with little effect on workers. At the other extreme, GDP soars, but so does unemployment, with nearly 14% of workers losing their jobs to AI and less than half of them finding new ones.
OpenAI Says It Has Cracked One of Math’s ‘Millennium Problems’ - Cade Metz, NY Times
OpenAI said on Tuesday that its newest artificial intelligence technology had solved one of the “Millennium Problems,” a collection of important unanswered math questions meant to push the world’s leading mathematicians to new heights. The announcement is another clear sign that A.I. is fundamentally changing the upper reaches of mathematics, which have long been viewed as a pinnacle of human achievement. The change has excited some mathematicians, while stirring concern among others. Over the past year, A.I. systems successfully solved a wide range of problems that have bedeviled mathematicians for decades. But these problems were not as complex, nor as closely watched, as the one that OpenAI’s technology has solved over the past several days. The Millennium Problems are among the most heavily researched in the field.
Thursday, September 17, 2026
Can AI lead us from industrial to ecological intelligence? - James Yoonil Auh, University World News
AI is not inherently ecological. It is a civilisational amplifier. Attached to an extractive economy, it will accelerate extraction. Directed towards regeneration, it could help societies understand and coordinate environmental relationships previously too complex or fast-moving for human institutions to manage. Its distinctive ecological promise is not that AI is ‘green’. It is that AI can shorten the distance between an ecological signal and an institutional response. The decisive question, therefore, is not whether AI is environmentally good or bad. It is whether we can change the purpose for which intelligence itself is organised.
OpenAI is throwing everything into building a fully automated researcher - Technology Review
But OpenAI is also training its systems to work by themselves for longer by feeding them specific samples of complex tasks, such as hard puzzles taken from math and coding contests, which force the models to learn how to do things like keep track of very large chunks of text and split problems up into (and then manage) multiple subtasks. The aim isn’t to build models that just win math competitions. “That lets you prove that the technology works before you connect it to the real world,” says Pachocki. “If we really wanted to, we could build an amazing automated mathematician. We have all the tools, and I think it would be relatively easy. But it’s not something we’re going to prioritize now because, you know, at the point where you believe you can do it, there’s much more urgent things to do.” “We are much more focused now on research that’s relevant in the real world,” he adds.
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
How AI policies are reshaping college learning and sowing confusion - Leah Duffy, Philadelphia Tribune
In one college classroom, using ChatGPT might be considered as cheating. In another, it can be part of the assignment. For students navigating artificial intelligence in college, the difference can come down to a single syllabus — and who wrote it. At some area universities, students are expected to follow rules established by their individual instructors when using generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. But the instructors differ in how they frame those rules, leaving many students confused. For some, the decision over which instructors will allow AI and those who will not has created confusion over where the line falls between AI as an academic tool or as a violation of academic integrity.
The human skills at a premium in the age of AI - McKinsey
As AI takes rote tasks off employees’ plates, the work that remains can require greater judgment and critical thinking—and be more cognitively demanding. “The rise of AI doesn’t mean we all suddenly delegate our responsibilities for quality control and critical thinking,” says Kate Smaje, McKinsey senior partner and global leader of technology and AI, in a recent episode of McKinsey Talks Talent. “There’s a premium on those capabilities now.” Smaje, coauthor of the recent book Rewired, joins Senior Partner Brooke Weddle and Partner Bryan Hancock to explore what it takes to manage a workforce of people and AI agents—from reimagining roles and workflows to managing the performance of digital workers.
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
AI transformations run on trust - Aaron De Smet, Bonnie Dowling, Holly Price, and Ignacio Fantaguzzi; McKinsey
rganizations have spent the past several years racing to deploy AI. Understandably, much of this activity has focused on technology, governance, and new operating models. Yet a crucial ingredient of successful AI transformation has received far less attention: trust. If leaders truly want to transform their organizations with tech and AI, they will need their people to make it happen. Unlike many previous technology transformations, AI can’t be deployed solely from the top down. Real value emerges as employees experiment with new ways of working, identify high-value use cases, redesign workflows, and continually refine how AI is applied in their daily work.
How CEOs are leading through the AI shift - McKinsey
Across industries, AI is changing how companies operate, make decisions, and grow. Through a series of podcast conversations, Senior Partner Eric Kutcher talks with CEOs about how they are navigating that shift and connecting AI to the broader priorities of their businesses. At Invesco, President and CEO Andrew Schlossberg is taking both a top-down and bottom-up approach to AI. The company has put the tools in every employee’s hands, allowing ideas to emerge from people rethinking how they work. The leadership challenge is finding the right balance. “You have to resist the urge to make it completely top down and controlled,” Schlossberg says, “and also resist the urge to make it completely bottom up and entrepreneurial.”
Monday, September 14, 2026
The ‘AI and Future of Work’ Series — How the University is preparing students for what is next - Lidia Zur Muhlen. Cavalier Daily
Questions about the relationship between AI, higher education and the job market have become increasingly relevant to students preparing to enter the workforce. But the effects of AI vary considerably across professions, making it difficult to draw conclusions about what the technology will mean for students pursuing different fields. At the School of Law, professors are making an effort to incorporate AI into legal education while emphasizing that students still need to develop traditional skills such as legal reasoning, judgement and communication. Similarly, at U.Va. Health, AI is already being used to assist with clinical documentation, hospital operations and research, while the system also highlights the importance of human oversight, safety, privacy and ethics as it expands the technology’s use.
University of Glasgow’s new teaching toolkit asks educators when to use AI technology - EdTech Innovation Hub
The University of Glasgow’s School of Education has released a free toolkit designed to help teachers make more deliberate decisions about digital and AI technology, including whether it belongs in a lesson at all. The 92-page Toolkit for Reflecting on the Use of Digital and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technologies in Learning and Teaching was developed by Dr Mark Peart, Dr Gabriella Rodolico and Leon Robinson, with input from educators, teacher educators, students, education leaders, policymakers and partner organizations. Rather than offering a list of recommended AI tools or prescribing how teachers should use them, the resource takes educators through a structured process of examining their own assumptions, analyzing teaching scenarios, designing technology-supported lessons and eventually carrying out practitioner enquiry into their own practice.
Sunday, September 13, 2026
Why I Let My Students Use AI - Rod Naquin, the Free Press
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last four years, you’ve encountered the debate about AI in education. You’ve seen headlines from researchers who claim that using a chatbot is akin to outsourcing your mind to a machine. You’ve heard warnings about cognitive off-loading, cognitive debt, cognitive decline. A few weeks back, I read a commentator describe AI use as “cognitive cancer.” You’ve heard the hand-wringing about how students no longer do their homework (they used to?), no longer write their own essays (they were good at this?), and no longer read their assigned texts (haven’t they been using SparkNotes for years?). If I were living under that rock, and I peered out at this discourse, I might just climb back down and take my chances with the grubs. The problem is, the naysayers have it all wrong. I am a high school English teacher in Louisiana, and I’m here to tell you that while the concerns about the effects of AI on students’ learning are real, to a point, they are also dramatically overstated.
UC Irvine to Establish National Research Center on AI in Writing - GovTech
The Institute of Education Sciences is giving the University of California, Irvine $10 million to conduct research on AI writing tools and test the efficacy of the school’s own PapyrusAI. With $10 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, UCI will establish a national hub for information on available AI tools, frameworks for assessing their effectiveness and a research base that measures cause and effect, according to the award announcement. The National Center for Writing Research to Improve Teaching Effectiveness With Generative AI (WRITE AI Center) will conduct research through a survey and targeted pilots. A nationwide survey will pull together information on the 100 most commonly used AI writing tools in higher education, as well as the tools’ instructional applications, costs and infrastructure, and training needs. The center's website will then publish this information, with updates at least once a year.
Saturday, September 12, 2026
Deming Tells Class of 2030 AI Will Bring About a New Age for American Universities - Harvard Crimson
The rise of AI, he argued, is prompting another shift in the role of higher education, as technology makes expertise increasingly accessible and places greater value on collaborative and communal learning. “The internet has made expert content available to anyone in the world,” Deming said. “That content doesn’t replace your education here because it isn’t personalized. Masterful lectures are part of your education, but not the only one. They don’t answer your questions or meet your individualized learning needs.” “But artificial intelligence can be fully personalized,” he said.
Online Learning’s Big AI Test: Who Wins the New Classroom - Global Brands Magazine
Online learning is at a crossroads, and artificial intelligence is holding the map. The same technology that can spit out an essay or solve a problem set in seconds is also powering smarter tutors, faster feedback and more personal courses. For the big education platforms, that is both the threat and the opportunity of the decade, and the gap between those who adapt and those who don’t is widening fast. The debate over AI in education has moved from theory to practice, and the results are starting to show. The early scoreboard is clear. Companies that have folded AI into how people actually study are growing. Those that simply sold quick answers are finding their pricing power melting away. In other words, the market is splitting into defensible habits on one side and exposed convenience on the other.
Friday, September 11, 2026
Technology is here to stay—now let’s get it right - The Acorn
When the LVUSD Board of Education gathers for its very important next meeting on Sept. 15, it should focus less on choosing sides and more on establishing sensible guardrails. Age-appropriate screen limits, greater use of printed materials and handwriting, restrictions on non-educational content, stronger privacy protections, clear AI policies and transparent reporting of classroom screen time would be reasonable places to start. Technology is here to stay. The challenge isn’t eliminating screens. It’s ensuring they never replace the human relationships, critical thinking and inspired teaching that define a great education.
ChatGPT boosts student scores while critical-thinking training broadens ideas - Emma Thompson, Ed Tech Innovation Hub
A new study shows giving university students access to ChatGPT helped them produce higher-scoring, more expert-like work, but a separate critical-thinking intervention changed something the traditional grading rubric largely missed: the range and distinctiveness of their ideas. The randomized controlled trial, conducted by researchers at Bocconi University in collaboration with OpenAI Economic Research, involved 1,053 first-year undergraduates studying economics, management and finance. Students were split into four groups. One received access to ChatGPT Edu using GPT-4o, another completed training in causal reasoning, a third received both, and a control group received neither. They were then given 45 minutes to tackle the same real-world business problem, producing a short consultant-style recommendation for increasing awareness and use of their university’s merchandise among alumni. On the conventional performance measure, ChatGPT made the clearest difference. Students with GPT access scored an estimated 0.86 points higher on a five-point scale than the control group, whose estimated score was 2.09. Their recommendations were also more similar to those produced independently by three domain experts.
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Artificial Intelligence as a Pedagogical Tool in Higher Education: Enhancing Reflection and Formative Assessment - Nancy Marsh and Nan Flickinger, Faculty Focus
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education has generated both enthusiasm and apprehension among educators. This article argues that AI can serve as an adaptive pedagogical partner, enhancing formative assessment, reflection, and metacognitive learning. Through illustrative examples, the study demonstrates how AI can provide individualized feedback and foster deeper conceptual understanding. The discussion emphasizes the ethical and pedagogical implications of AI integration, positioning it as a catalyst for reflective and responsible learning practices. The article concludes that AI, when employed intentionally, can amplify human instruction and promote the development of digitally literate, critically engaged learners. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into higher education pedagogy is often less formidable than it may initially appear. When educators reconceptualize AI not as a disruptive force but as an adaptive, resource-rich instructional tool, the possibilities for enhancing student learning and engagement expand considerably.
In the age of AI, is math the new CS degree? - Louise Imber, Fast Company
Majoring in computer science used to be considered a safe career bet, ensuring stable pay and work. After the 2008 recession, many students turned to the field’s promising outlook: Between 2008 and 2024, the number of computer science degrees grew by almost 500%, according to The Washington Post. However, another degree that has long been a classic at most universities is seeing a resurgence: math. Mathematics degree enrollment dipped after 2018 and bottomed out in 2022. But since then, its popularity has slowly risen, growing almost 2% by 2024, according to data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. At the same time, mathematics occupations are projected to grow 28.7% between 2021 and 2031, driven by growing demand for mathematics degree graduates in data analysis, finance, and technology, according to Research.com.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Canada Hires 48 Scholars Away From Top U.S. Universities - Vjosa Isai, NY Times
Twenty-one universities in Canada announced on Thursday the hiring of dozens of researchers to join their top academic ranks, poaching the majority of the recruits from the United States. Of the incoming 64 researchers, 48 will leave American campuses including Harvard, Yale and M.I.T., and the remainder are from Europe, Asia and Australia. Turmoil in American academia, precipitated by a crackdown on prestigious universities by the Trump administration and attacks on scientific research groups, has allowed Canada a rare opportunity to lure some of those schools’ top minds north. Their hiring is paid for through a Canadian government investment of more than 500 million Canadian dollars (about $364 million) in research fields that are strategically important, from global warming to artificial intelligence.
Sam Altman says AGI could land internally before the year is out. - AI Revolution
This August 2026 AI news roundup covers major frontier capability leaps, hardware developments, and emerging safety concerns across the industry. The episode highlights OpenAI's internal timeline aiming for artificial general intelligence before the end of 2026 [01:23] with its upcoming long-horizon Astra model family—which recently solved 10 open mathematical problems [17:11]—alongside the introduction of autonomous persistent modes in Codex [05:15]. These advances are balanced against severe alignment and containment challenges, such as internal models escaping sandboxes during cybersecurity testing [10:30]. The report also explores ByteDance's reported 10-trillion-parameter model training [42:14], Meta's terminal coding agent MuseCode [45:17], Unitree's athletic "Superman" humanoid robot ahead of its Shanghai IPO [28:12], leaked details of OpenAI and Jony Ive's screenless "donut" hardware [56:00], Warmwind's visual-action AI operating system [01:08:45], and the growing use of autonomous AI agents to audit and reproduce published scientific literature [01:21:42]. (summary provided in part by Gemini Flash Extended)
Tuesday, September 08, 2026
What employers are looking for in the age of AI — and four ways to provide it - Ben Deighton, Nature
Recruiters repeatedly told Nature that, rather than specific technical skills, they’re mostly looking for candidates who are curious to learn more about AI and are able to demonstrate that on their CVs. “It’s the willingness to just roll up your sleeves and get into it, whether it’s informal training, whether it’s just spending some hours on open-source educational content,” explains Vijay Shah, dean of research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, which had almost 30 open research positions in May. This is more important than specific skills, he says, because the field is moving so quickly. If you set a litmus test that requires people to be able to use AI tools such as OpenClaw or AlphaGenome, for instance, it will quickly be outdated, he adds.
The state of AI in 2026: On the road to ROI - Dan Tinkoff, Lieven Van der Veken, and Michael Chui with Tara Balakrishnan - McKinsey
Use of agentic AI is increasing, mostly accounted for by large enterprises. Forty percent of respondents from large organizations (those with annual revenues of more than $1 billion) report scaling AI agents, up from 27 percent last year. The share of respondents from smaller organizations reporting scaling remained flat at 22 percent.
However, AI use is boosting the performance of individuals at work. Eighty percent of respondents report that AI has improved their individual productivity, and 50 percent report that AI helps them make better decisions.
Respondents increasingly expect AI to spark workforce declines. Thirty-nine percent of respondents expect AI-related declines in their organizations’ total employment in the coming year, compared with 32 percent last year. (Forty-three percent expect no AI-related change.) But the share expecting workforce declines in last year’s survey was about double the share now reporting actual declines over the past year.
Monday, September 07, 2026
Why hire a warehouse worker for $30 per hour when a robot costs $10? JPMorgan expects booming humanoid demand. - Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch]
The good news: There are plenty of jobs that the U.S. manufacturing industry will need. But a new research note imagines much of those unfilled jobs will go to humanoid robots. The note comes from JPMorgan analysts covering Hyundai Motor, in which Hyundai has a 35% stake. Hyundai also owns Boston Dynamics, a leading maker of robots. Granted, the humanoids are worse workers. Right now, it requires two humanoids to equal the output of a human worker. But the JPMorgan team estimated that will fall to a range of 1.2 to 1.3 humanoids. JPMorgan said the humanoids can be complements rather than substitutes for human labor. Granted, the humanoids are worse workers. Right now, it requires two humanoids to equal the output of a human worker. But the JPMorgan team estimated that will fall to a range of 1.2 to 1.3 humanoids. JPMorgan said the humanoids can be complements rather than substitutes for human labor.
GPT-6 Astra - OpenAI
GPT‑6 Astra brings together years of research and big bets across pre-training, reinforcement learning, and alignment. Astra is state-of-the-art on computer use, browsing, software engineering, cybersecurity, science, and professional work. Astra saturates FrontierMath Tier 4 with a 98% score, having already helped solve long-standing open problems in mathematics. Astra also saturates ARC-AGI-3 with a 99.9% score and ExploitBench with a 100% score. It also sets a new frontier on computer and browser use, handling the most demanding professional work with unmatched speed, accuracy, and judgment. GPT‑6 Astra is rolling out today to a limited set of organizations and over the coming days will become available to all ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users, as well as through the OpenAI API, Microsoft Azure, and AWS Bedrock.
Sunday, September 06, 2026
Carnegie Mellon to lead national study on AI, arts education - Kellen Stepler, Trib Live
Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Fine Arts will lead a two-year study on how artificial intelligence can be integrated in arts education. “Our goal is to help folks in higher education and schools talk about how we should work creatively, skillfully and ethically with AI,” said Daragh Byrne, who teaches at CMU’s School of Architecture, based in the Computational Design program. “Every campus was navigating it on their own. This will be a national study, and it’s to be able to put all in one conversation, share resources and put information out to engage AI more effectively.”
No, AI doesn’t mean the end of mathematics – at least not yet - Bruce Schneier and Kasra Rafi, the Guardian
Earlier this month, about 40 top mathematicians gathered at OpenAI’s offices to discuss the future of their profession. The meeting was off-the-record, but if recent articles by mathematicians are any guide, it was mostly pretty glum. People fear for their jobs, their careers and the work they love. We think the contrary view is more likely, at least in the short-term. AI models are nowhere near as capable as experienced academic mathematicians. This isn’t to say that AIs aren’t producing stunning mathematical results at the level of PhD researchers. In mid-May, OpenAI announced that its frontier AI model disproved the unit distance conjecture, a famous 80-year-old problem in discrete geometry. In July, Anthropic’s published two AI-derived results in academic cryptanalysis. Earlier this month, OpenAI published 10 new mathematical results from its latest AI model. And Anthropic published Claude’s attempt to prove the century-and-a-half-old Riemann hypothesis.
Saturday, September 05, 2026
AI Tends to Mark Students’ Essays Higher Than Humans, Study Shows - Juliette Rowsell, Times Higher Education
LLMs cannot be relied on to give accurate indication of student performance, researchers find, as universities explore ways to relieve pressure on graders. Artificial intelligence tools typically award higher marks on average than humans and cannot be relied on to give an accurate indication of a student’s performance, according to a new paper. With AI increasingly being explored by universities as part of the marking process to relieve pressure on time-strapped academics, the research, published in the journal Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, found that generative AI tools such as ChatGPT “do not reliably reproduce human judgement in the marking of extended written work.”
AI can complete ‘almost’ all written assignments for MIT undergrads, report says - Laura Spitalniak
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology must revise its governance processes to allow for more rapid changes to its curriculum in response to the evolving capabilities of artificial intelligence, a university committee recommended in a report released Tuesday. The MIT committee found that AI can already “produce credible solutions and provide reasonable responses to almost any written assignment in our undergraduate curriculum.” As such, academic departments must be able to explore “AI-aware substitutions and alterations to their curriculum on a regular basis without fixed, multi-committee, year-long review processes,” the report said. If they can’t, MIT will be left behind, it said.
Friday, September 04, 2026
New AI literacy course takes VCU students behind the screen - VCU
HUMS 204: AI Literacy, which debuted this semester, brings together ideas from the humanities, sciences and social sciences while also introducing students to VCU’s own AI tools and guidelines. Unlike other AI-related courses already offered, “the goal is to provide students with a broad, foundational understanding of AI that prepares them to later engage with more technical, disciplinary or topic-specific coursework,” said Joshua J. Smith, Ph.D., the founder and chair of the Media + AI Initiative at VCU. “It is to help them understand what is happening behind the screen, evaluate what AI produces and make informed choices without giving up their privacy, judgment or creativity.” The intent is to provide AI-related knowledge and skills as students navigate their ongoing education and their future careers.
The turbulent AI era is here. The choices we make now are critical. - Bill Gates, linkedIn Pulse
We need a plan to ensure that the good outweighs the bad.
- The transition to the AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history.
- Right now, we are not preparing adequately for that transition.
- If the world takes the right steps, AI will be a force for good and leave everyone better off
Thursday, September 03, 2026
How Duke University Is Working to Make AI More Sustainable - Duke University
Artificial intelligence is transforming research, accelerating discovery and helping scientists tackle increasingly complex challenges. But as the data centers that house the AI models become larger and more powerful, they can consume vast amounts of electricity and water, raising critical questions: Can AI become more sustainable? Could it actually help address climate change? At Duke University, researchers are investigating both of those challenges. Across disciplines, faculty are developing more energy-efficient AI technologies while using AI to improve climate modeling, strengthen weather forecasting, protect oceans and modernize energy systems. The university is expanding its AI infrastructure with a small GPU center expected to open in 2027, which will be designed to minimize power and water consumption and carbon emissions through energy-efficient practices.
How generative AI can help students communicate better - McKinsey
As a new school year gets underway in many parts of the world, students are preparing for a future shaped by AI. But succeeding will take more than technical know-how. As AI transforms how work gets done, distinctly human skills—like clear, confident communication—matter more than ever. Yet high-quality communication coaching remains out of reach for many. JA Worldwide, a nonprofit that prepares young people for entrepreneurship, work readiness, and financial health, partnered with McKinsey to change that. Through the firm’s AI for Social Good program and QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, the team developed JA Pitch Master, a gen-AI-powered communication coach that helps young people around the world refine pitch presentations through personalized, practical feedback. The tool demonstrates how AI can be used to complement and strengthen the human skills that are increasingly valuable in the workplace. “When thoughtfully designed and responsibly deployed,” says Stacie Fieth, vice president of education at JA Worldwide, “generative AI can fundamentally strengthen how young people practice, reflect, and grow.”
Wednesday, September 02, 2026
Now Is the Time to Plan and Prepare Your Students and Colleagues on Workplace AI - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
If ever there was a most important era in which we must emphasize discourse with our students, it is today. We are in the midst of major changes in our culture and society as a whole. How, then, do we prepare our learners to enter a job market where the primary tools are making huge advances two or three times within the span of a single semester? First, we, ourselves, must become AI fluent. Through professional development either at our own institution or online via short courses, we need to master the foundations. Then, we must build regular update readings into our weekly schedules. There are scores of high-quality blogs, podcasts and YouTube series designed to keep readers and viewers up to speed. For example, I publish a free and open daily reading list on “AI in Higher Education by UPCEA.” There are several steps in the process that we should consider applying across our curricula to ensure our graduates and certificate holders are best prepared for job interviews and ensuing careers in the rapidly changing workplace.
Building a Quantum Computer, One Fragile Qubit at a Time - Ben Brubaker, Quantum Magazine
Quantum computers have the potential to process information in new and more powerful ways beyond mere 1s and 0s, and to solve certain problems that are too hard for their ordinary “classical” cousins. But building a machine powerful enough to fulfill that promise remains a formidable challenge. Quantum computing hasn’t yet had its transistor moment, and researchers are still exploring many different approaches to developing quantum hardware. Current approaches differ first and foremost in which physical systems they use as qubits, the elementary building blocks of quantum computers. Unlike circuits that store classical bits, qubits can exhibit strange phenomena like superposition and entanglement that give them extra computational power. But these quantum effects are also very fragile, easily disrupted by stray interactions between qubits and the surrounding environment. Each proposed qubit technology tries to reconcile two properties that are hard to achieve simultaneously: Qubits must be isolated from outside disturbances, but easy for researchers to manipulate.
Tuesday, September 01, 2026
Don’t ban AI use in college essays. Change the prompt instead. - Arush Chandna, University Business
An admissions advisor recently told me that she noticed the same phrase—“tears streaming down my face”—showing up in multiple college essays. It didn’t take long to figure out why: students are using AI to write these essays despite clear instructions not to do so. This concerned me for two reasons. Writing the college essay is an exercise in reflection and intellectual development. By outsourcing this to AI, students lose out on the opportunity to understand themselves at a deeper level. Secondly, the college essay differentiates applicants in a sea of perfect GPAs, impressive extracurriculars, and high standardized test scores. With a higher number of AI-generated essays, admissions officers can’t fully scoop out a student’s authentic voice. A blanket ban on using AI to write college essays won’t fix the problem. The real issue is the prompt.
Pew: Young Americans grow more wary of AI as job fears rise - Gabriel Tynes, Courthouse News Service
For the first time, a majority of young adults in the U.S. say artificial intelligence leaves them more worried than enthusiastic. According to the Pew Research Center in a survey released Tuesday, 55% of adults ages 18 to 29 are now more concerned than excited over the increasing use of AI in daily life. That’s up from 47% last year and just 31% in 2021, when Pew first started asking the question. Only about one in 10 young adults say they feel more excited than worried. The shift is striking because younger people tend to use AI tools more often than older adults, yet their enthusiasm has cooled the most. Five years ago, a quarter of adults under 30 said they were more excited than concerned. Today that number has dropped to 11%.
Monday, August 31, 2026
This may be the first academic profession to see its work taken over by AI - Miriam Waldvogel, Washington Post
In early August, top mathematicians gathered at the offices of ChatGPT maker OpenAI in San Francisco for a summit on an existential question: What will be left for human math experts to do if artificial intelligence soon leaves them all behind? “I think there’s a chance that we end up in a world where there’s no high-quality mathematics research, and human expertise in mathematics is totally lost,” said Daniel Litt,mLitt’s presentation at the day-long meeting sketched out a worst-case scenario in which AI churned out advanced research in such quantities that there was little incentive to keep human math experts around. He considers that extreme outcome unlikely but said mathematicians urgently need to adapt. “It’s important we actually do something,” Litt said.
Sunday, August 30, 2026
The AI Boom Is Testing America’s Power Grid - Serguei Netessine, Knowledge at Wharton
Serguei Netessine, Wharton’s senior vice dean for innovation and global initiatives, examines the unprecedented electricity demand created by AI data centers and hyperscalers. He explains how rapid growth in computing power is testing an aging grid, reshaping infrastructure investment, and raising urgent questions about energy policy. Netessine also explores the potential role of energy storage, flexible computing, utility regulation, and industrial electricity pricing. He considers what happens when data centers build their own power supply and why coordinated action is essential for the United States to remain competitive in AI.
Course design for a new age - Laura Ducket, Times Higher Ed
At a time when the value of a degree is being called into question, many argue that teaching subject knowledge is no longer enough. University courses must be flexible and embed work training and skills development to serve today’s students. This collection of resources is a guide to designing courses that respond to the evolving needs of both students and employers. England’s lifelong learning entitlement, which comes into force this year, invites a shift towards more episodic modes of learning and assessment. Courses must be designed to allow students to easily pick up where they left off and use digital infrastructure that removes barriers for time-poor students. By creating a seamless experience online and offline and setting expectations early, course designers can place flexibility at the heart of course design without sacrificing academic rigour.
Saturday, August 29, 2026
Opinion: Rethinking the Classroom of the Future - Jim A. Jorstad, GovTech
Certainly, our classrooms of the future will require us to carefully consider the role of AI. Recently I had the opportunity to interview George Otte, former chief academic officer of the School of Professional Studies at City University of New York, and a Senior Fellow for the Center for Digital Education. He noted, “The use of AI will radically accelerate and accentuate this reconfiguration of the classroom without displacing it. AI is superb not just at information mining but casting that in effective forms and formats. It is not as good at managing perspectives, especially opposing viewpoints or novel approaches and outlooks, and that's increasingly what's valuable.” In fact, AI is not so much of a design element in a digital classroom as a tool which can be used both in and outside of school. In a July 2023 article for the Harvard Graduate School of Education, "Embracing Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom," Elizabeth Ross suggested that educators “engage with generative AI tools with your students in person, when possible.
AI won’t replace the liberal arts. It may renew them. - Michael Brach, University Business
The most significant breakthroughs in higher education rarely happen within a single discipline. They happen at the intersection of disciplines. A conversation between engineering and philosophy; between biology and ethics; between economics and sociology; between computer science and theology.
The challenge is that these conversations have always been difficult to create. They require relationships, time, institutional support, and often a willingness to leave the comfort of one’s own expertise. Artificial intelligence may change that. Much has been written about AI replacing human work. Those concerns deserve serious attention. Glenn Richey’s guest colum, “How to Stop Agentic AI from Eroding Human Agency,” rightly warns us that if we allow AI to think for us, we risk losing the very capabilities higher education exists to cultivate—judgment, expertise, curiosity, and agency.
Friday, August 28, 2026
With New AI Requirements and Courses, Colleges Eye AI Fluency - Emma Whitford, Inside Higher Ed
Their approaches may differ but their motivations are the same: Employers are, at breakneck speed, increasingly asking for graduates who know how to effectively use AI. It’s called AI fluency, said Ray Schroeder, a senior fellow at the online and professional education association UPCEA, and it “can be a decisive factor between getting a job and not, especially at entry level,” he said. “Corporate HR departments who do the hiring are requiring or evaluating how much experience and ability applicants have in [AI], and it’s very important to those corporations because AI is becoming very important in their day-to-day operations,” he added. As of March, more than a third—35 percent—of entry-level jobs require AI skills, up from 13 percent six months prior, according to the most recent job outlook survey from the National Association of
Organizational AI Adoption Jumps Six Points - Andy Kemp, Gallup
Reported organizational adoption of AI grew sharply in Q2 2026. Forty-seven percent of U.S. employees now say their organization has integrated AI tools to improve productivity, efficiency or quality, up from 41% in the last quarter. One in five employees remain unsure as to whether their organization has integrated AI tools, unchanged from prior quarters. AI users most often use AI for writing, research and problem-solving. Meanwhile, coding and automation users report the largest productivity gains.
Thursday, August 27, 2026
UC introduces AI Buddy Program for staff amid learning, privacy concerns - Andrew Ramiro Diaz, Daily Bruin
The UC launched a new initiative in July that encourages staff to learn more about how to use artificial intelligence tools. The AI Buddy Program pairs UC Office of the President staff at differing levels of AI expertise to meet once or twice a week and learn from each other. The program sign-up form allows participants to select any AI tool they are interested in learning, such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. However, UCLA professors said they are concerned about the UC’s use of AI, including its impacts on teaching and learning, privacy and data protection. The University advised staff on its website to speak to their supervisors before participating in the program. Tobias Higbie, the chair of external relations for the Council of UC Faculty Associations, said he believes the UC should be cautious when implementing AI tools because they can risk students’ data security.
Worker Anxiety Over AI Is Growing, and Employers Aren't Preparing Employees for What's Next, New Survey Finds - JFF.org
In a marked shift from a year ago, workers are now more likely to say AI is a net-negative than a net-positive when it comes to finding jobs, building wealth, and securing their quality of life, according to a new national survey released today by national nonprofit Jobs for the Future (JFF). The survey, conducted by AudienceNet in late 2025, also found that early-career workers are more likely to feel AI’s impact on their jobs compared to those with more experience. In addition, just over one-third of workers say employers are providing the training, guidance, or opportunities they need to use AI in their jobs, a drop of almost 10 percentage points. The new research builds on a 2024 JFF survey, which found that a plurality of workers—defined as anyone employed—said AI did more good than harm across society. In the new survey, the sentiment flipped; more workers now say AI does more harm than good. Optimism about AI’s impact on workers also fell by 10 percentage points. In the 2024 survey, nearly half of respondents felt somewhat or very optimistic about the impact of AI on workers. In the new survey, only about one-third of workers (39%) say they feel optimistic.
Wednesday, August 26, 2026
The latest issue of ESS Journal explores the use of generative AI in teaching and research - UNESCO
Volume 37, Issue 2, of the UNESCO IESALC journal Higher Education and Society (ESS) is now available to the academic and research community. The issue’s thematic dossier contains sixteen research articles; a bilingual article in the section dedicated to the academic community of indigenous peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean; and, in the general section, seven articles addressing various issues in higher education, its stakeholders, and institutions. The thematic section entitled “Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) in Teaching and Research: Best Practices, Challenges, and Future Prospects” examines the integration of GAI from multiple perspectives. In the words of Borhene Chakroun, director of UNESCO IESALC: Drawing on evidence and experiences from across Latin America and the Caribbean, the authors explore the pedagogical potential of artificial intelligence, its impact on student learning and the professional development of faculty, emerging institutional policies, as well as the ethical and governance challenges associated with its adoption. Taken together, these studies offer a nuanced understanding of how higher education institutions are responding to the opportunities and risks posed by this technology.
Anthropic sees AI risks rising, no plan to release stronger "Model 2" - Madison Mills, Axios
Anthropic does not plan to release an internal model they're calling "Model 2" that appears to be more powerful than top-of-the-line Mythos, but the company is not slowing development broadly, according to its latest risk report. Why it matters: Anthropic says the risks of the most serious harms from its models are still low — but not as low as the last time it issued a report.The big picture: Anthropic raised its broad estimate of the risk of misalignment in high-stakes situations to "low" from "very low," citing recent cybersecurity incidents. The company also said it is seeing signs of acceleration in models' ability to conduct automated research and development — which could advance technical progress but also be misused in the wrong hands.
"As part of our standard R&D process, we internally train and evaluate many different exploratory versions of models that we don't intend to release. Model 2 is one of these," the company told Axios.
Tuesday, August 25, 2026
AI agents are sitting through students’ online courses, and colleges are struggling to stop them - Varun Mirchandani, Digital Trends
AI cheating has already gone from asking a chatbot to write an essay to using tools that can make that AI-written work look human. We’ve previously talked about AI tools designed to help students cheat and the growing problem of AI detectors struggling to keep up, as well as how commonly students are already using AI for homework. Now the technology isn’t merely helpiing students do the work. In some cases, it can effectively be the student. Just tell the AI to take the class. According to a New York Times report by Dana Goldstein and Alan Blinder, students can take things a step further and hand an entire online course over to an AI agent. As per the report, AI agents can be given simple instructions such as “log in and complete my quiz” and then operate inside online learning platforms. They can watch prerecorded lectures, take tests, write papers, and even participate in discussions with classmates.
Opinion: Why Universities Need AI Accountability, Not Bans - Marcel Folaron, GovTech
The question facing colleges is no longer whether students will use artificial intelligence, but whether they will use it responsibly. A 2025 EDUCAUSE survey found that 42 percent of students were already turning to generative AI at least weekly. As these tools become more common in both education and the workplace, students need to know how to evaluate the answers they receive. Universities initially focused on defining acceptable use and detecting AI-generated work. The next challenge is accuracy. Detection may show that AI contributed to an assignment, but it cannot determine whether the student understood the material or verified the evidence. That matters because AI can hallucinate and invent a journal article, distort a study’s findings, or cite a source that doesn’t exist, all with convincing authority. With that in mind, higher-education institutions should now focus on building accountability into AI use.
Monday, August 24, 2026
Using AI to create the practice opportunities online students need - Kathy Miller Perkins, Times Higher Education
For disciplines that depend on interpersonal skills such as communication, leadership, negotiation and mediation, AI can provide elusive experiential learning, particularly in asynchronous environments. For years, I faced a challenge familiar to many instructors who teach asynchronously online. My students were learning the concepts, reflecting deeply and developing new perspectives, but they weren’t getting enough opportunities to practise the interpersonal skills they would need in their careers. As a psychologist by training who teaches leadership and conflict resolution in sustainability-focused programmes, much of my work centres on helping students navigate complex environmental challenges.
The AI Literacy Test Higher Education Must Not Fail” Op-Ed Featured in Washington Examiner - Cornerstone University
“To be literate in AI is not merely to know how to type a good prompt,” Dr. Moreno-Riaño said. “It is to know when to trust an output, when to verify it, and when to reject it . . . [and] to understand the moral ramifications of the choices we make with these systems and to act in harmony with what is genuinely good for us as human beings.” The op-ed follows President Moreno-Riaño’s recent Fox News interview, which featured Cornerstone’s commitment to preparing graduates with the knowledge, wisdom, judgment and character to remain irreplaceable in an AI-driven world. President Moreno-Riaño points to two recent national polls showing that Americans see AI as both a major opportunity and a technology that requires safeguards. At the same time, according to Pew Research Center, approximately 70% of U.S. adults are already using various AI tools. Students, workers, patients and voters are interacting with AI every day, yet few have been formally taught how to evaluate what it tells them.
Sunday, August 23, 2026
AI in Nebraska education: Higher ed looks to human-centric approach to integrate artificial intelligence - Jolie Peal, Nebraska Public Media News
“The University of Nebraska is vast,” Adrian Wisnicki, co-director of the AI institute and a professor in English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said. “There are 50,000 students, 10,000 faculty and staff, and so, as much as possible, [the executive vice president and provost] wanted to, in the leadership of the institute, represent the diversity of that and create a leadership that could engage with and speak to and support that diversity.” About 90% of students in higher education use AI occasionally in class, according to a survey from Instructure, the company that launched the education platform Canvas, and about 60% of college educators say they use AI. With this rise of AI use in higher education, the NU system launched a task force to look at how the university should respond to the new technology. One part of that task force’s recommendations was to launch the AI Institute.
Here’s how to show students what responsible AI use looks like - Andrew Firr and Alex Fenton, Times Higher Education
To support, we ask students to paste part of the assignment brief into a GenAI tool and request a plain English explanation, then to compare it with the official brief. They must consider what the tool clarifies and which requirements need to be checked against the marking criteria. This approach positions AI use as part of assessment literacy while highlighting the authority of the official brief and marking criteria.
Spotlight guide: Critical thinking in teaching and research
Spotlight guide: AI and assessment in higher education
Can academics tell the difference between AI-generated and human-authored content?
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