AI in Education Podcast

AI systems are increasingly being used in education, but what happens when those systems introduce hidden bias into learning, feedback, assessment and career advice?
In this episode, we're joined by Victoria Hedlund (AKA The AI Bias Girl), founder of GenEd Labs, former physics teacher, consultant and researcher specialising in AI bias in education.
Victoria shares practical examples of how AI tools can produce different outputs based on gender, names, backgrounds and other personal characteristics. From explanations of how a light bulb works to career guidance and assessment, we explore how seemingly small biases can compound over time and influence attainment, wellbeing and opportunity.
The conversation covers AI tutors, safeguarding concerns, assessment risks, the importance of keeping humans in the loop, and why educators need to adopt a more experimental mindset when working with generative AI.
This is a thought-provoking discussion about fairness, agency and what every teacher needs to know as AI becomes increasingly embedded in education.
For more background, here's two bits of Victoria's writing:
Deep dive on using AI for marking
https://victoriahedlund.substack.com/p/bias-bytes-special-edition-evidence 
Deep dive on Squishmallow Top Trumps
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/victoriamhedlund_biasgirl-biasaware-chatgpt-ugcPost-7452959849623220225-bIWG 
And finally, free downloads from Victoria, including 8 bias-mitigating prompts for teachers, and a growing set of other resources on AI bias in education.
https://genedlabs.ai/downloads

What happens when AI helps students earn more A grades, and also contributes to more failures when it's taken away?
In this episode, Ray and Dan explore new research on AI's impact on student performance, assessment integrity, and learning. They discuss studies linking AI to rising grades, the risks of over-reliance on AI, and growing evidence that AI tutors may support learning better than general-purpose chatbots.
The conversation also covers AI detectors, AI humanisers, teacher workload, Microsoft's latest Copilot updates, and a new tool for measuring the environmental footprint of AI use.
AI in Education Research Papers
Artificial Intelligence and Grade Inflation
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/80x8d3qd 
ps WSJ wrote an article on this https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/a-grades-are-suddenly-everywhere-since-the-arrival-of-chatgpt-845baae7 
Failing grades soar as professors see greater AI usage, dwindling math skills in UC Berkeley computer science classes
https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/academics/failing-grades-soar-as-professors-see-greater-ai-usage-dwindling-math-skills-in-uc-berkeley/article_16fad0bf-02cb-4b8c-8d88-888ffd9f8608.html


Building AI Companions that Prioritise Learning over Performance
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.04816


Effective Personalized AI Tutors via LLM-Guided Reinforcement Learning
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6423358


Law Professors prefer AI over peer answers
https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/salinas_et_al.pdf


Fixing teachers' problems? exploring teachers' repair and maintenance work around generative AI technologies
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01596306.2026.2657793\


Dramaturgies of Deception: AI Humanizers and the Performance of Legitimacy in Higher Education Assessment
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.02649


Homogenizing effect of large language models (LLMs) on creative diversity: An empirical comparison of human and ChatGPT writing
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S294988212500091X 
AI Detectors Fail Diverse Student Populations: A Mathematical Framing of Structural Detection Limits
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20254
 
AI News 
Copilot Cowork released
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2026/06/16/copilot-cowork-is-now-generally-available/ 


Copilot notebooks released for all free copilot chat basic accounts
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/educationblog/copilot-notebooks-and-study-guide-now-available-to-copilot-chat-users/4527320


Andy Masley's Carbon footprint calculator|
https://www.andymasley.com/visuals/ai-prompt-footprint/ 

Mazenod College: Year 12 students caught using AI to cheat
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-09/year-12-students-in-melbourne-caught-cheating-using-ai/106777700

What does it mean to put humans first in the age of AI?
Recorded at the Flourish Conference, this special episode brings together three school leaders who are using AI in very different ways, and with a common focus on human agency.
You'll hear how students are designing their own learning agents, how AI can help teachers make better use of student data while keeping information secure, and how one school is using AI-powered coaching tools to support professional learning and culture change.
Across all three stories, a clear message emerges: the most effective AI initiatives aren't replacing people - they're helping students and teachers flourish.
Featuring:
Alison Perosin (Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Broken Bay Diocese)
Hamish Jefferies (John Therry Catholic College)
Renée Williams (The Cathedral College, Rockhampton)
A practical look at how schools are building capability, trust and innovation with AI.

Why would a leading law school ban AI entirely while other countries are giving every citizen access to ChatGPT?
In this news-focused episode, Ray and Dan unpack some of the biggest developments shaping AI and education around the world. They discuss China's new national AI education strategy, Malta's ambitious "AI for All" programme, Harvard's expansion of student AI access, and Anthropic's $200 million partnership with the Gates Foundation.
The conversation explores a controversial decision by the University of California, Berkeley School of Law to prohibit AI use in assessed work, raising important questions about judgement, employability, and the future role of AI in professional education.
They also examine new research on how people are actually using AI, why Australian students' digital literacy is falling despite increased screen time, and what educators can learn from a high-profile academic integrity case involving an AI-assisted newspaper article.
Finally, they highlight Jason La Greca's excellent framework for testing and stress-testing educational chatbots before they are deployed to students.
All the links:
China launches AI empowering education action plan, includes AI into teacher qualification exams
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202604/1358611.shtml 
 
The Amazon-Perplexity Ruling and Implications for "Agentic AI" in EdTech
https://www.rumidocs.com/newsroom/the-amazon-perplexity-ruling-and-implications-for-agentic-ai-in-edtech 
 
Malta gives every Maltese (at home and abroad!) ChatGPT free - with a catch
https://openai.com/index/malta-chatgpt-plus-partnership/ 
 
Harvard students avoid uni-provided ChatGPT
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/4/28/fas-anthropic-claude/ 
 
Anthropic's forms $200M partnership with the Gates Foundation
https://www.anthropic.com/news/gates-foundation-partnership 
 
University of California Berkeley School of Law bans AI
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/academics/registrar/academic-rules/artificial-intelligence-policy/ 
 
Australian students' digital literacy at an all time low
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-27/school-students-digital-literacy-at-new-low-test-shows/106724164 
 
How people are really using AI
https://hbr.org/2026/06/how-people-are-really-using-ai-in-2026 
 
Walton Family Foundation Educator Research: closing the expectations gap
https://www.gallup.com/analytics/659819/k-12-teacher-research.aspx 
 
From the "You couldn't make this up" department 
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jun/03/sydney-academic-used-ai-opinion-piece-urging-students-to-avoid-using-it-ntwnfb 
https://www.smh.com.au/national/uni-academic-admits-she-used-ai-to-write-opinion-piece-in-defence-of-ai-20260602-p6038j.html 
 
Can you spot AI writing?
https://fakewriters.onrender.com/ 
 
 
How to break your chatbot - from Jason La Greca
https://teachyourselfout.substack.com/p/the-ultimate-jailbreak-test-suite

What is the purpose of education in an AI-driven world?
In this thought-provoking episode of the AI in Education Podcast, Ray and Dan sit down with Pasi Sahlberg to explore one of the biggest questions facing schools, universities, and society today.
Drawing on global research, OECD trends, and decades of educational leadership, Pasi explains why traditional measures of success - achievement, credentials, and test performance - may no longer be enough in the age of AI.
The conversation explores:
Human capital vs human flourishing
Why wellbeing and agency matter more than ever
The future of assessment and PISA
AI's impact on work, learning, and society
Why "hope is not a strategy"
What schools should prioritise over the next decade
The episode also reflects on parenting, teacher accountability, screen time, and the human skills that may become most valuable as AI capabilities accelerate.
Referenced in this episode:
 OECD Education for Human Flourishing. 
https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/education-for-human-flourishing_73d7cb96-en.html 
An accidental guru: The making of an education warrior
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S073805932600060X 
Sir Ken Robinson at TED - Do Schools Kill Creativity?
https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity 
 
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