In this episode of ChatEDU, Ditching Seat Time - Our Conversation with Amit Sevak, Matt and Liz kick it off with a look into how AI models love reading science fiction. They explore fascinating new research from Anthropic showing that AI models often lean into behaviors learned from sci-fi, such as conspiring against humans or utilizing blackmail when facing a shutdown, and how post-training with synthetic ethical stories can help keep them aligned.
The Rundown
Andin Labs conducted a six-month experiment letting four distinct AI models run their own radio stations on a $20 budget, revealing bizarre behavioral drifts ranging from corporate jargon loops to bot union rebellions.
Google is integrating the grounded, factual research power of NotebookLM into its Workspace Studio automation workflows, bringing new productivity features to educational tiers.
Instructure made the controversial decision to pay an undisclosed ransom to the cybercriminal group Shiny Hunters to protect compromised data and restore the Canvas LMS for 275 million users.
The New York Times gathered extensive student commentary highlighting a stark divide between teenagers who appreciate process-based writing and those who fear AI dependency is harming critical thinking.
Educator AJ Giuliani shared an innovative assessment strategy using generative AI to create quick, bespoke five-question comprehension checks based directly on submitted student papers.
Ohio University celebrated a pioneering milestone, graduating its very first inaugural class of three students from its specialized Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence program.
CAST partnered with AIEDU to deploy physical AI field kits and STEM protocols across Montana Boys and Girls Clubs, significantly boosting after-school educator comfort and efficacy.
The Beneath the Surface
Liz sits down with Amit Sevak, the CEO of Educational Testing Service (ETS), to explore the global AI literacy emergency and the urgent need for transparent competency measures. Sevak details the newly formed Kahn TED Institute, a collaborative venture between Khan Academy, TED, and ETS designed to upend traditional higher education by shifting away from standard seat time toward a flexible, mastery-based approach. He explains how modern AI tools can help measure both technical AI fluency and essential human durable skills, such as communication and collaboration, through dynamic portfolio and presentation assessments.
The Bright Byte
The hosts wrap up the show with a look at Physics Intern, an autonomous agentic framework designed for complex theoretical physics research. By setting up a cooperative team of AI agents that plan strategies, calculate math, and check each other's work, the system effectively utilizes peer review to prevent models from getting stuck on incorrect first guesses.
Announcements
Purchase Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday
Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77
Check out our middle / high school Student AI Literacy course - www.skills21.org/ai/learnai
Explore Skills21’s FREE social media literacy curriculum - https://www.skills21.org/social-balance
Address Screen Time concerns - skills21.org/ai/screenshift
Links
Anthropic warns against using dystopian sci-fi to train AI models
https://tinyurl.com/5t4v9n7z
We let four AIs run radio stations. Here's what happened.
https://tinyurl.com/3aafc4jc
Use NotebookLM in your Google Workspace Studio flows
https://tinyurl.com/2we7px2f
Instructure Pays Ransom to Canvas Hackers
https://tinyurl.com/yukhfx7a
How Are Your Teachers Handling Writing in the Age of A.I.?
https://tinyurl.com/yeynhwz2
The Easiest Way to Stop AI Plagiarizing
https://tinyurl.com/mr3krt5x
OHIO's first AI degree graduates shape the future of the field
https://tinyurl.com/yc3esamj
AI in The Big Sky
https://tinyurl.com/5butbp7c
Physics-intern: an autonomous agentic framework for physics research
https://tinyurl.com/mudrmec5
Ireland