ChatEDU – The AI & Education Podcast

In this episode of ChatEDU, Beyond the Tech Ban: Shielding Focus and Fluency, Matt and Liz weather a New England “snowpocalypse” to tackle a provocative question– Is edtech making Gen Z less cognitively capable than their parents? They begin with a playful (if “unscientific”) recap of the NPR David Green vs. Google NotebookLM lawsuit experiment before diving into the cognitive decline debate.

The Rundown

Gemini Music: Google’s new Lyria integration for high-quality audio and lyric generation.

NotebookLM Update: The highly requested ability to edit and annotate AI-generated slide decks.

Corporate Mandates & Monitoring: Amazon tracks AI adoption through its “Clarity” system; Accenture requires AI adoption for summer promotions; and Block mandates weekly “AI achievement” emails, reportedly causing some AI burnout.

IBM’s Strategy: A tripling of entry-level hiring with a focus on human-centric soft skills.

CS Enrollment Shifts: Students are moving away from traditional Computer Science toward AI-specific majors at MIT and UCSD.

Cybersecurity Crisis: Sophisticated AI-powered phishing in schools amidst declining federal support.

Alpha School Expose: 404 Media’s investigation into surveillance, scraping, and high hallucination rates.

Magic School’s AI OS integrating SIS data; Liz’s finding of 10% AI grading swings; and a push to frame agents like Raina as tools, not “BFFs.”

Beneath the Surface

The hosts critique expanding screen time bans and propose a “Quality Screen Time Index,” using SAMR to distinguish basic substitution from transformative AI use.

Bright Byte

Matt and Liz wrap up with a breakthrough from OpenAI’s latest reasoning model, which solved a decades-old gluon physics problem, proving the formula wasn’t zero and generating a 12-hour proof later confirmed by scientists.

Announcements

Celebrate our 100th episode:⁠ ⁠skills21.org/chatedu100⁠⁠

Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday
ASCD:⁠ ⁠https://tinyurl.com/bde652nn⁠⁠ 
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77
Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/bdckf6zw

EdAdvance is offering a Middle and High School Student AI Literacy course — email [email protected] to bring it to your district. ​​⁠⁠www.skills21.org/ai/learnai⁠⁠ 

Skills21’s FREE social media literacy course. Check it out here -⁠ ⁠https://www.skills21.org/social-balance⁠⁠

This episode is sponsored by The National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing.⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://www.nextgenmfg.org⁠⁠

Links

NPR Host Sues Google Over NotebookLM Voice
https://tinyurl.com/muzvhcb6

Gemini Can Now Create Music
https://tinyurl.com/ytaj2jhs

Google Fixes NotebookLM’s Most Annoying Slide Deck Flaw
https://tinyurl.com/42vxnz43

Amazon Tracks AI Use; Accenture Ties Promotion to AI
https://tinyurl.com/yc4dmey6

Dorsey’s New Company Falters Amid AI Mandate
https://tinyurl.com/mw579faj

IBM to Hire Entry-Level Talent in the AI Era
https://tinyurl.com/3xz84yd9

The Computer Science Exodus
https://tinyurl.com/4rune56n

Why AI Threatens School Cybersecurity
https://tinyurl.com/3t74zn5h

Stocks Slide After Launch of Claude Security Tool
https://tinyurl.com/hpzpzwt3

Inside an AI-Powered Private School
https://tinyurl.com/34rzhs49

MagicSchool
MagicSchool.ai

Student Companionship and Responsible AI in Schools
https://tinyurl.com/4j74d6rb

Department of Labor's Artificial Intelligence Literacy Framework
https://tinyurl.com/3d6zt7wv

IQ scores fall worldwide
https://tinyurl.com/dbsetjbn

Is Screen Time Hurting Literacy?
https://tinyurl.com/msvbr3uf

‘AI Bill of Rights’ reaches Florida’s K-12 schools
https://tinyurl.com/4zdwtha2

Digital Learning & AI Literacy Evaluation
https://www.edadvance.org/ai

AI Solves a "Zero" Mystery in Physics
https://tinyurl.com/5a9t7wd9

In this ChatEDU Check-In: Make Them Read!, Liz explores the systemic decline of long-form reading in classrooms and the rise of the "excerpt culture." This episode examines how the shift toward clips and samples over the last fifteen years has eroded student attention spans and basic reading skills.

Key Takeaways:

The transition from full-length novels to abbreviated samples reflects a broader cultural shift that prioritizes the "reel" and the "clip" over deep literary engagement.

Requiring students to commit to long-form texts acts as a strategic resistance to the monetization of attention, allowing them to reclaim their focus from digital distractions.

Authentic comprehension and original voice are best developed through "flash essays" and unassisted, timed tasks that remove AI bumpers and force students to confront intellectual uncertainty.

Liz’s Two Cents: There is a profound tension between "meeting students where they are" and the pedagogical necessity of waiting for them to catch up to the heights of great literature. If educators treat declining attention spans as a terminal condition rather than a challenge to be met with more rigorous engagement, they risk making the "end of reading" a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Article Link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/youth-reading-books-professors/685825/?taid=69814c1dbe49b700014af753&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=edit-promo&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Sponsored by: Eduaide Eduaide.ai where good ideas become great lessons. Take advantage of our special offer: 50 percent off at eduaide.ai.

In this ChatEDU Check-In: The Silicon Gaze: Uncovering ChatGPT’s Hidden Biases, Liz explores how researchers used forced-choice comparisons to reveal deep-seated stereotypes within AI models. By bypassing standard safety filters, the study demonstrates how millions of automated responses reflect geographic and demographic prejudices.

Key Takeaways:

Researchers used a forced choice method to extract millions of subjective rankings, revealing that ChatGPT consistently mirrors internet tropes regarding cleanliness, friendliness, and intelligence across different locations.

The episode highlights that the model’s training data links racial and economic demographics to negative attributes, such as ranking states with higher Black populations lower on work ethic and beauty.

The silicon gaze creates a facade of neutrality that can subtly influence users' perceptions of career paths and neighborhoods, making these hidden biases difficult for the average user to challenge.

Liz’s Two Cents: The perpetuation of quiet biases in AI data is deeply concerning as these models become integrated into everyday tasks. For school leaders, this reinforces the urgent need for professional learning and student-facing curriculum that focuses on identifying and questioning the inherent prejudices embedded in the technology we often treat as neutral.

Article Link: 
https://geoffreyfowler.substack.com/p/chatgpt-bias

Sponsored by: Eduaide Eduaide.ai where good ideas become great lessons. Take advantage of our special offer: 50 percent off at eduaide.ai

In this episode of ChatEDU Deepfakes in Schools: What Educators Need to Know Now, Matt and Liz open the show with the bizarre tale of M.J. Rathbun, an AI agent that turned into a digital critic by writing a scathing hit piece on a developer who dared to reject its code. Once the laughter subsides, they dive into a critical episode focused on the shifting boundaries of AI, from the retirement of beloved and flirty models to a heavy hitting discussion on protecting students from the growing threat of deepfakes.

The Rundown

Policy Protests at OpenAI: Executive Ryan Biermeister departs following vocal opposition to a rumored "adult mode" for ChatGPT.

Farewell to the "Flirt": OpenAI officially retires the ChatGPT 4.0 model, leaving some emotionally attached users in "grief" over the loss of its unique personality.

The "Quit GPT" Movement: A viral grassroots campaign urges users to cancel their subscriptions in protest of performance dips and political entanglements.

Pentagon vs. Anthropic: The Department of Defense threatens to sever a 200 million dollar contract after Anthropic refuses to waive safety restrictions on mass surveillance and autonomous weaponry.

Listener Mailbag: Featuring Dave Tanner’s AI forward job descriptions and Stan Williams’ insights on the "fog" of reality in the classroom.

AI School Redesign: PlayLab opens applications for its "AI Lab Schools" incubator, seeking to radically pivot existing school structures.

Beneath the Surface

Liz sits down with safety expert Evan Harris for a vital conversation on deepfake sexual abuse, vocal cloning, and extortion. Evan provides a 48 hour response roadmap for schools, explains why leadership training must happen before student assemblies, and shares why this might be the most important episode in ChatEDU history.

The Bright Byte

We wrap up with a look at Isomorphic Labs, a Google DeepMind spinoff. Their new "ISO-DDE" engine is pushing past AlphaFold 3 to unlock "in silico" drug design, doubling accuracy in predicting how molecules bind to targets. This represents a massive win for the future of medicine.

Announcements

Celebrate our 100th episode:⁠ ⁠skills21.org/chatedu100⁠⁠

Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday
ASCD:⁠ ⁠https://tinyurl.com/bde652nn⁠⁠ 
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77
Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/bdckf6zw

EdAdvance is offering a Middle and High School Student AI Literacy course — email [email protected] to bring it to your district. ​​⁠⁠www.skills21.org/ai/learnai⁠⁠ 

Skills21’s FREE social media literacy course. Check it out here -⁠ ⁠https://www.skills21.org/social-balance⁠⁠

This episode is sponsored by The National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing.⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://www.nextgenmfg.org⁠⁠

Links

OpenAI policy exec who opposed chatbot’s ‘adult mode’ reportedly fired on discrimination claim
https://tinyurl.com/37x8jexr

OpenAI retired its most seductive chatbot – leaving users angry and grieving: ‘I can’t live like this’
https://tinyurl.com/y48b4fynA

“QuitGPT” campaign is urging people to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions
https://tinyurl.com/4sm2mwzm

I’m Not Worried AI Helps My Students Cheat. I’m Worried How It Makes Them Feel
https://tinyurl.com/4uvp8b8a

Playlab opens applications for AI Lab Schools as 20 teams rethink school design
https://tinyurl.com/5a47xe36

MagicSchool: The AI Operating System for Schools
https://tinyurl.com/ysv5cmbz

The Department of Labor's Artificial Intelligence Literacy Framework
https://tinyurl.com/3dyj7zu5

In this ChatEDU Check-In: Security Breaches and Digital Cheating on the New SAT, Matt explores the sophisticated methods students and bad actors are using to compromise the integrity of the digital SAT. The transition to a computer based format has introduced technical vulnerabilities that go beyond traditional cheating methods.

Key Takeaways:
Specialized hardware, such as video capture devices disguised as peripherals, and "sandbox" software allow students to bypass the security of the Bluebook testing platform.
International websites are leaking authentic test questions from the College Board's active bank, facilitating large scale cheating across different time zones.
The practice of allowing students to use their own laptops is a primary security vulnerability that hardware based exploits can easily target.

Matt’s Two Cents: While the shift to digital was marketed as a definitive solution to paper based security flaws, the BYOD model has proven to be the Achilles' heel of the entire scheme. By allowing students to use personal devices, the College Board has moved the battlefield to a technical arena where hardware exploits are nearly impossible to fully neutralize.

Article Link: https://tinyurl.com/5n6vbydc

Sponsored by: Eduaide.Ai Eduaide is an AI-powered workspace designed for real classroom planning with practical tools like grade-level evaluators and classroom-ready graphic organizers. Take advantage of our special offer: 50 percent off an Eduaide subscription with code: ChatEDU at https://www.eduaide.ai/.