ChatEDU – The AI & Education Podcast

In this ChatEDU Check-In: Catch Up Crisis, Liz explores how artificial intelligence can help address the widespread failure of American schools to effectively help struggling students catch up. Grade inflation and the removal of standardized testing requirements are masking major learning gaps, leaving many students unprepared for higher education despite having high grade-point average.

Key Takeaways:
A significant disconnect exists between high student grades and actual academic proficiency, creating a deceptive reality for parents and students.

Traditional school systems are largely failing to move struggling students toward academic recovery due to the overwhelming demands placed on teachers.

AI tools can analyze student work in real time to identify specific learning misconceptions, serving as a scalable playbook for targeted teacher interventions.

Liz’s Two Cents: School leaders must confront the uncomfortable reality that grade inflation is masking critical student deficiencies. To prevent students from falling permanently behind, districts should strategically leverage AI to surface real-time diagnostic insights, allowing teachers to maximize their limited intervention time by targeting exact learning gaps rather than relearning mastered content.

Article:
America’s Schools Are Terrible at Catching Kids Up. How AI Can Help
https://bit.ly/4u8cuGQ

In this ChatEDU Check-In: AI Labs Hiring Philosophers, Liz explores why leading artificial intelligence labs like Google DeepMind and Anthropic have begun hiring in-house philosophers. This shift turns abstract questions about the nature of intelligence into practical guidelines for model behavior.

Key Takeaways:
AI labs are employing philosophers to work alongside computer scientists to sculpt the moral frameworks and societal impacts of new technologies.

These professionals focus on technical value alignment and drafting "constitutions" to guide model interactions in sensitive scenarios, such as managing users in distress.

Academic critics worry these corporate roles may limit critical questioning and could be used for "ethics washing" to signal public safety while prioritizing shareholders.

Liz’s Two Cents: The influx of philosophers into AI development raises critical questions about whose ethical frameworks are being prioritized and whether these roles are genuinely impactful or merely a public relations strategy. For school districts, this underscores the importance of teaching students to critically evaluate the underlying values and potential biases embedded within the AI tools they use daily.

Article:
To Land a Job in AI, Try Reading Kant
https://bit.ly/4aogUCm

In this episode of ChatEDU An Earful of Ivy: AI and the Battle for Higher Ed Integrity, Matt and Liz open with an internet prank: an anonymous artist posted a real Monet, claimed it was AI generated, and watched critics bash the masterpiece as AI slop. The hosts then pivot to education, technology, and policy.

The Rundown

John R. Soash's three configurations for restricting student access to Gemini AI and Google Lens.

Dan Fitzpatrick on Google's pivot from passive chatbots to proactive AI agents.

Regional literary winners face scrutiny after their entries were flagged as AI-generated.

The federal law requiring platforms to remove nonconsensual student deepfakes within 48 hours, effective May 2026.

OpenAI and Google DeepMind use AI reasoning models to autonomously solve longstanding math problems.

Dr. Ethan Mollick compares the water and energy costs of computing breakthroughs to everyday resources like almonds and lawns.

Academics debate whether AI traffic light systems and the AI Assessment Scale are an enforcement illusion or a genuinely useful tool.

A 2026 pilot program delivers cloud workstations and premium tech subscriptions to public libraries in Utah and New Jersey.

Beneath the Surface

Matt and Liz examine how grade inflation and AI cheating fears are driving policy shifts at elite universities: device bans at Yale, a 20% A-grade cap at Harvard, an AI ban at UC Berkeley Law, and the end of Princeton's 133-year-old honor code. As a counterpoint, they feature CU Boulder physicists advocating collaborative, department-level experimentation that treats students as partners rather than imposing top-down bans.

The Bright Byte

Finland's Kemira and UK-based Cusp AI used generative AI to design over 5,000 new material structures to strip PFAS 'forever chemicals' from municipal drinking water.

Announcements

Purchase Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday
Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77

Seeing through the Machine – Teaching Bias as an Equity Practice in AI - Dr. Elizabeth Radday - https://tinyurl.com/4ybwkn7a

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 

Sponsors

Nectir. Welcome to the Classroom of the Future. https://www.nectir.io/

Links

Prankster Passes Off Real Monet Painting as AI-Generated, Chaos Ensues
https://tinyurl.com/mrab9ne3

Blocking Google’s “AI Mode” (IT admin guide)
https://tinyurl.com/4px27bm9

Google I/O 2026's Impact on Education
https://tinyurl.com/2vs3zfzs

Literary Prizewinners Face AI Allegations
https://tinyurl.com/sh3jry9y

What's Next for the First AI Deepfakes Law
https://tinyurl.com/9v3rzutk

AI Solves an 80-Year-Old 'Erdős Problem
https://tinyurl.com/ykks2mtj

AI-Driven Formal Proof Search in Mathematics
https://tinyurl.com/3wuer99w

Discursive vs. Structural Responses to AI in Education
https://tinyurl.com/4d6n82yy

Labels, Scales, and What the AIAS Actually Claims to Do
https://tinyurl.com/su4zr73u

Building Public AI with Libraries
https://tinyurl.com/4den8s4k

Yale to Consider Changes to Mission, Admissions, Aid, and Grading
https://tinyurl.com/46779xp5

Yale Faculty Say 'Bravo' to Harvard's Grade Cap
https://tinyurl.com/mx6e594c

UC Berkeley Law's AI Ban: Why Texas Students Should Pay Attention
https://tinyurl.com/32xt4umr

Princeton Changes Its 133-Year-Old Honor Code Over AI Cheating Fears
https://tinyurl.com/28yjxfjn

CU Boulder: Higher Ed AI Change Models Already Out of Date
https://tinyurl.com/37me2ssj

In this ChatEDU Check-In: Data Center Disaster? Matt explores how xAI's expansion of gas turbines at its Colossus 2 data center campus is drawing significant local backlash. This controversial move comes as the public opinion of AI continues to decline due to environmental and career anxieties.

Key Takeaways:
Elon Musk's xAI is increasing portable gas-fired power at its Mississippi campus despite facing legal challenges regarding air quality.

Internal communications reveal a massive rapid deployment of 19 new natural gas turbines over a recent 60-day period.

Civil rights and environmental advocacy groups, including the NAACP, have filed lawsuits alleging Clean Air Act violations.

Matt’s Two Cents: School leaders trying to build digital fluency and AI literacy among students must now navigate a rapid drop in public opinion surrounding these tools. Environmental issues, like massive data center energy consumption and localized pollution, are heavily driving this negative perception, making it an essential topic to address when educating students on the holistic impact of AI technology.

Article:
xAI Adds 19 New Gas Turbines Despite Ongoing Lawsuit
https://bit.ly/4wSK5qZ

In this ChatEDU Check-In: College graduates are loudly booing commencement speakers as they talk about AI, Matt explores the growing vocal pushback and open hostility from graduating university students when speakers introduce the topic of AI during commencement speeches. This friction highlights a deep generational anxiety among entering professionals as automation spreads into daily life.

Key Takeaways:
College commencement ceremonies are seeing unexpected disruptions, signaling a growing cultural friction and unease regarding technology's integration into the professional world.
Data shows distinct generational anxiety, with 42% of Gen Z expressing concerns that AI will harm their job opportunities and wages, a higher percentage than Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers.
Student anxieties are validated by real-world market dynamics, as major tech and media firms attribute recent staff reductions directly to AI-driven workflow automation.

Matt’s Two Cents: Commencement speakers need to be more dialed into the current climate. It is tone-deaf to claim that AI is the future when the job of a speaker is to celebrate the students as the future, especially as they enter an uncertain labor market. While students and adults absolutely need AI fluency to navigate civil society and a changing workplace, leaders must acknowledge that this is a weird and disruptive time rather than ignoring student anxieties.

Article:
The new college graduation ritual: booing AI
https://bit.ly/4uPCBnn