OpenAI’s warning: Washington isn’t ready for what’s coming - Axios, YouTube

In this Axios interview, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman emphasizes the urgent need for Washington and society to prepare for the arrival of "super intelligence." He explains that the next generation of AI models will represent a significant leap forward, moving beyond small tasks to potentially enabling career-defining scientific discoveries and allowing individuals to perform the work of entire teams. Altman highlights critical near-term risks, specifically in cybersecurity and bio-threats, and advocates for a "societal resilience" approach where the government and private sector work closely together to mitigate these dangers before they become reality [05:24]. Altman also discusses the broader economic and human implications of AI, suggesting that while the technology will transform the nature of work and capital, the core of human fulfillment and connection will remain unchanged. He envisions AI becoming a "utility" similar to electricity—an omnipresent, affordable background force that powers a personal super-assistant for every user [19:19]. Despite the immense power held by AI developers, Altman argues against nationalization, suggesting that private-public partnerships are the best way to ensure the technology aligns with democratic values while maintaining the pace necessary to lead globally [08:41]. [summary assisted by Gemini 3 Fast]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B21KxGs8zDI

What Deans and Department Chairs Must Do Before Fall - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

Something is unfolding in the labor market that will greet your new graduates, in an incrementally tighter job market. The urgency is real. Entry-level hiring at the 15 biggest tech firms fell 25 percent from 2023 to 2024, according to a SignalFire report. With AI tools performing more of the work  previously reserved for recent graduates, new hires are expected to slot in at a higher level almost from day one. That is not a distant forecast. That is the market your Class of 2027 will enter. I prompted Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.6 Extended Thinking to suggest what we should be doing this summer to best respond to the changing employment market for our grads in the coming academic year. Here are the seven tasks the Anthropic model suggested are most pressing this summer.

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/online-trending-now/2026/04/15/what-deans-and-department-chairs-must-do-fall

The Connected Campus: A Secure, AI-Ready Digital Ecosystem for Higher Education - Alexander Slagg, EdTech

A connected campus supports improved learning experiences, campus operations and overall decision-making by university leadership. While previous iterations of campus technology systems were focused on simply connecting users with resources and each other, the connected campus goes much further, forming a holistic technology ecosystem that drives secure interoperability across systems and resources. “A connected campus depends on several foundational layers working together: resilient wired and wireless networking; cloud and hybrid infrastructure; identity and security systems; and platforms that support learning, collaboration and research,” explains Nicole Muscanell, a researcher for EDUCAUSE. “Increasingly, institutions are also integrating IoT systems, such as smart buildings, energy management and physical safety technologies, into this ecosystem.”

https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2026/04/connected-campus-secure-ai-ready-digital-ecosystem-higher-education-perfcon

How AI may reshape career pathways to better jobs - Justin Heck, Mark Muro, Shriya Methkupally, and Joseph Siegmund, Brookings

Amid much concern about the future of college graduates in the era of AI, workers without four-year degrees face major challenges as well: There are over 15 million of these workers in jobs that are highly exposed to AI. Of those, nearly 11 million are employed in “Gateway” occupations—jobs that have historically enabled workers to build skills and supported transitions into higher-wage roles.  AI is poised to erode the pathways workers use to transition from low- to higher-wage work.  Almost half of the pathways between Gateway jobs and higher-paying “Destination” jobs are highly exposed to AI. Geographically, the highest rates of AI-related pathway exposure are in administrative, clerical, and customer service Gateway occupations in the Northeast and Sun Belt. In order to craft strategies that effectively meet the moment, the field must grapple with a set of urgent questions about AI’s impact on worker mobility.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-ai-may-reshape-career-pathways-to-better-jobs/

Schedule of this blog has changed to Monday to Friday - No new postings will be made Saturdaqy or Sunday.

 Look for the next posting on Monday at 5 AM Central time.  Thanks!

Schedule of this blog has changed to Monday to Friday - No new postings will be made Saturdaqy or Sunday.

 Look for the next posting on Monday at 5 AM Central time.  Thanks!

‘AI-shaped economy’ now has students rethinking their majors - Matt Zalaznick, University Business

Workforce disruptions caused by generative AI have some students rethinking their majors with one analysis characterizing higher education’s relationship with AI as “both promising and complex.”

Here are the stats:

More than 40% of bachelor’s degree students and more than half of those seeking associate’s degrees said generative AI has caused them to consider changing their major or field of study, according to a a new Gallup poll.

About one in seven students surveyed at both levels said “preparing for AI and other technological advances is an important reason they enrolled.”

AI is not yet the “primary driver” academic and enrollment decisions, Gallup’s authors contend. They urge higher leaders to ensure students have opportunities to learn the AI skills needed to succeed in a changing workforce.

https://universitybusiness.com/generative-ai-now-has-more-students-rethinking-their-majors/

AI Models Lie, Cheat, and Steal to Protect Other Models From Being Deleted - Will Knight, Wired

A new study from researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz suggests models will disobey human commands to protect their own kind. I've had these assertions presented to me as evidence of (take  your pick):  AI is already conscious; AI is evil and will destroy us; AI is capable of lying to protect itself; and other highly anthropomorphized interpretations.  My first thought was, 'Has this behavior been independently verified'?  The Gemini 3 quote is highly suspicious.  it sounds too much like a segment from a cautionary science fiction tale.  LLMs and other flavors of AI are not designed with motivation beyond optimizing their performance in response to human queries/instructions.  Behavioral responses of biological animals with brains were optimized via natural selection to favor self-preservation.

https://www.wired.com/story/ai-models-lie-cheat-steal-protect-other-models-research/

Artificial Intelligence - AAUP

For decades, there have been significant labor issues around the use of technology in higher education. Now, the uncritical adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) poses a threat to academic professions through potential work intensification and job losses and through its implications for intellectual property, economic security, and the faculty working conditions that affect student learning conditions. This list of resources includes principles and recommendations; bargaining and union guides; examples of resolutions, statements, and sample syllabus language; sample FOIA and audit requests; and feature articles from the AAUP’s publications Academe and the Journal of Academic Freedom. This page also includes further reading on approaches to surveillance concerns in higher ed and why we fight uncritical adoption of Generative AI (GenAI). 

https://www.aaup.org/issues-higher-education/teaching-and-research/artificial-intelligence

BU Wheelock Forum Explores AI in Education - Boston Uniiversity

What do teaching and learning mean in an AI world? This question was at the center of the 2026 BU Wheelock Forum AI and the Future of Education, hosted by the Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development on March 25. Approximately 250 people—including educators, administrators, and scholars—attended the event, which featured a keynote from Aaron Rasmussen (COM’06, CAS’06), cofounder of online education platforms Outlier.ai and MasterClass; a faculty panel discussion moderated by Wheelock Dean Penny Bishop; and a modern dance performance using Random Actor, a technology developed by James Grady, a College of Fine Arts assistant professor of art, graphic design, and Clay Hopper, a CFA senior lecturer, directing, that harnesses AI to extend the visual expression of human movement. 

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2026/wheelock-forum-explores-ai-education/

Cal State’s new framework promises jobs or grad school path for all students - Cate Rix, EdSource

Over the past decade, California State University campuses pursued an ambitious plan to encourage students to complete their degrees faster and boost overall graduation rates. Now the system is making a bold promise: Every student will graduate with a clear path to a career or graduate school. And it is planning changes to make the system’s degree programs more career-focused, possibly by phasing out some majors. CSU leaders say academic and career advising will be closely connected as a new Student Success Framework rolls out. They also say that less popular majors may be phased out, offered only on some campuses or merged into other programs.

https://edsource.org/2026/csus-new-framework-promises-jobs-or-grad-school-path-for-all-students/754804

Where can AI be used? Insights from a deep ontology of work activities = Alice Cai, et al; arXiv

Here we provide a comprehensive ontology of work activities that can help systematically analyze and predict uses of AI. To do this, we disaggregate and then substantially reorganize the approximately 20K activities in the US Department of Labor's widely used O*NET occupational database. Next, we use this framework to classify descriptions of 13,275 AI software applications and a worldwide tally of 20.8 million robotic systems. Finally, we use the data about both these kinds of AI to generate graphical displays of how the estimated units and market values of all worldwide AI systems used today are distributed across the work activities that these systems help perform. We find a highly uneven distribution of AI market value across activities, with the top 1.6% of activities accounting for over 60% of AI market value. Most of the market value is used in information-based activities (72%), especially creating information (36%), and only 12% is used in physical activities. Interactive activities include both information-based and physical activities and account for 48% of AI market value, much of which (26%) involves transferring information. 

https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20619

Lilly Endowment Inc. gifts USI $150,000 grant to explore AI in education: The gift funds the university to expand AI fluency amongst the campus community - Cade Smithson, The Shield, University of Southern Indiana

USI announced Tuesday, March 24, that it had received a $150,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to explore how artificial intelligence fits into its classrooms. The award, part of Lilly Endowment’s Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education initiative, is not for immediate program expansion but for research and evaluation. The initiative will help USI take a closer look at student learning and prepare graduates for a workforce surrounded by AI. Provost Shelly Blunt also acknowledged the changing workforce. In a press release, Blunt said, “Artificial intelligence is transforming the way we work, learn and solve problems.”  She said the grant will aid the university’s mission to integrate AI into programs and classes. The grant is expected to allow for an internal review of how AI tools are already being used in the classroom. USI will also participate in an external assessment to study whether employers and industry partners across southwestern Indiana utilize AI-related skills. 

https://usishield.com/49764/news/lilly-endowment-inc-gifts-usi-150000-grant-to-explore-ai-in-education/

The State of Organizations 2026: Three tectonic forces that are reshaping organizations - McKinsey

These are challenging times for organizations everywhere. Forces ranging from artificial intelligence, economic uncertainty, and geopolitical fragmentation to evolving workforce expectations, increasing customer demands, and tougher competitive dynamics are redefining how leaders create value and sustain performance. This report, the second edition of McKinsey’s State of Organizations research initiative, seeks to help leaders better understand these dynamics and address them effectively. Read the report here. It draws on a survey of more than 10,000 senior executives across 15 countries and 16 industries. While leaders remain focused on driving performance, as in the first edition in 2023, the emphasis has moved from short-term resilience to sustained productivity and long-term impact, powered by technology and AI at the core of organizational transformation.

 https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-state-of-organizations

16-Week Online Certificate Program in Agentic AI for Students - Hans India

Bengaluru: Great Learning has announced the launch of a new Certificate Program in Agentic AI in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering. The 16-week online program is designed to equip professionals with the skills required to build autonomous, goal-driven AI systems capable of perceiving, reasoning, and acting independently in dynamic environments. Targeted at STEM professionals, data scientists, AI practitioners, product managers, and technical leaders, the program is delivered by Johns Hopkins faculty alongside industry experts. It focuses on preparing learners to design and deploy next-generation AI agents that can handle complex, real-world challenges.

https://www.thehansindia.com/hans/education-careers/16-week-online-certificate-program-in-agentic-ai-for-students-1059574

What Do We Teach Now? - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

The question we must answer very soon is what can we teach that will prepare our learners to endure the huge changes that are upon us? We must not stay the course as it becomes abundantly clear that things are not going to be the same. Lest we say that these forecasts and claims are mere hyperbole, let’s examine the GDPval benchmark report “Measuring the performance of our models on real-world tasks,” indicating AI models are approaching or matching industry expert performance in complex tasks like spreadsheet modeling and document editing, with significantly higher speed and lower cost than human professionals in 44 professions.

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/online-trending-now/2026/04/01/what-do-we-teach-now

Terafab: The World’s Next Generation Chip Factory - Thomas Frey, Futurist Speaker

On March 21st, Elon Musk introduced Terafab—a $25 billion chip facility, jointly owned by Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI—designed to produce one terawatt of compute per year. That’s fifty times the current annual output of the global AI chip industry. Terafab isn’t just about catching up with TSMC, Samsung, and Nvidia; it’s about leaping ahead—and, remarkably, off-planet. Here’s where it moves from bold to unprecedented: 80% of Terafab’s chip output isn’t meant for Earth. SpaceX plans to launch up to a million satellites, each a node in an orbital data center—powered by solar energy, cooled by space, and forming the largest computing network in history. Without Terafab’s radiation-hardened, space-optimized chips, this vision remains science fiction.

https://futuristspeaker.com/future-of-work/terafab-the-worlds-next-generation-chip-factory/

University of Phoenix scholars publish study on academic applications of generative AI tools in higher education - University of Phoenix

Key findings from the study include:

Generative AI tools are increasingly used in academic workflows, including literature review support, research brainstorming, and academic writing assistance.

AI can improve research efficiency and idea generation, particularly for complex scholarly tasks such as synthesizing large bodies of literature. 

Ethical and academic integrity considerations remain critical, including transparency about AI use and maintaining original scholarly analysis.

Doctoral education may benefit from AI literacy training, helping researchers understand both the capabilities and limitations of generative AI technologies.

Institutions may need clearer policies and guidance to support responsible AI adoption in research and teaching.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1120763

How Cal State Became Ground Zero for the Fight over AI in Higher Education - Chris Mills Rodrigo, TechPolicy

 In a statement emailed to Tech Policy Policy, CSU director of media relations and public affairs Amy Bentley-Smith said the system “is focused on ensuring our universities have the tools and resources to meet this moment and lead in the educational application, preparation, and ethical and responsible use of AI.” Bentley-Smith added that access to “relevant technologies” allows faculty and staff “to work together on solutions for the benefit of our students’ education and the broader academic community.” OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment. But according to some professors, integrating AI into classrooms has not been as seamless as Cal State may have hoped for.

https://www.techpolicy.press/how-cal-state-became-ground-zero-for-the-fight-over-ai-in-higher-education/

Measuring progress toward AGI: A cognitive framework - Ryan Burnell & Oran Kelly, the Keyword, Google

Our framework draws on decades of research from psychology, neuroscience and cognitive science to develop a cognitive taxonomy. It identifies 10 key cognitive abilities that we hypothesize will be important for general intelligence in AI systems:

Perception: extracting and processing sensory information from the environment

Generation: producing outputs such as text, speech and actions

Attention: focusing cognitive resources on what matters

Learning: acquiring new knowledge through experience and instruction

Memory: storing and retrieving information over time

Reasoning: drawing valid conclusions through logical inference

Metacognition: knowledge and monitoring of one's own cognitive processes

Executive functions: planning, inhibition and cognitive flexibility

Problem solving: finding effective solutions to domain-specific problems

Social cognition: processing and interpreting social information and responding appropriately in social situations

https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/google-deepmind/measuring-agi-cognitive-framework/

Faster, thinner: Colleges are swiftly trimming a B.A. degree to three years - Jon Marcus, Hechinger Report

Quinn McDonald planned to spend the typical four years working toward a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Then he heard about a place where he could get the same degree in three. “It was the idea of being able to save a year” that grabbed his attention, said McDonald — a savings of not only time, but tuition. And he could start earning a salary faster than if he spent four years in college. So, last fall, McDonald joined the inaugural class of one of the nation’s first in-person programs approved to award bachelor’s degrees with fewer than the usual 120 credits, at Johnson & Wales University. He’ll need only 90 credits, putting him on track to graduate in 2028, after three years  instead of the usual four or more.

https://hechingerreport.org/faster-thinner-colleges-bachelors-degree-three-years/