Workforce in motion: Skills and pathways to future jobs in the United States - María Jesús Ramírez, Kweilin Ellingrud, Tanguy Catlin, Diego Castresana, and Anna Kortis -McKinsey

AI, automation, and broader structural trends are accelerating the reallocation of work across the US economy. Capturing its benefits requires developing new professional pathways and skills, and reducing barriers between declining and growing occupations. The US economy could create more jobs in the next decade than will be replaced through automation, but the change may require the largest and most sustained workforce transformation in US history. Jobs of the future, particularly growing jobs, could pay more on average but require more skills. Roughly 60 percent of growing employment could be in the top two wage quintiles, with much of the increase concentrated in healthcare, construction, and management occupations. Conversely, more than 70 percent of declining employment could be in the bottom two quintiles, primarily in office and administrative support, retail and sales, and transportation and logistics occupations.

https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/workforce-in-motion-skills-and-pathways-to-future-jobs-in-the-united-states

Gemini 4 Argon: our next era of frontier intelligence - Google blog

Today, we’re announcing our new frontier model, Gemini 4 Argon, which is rolling out to a set of trusted cyber defenders through our Fairwind Program. Built to sustain deep reasoning across complex, long-horizon workflows, Argon is fundamentally changing the way we work and build at Google. It delivers frontier performance in complex workflows across real-world software engineering, enterprise knowledge work like legal and finance, and cybersecurity defense. Safely releasing frontier capabilities at this level requires a phased approach. We are actively engaged in the U.S. government’s voluntary process for pre-release model access while we gradually expand access. We’ll continue to gather feedback from early testers as we iterate on guardrails before making Argon available to developers, enterprises, and consumers as soon as possible. 

https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/gemini-4-argon/

From AGI to ASI - Tim Genewein, et al; arXiv

After characterizing ASI, the report discusses four potential pathways from AGI to ASI: scaling AGI, AI paradigm shifts, recursive improvement, and ASI emerging from large-scale multi-agent collectives. The report then discusses possible frictions and bottlenecks along these pathways. Determining whether the impact of these frictions will be negligible or substantial raises a number of concrete open research questions. Due to large uncertainties for predicting ASI progress, it cannot be ruled out that AI progress might continue to accelerate over the next years. This could imply that the image of a single transformative step change, caused by the introduction of human-level AGI into our society, could be inaccurate. More apt might be the prospect of a series of transformative societal changes caused by AI-enabled progress and breakthroughs across many areas of science and technology. Preparing for this prospect requires a massively interdisciplinary endeavour of global scope and interest.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.12683

The AI industry is booming. Women are getting left behind - the Guardian.org

Women made up only about a quarter of new hires in AI roles in the last year, compared to 50% of new hires in non-AI roles, according to a recent report from LinkedIn. In executive roles, that number drops to just 13%. At the same time, LinkedIn’s research shows that women are more likely to work in roles with high exposure to AI disruption, like customer service, meaning they are also at higher risk for job loss due to AI. AI jobs, whose postings have doubled since 2023, come with a salary premium, on average paying more than twice as much as roles that don’t involve working with AI, according to LinkedIn’s research. But women who do have jobs in AI are disproportionately concentrated in low-paying roles, like data annotators, said Sarah Steinberg, the head of global public policy partnerships at LinkedIn. Across all AI occupations, men have $45,000 higher median pay than women, partly due to the types of jobs they are likelier to have. “AI is creating some of the fastest growing, highest paying and most consequential jobs in the global economy,” said Steinberg. “Women are just strikingly underrepresented.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/04/women-ai-jobs-inequality

Community knowledge belongs at the heart of higher education - Jack Layton and Sue Griffiths, University World News

In recent years, universities in the United Kingdom have scrutinised their relationships with neighbouring communities – exploring what these should and could look like. That requires asking what it takes to undertake meaningful community engagement, how their research can contribute to local economic growth and how their facilities can be repurposed to support local health and well-being.Part of this is about recognising that the traditional academic ecosystem can be detached from people’s everyday lives and concerns. Data extracted from places. Research trapped behind paywalls. Value derived from rankings and citations. Last week, the Institute for Community Studies at the Young Foundation launched the Journal for Community Studies. The journal brings academic research into direct conversation with community voice, lived experience and practical knowledge. It challenges a persistent imbalance in how evidence is produced and valued, where communities are too often treated as subjects of study rather than partners in inquiry.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20260930112346517

Friendship is built over time, through ordinary moments – I teach lonely college students to notice them - Justin Vaughn, the Conversation

Many new students want close relationships, but feel anxious about initiating them and have had little practice sustaining them.I realized that my students rarely spoke to one another, and went entire semesters without learning their classmates’ names. Many students seemed unsure how to cross the few feet between them and their peers and make the social connection they craved. Factual. Free. For everyone. I designed a freshman honors seminar, “Friendship & Society,” around this uncertainty, combining the academic study of friendship with practical exercises in forming and sustaining it.

https://theconversation.com/friendship-is-built-over-time-through-ordinary-moments-i-teach-lonely-college-students-to-notice-them-291953

Stanford apologizes, saying AI-altered photo that changed student’s gender and race violated policy -Minyvonne Burke, NBC

Stanford University said the use of artificial intelligence to alter the race and appearance of students in a promotional photo violated its policy and was “a serious error in judgment.” The controversy centers on an image of three students posing in front of Star Ginger in the university’s dining hall, according to The Stanford Review, the student-run newspaper, which first reported the story. The original photo shows a female student and two male students holding their plates as they pose for the camera. The altered image shows one of the male students replaced with an AI-generated Black female student. The two other people in the altered image were made to look noticeably slimmer. The Review reported that Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises used the altered image in its advertisements. Its editor in chief, Garret Molloy, said the altered photos were placed on welcome banners around campus.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/stanford-apologizes-saying-ai-altered-pic-changed-students-gender-race-rcna599691

When Nontraditional Students Become the Norm - Joshua Bay, Inside Higher Ed

Adult learners, working students, student parents, transfer students and first-generation students are often grouped under the broad umbrella of “nontraditional” students. While their experiences differ, they also highlight the various ways higher education is, or isn’t, designed around the realities of students’ lives. Many of these students are navigating similar pressures: balancing college with work and family responsibilities, managing financial challenges and figuring out systems that weren’t necessarily built with them in mind. And as these experiences become increasingly common across higher education, they raise a bigger question: If so-called nontraditional students reflect the reality of today’s college population, does it still make sense to call them nontraditional?

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/college-experience/2026/09/24/when-nontraditional-students-become-norm

U of Kentucky Online recognizes faculty, staff for excellence in online teaching - Lindsey Piercy, UKnow

Three faculty members and four staff members were honored Sept. 16 during the University of Kentucky Online Awards ceremony, which featured the inaugural presentation of the UK Online Teaching Award. Now in its second year, the UKO Advocate recognition expands the UKO Excellence Awards by giving UK Online staff an opportunity to nominate faculty or staff members who work closely with them to support online teaching and learning across the university. The four UKO Excellence Award recipients are staff members nominated by their peers for their contributions to UK Online. Established in 2024, the UKO Excellence Awards provide an opportunity for the unit to celebrate its accomplishments and recognize staff members who contribute to its success.

https://uknow.uky.edu/professional-news/uk-online-recognizes-faculty-staff-excellence-online-teaching

The economics of AI - McKinsey Quarterly

The economics of AI - McKinsey Quarterly

AI is getting more expensive for companies. As rising token usage and workflow complexity make costs harder to predict, leaders need new ways to manage AI economics. Even with token prices falling, AI operating costs keep rising. Companies that get it right understand the six drivers behind this gap.

https://www.mckinsey.com/quarterly/the-five-fifty/five-fifty-the-economics-of-ai

Recursive Self-Improvement of AI Without Comprehensive Review and Alignment - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

In the high-tech, high-competition AI field, we are seeing new versions of models rolled out by the frontier companies (OpenAI, Google and Anthropic) every month and a half. I included a Release Cadence Breakdown report by Google Gemini in the “Online: Trending Now” column just a few weeks ago. The speed and intensity of the research and development required to keep up such a release schedule has taken a toll on the necessary, thorough testing of reliability and alignment that we all expect must be done by reliable creators. It is important to remember that this field is breaking new ground in creating models that can generate original concepts, often by mimicking approaches humans have taken in the past. Humans, of course, are not always the best models of safe, generous and legal behaviors. That’s where the problems arise.

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/online-trending-now/2026/09/30/ai-recursive-self-improvement-without-review-and

How should AI be regulated? - Claire Goudreau, Johns Hopkins University

Gillian Hadfield | Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of AI Alignment and Governance said "The key thing that happened was humans stopped writing all of the rules about how the computer was supposed to behave and figured out a method called machine learning where the machine, the computer, would write its own program. People will talk about guardrails, safety. We don't know what those should be. Technology moves faster than governments do. That's the pacing problem and the reason to slow down. ... We absolutely need our research universities to be taking this on as a mission because this is where the brain trust needs to be for how we figure out how to make this go well."

https://hub.jhu.edu/2026/09/17/next-conversations-governing-ai/

Pipeline needed: Every metro area now faces a workforce shortage - Alcino Donadel, University Business

Workforce shortages are mounting across the country and in major job categories, requiring educators, employers and policymakers to strengthen class-to-career pipelines. Every U.S. metro area is projected to lack qualified workers in at least one major job function through 2034, according to new research from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Nearly half of the 55 regions, including Atlanta, Detroit, and Seattle, will experience talent gaps in every work category. The center forecasted the number of jobs that will require a certificate or associate’s degree and that offer above-average starting wages and long-term growth. Those benchmarks are $42,500 for median entry-level salaries and $67,500 at mid-career.

https://universitybusiness.com/pipeline-needed-every-metro-area-now-faces-a-workforce-shortage/

Employment patterns are now improving for young workers without degrees - Erik Sherman, University Business

The most pronounced shift has occurred among workers ages 22 to 34. Burning Glass Institute’s analysis found that, for roughly two decades, unemployment trends for workers with and without college degrees generally moved in tandem when measured through a 212-month moving average for people age 16 and older by education level. That relationship began to change around 2023. By 2025, workers with college degrees were experiencing worse unemployment trends relative to peers without college degrees.

https://universitybusiness.com/employment-patterns-are-now-improving-for-young-workers-without-degrees/

Why We Haven’t Measured College-Level Learning - Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed

In the next couple of weeks, I’ll explain why we’ve historically tried (and failed) to measure learning and the importance of doing so now. Provide my early, and undoubtedly imperfect, ideas about how we might do that. And, importantly, distinguish what I’m envisioning from the accreditation- and accountability-driven “assessment” that a lot of you (not wrongly) view as the devil. Today’s column offers my best attempt to explain how we ended up here: lacking, as I argued previously, “tangible, direct and incontrovertible proof that colleges and universities actually help learners develop the capabilities, skills and habits of mind that the institutions purport to deliver.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/tough-love/2026/09/14/why-we-havent-measured-college-level-learning-column

IRS tax plan could imperil college finances, Moody’s says - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed Dive

The Trump administration’s recent proposal to revoke the tax-exempt status of private nonprofit colleges over their diversity efforts could bring steep financial consequences for institutions, according to a report out this week from Moody’s Ratings. Analysts with the ratings agency said widespread loss of tax status was “unlikely,” on the assumption that most institutions would probably try to comply with the proposed rules. However, even compliance could raise their legal costs and other expenses. If colleges did lose status, the main revenue hit would be on fundraising as donors would no longer be able to make tax-exempt gifts, the analysts said. Additionally, losing the ability to issue tax-exempt bonds would be “substantially negative” for institutions, they added.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/irs-tax-plan-could-imperil-college-finances-moodys-says/830213/

Moving Beyond the Trend Line in Continuing Education - Derek Tannis, Evolllution

Continuing education leaders now depend on forecasting more than ever. Formerly reliable indicators point in different directions. Once financial, operational and learner realities intersect, stable trends become harder to read. Enrollment may hold steady while margins tighten. Labor market demand may rise while staffing capacity weakens. A program may meet familiar success measures yet become harder to sustain. In these moments, the trend line cannot speak for itself. Leaders and practitioners must interpret competing evidence and decide what to do next. Forecasting asks what may happen if current patterns continue. Planning asks how an institution will respond: where to invest, what to pause, what to revise and which trade-offs to accept. In continuing education, learner demand, revenue models, labor market indicators and institutional capacity rarely move together. Acknowledging that uncertainty helps leaders forecast with discipline while still making critical planning decisions.

https://evolllution.com/moving-beyond-the-trend-line-in-continuing-education

As an academic scientist in the U.S., I’m learning to live with uncertainty - Violeta J. Rodriguez, Science

I reread the email I had drafted to my department chair one last time. Then I read it again, and finally clicked “send.” The message itself was short: I wanted to pursue tenure 3 years ahead of the usual timeline. A changing political and funding landscape had made the future of my health equity research feel increasingly vulnerable, and I hoped tenure would help protect the work I had spent years building. I had agonized over the decision for months. What if my record wasn’t strong enough yet, and I was shooting myself in the foot by applying early? But supportive mentors and continued news of funding shake-ups convinced me to go ahead, and my chair responded quickly and positively to my email. Yet I still found myself searching for reassurance that I had made the right decision.

https://www.science.org/content/article/academic-scientist-u-s-i-m-learning-live-uncertainty

Columbia and JED partner on teen mental health safeguards for AI - ETIH

Columbia University’s Technology & Democracy Initiative and The Jed Foundation have formed a partnership focused on how AI systems respond to teenagers experiencing emotional distress or suicidal thoughts. The project brings together AI safety specialists and mental health and suicide prevention experts, two groups the partners say increasingly work on the same problems but still lack a common framework for translating clinical knowledge into technical system design. Its first phase will include an expert roundtable followed by a jointly authored working paper. The partners intend the paper to provide a practical foundation for AI developers, mental health specialists, policymakers and platform safety teams working on youth mental health. The focus extends beyond the response a chatbot gives after a student or young person discloses distress. The project will examine how expert judgment can be incorporated throughout an AI system, including the policies governing it, how the technology recognizes that someone may be struggling and how it connects users with support.

https://www.edtechinnovationhub.com/news/columbia-and-jed-partner-on-teen-mental-health-safeguards-for-ai

Post-Pandemic, Online Ed Has ‘Staying Power’ - Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed

New federal data shows that about 53 percent of college students have taken an online course since 2022, compared to 36 percent in 2019.  New federal data shows that about 53 percent of college students have taken an online course since 2022, compared to 36 percent in 2019. The surge in online enrollment forced by the pandemic is leveling out. And the modality is now far more popular than it ever was during the 2010s, according to newly released federal data.  The Education Department published fall 2024 online enrollment data last month, covering more 5,615 institutions. The data shows nearly 54 percent of college students were taking at least some distance education courses during the fall of 2024, compared to about 53 percent in 2022 and 2023. Although online enrollment in 2024 was nowhere near as high as it was during the height of the pandemic—73.4 percent of college students took classes online in 2020—it’s still much higher than pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, just 36 percent of students were enrolled in some online courses.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/teaching-learning/2026/09/08/post-pandemic-online-ed-has-staying-power

Online university draws students with flexibility and training programs - NISHINIPPON SHIMBUN, Japan Times

Distance-learning universities in Japan, once largely seen as places where working adults could pursue higher education and broaden their knowledge, are increasingly becoming an option for students fresh out of high school. A striking example is Zen University, an online university opened by nonprofit Nippon Foundation and education company Dwango in April 2025. Over 4,000 students enrolled in its inaugural year, with fresh high school graduates accounting for more than half of the intake. At Zen University, which is based in Kanagawa Prefecture, all classes are offered online, through which students can earn the required academic credits. As students can attend classes without being tied to a particular place or time, they can gain work experience or engage in other activities on weekdays.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/09/07/japan/japan-online-universities-high-school-sudents/