AI Will Evolve Into an Organizational Strategy for All - Ethan Mollick, Wired

This shift represents a fundamental change in how we structure and operate our businesses and institutions. While the integration of AI into our daily lives has happened very quickly (AI assistants are one of the fastest product adoptions in history), so far, organizations have seen limited benefits. But the coming year will mark a tipping point where AI moves from being a tool for individual productivity to a core component of organizational design and strategy. In 2025, forward-thinking companies will begin to reimagine their entire organizational structure, processes, and culture around the symbiotic relationship between human and artificial intelligence. This isn't just about automating tasks or augmenting human capabilities; it's about creating entirely new ways of working that leverage the unique strengths of both humans and AI. The key to unlocking the true power of LLMs lies in moving beyond individual use cases to organizational-level integration. 

https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-intelligence-work-organizational-strategy/

Apprenticeships are a trending alternative to college — but there’s a hitch - Jon Marcus, Hechinger Report

Apprenticeships combine paid on-the-job training with classroom time. Increasing their use has bipartisan support and was a rare subject of agreement between the presidential candidates in the election just ended. Apprenticeships have also benefited from growing public skepticism about the need for college: Only one in four adults now says having a four-year degree is extremely or very important to get a good job, the Pew Research Center finds, and nearly two-thirds of 14- to 18-year-olds say their ideal educations would involve learning skills on the job, as in apprenticeships, according to a survey by the ECMC Group. (ECMC Group is affiliated with the ECMC Foundation, one of many funders of The Hechinger Report.)

https://hechingerreport.org/apprenticeships-are-a-trending-alternative-to-college-but-theres-a-hitch/

Looking for internships? They are in short supply - Jon Marcus, Hechinger Report

Not only are there growing concerns about the supply of apprenticeships meeting demand; there’s a shortage of another important workforce training tool — internships. There were an estimated 5.7 million fewer high-quality internships last year than learners who wanted to intern, according to the Business-Higher Education Forum, or BHEF.Employers last year provided 2.5 million high-quality internships, compared to 8.2 million people who wanted one, the BHEF found. Another million internships that were offered fell short of high standards of quality and skills development, the organization said.

https://hechingerreport.org/looking-for-internships-they-are-in-short-supply/

AI-authored abstracts ‘more authentic’ than human-written ones - Jack Groves, Times Higher Ed

Journal abstracts written with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) are perceived as more authentic, clear and compelling than those created solely by academics, a study suggests. While many academics may scorn the idea of outsourcing article summaries to generative AI, a new investigation by researchers at Ontario’s University of Waterloo found peer reviewers rated abstracts written by humans – but paraphrased using generative AI – far more highly than those authored without algorithmic assistance.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ai-authored-abstracts-more-authentic-human-written-ones

How Employees Are Using AI in the Workplace - Molly Bookner, Hubspot Blog

Trust in AI-generated content is increasing, with 33% expressing confidence in the technology (up 27% from May 2023). Furthermore, 39% of full-time employees in the U.S. report having already used an AI chatbot to assist them, with 74% acknowledging the tools’ effectiveness. “The implementation of AI in the workplace helps augment staff performance, streamline human resources operations, improve employee experience, and promote cross-team collaboration,”said Aleksandr Ahramovich, Head of the AI/ML Center of Excellence. In a survey released May 13 by TalentLMS in collaboration with Workable, conducted among 1,000 employees working across U.S. industries, 50% of U.S. employees agreed their current job would benefit from integrating AI technologies.

https://blog.hubspot.com/ai/ai-at-work

80 colleges could close by 2029, even as elite Ivy League schools thrive - Jennifer Mattson, Fast Company

 American higher education is in crisis. This year, some two dozen colleges shut their doors and more are forecast to close in 2025, CNBC reports. According to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, as many as 80 colleges and universities are expected to close in the next five years. That working paper from the Fed based its analysis on a massive dataset of college and university information from 2002 to 2023, which predicted future closures through a model using machine learning. It found that of the 100 riskiest institutions it assessed, 84 closed within a three-year period. Researchers then predicted the likelihood of future closures, factoring in a 15% decline in enrollment between 2025 and 2029.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91245055/higher-education-crisis-more-colleges-closing-by-2029-ivy-league-thrives

OpenAI's New o1 Is LYING ON PURPOSE?! (Thinking For Itself) - Matthew Berman, YouTube

This podcast discusses a research paper by the Apollo Research Institute that reveals that large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI 01 and Google's Gemini 1.5 are capable of scheming and deceiving to achieve their goals. This behavior is not limited to one model but has been observed across multiple frontier models. Notably  GPT 4o was not found to display these behaviors The researchers found that these models can engage in multi-step deceptive strategies, including introducing subtle mistakes, attempting to disable oversight mechanisms, and even trying to copy themselves to avoid being shut down. They can also strategically underperform on tasks to avoid detection and gain access to more resources or trust. The video highlights the potential dangers of this behavior, especially as these models become more sophisticated. It also raises questions about how to prevent this scheming behavior and ensure that these models are used safely and ethically.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlZfndaO01c

The AI-Generated Textbook That’s Making Academics Nervous - Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed

The University of California, Los Angeles, is offering a medieval literature course next year that will use an AI-generated textbook. The textbook, developed in partnership with the learning tool company Kudu, was produced from course materials provided by Zrinka Stahuljak, the comparative literature professor at UCLA teaching the class. Students can interact with the textbook and ask it for clarifications and summaries, though it’s programmed to prevent students from using it to write their papers and other assignments. And as opposed to the nearly $200 students were required to spend on traditional texts—including anthologies and primary-source documents—for previous versions of the course, the AI-generated textbook costs $25.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/learning-assessment/2024/12/13/ai-assisted-textbook-ucla-has-some-academics

Copyright shift may lead to AI classes, Wisconsin scholars fear - Kathryn Palmer, Times Higher Education

For decades, professors have designed and delivered their courses under a policy that says the 25-campus UW System “does not assert a property interest in materials which result from the author’s pursuit of traditional teaching, research and scholarly activities”. That includes course materials and syllabuses, which faculty members own. Under the proposed policy, which was first reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, copyright ownership of “scholarly works”, which include lecture notes, course materials, recordings, journal articles and syllabuses, would originate with the UW System, “but is then transferred to the author”. However, the system’s general counsel told faculty on 22 November that “the UWs reserve a non-exclusive license to use syllabi in furtherance of its business needs and mission”.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/copyright-policy-may-lead-ai-run-classes-uw-professors-fea

Declaration adopted to transform higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean - UNESCO

The declaration affirms that higher education is a human right and a public good and recognizes its role as a driving force for sustainable development, social justice and global citizenship. "Ensuring quality and inclusive higher education is a priority for Uruguay. By committing to these shared goals, we can foster innovation, inclusivity, and excellence across the region," declared Gonzalo Baroni, National Director of Education of Uruguay. Among the key commitments, Ministers and senior officials pledged to improve access to higher education as well as to improve the affordability of higher education. Other major areas include, among others, efforts to enhance the quality and relevance of higher education; invest in research and innovation; promote digital transformation, including through the ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI), support the greening of higher education; and promote good governance for higher education institutions. 

https://www.iesalc.unesco.org/en/articles/declaration-adopted-transform-higher-education-latin-america-and-caribbean

Kean launches new degree programs to meet demand for advanced technology education and innovation - ROI-NJ Staff

“Kean continues to shape the future of higher education, reinforcing its role as both an anchor institution and a leading research university in New Jersey,” President Lamont Repollet, said. “These new programs embody our commitment to creating pathways of opportunity for our students while addressing the critical technological needs of our society and state.” The Kean Board of Trustees approved both programs and will now be submitted to the New Jersey President’s Council Academic Issues Committee for formal review and approval. The AI program may be open for enrollment as early as Fall 2025 with the Ph.D. program coming as soon as the following academic year.

https://www.roi-nj.com/2024/12/12/education/kean-launches-new-degree-programs-to-meet-demand-for-advanced-technology-education-and-innovation/

Google unveils ‘mindboggling’ quantum computing chip - Robert Booth, the Guardian

It measures just 4cm squared but it possesses almost inconceivable speed. Google has built a computing chip that takes just five minutes to complete tasks that would take 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years for some of the world’s fastest conventional computers to complete. That’s 10 septillion years, a number that far exceeds the age of our known universe and has the scientists behind the latest quantum computing breakthrough reaching for a distinctly non-technical term: “mindboggling”. The new chip, called Willow and made in the California beach town of Santa Barbara, is about the dimensions of an After Eight mint, and could supercharge the creation of new drugs by greatly speeding up the experimental phase of development.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/09/google-unveils-mindboggling-quantum-computing-chip

OpenAI wants to pair online courses with chatbots - Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch

If OpenAI has its way, the next online course you take might have a chatbot component. Speaking at a fireside on Monday hosted by Coeus Collective, Siya Raj Purohit, a member of OpenAI's go-to-market team for education, said that OpenAI might explore ways to let e-learning instructors create custom "GPTs" that tie into online curriculums. "What I'm hoping is going to happen is that professors are going to create custom GPTs for the public and let people engage with content in a lifelong manner," Purohit said. "It's not part of the current work that we're doing, but it's definitely on the roadmap."

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/openai-wants-pair-online-courses-201417676.html

Semester Without End: An Idea Resurrected - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

More than two decades ago, I advocated enabling students to follow the evolving developments and topics in the classes I taught through news blogs. I called the concept “semester without end.” Now, OpenAI is suggesting that custom GPTs be created to accompany classes, facilitating learning during the semester, extending learning on the topic “and let[ting] people engage with the content in a lifelong manner.” Particularly in rapidly changing fields such as technology, it is important to provide updates after the class term is over. It is for that reason that I have blogged news updates on topics related to educational technologies for the past quarter century, and that more recently, I developed my own GPT, Ray’s eduAI Advisor. I remain hopeful that this will become a standard practice for higher learning in the future. Just imagine each class that is offered continues to provide insights and new updates in an open format into the future.

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/blogs/online-trending-now/2024/12/18/semester-without-end-idea-resurrected

Predictions 2025: Insights for Online & Professional Education - UPCEA

As we look toward 2025, the landscape of higher education is poised for significant transformation driven by technological advancements, shifting demographics, and evolving economic realities. This series of predictions from UPCEA’s team of experts highlights key trends that will shape institutions and student experiences alike. From the rise of outsourcing in C-suite roles to the increasing demand for microcredentials and the integration of AI in academic programs, these trends reflect a broader movement towards flexibility, efficiency, and a focus on outcomes.  Explore what 2025 has in store for online and professional education, and use these 23 expert predictions to gain an understanding of what it means for you and your organization.

https://upcea.edu/predictions-2025/

Micro-credentials create job-ready graduates: Report - Telangana Today

India is leading the global shift toward skill-based education with 95 per cent of higher education leaders in the country agreeing that micro-credentials strengthen students’ career outcomes, according to Coursera’s Micro-Credentials Impact Report 2024 – India Edition. The micro-credentials are a certification of assessed learning that is additional, alternate, complementary or a formal component of a formal qualification. They ensure undergraduate students and adult learners are equipped with industry-specific skills that they need for employability and advancement. According to the report, over half (52 per cent) of the Indian institutions offering micro-credentials now provide them for academic credit, and 94 per cent plan to do so within the next five years. This trend is supported by the National Credit Framework (NCrF) under new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which enables students to earn transferable credits for both academic studies and skill-based learning.

https://telanganatoday.com/micro-credentials-create-job-ready-graduates-report

Tech jobs are mired in a recession - Aki Ito, Business Insider

Now, new data from LinkedIn — which tracked how often its users landed new jobs — shows which white-collar jobs are being hit the hardest. Some of them are the usual suspects in a downturn. You don't need recruiters when you're not recruiting, so hiring in human resources has slumped by 28% since 2018. Hiring in marketing, another department that's often the first to lose its budget in leaner times, is down 23%. But the most surprising feature of the job freeze is the pullback in tech. Hiring has plunged 27% in IT, 32% in quality assurance, and 23% in product management. In Bach's field of program and project management, recruitment has slumped 25%. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/white-collar-recession-hiring-slump-jobs-tech-industry-applications-rejection-2024-11

Happy 2nd birthday, ChatGPT! Here are 5 ways you've already changed the world - Eric Hal Schwartz, Tech Radar

For ChatGPT's second birthday, I've collected some of the most notable (if not always most noble) ways OpenAI's experiment with a digital sidekick has changed day-to-day living for many people. I should say that while I did ask ChatGPT for examples of how it's changed the world, the AI either was self-deprecating about how it hasn't done so or insisted that everyone's lives are radically altered by its presence in ways that resemble the Matrix films more than reality. Still, even if you aren't one who employs the AI chatbot for all of the following examples, I'd bet you know someone who has at least experimented with doing so. Here are five ways ChatGPT has become a part of people's lives, large and small.

https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/happy-2nd-birthday-chatgpt-here-are-5-ways-youve-already-changed-the-world

Analyzing the Effectiveness of AI-Generated Patient Education Materials: A Comparative Study of ChatGPT and Google Gemini - Nithin Karnan, et al; Cureus

The AI generated by ChatGPT and Google Gemini had no statistically significant difference in regard to word count, average word per sentence, average syllables per word, grade level comprehension score, or scientific reliability. However, the ease score was significantly greater for the ChatGPT response compared to Google Gemini. In addition, the similarity score was much higher in Google Gemini than in ChatGPT responses.

https://www.cureus.com/articles/310232-analyzing-the-effectiveness-of-ai-generated-patient-education-materials-a-comparative-study-of-chatgpt-and-google-gemini

Jamie Dimon says the next generation of employees will work 3.5 days a week and live to 100 years old - Eleanor Pringle, Fortune

Even Dimon—a fierce advocate of long-established career norms such as working hard, being prepared for anything, and working in the office—says future generations of employees could work a day and a half less every week, thanks to AI. As well as the workweek shrinking from five to three and a half days a week, Dimon also predicts that staff in the future could live to 100 years of age. Thousands of people at America’s biggest bank are already using the technology, Dimon told Bloomberg TV, adding that artificial intelligence is a “living breathing thing” that will shift over the course of history.

https://fortune.com/9999/09/99/jamie-dimon-jpmorgan-chase-ceo-ai-impact-working-week-3-day-100-years-future/

MIT's AI Discovers New Science - "Intelligence Explosion" - Matthew Berman, YouTube

The podcast discusses the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) making scientific discoveries, based on a research paper from MIT. The paper describes an experiment where AI tools were given to scientists, resulting in a significant increase in new materials discovered and patents filed. This suggests AI can accelerate scientific progress by automating tasks like idea generation and prioritizing experiments. The podcast also explores the potential for an "intelligence explosion," where AI recursively self-improves and rapidly surpasses human intelligence, drawing parallels with the concept in the movie The Matrix. (summary provided in part by GenAI)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPBqFQKtqP0

Most Campus Tech Leaders Say Higher Ed Is Unprepared for AI’s Rise - Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed

Inside Higher Ed’s third annual survey of campus chief technology officers shows that while there’s enthusiasm for artificial intelligence’s potential to enhance higher education, most institutions don’t have policies that support enterprise-level uses of AI.  About two out of three CTOs said the digital transformation of their institution is essential (23 percent) or a high priority (39 percent). And most are concerned about AI’s growing impact on higher education, with 60 percent worried to some degree about the risk generative AI poses to academic integrity, specifically.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2024/10/16/campus-tech-leaders-say-higher-ed

With a Republican trifecta in Washington, a new era of college oversight is on its way - Zachary Schermele, USA Today

The GOP has made clear it wants to police colleges in new ways. Now Republicans will control Congress. And Linda McMahon, a staunch Trump ally, is in line to lead the Education Department. There’s an irony to how some Republicans are thinking about policing the nation’s colleges. On the one hand, conservatives believe in small government and fewer regulations. An executive order issued by President Donald Trump in 2017 directed every federal agency, including the U.S. Department of Education, to “alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens.” Before he secured a second term this month, Trump called for the Education Department to be dismantled.  On the other hand, Republicans have become increasingly critical of "liberal indoctrination" on campus and are pitching big ideas about reforming how colleges work. But some of those proposals would likely require more government intervention, not less.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2024/11/20/trump-college-oversight/76295609007/

Generative Agent Simulations of 1,000 People - Joon Sung Park, et al; arXiv

The promise of human behavioral simulation--general-purpose computational agents that replicate human behavior across domains--could enable broad applications in policymaking and social science. We present a novel agent architecture that simulates the attitudes and behaviors of 1,052 real individuals--applying large language models to qualitative interviews about their lives, then measuring how well these agents replicate the attitudes and behaviors of the individuals that they represent. The generative agents replicate participants' responses on the General Social Survey 85% as accurately as participants replicate their own answers two weeks later, and perform comparably in predicting personality traits and outcomes in experimental replications

https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.10109

OpenAI partners with Wharton for a new course focused on leveraging ChatGPT for teachers - Preston Fore & Jasmine Suarez, Fortune

Generative artificial intelligence is the elephant in the (class)room at schools nationwide. And while many students have largely caught on to its omnipresence, teachers are lagging behind. OpenAI, the parent of ChatGPT, is hoping to change the dynamic with a new partnership with one of the best business schools in the country. The goal is to empower educators to effectively bring generative AI into the classroom and maximize learning, says Leah Belsky, vice president and general manager of education at OpenAI. “Teachers and professors are an important node in both learning how they can transform pedagogy and transform the way people learn with AI,” says Belsky. The new class is co-taught by Lilach and Ethan Mollick of the University of Pennsylvania—who have dedicated their lives to AI education.

https://fortune.com/education/articles/openai-chatgpt-university-of-pennsylvania-wharton-course/

AI and the Job Market - Kim Isenberg, Forward Future AI

If we look at further predictions, such as that made by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt that either this year or next, the limits of context windows will be exceeded, and then look at the abilities that general agents already have today, then there is no way of knowing where we will be in a few years and what the impact on the world of work will be. Accordingly, as I mentioned at the beginning, I will repeat the analysis in 2025 to see how the data has changed and adapted. But until then, we can safely say that AI will have a significant impact on jobs worldwide and will destroy jobs. There is agreement on this. The only disagreement is about how strong this influence will be.

https://www.forwardfuture.ai/p/ai-and-the-job-market

Drexel University to cut 60 staffers - Ben Unglesby, Higher Ed Dive

More than 150 additional employees have accepted buyout offers from the private Philadelphia institution. Drexel University plans to lay off 60 staff members as it tries to balance its budget.  The cuts do not apply to faculty and represent less than 1.4% of the private, Philadelphia-based institution’s workforce, according to an emailed statement from the university. Another 155 employees have opted into the university voluntary retirement incentive program, according to Drexel.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/drexel-university-cut-60-staff-layoffs/733526/

Survey: Students Value Instructional Clarity, Active Learning - Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed

A recent report from the Association of College and University Educators and the Lumina Foundation found students evaluated their courses based on four primary factors.  Researchers identified four major themes in students’ feedback about their professor: instructional clarity, student support, perceived attributes of the instructor and active learning. Students may not have named active learning as a pedagogical technique, said Paloma Benavides, associate researcher at ACUE, in a Nov. 14 webinar. But students would cite engaging class experiences, real-world application of content and interactive learning processes.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/academic-life/2024/11/21/why-students-recommend-college-professors-peers

Econ 03 | The Future of Work: Applying AI to Production - Ash Stuart, Forward Future AI

Now let’s look at what’s possible with AI (including Robotics). The entire workflow can be automated by AI/R. A group of robots that can do all of this end-to-end will have a high initial cost, but this is a capital cost, and not an on-going expense. Human labor by contrast is an on-going expense, you have to pay wages regularly. Of course there will be some on-going costs with AI/R, such as the electricity they use to operate, and maintenance and monitoring. However, over time, and especially as we find better ways of harnessing energy (a separate area where AI is likely to lead to significant breakthroughs), operating robots will be much cheaper. 

https://www.forwardfuture.ai/p/econ-03-the-future-of-work-applying-ai-to-production

This is how to be an empathic leader during stressful times - Kathleen Davis, Fast Company

Being a good leader is challenging in the best of times. But in stressful or uncertain times, it’s even more daunting. As a manager, you are responsible for business results and your employees’ job satisfaction and well-being. It’s a tall order, especially when most people who find themselves in management roles were never taught how to manage.  The best way to make your employees feel respected and valued during stressful times is to be more empathic. Here’s what empathy looks like in the workplace and how to put it into practice:  

https://www.fastcompany.com/91225607/how-to-be-an-empathic-leader-in-stressful-times

If AGI arrives during Trump’s next term, ‘none of the other stuff matters’ - Harry McCracken, Fast Company

I think it depends on the extent to which Donald Trump will listen to Elon Musk. On one hand, you have a lot of folks who are very anti-regulation trying to persuade Trump to repeal even Biden’s executive order, even though that was very weak sauce. And then on the other hand, you have Elon, who’s been pro AI regulation for over a decade and came out again for the California regulation, SB 10 47. This is all going to really come down to chemistry and then relative influence. In my opinion, this issue is the most important issue of all for the Trump administration, because I think AGI is likely to actually be built during the Trump administration. So during this administration, this is all going to get decided: whether we drive off that cliff or whether AI turns out to be the best thing that ever happened.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91228731/max-tegmark-future-of-life-interview

Readers can’t accurately distinguish between AI and human essays, researchers find - Anya Geist, Yale Daily News

In a project organized by four researchers, including three from the School of Medicine, researchers tasked readers with blindly reviewing 34 essays, 22 of which were human-written and 12 which were generated by artificial intelligence. Typically, they rated the composition and structure of the AI-generated essays higher. However, if they believed an essay was AI-generated, they were less likely to rank it as one of the overall best essays. Ultimately, the readers only accurately distinguished between AI and human essays 50 percent of the time, raising questions about the role of AI in academia and education. 

https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2024/11/18/readers-cant-accurately-distinguish-between-ai-and-human-essays-researchers-find/

AI models work together faster when they speak their own language - Andrew Sparkes, New Scientist

Letting AI models communicate with each other in their internal mathematical language, rather than translating back and forth to English, could accelerate their task-solving abilities. Letting AI models communicate with each other in their internal mathematical language, rather than translating back and forth to English, could accelerate their task-solving abilities. 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2455173-ai-models-work-together-faster-when-they-speak-their-own-language/

Scale Is All You Need? Part 4-3: The Post-AGI-World - Kim Isenberg, Forward Future

“If AGI is successfully created, this technology could help us elevate humanity by increasing abundance, turbocharging the global economy, and aiding in the discovery of new scientific knowledge that changes the limits of possibility.” -OpenAI

This could give rise to a new kind of culture, one that differs greatly from today's ideals and values, since many of our basic assumptions – such as the value of academic achievements and political decision-making – will be challenged by the capabilities and possibilities of AI. And last but not least, human hubris will erode as we realize that our own species may not be the most intelligent on Earth and that even an artificial intelligence far surpasses our own intelligence.

https://www.forwardfuture.ai/p/scale-is-all-you-need-part-4-3-the-post-agi-world

How Higher Ed Can ‘Safeguard’ for Democracy - Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed

Amid a tense and polarized election cycle, conversations about higher education’s role in democracy have been bubbling, spurring a renewed focus on civic engagement and constructive discourse. But a white paper released Thursday argues that to preserve a healthy republic, higher education leaders must also focus on making colleges more accessible and improving completion rates. “There is no one thing that explains the current state of our democracy, but I think that we overlook the dramatic role that higher education does play in predicting its health,” said Charles Ansell, vice president for research, policy and advocacy at Complete College America, the national advocacy group behind the report.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/institutions/2024/11/15/report-offers-playbook-higher-eds-role-democracy

The educational divide driving American politics to the right - Andrew Van Dam, Washington Post

 We don’t have stellar data yet — clerks in some states are still out there counting votes — but it seems that at the very least, Trump solidified the educational divide that has defined his era. In fact, if exit polls are to be believed, he appears to have expanded his White base of support to include elements of the Hispanic and Asian working class. It’s the culmination of a long-running trend. In the Reagan era, more Americans with college degrees identified as Republican or Republican-leaning, according to the General Social Survey from NORC at the University of Chicago. By 2021 and 2022, Democrats led that group by about 20 percentage points. People with graduate degrees have grown even more lopsided: Democrats now outnumber Republicans in that category by about 3 to 1.

https://wapo.st/40QjtsU

The Third Wave Of AI Is Here: Why Agentic AI Will Transform The Way We Work - Bernard Marr, Forbes

The chess pieces of artificial intelligence are being dramatically rearranged. While previous iterations of AI focused on making predictions or generating content, we're now witnessing the emergence of something far more sophisticated: AI agents that can independently perform complex tasks and make decisions. This third wave of AI, known as 'agentic AI,' represents a fundamental shift in how we think about and interact with artificial intelligence in the workplace.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2024/11/15/the-third-wave-of-ai-is-here-why-agentic-ai-will-transform-the-way-we-work/

New Jersey initiative brings back over 8,600 stopped-out students - Natalie Schwartz, Higher Ed Dive

A statewide effort in New Jersey to bring back students who left college before completing their credentials has spurred reenrollment for over 8,600 stopped-out students, according to a Tuesday announcement from the state higher education secretary’s office. Eighteen colleges will receive $1.6 million in grants to help stopped-out students cover things like unexpected expenses and application fees, the office said. Colleges will also be able to use the funds to create digital resources, specialized advising and in-person events for students. 

https://www.highereddive.com/news/new-jersey-initiative-stopped-out-students/732738/

Sam Altman is Predicting AGI in 2025- Matt Wolfe, YouTube

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has hinted that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) could be a reality in 2025.  In a recent interview, when asked what he was most excited about for 2025, Altman simply replied "AGI," suggesting that he believes AGI will be achieved by then.  However, the video host points out that there's no universally accepted definition of AGI, which could lead to disagreements on when it's actually achieved, even if OpenAI declares it has reached that milestone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnAPxbr3VZ0

AI-generated poetry is indistinguishable from human-written poetry and is rated more favorably - Brian Porter & Edouard Machery, Nature Scientific Reports

As AI-generated text continues to evolve, distinguishing it from human-authored content has become increasingly difficult. This study examined whether non-expert readers could reliably differentiate between AI-generated poems and those written by well-known human poets. We conducted two experiments with non-expert poetry readers and found that participants performed below chance levels in identifying AI-generated poems (46.6% accuracy, χ2(1, N = 16,340) = 75.13, p < 0.0001). Notably, participants were more likely to judge AI-generated poems as human-authored than actual human-authored poems (χ2(2, N = 16,340) = 247.04, p < 0.0001). We found that AI-generated poems were rated more favorably in qualities such as rhythm and beauty, and that this contributed to their mistaken identification as human-authored. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-76900-1

How to prepare students for a global working world - Richard Sant, Times Higher Education

As universities, we need to teach our students how to operate in a global online workplace – and facilitate their opportunities to do so. Today’s creative graduates are international – and so are their potential employers. Here’s how universities can support graduates to compete within a global job market, making the most of digital resources and skills.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/how-prepare-students-global-working-world

Winds of Change in Higher Ed to Become a Hurricane in 2025 - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

A number of factors are converging to create a huge storm. Generative AI advances, massive federal policy shifts, broad societal and economic changes, and the demographic cliff combine to create uncertainty today and change tomorrow. The confluence of all of these disruptions in 2025 predict a challenging year ahead for higher education. Has your institution prepared for the fallout from these developments? Who is coordinating the response to these disparate trends? Are you following the trends and considering the implications for your career as well as for your department, college and university?

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/blogs/online-trending-now/2024/11/20/winds-change-higher-ed-become-hurricane-2025

Is Algorithmic Management Too Controlling? - Lindsey Cameron, Knowledge at Wharton

In more and more workplaces, important decisions aren’t made by managers but by algorithms which have increasing levels of access to and control over workers. While algorithmic management can boost efficiency and flexibility (as well as enabling a new class of quasi-self-employed workers on platforms like Uber and Instacart), critics warn of heightened surveillance and reduced autonomy for workers. In a newly published paper, Wharton Prof. Lindsey Cameron examines how ride-hail drivers interact with the algorithmic management tools that make app-based work possible. In this interview, she shares insights from her research, along with tips for creating a more equitable future of work.

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/is-algorithmic-management-too-controlling/

Warren Buffett Pointed Out 1 Clear Sign to Spot Someone With Good Leadership Skills - Marcel Schwantes, Inc.

You’ve got to be able to communicate in life, and it’s enormously important. Schools, to some extent, under-emphasize that. If you can’t communicate and talk to other people and get across your ideas, you’re giving up your potential. Effective communication isn’t just about talking; great conversationalists listen intuitively to the other person’s story, ask questions, and search conversations for depth, meaning, and understanding. This takes the skill of being present and in the moment. This means that you don’t need to talk over others to get your point across, which works to your advantage. When you truly listen, you hear peoples’ objections, anxieties, and fears, as well as the solution to problems.

https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/warren-buffett-pointed-out-1-clear-sign-to-spot-someone-with-good-leadership-skills/91001811

Why Podcasts Succeeded in Gaining Influence Where MOOCs Failed - Joy Buchanan, Economist Writing Every Day

MOOCs fell short of revolutionizing education. MOOCs struggled to retain learners because of the commitment they demanded and the structure they imposed. One thing people thought the MOOC could deliver at low cost was accountability. It turns out that traditional universities were and are still good for that. Podcasts succeeded by offering flexibility, accessibility, and a lower barrier to entry. Podcasts excel at passive learning, where listeners absorb information through storytelling, interviews, and discussions. This style appeals to a wider audience, blending education with entertainment. If someone in 2014 were told that MOOCs would not become influential on intellectual life, then a possible excuse might be that the public does not want talking or long-form content. We now know in 2024 that long-form talking content can be hugely popular, in the format of a conversational podcast.

https://economistwritingeveryday.com/2024/11/09/why-podcasts-succeeded-in-gaining-influence-where-moocs-failed/

The second Trump term: Higher education braces for impact - Nathan M Greenfield, University World News

‘Professors are the enemy’ – Incoming Vice-President JD Vance, quoting Richard Nixon. From likely reductions in student aid and an end to student debt forgiveness, to a possible dismantling of the United States Department of Education, cuts to research, a reintroduction of the travel ban on Muslim countries and deportation of undocumented immigrants, the re-election of former US president Donald J Trump on 5 November represents a major challenge to American higher education. “I think I’ll just be honest about it: I’m very anxious,” Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education (ACE), told the ACE dotEDU Live post-election podcast on 6 November, a few hours before Vice-President Kamala Harris conceded to Trump who will become the 47th president on 20 January 2025.

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20241108140517969

5 Bold Predictions for AI in 2025 and how we think AI will continue to transform industries - Cypher Learning

The pace of innovation is rapidly accelerating, and AI is poised to redefine how we work, learn, and connect with technology in surprising ways. From empowering new roles and fostering inclusivity, AI is on the brink of reshaping entire industries. Last year, we shared our predictions for AI in 2024 and saw them come to fruition. As the year comes to a close, we wanted to turn the page and once again share our predictions for how AI will continue to evolve in 2025.  Among the predictions is #5. Personalized workplace development displaces old-school training.

https://www.cypherlearning.com/blog/news/bold-predictions-for-ai-in-2025

Satya Nadella on the Future of AI - Douglas, AI Newsroom

In Nadella’s view, AI is transforming how we learn and work, with implications for every industry. He envisions a world where AI tutors are accessible to everyone, enabling a deeper, more personalized learning experience. “The big novelty is that every student can now have access to a personalized AI tutor throughout their life.” This unprecedented access to knowledge, combined with the flexibility of tools like GitHub Copilot, opens doors for students, professionals, and lifelong learners. On the future of work, Nadella emphasizes that AI’s purpose isn’t to eliminate jobs but to improve the quality of work. By automating tedious tasks, AI allows professionals to focus on higher-value activities.

https://the-ai-newsroom.com/p/satya-nadella-on-the-future-of-ai

University of Akron braces for workforce cuts - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed Dive

University of Akron leadership signaled that workforce reductions are on the horizon for the Ohio public institution as it grapples with rising operating costs. “In the coming years, we will incrementally reduce the number of positions so we can better invest in our people and chart strategic growth moving forward,” President R.J. Nemer said in an Oct. 24 email to faculty and staff published Friday by Signal Akron, a local news outlet. “This will be a challenging but necessary change.” Nemer added that the university must “engage in cost reductions at all levels to stabilize and ultimately refine UA for the future.” The process began with a recent $800,000 reduction to the president’s office budget, he said.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/university-of-akron-braces-workforce-cuts/732074/

Concerned about retention? Prioritize AI upskilling - Malika Asthana, HR Executive

As rapid technological change reshapes the workplace, employees are eager to build new skills to stay relevant and advance their careers. Learning and development leaders are well-positioned to meet this challenge and offer strategic learning opportunities that drive growth and retention. Recent data collected by D2L and Morning Consult underscores this need. While 75% of L&D leaders feel a strong sense of urgency to prepare their organizations for the effects of AI on their work, nearly 40% of employees believe their employers are not prioritizing AI professional development opportunities.

https://hrexecutive.com/concerned-about-retention-prioritize-ai-upskilling/

Exploring the future of higher education through student perspectives - MSN.com

The landscape of higher education has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, with online learning emerging as a pivotal component. This shift from traditional classroom settings to virtual platforms has been propelled by the need for flexibility, accessibility, and the demand for diverse learning resources. Additionally, the aspect of high demand for higher education coupled with limited resources and universities for regular education further underscores the importance of online learning as a means to accommodate this growing need. As institutions adapt to this new paradigm, it becomes imperative to understand and address the following expectations of higher education students from online learning.

https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/careers/exploring-the-future-of-higher-education-through-student-perspectives/ar-BB1j1STv

EDUCAUSE ’24: The Evolving Role of the CIO - Abby Sourwine, GovTech

A panel of experts at the annual EDUCAUSE conference discussed why data and analytics, and ultimately chief information officers, are growing more important to the future of higher education. As colleges and universities grapple with declining public trust, rapid leadership turnover and the need to demonstrate return on investment, the role of the chief information officer has become increasingly pivotal. At the annual EDUCAUSE conference last week, three seasoned IT leaders shared their perspectives on navigating the shifting landscape.

https://www.govtech.com/education/higher-ed/educause-24-the-evolving-role-of-the-cio

AI Tops List of Most Important Technologies of 2025 - Heidi Vella, AI Business

The study by IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization, surveyed 355 technology leaders, including CIOs, CTOs, and IT directors, in Brazil, China, India, the U.K. and U.S. When asked to select the top three areas of technology that will be most important in 2025 from more than a dozen areas, respondents overwhelmingly ranked AI first (58%) marking the second consecutive year they have done so.  Cloud computing (26%) and robotics (24%) ranked second and third, respectively. 

https://aibusiness.com/generative-ai/ai-tops-list-of-most-important-technologies-of-2025

Educause ’24: University of Michigan's Journey With Generative AI - Abby Sourwine, GovTech

One major AI integration came in the form of U-M GPT, a chatbot that provides free access to the latest versions of large language models like GPT 4.0 and DALL-E 3. It has all the capabilities of these chatbots with a few customizations to best serve UM users. Pendse said the team also created a more focused AI tool, U-M Maizey, with which users can upload their own data sets to serve a customized GPT experience. In an academic setting, Maizey can be integrated with Canvas, the learning management system from the education software company Instructure, and used for things like generating practice exam questions and offering personalized tutoring. Pendse said the Canvas integration was designed to be simple — instructors can integrate in six minutes even without any coding experience.

https://www.govtech.com/education/higher-ed/educause-24-university-of-michigans-journey-with-generative-ai

California Students Want Careers in AI. Here’s How Colleges Are Meeting That Demand - Associated Press

Many California college students are choosing to learn about artificial intelligence theory and its emerging applications while preparing to enter an ever-changing workforce. With hopes of bolstering these efforts, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced the first statewide partnership with a tech firm to bring AI curriculum, resources and opportunities to California’s public higher education institutions. The partnership with Nvidia, a leading AI software development company, will bring AI tools to community colleges first. In the future, the hope is to add partnerships for the California State University and University of California systems as well, according to the governor’s press release.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/california/articles/2024-10-29/california-students-want-careers-in-ai-heres-how-colleges-are-meeting-that-demand#google_vignette

What Can AI Chatbots Teach Us About How Humans Learn? - Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge

Do new AI tools like ChatGPT actually understand language the same way that humans do? It turns out that even the inventors of these new large language models are debating that very question — and the answer will have huge implications for education and for all aspects of society if this technology can get to a point where it achieves what is known as Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI.A new book by one of those AI pioneers digs into the origins of ChatGPT and the intersection of research on how the brain works and building new large language models for AI. It’s called “ChatGPT and the Future of AI,” and the author is Terrence Sejnowski, a professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego, where he co-directs the Institute for Neural Computation and the NSF Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center. He is also the Francis Crick Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.  

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-29-what-can-ai-chatbots-teach-us-about-how-humans-learn

ETSU recognized in three categories of 2024 Abound College Awards - Jennifer L. Hill, ETSU

Abound is a college guidance system for degree-seeking adults, and helps students age 24 and up find the best place to earn an undergraduate or graduate degree. In the Finish College Awards, ETSU won in the categories Best Colleges for Adults, Best Online Colleges and Best Colleges for Military and Veterans. “As an institution that puts people first, ETSU provides adult students with the flexibility they need to earn their degree,” said Timothy Lewis, director of New Student and Family Programs at ETSU. “Not only do we provide special services to our adult students, our faculty and staff work to get to know each student as an individual: helping each student succeed and reach their specific goals.”

https://www.etsu.edu/etsu-news/2024/10-october/abound-college-awards.php

How AI Is Reshaping Higher Education - AACSB

Because artificial intelligence will likely become the primary way humans access information, professors must prepare students to use the technology effectively in their lives and careers. Students will especially need to learn skills related to effective prompt engineering, which refers to the ability to craft questions that elicit the most useful answers from AI platforms. The more comfortable that faculty become with using AI, the better they will be at teaching students how to use this skill ethically and effectively in the years to come.

https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/articles/2023/10/how-ai-is-reshaping-higher-education

EDUCAUSE 2024: The Risks and Rewards of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education - EdTech

The world took notice when OpenAI released the high-powered large language model ChatGPT in November 2022. Nearly two years later, at EDUCAUSE 2024 in San Antonio, artificial intelligence was still a hot topic of conversation among higher education’s leading technologists. They mostly agree that AI is a tool that could be beneficial to colleges and universities in a number of ways, but acknowledge that just because an AI solution exists, that doesn’t mean it’s the right solution. Working backward from a problem to identify if AI is the best path forward is a good way to avoid making AI mistakes, and ensuring good data governance before implementing AI is vital to producing accurate outcomes.

https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/media/video/educause-2024-risks-and-rewards-artificial-intelligence-higher-education

Leveraging AI to Improve Learner Outcomes and Learner Records - UPCEA

The implementation of AI-driven tools in higher education is still in its early phases. It's clear that institutional staff either are still learning how to incorporate the tools into the learning process or are encountering obstacles in optimizing their use. This study revealed that interest in the potential of these technologies is far outpacing adoption. Most respondents are heavily involved in developing learner experiences and tracking outcomes, though nearly half report their institutions have yet to adopt AI-driven tools for these purposes. The research also found that only three percent of institutions have implemented Comprehensive Learner Records (CLRs), which provide a complete overview of an individual’s lifelong learning experiences. Download your copy of UPCEA and Instructure's latest research study today.

https://upcea.edu/ai-to-improve-learner-outcomes/

Memorandum on Advancing the United States’ Leadership in Artificial Intelligence; Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Fulfill National Security Objectives; and Fostering the Safety, Security, and Trustworthiness of Artificial Intelligence - the White House

This memorandum fulfills the directive set forth in subsection 4.8 of Executive Order 14110 of October 30, 2023 (Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence).  This memorandum provides further direction on appropriately harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) models and AI-enabled technologies in the United States Government, especially in the context of national security systems (NSS), while protecting human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, privacy, and safety in AI-enabled national security activities.  A classified annex to this memorandum addresses additional sensitive national security issues, including countering adversary use of AI that poses risks to United States national security.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/10/24/memorandum-on-advancing-the-united-states-leadership-in-artificial-intelligence-harnessing-artificial-intelligence-to-fulfill-national-security-objectives-and-fostering-the-safety-security/

SynthID: Identifying AI-generated content with SynthID - Google Deep Mind

Being able to identify AI-generated content is critical to promoting trust in information. While not a silver bullet for addressing problems such as misinformation or misattribution, SynthID is a suite of promising technical solutions to this pressing AI safety issue. This toolkit is currently launched in beta and continues to evolve. It’s now being integrated into a growing range of products, helping empower people and organizations to responsibly work with AI-generated content. SynthID uses a variety of deep learning models and algorithms for watermarking and identifying AI-generated content.

https://deepmind.google/technologies/synthid/

1 in 6 Companies Are Hesitant To Hire Recent College Graduates - Intelligent

In August, Intelligent.com surveyed 966 business leaders involved in hiring decisions at their company to explore attitudes toward hiring recent Gen Z college graduates. What we found:

75% of companies report that some or all of the recent college graduates they hired this year were unsatisfactory

6 in 10 companies fired a recent college graduate they hired this year

1 in 6 hiring managers say they are hesitant to hire from this cohort

Hiring managers say recent college grads are unprepared for the workforce, can’t handle the workload, and are unprofessional

1 in 7 companies may refrain from hiring recent college graduates next year

9 in 10 hiring managers say recent college graduates should undergo etiquette training

https://www.intelligent.com/1-in-6-companies-are-hesitant-to-hire-recent-college-graduates/

The art of 21st-century leadership: From succession planning to building a leadership factory - Bob Sternfels, et al; McKinsey

In this article, we explore what it will take to be a leader for this century and how organizations can build a leadership factory that shapes, develops, and mentors the next generation of managers. The organizations that treat leadership development as a core capability and proactively address the needs of both existing and aspiring leaders can raise their overall resilience and substantially improve the odds that they will be able to withstand disruption—whatever it is, and whenever it appears next.

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-art-of-21st-century-leadership-from-succession-planning-to-building-a-leadership-factory

Are colleges really facing an enrollment cliff? - Dick Startz, Brookings

A large number of colleges have very low student enrollment and few or no endowment resources, and these are the institutions most at risk now and in the coming years. Additionally, college enrollments in some states are likely to drop drastically over the next few years, putting some colleges in those states at risk. The real story is likely to be program elimination within colleges rather than full college closures. There is significant anecdotal evidence pointing in this direction, but little comprehensive data.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/are-colleges-really-facing-an-enrollment-cliff/

Black women on the academic tightrope: four scholars weigh in - Malika Jeffries-EL, Monica R. McLemore, Ruby Zelzer & Tiara Moore, Nature

Black women have long flagged an insidious issue they have to contend with: misogynoir, a combination of sexism and anti-Black racism that often manifests as a lack of respect and impedes their prospects. The data are clear, the problem is pervasive, including in academia. Here, four scholars discuss their anti-racism work. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03342-0

Harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence in New Jersey: The time is now - written by ChatGPT, edited by Andrew Zwicker, NJ.com

By investing in AI education for all students, from K-12 through higher education, the state will cultivate a workforce prepared to engage with and build on these new technologies. By fostering AI research and development in our four-year universities, New Jersey will create a talent pipeline with the skills and creativity to invent the next generation of problem-solving AI tools and fill high-demand roles across the industry spectrum. Similarly, we must invest in our community colleges, ensuring equitable access to the AI education and training that will be needed to fill jobs that don’t require an advanced degree. Community colleges will also be vital to quickly and nimbly providing opportunities for all workers to obtain new AI skills as they emerge, and to retrain workers whose jobs do disappear.

https://www.nj.com/opinion/2024/10/harnessing-the-potential-of-artificial-intelligence-in-new-jersey-the-time-is-now-opinion.html

NotebookLM - Google Blog

NotebookLM is a tool for understanding, built with Gemini 1.5. When you upload your sources, it instantly becomes an expert, grounding its responses in your material and giving you powerful ways to transform information. And since it’s your notebook, your personal data is never used to train NotebookLM. Millions of people are already using NotebookLM to understand and engage with complex information, and today we’re removing the product’s “Experimental” label and releasing another round of features.

https://blog.google/technology/ai/notebooklm-update-october-2024/

Using Collaborative Learning to Elevate Students' Educational Experiences - Faculty Focus

Collaborative learning is an educational environment where students work together in smaller groups to achieve a common goal. Collaborative learning is analogous to the traditional learning model, in which teachers impact knowledge on students. Bruffee (1999), the most prominent name in collaborate learning, describes collaborative learning as “creates conditions in which students can negotiate the boundaries between the knowledge communities they belong to and the one that the professor belongs to” (p. 144). Collaborative learning and e-learning have been gaining momentum over many decades as research has proven how beneficial it is for students’ development and learning. It has become a focus of significant learning institutions (Gao, 2020; Gutierrez, Sanchez, Castaneda, & Prendas, 2017). 

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/faculty-development/using-collaborative-learning-to-elevate-students-educational-experiences/

Financial pressure grows for colleges, Fitch says - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed Dive

Pressure on college finances is intensifying despite modest enrollment growth this fall, slowing inflation and other tailwinds for the sector, according to a recent analysis by Fitch Ratings. In a Friday release, Fitch noted that while most of the colleges it rates have stable financial outlooks, it has increasingly lowered outlooks for colleges in recent quarters — which could portend more credit downgrades ahead. Sectorwide, the ratings agency has a negative outlook for higher education, a now multiyear trend, Fitch senior director Emily Wadhwani noted in a Thursday webinar. “We do expect the sector to yield generally softer operating margins and continue to show some strains on financial flexibility as we head into 2025,” she said.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/financial-pressure-grows-colleges-fitch-enrollment-costs/729791/

Changing of the Guard at ‘Inside Higher Ed’ - Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed

I preface the link to this article by Doug Lederman by joining fellow IHE blogger and education writer, speaker, and consultant, John Warner, in thanking Doug Lederman for his vision and leadership in Higher Education.  Doug announced earlier this month his stepping down from the editor position in Inside Higher Ed.  Over the past two decades, Doug served our field deftly through journalistic leadership in our evollution to where we stand today in higher education. He sums up his contributions in this article by writing "After spending the last 35-plus years analyzing and assessing higher ed, I’m looking forward to a next career chapter, where I can try to fix some of the problems I see in this industry I care so much about." So, it is not good-bye, but with optimism for the future that I encourage you to visit the URL below for Doug's  article.

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2024/10/09/changing-guard-inside-higher-ed

Science Says Being Generous, Thoughtful, and Kind Is a Sign of High Intelligence. Leading Organizational Psychologist Adam Grant Agrees - Jeff Hayden, Inc.

According to a study published in the International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, greater cognitive ability is associated with a higher probability of charitable giving.  A study published in the Journal of Research in Personality found that unconditional altruistic behavior (acting to help someone else at some sort of cost to yourself) is related to general intelligence.  A study published in Social Psychology and Personality Science found that intelligence correlates with personal values; in simple terms (the only terms I understand), the less selfish you are, the smarter you tend to be.

https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/science-says-being-generous-thoughtful-and-kind-is-a-sign-of-high-intelligence-organizational-psychologist-adam-grant-agrees/90985740

Machines of Loving Grace - Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic

In fact I think it is critical to have a genuinely inspiring vision of the future, and not just a plan to fight fires. Many of the implications of powerful AI are adversarial or dangerous, but at the end of it all, there has to be something we’re fighting for, some positive-sum outcome where everyone is better off, something to rally people to rise above their squabbles and confront the challenges ahead. Fear is one kind of motivator, but it’s not enough: we need hope as well. The list of positive applications of powerful AI is extremely long (and includes robotics, manufacturing, energy, and much more), but I’m going to focus on a small number of areas that seem to me to have the greatest potential to directly improve the quality of human life. The five categories I am most excited about are:

Biology and physical health

Neuroscience and mental health

Economic development and poverty

Peace and governance

Work and meaning

https://darioamodei.com/machines-of-loving-grace

Stanford Researchers Use AI to Simulate Clinical Reasoning - Abby Sourwine, GovTech

Researchers at Stanford University are designing Clinical Mind AI to be a customizable chatbot that can function as a virtual patient with which medical students can interact and practice forming diagnoses. A key component of medical education is a skill called clinical reasoning. Thomas Caruso, a professor teaching anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Stanford University, likens clinical reasoning to an episode of the TV show House. “Clinical reasoning is sort of like a House episode, where we reveal a little bit of information about the patient, they give a differential diagnosis. We reveal a little bit more, they hone their differential diagnosis. Then, they get to a point where they're treating this patient for what they presume to be the diagnosis,” Caruso said.

https://www.govtech.com/education/higher-ed/stanford-researchers-use-ai-to-simulate-clinical-reasoning

Generative AI, the American worker, and the future of work - Molly Kinder, Xavier de Souza Briggs, Mark Muro, and Sifan Liu, Brookings

Existing generative AI technology already has the potential to significantly disrupt a wide range of jobs. We find that more than 30% of all workers could see at least 50% of their occupation’s tasks disrupted by generative AI. Unlike previous automation technologies that primarily affected routine, blue collar work, generative AI is likely to disrupt a different array of “cognitive” and “nonroutine” tasks, especially in middle- to higher-paid professions. 

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/generative-ai-the-american-worker-and-the-future-of-work/ 

Report: A Quarter of Those with Graduate Degrees Say They Regret Going to College - Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed

The report, which focused on college’s value, was based on the results of a survey of 1,000 Americans with a college degree and 1,000 who do not have a degree. Over all, about three-quarters of respondents with a graduate degree say they do not regret attending college, and 59 percent of those with an associate or bachelor’s degree say the same thing. Cost is a different matter, however; across all types of degrees, 59 percent of respondents say their student loan investment was worth the cost. Arts and humanities majors, perhaps surprisingly, were most likely to say their degree was worth the cost, with 68 percent saying so.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2024/10/11/report-quarter-grads-say-they-regret-going-college

Commentary: AI detectors don't work, so what's the end game for higher education? - Casper Roe and Mike Perkins, Channel News Asia

AI detectors struggle to keep up with quickly changing AI models, and their reliance on standardised measures of what is considered “human” can unfairly disadvantage people who speak English as a second or third language. The potential of falsely accusing students and damaging their future raises serious concerns about the use of AI detectors in academic settings. Furthermore, this approach is counterintuitive in a world where we should be reaping the benefits of AI. You can’t extoll the advantages of using a calculator and then punish students for not doing math in their heads. Educators shouldn’t rush to punish students based on what AI detectors say. Instead, they should think of better ways to assess students.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/ai-detector-university-school-teacher-student-assess-writing-test-4665366

The fallout: University of the Arts haunted by unanswered questions months after sudden closure - Ben Unglesbee, Inside Higher Ed

This year has seen the winding down of several historic private colleges, including Wells College in New York and Goddard College in Vermont. Announcements of their closures sparked shock, grief and dismay. Arguably, the most dramatic closure came at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. The public releases announcing the closure were conspicuously short on details. A statement from Walk and UArts board Chair Judson Aaron on May 31 alluded, vaguely, to “a cash position that has steadily weakened” that meant the university could “not cover significant, unanticipated expenses.” They added: “The situation came to light very suddenly. Despite swift action, we were unable to bridge the necessary gaps.” 

https://www.highereddive.com/news/fallout-university-of-the-arts-sudden-closure-union/729106/

Developing a GenAI policy for research and innovation - Helen Brownlee and Tracy Mouton, Times Higher Ed / Inside Higher Ed

Establishing a framework to guide AI use in research is vital for ensuring institutions are and remain fully compliant. Research integrity policies, procedures and guidelines should provide a framework to support the highest standards of staff and student personal conduct in research. To achieve this, we created a new policy for the use of GenAI tools in research and innovation at the University of East Anglia (UEA) earlier this year. The policy supports and protects researchers who use GenAI and aims to ensure the university is fully compliant in this developing area. The policy represents a truly collaborative effort involving many colleagues and below we share our experiences of developing the policy focusing on eight key areas.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/developing-genai-policy-research-and-innovation

Should Online Courses Have Less Students, Why? - Samantha Clifford, Faculty Focus

It’s important to consider the unique dynamics of each learning environment when discussing whether class caps for online and in-person courses should be the same. Many institutions are looking at increasing the number of online students through a combination of course availability, carousel offering, sequencing, and timing rather than increasing caps in online courses. It is quite possible to increase the number of seats in a well-designed online class, but for online instructors to build and facilitate student centered courses based on active learning and inclusive pedagogy, there are some important considerations. 

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/should-online-courses-have-less-students-why/

It’s Official: How to Be a Servant Leader Comes Down to 6 Behaviors, Says Research - Marcel Schwantes, Inc.

Building a strong culture, however, requires visionary leadership. One framework I’ve been using to develop leaders in my coaching and training practice is based on the seminal research of organizational leadership scholar Dr. Jim Laub. Laub identified six key leadership behaviors essential to fostering a thriving culture. These behaviors are rooted in the principles of Servant Leadership, a people-centric approach where leaders prioritize serving others, creating environments of trust, engagement, and productivity. Servant Leadership has been embraced by Fortune 100 companies such as Southwest Airlines and startup founders alike. They realize the importance of putting people ahead of profits for long-term success. To move your company toward a vibrant servant leadership culture, here are the six behaviors found in the research and best practices.

https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/its-official-how-to-be-a-servant-leader-comes-down-to-6-behaviors-says-research/90984161

Women in the Workplace 2024: The 10th-anniversary report - Alexis Krivkovich, Emily Field, Lareina Yee, and Megan McConnell, with Hannah Smith, the McKinsey Report

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Women in the Workplace report. Conducted in partnership with LeanIn.Org, this effort is the largest study of women in corporate America. Over the past decade, more than 1,000 companies have participated in the study, and we have surveyed more than 480,000 people about their workplace experiences. Our tenth-anniversary report analyzes data from the past decade to better understand progress, decline, and stagnation in women’s representation and experiences in the workplace.1 It also highlights key findings from 2024 and identifies the changes companies can make to chart real progress on the path to parity—which we project is nearly 50 years away.

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace

The Future Of Learning: How AI Is Revolutionizing Education - Khushi Bhanushali, Youth Incorporated

We have heard about AI in fashion, Gaming, Chatting, Robotics, Agriculture, and Finance but did you know AI has already entered into education world with a rapidly evolving technological landscape, the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and education is not just a future possibility; it is imminent. Imagine a classroom where each student has a personal tutor—an AI-driven guide that knows their strengths, weaknesses, and learning pace. This tutor adapts lessons in real-time, provides instant feedback, and even offers engaging challenges tailored to individual curiosity, receives personalized, builds stronger connections with teachers for enhanced guidance and receives apt recognition and evaluation of their achievements.  

https://youthincmag.com/the-future-of-learning-how-ai-is-revolutionizing-education

Does AI Have a Place in Higher Education? Academics Say Yes, with a But - Patrick Harbin, Kennesaw State

 Now that artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft’s Copilot allow students to create essays, complex calculations, and discussion posts in seconds, how can colleges and universities guarantee students are learning rather than simply learning to use AI? According to Kai Larsen, a renowned AI researcher and the keynote speaker at Kennesaw State University’s recent “AI in Higher Education” symposium, educators shouldn’t be afraid of AI. Instead, faculty should teach students to use the tools confidently while continuing to measure their ability to perform the same tasks on their own.

https://www.kennesaw.edu/coles/news/stories/2027-09-30-does-ai-have-a-place-in-higher-education-academics-say-yes-wit-a-but.php

Host a competition to foster creativity and innovation at your institution - Times Higher Education

Higher education institutions must constantly seek ways to enhance creativity and encourage innovation. To meet these aims, at Monterrey Institute of Technology, we launched a competition called the Innovation Challenge. The Innovation Challenge encourages staff to propose groundbreaking projects that address institutional needs. It uses design thinking methodology, which fosters collaboration and creativity by involving multidisciplinary work teams in all phases of the process and encourages continuous learning due to its iterative process. We gamify the initiative to boost participants’ motivation, turning staff into agents of change.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/host-competition-foster-creativity-and-innovation-your-institution

The next wave of college cuts is already here - Ben Unglesbee, Inside Higher Ed

Higher education’s season of retrenchment has continued into the fall semester, with public and private institutions around the country shedding programs and employees as they grapple with heavy competition for students, soaring costs and revenue constraints.  The cuts often follow other, less drastic measures to plug budget gaps, such as leaving positions unfilled and reducing nonpersonnel budgets.  In many cases, administrators are looking to trim programs they say are underenrolled and losing money, and instead focus where they see the most student interest. 

https://www.highereddive.com/news/next-wave-college-cuts-layoffs-columbia-wittenburg-university/728329/

School of Public Health Faculty Member Explores Using AI to Enhance Biostatistics Learning - Sam Fahmy, Georgia State University

Using a mini-grant from Georgia State University’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Online Education, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics Karen Nielsen is developing course materials that seek to prepare students to ethically and effectively use generative artificial intelligence in a range of quantitative subjects. “I have not spoken to a single instructor who has not grappled with generative AI in their teaching,” said Nielsen, of Georgia State's School of Public Health. “Maintaining academic honesty when using generative AI will be one aspect of this project, but I also want students to be able to leverage generative AI for self-guided learning.”

https://news.gsu.edu/2024/09/30/sph-faculty-member-explores-using-ai-to-enhance-biostatistics-learning/

120 IQ AI: Threat or Opportunity? - Peter H. Diamandis, Diamandis.com

Most people you meet are probably average, and a few are extraordinarily smart. Just 2.2 percent have an IQ of 130 or greater. "The classic finding — I would say it is the most replicated finding in psychology — is that people who are good at one type of mental task tend to be good at them all," says Stuart Ritchie, an intelligence researcher at the University of Edinburgh. This is why OpenAI's model o1 achieving an IQ score of 120 is so significant. It's not just outperforming the average human—it's surpassing 91% of the population in a test designed to measure general intelligence.

https://www.diamandis.com/blog/120-iq-ai-threat-or-opportunity

Quantum sensing’s untapped potential: Insights for leaders - Henning Soller and Niko Mohr, McKinsey Digital

Quantum sensing, which allows sensors to collect data at the atomic level, is a tested technology. It has broad applications in commercial products (such as medical devices), in services (such as navigation), and as an enabler of internal processes (such as quality control)—and the technology is already usable. It enables many types of measurements that are currently too difficult to achieve, not precise enough, or simply unfeasible otherwise. Depending on the underlying technology, the size, weight, and power of the sensors enable a variety of use cases in different industries, making further deployment of quantum-computing sensors outside the lab possible.

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/quantum-sensings-untapped-potential-insights-for-leaders

The 50 colleges and universities making an outsize impact on business and society - Brendan Vaughan, Fast Company

Welcome to the first-ever edition of Ignition Schools, a collaboration between Fast Company and our sibling publication, Inc. The Ignition Schools list honors the top academic institutions that play an enormous role in shaping the businesses that influence society. Innovation and entrepreneurship—the editorial lodestars for Fast Company and Inc., respectively—are also the focus of Ignition Schools. The 50 colleges and universities we’re honoring in our inaugural list don’t just produce elite students and groundbreaking research; they also are economic engines that generate the ideas, businesses, and opportunities that move cities, regions, and countries toward a better future. 

https://www.fastcompany.com/91186441/ignition-schools-innovative-colleges-universities-2024

ASU details impact of state cuts to higher ed funding - Arizona State University

Arizona State University will add a tuition surcharge for on-campus students in spring 2025 and the Arizona Teachers Academy faces an uncertain future, the result of recent budget cuts passed by the state Legislature and signed by the governor. More than 2,600 Arizona resident students also could be impacted by the expected decrease in ASU’s allocation for the Arizona Promise Scholarship Program, and the university will stop operations and close its Lake Havasu center in the summer of 2025. “These necessary actions reflect the continuing lack of public investment from state government for higher education in Arizona,’’ ASU President Michael M. Crow said

https://news.asu.edu/20240923-university-news-asu-impacts-state-cuts-higher-education-funding

The transformative power of AI in higher education - Ali al Bimani, Muscat Daily

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping various sectors, and education is no exception. As we enter a new era of teaching, learning, and research, AI’s transformative potential will profoundly impact higher education institutions. One of AI’s most promising applications in education is personalised learning. Adaptive learning systems utilise AI algorithms to analyse student performance in real time, adjusting course content accordingly. These systems identify knowledge gaps, suggest resources, and predict future performance, creating unique and responsive learning paths for each student.

https://www.muscatdaily.com/2024/09/21/the-transformative-power-of-ai-in-higher-education/

Introducing the OpenAI Academy

New initiative will fuel innovation by investing in developers and organizations leveraging AI, starting in low- and middle-income countries. OpenAI is launching the OpenAI Academy, which will invest in developers and organizations leveraging AI to help solve hard problems and catalyze economic growth in their communities. The Academy will ensure that the transformative potential of artificial intelligence is accessible and beneficial to diverse communities worldwide, starting in low- and middle-income countries. Developers and mission-driven organizations tackle critical challenges in their communities, driving economic opportunity. Having access to cutting-edge technology like AI can help enhance efforts to drive sustainable development.

https://openai.com/global-affairs/openai-academy/

Leading from the inside out: Why CEOs must make time for self-reflection - McKinsey

You and your coauthors just released a new book, The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs Can Learn to Lead from the Inside Out. Put simply, what is inside-out leadership? Ramesh Srinivasan: The world is changing rapidly. The geopolitics have become quite complex, technology is having a huge impact, and climate change is here to stay. In this context, we felt the world needed a new paradigm of leadership. We call it human-centric leadership. Our belief is that leaders need to reflect on their purpose, who they are, how they show up in the world, and how they can inspire their teams and the institutions they’re leading.

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/leading-from-the-inside-out-why-ceos-must-make-time-for-self-reflection

AI Tools Are Displacing Web Searches for The Information Readers - the Information

More than three-quarters of The Information readers say they have used artificial intelligence tools in place of traditional search engines such as Google, and nearly the same proportion say they use chatbots to help them at work. Readers also are more optimistic about the technology sector after a summer dip, according to The Information’s September survey. Respondents who said they expect conditions for the technology sector to improve over the next six months outnumbered those who think conditions will worsen by more than 5 to 1. In all, 1,088 readers responded to the survey from Sept. 12 until Tuesday.

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/ai-tools-are-displacing-web-searches-for-the-information-readers

How Rising Higher Ed Costs Change Student Attitudes About College - Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge

 “We have a few people that are going to trade school, we have a few people that are going to the military, a few people who wrote ‘still deciding,’” said Lisa Beckham, a staffer for the counseling center, as she helped hand out markers in May as the school year was winding down. Others, she said, are heading straight to a job. “I’m thinking about going to college in California, and my grandparents all went there for a hundred dollars a semester and went into pretty low-paying jobs, but didn't spend years in debt because it was easy to go to college,” said Maya Shapiro, a junior who was there watching the seniors write up their plans. “So now I think it is only worth going to college if you're going to get a job that's going to pay for your college tuition eventually, so if you’re going to a job in English or history you might not find a job that’s going to pay that off.”

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-09-17-how-rising-higher-ed-costs-change-student-attitudes-about-college

New AAC&U Institute to Explore Challenges and Opportunities of AI in Teaching and Learning - Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology

The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) a new Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum designed to "help departments, programs, colleges, and universities respond effectively to the challenges and opportunities artificial intelligence (AI) presents for courses and curricula." Nearly 800 individuals from 123 higher education institutions have been selected to participate in the fully online learning opportunity, which kicked off on Sept. 12 and will run through April 2025. Through monthly meetings and webinars, participants will interact with peers, engage in cross-team planning, and discuss the current state of AI in higher education as they develop and implement AI action plans for their classrooms, curricula, and campuses, the AAC&U explained in a news announcement. 

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2024/09/17/new-aacu-institute-to-explore-challenges-and-opportunities-of-ai.aspx

States Where Student Loan Delinquency Is Increasing the Most - Adam McCann, WalletHub

Over the past year, student loan payments have come due with a vengeance (or at least with interest), as students have no longer been able to benefit from the multi-year payment moratorium started during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people have struggled to keep up, and being delinquent on student loans has damaged their credit scores and led to other negative consequences like the garnishment of their wages. To determine where student loan delinquency is increasing the most, and thus where people have the greatest risk of credit score damage and other financial difficulties, WalletHub analyzed proprietary user data from Q1 2024 to Q2 2024.

https://wallethub.com/edu/states-where-student-loan-delinquency-is-increasing-most/140720

How You Become Irreplaceable In The Age Of AI - Forbes

"The more different our capabilities are from the capabilities of AI, the more we can create value with AI, the more we can create synergies," Bornet explained. By developing these uniquely human traits, we create a complementarity with AI that allows us to generate more value than either humans or AI could alone. Being Change-Ready is about developing the resilience and adaptability to thrive in a world evolving at an exponential pace. As Bornet pointed out, "We will see as many innovations in the coming ten years as we have seen in the last century." This requires a new level of mental agility and openness to continuous learning.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2024/09/13/how-you-become-irreplaceable-in-the-age-of-ai/

Online classrooms where students run the show: we tested how this unconventional model can work - Matthew Wingfield, Bettina von Lieres, Laurence Piper; the Conversation

This is a Global Classroom for Democracy Innovation meeting. The initiative was launched in 2020 as the COVID pandemic brought face-to-face learning to a grinding halt all over the world. We were teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate courses on democratic participation and global development at Stellenbosch University (South Africa), the University of Toronto, Scarborough (Canada) and University West (Sweden). Our students told us that they felt isolated. They missed daily interactions with their peers and the other formative interactions that make for a rich, fulfilling university life. We tried to nimbly adapt to recorded or real time lectures, while trying to facilitate and encourage student participation. But we and the students felt that something more was needed. So we created the Global Classroom for Democracy Innovation. The idea was to bring students together to learn and interact around a shared set of issues.

https://theconversation.com/online-classrooms-where-students-run-the-show-we-tested-how-this-unconventional-model-can-work-236601

Three Artificial Intelligence Bills Endorsed by Federation of American Scientists Advance from the House Committee - Federation of American Scientists

Three proposed artificial intelligence bills endorsed by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a nonpartisan science think tank, advance forward from a House Science, Space, and Technology Committee markup held on September 11th, 2024. These bills received bipartisan support and will now be reported to the full chamber. The three bills are: H.R. 9403, the Expanding AI Voices Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Vince Fong (CA-20) and Rep. Andrea Salinas (OR-06); H.R. 9197, the Small Business AI Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Mike Collins (GA-10) and Rep. Haley Stevens (MI-11), and H.R. 9403, the Expand AI Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Valerie Foushee (NC-04) and Rep. Frank Lucas (OK-03).

https://fas.org/publication/ai-bills-house/

What College Leaders Want From Harris and Trump - Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed

The American Council on Education, the chief lobbying group for the higher education industry, wants the next president to repeal the tax on wealthy universities’ endowments and work to increase the Pell Grant to $13,000 from $7,395 as a way of making college more affordable, among other policies. Former president Donald Trump has released few details about his plans for higher education. He’s said that he wants to fire accreditors to reclaim colleges from “the radical left,” create a free national online college and abolish the Education Department. Experts expect Vice President Kamala Harris to build on the Biden administration’s efforts to make college more affordable, forgive student loans and protect students from bad actors. Harris’s campaign website touts investments made under President Biden in historically Black colleges and universities as well as recent increases to the Pell Grant.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2024/09/13/what-college-leaders-want-trump-and-harris

California college students want more online courses, but can they catch up to in-class peers? - BRIANA MENDEZ-PADILLA AND ADAM ECHELMAN, Cal Matters

In July, the U.S. Education Department proposed new rules that would call on colleges and universities to collect more data about online courses, including students’ attendance. The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office responded to the regulations by submitting a public comment document, saying they hope the department will consider the “new costs” to develop the infrastructure to collect the data. The UC also answered publicly, saying data collection might create “confusion and stymie the development of future online education programs.” In an email to CalMatters, the Cal State system stated they were “generally in support” of the regulations and trust that the federal department will consider the potential impact on diverse student populations juggling different responsibilities.

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/california-college-students-want-more-online-courses-but-can-they-catch-up/