OpenAI Announces Massive US Government Partnership - Joe Schiffer and Will Knight, Wired

OpenAI is partnering with the US government to make its leading frontier models available to federal employees. Under the agreement, federal agencies can access OpenAI’s models for $1 for the next year, per a Wednesday announcement from the company and the General Services Administration (GSA). The partnership is the culmination of months of effort on the part of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and other OpenAI executives, who have been cozying up to the Trump administration since before President Donald Trump retook the White House in January. In a statement emailed to WIRED, Altman said: “One of the best ways to make sure AI works for everyone is to put it in the hands of the people serving the country. 

https://www.wired.com/story/openai-is-giving-chatgpt-federal-workers/

Researchers create ‘virtual scientists’ to solve complex biological problems - Hanae Armitage, Stanford

Stanford Medicine researchers created a team of virtual scientists backed by artificial intelligence to help solve problems in their real-world lab. There may be a new artificial intelligence-driven tool to turbocharge scientific discovery: virtual labs. Modeled after a well-established Stanford School of Medicine research group, the virtual lab is complete with an AI principal investigator and seasoned scientists. “Good science happens when we have deep, interdisciplinary collaborations where people from different backgrounds work together, and often that’s one of the main bottlenecks and challenging parts of research,” said James Zou, PhD, associate professor of biomedical data science who led a study detailing the development of the virtual lab. “In parallel, we’ve seen this tremendous a  Researchers create ‘virtual scientists’ to solve complex biological problems - Hanae Armitage, Stanford dvance in AI agents, which, in a nutshell, are AI systems based on language models that are able to take more proactive actions.”

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/07/virtual-scientist.html

ChatGPT’s Study Mode Is Here. It Won’t Fix Education’s AI Problems - Reece Rogers, Wired

OpenAI’s new study mode for ChatGPT throws questions back at students, but the learning feature doesn’t address generative AI’s underlying disruption of education. The mode is designed around the Socratic method, so when activated, OpenAI’s generative AI chatbot rejects direct requests for answers, instead guiding the user with open-ended questions. The new study mode is available to most logged-in users of ChatGPT, including those on the free version.

https://www.wired.com/story/chatgpt-study-mode/

CSU Faculty Projects Test AI for Creative Majors, Design - Abby Sourwine, GovTech

 Sixty-three projects funded by the California State University system are experimenting with generative AI, from single-course pilots to full program overhauls, and producing open resources for others to consult. In classrooms across the California State University (CSU) system, faculty are looking to turn generative artificial intelligence from a disrupter into a teaching tool. From musical theater production to departmentwide curriculum redesigns, instructors are testing how generative AI can support creativity and critical thinking. The experiments are part of 63 faculty-led projects launched in the CSU system this summer as part of a push to bring AI into curricula. Funded through CSU’s inaugural AI Educational Innovations Challenge, the projects range from arts and humanities pilots to general education reforms and full program overhauls.

https://www.govtech.com/education/higher-ed/csu-faculty-projects-test-ai-for-creative-majors-curriculum-design

150K fewer international students this fall? That’s what one analysis predicts. - Ben Unglesbee, Higher Ed Dive

A sharp drop in foreign enrollment could cost colleges $7 billion in revenue and 60,000 jobs, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators. International enrollment at U.S. colleges could drop by as much as 150,000 students this fall unless the federal government ramps up its issuing of visas this summer, according to recent projections from NAFSA: Association of International Educators. The financial consequences could be severe. A 30% to 40% decline in new foreign students would lead to a 15% overall drop in international enrollment and, with it, a potential loss of $7 billion in revenue for colleges and 60,000 higher education jobs, NAFSA estimated. The organization attributed the projected decline to various Trump administration actions, including travel bans and an earlier suspension of visa interviews. NAFSA called on Congress to direct the State Department to expedite processing for student visas.  

https://www.highereddive.com/news/international-student-decline-fall-2025-projection/756500/

1 in 2 graduates say their college major didn’t prepare them for today’s market - Carolyn Crist, Higher Ed Dive

Respondents report feeling unprepared in numerous ways, especially in finding a job after graduation and navigating student debt and personal finances. Beyond that, 1 in 6 Americans who went to college said they regret it. When thinking about their college experience, college graduates said their top regrets included taking out student loans, not networking more and not doing internships. “One of the main concepts of seeking higher education after high school is that college will prepare you for the rest of your life. While some graduates leave their alma mater feeling prepared to enter the workforce and begin their career, others feel underprepared,” according to the report.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/americans-believe-their-college-major-didnt-prepare-them-for-market/754144/

Google Just Defeated Human Genius: Why Even Google’s CEO Is Terrified - Julia McCoy, YouTube

This podcast discusses Google's recent AI breakthrough with their Gemini model, enhanced with "deep think," which achieved a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). This demonstrates the AI's unprecedented reasoning capabilities, solving complex mathematical problems that have long stumped human experts. Google attributes this to "parallel thinking," where the AI explores multiple solution paths simultaneously, and its training on multi-step reasoning and problem-solving. This achievement signifies a shift in AI development from pre-training with facts to teaching AI how to think and improve itself. The breakthrough has significant implications for Google's technologies, including search algorithms and advertising optimization. There was also a controversy with OpenAI, who announced similar results prematurely. Google is rolling out these advanced reasoning capabilities to Google AI Ultra subscribers first, giving them a considerable advantage. The podcast emphasizes that this development is happening faster than anticipated, and viewers are encouraged to learn about AI to benefit from this revolution. (summary provided in part by Gemini 2.5 Flash)

https://youtu.be/FXSNC92o70k?si=Ql9WrnGwoHjbQZ6b

AI in the University: From Generative Assistant to Autonomous Agent This Fall - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Education

We have become accustomed to generative artificial intelligence in the past couple of years. That will not go away, but increasingly, it will serve in support of agents. “Where generative AI creates, agentic AI acts.” That’s how my trusted assistant, Gemini 2.5 Pro deep research, describes the difference. By the way, I commonly use Gemini 2.5 Pro as one of my research tools, as I have in this column, however, it is I who writes the column. Agents, unlike generative tools, create and perform multistep goals with minimal human supervision. The essential difference is found in its proactive nature. Rather than waiting for a specific, step-by-step command, agentic systems take a high-level objective and independently create and execute a plan to achieve that goal. This triggers a continuous, iterative workflow that is much like a cognitive loop.

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/online-trending-now/2025/08/05/ai-university-assistant-autonomous-agent

Six Tactics to Get Better Results From AI - Ethan Mollick, et al; Knowledge at Wharton

Achieving valuable results from AI is as much about the quality of your prompts as the capabilities of the tool. You can be a more effective “human in the loop” by refining your ability to formulate clear, specific, and context-rich queries, and obtain more useful solutions and actionable insights as a result. Here are six key tactics — grounded in Wharton research — to help you create more effective AI prompts for business applications.

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/six-tactics-to-get-better-results-from-ai/

Americans Recognize Nuances of Higher Ed’s Value - Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed

New data shows that confidence in higher education is on the rise and most Americans, regardless of party affiliation, share a similar vision for what colleges should prioritize. A group of university students are seen from behind walking outside on campus as they make their way to class. Most Democrats and Republicans believe higher ed should equip students to become informed citizens and critical thinkers. “Increasingly, higher ed is being cast as elite, expensive and not connected with everyday Americans,” said Sophie Nguyen, senior policy manager with the higher education team at New America, the left-leaning think tank that published its annual Varying Degrees survey on Wednesday. “There’s a significant disconnect in the narrative about what higher ed is” and how it’s perceived.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/academics/2025/07/17/americans-recognize-nuances-higher-eds-value

How higher education is coping with surging budget deficits - Alcino Donadel, University Business

Budget cuts—followed by tuition increases and staff layoffs—at Duke, Cornell, Johns Hopkins and Harvard universities midway through the spring semester sent shockwaves through the higher education community as the sector copes with challenging deficits. Their struggles proved to be the canary in the coal mine for further announcements from more than a dozen colleges and universities through the summer. “This is a day of loss for all of us,” wrote four executive leaders from Boston University as they announced 120 staff layoffs last week. “Over the coming months, there will be many efforts to reshape and reimagine the university in its most efficient and vital form.”

https://universitybusiness.com/how-higher-education-is-coping-with-surging-budget-deficits/

Mapping the AI economy: Which regions are ready for the next technology leap - Mark Muro and Shriya Methkupally, Brookings

Artificial intelligence is transforming the U.S. economy, yet regional disparities in talent development, research capacity, and enterprise adoption are stark, and not yet fully understood.  AI activity remains highly concentrated, with the Bay Area alone accounting for 13% of all AI-related job postings.  However, the recent boom in generative AI and agentic systems is beginning to widen the geography of AI activity to a broader set of emerging metro areas. To fully harness the power of AI, the U.S. should combine supportive national strategy with “bottom–up” economic development by regions.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/mapping-the-ai-economy-which-regions-are-ready-for-the-next-technology-leap/

AI is helping students be more independent, but the isolation could be career poison - Tara García Mathewson, CalMatters

Students don’t have the same incentives to talk to their professors — or even their classmates — anymore. Chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude have given them a new path to self-sufficiency. Instead of asking a professor for help on a paper topic, students can go to a chatbot. Instead of forming a study group, students can ask AI for help. These chatbots give them quick responses, on their own timeline. For students juggling school, work and family responsibilities, that ease can seem like a lifesaver. And maybe turning to a chatbot for homework help here and there isn’t such a big deal in isolation. But every time a student decides to ask a question of a chatbot instead of a professor or peer or tutor, that’s one fewer opportunity to build or strengthen a relationship, and the human connections students make on campus are among the most important benefits of college. 

https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2025/07/chatbots/