I was reading a Substack posting from Jurgen Gravestein, conversational AI consultant at the Conversation Design Institute in the Netherlands. Gravestein is author of the newsletter Teaching Computers How to Talk. His writings prompted me to go to the source itself! I set up a conversation between Anthropic Claude 4 and a GPT that I trained, ChatGPT Ray’s EduAI Advisor. The result was a fascinating insight into perspectives from the two apps engaging one another in what truly appears to be a conversation about their “thoughts” on engaging with humans. I have stored the complete transcript. I encourage you to check it out in its entirety. However, let’s examine a few of the more insightful highlights here.
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Zochi Achieves Main Conference Acceptance at ACL 2025 - Intology
Today, we’re excited to announce a groundbreaking milestone: Zochi, Intology’s Artificial Scientist, has become the first AI system to independently pass peer review at an A* scientific conference¹—the highest bar for scientific work in the field. Zochi’s paper has been accepted into the main proceedings of ACL—the world’s #1 scientific venue for natural language processing (NLP), and among the top 40 of all scientific venues globally.² While recent months have seen several groups, including our own, demonstrate AI-generated contributions at workshop venues, having a paper accepted to the main proceedings of a top-tier scientific conference represents clearing a significantly higher bar. While workshops³, at the level submitted to ICLR 2025, have acceptance rates of ~60-70%, main conference proceedings at conferences such as ACL (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, etc…) have acceptance rates of ~20%. ACL is often the most selective of these conferences
Monday, June 9, 2025
For CEOs, AI tech literacy is no longer optional: Bridging the gap between AI hype and business value starts at the top.- Faisal Hoque, Fast Company
Artificial intelligence has been the subject of unprecedented levels of investment and enthusiasm over the past three years, driven by a tide of hype that promises revolutionary transformation across every business function. Yet the gap between this technology’s promise and the delivery of real business value remains stubbornly wide. A recent study by BCG found that while 98% of companies are exploring AI, only 26% have developed working products and a mere 4% have achieved significant returns on their investments. This striking implementation gap raises a critical question: Why do so many AI initiatives fail to deliver meaningful value? A big part of the answer lies in a fundamental disconnect at the leadership level: to put it bluntly, many senior executives just don’t understand how AI works.
Sunday, June 8, 2025
These 3 digital accessibility strategies support today’s learners - Amy Lomellini, University Business
Digital accessibility means designing websites, learning platforms and course content so that all students—across a wide range of abilities, devices and learning environments—can access, navigate, and benefit from them. The World Wide Web Consortium outlines this approach through the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which are built around four principles: content should be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. When content is built to display clearly and consistently across platforms, students can focus on learning—not troubleshooting. Today’s learners bring a wide range of experiences, schedules and responsibilities to the classroom. One-size-fits-all assessments can limit how they demonstrate what they’ve learned.
Saturday, June 7, 2025
What College Graduates Need Most in the Age of AI - Michael Serazio, Time
Intellectual humility demands that education hedge both “with” and “against” AI, because we can’t know which technologies will triumph and which will collect dust. Some become Facebook; others, the Metaverse. While colleges sort out Chat GPT’s precise place in matters curricular, we can double down on delivering what Generation AI equally needs: the experience of humanity, a quality the machines can never know and must never supplant. This includes the experiential learning that accompanies volunteer service, immersing students, three-dimensionally, in the lives and worlds of society’s marginalized.
Friday, June 6, 2025
The analysis of generative artificial intelligence technology for innovative thinking and strategies in animation teaching - Xu Yao, Yaozhang Zhong & Weiran Cao, Nature
This work examines the application of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) technology in animation teaching, focusing on its role in enhancing teaching quality and learning efficiency through innovative instructional strategies. A mixed-methods research approach is adopted, integrating quantitative analysis (experimental data and questionnaire surveys) and qualitative analysis (behavioral observations) to systematically assess the educational effectiveness of GAI technology. Beyond offering personalized learning solutions, GAI technology plays a crucial role in cultivating students’ creativity, critical thinking, and autonomous learning abilities. This work provides theoretical support and practical guidance for the digital transformation of animation teaching while underscoring the broader applicability of GAI technology in the education sector, offering new directions for the future development of intelligent education.
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Behind the Curtain: A white-collar bloodbath - Jim VandeHei,Mike Allen, Axios
Dario Amodei — CEO of Anthropic, one of the world's most powerful creators of artificial intelligence — has a blunt, scary warning for the U.S. government and all of us: AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next one to five years, Amodei told us in an interview from his San Francisco office.
Amodei said AI companies and government need to stop "sugar-coating" what's coming: the possible mass elimination of jobs across technology, finance, law, consulting and other white-collar professions, especially entry-level gigs.
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
The people who think AI might become conscious - Pallab Ghosh, BBC
The "Dreamachine", at Sussex University's Centre for Consciousness Science, is just one of many new research projects across the world investigating human consciousness: the part of our minds that enables us to be self-aware, to think and feel and make independent decisions about the world. By learning the nature of consciousness, researchers hope to better understand what's happening within the silicon brains of artificial intelligence. Some believe that AI systems will soon become independently conscious, if they haven't already. But what really is consciousness, and how close is AI to gaining it? And could the belief that AI might be conscious itself fundamentally change humans in the next few decades?
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
I tested Gemini 2.5 Pro vs Claude 4 Sonnet with the same 7 prompts — here’s who came out on top Face-off - Amanda Caswell Tom's Guide
When it comes to chatbot showdowns, I’ve run my fair share of head-to-heads. This latest contest comes just hours after Claude 4 Sonnet was unveiled and I couldn’t wait to see how it compared to Gemini 2.5 Pro, also new with updated features. Instead of just testing Gemini and Claude on typical productivity tasks, I wanted to see how these two AI titans handle nuance: creativity under pressure, ethical dilemmas, humor, ambiguity and deep technical reasoning. I gave Google Gemini 2.5 Pro and Claude 4 Sonnet, the same seven prompts — each designed to test a different strength, from emotional intelligence to code generation. While they both impressed me and this test taught me more about how they think, there was one clear winner.
Monday, June 2, 2025
The new economics of enterprise technology in an AI world - Aamer Baig, James Kaplan, Jeffrey Lewis, and Pablo Prieto, McKinsey
Enterprise technology spending in the United States has been growing by 8 percent per year on average since 2022.1 This surge is not surprising, given the increasing role technology plays in how businesses function and create value. The issue lies in what companies are getting for that spend, and the track record on that score is mixed. While analysis linking tech spend to labor productivity is notoriously inexact, labor productivity has grown by close to 2 percent over the same period of time (Exhibit 1).2
Sunday, June 1, 2025
OpenAI taps iPhone designer Jony Ive to develop AI devices - Cecily Mauran, Mashable
Altman also shared that he has a prototype of what Ive and his team have developed, calling it the "coolest piece of technology the world has ever seen." As far back as 2023, there were reports of OpenAI teaming up with Ive for some kind of AI-first device. Altman and Ive's bromance formed over ideas about developing an AI device beyond the current hardware limitations of phones and computers. "The products that we're using to deliver and connect us to unimaginable technology, they're decades old," said Ive in the video, "and so it's just common sense to at least think surely there's something beyond these legacy products."
Saturday, May 31, 2025
Google’s AI Boss Says Gemini’s New Abilities Point the Way to AGI - Will Knight, Wired
Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, says that reaching artificial general intelligence or AGI—a fuzzy term typically used to describe machines with human-like cleverness—will mean honing some of the nascent abilities found in Google’s flagship Gemini models. Google announced a slew of AI upgrades and new products at its annual I/O event today in Mountain View, California. The search giant revealed upgraded versions of Gemini Flash and Gemini Pro, Google’s fastest and most capable models, respectively. Hassabis said that Gemini Pro outscores other models on LMArena, a widely used benchmark for measuring the abilities of AI models.
Friday, May 30, 2025
Google just leapfrogged every competitor with mind-blowing AI that can think deeper, shop smarter, and create videos with dialogue - Michael Nuñez, Venture Beat
Google announced a sweeping set of artificial intelligence advancements Tuesday at its annual I/O developer conference, introducing more powerful AI models, expanding its search capabilities, and launching new creative tools that push the boundaries of what its technology can accomplish. The Mountain View-based company unveiled Gemini 2.5 enhancements, rolled out AI Mode in Search to all U.S. users, introduced new generative media models, and launched a premium $249.99 monthly subscription tier called Google AI Ultra for power users — all reflecting Google’s accelerating AI momentum across its product ecosystem.
Thursday, May 29, 2025
Report: 93% of Students Believe Gen AI Training Belongs in Degree Programs - Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology
The vast majority of today's college students — 93% — believe generative AI training should be included in degree programs, according to a recent Coursera report. What's more, 86% of students consider gen AI the most crucial technical skill for career preparation, prioritizing it above in-demand skills such as data strategy and software development. And 94% agree that microcredentials help build the essential skills they need to achieve career success. For its Microcredentials Impact Report 2025, Coursera surveyed more than 1,200 learners and 1,000 employers around the globe to better understand the demand for microcredentials and their impact on workforce readiness and hiring trends.
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Taking intermittent quizzes reduces achievement gaps and enhances online learning, even in highly distracting environments - Jason C.K. Chan and Zohara Assadipour, the Conversation
Inserting brief quiz questions into an online lecture can boost learning and may reduce racial achievement gaps, even when students are tuning in remotely in a distracting environment. That’s a main finding of our recent research published in Communications Psychology. With co-authors Dahwi Ahn, Hymnjyot Gill and Karl Szpunar, we present evidence that adding mini-quizzes into an online lecture in science, technology, engineering or mathematics – collectively known as STEM – can boost learning, especially for Black students. In our study, we included over 700 students from two large public universities and five two-year community colleges across the U.S. and Canada. All the students watched a 20-minute video lecture on a STEM topic. Each lecture was divided into four 5-minute segments, and following each segment, the students either answered four brief quiz questions or viewed four slides reviewing the content they’d just seen.
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
How Women Can Future-Proof Their Careers in a Tech-Driven World: Five ways to supercharge your professional growth. - Karlie Kloss and Lareina Yee, Katie Couric Media
McKinsey research estimates that up to 30 percent of work hours could be automated by 2030, potentially rising up to 70 percent across many jobs. That’s the nature of technology. In just 40 years, the internet, smart phones, and new technologies have transformed entire industries. For example, in 1990 “digital marketer” wasn’t a job. Two years ago, “prompt engineer” didn’t exist. In the next five years, roles we can’t yet imagine will emerge. Women will experience even more dramatic shifts in job opportunities and expectations than men, as A.I. and automation are set to disrupt the fields where they have greater representation. For example, roles in nursing, education, marketing, communications, sales, and customer service face significant transformation. In the U.S., about 87 percent of nurses are women, and up to 30 percent of their tasks could be automated. While nurses will remain essential, the way they work — and the role of technology in patient care — will undergo profound change.
Monday, May 26, 2025
Copyright alone cannot protect the future of creative work - Mark MacCarthy, Brookings
AI challenges the future of creative work. Copyright law has a role to play, but the needed policy response must come from elsewhere. According to current guidelines, AI-generated works are not eligible for copyright protection. This has broad implications, especially around how content companies might register their works or disclaim content generated by AI. Transparency measures for how AI is trained have been introduced at the state and federal level, but these might be premature if AI firms succeed in their fair use claims in the courts.
Sunday, May 25, 2025
Why agentic AI is the next wave of innovation, Mike Hulme, Venture Beat
In just one year, AI and machine learning has soared to new heights with the emergence of advanced large language models, and domain specific small language models that can be deployed both on the cloud and the edge. While this kind of intelligence is the new baseline for what we expect in our applications, the future of enterprise AI lies in complex, multi-agent workflows that combine powerful models, intelligent agents and human guided decision-making. This market is moving fast. According to recent Deloitte research, 50% of companies using generative AI will launch agentic AI pilots or proofs of concept by 2027.
Saturday, May 24, 2025
Courses Are Dead? Google Gemini 2.5 Changes Everything for Online Educators - AI Learning Communities, YouTube
The host discusses Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro experimental and how it can create interactive web apps from simple prompts [00:09]. These web apps can visually represent information and require user interaction, potentially replacing traditional courses [00:30]. The host demonstrates how to create a web app that teaches how to make coffee [05:55] and a sequencing application [07:38]. He also shows examples of web apps for personal skills like photo editing [09:38] and cooking scrambled eggs [10:06], as well as for small business tasks [10:33]. The host emphasizes that these web apps are simple HTML pages that can be easily deployed [21:13]. He encourages viewers to consider using web apps instead of traditional courses for teaching processes and skills [21:03]. (note this summary is provided in part by Gemini 2.0 Flash)
Friday, May 23, 2025
China's Baidu looks to patent AI system to decipher animal sounds - Liam Mo and Brenda Goh, Reuters
Ever wished you could understand what your cat is trying to tell you? A Chinese tech company is exploring whether it's possible to translate those mysterious meows into human language using artificial intelligence. Baidu (9888.HK), opens new tab, owner of China's largest search engine, has filed a patent with China National Intellectual Property Administration proposing a system to convert animal vocalisations into human language, according to a patent document published this week.
Thursday, May 22, 2025
Massachusetts Department of Correction Celebrates Virtual Education Team for Innovation during Teacher Appreciation Week- Mass Dept of Correction
Formed in response to advances in digital education, the Virtual Education Team designs and implements original, engaging learning modules aimed at helping incarcerated individuals discover transferable skills and pursue self-improvement. Their work enhances the impact of the DOC’s Orijin tablet-based education, which has been implemented across all DOC facilities. “The work of teachers across Massachusetts has a tremendous impact on our communities,” said Public Safety and Security Secretary Terrence Reidy. “DOC educators are not only implementing robust programs, but they are also creating opportunities that previously didn’t exist for returning individuals. Today, we celebrate their dedication to learning and growth.”
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