In a series of policy recommendations released on Monday, OpenAI said the rapid advance of AI would require far-reaching economic and political reforms, including a public wealth fund, taxes on automated labor, and a potential four-day workweek. "We're beginning a transition toward superintelligence: AI systems capable of outperforming the smartest humans even when they are assisted by AI. No one knows exactly how this transition will unfold. At OpenAI, we believe we should navigate it through a democratic process that gives people real power to shape the AI future they want," the company wrote on Monday.
Thursday, April 16, 2026
OpenAI calls for robot taxes, a public wealth fund, and a 4-day workweek to tackle AI disruption - Tom Carter, Business Insider
Colleges ramp up offerings to teach students to be AI ethicists - Kate Rix, HigherEdDive
This is driving the popularity of courses, certificates and master’s programs focused on AI ethics. Some are designed for students with little or no computer science background. Others focus on how to use AI in a specific field. But at the core of each program is an emphasis on avoiding harm. “AI concerns everybody,” said Sonja Schmer-Galunder, an AI and ethics professor at the University of Florida. “We need to provide a more holistic education that is focusing on how we can do this safely and ethically.”
Is college becoming less affordable? An update - Phillip Levine, Brookings
Affordability has recently emerged as one of the central economic and political issues in the United States. Polling data suggests that many Americans feel that core components of a middle-class lifestyle have become increasingly out of reach. A college education is one of those components. Indeed, between 1990 and 2024 the prices of many items have increased faster than median earnings, including housing costs, health care, and gasoline. But the item whose price has risen the most is college tuition. Presumably, that contributes to Americans’ views that education is the least affordable.
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
What Deans and Department Chairs Must Do Before Fall - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
Something is unfolding in the labor market that will greet your new graduates, in an incrementally tighter job market. The urgency is real. Entry-level hiring at the 15 biggest tech firms fell 25 percent from 2023 to 2024, according to a SignalFire report. With AI tools performing more of the work previously reserved for recent graduates, new hires are expected to slot in at a higher level almost from day one. That is not a distant forecast. That is the market your Class of 2027 will enter. I prompted Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.6 Extended Thinking to suggest what we should be doing this summer to best respond to the changing employment market for our grads in the coming academic year. Here are the seven tasks the Anthropic model suggested are most pressing this summer.
OpenAI’s warning: Washington isn’t ready for what’s coming - Axios, YouTube
In this Axios interview, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman emphasizes the urgent need for Washington and society to prepare for the arrival of "super intelligence." He explains that the next generation of AI models will represent a significant leap forward, moving beyond small tasks to potentially enabling career-defining scientific discoveries and allowing individuals to perform the work of entire teams. Altman highlights critical near-term risks, specifically in cybersecurity and bio-threats, and advocates for a "societal resilience" approach where the government and private s OpenAI’s warning: Washington isn’t ready for what’s coming - Axios, YouTube ector work closely together to mitigate these dangers before they become reality [05:24]. Altman also discusses the broader economic and human implications of AI, suggesting that while the technology will transform the nature of work and capital, the core of human fulfillment and connection will remain unchanged. He envisions AI becoming a "utility" similar to electricity—an omnipresent, affordable background force that powers a personal super-assistant for every user [19:19]. Despite the immense power held by AI developers, Altman argues against nationalization, suggesting that private-public partnerships are the best way to ensure the technology aligns with democratic values while maintaining the pace necessary to lead globally [08:41]. [summary assisted by Gemini 3 Fast]
American billionaire: Only two types of people will succeed in the age of artificial intelligence - Reporters
As workers of all generations, from Generation Z to Baby Boomers, look for ways to secure their careers in the age of artificial intelligence, Alex Karp, CEO of the tech giant Palantir, has a pretty simple answer to the question of who will have the upper hand in the future. According to him, two groups of people have the best prospects: those with professional skills and neurodiverse individuals.“Basically, there are two ways to know if you have a future,” Karp said in a recent interview with TBPN. “One, you have some professional training. Or two, you are neurodiverse.” His second category also has a personal dimension. Karp has spoken before about dyslexia, and in a broader sense, neurodiversity also includes conditions like ADHD and autism. In his opinion, the advantage of these people is not only in the diagnosis, but in the fact that they often think differently, see patterns that others do not see and come up with unusual solutions more easily. In the same interview, he said that those who are “more artistic,” who see things from a different perspective and can build something unique, will have an advantage.
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
Harvard offers six free online courses in AI and coding - MSN
Harvard University has expanded its free online learning portfolio with six courses focused on artificial intelligence, data science, programming, and web development. These globally accessible programmes are available in self-paced and scheduled formats, accommodating both beginners and professionals aiming to enhance their technology skills. The initiative reflects rising demand for digital literacy and supports the development of future-ready capabilities in an AI-driven world. The programmes include 'AI Strategy for Business Leaders', 'Data Science: Building Machine Learning Models', 'CS50’s Computer Science for Business Professionals', 'Understanding Technology', 'Introduction to Data Science with Python', and 'Web Programming with Python and JavaScript'. Course content blends conceptual learning with hands-on exercises, such as working with real-world datasets or developing web applications using Django and APIs.
Ending the era of unpaid internships - Florida Atlantic University, Inside Higher Ed
Florida Atlantic University wants to turn this system on its head by ending the era of the unpaid internships. Forty percent of Florida Atlantic’s student body is Pell-eligible and many balance low-paid work to support themselves financially during their studies. “Looking at the data, we realized that we need to go out and fund internships that would not otherwise exist,” explains Florida Atlantic president Adam Hasner. The university is located in southeast Florida, a region where job creation is growing and internships are available year-round, so he wanted to leverage its unique geographical advantage.
4 ways higher ed can lead in uncertain times - Elon University
At Elon University, the 2025 President’s Report explores how colleges and universities can respond with clarity and purpose by focusing on what today’s students need to think critically, adapt and lead responsibly. How universities are boosting enrollment and retention
Central to this work is a simple but powerful idea: preparing students not just with knowledge, but with the ability to question, analyze and apply it. In a world defined by uncertainty, students must learn how to think, not what to think, and be willing to take calculated risks as they test ideas, navigate ambiguity and engage with real-world challenges.The report highlights several practical approaches institutions can adopt.
Monday, April 13, 2026
'Double-edged sword': Montana campuses prepare for AI-driven future - Darren Frey Glendive Ranger-Review
The growing role of artificial intelligence in higher education is forcing colleges to adapt, and Montana campuses are preparing to take a major step with a new AI tool launching as early as May. When Dawson Community College President Chad Knudson attended the March Board of Regents Meeting in Dillon over spring break, a separate meeting held in conjunction with the Regents was part of Montana University System’s Artificial Intelligence Task Force one of the key topics was ChatMT.AI. Knudson stated that ChatMT will be an AI tool rolled out to the Montana University System statewide as a suite of resources focused on streamlining administrative processes. For example, the tool can handle the simple yet time-consuming task of reading a 300-page document and writing a summary, something Interim Director of Academic Affairs and Accreditation Liaison Officer BreAnn Miller said could take multiple hours to complete but only five minutes with the AI tool.
The Connected Campus: A Secure, AI-Ready Digital Ecosystem for Higher Education - Alexander Slagg, EdTech
A connected campus supports improved learning experiences, campus operations and overall decision-making by university leadership. While previous iterations of campus technology systems were focused on simply connecting users with resources and each other, the connected campus goes much further, forming a holistic technology ecosystem that drives secure interoperability across systems and resources. “A connected campus depends on several foundational layers working together: resilient wired and wireless networking; cloud and hybrid infrastructure; identity and security systems; and platforms that support learning, collaboration and research,” explains Nicole Muscanell, a researcher for EDUCAUSE. “Increasingly, institutions are also integrating IoT systems, such as smart buildings, energy management and physical safety technologies, into this ecosystem.”
How AI may reshape career pathways to better jobs - Justin Heck, Mark Muro, Shriya Methkupally, and Joseph Siegmund, Brookings
Amid much concern about the future of college graduates in the era of AI, workers without four-year degrees face major challenges as well: There are over 15 million of these workers in jobs that are highly exposed to AI. Of those, nearly 11 million are employed in “Gateway” occupations—jobs that have historically enabled workers to build skills and supported transitions into higher-wage roles. AI is poised to erode the pathways workers use to transition from low- to higher-wage work. Almost half of the pathways between Gateway jobs and higher-paying “Destination” jobs are highly exposed to AI. Geographically, the highest rates of AI-related pathway exposure are in administrative, clerical, and customer service Gateway occupations in the Northeast and Sun Belt. In order to craft strategies that effectively meet the moment, the field must grapple with a set of urgent questions about AI’s impact on worker mobility.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-ai-may-reshape-career-pathways-to-better-jobs/
Sunday, April 12, 2026
Schedule of this blog has changed to Monday to Friday - No new postings will be made Saturdaqy or Sunday.
Look for the next posting on Monday at 5 AM Central time. Thanks!
Saturday, April 11, 2026
Schedule of this blog has changed to Monday through Friday - No new postings will be made Saturday or Sunday.
Schedule of this blog changed to Monday through Friday. New postings resume Monday morning at 5 AM Central Time.
Friday, April 10, 2026
‘AI-shaped economy’ now has students rethinking their majors - Matt Zalaznick, University Business
Workforce disruptions caused by generative AI have some students rethinking their majors with one analysis characterizing higher education’s relationship with AI as “both promising and complex.”
Here are the stats:
More than 40% of bachelor’s degree students and more than half of those seeking associate’s degrees said generative AI has caused them to consider changing their major or field of study, according to a a new Gallup poll.
About one in seven students surveyed at both levels said “preparing for AI and other technological advances is an important reason they enrolled.”
AI is not yet the “primary driver” academic and enrollment decisions, Gallup’s authors contend. They urge higher leaders to ensure students have opportunities to learn the AI skills needed to succeed in a changing workforce.
Emotion Concepts and their Function in a Large Language Model - Nicholas Sofroniew, et al; Transformer Circuits
Large language models (LLMs) sometimes appear to exhibit emotional reactions. We investigate why this is the case in Claude Sonnet 4.5 and explore implications for alignment-relevant behavior. We find internal representations of emotion concepts, which encode the broad concept of a particular emotion and generalize across contexts and behaviors it might be linked to. These representations track the operative emotion concept at a given token position in a conversation, activating in accordance with that emotion’s relevance to processing the present context and predicting upcoming text. Our key finding is that these representations causally influence the LLM’s outputs, including Claude’s preferences and its rate of exhibiting misaligned behaviors such as reward hacking, blackmail, and sycophancy. We refer to this phenomenon as the LLM exhibiting functional emotions: patterns of expression and behavior modeled after humans under the influence of an emotion, which are mediated by underlying abstract representations of emotion concepts. Functional emotions may work quite differently from human emotions, and do not imply that LLMs have any subjective experience of emotions, but appear to be important for understanding the model’s behavior.
Artificial Intelligence - AAUP
For decades, there have been significant labor issues around the use of technology in higher education. Now, the uncritical adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) poses a threat to academic professions through potential work intensification and job losses and through its implications for intellectual property, economic security, and the faculty working conditions that affect student learning conditions. This list of resources includes principles and recommendations; bargaining and union guides; examples of resolutions, statements, and sample syllabus language; sample FOIA and audit requests; and feature articles from the AAUP’s publications Academe and the Journal of Academic Freedom. This page also includes further reading on approaches to surveillance concerns in higher ed and why we fight uncritical adoption of Generative AI (GenAI).
Thursday, April 9, 2026
Schedule of this blog changed to Monday to Friday - No weekend posts
Look for the next posting on Monday. Thanks!
A dual-framework analysis of artificial intelligence adoption in cross-cultural higher education - Zouhaier Slimi & Beatriz Villarejo Carballido, Nature
The integration of artificial intelligence in higher education is increasingly critical as institutions face both opportunities and ethical challenges in its adoption. This study introduces a dual-framework model that combines the Technology Acceptance Model with an AI Ethics Framework, highlighting "Ethical Readiness" as essential for successful AI implementation, and identifies key drivers and barriers to adoption across diverse cultural contexts.
AI Models Lie, Cheat, and Steal to Protect Other Models From Being Deleted - Will Knight, Wired
A new study from researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz suggests models will disobey human commands to protect their own kind. I've had these assertions presented to me as evidence of (take your pick): AI is already conscious; AI is evil and will destroy us; AI is capable of lying to protect itself; and other highly anthropomorphized interpretations. My first thought was, 'Has this behavior been independently verified'? The Gemini 3 quote is highly suspicious. it sounds too much like a segment from a cautionary science fiction tale. LLMs and other flavors of AI are not designed with motivation beyond optimizing their performance in response to human queries/instructions. Behavioral responses of biological animals with brains were optimized via natural selection to favor self-preservation.
Building Better, Faster: How JKO is Integrating AI to Enhance Online Learning - JKO News
"The integration of AI is not just about speeding up development but also about fundamentally changing how training is built," said Tim Brandon, JKO program director. "The goal is to deliver a more agile and advanced learning experience that is more personalized, less linear and in line with the technology our training audience is already accustomed to.” AI is also being used to monitor real-world events and identify which of the thousands of courses on the platform need updates. The system flags outdated courses, which allows for rapid revisions. As part of its AI adoption, JKO is working with the DDJTE AI Working Group and the Joint Staff J-7 to establish the platform as a central hub for AI-related training and education resources for the Joint Force.
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