Thursday, April 23, 2026

Is Your AI System Ethical? Try This Assessment - Cornelia C. Walther, Knowledge at Wharton

For the better part of a decade, organizations have been deploying artificial intelligence at scale while measuring it almost exclusively through the lens of efficiency gains, cost reductions, and revenue lift. The instruments are precise. The picture they produce is radically incomplete. Amid the pervasiveness of AI, this reality patchwork is now amplified. Existing dashboards do not capture whether an AI system is fair, whether it is eroding or building trust, whether it is making the people who use it more capable or quietly deskilling them, and whether its environmental footprint is accounted for or simply ignored. The gap between what we measure and what we should care about is not a technical failure. It is a values failure dressed up as a metrics problem. The Prosocial AI Index proposes a practical answer to that failure. It gives executives, technologists, and governance teams a shared vocabulary and a structured scorecard for AI that is genuinely good — not just profitable in the short term, but durable, trustworthy, and aligned with the values an organization actually claims to hold.

Author Talks: Rewiring to outcompete with AI - McKinsey

In this edition of Author Talks, McKinsey Global Publishing’s Barr Seitz speaks with McKinsey Senior Partners Kate Smaje and Robert Levin, and Eric Lamarre, McKinsey alumnus and emeritus adviser, about the second edition of Rewired (Rewired: How Leading Companies Win with Technology and AI, Wiley, April 2026). They discuss what has changed over the past few years, what it means to build organizational speed, and why the most important transformations are ultimately about people. An edited version of the conversation follows. Stay tuned for additional interviews with Rewired coauthors and McKinsey Senior Partners Alex Singla and Alexander Sukharevsky on leadership’s critical role in AI transformations.

Will LLMs Replace Coders? Not Entirely - Seb Murray, Knowledge at Wharton

“It was very clear that we will never ever write code by hand again.” That comment, made recently by Dropbox’s former chief technology officer Aditya Agarwal, reflects a growing belief that generative AI is poised to displace swathes of white-collar workers — starting, perhaps, with software developers. But research by Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions Neha Sharma found that many of the routine coding questions that developers once posted on popular online forum Stack Overflow appear to have moved to AI tools, while the more novel problems still require human expertise.

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Indiana public colleges to cut or merge about 580 programs due to state law - Natalie Schwartz, Higher Ed Dive

A new statute took effect last year that seeks to cull academic offerings that produce low numbers of graduates. Indiana’s public colleges are shedding or consolidating about 580 academic programs following a review by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education under a 2025 state law aiming to cull offerings that graduate low numbers of students. Of those, roughly 370 programs are being merged or consolidated, while the remaining 210 are being suspended or eliminated. The programs represent roughly a quarter of all academic offerings across Indiana’s public colleges. Even more cuts could be ahead. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun recently signed legislation directing the state’s public colleges to either end academic programs considered to produce “low earning” graduates or seek a waiver from the higher education commission. 

https://www.highereddive.com/news/indiana-public-colleges-to-cut-or-merge-about-580-programs-due-to-state-law/816540/

Syracuse University to eliminate 93 academic programs - Laura Spitalniak, Higher Ed Dive

Syracuse University will eliminate 93 academic programs identified as having low or no enrollment, the private New York institution announced Wednesday. But unlike many colleges making cuts, Syracuse is not doing so out of financial necessity, according to Lois Agnew, the university’s provost and chief academic officer. The downsizing came from a desire to make the institution’s offerings “more focused, more distinctive and more aligned with student demand,” Agnew said in a campus letter. No positions or departments have been slated for elimination, she said.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/syracuse-university-to-eliminate-93-academic-programs/816525/

‘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.”
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.
“These findings highlight growing student attention to how well degrees align with an AI-shaped economy,” the survey concluded.

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

SDSU's Massive AI Study Finds Frequent Use but Skepticism - Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times

A poll of 94,000 students, faculty and staff across 22 CSU campuses found nearly every respondent had used AI at some point, but students were still wary of trusting  it and faculty reported negative effects.  The survey, conducted by San Diego State University researchers last fall, shows CSU grappling with how AI is affecting assignments, classroom instruction, competition for jobs and academic integrity. It found nearly every respondent had used AI at some point, with personal use more common than for educational purposes.

AI Is Routine for College Students, Despite Campus Limits - Stephanie Marken, Gallup News

New research from the Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2026 State of Higher Education study finds that more than half (57%) of U.S. college students are using artificial intelligence in their coursework at least weekly, including about one in five who say they use it daily. Male students report more frequent AI use than female students, particularly in the case of daily use (27% vs. 17%). By major, students in business, technology and engineering programs are the most frequent AI users compared with those in other fields of study. Rates of AI use are similar among students pursuing associate and bachelor’s degrees.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/704090/routine-college-students-despite-campus-limits.aspx

AI in Higher Education Is Moving From Experimentation to Strategic Integration. Here's What the 2025 Data Shows - Joe Sullistio, Ellucian

When the question is "Are people using AI?" the answers are mostly anecdotal. When the question becomes "How do we integrate AI responsibly and measurably across the institution?" you need strategy, investment discipline, governance, and enablement. Not just tools. Ellucian's new report, Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: From Widespread Adoption to Strategic Integration, captures this transition in detail, and lays out what institutions need to do next. This is the third consecutive year of the Ellucian AI Survey for Higher Education, and the 2025 State of AI in Higher Education findings mark a clear turning point.
Personal AI use is nearing saturation: 91% of administrators report using AI, up from 84% last year, a relatively modest increase that signals individual adoption is plateauing.
Institution-wide adoption surged: from 49% in 2024 to 66% in 2025, a 17-point jump that signals AI has moved beyond experimentation and into mainstream operational and strategic integration.
Momentum is expected to continue: 88% of respondents expect institutional AI use to keep rising over the next two years.

Monday, April 20, 2026

New online AI in Education Graduate Certificate equips educators with powerful digital tools for today’s learning spaces - Marcia Sweet, Purdue

As artificial Intelligence transforms teaching and learning, Purdue University’s College of Education has unveiled its new AI in Education Graduate Certificate. The program continues Purdue’s vision to lead in the AI space. It follows the December 2025 announcement of AI@Purdue, a strategic plan that includes five pillars: Learning with AI, Learning about AI, Research AI, Using AI and Partnering in AI. The AI in Education Graduate Certificate is designed to equip educators, corporate trainers and instructional designers with the knowledge and skills needed to evaluate and integrate artificial intelligence into any learning environment.

Trump Administration Plans Sweeping Changes to Accreditation - Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed

The Trump administration wants the agencies that oversee colleges and universities to set minimum standards for student achievement, protect viewpoint diversity and consider cost efficiency in their evaluation of institutions, among other changes unveiled Monday. That last provision would help to “provide relief for students and taxpayers who have suffered from increasing tuition by allowing greater institutional flexibility to control costs,” according to a nine-page summary of the Education Department’s 151-page proposal.

Anthropic’s New Product Aims to Handle the Hard Part of Building AI Agents - Maxwell Zeff, Wired

Anthropic announced Wednesday the launch of a new product that aims to make it easier for businesses to build and deploy AI agents. The tool, Claude Managed Agents, offers developers out-of-the-box infrastructure to build autonomous AI systems, simplifying a complex process that was previously a barrier to automating work tasks. Amid rapid enterprise growth, Anthropic is trying to lower the barrier to entry for businesses to build AI agents with Claude.

Friday, April 17, 2026

March Sees More Job, Program Cuts - Josh Moody, Inside Higher Ed

Colleges made or announced moves to cut hundreds of jobs and programs in March. Cuts were driven by financial constraints, federal policy fallout and low program enrollment. The need to tighten purse strings and enrollment issues drove plans in March to cut hundreds of jobs and programs. Amid a confluence of challenges that include state and federal funding concerns, universities are also reviewing or cutting programs that have low enrollment. Several states have passed laws in recent years requiring colleges to slash programs that don’t meet certain enrollment thresholds. Here’s a look at campus job and program cuts announced or enacted last month.

Project Glasswing: Securing critical software for the AI era - Anthropic

Today we’re announcing Project Glasswing1, a new initiative that brings together Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorganChase, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Palo Alto Networks in an effort to secure the world’s most critical software.
We formed Project Glasswing because of capabilities we’ve observed in a new frontier model trained by Anthropic that we believe could reshape cybersecurity. Claude Mythos2 Preview is a general-purpose, unreleased frontier model that reveals a stark fact: AI models have reached a level of coding capability where they can surpass all but the most skilled humans at finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities.

A people-first vision for the future of work in the age of AI - Sorelle Friedler, Serena Booth, Andrew Schrank, and Susan Helper, Brookings

While many Americans associate AI with mass layoffs and less satisfying work, an AI future that puts people first and supports workers is possible. Work has gradually become “enshittified” as employees are routinely underpaid and overworked. Confronting an AI future allows an opportunity to grapple with these realities and meet the moment with a transformative vision. Policies to support this future can include developing institutions to support training, protecting and increasing the role of people in the care workplace, and creating tripartite institution  that encourage the co-design of AI.

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

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.

https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-superintelligence-ai-upheaval-tax-shorter-workweek-public-wealth-fund-2026-4

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.