Our lead story this week is a huge investment by Stanford in the sort of course/curriculum revision work we have been engaged in for the past few years. Part of why we are leading with this is because it has not gotten a ton of attention in other spaces.

An AI identified vulnerability in a piece of fundamental website software absolutely rocked the internet in this news cycle. We still run into people who think the AI disruption will not impact their corner of work. Well, if your work involves accessing the internet in literally any form AI has now impacted it. Whether your LMS slowed down, or you could not log into a database for research, this story impacted all of us in higher ed. Outside the academy this highlights the vulnerability of everything from banking to healthcare. There were some additional interesting stories we will unpack, but the sheer scale of this security vulnerability makes it the clear leader in this cycle. 

 The publication of hundreds of math papers by OpenAI dominated headlines in this cycle following their promotion of a possible solution to the longstanding Navier Stokes conjecture which we covered and wrote about previously. Combined with stories about humanism and the politics of representation we are seeing a new theme–the integration of disciplinary areas into this conversation we have not seen before.

I don’t pretend to know the truth of what is happening here in terms of how much OpenAI discovered vs. how much they took, I am writing to make a different point–this seems like a big deal and I think we are mistaking the drama for the story. 

A couple high profile cases of AI use by faculty and administrators have foregrounded a different conversation about what is appropriate. Honestly, we are overdue for a glance in the mirror at our own AI usage as a profession. Outside of this we have a breakout consumer AI agent, a possible infrastructure slow-down and a viral interview. In a slower news cycle any of these items would have been a lead theme, but this has been another intense two weeks.  

Faculty don’t have to rebuild their courses from scratch. They seek to understand what AI has changed, then adjust the courses they already teach so students are still doing meaningful work.

There were three gigantic stories this week adjacent to higher ed and one interesting campus based approach. We want to flag the story about the labs collectively discussing slowing down because it might be the first time we can catch our breath since ChatGPT was released in Fall 2022.

For years Nik and I have pushed back on what we called “abstinence only” education about AI. The problem is kids are in school for 6-8 hours a day. Limiting access to LLMs on school devices during school hours does not eliminate AI from schoolwork, teaching/learning, or from social lives.

We are asking for some quick feedback on the Newsletter, it will only take a moment and will help us improve the product. 

What a busy month! MIT called for changes to foundational changes to the whole University. Other institutions are putting AI literacy into curricula and graduation requirements. Meanwhile, a working paper on AI and learning has become viral evidence for almost every position in the education debate.

Just in time for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, higher education has its own Trojan Horse story starring a likely well meaning professor at Alcorn State playing the role of the trickster and his students falling into a trap. The virality of this latest story tells us we are not out of the trickster phase yet, in fact, we might just be getting started. 

The theme of this past month is rapid change and radical developments in AI and by contrast a few retread higher ed stories.

The tension between the AI labs, government oversight, and national-security review has dominated the last four weeks.

This story in particular brings all your favorites together. We have allegations of racism, faulty AI detection software, a competitive academic environment, and mixed messaging from the institution–the gang is all here. 

The past few weeks were about AI and shifting institutional relationships. Campuses are signing systemwide contracts, students are using AI unevenly across majors, career offices are being rebuilt around labor-market anxiety, and search is turning into an agent layer.

Nik was featured in this New York Times Magazine report on the CSU and OpenAI. Read all about it!