In this episode of ChatEDU (Guardrails or Surveillance? The Great Summer Gemini Debate), Matt and Liz kick things off with a peek into robot-filled Austin, Texas. Think driverless Jaguars and winking food-delivery cubes. They also share a few updates from their trip to AESA’s summer conference. From there, they dive into three major stories shaping the fast-moving intersection of AI and education.

Story #1: The Rundown Returns

There’s no summer slowdown here. From Turnitin’s big pivot with its Clarity platform to Harvard Business School’s AI tutors and a Common Sense Media study on teen AI companions, Matt and Liz work through a packed list. Along the way, they demo NotebookLM’s new interactive features, revisit the Kittle voice agent, and highlight a troubling move by Elon Musk’s Grok: anime bots and vulgar red pandas designed to keep kids engaged and perhaps manipulated.

Story #2: Beyond the Bot

This week’s Beyond the Bot segment features student-driven innovation from Kenya to New Zealand. First up, a recap of the Africa AI Literacy Week Hackathon, where university students tackled agricultural challenges with custom bots, crop-prediction models, and offline tools. Then Matt and Liz spotlight the InSpirit AI Scholars Program, a standout opportunity for high school students to build real-world AI skills through guided mentorship from top-tier grad students.

Story #3 (Beneath the Surface): Guardrails or Surveillance?

It’s the summer’s hottest debate: Should student AI chats be monitored or private? Matt and Liz break down reactions to Google’s Gemini launch, which skipped the teacher dashboards favored by MagicSchool, SchoolAI, and Brisk. On one side: concerns about safety, transparency, and accountability. On the other: powerful arguments about student agency, trust, and AI literacy. This story puts competing philosophies head to head and asks what kind of AI education we really want.

Bright Byte

This week’s Bright Byte highlights a peer-reviewed study showing how AI is helping hotels and restaurants slash food waste. Using computer vision and deep learning, AI-powered tracking devices identified where food was being lost.

Links and References:

Turnitin Clarity press release-

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/turnitin-delivers-turnitin-clarity-to-bring-transparency-and-responsible-ai-to-the-writing-process-supporting-academic-integrity-in-education-302504889.html

Harvard Business Publishing: AI tutors in accounting

https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/ai-tutor-bots-harvard-business-school

Common Sense Media: AI Companions Report-

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/16/health/teens-ai-companion-wellness

InSpirit AI Scholars Program-

https://www.inspiritai.com/

Africa AI Literacy Week Hackathon (Ish Kenya)-

https://tech-ish.com/2025/07/03/ai-africa-agri-tech-sector/

Bright Byte-

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X25001072

Announcements

The Skills21 Student AI Literacy Course will be available for the fall.

To learn more or bring it to your school, email Matt and Liz at chatedu@edadvance.org

Sponsor

This episode is supported in part by the National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing, helping students and educators build workforce-ready skills through innovation.

https://www.nextgenmfg.org/

In this episode of ChatEDU (College Degrees to Beat the Bot), Matt and Liz kick things off with a voice AI agent for small businesses (including Liz’s very own Studio 217) and trippy new uses for chatbots. From there, they dig into the fast-moving world of robotics, sharing stories of clumsy soccer-playing humanoids, robot warehouse takeovers, and AI-assisted classroom companions. Then, they go Beneath the Surface with a deep dive on seven college majors that may just “beat the bot” — plus an acronym from MIT you’ll actually want to remember. Finally, this week’s Bright Byte delivers a surprising (and heartwarming) AI breakthrough in infertility treatment.

Story #1 — Tsunami of Early-Summer AI Stories

Matt and Liz cover a load of stories in the AI news including prompt injection in academic papers, reports from ISTE, and reported big K-12 AI investments.

Story #2 — Robots on the Rampage

Humanoid robots fall down (a lot) in 3-on-3 soccer matches. Amazon’s warehouse bots are on the rise, and on track to outnumber human workers. Misty II charms students in special education, and Hugging Face releases a DIY robot you can program yourself. It’s fun, freaky… and definitely closer than you think.

Story #3 (Beneath the Surface) — College Majors that Beat the Bot

Cognitive science, bioinformatics, creative tech, and more. Forbes calls these “AI-durable” degrees that blend human creativity, ethics, and empathy with AI savvy. Matt and Liz also explore MIT’s EPOCH framework for future-proof skills: Empathy, Presence, Opinion, Creativity, Hope. Whether you’re advising students or thinking about your own next move, this one’s worth the listen.

Bright ByteAfter 18 years of infertility, AI called STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery) helped a couple conceive by finding viable sperm human eyes missed, no invasive surgery required. Sometimes AI really is a miracle worker.

Links and References

11 Labs AI Voice Agent Tool

https://elevenlabs.io/app/talk-to?agent_id=agent_01jzxnd7e5fsv9cvve4g6np8v7

Hugging Face Reachy Mini Robot

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/09/hugging-face-opens-up-orders-for-its-reachy-mini-desktop-robots/

ISTE AI in Education Highlights

https://www.edweek.org/technology/can-ai-make-history-class-more-fun-for-students/2025/07

OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft Invest in AI/K-12

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danfitzpatrick/2025/07/08/microsoft-openai--anthropic-fund-a-national-ai-academy-for-teachers/

Japan Times on AI Peer Review Hacks

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/07/04/japan/ai-research-prompt-injection/

3 v 3 Robot Soccer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPL7sK0pJOE

Amazon Scales Robots

https://unionrayo.com/en/amazon-new-autonomous-robots/

Misty II

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danfitzpatrick/2025/07/07/how-an-ai-robot-helped-silent-kids-speak/

Forbes: College Majors to Beat the Bot

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhernholm/2025/06/30/7-college-majors-that-prepare-you-to-lead-in-an-ai-driven-economy/

MIT EPOCH Framework on Human Capabilities

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/these-human-capabilities-complement-ais-shortcomings

CNN on STAR AI and Infertility Breakthrough

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/03/health/ai-male-infertility-sperm-wellness

Sponsor

This episode is supported in part by the National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing — nextgenmfg.org

In this episode of ChatEDU (Viral or Villain - Is the AI Backlash Just Beginning?), Matt and Liz open with travel updates from Liz’s time at ISTE/ASCD, shoutouts to listeners met on the road, and a quick prompt hack before diving into three big stories shaping the tension between AI’s rapid adoption in schools and growing backlash in society. From AI-powered literacy tools to global assessment changes and the tension between usage and resistance, this episode explores what happens when AI goes viral, and when the backlash begins.

Story #1: Amira’s AI Literacy Screening in Newark

Newark Public Schools is rolling out Amira, an AI-powered literacy screener assessing K-3 students by listening to them read aloud. The tool helps identify fluency challenges and personalizes interventions while emphasizing augmentation, not replacement, of teachers. While promising for early literacy, experts highlight the need for human oversight, particularly for English learners, to ensure equitable outcomes.

Story #2: PISA Adds AI Literacy to Global Assessments

The OECD’s PISA assessment will add a Media and AI Literacy domain in 2029 to measure students’ critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and ability to navigate misinformation in an AI-mediated world. Using simulations of search engines, social media feeds, and chatbot interactions, this marks a major shift in what global assessments will value, preparing systems to measure skills relevant to the digital age.

Story #3 (Beneath the Surface): The Walton Study, Wired, and the Growing AI Backlash

A new Walton Family Foundation survey with Gallup shows teachers are saving nearly six weeks a year using AI while improving lesson quality and work-life balance. Meanwhile, 97% of Gen Z students are using AI for homework, test prep, and college essays. Yet, a rising backlash is building outside schools as concerns over automation, environmental impact, and copyright issues grow. Matt and Liz discuss what leaders should do to pair intentional AI adoption with policy, dialogue, and equity to navigate the coming tension.

Bright Byte: Microsoft’s MAI-DXO Diagnoses Faster and Cheaper

In healthcare, Microsoft’s MAI-DXO has diagnosed 85% of complex medical cases accurately while lowering costs by reducing unnecessary testing. This signals how AI can streamline diagnostics, save money, and improve care, if implemented with thoughtful clinical validation.

Links and References

Amira Literacy Screening (Chalkbeat + NJ.com)

https://www.nj.com/mosaic/2025/06/newark-launches-ai-tool-to-boost-literacy-for-struggling-students.html

PISA Media & AI Literacy Domain – OECD Announcement

https://www.oecd.org/en/about/projects/pisa-2029-media-and-artificial-intelligence-literacy.html

Walton/Gallup AI Survey – Teach for Tomorrow Report

https://www.gallup.com/analytics/659819/k-12-teacher-research.aspx

Wired on AI Backlash – Reese Rogers, June 28

https://www.wired.com/story/generative-ai-backlash/

Microsoft MAI-DXO Diagnostic Orchestrator

https://microsoft.ai/new/the-path-to-medical-superintelligence/

Skills21 AI Resources and Policy Samples

skills21.org/ai/resources

Sponsor: National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing

nextgenmfg.org