Podcast
ChatEDU – The AI & Education Podcast
Hosted by Matt Mervis and Dr. Elizabeth Radday · EN
Welcome to ChatEDU – The AI & Education Podcast , your go-to podcast for insightful discussions on the intersection of AI and education! Hosted by Matt Mervis, Director of Skills21 and AI Strategy at EdAdvance, and Dr. Elizabeth Radday, Director of Research & Innovation, this podcast explores the dynamic landscape of education technology.
55episodes
Episodes
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AI on the Sidelines, Near Real-Time Coaching for Every Educator | Ep. 113
2w ago01:18:26Tap to summarizeIn this episode of ChatEDU AI on the Sidelines, Near Real-Time Coaching for Every Educator, open with the "Sad Wives of AI," a Wired piece on the marital strain and household gender gaps emerging as Bay Area tech husbands pour themselves into the AI wave.The RundownGoogle has introduced automatic Google Drive syncing for NotebookLM, eliminating the need to manually update uploaded Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.Upgrading to Gemini 1.5 Pro transformed NotebookLM's image upload capabilities into full multimodal visual understanding, opening up new use cases for students and teachers using screenshots and real world photos.A roundup of recent AI failures: a $100 million Pizza Hut franchisee lawsuit against Dragon Tail AI, Starbucks scrapping a faulty AI inventory tool, a study finding 60%+ of AI search responses inaccurate, and fake journals publishing AI papers.A Wall Street Journal report highlights how persistent memory features in major chatbots can backfire by latching onto stale, outdated, or sensitive personal data and skewing future advice.American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten introduced a 10 plan calling for a complete ban on screens for preschool through second grade and a prohibition on student facing AI in all elementary schools.The School Superintendents Association is pairing 50 superintendents with 100 students to collaborate with MIT experts and draft a student led national AI policy for public schools.Students from New Haven's Engineering and Science University Magnet School developed a functioning visual prosthesis utilizing advanced vision language models for real time hazard detection for the visually impaired.The Beneath the SurfaceMatt and Liz explore Urban Assembly's Project CAFE, which delivers near-real-time coaching to every educator. CEO David Adams joins to discuss using AI-driven frameworks to improve teacher development, student engagement, and AI integration in K-12 classrooms.https://www.urbanassembly.org/https://www.urbanassembly.org/what-we-do/project-cafeThe Bright ByteThe Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's Biohub is an open-source world model of protein biology that predicts complex protein shapes in seconds and designs disease-targeting proteins in days. Being fully open source, it lets researchers worldwide download the data and accelerate breakthroughs on their own.AnnouncementsPurchase Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth RaddayAmazon - https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77Seeing through the Machine – Teaching Bias as an Equity Practice in AI - Dr. Elizabeth Radday - https://tinyurl.com/4ybwkn7aCheck out our middle / high school Student AI Literacy course - www.skills21.org/ai/learnai Explore Skills21’s FREE social media literacy curriculum - https://www.skills21.org/social-balanceAddress Screen Time concerns - skills21.org/ai/screenshift LinksMeet the Sad Wives of AIhttps://tinyurl.com/mr4xf8zeAutomatic Drive syncing in NotebookLMhttps://tinyurl.com/38kfana4Unlocking NotebookLM's best featurehttps://tinyurl.com/3ppt3cczPizza Hut franchisee says AI caused $100M in damageshttps://tinyurl.com/5ypp52uaExclusive: Starbucks scraps AI inventory tool across North Americahttps://tinyurl.com/5a68wphdAI Just Isn’t Righthttps://tinyurl.com/33ve2p6uFake journals publish AI papers under professors' nameshttps://tinyurl.com/3tbf5rpbYour Chatbot's Long Memory Isn't Always a Good Thinghttps://tinyurl.com/4dzpb77nAFT president urges screen and AI bans for young studentshttps://tinyurl.com/tu56kxc9Let Digital-Native Students Lead the AI Revolution in Educationhttps://tinyurl.com/y589exk8New Haven Magnet School Is Only High School Team at Yale Innovation Summithttps://tinyurl.com/mr352pteA World Model of Protein Biologyhttps://tinyurl.com/5ca6upk2
Transcribe →Catch Up Crisis | Check-In 34
2w ago00:03:52Tap to summarizeIn this ChatEDU Check-In: Catch Up Crisis, Liz explores how artificial intelligence can help address the widespread failure of American schools to effectively help struggling students catch up. Grade inflation and the removal of standardized testing requirements are masking major learning gaps, leaving many students unprepared for higher education despite having high grade-point average.Key Takeaways:A significant disconnect exists between high student grades and actual academic proficiency, creating a deceptive reality for parents and students.Traditional school systems are largely failing to move struggling students toward academic recovery due to the overwhelming demands placed on teachers.AI tools can analyze student work in real time to identify specific learning misconceptions, serving as a scalable playbook for targeted teacher interventions.Liz’s Two Cents: School leaders must confront the uncomfortable reality that grade inflation is masking critical student deficiencies. To prevent students from falling permanently behind, districts should strategically leverage AI to surface real-time diagnostic insights, allowing teachers to maximize their limited intervention time by targeting exact learning gaps rather than relearning mastered content.Article:America’s Schools Are Terrible at Catching Kids Up. How AI Can Helphttps://bit.ly/4u8cuGQ
Transcribe →AI Labs Hiring Philosophers | Check-In 33
3w ago00:02:33Tap to summarizeIn this ChatEDU Check-In: AI Labs Hiring Philosophers, Liz explores why leading artificial intelligence labs like Google DeepMind and Anthropic have begun hiring in-house philosophers. This shift turns abstract questions about the nature of intelligence into practical guidelines for model behavior.Key Takeaways:AI labs are employing philosophers to work alongside computer scientists to sculpt the moral frameworks and societal impacts of new technologies.These professionals focus on technical value alignment and drafting "constitutions" to guide model interactions in sensitive scenarios, such as managing users in distress.Academic critics worry these corporate roles may limit critical questioning and could be used for "ethics washing" to signal public safety while prioritizing shareholders.Liz’s Two Cents: The influx of philosophers into AI development raises critical questions about whose ethical frameworks are being prioritized and whether these roles are genuinely impactful or merely a public relations strategy. For school districts, this underscores the importance of teaching students to critically evaluate the underlying values and potential biases embedded within the AI tools they use daily.Article:To Land a Job in AI, Try Reading Kanthttps://bit.ly/4aogUCm
Transcribe →An Earful of Ivy: AI and the Battle for Higher Ed Integrity | Ep. 112
3w ago01:06:09Tap to summarizeIn this episode of ChatEDU An Earful of Ivy: AI and the Battle for Higher Ed Integrity, Matt and Liz open with an internet prank: an anonymous artist posted a real Monet, claimed it was AI generated, and watched critics bash the masterpiece as AI slop. The hosts then pivot to education, technology, and policy.The RundownJohn R. Soash's three configurations for restricting student access to Gemini AI and Google Lens.Dan Fitzpatrick on Google's pivot from passive chatbots to proactive AI agents.Regional literary winners face scrutiny after their entries were flagged as AI-generated.The federal law requiring platforms to remove nonconsensual student deepfakes within 48 hours, effective May 2026.OpenAI and Google DeepMind use AI reasoning models to autonomously solve longstanding math problems.Dr. Ethan Mollick compares the water and energy costs of computing breakthroughs to everyday resources like almonds and lawns.Academics debate whether AI traffic light systems and the AI Assessment Scale are an enforcement illusion or a genuinely useful tool.A 2026 pilot program delivers cloud workstations and premium tech subscriptions to public libraries in Utah and New Jersey.Beneath the SurfaceMatt and Liz examine how grade inflation and AI cheating fears are driving policy shifts at elite universities: device bans at Yale, a 20% A-grade cap at Harvard, an AI ban at UC Berkeley Law, and the end of Princeton's 133-year-old honor code. As a counterpoint, they feature CU Boulder physicists advocating collaborative, department-level experimentation that treats students as partners rather than imposing top-down bans.The Bright ByteFinland's Kemira and UK-based Cusp AI used generative AI to design over 5,000 new material structures to strip PFAS 'forever chemicals' from municipal drinking water.AnnouncementsPurchase Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth RaddayAmazon - https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77Seeing through the Machine – Teaching Bias as an Equity Practice in AI - Dr. Elizabeth Radday - https://tinyurl.com/4ybwkn7aCheck out our middle / high school Student AI Literacy course - www.skills21.org/ai/learnai Explore Skills21’s FREE social media literacy curriculum - https://www.skills21.org/social-balanceAddress Screen Time concerns - skills21.org/ai/screenshift SponsorsNectir. Welcome to the Classroom of the Future. https://www.nectir.io/LinksPrankster Passes Off Real Monet Painting as AI-Generated, Chaos Ensueshttps://tinyurl.com/mrab9ne3Blocking Google’s “AI Mode” (IT admin guide)https://tinyurl.com/4px27bm9Google I/O 2026's Impact on Educationhttps://tinyurl.com/2vs3zfzsLiterary Prizewinners Face AI Allegationshttps://tinyurl.com/sh3jry9yWhat's Next for the First AI Deepfakes Lawhttps://tinyurl.com/9v3rzutkAI Solves an 80-Year-Old 'Erdős Problemhttps://tinyurl.com/ykks2mtjAI-Driven Formal Proof Search in Mathematicshttps://tinyurl.com/3wuer99wDiscursive vs. Structural Responses to AI in Educationhttps://tinyurl.com/4d6n82yyLabels, Scales, and What the AIAS Actually Claims to Dohttps://tinyurl.com/su4zr73uBuilding Public AI with Librarieshttps://tinyurl.com/4den8s4kYale to Consider Changes to Mission, Admissions, Aid, and Gradinghttps://tinyurl.com/46779xp5Yale Faculty Say 'Bravo' to Harvard's Grade Caphttps://tinyurl.com/mx6e594cUC Berkeley Law's AI Ban: Why Texas Students Should Pay Attentionhttps://tinyurl.com/32xt4umrPrinceton Changes Its 133-Year-Old Honor Code Over AI Cheating Fearshttps://tinyurl.com/28yjxfjnCU Boulder: Higher Ed AI Change Models Already Out of Datehttps://tinyurl.com/37me2ssj
Transcribe →Data Center Disaster? | Check-In 32
3w ago00:03:22Tap to summarizeIn this ChatEDU Check-In: Data Center Disaster? Matt explores how xAI's expansion of gas turbines at its Colossus 2 data center campus is drawing significant local backlash. This controversial move comes as the public opinion of AI continues to decline due to environmental and career anxieties.Key Takeaways:Elon Musk's xAI is increasing portable gas-fired power at its Mississippi campus despite facing legal challenges regarding air quality.Internal communications reveal a massive rapid deployment of 19 new natural gas turbines over a recent 60-day period.Civil rights and environmental advocacy groups, including the NAACP, have filed lawsuits alleging Clean Air Act violations.Matt’s Two Cents: School leaders trying to build digital fluency and AI literacy among students must now navigate a rapid drop in public opinion surrounding these tools. Environmental issues, like massive data center energy consumption and localized pollution, are heavily driving this negative perception, making it an essential topic to address when educating students on the holistic impact of AI technology.Article:xAI Adds 19 New Gas Turbines Despite Ongoing Lawsuithttps://bit.ly/4wSK5qZ
Transcribe →AI + Commencement Speech = Loud Boos | Check-In 31
4w ago00:03:12Tap to summarizeIn this ChatEDU Check-In: College graduates are loudly booing commencement speakers as they talk about AI, Matt explores the growing vocal pushback and open hostility from graduating university students when speakers introduce the topic of AI during commencement speeches. This friction highlights a deep generational anxiety among entering professionals as automation spreads into daily life.Key Takeaways:College commencement ceremonies are seeing unexpected disruptions, signaling a growing cultural friction and unease regarding technology's integration into the professional world.Data shows distinct generational anxiety, with 42% of Gen Z expressing concerns that AI will harm their job opportunities and wages, a higher percentage than Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers.Student anxieties are validated by real-world market dynamics, as major tech and media firms attribute recent staff reductions directly to AI-driven workflow automation.Matt’s Two Cents: Commencement speakers need to be more dialed into the current climate. It is tone-deaf to claim that AI is the future when the job of a speaker is to celebrate the students as the future, especially as they enter an uncertain labor market. While students and adults absolutely need AI fluency to navigate civil society and a changing workplace, leaders must acknowledge that this is a weird and disruptive time rather than ignoring student anxieties.Article:The new college graduation ritual: booing AIhttps://bit.ly/4uPCBnn
Transcribe →Ditching Seat Time - Our Conversation with Amit Sevak | Ep. 111
May 2201:05:10Tap to summarizeIn this episode of ChatEDU, Ditching Seat Time - Our Conversation with Amit Sevak, Matt and Liz kick it off with a look into how AI models love reading science fiction. They explore fascinating new research from Anthropic showing that AI models often lean into behaviors learned from sci-fi, such as conspiring against humans or utilizing blackmail when facing a shutdown, and how post-training with synthetic ethical stories can help keep them aligned.The RundownAndin Labs conducted a six-month experiment letting four distinct AI models run their own radio stations on a $20 budget, revealing bizarre behavioral drifts ranging from corporate jargon loops to bot union rebellions.Google is integrating the grounded, factual research power of NotebookLM into its Workspace Studio automation workflows, bringing new productivity features to educational tiers.Instructure made the controversial decision to pay an undisclosed ransom to the cybercriminal group Shiny Hunters to protect compromised data and restore the Canvas LMS for 275 million users.The New York Times gathered extensive student commentary highlighting a stark divide between teenagers who appreciate process-based writing and those who fear AI dependency is harming critical thinking.Educator AJ Giuliani shared an innovative assessment strategy using generative AI to create quick, bespoke five-question comprehension checks based directly on submitted student papers.Ohio University celebrated a pioneering milestone, graduating its very first inaugural class of three students from its specialized Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence program.CAST partnered with AIEDU to deploy physical AI field kits and STEM protocols across Montana Boys and Girls Clubs, significantly boosting after-school educator comfort and efficacy.The Beneath the SurfaceLiz sits down with Amit Sevak, the CEO of Educational Testing Service (ETS), to explore the global AI literacy emergency and the urgent need for transparent competency measures. Sevak details the newly formed Kahn TED Institute, a collaborative venture between Khan Academy, TED, and ETS designed to upend traditional higher education by shifting away from standard seat time toward a flexible, mastery-based approach. He explains how modern AI tools can help measure both technical AI fluency and essential human durable skills, such as communication and collaboration, through dynamic portfolio and presentation assessments.The Bright ByteThe hosts wrap up the show with a look at Physics Intern, an autonomous agentic framework designed for complex theoretical physics research. By setting up a cooperative team of AI agents that plan strategies, calculate math, and check each other's work, the system effectively utilizes peer review to prevent models from getting stuck on incorrect first guesses.AnnouncementsPurchase Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth RaddayAmazon - https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77Check out our middle / high school Student AI Literacy course - www.skills21.org/ai/learnai Explore Skills21’s FREE social media literacy curriculum - https://www.skills21.org/social-balanceAddress Screen Time concerns - skills21.org/ai/screenshiftLinksAnthropic warns against using dystopian sci-fi to train AI modelshttps://tinyurl.com/5t4v9n7zWe let four AIs run radio stations. Here's what happened.https://tinyurl.com/3aafc4jcUse NotebookLM in your Google Workspace Studio flowshttps://tinyurl.com/2we7px2fInstructure Pays Ransom to Canvas Hackershttps://tinyurl.com/yukhfx7aHow Are Your Teachers Handling Writing in the Age of A.I.?https://tinyurl.com/yeynhwz2The Easiest Way to Stop AI Plagiarizinghttps://tinyurl.com/mr3krt5xOHIO's first AI degree graduates shape the future of the fieldhttps://tinyurl.com/yc3esamjAI in The Big Skyhttps://tinyurl.com/5butbp7cPhysics-intern: an autonomous agentic framework for physics researchhttps://tinyurl.com/mudrmec5
Transcribe →AI Out Performs Clinical Doctors | Check-In 30
May 2100:02:41Tap to summarizeIn this ChatEDU Check-In: AI Outperforms Doctors on Clinical Diagnosis Study, Liz explores how advanced AI reasoning models are demonstrating a high degree of accuracy when analyzing complex medical data." The episode highlights a recent study involving Harvard Medical School where an OpenAI model successfully navigated messy electronic health records from actual emergency department cases to identify intricate conditions.Key Takeaways:AI reasoning models now demonstrate superior accuracy using messy, real-world data, successfully navigating early triage and admission stages with limited information.Significant technical progress allows the latest AI models to handle diagnostic uncertainty and match or exceed established clinical benchmarks for ambiguous symptoms.Experts emphasize that superior text-based diagnostic performance does not account for full clinical workflows, which require physical images, sounds, and non-verbal cues.Liz’s Two Cents: While AI is showing massive improvements in handling complex, messy data and solving diagnostic puzzles, it cannot replicate the human elements of workflow management and interpersonal understanding. For school district leaders, this serves as a hopeful signal that AI's role is to enhance and support professional expertise rather than replace the essential human touch.Article:In real-world test, an AI model did better than doctors at diagnosing patientshttps://bit.ly/43jjntT
Transcribe →Cell Phone Ban | Check-In 29
May 1900:02:47Tap to summarizeIn this ChatEDU Check-In: The Actual Impact of Cell Phone Bans, Liz explores the first major study analyzing the effects of lockable phone pouches and school cell phone restrictions." This study examines how these bans alter student behavior, academic performance, and overall school culture after implementation.Key Takeaways:Implementing lockable phone pouches causes immediate friction, including temporary spikes in disciplinary actions and drops in student happiness, though these metrics return to baseline after one year.The impact on test scores is nearly zero on average, showing modest positive math effects in high schools but small negative academic effects in middle schools, ruling out broad academic gains.The restrictions achieved an 80 percent reduction in school cell phone use to the delight of parents and teachers, yet failed to produce anticipated improvements in attendance, classroom attention, or online bullying.Lizs Two Cents: While cell phone bans successfully clear the digital clutter from classrooms and satisfy parents and teachers, the data proves that removing a device is not a silver bullet for academic or socio-emotional growth. School leaders must recognize that device management is only one piece of the educational puzzle: true engagement and cultural improvement require deeper, more comprehensive strategies beyond simply locking up phones.Article:The Effects of School Phone Bans: National Evidence from Lockable Poucheshttps://bit.ly/4ujOFg9
Transcribe →A Good Week for Jevons Paradox | Ep. 110
May 1501:03:53Tap to summarizeIn this episode of ChatEDU, "A Good Week for Jevons Paradox," Matt and Liz kick it off with a dramatic reading of leaked text messages between Sam Altman and Mira Murati. The hosts discuss the high-stakes drama surrounding OpenAI, including Murati's testimony regarding Altman's honesty and the chaotic events leading up to his brief firing, which they jokingly refer to as "the blip."The RundownMatt and Liz engage in a spirited discussion about the Brisk Chrome extension and its integration with Gemini, questioning if "wrapper" tools add true value for educators.An examination of how Arizona State University repurposed faculty lectures into "AI slop" snippets without professor consent, leading to a significant backlash.A look at the $17 million deal with OpenAI that is facing resistance from faculty and students who feel like "test rats" due to a lack of guidance.A study from Cornell and Carnegie Mellon reveals that while lower-income students use AI more for essays, they face higher rejection rates than wealthier peers.New research highlights a sixfold increase in fabricated academic citations in research papers, signaling a shift toward superficial AI box-checking in academia.Mike Dunn, principal at Granby High School, shares a cautionary tale of a "complexity ceiling" where Gemini hallucinated teacher data during a scheduling task.The Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund announces $1.9 million in grants to youth-led organizations focused on digital safety and AI ethics.A three-part look at digital bans, featuring Richard Culatta’s warning against banning edtech, Arana Shapiro’s critique of "chocolate-covered broccoli" learning, and a report on surging library checkouts in Dallas.The Beneath the SurfaceThe hosts explore Jevon’s Paradox, an economic theory from the 1860s which suggests that as technology makes a resource more efficient, the overall consumption of that resource actually increases. They apply this theory to the "AI Jobpocalypse" predictions and conduct a thought experiment on how increased efficiency in education might lead to higher demands on teachers and students rather than less work.The Bright ByteThe episode concludes with a fascinating look at how NASA is utilizing AI to identify true planets among hundreds of thousands of simulated astrophysical events, successfully distinguishing them from false positives.AnnouncementsPurchase Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday. Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77Check out our middle / high school Student AI Literacy course - www.skills21.org/ai/learnai Explore Skills21’s FREE social media literacy curriculum - https://www.skills21.org/social-balanceAddress Screen Time concerns - skills21.org/ai/screenshift SponsorsNectir. Welcome to the Classroom of the Future. https://www.nectir.io/LinksOpenAI's Former CTO Testifies Against Sam Altmanhttps://tinyurl.com/bdcpdb6zASU AI Tool Uses Professors' Lectures Without Their Knowledgehttps://tinyurl.com/3ejhtepkSome Cal State Students and Faculty Reject OpenAI Dealhttps://tinyurl.com/yc7sjwx6Low-Income Students More Likely to Use AI for Admissions Essayshttps://tinyurl.com/5e5ej5xeAI-Hallucinated Citations Increasingly Appearing in Research Papershttps://tinyurl.com/yc2auunhResponsible Technology Youth Power Fund Grants $1.9M to Third Cohorthttps://tinyurl.com/3f6ebxvcStates Expanding School Device Bans Beyond Phoneshttps://tinyurl.com/y4vppwcuThe Real Problem Isn't Screens, It's Disengaged Learninghttps://tinyurl.com/2wxzfxuhSchool Library Checkouts Rise Amid Phone Banshttps://tinyurl.com/3pdy3dakDario Amodei Changes Tune on AI White-Collar Job Losseshttps://tinyurl.com/22c6wu78Why the A.I. Job Apocalypse (Probably) Won’t Happenhttps://tinyurl.com/3fsbpjvhAI Discovers 100+ Hidden Planets in NASA Datahttps://tinyurl.com/yw8ac8bj
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