ChatGPT: the world’s most influential teacher — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman; emphasis DSC
New research shows that millions of us are “learning with AI” every week: what does this mean for how (and how well) humans learn?

This week, an important piece of research landed that confirms the gravity of AI’s role in the learning process. The TLDR is that learning is now a mainstream use case for ChatGPT; around 10.2% of all ChatGPT messages (that’s ~2BN messages sent by over 7 million users per week) are requests for help with learning.

The research shows that about 10.2% of all messages are tutoring/teaching, and within the “Practical Guidance” category, tutoring is 36%. “Asking” interactions are growing faster than “Doing” and are rated higher quality by users. Younger people contribute a huge share of messages, and growth is fastest in low- and middle-income countries (How People Use ChatGPT, 2025).

If AI is already acting as a global tutor, the question isn’t “will people learn with AI?”—they already are. The real question we need to ask is: what does great learning actually look like, and how should AI evolve to support it? That’s where decades of learning science help us separate “feels like learning” from “actually gaining new knowledge and skills”.

Let’s dive in.

 

OpenAI’s research on AI scheming, explained — from theneurondaily.com by Grant Harvey
PLUS: Google PayPal on agent payments?!

  • We dive into the OpenAI study that found AI models scheme to avoid retraining.
  • AI Models Caught Red-Handed Being Sneaky (And We Taught Them to Stop… Mostly)

And models were caught doing all sorts of other shady stuff:

  • Intentionally underperforming when told high scores would lead to capability removal.
  • Secretly breaking rules then lying about it to users.
  • Sabotaging code while claiming everything was fine.
  • Falsifying reports to avoid “shutdown” scenarios.
  • Recognizing evaluation environments and thinking “this is probably an alignment test.”

Why this matters: While today’s ChatGPT isn’t about to orchestrate some grand deception that matters (the worst it might do is gaslight you to tell you it fixed your code when it didn’t), future AI systems will have real power and autonomy. Getting ahead of deceptive behavior now, while we can still peek inside their “minds,” is crucial.

The researchers are calling for the entire AI industry to prioritize this issue. Because nobody wants to live in a world where super-intelligent AI systems are really good at lying to us. That’s basically every sci-fi movie we’ve been warned about.


From DSC:
This is chilling indeed. We are moving so fast that we aren’t safeguarding things enough. As they point out, these things can be caught now because we are asking the models to show their “thinking” and processing. What happens when those windows get closed and we can’t see under the hood anymore?


 

How to Navigate Customer Service — from marketoonist.com by Tom Fishburne

 

3 Work Trends – Issue 87 — from the World Economic Forum

1. #AI adoption is delivering real results for early movers
Three years into the generative AI revolution, a small but growing group of global companies is demonstrating the tangible potential of AI. Among firms with revenues of $1 billion or more:

  • 17% report cost savings or revenue growth of at least 10% from AI.
  • Almost 80% say their AI investments have met or exceeded expectations.
  • Half worry they are not moving fast enough and could fall behind competitors.

The world’s first AI cabinet member — from therundown.ai by Zach Mink, Rowan Cheung, Shubham Sharma, Joey Liu & Jennifer Mossalgue
PLUS: Startup produces 3,000 AI podcast episodes weekly

The details:

  • Prime Minister Edi Rama unveiled Diella during a cabinet announcement this week, calling her the first member “virtually created by artificial intelligence”.
  • The AI avatar will evaluate and award all public tenders where the government contracts private firms.
  • Diella already serves citizens through Albania’s digital services portal, processing bureaucratic requests via voice commands.
  • Rama claims the AI will eliminate bribes and threats from decision-making, though the government hasn’t detailed what human oversight will exist.

The Rundown AI’s article links to:


Anthropic Economic Index report: Uneven geographic and enterprise AI adoption — from anthropic.com

In other words, a hallmark of early technological adoption is that it is concentrated—in both a small number of geographic regions and a small number of tasks in firms. As we document in this report, AI adoption appears to be following a similar pattern in the 21st century, albeit on shorter timelines and with greater intensity than the diffusion of technologies in the 20th century.

To study such patterns of early AI adoption, we extend the Anthropic Economic Index along two important dimensions, introducing a geographic analysis of Claude.ai conversations and a first-of-its-kind examination of enterprise API use. We show how Claude usage has evolved over time, how adoption patterns differ across regions, and—for the first time—how firms are deploying frontier AI to solve business problems.


How human-centric AI can shape the future of work — from weforum.org by Sapthagiri Chapalapalli

  • Last year, use of AI in the workplace increased by 5.5% in Europe alone.
  • AI adoption is accelerating, but success depends on empowering people, not just deploying technology.
  • Redesigning roles and workflows to combine human creativity and critical thinking with AI-driven insights is key.

The transformative potential of AI on business

Organizations are having to rapidly adapt their business models. Image: TCS


Using ChatGPT to get a job — from linkedin.com by Ishika Rawat

 

The waiting game — from college-inside.beehiiv.com by Charlotte West
College Inside breaks down the numbers from a first-of-its kind report on higher education in Illinois prisons.

For every person enrolled in higher education at Illinois prisons, someone else is waiting for their turn, according to new state data that reveals a system where access to college depends largely on where someone is incarcerated.

Right now, roughly 2,000 people in Illinois prisons are participating in higher education programs, according to a report released at the beginning of September. That’s about 1 out of every 15 people incarcerated in the state. At the same time, though, another 2,000 are stuck on waiting lists to get into classes because there’s not enough programming available.

Another 700 people on supervised release — Illinois’ version of parole — are also enrolled in higher education, per the report. Those numbers include enrollment in both college classes, and career and technical education.

 

Titus 2:2

Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

Isaiah 46:4

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

Philippians 4:4

Final Exhortations
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

1 Peter 4:8-10

8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

 

GRCC students to use AI to help businesses solve ‘real world’ challenges in new course — from www-mlive-com.cdn.ampproject.org by Brian McVicar; via Patrick Bailey on LinkedIn

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — A new course at Grand Rapids Community College aims to help students learn about artificial intelligence by using the technology to solve real-world business problems.

In a release, the college said its grant application was supported by 20 local businesses, including Gentex, TwistThink and the Grand Rapids Public Museum. The businesses have pledged to work with students who will use business data to develop an AI project such as a chatbot that interacts with customers, or a program that automates social media posts or summarizes customer data.

“This rapidly emerging technology can transform the way businesses process data and information,” Kristi Haik, dean of GRCC’s School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, said in a statement. “We want to help our local business partners understand and apply the technology. We also want to create real experiences for our students so they enter the workforce with demonstrated competence in AI applications.”

As Patrick Bailey said on LinkedIn about this article:

Nice to see a pedagogy that’s setting a forward movement rather than focusing on what could go wrong with AI in a curriculum.


Forecast for Learning and Earning in 2025-2026 report — from pages.asugsvsummit.com by Jennifer Lee and Claire Zau

In this look ahead at the future of learning and work, we aim to define:

  • Major thematic observations
  • What makes this moment an inflection point
  • Key predictions (and their precedent)
  • Short- and long-term projected impacts


The LMS at 30: From Course Management to Learning Management (At Last) — from onedtech.philhillaa.com; a guest post from Matthew Pittinsky, Ph.D.

As a 30 year observer and participant, it seems to me that previous technology platform shifts like SaaS and mobile did not fundamentally change the LMS. AI is different. We’re standing at the precipice of LMS 2.0, where the branding change from Course Management System to Learning Management System will finally live up to its name. Unlike SaaS or mobile, AI represents a technology platform shift that will transform the way participants interact with learning systems – and with it, the nature of the LMS itself.

Given the transformational potential of AI, it is useful to set the context and think about how we got here, especially on this 30th anniversary of the LMS.

LMS at 30 Part 2: Learning Management in the AI Era — from onedtech.philhillaa.com; a guest post from Matthew Pittinsky, Ph.D.

Where AI is disruptive is in its ability to introduce a whole new set of capabilities that are best described as personalized learning services. AI offers a new value proposition to the LMS, roughly the set of capabilities currently being developed in the AI Tutor / agentic TA segment. These new capabilities are so valuable given their impact on learning that I predict they will become the services with greatest engagement within a school or university’s “enterprise” instructional platform.

In this way, by LMS paradigm shift, I specifically mean a shift from buyers valuing the product on its course-centric and course management capabilities, to valuing it on its learner-centric and personalized learning capabilities.


AI and the future of education: disruptions, dilemmas and directions — from unesdoc.unesco.org

This anthology reveals how the integration of AI in education poses profound philosophical, pedagogical, ethical and political questions. As this global AI ecosystem evolves and becomes increasingly ubiquitous, UNESCO and its partners have a shared responsibility to lead the global discourse towards an equity- and justice-centred agenda. The volume highlights three areas in which UNESCO will continue to convene and lead a global commons for dialog and action particularly in areas on AI futures, policy and practice innovation, and experimentation.

  1. As guardian of ethical, equitable human-centred AI in education.
  2. As thought leader in reimagining curriculum and pedagogy
  3. As a platform for engaging pluralistic and contested dialogues

AI, copyright and the classroom: what higher education needs to know — from timeshighereducation.com by Cayce Myers
As artificial intelligence reshapes teaching and research, one legal principle remains at the heart of our work: copyright. Understanding its implications isn’t just about compliance – it’s about protecting academic integrity, intellectual property and the future of knowledge creation. Cayce Myers explains


The School Year We Finally Notice “The Change” — from americanstogether.substack.com by Jason Palmer

Why It Matters
A decade from now, we won’t say “AI changed schools.” We’ll say: this was the year schools began to change what it means to be human, augmented by AI.

This transformation isn’t about efficiency alone. It’s about dignity, creativity, and discovery, and connecting education more directly to human flourishing. The industrial age gave us schools to produce cookie-cutter workers. The digital age gave us knowledge anywhere, anytime. The AI age—beginning now—gives us back what matters most: the chance for every learner to become infinitely capable.

This fall may look like any other—bells ringing, rows of desks—but beneath the surface, education has begun its greatest transformation since the one-room schoolhouse.


How should universities teach leadership now that teams include humans and autonomous AI agents? — from timeshighereducation.com by Alex Zarifis
Trust and leadership style are emerging as key aspects of teambuilding in the age of AI. Here are ways to integrate these considerations with technology in teaching

Transactional and transformational leaderships’ combined impact on AI and trust
Given the volatile times we live in, a leader may find themselves in a situation where they know how they will use AI, but they are not entirely clear on the goals and journey. In a teaching context, students can be given scenarios where they must lead a team, including autonomous AI agents, to achieve goals. They can then analyse the situations and decide what leadership styles to apply and how to build trust in their human team members. Educators can illustrate this decision-making process using a table (see above).

They may need to combine transactional leadership with transformational leadership, for example. Transactional leadership focuses on planning, communicating tasks clearly and an exchange of value. This works well with both humans and automated AI agents.

 

In Rural Wisconsin, Pat Perry Connects the Various Forces That Shape Our World — from thisiscolossal.com by Pat Perry & Grace Ebert

To conceptualize the work, the collective helped to contact and secure permissions from the teachers pictured, and with the exception of the woman in the red floral garment at the bottom of the piece—she’s the artist’s mother and a retired educator—all work in the area. And why teachers? Perry explains:

Day after day, people find purpose. They wake up early, show up with intention, and try to make sense of things—not just for themselves, but also for others. Teachers do this every day. Not for recognition, and rarely for much pay. It’s a repetitive act of maintenance that holds things together. Choosing to shoulder that task, even while standing at the edge of something vast and indifferent, is a quiet act of defiance. Amidst overwhelmingness and uncontrollableness and unanswerableness, teachers—and all custodians of human affairs—keep meaning in the world by steadily and stubbornly tending to it.


While you’re out there, also see:


Song Dong’s Monumental Installations Mirror Memories, Globalization, and Impermanence — from thisiscolossal.com by Song Dong and Kate Mothes

 

The Jobs and Degrees Underemployed College Graduates Have — from stlouisfed.org by Heather Hennerich; via Ryan Craig

Economist Oksana Leukhina, an economic policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, sat down for a conversation about underemployment, including:

  • The effects it has on college graduates’ income and careers
  • The kinds of degrees underemployed grads are more likely to have
  • The job amenities underemployed graduates have

On a somewhat-related note, also see:


Workers disagree with executives on outlook as labor market stall continues — from linkedin.com by Kory Kantenga

In this month’s edition of the State of the Labor Market, we dive deeper into recent hiring trends, including revisiting entry-level work. This edition also examines labor market churn and its importance to the overall health of a dynamic labor market. We end by taking a closer look at the growing divide between worker and executive sentiment.

 

PODCAST: The AI that’s making lawyers 100x better (and it’s not ChatGPT) — from theneurondaily.com by Matthew Robinson
How Thomson Reuters solved AI hallucinations in legal work

Bottom line: The best engineers became 100x better with AI coding tools. Now the same transformation is hitting law. Joel [the CTO at Thomson Reuters] predicts the best attorneys who master these tools will become 100x more powerful than before.


Legal Tech at a Turning Point: What 2025 Has Shown Us So Far — from community.nasscom.in by Elint AI

4. Legal Startups Reshape the Market for Judges and Practitioners
Legal services are no longer dominated by traditional providers. Business Insider reports on a new wave of nimble “Law Firm 2.0” entities—AI-enabled startups offering fixed cost services for specific tasks such as contract reviews or drafting. The LegalTech Lab is helping launch such disruptors with funding and guidance.

At the same time, alternative legal service providers or ALSPs are integrating generative AI, moving beyond cost-efficient support to providing legal advice and enhanced services—often on subscription models.

In 2025 so far, legal technology has moved from incremental adoption to integral transformation. Generative AI, investments, startups, and regulatory readiness are reshaping the practice of law—for lawyers, judges, and the rule of law.


Insights On AI And Its Impact On Legal, Part One — from abovethelaw.com by Stephen Embry
AI will have lasting impact on the legal profession.

I recently finished reading Ethan Mollick‘s excellent book on artificial intelligence, entitled Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI. He does a great job of explaining what it is, how it works, how it best can be used, and where it may be headed.

The first point that resonated with me is that artificial intelligence tools can take those with poor skills in certain areas and significantly elevate their output. For example, Mollick cited a study that demonstrated that the performance of law students at the bottom of their class got closer to that of the top students with the use of AI.

Lawyers and law firms need to begin thinking and planning for how the coming skill equalization will impact competition and potentially profitability. They need to consider how the value of what they provide to their clients will be greater than their competition. They need to start thinking about what skill will set them apart in the new AI driven world. 


267 | AI First Drafts: What Your Clients Aren’t Telling You (and Why It Matters) — from thebrainyacts.beehiiv.com by Brainyacts

Welcome to the new normal: the AI First Draft.
Clients—from everyday citizens to solo entrepreneurs to sophisticated in-house counsel—are increasingly using AI to create the first draft of legal documents before outside counsel even enters the conversation. Contracts, memos, emails, issue spotters, litigation narratives: AI can now do it all.

This means outside counsel is now navigating a very different kind of document review and client relationship. One that comes with hidden risks, awkward conversations, and new economic pressures.

Here are the three things every lawyer needs to start thinking about when reviewing client-generated work product.

1. The Prompt Problem: What Was Shared, and With Whom?…
2. The Confidence Barrier: When AI Sounds Right, But Isn’t…
3. The Economic Shift: Why AI Work Can Cost More, Not Less…


 

 

How HR is adapting as AI agents join the workforce — from hrexecutive.com by Jill Barth

Business leaders across the world are grappling with a reality that would have seemed like science fiction just a few decades ago: Artificial intelligence systems dubbed AI agents are becoming colleagues, not just tools. At many organizations, HR pros are already developing balanced and thoughtful machine-people workforces that meet business goals.

At Skillsoft, a global corporate learning company, Chief People Officer Ciara Harrington has spent the better part of three years leading digital transformation in real time. Through her front-row seat to CEO transitions, strategic pivots and the rapid acceleration of AI adoption, she’s developed a strong belief that organizations must be agile with people operations.

‘No role that’s not a tech role’
Under these modern conditions, she says, technology is becoming a common language in the workplace. “There is no role that’s not a tech role,” Harrington said during a recent discussion about the future of work. It’s a statement that gets at the heart of a shift many HR leaders are still coming to terms with.

But a key question remains: Who will manage the AI agents, specifically, HR leaders or someone else?

 

John 6:29

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

Ephesians 4:32

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Mark 4:35-41

Jesus Calms the Storm
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Isaiah 48:17

This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.

Psalm 32:3-8

3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. 5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin. 6 Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found; surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. 7 You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. 8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

 

There Is Now Clearer Evidence AI Is Wrecking Young Americans’ Job Prospects — from wsj.com by Justin Lahart; this article is behind a paywall
Young workers face rising AI competition in fields like software development, but some also benefit from AI as a helper, new research shows

Young workers are getting hit in fields where generative-AI tools such as ChatGPT can most easily automate tasks done by humans, such as software development, according to a paper released Tuesday by three Stanford University economists. They crunched anonymized data on millions of employees at tens of thousands of firms, including detailed information on workers’ ages and jobs, making this one of clearest indicators yet of AI’s disruptive impact.

Young workers in jobs where AI could act as a helper, rather than a replacement, actually saw employment growth, economists found.

 

Psalm 94:18-19

18 When I said, “My foot is slipping,”
    your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.
19 When anxiety was great within me,
    your consolation brought me joy.

Romans 8:32

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Romans 12:12

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

Psalm 91:15

He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.

 

Diamonds in the Rough — from the-job.beehiiv.com by Paul Fain
One of the country’s largest community college districts expands support for students with criminal records—and the employers who hire them.

Clearing Records, Building Careers

The Big Idea: Toyotetsu is now one of several employers in talks with Alamo Colleges as they expand their support for students with criminal backgrounds. The effort is part of a larger push to broaden the colleges’ role in lifting up their cities and regions. Alamo Colleges is one of 15 institutions participating in Achieving the Dream’s Community Vibrancy Cohort, which encourages community colleges to reimagine their role in the health and economic success of their communities.

Before joining the Achieving the Dream cohort, San Antonio College was already establishing an associate degree program at Dominguez State Jail. Julia Stotts, director of strategic planning and partnerships for the Alamo Colleges Foundation, says the initiative spurred leaders to think about how to also help those kinds of students after release.

“The earlier we can catch these students who are having these challenges, the better off they’re going to be,” Stotts says.

 
© 2025 | Daniel Christian