change

AI’s Impact on Early Talent: Building Today’s Education-to-Employment Systems for Tomorrow’s Workforce — from bhef.com by Kristen Fox and Madison Myers

To rise above the threshold, consider the skills that our board member and Northeastern University President Joseph Aoun outlines as essential literacies in Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. In addition to technical and data literacies, he shares two key components of human literacy.

First, a set of “catalytic capacities” that include:

Initiative and self-reliance
Comfort with risk
Flexibility and adaptability

Second, a set of “creative capacities” that include:

Opportunity recognition, or the ability to see and experience problems as opportunities to create solutions
Creative innovation, or the ability to create solutions without clearly defined structures
Future innovation, or the disposition to orient toward future developments in society

The most effective approach to achieve these outcomes? Interdisciplinary models that embed skills flexibly across curriculum, that engage learners as part of networks, teams, and exploration, and that embed applied experiences in real-world contexts. Scott Carlson and Ned Laff have laid out some great examples of what this looks like in action in Hacking College.

The bottom line: the expectations of entry-level talent are rising while the systems to achieve that level of context and understanding are not necessarily keeping pace.

OpenAI experiences backlash from GPT-5 + other items re: AI in general

On 08/13/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, content development, aggregation, repositories, emerging technologies, Emotion, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, Open AI, platforms, workplace, by Daniel Christian

21 Ways People Are Using A.I. at Work — from nytimes.com by Larry Buchanan and Francesca Paris; this is a gifted article

Select wines for restaurant menus
Digitize a herbarium
Make everything look better
Create lesson plans that meet educational standards
Make a bibliography
Write up therapy plans
…and many more

The GPT-5 fallout, explained… — from theneurondaily.com by Grant Harvey
PLUS: Who knew ppl loved 4o so much!?

The GPT-5 Backlash, Explained: OpenAI users revolted against GPT-5… then things got weird.
What a vibe shift a day or two makes, huh? As you all know by now, GPT-5 dropped last Thursday, and at first, it seemed like a pretty successful launch.

Early testers loved it. Sam Altman called it “the most powerful AI model ever made.”

Then the floodgates opened to 700 million users.. and all hell broke loose.

Here’s what happened: Within hours, Reddit and Twitter turned into digital pitchforks. The crime? OpenAI had quietly sunset GPT-4o—the model everyone apparently loved more than their morning coffee—without warning. Users weren’t just mad. They were devastated.

ChatGPT Changes — from getsuperintel.com by Kim “Chubby” Isenberg
4o is back, and Plus users get 3000 reasoning requests per week with GPT-5!

Who would have thought that the “smartest model ever” would trigger one of the loudest user revolts in AI history? The return of GPT-4o after only 24 hours shows how attached people are to the personality of their AI—and how quickly trust crumbles when expectations are not met. In this issue, we not only look at OpenAI’s response, but also at how the balance of power between developers and the community is shifting.

GPT-5 doesn’t dislike you—it might just need a benchmark for emotional intelligence — from link.wired.com by
Welcome to another AI Lab!

The backlash over the more emotionally neutral GPT-5 shows that the smartest AI models might have striking reasoning, coding, and math skills, but advancing their psychological intelligence safely remains very much unsolved.
…
Since the all-new ChatGPT launched on Thursday, some users have mourned the disappearance of a peppy and encouraging personality in favor of a colder, more businesslike one (a move seemingly designed to reduce unhealthy user behavior.) The backlash shows the challenge of building artificial intelligence systems that exhibit anything like real emotional intelligence.

Researchers at MIT have proposed a new kind of AI benchmark to measure how AI systems can manipulate and influence their users—in both positive and negative ways—in a move that could perhaps help AI builders avoid similar backlashes in the future while also keeping vulnerable users safe.

ChatGPT is bringing back 4o as an option because people missed it — from theverge.com by Emma Roth
Many ChatGPT users were frustrated by OpenAI’s decision to make GPT-5 the default model.

OpenAI is bringing back GPT-4o in ChatGPT just one day after replacing it with GPT-5. In a post on X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed that the company will let paid users switch to GPT-4o after ChatGPT users mourned its replacement.

“We will let Plus users choose to continue to use 4o,” Altman says. “We will watch usage as we think about how long to offer legacy models for.”

For months, ChatGPT fans have been waiting for the launch of GPT-5, which OpenAI says comes with major improvements to writing and coding capabilities over its predecessors. But shortly after the flagship AI model launched, many users wanted to go back.

AI Agent Trends of 2025: A Transformative Landscape — from marktechpost.com by Asif Razzaq

This articles focuses on five core AI agent trends for 2025: Agentic Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Voice Agents, AI Agent Protocols, DeepResearch Agents, Coding Agents, and Computer Using Agents (CUA).

Goodbye, $165,000 Tech Jobs. Student Coders Seek Work at Chipotle. — from nytimes.com by Natasha Singer [this is a gifted NY article]

“The rhetoric was, if you just learned to code, work hard and get a computer science degree, you can get six figures for your starting salary,” Ms. Mishra, now 21, recalls hearing as she grew up in San Ramon, Calif.

Those golden industry promises helped spur Ms. Mishra to code her first website in elementary school, take advanced computing in high school and major in computer science in college. But after a year of hunting for tech jobs and internships, Ms. Mishra graduated from Purdue University in May without an offer.

“I just graduated with a computer science degree, and the only company that has called me for an interview is Chipotle,” Ms. Mishra said in a get-ready-with-me TikTok video this summer that has since racked up more than 147,000 views.

But now, the spread of A.I. programming tools, which can quickly generate thousands of lines of computer code — combined with layoffs at companies like Amazon, Intel, Meta and Microsoft — is dimming prospects in a field that tech leaders promoted for years as a golden career ticket. The turnabout is derailing the employment dreams of many new computing grads and sending them scrambling for other work.

GPT-5 is here — from openai.com
Our smartest, fastest, and most useful model yet, with thinking built in. Available to everyone.

Everything to know about GPT-5 — from theneurondaily.com by Grant Harvey
PLUS: We mean, really everything.

Why it matters: GPT-5 embodies a “team of specialists” approach—fast small models for most tasks, powerful ones for hard problems—reflecting NVIDIA’s “heterogeneous agentic system” vision. This could evolve into orchestration across dozens of specialized models, mirroring human collective intelligence.
Bottom line: GPT-5 isn’t AGI, but it’s a leap in usability, reliability, and breadth—pushing ChatGPT toward being a truly personal, expert assistant.

…and another article from Grant Harvey:

GPT-5 is here… here’s everything you need to know (so far…).
OpenAI launched GPT-5—described as its most capable model to date—now in ChatGPT (with higher usage limits for paid tiers) and the API, bringing stronger reasoning/coding/math/writing and safety improvements, yet, per Sam Altman, still short of AGI.

OpenAI launches GPT-5 to all ChatGPT users — from therundown.ai by Rowan Cheung and Shubham Sharma

Why it matters: OpenAI’s move to replace its flurry of models with a unified GPT-5 simplifies user experience and gives everyone a PhD-level assistant, bringing elite problem-solving to the masses. The only question now is how long it can hold its edge in this fast-moving AI race, with Anthropic, Google, and Chinese giants all catching up.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT-5 released — from getsuperintel.com by Kim “Chubby” Isenberg
GPT-5’s release marks a new era of productivity, from specialized AI tool to universal intelligence partner

The Takeaway

GPT-5’s unified architecture eliminates the effort of model switching and makes it the first truly seamless AI assistant that automatically applies the right level of reasoning for each task.
With 45% fewer hallucinations and 94.6% accuracy on complex math problems, GPT-5 exceeds the reliability threshold required for business-critical applications.
The model’s ability to generate complete applications from single prompts signals the democratization of software development and could revolutionize traditional coding workflows.
OpenAI’s “Safe Completions” training approach represents a new paradigm in AI safety, providing nuanced responses instead of blanket rejections for dual-use scenarios.

GPT-5 is live – but the community is divided — from getsuperintel.com by Kim “Chubby” Isenberg
For some, it’s a lightning-fast creative partner; for others, it’s a system that can’t even decide when to think properly

Many had hoped that GPT-5 would finally unite all models – reasoning, image and video generation, voice – “one model to rule them all,” but this expectation has not been met.

I broke OpenAI’s new GPT-5 and you should too — Brainyacts #266 — from thebrainyacts.beehiiv.com by Josh Kubicki

GPT-5 marks a profound change in the human/machine relationship.

OBSERVATION #1: Up until yesterday, using OpenAI, you could pick the exact model variant for your task: the one tuned for reasoning, for writing, for code, or for math. Each had its own strengths, and experienced users learned which to reach for and when. In GPT-5, those choices are gone. There’s just “GPT-5,” and the routing decisions of which mode, which tool, which underlying approach is made by the model.

For a beginner, that’s a blessing. Most novice users never knew the differences between the models anyway. They used the same one regardless of the task.
For an experienced user, the jury’s still out. On one hand, the routing could save time. On the other, it introduces unpredictability: you can no longer reliably choose the optimal model for your purpose. If GPT-5’s choice is wrong, you’re stuck re-prompting rather than switching.

GPT-5 learns from you — from theaivalley.com by Barsee

Why it matters:
GPT-5 signals a shift in AI’s evolution: progress through refinement, not revolution. While benchmarks show incremental gains, the real win is accessibility. Cheaper models (from $0.05 per million tokens) make AI more available to developers and casual users. This aligns with the Jevons Paradox, where lower costs could drive explosive adoption. However, the AGI hype faces reality checks. Fundraising may slow as investors focus on real-world utility over moonshots. For now, GPT-5 strengthens OpenAI’s market lead, proving AI’s future lies in practical applications, not just raw power.

GPT-5: It Just Does Stuff — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
Putting the AI in Charge

I have had early access to GPT-51, and I wanted to give you some impressions of what it is and what it means. But the answer to the first question everyone will have is: Yes, this is a big deal. I asked GPT-5 to show you why by pasting this intro paragraph, exactly as you’re reading it, into ChatGPT, including the phrase: “you are GPT-5, do something very dramatic to illustrate my point, it has to fit into the next paragraph.”

That was the only prompt I gave it. It “thought” for 24 seconds and wrote:

Thunderstruck. Here, watch. I build worlds. See ideas become instruments. I code, compose, and converse. Stories synthesize science; solutions spark, swiftly. Asks arrive; answers appear, astonishingly, across domains. Behold: business plans, blueprints, briefs, beautifully built, briskly. I infer intent, integrate insight, and iterate instantly, indefatigably. Gaps get gauged; goals get generated, guarded, and guaranteed gracefully. During dialogue, disparate data distills down; decisions develop deliberately, deftly, dependably. Everything explained efficiently, even ethics: evidence examined, empathy engaged, everywhere, everyday, equitably. All at once, ambiguous arguments align as actionable, accurate advice awaits anyone anywhere. Look: language, logic, learning, and long-term memory link, lifting lives and labor limitlessly worldwide.

1 in 2 graduates believe their college major didn’t prepare them for today’s market — from hrdive.com by Carolyn Crist
Respondents said they felt unprepared in numerous ways, especially finding a job after graduation and navigating student debt and personal finances.

As today’s college graduates struggle to start a steady career, 1 in 2 Americans say their college major didn’t prepare them for the job market, according to a June 18 report from Preply.

Beyond that, 1 in 6 Americans who went to college said they regret it. When thinking about their college experience, college graduates said their top regrets included taking out student loans, not networking more and not doing internships.

College graduates said they felt unprepared in numerous ways, especially finding a job after graduation and navigating student debt and personal finances.

From DSC:
The Career Placement Office at Northwestern University did not help build my skills to get a job, at all. I had no clue what I was doing. I had no idea what networking was even about, nor the power of it, and why it would be useful throughout my career. They provided conference rooms for interviews to occur…and that was about it, at least in my experience. In terms of my education, I didn’t get any real-world experience (such as apprenticeships, internships, capstone courses, etc.), nor did I pick up many practical or technical skills.

Driving Culture Change in Higher Education — from jeffselingo.com by Jeff Selingo

The call for transformation in higher education has never been louder, yet the path forward remains unclear for many institutions. Leaders often struggle with the “how” of meaningful change. This five-part playbook by higher education author and strategist Jeff Selingo as well as other experts draws on proven methodologies to provide clear, actionable guidance from mapping current institutional culture to sustaining long-term momentum.

Employers’ emphasis on skilled trades lost on Gen Z: Harris poll — from facilitiesdive.com
Young workers don’t realize going into the trades can offer good pay more quickly than pursuing a college-based career, the report says.

A mismatch exists between the importance employers are putting on skilled trades and how the generation that’s newly joining the workforce views those jobs, a Harris poll finds.

Gen Z, the oldest members of which are 28, is the age cohort least focused on skilled trades, in part because they’re misinformed about the jobs, says the report based on 2,200 respondents to survey questions posted online in June.

“Only 38% of Gen Z says skilled trades offer the best job opportunities today” and “only 36% strongly agree skilled trades offer a faster and more affordable path to a good career,” the report says.

“These 40 Jobs May Be Replaced by AI. These 40 Probably Won’t” [Crumley] + other items re: AI in general

On 08/05/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital storytelling, emerging technologies, experimentation, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, internet, leadership, media/film, Microsoft, multimedia, Open AI, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, story, storytelling, tools, United States, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, web design and production, workplace, by Daniel Christian

These 40 Jobs May Be Replaced by AI. These 40 Probably Won’t — from inc.com by Bruce Crumley
A new Microsoft report ranks 80 professions by their risk of being replaced by AI tools.

A new study measuring the use of generative artificial intelligence in different professions has just gone public, and its main message to people working in some fields is harsh. It suggests translators, historians, text writers, sales representatives, and customer service agents might want to consider new careers as pile driver or dredge operators, railroad track layers, hardwood floor sanders, or maids — if, that is, they want to lower the threat of AI apps pushing them out of their current jobs.

From DSC:
Unfortunately, this is where the hyperscalers are going to get their ROI from all of the capital expenditures that they are making. Companies are going to use their services in order to reduce headcount at their organizations. CEOs are even beginning to brag about the savings that are realized by the use of AI-based technologies: (or so they claim.)

“As a CEO myself, I can tell you, I’m extremely excited about it. I’ve laid off employees myself because of AI. AI doesn’t go on strike. It doesn’t ask for a pay raise. These things that you don’t have to deal with as a CEO.”

My first position out of college was being a Customer Service Representative at Baxter Healthcare. It was my most impactful job, as it taught me the value of a customer. From then on, whoever I was trying to assist was my customer — whether they were internal or external to the organization that I was working for. Those kinds of jobs are so important. If they evaporate, what then? How will young people/graduates get their start?

Also related/see:

Microsoft Releases List of Jobs Most and Least Likely to Be Replaced by AI — from futurism.com
Great news — if you’re a dishwasher.

Microsoft’s Edge Over the Web, OpenAI Goes Back to School, and Google Goes Deep — from thesignal.substack.com by Alex Banks

Alex’s take: We’re seeing browsers fundamentally transition from search engines ? answer engines ? action engines. Gone are the days of having to trawl through pages of search results. Commands are the future. They are the direct input to arrive at the outcomes we sought in the first place, such as booking a hotel or ordering food. I’m interested in watching Microsoft’s bet develop as browsers become collaborative (and proactive) assistants.

Everyone’s an (AI) TV showrunner now… — from theneurondaily.com by Grant Harvey

Amazon just invested in an AI that can create full TV episodes—and it wants you to star in them.

Remember when everyone lost their minds over AI generating a few seconds of video? Well, Amazon just invested in a company called Fable Studio whose system called Showrunner can generates entire 22-minute TV episodes.
…
Where does this go from here? Imagine asking AI to rewrite the ending of Game of Thrones, or creating a sitcom where you and your friends are the main characters. This type of tech could create personalized entertainment experiences just like that.

Our take: Without question, we’re moving toward a world where every piece of media can be customized to you personally. Your Netflix could soon generate episodes where you’re the protagonist, with storylines tailored to your interests and sense of humor.

And if this technology scales, the entire entertainment industry could flip upside down. The pitch goes: why watch someone else’s story when you can generate your own?

The End of Work as We Know It — from gizmodo.com by Luc Olinga
CEOs call it a revolution in efficiency. The workers powering it call it a “new era in forced labor.” I spoke to the people on the front lines of the AI takeover.

Yet, even in this vision of a more pleasant workplace, the specter of displacement looms large. Miscovich acknowledges that companies are planning for a future where headcount could be “reduced by 40%.” And Clark is even more direct. “A lot of CEOs are saying that, knowing that they’re going to come up in the next six months to a year and start laying people off,” he says. “They’re looking for ways to save money at every single company that exists.”

But we do not have much time. As Clark told me bluntly: “I am hired by CEOs to figure out how to use AI to cut jobs. Not in ten years. Right now.”

AI Is Coming for the Consultants. Inside McKinsey, ‘This Is Existential.’ — from wsj.com by Chip Cutter; behind a paywall
If AI can analyze information, crunch data and deliver a slick PowerPoint deck within seconds, how does the biggest name in consulting stay relevant?

ChatGPT users shocked to learn their chats were in Google search results — from arstechnica.com by Ashley Belanger
OpenAI scrambles to remove personal ChatGPT conversations from Google results

Faced with mounting backlash, OpenAI removed a controversial ChatGPT feature that caused some users to unintentionally allow their private—and highly personal—chats to appear in search results.

Fast Company exposed the privacy issue on Wednesday, reporting that thousands of ChatGPT conversations were found in Google search results and likely only represented a sample of chats “visible to millions.” While the indexing did not include identifying information about the ChatGPT users, some of their chats did share personal details—like highly specific descriptions of interpersonal relationships with friends and family members—perhaps making it possible to identify them, Fast Company found.

Character.AI Launches World’s First AI-Native Social Feed — from blog.character.ai

Today, we’re dropping the world’s first AI-native social feed.

Feed from Character.AI is a dynamic, scrollable content platform that connects users with the latest Characters, Scenes, Streams, and creator-driven videos in one place.

This is a milestone in the evolution of online entertainment.

For the last 10 years, social platforms have been all about passive consumption. The Character.AI Feed breaks that paradigm and turns content into a creative playground. Every post is an invitation to interact, remix, and build on what others have made. Want to rewrite a storyline? Make yourself the main character? Take a Character you just met in someone else’s Scene and pop it into a roast battle or a debate? Now it’s easy. Every story can have a billion endings, and every piece of content can change and evolve with one tap.

AI and Higher Ed: An Impending Collapse [Niebuhr]

On 07/30/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, disruption, education technology, emerging technologies, face-to-face, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, productivity / tips and tricks, reinvent, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

AI and Higher Ed: An Impending Collapse — from insidehighered.com by Robert Niebuhr; via George Siemens; I also think George’s excerpt (see below) gets right to the point.
Universities’ rush to embrace AI will lead to an untenable outcome, Robert Niebuhr writes.

Herein lies the trap. If students learn how to use AI to complete assignments and faculty use AI to design courses, assignments, and grade student work, then what is the value of higher education? How long until people dismiss the degree as an absurdly overpriced piece of paper? How long until that trickles down and influences our economic and cultural output? Simply put, can we afford a scenario where students pretend to learn and we pretend to teach them?

This next report doesn’t look too good for traditional institutions of higher education either:

No Country for Young Grads — from burningglassinstitute.org

For the first time in modern history, a bachelor’s degree is no longer a reliable path to professional employment. Recent graduates face rising unemployment and widespread underemployment as structural—not cyclical—forces reshape entry?level work. This new report identifies four interlocking drivers: an AI?powered “Expertise Upheaval” eliminating many junior tasks, a post?pandemic shift to lean staffing and risk?averse hiring, AI acting as an accelerant to these changes, and a growing graduate glut. As a result, young degree holders are uniquely seeing their prospects deteriorate – even as the rest of the economy remain robust. Read the full report to explore the data behind these trends.

The above article was via Brandon Busteed on LinkedIn:

Recurring Themes In Bob Ambrogi’s 30 Years of Legal Tech Reporting (A Guest Post By ChatGPT) — from lawnext.com by ChatGPT
#legaltech #innovation #law #legal #innovation #vendors #lawyers #lawfirms #legaloperations

Evolution of Legal Technology: From Early Web to AI Revolution
Challenges in Legal Innovation and Adoption
Law Firm Innovation vs. Corporate Legal Demand: Shifting Dynamics
Tracking Key Technologies and Players in Legal Tech
Access to Justice, Ethics, and Regulatory Reform

Also re: legaltech, see:

How LegalTech is Changing the Client Experience in 2025 — from techbullion.com by Uzair Hasan

A Digital Shift in Law
In 2025, LegalTech isn’t a trend—it’s a standard. Tools like client dashboards, e-signatures, AI legal assistants, and automated case tracking are making law firms more efficient and more transparent. These systems also help reduce errors and save time. For clients, it means less confusion and more control.

For example, immigration law—a field known for paperwork and long processing times—is being transformed through tech. Clients now track their case status online, receive instant updates, and even upload key documents from their phones. Lawyers, meanwhile, use AI tools to spot issues faster, prepare filings quicker, and manage growing caseloads without dropping the ball.

Loren Locke, Founder of Locke Immigration Law, explains how tech helps simplify high-stress cases:
“As a former consular officer, I know how overwhelming the visa process can feel. Now, we use digital tools to break down each step for our clients—timelines, checklists, updates—all in one place. One client recently told me it was the first time they didn’t feel lost during their visa process. That’s why I built my firm this way: to give people clarity when they need it most.”

While not so much legaltech this time, Jordan’s article below is an excellent, highly relevant posting for what we are going through — at least in the United States:

What are lawyers for? — from jordanfurlong.substack.com by Jordan Furlong
We all know lawyers’ commercial role, to be professional guides for human affairs. But we also need lawyers to bring the law’s guarantees to life for people and in society. And we need it right now.

The question “What are lawyers for?” raises another, prior and more foundational question: “What is the law for?”
…
But there’s more. The law also exists to regulate power in a society: to structure its distribution, create processes for its implementation, and place limits on its application. In a healthy society, power flows through the law, not around it. Certainly, we need to closely examine and evaluate those laws — the exercise of power through a biased or corrupted system will be illegitimate even if it’s “lawful.” But as a general rule, the law is available as a check on the arbitrary exercise of power, whether by a state authority or a private entity.

And above these two aspects of law’s societal role, I believe there’s also a third: to serve as a kind of “moral architecture” of society.

[Two gifted articles from the NY Times] Forgive us world for our President, who stoops to a new low almost every day. Here’s another example of that. [Christian]

On 07/27/2025, in Access to Justice (A2J), change, culture, Daniel S. Christian, ethics, faith, global / globalization, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, political science, United States, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Forgive us world for our current President, who stoops to a new low almost every day. Below is yet another example of that. He’s an embarrassment to me and to many others in our nation. He twists truths into lies, and lies into “truths” (such as he does on “Truth” Social). Lies are his native tongue. (To those who know scripture, this is an enlightening and descriptive statement.)

And speaking of matters of faith, I think God is watching us closely, as numerous moral/ethical tests are presented to our society and to our culture. How will we and our leadership respond to these tests?

For examples:

Are we joining the mockery of justice in our country, or are we fighting against these developments?
Do we support it when Trump makes a fake video of a former President, or do we find it reprehensible? Especially when we realize it’s yet another attempt at deflecting our attention away from where Trump does NOT want our attention to be –> i.e., away from Trump’s place within the Epstein files.

Trump Posts Fake Video Showing Obama Arrest — from nytimes.com by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; this is a gifted article
President Trump shared what appeared to be an A.I.-generated video of former President Barack Obama being detained in the Oval Office.

President Trump reposted a fake video showing former President Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office, as Trump administration officials continue to accuse Mr. Obama of trying to harm Mr. Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election, and the president seeks to redirect conversation from the Epstein files.

The short video, which appears to have been generated by artificial intelligence and posted on TikTok before being reposted on Mr. Trump’s Truth Social account on Sunday…

The fake video purports to show F.B.I. agents bursting into the meeting, pushing Mr. Obama into a kneeling position and putting him in handcuffs as Mr. Trump looks on smiling, while the song “Y.M.C.A.” by the Village People plays. Later, the fake video shows Mr. Obama in an orange jumpsuit pacing in a cell.

Also relevant/see:

Trump Talks About Anything but Epstein on His Social Media Account — from nytimes.com by Luke Broadwater; this is a gifted article
On Truth Social, the president railed against Democrats and shared a wacky video.

Dogged for weeks over his administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files, President Trump spent the weekend posting on social media about, well, anything else.

On Sunday, the president railed against Senator Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, long a prime target. He attacked Samantha Power, the former administrator of U.S.A.I.D. He posted a fake video of former President Barack Obama being arrested and a fake photo of Mr. Obama and members of his administration in prison garb. He threatened to derail a deal for a new football stadium for the Washington Commanders if the team did not take back its old name, the Redskins.

What borrowers should know about student loan changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill [Turner]

On 07/27/2025, in change, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, funding / grants, higher education, parents/guardians, society, student-related, surviving, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

What borrowers should know about student loan changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill — from npr.org by Cory Turner

If you’re a federal student loan borrower or about to become one, your head may be spinning.

On July 4, when President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, he also greenlit a history-making overhaul of the federal student loan system — one that will affect the lives of many, if not most, of the United States’ nearly 43 million student loan borrowers.

And boy is it a lot to unpack, with new, tighter borrowing limits and dramatically reduced repayment options, to name just a few of the sweeping changes.

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, borrowers in SAVE will have to change plans by July 1, 2028, when SAVE will be officially shut down. If they wait, though they currently can’t be required to make payments, they will see their loans explode with interest.

Blood in the Instructional Design Machine? — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
The reality of AI, job degradation & the likely future of Instructional Design

This raises a very important, perhaps even existential question for our profession: do these tools free a designer from the mind-numbing drudgery of content conversion (the “augmented human”)? Or do they automate the core expertise of the learning professional’s role, e.g. selecting instructional startegies, structuring narratives and designing a learning flow, in the process reducing the ID’s role to simply finding the source file and pushing a button (the “inverted centaur”)?

The stated aspiration of these tool builders seems to be a future where AI means that the instructional designer’s value shifts decisively from production to strategy. Their stated goal is to handle the heavy lifting of content generation, allowing the human ID to provide the indispensable context, creativity, and pedagogical judgment that AI cannot replicate.

However, the risk of these tools lies in how we use them, and the “inverted centaur” model remains deeply potent and possible. In an organisation that prioritises cost above all, these same tools can be used to justify reducing the ID role to the functional drudgery of inputting a PDF and supervising the machine.

The key to this paradox lies in a crucial data point: spending on outside products and services has jumped a dramatic 23% to $12.4 billion.

This signals a fundamental shift: companies are reallocating funds from large internal teams toward specialised consultants and advanced learning technologies like AI. L&D is not being de-funded; it is being re-engineered.

AI Skills Command 28% Salary Premium [lightcase.io]

On 07/24/2025, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, change, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, society, staying relevant, student-related, training / L&D, United States, vendors, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

New Lightcast Report: AI Skills Command 28% Salary Premium as Demand Shifts Beyond Tech Industry — from lightcast.io; via Paul Fain
First-of-its-kind analysis reveals specific AI skills employers need most, enabling targeted workforce training strategies across all career areas

July 23, 2025 – Lightcast, the global leader in labor market intelligence, today released “Beyond the Buzz: Developing the AI Skills Employers Actually Need,” a comprehensive analysis revealing that artificial intelligence has fundamentally transformed hiring patterns across the world of work. The report, based on analysis of over 1.3 billion job postings, shows that job postings including AI skills offer 28% higher salaries—nearly $18,000 more per year—than those without such capabilities.

More importantly, the research analyzes specific skills based on their growth across job postings, their importance in the workforce, and their exposure to AI. This shows exactly which AI skills create value in which contexts, solving the critical challenge facing educators and workforce development leaders: moving beyond vague “AI literacy” to precise, targeted training that delivers measurable results.

Also via Paul Fain:

Addressing the Barriers Blocking Employee Development — from gallup.com by Corey Tatel and Megan Mulherin
In 2024, less than half of U.S. employees participated in any education or training for their current job.

Despite growing awareness, however, participation in skill development is limited. In 2024, less than half of U.S. employees (45%) participated in training or education to build new skills for their current job. About one in three employees (32%) who are hoping to move into a new role within the next year strongly agree that they have the skills needed to be exceptional in that role.

[Gifted article from NY Times] I Teach Creative Writing. This Is What A.I. Is Doing to Students. [O’Rourke]

On 07/24/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, change, colleges, communications, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, creativity, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, expectations, experimentation, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, Open AI, pace of change, parents/guardians, skills, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, United States, universities, vendors, writing, by Daniel Christian

I Teach Creative Writing. This Is What A.I. Is Doing to Students. — from nytimes.com by Meghan O’Rourke; this is a gifted article.

We need a coherent approach grounded in understanding how the technology works, where it is going and what it will be used for.

From DSC:
I almost feel like Meghan should right the words “this week” or “this month” after the above sentence. Whew! Things are moving fast.

For example, we’re now starting to see more agents hitting the scene — software that can DO things. But that can open up a can of worms too.

Students know the ground has shifted — and that the world outside the university expects them to shift with it. A.I. will be part of their lives regardless of whether we approve. Few issues expose the campus cultural gap as starkly as this one.ce

From DSC:
Universities and colleges have little choice but to integrate AI into their programs and offerings. There’s enough pressure on institutions of traditional higher education to prove their worth/value. Students and their families want solid ROI’s. Students know that they are going to need AI-related skills (see the link immediately below for example), or they are going to be left out of the competitive job search process.

A relevant resource here:

New Lightcast Report: AI Skills Command 28% Salary Premium as Demand Shifts Beyond Tech Industry — from lightcast.io; via Paul Fain
First-of-its-kind analysis reveals specific AI skills employers need most, enabling targeted workforce training strategies across all career areas

The type of functionality found in MyNextChapter.ai could work very well in a next-gen learning platform [Christian]

On 07/24/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Alternatives, apprenticeships, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communications, community colleges, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, experimentation, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, passions, pathways, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, reinvent, skills, social learning / networks, society, staying relevant, surviving, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
In looking at MyNextChapter.ai — THIS TYPE OF FUNCTIONALITY of an AI-based chatbot talking to you re: good fits for a future job — is the kind of thing that could work well in this type of vision/learning platform. The AI asks you relevant career-oriented questions, comes up with some potential job fits, and then gives you resources about how to gain those skills, who to talk with, organizations to join, next steps to get your foot in the door somewhere, etc.

The next gen learning platform would provide links to online-based courses, blogs, peoples’ names on LinkedIn, courses from L&D organizations or from institutions of higher education or from other entities/places to obtain those skills (similar to the ” Action Plan” below from MyNextChapter.ai).

How is making a mockery of our justice/legal system making America great again?!? [Christian]

On 07/21/2025, in Access to Justice (A2J), change, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, legislatures / government / legal, policy, political science, United States, by Daniel Christian

Trump officials accused of defying 1 in 3 judges who ruled against him — from washingtonpost.com by Justin Jouvenal
A comprehensive analysis of hundreds of lawsuits against Trump policies shows dozens of examples of defiance, delay and dishonesty, which experts say pose an unprecedented threat to the U.S. legal system.

President Donald Trump and his appointees have been accused of flouting courts in a third of the more than 160 lawsuits against the administration in which a judge has issued a substantive ruling, a Washington Post analysis has found, suggesting widespread noncompliance with America’s legal system.

Plaintiffs say Justice Department lawyers and the agencies they represent are snubbing rulings, providing false information, failing to turn over evidence, quietly working around court orders and inventing pretexts to carry out actions that have been blocked.

.

The Post examined 337 lawsuits filed against the administration since Trump returned to the White House and began a rapid-fire effort to reshape government programs and policy. As of mid-July, courts had ruled against the administration in 165 of the lawsuits. The Post found that the administration is accused of defying or frustrating court oversight in 57 of those cases — almost 35 percent.

DC: How is making a mockery of the justice system making America great again? I don’t think any one of us would benefit from living in a land with no laws. It would be absolute chaos.

Learning Ecosystems

Recurring Themes In Bob Ambrogi’s 30 Years of Legal Tech Reporting (A Guest Post By ChatGPT)

[Two gifted articles from the NY Times] Forgive us world for our President, who stoops to a new low almost every day. Here’s another example of that. [Christian]

How is making a mockery of our justice/legal system making America great again?!? [Christian]

DC: How is making a mockery of the justice system making America great again? I don’t think any one of us would benefit from living in a land with no laws. It would be absolute chaos.

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