Caring for Patients for 26 Years—and Still Not a Nurse — from workshift.org/ by Colleen Connolly

Arnett’s experience spending decades in a job she intended as a first step is common among CNAs, medical assistants, and other entry-level healthcare workers, many of them women of color from low-income backgrounds. Amid a nationwide nursing shortage, elevating those workers seems like an obvious solution, but the path from CNA to nurse isn’t so much a ladder as it is a huge leap.

And obstacle after obstacle is strewn in the way. The high cost of nursing school, lengthy prerequisite requirements, rigid schedules, and unpaid clinical hours make it difficult for many CNAs to advance in their careers, despite their willingness and ability and the dire need of healthcare facilities.

While there are no national statistics about the number of entry-level healthcare workers who move on to higher-paid positions, a study of federal grants for CNA training showed that only 3% of those who completed the training went on to pursue further education to become an LPN or RN. Only 1% obtained an associate degree or above. A similar study in California showed that 22% of people who completed CNA certificate programs at community colleges went on to get a higher-level educational credential in health, but only 13% became registered nurses within six years.

That reality perpetuates chronic shortages in nursing, and it also keeps hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers locked below a living wage, often for decades.

 

New Study: Business As Usual Could Doom Dozens Of New England Colleges — from forbes.com by Michael B. Horn

The cause of the challenges isn’t one single factor, but a series of pressures from demographic changes, shifts in the public’s perception of higher education’s value, rising operating costs, emerging alternatives to traditional colleges, and, of late, changes in federal policies and programs. The net effect is that many institutions are much closer to the brink of closure than ever before.

What’s daunting is that flat enrollment is almost certainly an overly optimistic scenario.

If enrollment at the 44 schools falls by 15 percent over the next four years and business proceeds as usual, then 28 of the schools will have less than 10 years of cash and unrestricted quasi-endowments before they would become insolvent—assuming no major cuts, additional philanthropy, new debt, or asset sales. Fourteen would have less than five years before insolvency.

Also see:

From DSC:
The cultures at many institutions of traditional higher education will make some of the necessary changes and strategies (that Michael and Steven discuss) very hard to make. For example, to merge with another institution or institutions. Such a strategy could be very challenging to implement, even as alternatives continue to emerge.

 

Disrupting the first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign — from Anthropic

Executive summary
We have developed sophisticated safety and security measures to prevent the misuse of our AI models. While these measures are generally effective, cybercriminals and other malicious actors continually attempt to find ways around them. This report details a recent threat campaign we identified and disrupted, along with the steps we’ve taken to detect and counter this type of abuse. This represents the work of Threat Intelligence: a dedicated team at Anthropic that investigates real world cases of misuse and works within our Safeguards organization to improve our defenses against such cases.

In mid-September 2025, we detected a highly sophisticated cyber espionage operation conducted by a Chinese state-sponsored group we’ve designated GTG-1002 that represents a fundamental shift in how advanced threat actors use AI. Our investigation revealed a well-resourced, professionally coordinated operation involving multiple simultaneous targeted intrusions. The operation targeted roughly 30 entities and our investigation validated a handful of successful intrusions.

This campaign demonstrated unprecedented integration and autonomy of AI throughout the attack lifecycle, with the threat actor manipulating Claude Code to support reconnaissance, vulnerability discovery, exploitation, lateral movement, credential harvesting, data analysis, and exfiltration operations largely autonomously. The human operator tasked instances of Claude Code to operate in groups as autonomous penetration testing orchestrators and agents, with the threat actor able to leverage AI to execute 80-90% of tactical operations independently at physically impossible request rates.

From DSC:
The above item was from The Rundown AI, who wrote the following:

The Rundown: Anthropic thwarted what it believes is the first AI-driven cyber espionage campaign, after attackers were able to manipulate Claude Code to infiltrate dozens of organizations, with the model executing 80-90% of the attack autonomously.

The details:

  • The September 2025 operation targeted roughly 30 tech firms, financial institutions, chemical manufacturers, and government agencies.
  • The threat was assessed with ‘high confidence’ to be a Chinese state-sponsored group, using AI’s agentic abilities to an “unprecedented degree.”
  • Attackers tricked Claude by splitting malicious tasks into smaller, innocent-looking requests, claiming to be security researchers pushing authorized tests.
  • The attacks mark a major step up from Anthropic’s “vibe hacking” findings in June, now requiring minimal human oversight beyond strategic approval.

Why it matters: Anthropic calls this the “first documented case of a large-scale cyberattack executed without substantial human intervention”, and AI’s agentic abilities are creating threats that move and scale faster than ever. While AI capabilities can also help prevent them, security for organizations worldwide likely needs a major overhaul.


Also see:

Disrupting the first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign — from anthropic.com via The AI Valley

We recently argued that an inflection point had been reached in cybersecurity: a point at which AI models had become genuinely useful for cybersecurity operations, both for good and for ill. This was based on systematic evaluations showing cyber capabilities doubling in six months; we’d also been tracking real-world cyberattacks, observing how malicious actors were using AI capabilities. While we predicted these capabilities would continue to evolve, what has stood out to us is how quickly they have done so at scale.

Chinese Hackers Used AI to Run a Massive Cyberattack on Autopilot (And It Actually Worked) — from theneurondaily.com

Why this matters: The barrier to launching sophisticated cyberattacks just dropped dramatically. What used to require entire teams of experienced hackers can now be done by less-skilled groups with the right AI setup.

This is a fundamental shift. Over the next 6-12 months, expect security teams everywhere to start deploying AI for defense—automation, threat detection, vulnerability scanning at a more elevated level. The companies that don’t adapt will be sitting ducks to get overwhelmed by similar tricks.

If your company handles sensitive data, now’s the time to ask your IT team what AI-powered defenses you have in place. Because if the attackers are using AI agents, you’d better believe your defenders need them too…

 

…the above posting links to:

Higher Ed Is Sleepwalking Toward Obsolescence— And AI Won’t Be the Cause, Just the Accelerant — from substack.com by Steven Mintz
AI Has Exposed Higher Ed’s Hollow Core — The University Must Reinvent Itself or Fade

It begins with a basic reversal of mindset: Stop treating AI as a threat to be policed. Start treating it as the accelerant that finally forces us to build the education we should have created decades ago.

A serious institutional response would demand — at minimum — six structural commitments:

  • Make high-intensity human learning the norm.  …
  • Put active learning at the center, not the margins.  …
  • Replace content transmission with a focus on process.  …
  • Mainstream high-impact practices — stop hoarding them for honors students.  …
  • Redesign assessment to make learning undeniable.  …

And above all: Instructional design can no longer be a private hobby.


Teaching with AI: From Prohibition to Partnership for Critical Thinking — from facultyfocus.com by Michael Kiener, PhD, CRC

How to Integrate AI Developmentally into Your Courses

  • Lower-Level Courses: Focus on building foundational skills, which includes guided instruction on how to use AI responsibly. This moves the strategy beyond mere prohibition.
  • Mid-Level Courses: Use AI as a scaffold where faculty provide specific guidelines on when and how to use the tool, preparing students for greater independence.
  • Upper-Level/Graduate Courses: Empower students to evaluate AI’s role in their learning. This enables them to become self-regulated learners who make informed decisions about their tools.
  • Balanced Approach: Make decisions about AI use based on the content being learned and students’ developmental needs.

Now that you have a framework for how to conceptualize including AI into your courses here are a few ideas on scaffolding AI to allow students to practice using technology and develop cognitive skills.




80 per cent of young people in the UK are using AI for their schoolwork — from aipioneers.org by Graham Attwell

What was encouraging, though, is that students aren’t just passively accepting this new reality. They are actively asking for help. Almost half want their teachers to help them figure out what AI-generated content is trustworthy, and over half want clearer guidelines on when it’s appropriate to use AI in their work. This isn’t a story about students trying to cheat the system; it’s a story about a generation grappling with a powerful new technology and looking to their educators for guidance. It echoes a sentiment I heard at the recent AI Pioneers’ Conference – the issue of AI in education is fundamentally pedagogical and ethical, not just technological.


 

Is Your Institution Ready for the Earnings Premium Buzzsaw? — from ailearninsights.substack.com by Alfred Essa

On Wednesday [October 29th, 2025], I’m launching the Beta version of an Education Accountability Website (”EDU Accountability Lab”). It analyzes federal student aid, institutional outcomes, and accountability metrics across 6,000+ colleges and universities in the US.

Our Mission
The EDU Accountability Lab delivers independent, data-driven analysis of higher education with a focus on accountability, affordability, and outcomes. Our audience includes policymakers, researchers, and taxpayers who seek greater transparency and effectiveness in postsecondary education. We take no advocacy position on specific institutions, programs, metrics, or policies. Our goal is to provide clear and well-documented methods that support policy discussions, strengthen institutional accountability, and improve public understanding of the value of higher education.

But right now, there’s one area demanding urgent attention.

Starting July 1, 2026, every degree program at every institution receiving federal student aid must prove its graduates earn more than people without that credential—or lose Title IV eligibility.

This isn’t about institutions passing or failing. It’s about programs. Every Bachelor’s in Psychology. Every Master’s in Education. Every Associate in Nursing. Each one assessed separately. Each one facing the same pass-or-fail tests.

 

Amazon’s AWS outage on October 20 knocked services like Alexa, Snapchat, Fortnite, Venmo and more offline for hours — from engadget.com by Kris Holt
A massive outage highlights why relying on a few companies to power much of the internet is far from ideal.

It felt like half of the internet was dealing with a severe hangover on October 20. A severe Amazon Web Services outage took out many, many websites, apps, games and other services that rely on Amazon’s cloud division to stay up and running.

Sites and services that were affected by the AWS outage include:

  • Amazon
  • Amazon Alexa
  • Bank of America
  • Snapchat
  • Reddit
  • Lyft
  • Apple Music
  • Apple TV
  • Pinterest
  • Fortnite
  • Roblox
  • The New York Times
  • Disney+
  • Venmo
  • Doordash
  • Hulu
  • Grubhub
  • PlayStation
  • Zoom

From DSC:
Hmmm…doesn’t this put a bit of alarm in your mind? I can’t help but wonder…if another government wants to wreak havoc on another country — or even the world — that is an increasingly possible situation these days. In fact, its already happened with social media and with cybersecurity-related issues. But taking down banking, commerce, exchanges, utilities, and more is increasingly possible. Or at least that’s my mental image of the state of cyberwarfare. 

 

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?


 

Collaborative innovation — from marketoonist.com

Disney alum Paul Williams once shared the brainstorming method developed by Walt Disney. Disney used to separate the act of coming up with and executing ideas into three distinct steps (and associated mindsets): The Dreamer, The Realist, and The Spoiler.

As Paul wrote:

“By compartmentalizing the stages, Walt didn’t let reality get in the way of the dream step. The realist was allowed to work without the harsh filter of a spoiler. And, the spoiler spends time examining a well-thought idea… something with a bit more structure.

“When we brainstorm alone and in groups – too often – we tend to fill the room with a dreamer or two, a few realists, and a bunch of spoilers. In these conditions, dream ideas don’t stand a chance.”

The Dreamer mentality specializes in blue sky thinking without constraints, the Realist mentality puts practical structure to the ideas, and the Spoiler asks the hard questions and kicks the tires. We need all three mindsets. But we need those mindsets at the right time and in the right way.


From DSC:
How true this is! I’m the Dreamer in the room…and have been shut down more times than I can count. For all of you Visionaries and Dreamers out there, keep trying! And consider establishing something like Walt Disney did.


 

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.

 

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.

 

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.


 

Multiple Countries Just Issued Travel Warnings for the U.S. — from mensjournal.com by Rachel Dillin
In a rare reversal, several of America’s closest allies are now warning their citizens about traveling to the U.S., and it could impact your next trip.

For years, the U.S. has issued cautionary travel advisories to citizens heading overseas. But in a surprising twist, the roles have flipped. Several countries, including longtime allies like Australia, Canada, and the U.K., are now warning their citizens about traveling to the United States, according to Yahoo.

Australia updated its advisory in June, flagging gun violence, civil protests, and unpredictable immigration enforcement. While its guidance remains at Level 1 (“exercise normal safety precautions”), Australian officials urged travelers to stay alert in crowded places like malls, transit hubs, and public venues. They also warned about the Visa Waiver Program, noting that U.S. authorities can deny entry without explanation.

From DSC:
I’ve not heard of a travel warning against the U.S. in my lifetime. Thanks Trump. Making America Great Again. Sure thing….

 

From DSC:
As you can see and hear below, Senator Alex Padilla had been trying to get answers for several weeks now from Homeland Security, but wasn’t hearing much back. So he heard that the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, was holding a press conference down the hallway and he attended it to see if he could get some answers to his questions. And while I don’t have all the details on how this situation unfolded, there is NO WAY that a U.S. Senator should be pushed out of a conference room and then pushed to the ground and handcuffed for trying to get answers for his constituents! No way!

As others in the videos below assert, a line has been crossed in our country!

Let’s move to impeach Donald Trump and also rid his administration of these incompetent individuals who are destroying our democracy! If they don’t like the Constitution and how our country has been governed for over 200 years, then perhaps they should consider leaving this country. 

The actions they are taking are NOT making America great again. They are making America the stench of the world.

And it’s not just Donald Trump and members of his administration that should be held accountable. Let’s also start holding Donald’s instruments of power — such as his ICE Agents and others who behave like them — accountable. To any ICE agents out there, take those damn masks off. You shouldn’t be hiding behind masks.

By the way, the silence from the Republicans is deafening.
.












Calif. Senator Forcibly Removed and Handcuffed After Interrupting Noem — from nytimes.com by Shawn Hubler, Jennifer Medina, and Jill Cowan (this is a gifted article)
Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, was shoved out of a room and handcuffed after he tried to question Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, during a news conference.

In the tense hyperpartisanship of the moment, the episode quickly swelled into a cause célèbre for both parties. Democratic senators, House members and governors rushed to denounce the treatment of a sitting senator, framing it as the latest escalation in authoritarian actions by the Trump administration. It followed the indictment on Tuesday of Representative LaMonica McIver of New Jersey and the arrest of Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, after the officials, both Democrats, tried to visit a new immigration detention facility in the city.

Republicans just as eagerly tried to frame Mr. Padilla’s behavior as in line with what they have called the lawlessness of the political left as President Trump tries to combat illegal immigration.


 

 

Scientific breakthrough: artificial blood for all blood groups — from getsuperintel.com by Kim “Chubby” Isenberg
Japan’s universal artificial blood could revolutionize emergency medicine and global healthcare resilience.

They all show that we are on the threshold of a new era – one in which technological systems are no longer just tools, but independent players in medical, cognitive and infrastructural change.

This paradigm shift means that AI will no longer be limited to static training data, but will learn through open exploration, similar to biological organisms. This is nothing less than the beginning of an era of autonomous cognition.


From DSC:
While there are some promising developments involving AI these days, we need to look at what the potential downsides might be of AI becoming independent players, don’t you think? Otherwise, what could possibly go wrong?


 
© 2025 | Daniel Christian