The same AI tool can produce brilliant work or useless slop. The difference is rarely the tool. Heck, even us experts get fooled by a confident wrong answer, especially if it's at the edges of what we know. Hopefully soon we'll learn that AI doesn't lower the bar for expertise. It raises it.

LAUSD just named its third superintendent in four years, but that's not even the headline. The last one resigned amid an FBI probe into a $6.2 million AI chatbot deal. The company folded. Half a million students got left holding the bag.

My book Authenticating Intelligence comes out in under two months. My editing hack: read every page out loud. Awkward sentences sound ten times worse spoken. Brutal, but it was worth it. Did it catch every typo? Nope. Probably added a few. Perfection's overrated.

A German court just held Google responsible for false info from AI Overviews. Good. Treat AI like food or cars. Set tolerances. Measure real outputs. Publish the error rates companies bury in fine print. www.wired.com/story/a-cour...

A Court Has Ruled That Google Is Liable for False Statements Generated by AI Overviews

The ruling holds that a company that designs, trains, operates, and manages an AI system must assume legal liability for any damages caused by the responses it generates.

wired.com

EdTech keeps selling promises. Administrators keep buying without asking hard questions. What do you need to know before investing in AI for your school? I laid it out. www.the74million.org/article/what...

What School and District Leaders Need to Know Before They Invest in AI

Aguilar: Some key questions to ask before signing on the dotted line and committing limited resources to artificial intelligence-powered ed tech tools.

the74million.org

NSF is cutting basic science 20-30% to fund a $1.5B AI initiative. That's cannibalism. Google, CRISPR, barcodes—none funded with a commercial application in mind. Basic science is the foundation of the AI revolution. Gut it now. The breakthroughs stop too. www.nsf.gov/impacts/google

On the Origins of Google

Learn how NSF support contributed to the foundations of Google.

nsf.gov

My latest for @the74.bsky.social. As EdTech continues to sell promises, administrators and school leaders should be asking these questions. www.the74million.org/article/what...

What School and District Leaders Need to Know Before They Invest in AI

Aguilar: Some key questions to ask before signing on the dotted line and committing limited resources to artificial intelligence-powered ed tech tools.

the74million.org

Great to hear @mattbernacki.bsky.social talking to @stephenaguilar.com about the power of learning analytics for understanding and supporting student success, as well as how #GenAI can support such work. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

Beyond the Clicks: Decoding Student Data

Podcast Episode · Authenticating Intelligence Podcast with Stephen Aguilar · June 2 · 40m

podcasts.apple.com

Authenticating Intelligence still isn’t out, but it’s good to see it indexed!

Authenticating Intelligence has 100 plays on Spotify! It may not be a lot, but we all have to start somewhere. Plus, I have similar numbers on YouTube and Apple Podcasts. Give it a listen. Spotify: bit.ly/AuthIntelSp Apple: apple.co/4a4lVjG YouTube: bit.ly/AuthIntelYT

Stay tuned for a report from @uscrossier.bsky.social and my center that will help folks navigate these things better.

Morgan Polikoff@mpolikoff.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"In total, they shared 90 messages from 79 companies .... The sheer avalanche of options makes the task of finding a quality tool that much harder. The superintendents also said they’ve found the flood of emails takes away their time and attention."

Oh good. More AI stuff founded on gut feelings because there isn't enough AI stuff already.

The 74@the74.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Three nonprofit education heavyweights are coming together to create an affordable undergraduate institution for the AI era. Here's the lowdown www.the74million.org/article/five...

I mean self-indulgent love powered by sycophantic AI is still a type of love, I suppose. We just used to think that it was a bad thing.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 4mo ago

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com What happens when your parent falls in love with an A.I. chatbot? In this episode of “Divided,” Ernie confronts his mother, Celeste, and they try to bridge their differences — and rethink what love could look like.

Join my this Sunday! Creativity and Curiosity in the Age of AI: From the Arts to Education Sunday, 1:30 p.m., Wallis Annen-berg Hall, presented by USC

"There are some baseline tasks that can be offloaded, but we can’t just, you know, undercut all of the entry-level positions, because then there won’t be people who develop the experience to really understand what happens when AI fails.” thehill.com/homenews/edu...

As AI pushes students to reconsider majors, universities struggle to adapt

A recent poll shows AI’s increasing role in how students decide on college majors, creating a rapidly developing situation for universities that are still struggling to determine how the technology…

thehill.com

From Authenticating Intelligence:

Jeff Greene@jeffgreene.bsky.social · 4mo ago

“Students generally don’t cheat because they lack moral fiber; they cheat because they are navigating a system of incentives that prioritizes efficiency over learning.”

It’s not impossible to build a distributed community. I’m in many outside of my profession. The trouble is that in person communities are superior when it comes to learning, and it’s proven tough to re-establish them post-pandemic.

Morgan Polikoff@mpolikoff.bsky.social · 4mo ago

This issue also has knock-on effects, like demolishing campus culture (no one is around during the day, buildings are empty, there are no good times to schedule seminars, etc.)

Join me Sun, 4/19-1:30pm - 2:30pm at the @latimes.com Festival of Books! Session Title: Creativity and Curiosity in the Age of AI: From the Arts to Education Grab tickets online at latimes.com/fob starting Sunday, April 12, or at ticket booth #390 on the day of, while supplies last.

Given the current climate, Sal can be wrong infinity times—it won't matter. That said, calling out EdTech over hype that is never realized is like shooting fish in a barrel. It's their job to sell things, not make a difference. I just wish more folks knew that.

Benjamin Riley@benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 4mo ago

How many times does Sal Khan need to be wrong before people stop listening to him? @mattbarnum.bsky.social gets him on the record basically admitting Khanmigo has been a giant failure. Students aren’t into it. Which, ahem, I predicted *two years ago* at the peak of the AI-in-education hype cycle.

Listen us academics reach DOZENS of people with our work.

Laura K. Nelson@lauraknelson.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I got a notification that an article I co-authored and published in a journal (should I name names?) is among their most cited articles. Awesome for us. But folks, it's been cited a whopping *5* times. So, um, yeah.

I have similar thoughts on Ed Research. It's easy enough to find disparities/inequities and show that they are statistically significant and/or people talk about them coherently (e.g., Qual work). But such findings are meaningless unless they're paired theories of action or contribute to theory.

Kirsten Read@kreadlab.bsky.social · 4mo ago

first heading to teach this quarter's class on Developmental Psychology, then off to the airport to make it to #CDS2026 with this gem of a "zoom out" take in my pocket.. open.substack.com/pub/paulbloo...

This week on the Authenticating Intelligence Podcast I sit down with Dan O’Brien (former Blue Sky Studios animator) to talk about the "homogenization" of animation and the quiet threat to entry-level craft. youtu.be/dIY99L0zPvM

Can AI Replace the Artist’s Eye?

YouTube video by Authenticating Intelligence with Stephen Aguilar

youtu.be

Creativity isn't simply taking that initial spark and making it "real." It's refining; rendering the clumsy into expression. It takes time. Sure, you can try to prompt your way there, but that process is crude—especially if you don't really know what you're doing.

John Scalzi@scalzi.com · 4mo ago

Lots of tech dudes think the "idea" is the important part of creating, not the creative journey you take through work to give that idea actual meaning. Ideas are the easiest, cheapest and least fulfilling part of it. Giving ideas life through work, and sharing that work with others, is the stuff.

Nothing humans make is neutral. That includes EdTech. Tools are extensions of our cognition, and make plain what we value when we use them to engage with the world around us. I dig into this concept a fair bit in Authenticating Intelligence.

Paul Kirschner@paulkirschner.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Education technology is never neutral by @daisychristo.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/daisychr...

Thank you University of Oxford! 🐝🌎

I felt the same. Also Project Hail Mary is one of the best movies I've seen in a while. It's ALSO very true to the book (won't spoil it). If you liked the book you'll really enjoy this movie. Breath of fresh air.

Chris Hayes@chrislhayes.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Been thinking a lot about this fantastic video about "haptic" filmmaking, movies that have solidity and realness as opposed to the thin uncanniness of so many contemporary movies. This is something that Project Hail Mary really nails. It all *feels* solidly physical www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvwP...

ICQ was the best.

Admiral Funnest Frontier Prime 🏴‍☠️🖖@deckslower.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Does anyone remember ICQ messenger did you have an ICQ account?

LinkedIn thoughts about AI are weird. Heading: "Imagine if we used computers the way many organizations use AI today." I guess I need *checks desk* two more screens to fully integrate computers into my workflow. I'm so close!

Sometimes it's good to unplug and paint.

Read this thread. I'm the son of immigrants. I was a teacher in a majority English Language Learner district where I was the English Language Development Coordinator. Providing free access to education ALWAYS makes everything better. To argue otherwise is to be an idiot fueled by ignorance.

Conor P. Williams@conorpwilliams.bsky.social · 5mo ago

There's a hearing in the House today—bitterly ironic that it's being hosted by the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution—entitled #Immigration Policy by Court Order: The Adverse Effects of Plyler v. Doe. I'm gonna use this thread to share some thoughts. judiciary.house.gov/committee-ac...