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

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.

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...

From Authenticating Intelligence:

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.

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.

Listen us academics reach DOZENS of people with our work.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

ICQ was the best.

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.

Pre-order is live! a.co/d/00VJtuU2

Here's the final book jacket for Authenticating Intelligence. Super happy with how it came out, and thrilled to have some wonderful endorsements from folks I respect.

Stop the presses! More hours spent trying to learn with support from an educator leads to more learning. 🤯 The fact that there are folks who disagree—or ignore—this fact is shameful. I'm glad folks like Morgan exist to call them out on it.

Nothing says "take me seriously" like being barefoot in a fancy looking bar wearing your best shades of puke green.

AI is moving fast. The US school system? Not so much. I’m joined by @mpolikoff.bsky.social on the Authenticating Intelligence Podcast to discuss how AI is shaking up our locally controlled (and very fragmented) education system. youtu.be/274C1RpXOMY

This sums up my feelings about the pice in Nature pretty well.

May I suggest: Release date = 8/6/26

A very good read for people who don't understand the federal role in research and its importance. // "'I came because America was the place to do science,' he said." www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/u...

"The new wealth gap is who cares about intellectual integrity and who doesn't. Here are 17 prompts that..."

From chapter 9 of Authenticating Intelligence:

Facts

Anthropic came out with a report. Sectors that keep shoving AI into every nook and cranny predict that AI will *checks notes* be incorporated into a bunch of stuff. I did my own back of the envelope calculations and came up with this. I'm entertaining offers from VCs. Bidding starts at 500 billion

In my interview with EdSoruce I highlight a key argument from Authenticating Intelligence: Educators should understand "AI as a constellation of tools, a series of tools, and then they can decide what problems those tools are going to be used to address.” edsource.org/2026/califor...

One more chance to find typos. Spoiler: I will still miss a couple. I may even add a few, who knows.

Good. This "feature" was dumb.

It's a first for the @uscedpolicyhub.bsky.social Substack - we are sharing brand new, original research results! @annarsaavedra.bsky.social, Amie Rapaport and I are looking into reasons for teen absenteeism using the Understanding America Study edpolicyhub.substack.com/p/the-driver...

Not a fan of citation management software, but I agree with the broader point here. It takes at most an extra 15-20min to use google scholar, etc., to manually check citations.

One of the worst “features”

The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted. What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards. Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.

Really insightful podcast with @stephenaguilar.com and @galesinatra.bsky.social. Good discussion of how #GenAI can produce conceptual change and the identity and self-perception factors that significantly drive that change (or lack thereof).

Both politicians in Mexico. The apocryphal story goes that one of them (mom's side). Got his arm torn off during a bullfight. I assume the bull won.

Adobe: "Hey...hey you. You wanna like...*not* read? Reading is for nerds. Let me just, you know, summarize all these words for you so you can read less. You'll have so much more fun reading less."

One of my favorite albums!

Can AI actually help us understand controversial topics, or is it just making things harder? I'm joined by learning expert @galesinatra.bsky.social to bridge the gap between complex ideas and artificial intelligence. youtu.be/WjsDhmbxwns

I would like to do the opposite of this.

Deus sine Machina

I was asked by the American Mathematical Society to write something to explain to mathematicians why they should care about the federal role in education data/research, so I teamed with @dqcdata.bsky.social's Rachel Anderson and wrote this: www.ams.org/journals/not...

FAQs: Checking in on the Department of Education via @brookings.edu www.brookings.edu/articles/faq...

In the latest episode of Authenticating Intelligence, I’m joined by Dean Pedro A. Noguera! We discuss the systemic risks of unregulated AI and corporate influence in our schools. YouTube: youtu.be/BoCuAujxycA Spotify: bit.ly/4aoZUwk Apple: apple.co/46MHMKz #AIinEducation #EdTech #Equity #HigherEd

Glad to see others thinking about this. The idea that humans are reducible and replicable via subsets of our online behaviors (our emails, social media, etc.) is ludicrous. We are not merely a sum of the things we do online. Too many folks developing AI seem to not understand this point.

People are weird. This was covered well in DS9 (low gravity alien who was in Starfleet). They even took a shot at Cardassian architecture which was less accessible. The future is filled with all sorts of people and abilities. That’s the point of Star Trek.