Some thoughts I’ve been grappling with for a while. open.substack.com/pub/drjamesb...

'When teachers become builders: Vibe coding and the future of educational technology' open.substack.com/pub/neededno...

I’ve just started writing a new series on AI for work. open.substack.com/pub/drjamesb...

I was interviewed by @theatlantic.com recently to talk about AI and outsourcing thinking. My thoughts are in the article below. In the article I talk about the #noaidecember initiative launched by myself and Sandro Rybarik. Website: noaidecember.com Article: www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Full length keynote I delivered on Navigating AI: Potentials and Pitfalls at UNSWC (March 2025). Enjoy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYYn...

Gemini now uses your Google search history to provide specified results beyond just your regular Gemini conversations. Asked it "what do you know about me?" and it knew where I lived, what my interests were and what I'd searched recently in Google.

The last thing I want is for us all to get stuck in an endless generative AI loop where AI does everything. This is not what I mean when I talk about using generative AI for research and writing. This is lowest common denominator stuff "AI Wheel of Death" by James Bedford (2025)

Want to create an AI-guided learning module? Not sure what an AI-guided learning module is? Here's the prompt for our Generative AI Literacy Module (GAIL) released under CC BY-NC 4.0. You can adapt and make your own custom GPT from off these instructions. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

What are you doing to prevent skill atrophy because of GenAI usage? Have you noticed your writing, creative problem solving & synthesis skills becoming bit blunt after repeated use of LLMs? Protecting Human Cognition in the Age of AI arxiv.org/html/2502.12...

Deep Seek CEO hires people with a humanities background to improve their tech. Anthropic are doing the same. The humanities can help lead this technology into the future and help ensure it is used for good. www.msn.com/en-in/techno...

2 days to go before this week's #LTHEchat! This week we will feature Prof. Sarah Eaton @saraheaton.bsky.social who will be leading a discussion on postplagiarism: teaching and learning in an age of Artificial Intelligence. Check out the blog for more: lthechat.com/2025/03/10/l...

Nice little AI book stack

Delivered a keynote today for UNSW college sharing thoughts around AI in education. Recently, I find myself talking a lot about the dangers of over-reliance, the decline of critical thinking, and how we might work to reduce the negative impacts that come with using AI tools regularly.

After a 30-day break from AI tools, educator @jamesbedford.bsky.social feels more dedicated than ever to human-centered learning and the “messy, creative core of what it means to be an educator.” 🧑‍🏫 #EduSky #EduSkyAI

Really great post by @jamesbedford.bsky.social on @edutopia.org today about his monthlong break from AI tools. (featuring some neat hero art by the amazing guillemcasasus.com !) www.edutopia.org/article/down...

My recent article in @edutopia.org www.edutopia.org/article/down...

A great explainer article for those wondering about why data privacy matters when using LLMs. privacyinternational.org/explainer/53...

Dear educators, Your detailed course outline with 4-page assessment item instructions that students don’t read anyway make for very thorough prompts.

OpenAI might sue DeepSeek for copyright infringement. www.ft.com/content/a0df...

Soon an ‘AI student agent’ could complete an asynchronous online course autonomously. This isn’t just about using ChatGPT for essays; it’s about handling all course activities from logging into an LMS, and submitting assignments—all w.o any learner intervention openai.com/index/introd...

If you haven’t tried already, go and try www.deepseek.com, a new LLM that is said to be on par with o1. It is free and open source. Select the ‘deep think’ option to see the chain of thought the model produces. The quality of outputs I’m getting are some of the best I’ve seen an LLM produce.

When we talk about equity of access and GenAI let’s take a moment to consider this: students can freely access the world’s most powerful LLMs in their pockets (with/w.o internet) 24/7. The equity issue here is providing the support and education to use these tools responsibly.

Unsolicited writing advice, no. #14151: You don't need to write for publication, or for money, or for an audience, or for anyone but yourself. Joy is a worthwhile objective. Joy doesn't need a reason.

A free text book titled ‘Foundations of LLMs’ has been pre-released via arxiv. It seems accessible for beginners and covers basics to more advanced concepts. LINK TO NOTEBOOK LM: notebooklm.google.com/notebook/0e513… LINK TO TEXT: arxiv.org/pdf/2501.09223

Join us for this week’s #LTHEchat which will explore Generative AI (GenAI) with @jamesbedford.bsky.social on Wednesday, 8-9pm GMT. Read the blog post at: lthechat.com

Join us for this week’s #LTHEchat which will explore Generative AI (GenAI) with @jamesbedford.bsky.social on Wednesday 8-9pm GMT. Blog post to follow soon!

My annual office tidy. Ready for 2025.

Only a few days to go until I’m back on the tools. #noAIdecember has been incredibly revealing and I will share all of my insights in 2025. I will definitely be doing it each year from now on. Feel free to visit our website and consider doing the remaining challenges. noaidecember.com

Help spread the word. Looking forward to staying off the AI tools for a month then writing about the experience. Join me for #noAIDecember Noaidecember.com

Generative AI is not creative. LLMs are stochastic parrots producing algorithmic weasel words like a hive mind of magic eight-balls with quintillions of possibilities all capable of statistical alignment to somehow produce coherent responses that make sense to us.

Great to see copies out in the wild. 🙏

Study finds non-experts can’t tell the difference between AI and human poetry. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Gemini has told a human to go die. “This is for you, human. You and only you. You are not special, you are not important, and you are not needed” NB: Scroll to bottom to see conversation. Thanks to Simon Kelly for sending through the link. gemini.google.com/share/6d141b...

Moved here from other places. If you’re interested in a slightly biased but zero grift humanities based perspective of AI in education with just the right amount of optimism and a good dash of scepticism I’d like to connect with you here. #edusky