A Good Week for Jevons Paradox | Ep. 110

In this episode of ChatEDU, "A Good Week for Jevons Paradox," Matt and Liz kick it off with a dramatic reading of leaked text messages between Sam Altman and Mira Murati. The hosts discuss the high-stakes drama surrounding OpenAI, including Murati's testimony regarding Altman's honesty and the chaotic events leading up to his brief firing, which they jokingly refer to as "the blip."

The Rundown

Matt and Liz engage in a spirited discussion about the Brisk Chrome extension and its integration with Gemini, questioning if "wrapper" tools add true value for educators.

An examination of how Arizona State University repurposed faculty lectures into "AI slop" snippets without professor consent, leading to a significant backlash.

A look at the $17 million deal with OpenAI that is facing resistance from faculty and students who feel like "test rats" due to a lack of guidance.

A study from Cornell and Carnegie Mellon reveals that while lower-income students use AI more for essays, they face higher rejection rates than wealthier peers.

New research highlights a sixfold increase in fabricated academic citations in research papers, signaling a shift toward superficial AI box-checking in academia.

Mike Dunn, principal at Granby High School, shares a cautionary tale of a "complexity ceiling" where Gemini hallucinated teacher data during a scheduling task.

The Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund announces $1.9 million in grants to youth-led organizations focused on digital safety and AI ethics.

A three-part look at digital bans, featuring Richard Culatta’s warning against banning edtech, Arana Shapiro’s critique of "chocolate-covered broccoli" learning, and a report on surging library checkouts in Dallas.

The Beneath the Surface

The hosts explore Jevon’s Paradox, an economic theory from the 1860s which suggests that as technology makes a resource more efficient, the overall consumption of that resource actually increases. They apply this theory to the "AI Jobpocalypse" predictions and conduct a thought experiment on how increased efficiency in education might lead to higher demands on teachers and students rather than less work.

The Bright Byte

The episode concludes with a fascinating look at how NASA is utilizing AI to identify true planets among hundreds of thousands of simulated astrophysical events, successfully distinguishing them from false positives.

Announcements

Purchase Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday. Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77

Check out our middle / high school Student AI Literacy course - ​​⁠⁠⁠www.skills21.org/ai/learnai⁠⁠⁠

Explore Skills21’s FREE social media literacy curriculum - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.skills21.org/social-balance⁠⁠⁠

Address Screen Time concerns - ⁠skills21.org/ai/screenshift⁠

Sponsors

Nectir. Welcome to the Classroom of the Future. https://www.nectir.io/

Links

OpenAI's Former CTO Testifies Against Sam Altman

https://tinyurl.com/bdcpdb6z

ASU AI Tool Uses Professors' Lectures Without Their Knowledge

https://tinyurl.com/3ejhtepk

Some Cal State Students and Faculty Reject OpenAI Deal

https://tinyurl.com/yc7sjwx6

Low-Income Students More Likely to Use AI for Admissions Essays

https://tinyurl.com/5e5ej5xe

AI-Hallucinated Citations Increasingly Appearing in Research Papers

https://tinyurl.com/yc2auunh

Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund Grants $1.9M to Third Cohort

https://tinyurl.com/3f6ebxvc

States Expanding School Device Bans Beyond Phones

https://tinyurl.com/y4vppwcu

The Real Problem Isn't Screens, It's Disengaged Learning

https://tinyurl.com/2wxzfxuh

School Library Checkouts Rise Amid Phone Bans

https://tinyurl.com/3pdy3dak

Dario Amodei Changes Tune on AI White-Collar Job Losses

https://tinyurl.com/22c6wu78

Why the A.I. Job Apocalypse (Probably) Won’t Happen

https://tinyurl.com/3fsbpjvh

AI Discovers 100+ Hidden Planets in NASA Data

https://tinyurl.com/yw8ac8bj