Oh no, not the Storybooks | Ep. 123

AI storybooks backfire, relationship apps flop, and writers fight back with typos!

Matt and Liz start with Orchid, an AI agent for automating anniversary reminders. Fail!

The Rundown

Gemini Notebook Studio Apps: Google is developing an Apps feature in Gemini Notebook Studio that converts source materials into interactive tools using secure cloud sandboxes.

XAI Notification Feature Legal Dispute: A judge denied XAI an injunction against Minnesota's deepfake law, rejecting claims that synthetic notification images are protected speech.

ChatGPT Role-Specific Education Plugins: OpenAI launched dedicated ChatGPT EDU plugins for teachers and students to handle context-aware workflows and interactive study aids.

Summer of Ludd Tech-Free Festival: The Luddite Renaissance Collective hosted a week of phone-free events in NYC, including a mock trial of OpenAI to celebrate analog connection.

Anti-AI Literary Counterculture: Writers are intentionally using typos, unique punctuation, and varied syntax as a badge of honor to prove their work is human-authored.

Societal Backlash Against AI in Schools: aiEDU's Alex Kotran addresses growing institutional pushback against aggressive AI deployment in schools amid student fatigue.

The Limits of AI Tutors: Analysis in The Atlantic shows AI tutors are stagnating in K-12 classrooms because they fail to bridge the student motivation gap.

Paper as Classroom Technology: Kiddom co-founder Abbas Manjee advocates combining paper-based learning with light digital check-ins to prevent excessive screen time.

Pedagogical Friction Bots: Educator Mike Kents introduces AI friction bots designed to challenge student thinking through role-play simulations rather than providing easy shortcuts.

Beneath the Surface: AI Children's Storybooks

Matt and Liz cover AI storybook slop from grandparents, photo privacy, and a study where anti-bias guardrails cut female characters to 2% of roles.

Bright Byte

Sharvi Mahajan, 14, is a 3M Young Scientist Challenge finalist for NeuroDrive Alert, an AI-EEG system that detects driver fatigue and microsleep.

Announcements

Purchase Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday

Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77

Seeing through the Machine – Teaching Bias as an Equity Practice in AI - Dr. Elizabeth Radday - https://tinyurl.com/4ybwkn7a

Fall AI Conference: October 2, 2026 - https://tinyurl.com/4k6x9scx

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

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

Sponsors

The National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing: Your Gateway to Next Generation Advanced Manufacturing - https://www.nextgenmfg.org

Links

AI Fixes Boyfriend Incompetence

https://tinyurl.com/35ebkf5v

Interactive Apps for Gemini Notebook

https://tinyurl.com/2pvfz52w

Judge Rejects xAI Challenge to Nudification Ban

https://tinyurl.com/mdpzav6z

New Ways to Teach with ChatGPT Work and Codex

https://tinyurl.com/hp5sbbvn

Luddism Is Fun Again

https://tinyurl.com/54m4bupp

The Anti-AI Literary Counterculture

https://tinyurl.com/2fjbtp6t

AI Backlash Is Brewing

https://tinyurl.com/43e5x8vr

AI Won't Fix Motivation

https://tinyurl.com/4wny7kj2

Tech Meets Pencil and Paper in NYC Math Classes

https://tinyurl.com/24hs4nrm

Does AI Practice Work?

https://tinyurl.com/364pvf6m

Boomers Keep Gifting Grandkids AI Slop Books

https://tinyurl.com/b8e3w7bd

Female Characters Vanish in AI Kids' Stories

https://tinyurl.com/58jrb4w3

14-Year-Old Builds AI That Catches Drowsy Drivers

https://tinyurl.com/4u6acjvm