AI Insights for June 12

This message was originally shared to subscribers June 12, 2025.

Upcoming Event

Join us for Generative AI for Staff, part of the ITS Summer Series, on Monday, July 8. In just 45 minutes, Tech Transformation Specialist Shannon Glennon will demo tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini and show you easy ways to start using AI in your day-to-day work.

Quick, practical, and virtual—don’t miss it! Register here.

In This Issue

Today’s edition we spotlight the growing reach of AI in higher education and the workplace, as well as the tensions that accompany it.

You’ll find stories of universities boldly embedding AI agents into learning environments, as seen in the University of Sydney’s Cogniti platform, alongside reflections from faculty navigating the pedagogical and ethical trade-offs of generative AI. Meanwhile, OpenAI is pushing forward with its “AI-native university” vision, even as recent grads struggle to land jobs in a tech-driven labor market increasingly reshaped by automation.

From Meta replacing human risk reviewers with AI to the rise of “secret cyborgs” in the workplace, the implications are deep and wide-ranging. We also dive into the limitations of “thinking” AI models and explore how agentic systems could fundamentally reshape the web as we know it. It’s a complex, evolving landscape.

News and Views

Access to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post is available to all students, faculty and staff with a valid Syracuse University NetID. Learn more.

AI Performance, Tools and Infrastructure

Academia and Education

  • Ohio State Launches Bold AI Fluency Initiative to Redefine Learning and Innovation (Ohio State University)
  • Case Study: Empowering Faculty Use of AI Agents for Student Success (Gartner) (Access Gartner Here)
  • What I Learned Serving on My University’s AI Committee (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
  • In the Room Where It Happens: Generative AI Policy Creation in Higher Education (Educause Review)
  • Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT (The New York Times)
  • AI Achieves First Peer-Reviewed Paper Acceptance (Intology)
  • 5 Questions About Retrieval-Augmented Generation (EdTech Magazine)
  • The Illusion of Thinking: Understanding the Strengths and Limitations of Reasoning Models via the Lens of Problem Complexity (Apple)

Ethics, Policy and Society

  • Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin Suggests Threatening AI for Better Results (The Register)
  • State Lawmakers Push Back on Federal Proposal to Limit AI Regulation (StateScoop)
  • Anthropic C.E.O.: Don’t Let A.I. Companies Off the Hook (The New York Times)
  • Some Thoughts on Human-AI Relationships (Reservoir Samples)
  • Chinese Tech Firms Freeze AI Tools in Crackdown on Exam Cheats (The Guardian)
  • Meta Plans to Replace Humans with AI to Assess Privacy and Societal Risks (NPR)

Media and Communications

  • The New York Times and Amazon Ink AI Licensing Deal (TechCrunch)
  • The First Fully AI-Generated National TV Commercial has Launched (Axios)
  • The MAHA Report’s AI Fingerprints, Annotated (The Washington Post)

Scientific Discovery and Space

  • High School Student Discovers 1.5 Million Potential New Astronomical Objects by Developing an A.I. Algorithm (Smithsonian Magazine)

Workforce and Workplace

  • AI is Keeping Recent College Grads Out of Work (Axios)
  • I’m a LinkedIn Executive. I See the Bottom Rung of the Career Ladder Breaking (The New York Times)
  • Secret Chatbot Use Causes Workplace Rifts (Axios)
  • Business Leaders Expect Agentic AI to Take Over Customer Service (CIO Dive)

This Issue’s Tip: Use AI to Tidy Up Your To-Do List

Feeling a little scattered this summer? If your to-do list is getting long—or just plain chaotic—try pasting it into a generative AI tool like ChatGPT or Gemini and ask for help organizing it.

AI can help you:

  • Group similar tasks (great for things like grocery lists—AI can even sort items by store section!)
  • Prioritize based on deadlines or how much effort each task takes
  • Transform messy notes into a clear, actionable checklist

It’s a quick way to bring order to your day—so you can focus on what really matters (like catching some rays while the sun’s still out ☀️).

This Issue’s Prompt: Out-of-Office

A prompt is how you ask generative AI tools to do something for you (e.g., creating, summarizing, editing or transforming). Treat it like a conversation, using clear language and enough context to get the result you have in mind.

To get more practice, use the generative AI tool of your choice (for example, Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI ChatGPT or Anthropic Claude) to execute the following prompt:

“Write a professional out-of-office reply for July 15–22. Mention I’ll have limited access to email and include who to contact for urgent matters.

Helpful Resources

Thank you for reading. Go Orange!

Tech Tips June 2025 Newsletter

This message was originally shared to all faculty and staff via email on June 12, 2025.

At a Glance

Each month, Information Technology Services provides tech tips for the Orange community. Pressed for time? Here are this edition’s topics:


Continue Reading

AI Insights for May 29, 2025

This message was originally shared to subscribers May 29, 2025.

The AI landscape continues to evolve rapidly, with advances in performance, safety and model reasoning. Researchers are working to enhance how AI systems handle complex conversations and make informed decisions, while also focusing on developing tools and frameworks to ensure the safe and responsible deployment of these systems. In higher education, institutions are navigating AI’s growing influence, addressing concerns around AI-assisted cheating, while also working to build digital and AI literacy among students and faculty. At the same time, many are exploring how AI can enhance student engagement and streamline academic and administrative operations.

In the Big Tech arena, major players such as Google, Meta and OpenAI are strategically maneuvering. Google is leading in AI patent filings, Meta is restructuring its AI teams to accelerate product development, and OpenAI is expanding into new frontiers, including potential hardware ventures. However, the rapid growth of AI raises environmental concerns, especially around the increasing energy demands of data centers. Underlying these developments are conversations around ethics, regulation and the future of work, as AI’s role in public discourse and daily life continues to expand.

So yeah, just a few things happening. Happy reading.

News and Views

Access to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post is available to all students, faculty and staff with a valid Syracuse University NetID. Learn more.

AI Performance, Reasoning and Safety

  • OpenAI: Safety Evaluations Hub (OpenAI)
  • LLMs Get Lost In Multi-Turn Conversation (arXiv)
  • Learning to Reason without External Rewards (arXiv)
  • Intimidated by AI? Here’s How to Get Started (The Wall Street Journal)

Academia and Education

Big Tech, Leadership and Strategy

  • Google Dominates AI Patent Applications (Axios)
  • Meta Shuffles AI Team to Compete with OpenAI and Google (Axios)
  • OpenAI’s Acquisition of Jony Ive’s Startup Poses Threat to Apple’s Dominance (Benzinga)
  • Google CEO Sundar Pichai on the Future of Search, AI Agents, and Selling Chrome (The Verge)
  • Microsoft Is Racing to Build an AI ‘Agent Factory’ (The Verge)
  • Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott on How AI Can Save the Web, Not Destroy It (The Verge)
  • Opera’s New AI Browser Promises to Write Code While You Sleep (The Verge)
  • Google’s Veo 3 AI Video Generator Is a Slop Monger’s Dream (The Verge)
  • Details Leak About Jony Ive’s New ‘Screen-Free’ OpenAI Device (The Verge)
  • You Can Now Try Interactive AI Worlds Backed by Pixar’s Cofounder (The Verge)
  • The 15 Biggest Announcements at Google I/O 2025 (The Verge)

Environmental and Infrastructure Concerns

  • The Growing Environmental Impact of AI Data Centers’ Energy Demands (PBS)
  • We Did the Math on AI’s Energy Footprint. Here’s the Story You Haven’t Heard (MIT Technology Review)

Ethics, Policy and Society

  • AI Is More Persuasive Than a Human in a Debate, Study Finds (The Washington Post)
  • Anthropic’s Legal Team Blames AI “Hallucination” for Citation Error in Copyright Lawsuit (PYMNTS)
  • Malicious Actors Using AI to Pose as Senior US Officials, FBI Says (Reuters)
  • Coalition Asks US House to Reject Freeze on State AI Regulations (PYMNTS)
  • Is AI the Future of America’s Foreign Policy? Some Experts Think So (NPR)
  • Anthropic CEO: AI Threatens Job Extinction (Axios)
  • I’m a LinkedIn Executive. I See the Bottom Rung of the Career Ladder Breaking (The New York Times)
  • The Forecast for 2027? Total AI Domination (The New York Times)

This Issue’s Tip: Join Our Tech Tips Video Mailing List

New technology continues to transform how Syracuse University works, teaches, learns and creates. The ITS Tech Tips video series is here to help you stay ahead of the curve with short, instructional videos designed to make technology work for you. Our latest video covers Microsoft Copilot. Learn how to use Copilot for scheduling meetings, drafting documents, summarizing files and managing your inbox more efficiently.

Join our Tech Tips mailing list to receive email notifications about new Tech Tips videos and upcoming ITS workshops.

This Issue’s Prompt: Student Engagement Ideas

A prompt is how you ask generative AI tools to do something for you (e.g., creating, summarizing, editing or transforming). Treat it like a conversation, using clear language and enough context to get the result you have in mind.

To get more practice, use the generative AI tool of your choice (for example, Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI ChatGPT or Anthropic Claude) to execute the following prompt:

“Give me three creative ways to use generative AI to boost student engagement in an online or hybrid course setting. Include both in-class and outside-of-class activities

Helpful Resources

Thank you for reading. Go Orange!

Tech Tips: May 2025 Update

This message was originally shared to all faculty and staff via email on May 21, 2025.

At a Glance

Each month, Information Technology Services provides tech tips for the Orange community. Pressed for time? Here are this edition’s topics:

ITS Summer Series

Security 101: Public, Enterprise and Confidential Information

AI Insights Newsletter

Digital Accessibility Tip: Simple PDF Tagging

Digital Maps

Tech Tips Video Series
Continue Reading

AI Insights for May 15, 2025

This message was originally shared to subscribers May 15, 2025.

Looking to sharpen your tech skills or explore the latest digital trends? Join us for the ITS Summer Series—a lineup of dynamic 45-minute online sessions tailored for staff and faculty. Whether you’re curious about collaboration tools, information security, or how generative AI is transforming the workplace, there’s a session for you. All sessions are virtual, so you can join from wherever your summer takes you! Register here.

If you received this email as a forward from a helpful colleague, you can subscribe online.

News and Views

Access to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post is available to all students, faculty and staff with a valid Syracuse University NetID. Learn more.

Capabilities & Research Breakthroughs

  • Google DeepMind Creates Super-Advanced AI That Can Invent New Algorithms (ArsTechnica)
  • AI Predicts Cancer Outcomes From Photos (The Lancet)
  • OpenAI’s Chief Scientist: AI Can Drive Novel Research (Nature)
  • We Now Know How AI ‘Thinks’—and It’s Barely Thinking at All (The Wall Street Journal)
  • AI Is Getting More Powerful, but Its Hallucinations Are Getting Worse (The New York Times)

Government

  • White House OSTP Wants Input on National AI R&D Strategic Plan (MeriTalk)
  • UK Government to Launch AI Tool to Speed Up Public Consultations (The Guardian)
  • United States Copyright Office: Copyright and Artificial Intelligence (United States Copyright Office)
  • Trump Administration Fires Top U.S. Copyright Official (Axios)
  • Copyright Office Head Fired After Reporting AI Training Isn’t Always Fair Use (ArsTechnica)
  • Singapore’s Vision for AI Safety Bridges the US-China Divide (Wired)
  • Tech, AI Company Chiefs Urge Senators to Tone Down Regulations (Financial Post)
  • Tech Giants Push for Mandatory AI Education (CSforAll)

Higher Education

Industry News

  • Microsoft to Lay Off 3% of Global Workforce – Roughly 7K Jobs – in Shift to Develop AI (New York Post)
  • OpenAI Retains Nonprofit Control in Surprise Move (OpenAI)
  • OpenAI and the FDA Are Holding Talks About Using AI In Drug Evaluation (Wired)
  • Apple Eyes Adding AI Search to Replace Google, Ending Tech Giant Partnership (PYMNTS)
  • US Close to Letting UAE Import Millions of Nvidia’s AI Chips, Sources Say (Reuters)

Trends

  • AI in 2025: Purpose-Driven Models, Human Integration, and More (AI News)
  • The 10 Biggest AI Trends Of 2025 Everyone Must Be Ready For Today (Forbes)
  • Five Trends in AI and Data Science for 2025 (MIT Sloan Management Review)
  • Top 5 New Artificial Intelligence Innovations in 2025 (Wilnick Magazine)
  • The One File That Will Level Up Your Generative AI Game (And How to Write It) (Shelly Palmer)

This Issue’s Tip: Create Custom Images for Presentations or Social Media

Need a visual that perfectly matches your idea—but stock images aren’t cutting it? Use an AI image generator to create unique graphics on demand.

Pro Tip: Be specific! Mention the style (cartoon, photo, watercolor), setting, and mood for best results.

This Issue’s Prompt: Improve This Message

A prompt is how you ask generative AI tools to do something for you (e.g., creating, summarizing, editing or transforming). Treat it like a conversation, using clear language and enough context to get the result you have in mind.

To get more practice, use the generative AI tool of your choice (for example, Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI ChatGPT or Anthropic Claude) to execute the following prompt:

“Make this Slack message sound clearer and more professional: ‘Can you do this soon? It’s kind of important

This is a helpful way to polish tone and clarity in communication.

Helpful Resources

Thank you for reading. Go Orange!