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
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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
- Mobile Phones Were Banned for Students So They Couldn’t Use ChatGPT—but No One Had Imagined That the Problem Would Come From the Teachers (Farmingdale Observer)
- How an AI-Generated Summer Reading List Got Published in Major Newspapers (NPR)
- In the AI Era, How Do We Battle Cognitive Laziness in Students? (Times Higher Education)
- Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College: ChatGPT has Unraveled the Entire Academic Project (New York Magazine)
- A Matter of Words: What Can University AI Committees Actually Do? (The Point Magazine)
- Less Is More When It Comes to AI in Teaching (Times Higher Education)
- AI and Threats to Academic Integrity: What to Do (Inside Higher Ed)
- The Reading Struggle Meets AI (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
- Can AI Bring Us Closer to Prospective Students? (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
- Empowering Student Success through AI-Driven Collaboration (Educause Review)
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!