Another Crazy Day in AI: Teaching Kids to Think When Thinking Gets Too Easy
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Hello, AI Enthusiasts.
Here's another crazy day in AI:
Harvard on what we risk losing in education
Google rolls out Canvas workspace in Search
Amazon plans to keep adding jobs despite AI
Some AI tools to try out
🎧 Listen to a quick breakdown of today’s stories.
TODAY'S FEATURED ITEM: Educators on Protecting the Student Mind
Image Credit: Wowza (created with Ideogram)
If students can generate answers in seconds, how do schools make sure the learning still happens?
Samantha Laine Perfas, a staff writer for The Harvard Gazette (Harvard's official daily news source), put that question front and center in a recent episode of the "Harvard Thinking" podcast. She sat down with three Harvard educators — applied mathematics professor and Google researcher Michael Brenner, cognitive scientist Tina Grotzer, and education professor Ying Xu — to talk honestly about what generative tools are doing to the way students learn, and what educators and parents can actually do about it.
A few points from the conversation that stood out:
Instant answers can make it tempting for students to skip the effort that usually comes with practicing skills and working through problems.
Some professors are redesigning assignments so students create original questions or problems that existing systems cannot easily solve.
Surveys show many students feel they rely on these tools more than they intended, which raises questions about discipline and self-regulation in learning.
When used thoughtfully, these systems can still help students brainstorm ideas or look at topics from different perspectives.
Educators are also encouraging students to understand how human reasoning differs from machine-generated responses.
Teachers and tutors remain important not only for explaining material, but also for motivation, encouragement, and personal interaction.
Technology is only one part of a student’s development, alongside family, friendships, hobbies, and other real-world experiences.
What makes this conversation linger is that it's not really about the tools themselves. Generative technology is already woven into how students work, how teachers grade, and how kids grow up — and that's true whether schools have a policy about it or not. The harder question, which the educators here keep circling back to, is what we actually want learning to produce in a person.
That question probably looks different depending on whether you're standing in a classroom, sitting at a kitchen table helping with homework, or somewhere in between. But it's one that's becoming harder to put off.
Read the full article here.
Watch the conversation here.
OTHER INTERESTING AI HIGHLIGHTS:
Google Rolls Out Canvas Workspace in Search
/Google Blogs - The Keyword
Google is expanding access to Canvas in AI Mode within Search, giving users a dedicated workspace to plan projects, draft documents, and build simple tools directly from their queries. Powered by Gemini, the feature can pull information from the web and the Knowledge Graph while generating prototypes, dashboards, or writing drafts in a side panel. Users can refine results through conversational prompts, review generated code, and iterate quickly. By bringing Canvas into Search, Google is placing an AI-powered creation environment in front of its massive search audience.
Read more here.
Amazon Plans to Keep Adding Jobs Despite AI
/Bloomberg Radio
Amazon says it expects to keep creating jobs even as artificial intelligence becomes more deeply embedded in its operations. Company leaders argue that AI and robotics are being used to improve efficiency, safety, and logistics rather than simply replace workers. The company points to hundreds of thousands of net new roles created in recent years alongside heavy investments in infrastructure, data centers, and cloud services. At the same time, investors are closely watching whether Amazon’s growing AI spending will translate into stronger financial returns.
Check it out here.
SOME AI TOOLS TO TRY OUT:
That’s a wrap on today’s Almost Daily craziness.
Catch us almost every day—almost! 😉
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