This newsletter you couldn’t wait to open? It runs on beehiiv — the absolute best platform for email newsletters.

Our editor makes your content look like Picasso in the inbox. Your website? Beautiful and ready to capture subscribers on day one.

And when it’s time to monetize, you don’t need to duct-tape a dozen tools together. Paid subscriptions, referrals, and a (super easy-to-use) global ad network — it’s all built in.

beehiiv isn’t just the best choice. It’s the only choice that makes sense.

Start free today. No credit card required

What’s the secret to staying ahead of the curve in the world of AI? Information. Luckily, you can join 1,000,000+ early adopters reading The Rundown AI — the free newsletter that makes you smarter on AI with just a 5-minute read per day.

Sign up to start learning.

You'll learn to:

Two ways in:

Workshop only → Apply these skills tomorrow

Career Campus membership → All this PLUS:

If you've been following the evolution of educational technology, you know something big is underway. AI-powered learning tools have moved from experimental to essential, and the changes are showing up in real classrooms and lifelong learning platforms around the world.

Students using adaptive learning systems are seeing test scores jump by 62%, and knowledge retention is up 40%. The global AI in education market hit $5.88 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $8.30 billion this year. But beyond the numbers, what does this actually mean for learners, educators, and those building careers in this space?

​

Learning That Actually Adapts to You

The biggest shift is personalization. Instead of everyone moving through the same material at the same pace, AI systems now analyze how each person learns best and adjust accordingly. Khanmigo uses Socratic questioning to help students think through problems rather than just handing them answers. Duolingo has built this into language learning with AI roleplay for real conversations. This isn't theoretical—it's happening at scale.

​

Giving Teachers Their Time Back

Teachers spend too much time on paperwork and not enough with students. Automated grading and lesson planning tools are changing that equation. About 60% of teachers are already using AI in their daily work, and those who do report 70% reductions in administrative tasks. Khan Academy's free tools now handle everything from generating standards-aligned activities to creating multilingual family communications.

​

Catching Problems Before They Become Crises

AI can predict with 80% accuracy which students are likely to struggle before they actually fall behind. That's not surveillance—it's early intervention that works. About 55% of educators say AI has improved student performance through better data about learning patterns.

The Critical Thinking Crisis

Here's the uncomfortable truth: research shows a significant negative correlation between AI tool usage and critical thinking scores (r = -0.68, p < 0.001). Students who rely heavily on AI demonstrate "diminished ability to critically evaluate information and engage in reflective problem-solving".

University students using Large Language Models to complete writing and research tasks showed poorer reasoning and argumentation skills compared to those using traditional search methods. Another study found students using LLMs focused on a narrower set of ideas, resulting in more biased and superficial analyses. The problem isn't just that students get wrong answers—it's that they're not developing the cognitive muscles to think independently at all.

​

AltSchool's Cautionary Tale

Remember AltSchool? The Silicon Valley darling that raised $175 million to revolutionize education with personalized learning technology collapsed spectacularly.

Parents paying $27,000 in tuition reported their children were being used as "guinea pigs" for testing new modes of teaching. Learning disabilities went undiagnosed because work done on tablets and computers wasn't properly monitored. The promised personalized playlists turned out to be mostly the same assignments for everyone. Class sizes ballooned, and technology became a classroom management tool rather than a learning enhancement.

​

Alpha School: History Repeating

Now there's Alpha School, which claims students can complete all academic learning in just two hours a day using AI-powered apps. No traditional teachers, just "guides" who monitor emotional well-being. Sound familiar?​

As education researcher Ammar Amerhbi writes, Alpha is "repeating nearly every one of these design mistakes". The assumption that software can replace instruction, that algorithms can guide learning better than expert teachers, that students can self-direct with the right tools—these were the exact premises of AltSchool, Summit Learning, Teach to One, and other high-tech experiments that all failed.

Summit Learning was dropped after student protests and academic backsliding. Teach to One showed no gains in math according to RAND's study. The pattern is clear: these models produce disengaged students, shallow learning, burned-out educators, and poor academic outcomes.

​

Technology's Deepening Grip on Classrooms

The push to embed more technology in schools isn't driven by educational research—it's driven by tech companies seeking markets. Every new AI platform requires infrastructure, training, licensing fees, and ongoing technical support. Schools become locked into vendor relationships, with curriculum shaped by what the software can deliver rather than what students actually need.

Meanwhile, students spend increasing hours staring at screens when mounting evidence suggests this harms attention spans, social development, and mental health. The more technology becomes the default interface for learning, the less opportunity students have to develop interpersonal skills, collaborative problem-solving, and the messy, inefficient, deeply human process of learning from failure.

​

The Human Connection Question

Education isn't just information transfer—it's relationship-building. When AI becomes the primary learning interface, something fundamental gets lost. Students need mentors who can adapt in real time, notice confusion, offer nuance, and inspire—things AI fundamentally cannot do. Technology should enhance human connection, not replace it—but the business model of ed-tech pushes toward replacement.

​

Privacy, Bias, and the Access Gap

Collecting student data at scale raises serious questions. 42% of teachers remain worried about data privacy, and they should be. AI systems trained on biased data will perpetuate those biases. Without diverse, representative training data, these tools risk building technology that reinforces existing inequalities.

Not everyone has equal access to these tools, which means AI could widen rather than narrow educational disparities. This is particularly concerning for under-resourced schools and communities who can least afford experimental failures.

Cognitive Offloading and Learned Helplessness

Research shows cognitive offloading—outsourcing thinking to AI—is strongly correlated with AI tool usage (r = +0.72) and inversely related to critical thinking (r = -0.75). The overreliance on AI "decreases the ability of students to truly learn, undermining the education system as a whole". This isn't just about students who can't do math without calculators—it's about a generation that may not develop the capacity for independent judgment at all.

If you're working in this space or considering it, here are platforms making a difference—but use them as supplements to human instruction, not replacements:

For Educators & Schools

For Learning Platforms

The career landscape is expanding rapidly. EdTech companies are actively hiring across key sectors:​

K-12 Schools need implementation specialists, professional development coaches, and curriculum developers who understand classroom realities. Many roles prioritize teaching experience and offer remote or hybrid arrangements

Higher Education is investing in digital transformation—instructional designers, student success platform managers, and online program developers are in demand, especially for AI-powered advising systems.

Specialized positions include machine learning engineers, AI research scientists, data analysts, and product managers focused on educational applications. LinkedIn shows 141,000+ AI in education roles currently open.

For nonprofit professionals, Nonprofit Tech for Good offers a Certificate in AI for Marketing & Fundraising specifically for mission-driven work.

Job Boards to Check:

AI won't replace good teachers, trainers, or learning designers. But professionals who understand how to use AI effectively—and more importantly, when not to use it—will be essential.

The opportunity lies in thoughtful implementation: using AI for routine tasks and administrative burden while fiercely protecting the human elements that make learning transformative. That means preserving mentorship, critical thinking development, face-to-face interaction, and the struggle that produces real learning.

The history of ed-tech is littered with expensive failures that promised transformation and delivered disillusionment. The difference between tools that help and tools that harm comes down to one question: Does this technology serve learning, or does learning serve the technology?

Whether you're an educator figuring out how to responsibly integrate these tools, a learning professional designing scalable solutions, or someone building a career at this intersection, that question should guide every decision.

🤖 Your Daily AI Impact Joke

A data scientist, a social entrepreneur, and an AI ethicist walk into a bar.
The bartender says, "What'll it be?"
The data scientist says, "Based on historical patterns, I'll have what 73% of customers order."
The entrepreneur says, "I'll have whatever creates the most positive social impact per dollar."
The AI ethicist says, "Hold on—did anyone consent to being included in that dataset?"
They're still there. No one's had a drink yet. 🍺📊

📰 News

AI Agent Completely Breaks Online Survey Research
A researcher created an AI agent that bypassed survey fraud detection 99.8% of the time by simulating realistic reading times, generating human-like mouse movements, and typing responses keystroke-by-keystroke complete with plausible typos. The system can model coherent demographic personas and sway polling outcomes—adding as few as 10 to 52 fake responses would have flipped predicted outcomes in seven major polls before the 2024 election.

Wikipedia Reports Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors Due to AI
The Wikimedia Foundation reports a significant decline in human traffic to Wikipedia because more people are getting information via generative AI chatbots trained on its articles and search engines that summarize content without users clicking through to the site. This trend poses a risk to the long-term sustainability of the online encyclopedia, which relies on human engagement to maintain its volunteer-driven model.

Trump Executive Order Threatens States Passing AI Laws
President Trump signed an executive order on December 11 that creates a Justice Department task force to challenge state AI regulations, potentially overriding hundreds of state laws on algorithmic bias, child safety, and workforce development. The move comes as House Republicans consider a moratorium on state AI enforcement lasting five years, despite bipartisan opposition from Democratic lawmakers and Republican governors who say it would leave residents unprotected.

India's Courts Mandate AI-Powered Transcription System
Kerala High Court ordered all subordinate courts to use the AI-enabled speech-to-text tool Adalat.AI to record witness depositions starting November 1, 2025, replacing slow handwritten notes with immediate digital transcripts. Developed by a startup with research links to Harvard and MIT, the system ensures control over sensitive audio processing while allowing judges to use alternative platforms vetted by the court's IT Directorate if the system fails.

💼 Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Probably Good - Impact-focused job board featuring opportunities across AI safety, global health, biosecurity, animal welfare, climate change, and effective governance at research institutes, nonprofits, and mission-driven startups globally.

👤 LinkedIn Profile to Follow

Stanford Human-Centered AI Institute (HAI) - Leading AI Research Institution
Stanford HAI advances AI research, education, and policy that puts humanity at the center, bridging academic research with real-world impact across ethics, governance, healthcare, education, and sustainable development.

🎧 Today's Podcast Pick

Join us for the next PCDN Social Change Career Podcast - Navigating the World of Work in the Age of AI
This essential conversation explores how artificial intelligence is transforming the workplace, offering practical insights for professionals navigating career development and organizational change in an AI-driven economy.