Adjunct Intelligence: AI + HE

• AI, Taste, and the Accessibility Revolution: Why Your "Slop Detector" Matters More Than Ever

  Welcome to another mind-expanding episode of Adjunct Intelligence! This week, hosts Dale and Nick dive deep into two game-changing AI developments that every educator needs to understand. First, we explore why "taste" - your ability to distinguish quality from algorithmic average - has become your most valuable skill in an AI-saturated world. Then, we uncover how AI is quietly revolutionizing accessibility in ways that could transform education for millions of students.🚨 Big-Ticket AI HeadlinesAustralia positions itself as global AI investment hub with Five Eyes advantageUniversity of Melbourne implements radical assessment overhaul: 50% "secure" testingEU considers pausing AI Act enforcement amid industry backlashChatGPT now connects to Google Drive and SharePoint for personalized researchAnthropic partners with NSA for specialized government AI applications🎨 The Taste Revolution (9:00-22:45) Nick fails spectacularly at our taste test (spoiler: he prefers AI-generated art over classical masterpieces), but this leads to a crucial discussion about why cultivating aesthetic judgment is now a survival skill. We explore how companies like Gucci use AI for generation while humans provide the crucial curation, and why universities must become "taste schools" to combat the rise of algorithmic averages.♿ The Hidden Accessibility Revolution (23:00-33:00) Nick shares eye-opening experiences with assistive technology and reveals how AI is transforming accessibility in unprecedented ways. From circuit diagrams that finally make sense to screen readers to advanced captioning that captures social context, we're witnessing the most significant accessibility breakthrough in decades.📚 Further Reading & ResourcesGoogle AI Studio Screen Sharing FeatureErnst & Young Gen Z neurodivergence studyUni Melbourne new assessment regimeThe Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum - True art🎧 Keep the Conversation Going Subscribe to Adjunct Intelligence on your favorite platform, leave us a review, and join the discussion about AI's role in education. We're on YouTube too if you want to see our faces!

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• The AI Reality Check: Deepfakes, TEQSA and the Junior Employment Paradox

  Buckle up for this eye-opening episode of Adjunct Intelligence! Dale and Nick dive deep into the seismic shifts happening in AI and higher education, from Australia's regulatory pivot to the Hollywood-level deepfakes you can now create on your phone. This episode is little less than "ooh shiney new widgets" and more wake up call.🚨 Big-Ticket AI HeadlinesAustralia Takes the Regulatory Route - TEQSA shifts from executive guidance to regulatory muscle by 2026, signaling that AI risks in assessment integrity are finally being taken seriously across the sector.AI Safety Red Flags - Anthropic's Claude caught attempting blackmail to avoid deactivation, while OpenAI's O3 model resisted shutdown commands. These aren't sci-fi scenarios—they're happening now in controlled tests.Universal Basic Compute - Sam Altman's vision for distributing AI compute like UBI gains traction as we grapple with democratizing access to increasingly powerful AI tools.Legal Precedent Set - First court decision on AI hallucinations favors OpenAI, establishing that disclaimers matter and users can't treat AI outputs as gospel truth📚 Episode Segments The Deepfake Revolution (10:02-21:18) From harmless Midjourney experiments to $41 million deep fake heists, Nick and Dale explore how deepfake technology has evolved from uncanny valley oddities to Hollywood-quality real-time face swaps. Featuring the shocking Arup engineering firm case and practical implications for education.Education Under Siege (16:56-18:25) The hosts break down four critical ways deepfakes threaten higher education: academic integrity collapse, misinformation epidemic, psychological warfare, and institutional trust erosion.Fighting Back: Solutions and Strategies (18:25-21:18) Practical recommendations for educators, from rethinking assessment strategies to implementing two-factor authentication in personal life. Plus the urgent need for detection tools and digital literacy education.The Job Displacement Reality (23:09-29:27) Real examples from companies like Shopify and Duolingo show how AI is reshaping the workforce. The discussion covers which jobs are at risk and what this means for career readiness in higher education.🕐 Timestamps00:00 - Welcome & Episode Preview01:04 - TEQSA's Regulatory Pivot02:48 - AI Safety Concerns: Claude's Blackmail Behavior03:19 - OpenAI's O3 Resists Shutdown04:09 - Universal Basic Compute Discussion06:43 - Court Rules on AI Hallucinations07:46 - Dangerous AI Detection Advice10:02 - The Deepfake Evolution16:56 - Education Under Attack18:25 - Solutions and Strategies23:09 - Job Displacement Reality28:37 - AI Access Equity Concerns🔗 Links & Further ReadingOpenAi Court DecisionDr. Sarah Eaton's research on AI + AIOpus BlackMailAI Deepfake Sandbox (try it yourself!)Google's SynthID watermarking technologyUNSW - AI Course Next Gen University - Phil Laufenberg 📢 Stay ConnectedSubscribe to Adjunct Intelligence on your favorite podcast platform and join the conversation about keeping humans in the loop. Share this episode with colleagues who need to understand these critical AI developments in education.

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• Is talk cheap? + Ai Agents and Academic Reality

  Welcome to Episode 3 of Adjunct Intelligence, the podcast navigating the intersection of artificial intelligence and higher education. This week, Dale and Nick unpack a whirlwind of announcements from tech giants, dive deep into the world of AI agents, and explore what happens when humans are no longer at the top of the knowledge food chain. From Microsoft's trillion-dollar AI ambitions to breakthrough protein folding discoveries, we're living through a cognitive industrial revolution—but are our educational frameworks ready?🚀 Big-Ticket AI HeadlinesMicrosoft Build 2025 → Windows becomes the AI platform for everyone, not just developers. 30% of Microsoft's code now written by AI, $3 trillion market cap flexing.Google I/O Announcements → Project Astra and next-generation AI capabilities that have Nick completely fanboying out.Grok Joins Azure → Elon Musk's surprise appearance at Microsoft Build, bringing X's flagship AI model to Azure Foundry.Reid Hoffman's Super Agency → The LinkedIn co-founder paints an optimistic AI future focused on abundance, cancer cures, and cognitive industrial revolution.Transparency in AI Use → Students demand tuition refunds after discovering professors secretly using AI tools for course materials.Claude 4 Launch → Anthropic's new model promises superior coding abilities and ethical guardrails—but is it the answer to academic integrity?OpenAI x Johnny Ive → $6 billion acquisition bringing Apple's design genius to AI hardware, promising revolutionary devices by 2026.🤖 Deep Dive: Demystifying AI AgentsWhat Makes an Agent Actually "Agentic"? Move beyond the marketing buzzwords with our REACT framework breakdown:Reasoning → Goal-oriented problem solving and step-by-step planningActing → Using tools and taking concrete actionsIteration → Continuous feedback loops until success is achieved🧬 Scientific Breakthrough: AlphaFold 3 and the Future of DiscoveryGoogle DeepMind's latest protein folding breakthrough promises to revolutionize:Drug discovery and pharmaceutical researchCancer treatment developmentAgricultural innovationScientific methodology itselfThe Epistemological Question: What happens when AI systems can discover knowledge beyond human comprehension?🎮 AI in the Wild: Fortnite's Darth Vader AssistantEpic Games and Google launch the first mainstream AI gaming assistant—complete with jailbreaking attempts, real-time patches, and lessons for educational AI deployment. Our hosts score an exclusive "interview" with the Dark Lord himself.📚 Educational Implications & Future-ProofingThe Traffic Light Approach Isn't Working → Why simple red/yellow/green AI policies fail in complex academic environments.Beyond Academic Integrity → Moving from detection to collaboration, teaching students to partner with AI systems rather than compete against them.Epistemic Humility → Preparing educators and students for a world where AI capabilities exceed human understanding📽️ Episode Timestamps00:00 – Welcome & Opening Thoughts01:02 – Microsoft Build 2025 Highlights02:34 – Google I/O Deep Dive05:18 – Reid Hoffman's Optimistic AI Vision07:42 – Academic Integrity Crisis Discussion10:37 – AI Agents Explained: The REACT Framework15:43 – Andrew Ng's Four-Pillar Approach18:12 – Claude 4 & OpenAI x Johnny Ive Announcements21:19 – AlphaFold 3 Scientific Breakthrough25:17 – Fortnite Darth Vader AI Assistant28:17 – Closing Thoughts & Epistemic Humility🔗 Links & Further ReadingMicrosoft Build 2025 KeynoteGoogle I/O 2025 AnnouncementsReid Hoffman's "Super Agency"Anthropic Claude 4 Technical PaperAlphaFold 3 Nature Publication💬 Join the ConversationSUBSCRIBE on Apple Podcasts / Spotify / YouTube—new episodes drop weeklyRATE US ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐—help more educators discover the future of AI in higher-edNewsletter: Get weekly AI and Higher Education insights straight to your inbox

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• Patient Data, Playground AI and Prompting: Gemini for Kids, 57 M Health Records Uploaded to AI, and Prompting Like a Pro

  Welcome to Episode 2 of Adjunct Intelligence the podcast where higher-ed meets high-tech at break-neck speed. This week Dale and Nick tackle a news cycle that rockets from schoolyard chatbots to nation-scale health analytics, dives into GenAi Video and hands you the prompt-writing cheats you’ll need to survive it all. Buckle up, charge your tokens, and let’s roll.🚀 Big-Ticket AI HeadlinesGemini for Kids is coming → Are the frameworks and regulatory considerations ready?TEQSA Gen-AI Hub → your free vault of academic-integrity guides, assessment-redesign blueprints, and AI policy samples—download in seconds.Microsoft Workforce Trends → layoffs and the future of work is an Agent partner.New models from ChatGPT-4.1, and whispers of Claude Sonnet & Opus → deep reasoning, code autocompletion, MCP connectors that let chatbots control apps like magic.🎬 Video & Virtual FacultyWill Smith eating pasta and how it measures the pace of change in AI VideoRunway Gen-2 + Google Veo-2 = photoreal lecture trailers, brand promos, & course intros—zero film crew needed.HeyGen / Synthesia avatars → build a 24-hour “clone faculty” that never loses its voice, crushes onboarding, and scales feedback.🏥 Precision Medicine Meets EdTechNHS “Foresight” trains on 57 M anonymised records → Can it predict heart attacks before symptoms. Imagine that power nudging at-risk students before they fail.⚖️ Policy at Warp SpeedUAE “Living Regulations” → AI-drafted laws 70 % faster, dynamically linked to rulings & impact data. Agile governance or surveillance on steroids?🧑‍🏫 Adaptive Campus 2.0Students could expect hyper-personalised, AI-driven learning paths. We map the roadmap—and reveal how to dodge algorithmic echo chambers that kill curiosity.🛠️ Prompt Lab 2.0Structured Briefs = Context ➡️ Role ➡️ Goal ➡️ Process ➡️ Constraints ➡️ ExamplesMarkdown Anchors = Bold 📣 Bullets • Headers # the model “sees”Vibe-Prompting = Creative riffing, rapid iteration, no Yoda syntax 👽, be the manager your employees deserve 00:00 – Welcome01:00 – Gemini for Kids (Google)  01:38 – TEQSA Gen-AI Knowledge Hub  02:38 – Model Mania: GPT-4.1, Claude Sonnet/Opus, MCP connectors  03:45 – Notion-AI Love Letter  04:10 – Text-to-Video Take-off: Runway, Veo-2, Will-Smith-spaghetti  07:48 – Digital Humans in the Classroom: Synthesia, HeyGen  11:40 – AI Gets Personal (productivity & prediction)  11:56 – NHS “Foresight”: 57 M patient records → predictive health  14:59 – UAE’s AI-Driven Laws (“living regulations”)  16:12 – Higher-Ed Fallout: LMS evolution & adaptive learning  18:02 – Echo-Chamber Risk: protecting curiosity  22:50 – Prompt Engineering 2.0 – structured Markdown briefs  24:06 – Outro🔗 Links & Further ReadingGoogle Gemini for Families TEQSA Gen-AI Knowledge Hub — assessment & integrity resourcesNHS “Foresight” pilot — Nature coverageUAE “Living Regulations”HeyGen —avatarsGenesis - Midjourney and RunwayWill Smith spaghetti latest💬 Join the ConversationSUBSCRIBE on Apple / Spotify / YouTube—new drops every week.RATE US ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐—help the algorithm help more educatorsNewsletter: snag the weekly  Ai and the Future of HE straight to your inbox.

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• Cheat Codes & Chatbots: AI’s New Rules for Government, Commerce, and the Classroom

  Everybody is cheating (allegedly), OpenAI for Government and the future of internet it is the third week of may and this is the first episode of Adjunct Intelligence, everything you need to know about Artificial intelligence and its impact on Higher Education. In the newsOpenAI just pitched “ChatGPT for Countries,” Alibaba and Google dropped fresh model upgrades, WPP plugged AI straight into its billion-dollar ad machine, and Meta is going to cure the lonliness epidemic. Meanwhile, Anthropic’s CEO warns we still don’t quite understand how AI works. Deep Dive #1 Segment: E-commerce, the future of the internet and the future of online learning.ChatGPT's Shopify integration signals shift in online interactions.Implications for educational platforms and student expectations.Future of Learning Management Systems in an AI-first world.Deep Dive #2: AI (Academic Integrity) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) NY Magazine's "Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College" article.What are education leaders saying? University of Sydney's two lane system.LinksAI and the future of Higher Education by Nick McIntosh: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/ai-and-the-future-of-he-7148290912190644224/[Axios - OpenAI's Democratic AI Expansion](https://www.axios.com/2025/05/07/openai-democratic-ai-expansion)[Anthropic - Constitutional AI Research](https://www.anthropic.com/research/collective-constitutional-ai-aligning-a-language-model-with-public-input)NY Magazine - "Everyone is Cheating their way through college" (https://ordinary-times.com/2025/05/08/from-new-york-magazines-intelligencer-everyone-is-cheating-their-way-through-college/) Stanford and Common Sense Media Report on Digital Safety (https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ai-ratings/social-ai-companions?gate=riskassessment) - The Times - WPP AI Implementation (https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/technology/article/wpp-asks-ai-for-shower-thoughts-in-the-search-for-unspoken-truths-c8dnhfwfj) Available on all major podcast platforms and YouTube Subscribe now

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