Lately, I’ve been saying that keeping up with AI feels a bit like being stuck on a treadmill that only speeds up. Just when I think I’m catching my breath, something new barrels in. In the past few weeks alone, I’ve heard about “vibecoding”—the emerging ability to speak complex code into existence like some kind of techno-conjuring spell—and OpenAI’s latest image tools, which have taken deepfakes from disconcerting to downright uncanny. These developments aren’t just flashy headlines; they’re reshaping what students think is possible (and permissible) in their work. And honestly, I’m still trying to figure out what it means for mine. Now, we get this from Marc Watkins: “Anthropic recently announced a free version of their most advanced AI model for college students in the US. Within hours OpenAI responded by making their $20 per month ChatGPT Plus tier free for college students through the end of May with the promise: ‘ChatGPT Plus is here to help you through finals.’ Giving away their professional tier for free may seem foolish. Trust me—it isn’t. College students are the super users of generative AI and OpenAI knows that this generation will ultimately decide the future of generative AI.” In his piece, Marc was kind enough to share my own—Showing Up for the Future: Why Educators Can’t Sit Out the AI Conversation—where I argue that, like it or not, we no longer have the luxury of sitting this one out. |