Across 266 school districts, K-12 students are testing a new AI tutor. Khan Academy’s Khanmigo runs on OpenAI’s tech. helps answer students’ questions, flags other AI-generated answers and creates lesson plans for teachers in seconds. FYI, “Conmigo,” means “with me” in Spanish.
🐽 Can the spam: You can set up rules in your inbox so your uncle’s rants or high school friend’s pyramid scheme emails are automatically filed away in a folder of your choosing. In Outlook, Gmail or Apple Mail, go to your filters and look for an option like “Skip the inbox.”
Check fraud up 400%
Scammers have stolen over $26 billion from Americans using an old-school crime with a modern twist. I’ll break it down in this quick podcast.
Heartbreaking: The parents of Ashley Scott, a 14-year-old cheerleader who died by suicide, believe Ashley and other girls were cyberbullied and tormented during school hours. Such a sad story. Parents, talk to your kids about this. You never know what pain they’re hiding. Remind them they’re never alone.
Did you know Amazon wasn’t Jeff Bezos’ first rodeo? Was his first business a … A.) Summer camp, B.) Limeade stand, C.) Traveling bookstore or D.) Boat cleaning service?
🎓 History is outdated; it’s full of old news: A Massachusetts couple is suing their son’s high school after he got a bad grade and detention for using AI on a history project. Their argument? The student handbook doesn’t explicitly ban AI and this grade will hurt the little cheater’s college applications. The school’s response? The handbook says no “unauthorized technology.”
👨👩👧👦 Meet the kids of tech billionaires: Steve Jobs’ youngest daughter, Eve, graduated from Stanford and is an equestrian and model. Bill Gates’ oldest child, Jennifer, completed medical school this year. Then there’s Jeff Bezos, who has three sons and a daughter. Only his oldest son’s name is publicly known. (It’s Preston.) Here’s more about those swimming in the lucky gene pool, if you want to read it.
🌺 Hula you kidding? A newspaper in Hawaii just “hired” AI reporters that analyze news articles and transform them into “live broadcasts.” Look close and you’ll notice they don’t blink, their mouths are out of sync and they don’t actually answer each other’s questions. Those AI bots need to go back to school: Kamana Wanna Lei U. (Oh, I heard you laugh!)
Ultimate power move? Using a dumbphone like the Punkt MP02. Some bosses are switching to old-school tech to cut out distractions and constant notifications. Snap’s Chairman swears by fax machines, saying they’re more secure than email and grab others’ attention because they’re so rare (paywall link).
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Ditch Hulu’s algorithm and browse by channel: Click Browse > Networks, then filter from A-Z. What’ll it be? Renovations on HGTV? Recipes on Food Network? Rom-coms on Lifetime? Feels like old-school channel surfing!
How tech saved lives in Georgia school shooting
A tragic shooting at Apalachee High in Winder, Georgia, left four dead and nine injured. It may have been worse without a new safety system — teachers used a digital panic button to save lives. Plus, Amazon Alexa loses billions, Taylor Swift surveillance, and FB censors opinions.
I’m so itchy: Kids at Riverside High School in North Carolina took home Chromebooks for school work. Unfortunately, no one realized they were crawling with bedbugs. The insects infested the media center over the summer and were hiding in the laptops. Check your kiddos’ computers.
“The Magic School Bus” IRL: Scientists are testing new tech that could stop a brain aneurysm before it happens. The method? Nanorobots smaller than most bacteria. They have a magnetic core that doctors can move to where they’re needed to deposit a clotting agent. That, in turn, prevents the stroke that comes after a brain aneurysm. Amazing.
📸 Heartwarming moment: A middle school assistant principal in North Carolina had to be at work early on the first day of classes, which meant missing out on her son’s first day of school … again. This year, though, she got a Ring notification on her phone just as he was heading out the door. Mom got to say hi, see his outfit and snap a photo before he left. The video is adorable.
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A mom’s worst nightmare: She put her special needs son on the bus for his first day of kindergarten, but the school said he never arrived. Thankfully, she’d placed an Apple AirTag in his backpack, and police tracked him down on the bus ride home. It turns out the teacher mistakenly marked him as absent. I’d find a new school.
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How to keep smartphones out of classrooms
Is your child’s phone a distraction at school? Learn why schools are taking extreme measures like phone confiscation and how a simple rule change might be the solution you didn’t see coming.
These famous tech personalities are all college dropouts except for one. Is it … A.) Michael Dell, B.) Steve Jobs, C.) Elon Musk or D.) Mark Zuckerberg?
Giving up Control: Microsoft is axing the Windows Control Panel. Soon, you’ll find all the options in the Settings app. They’ve been threatening to do this since 2011, so it’s about time. RIP, Control Panel … we old-school nerds will miss you.
Math teachers have too many problems: One high school is swapping teachers for AI. A group of 15-year-olds will use ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs) to prep for math, biology and English exams. The school says kids will learn at their own pace and ask questions they’d usually hold back on. I really hope they double-check AI answers.
No more freebies: Brands are cracking down on folks using student discounts long after graduation. Old IDs and email addresses won’t cut it anymore (paywall link). Credential verification companies like SheerID tap into over 200,000 data sources to confirm if you’re really still in school.