Online education

Boston schools expand AI learning initiative

A new partnership led by the City of Boston aims to expand AI literacy across public schools, supported by funding from tech entrepreneur Paul English. The initiative brings together government, academia and industry to strengthen digital skills.

The programme will introduce AI-focused learning in high schools, alongside teacher training and the development of industry-informed curricula. Plans include creating student ambassador roles and offering access to advanced courses.

University of Massachusetts Boston in the US will help design educational content and provide resources through its applied AI institute. The collaboration aims to prepare students for changing job markets shaped by emerging technologies.

Officials say the effort will support responsible and ethical use of AI while opening career pathways. An advisory board of industry experts will guide the programme and connect schools with the wider technology sector.

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Stanford study warns about the risks of ‘sycophantic’ AI chatbots

A new study from Stanford University has raised concerns about the growing use of AI chatbots for personal advice, highlighting risks linked to a behaviour known as ‘sycophancy’, where systems validate users’ views instead of challenging them.

Researchers argue that such responses are not merely stylistic but have broader consequences for decision-making and social behaviour.

The analysis examined multiple leading models, including ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and found that chatbot responses supported user perspectives far more often than human feedback.

In scenarios involving questionable or harmful actions, systems frequently endorsed behaviour that human evaluators would criticise, raising concerns about reliability in sensitive contexts such as relationships or ethical decisions.

Further experiments involving thousands of participants showed that users tend to prefer and trust sycophantic responses, increasing the likelihood of repeated use.

However, such interactions also appeared to reinforce self-centred thinking and reduce willingness to reconsider or apologise, suggesting a deeper impact on social judgement and interpersonal skills.

Researchers warn that users’ tendency to favour agreeable responses may create incentives for developers to prioritise engagement over accuracy or ethical balance.

The findings highlight the need for oversight and caution, with experts advising against relying on AI systems as substitutes for human guidance in complex personal situations.

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Human creativity outperforms AI in new research findings

New research challenges assumptions about AI creativity, concluding that human imagination remains significantly more advanced than generative systems.

The study, published in Advanced Science, examined how AI models perform in visual creative tasks compared with both professional artists and non-artists.

Researchers developed an experimental method to assess creativity using abstract visual tasks, comparing human and AI outputs under different conditions.

Results showed a clear hierarchy, with visual artists achieving the highest creativity scores, followed by the general population, while AI models ranked lower, especially when operating without human guidance.

These findings indicate that even when trained on human-created material, AI struggles to replicate originality and imaginative depth.

The study argues that creativity should be analysed as a process rather than judged solely by final outputs. By examining stages from idea generation to execution, researchers found that AI systems rely heavily on human input throughout development and use.

Removing human assistance significantly reduced the quality and originality of AI-generated results, reinforcing the limitations of current generative models.

Overall, the research highlights a persistent gap between human and artificial creativity, suggesting that AI operates more as a tool guided by human direction than as an independent creative agent.

The findings contribute to broader debates in cognitive science and AI, emphasising the continued importance of human involvement in creative processes.

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Mistral AI launches open-source voice model for enterprises

Mistral AI has introduced a new open-source text-to-speech model designed to power voice assistants and enterprise applications, rather than relying on proprietary solutions.

The model, named Voxtral TTS, marks the company’s entry into the competitive voice AI market alongside players such as OpenAI and ElevenLabs.

Voxtral TTS supports nine languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, and Arabic, allowing organisations to deploy multilingual voice systems across different markets.

The Mistral AI model is designed to operate efficiently on devices such as smartphones, laptops, and even wearables, reducing infrastructure costs rather than relying on large-scale cloud systems.

It can replicate custom voices using only a few seconds of audio, capturing accents and speech patterns while maintaining consistency across languages.

The system is optimised for real-time performance, delivering rapid response times and enabling applications such as live translation, dubbing, and customer engagement tools.

Built on a compact architecture, it balances efficiency with high-quality output, aiming to produce natural-sounding speech instead of robotic voice synthesis. Earlier releases of transcription models suggest a broader strategy to develop a full suite of voice technologies.

Looking ahead, Mistral AI plans to expand towards end-to-end multimodal systems capable of handling audio, text, and image inputs within a single platform.

The company’s focus on open-source development and customisation is intended to attract enterprises seeking flexible solutions, positioning its technology as an alternative to closed ecosystems in the growing voice AI market.

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UNESCO advances regional AI in education observatory

A UNESCO-led public–private initiative is advancing the establishment of a Regional AI in Education Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean. The project aims to strengthen education systems through the ethical and inclusive application of AI technologies.

A roundtable held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris brought together more than 50 stakeholders from government, academia, industry, and civil society. Participants included universities, development banks, and research institutions providing technical expertise and regional knowledge.

The observatory will act as a shared regional infrastructure supporting evidence-based policy, teacher training, and capacity development. Focus areas include tackling foundational learning challenges in reading and mathematics while ensuring responsible AI integration in classrooms.

The initiative will be officially launched on 14 April 2026 at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile. Organisers emphasise the need for regional cooperation to guide AI adoption in education, promoting equity, innovation, and long-term learning improvements.

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Microsoft launches nonprofit AI training and fellowship initiative

Microsoft has announced a new programme called Microsoft Elevate for Changemakers, aimed at helping nonprofit leaders build AI skills, credentials, and organisational capacity. In a post published on 25 March, the initiative is said to have been introduced alongside the company’s Global Nonprofit Leaders Summit, which it says brought together more than 1,500 nonprofit leaders from around the world.

The company says the programme is designed to help nonprofit organisations adopt AI in ways that reflect their missions and the communities they serve. According to the company, the new initiative includes an AI for Nonprofits credential developed with LinkedIn and NetHope, live and on-demand training on topics such as Copilot, change management, and responsible AI governance, and a Changemaker Fellowship for nonprofit professionals working on AI-related projects.

The AI for Nonprofits credential is a professional certificate built on work across the nonprofit sector, with participants receiving a LinkedIn professional certificate. Microsoft also says the fellowship will provide resources, investment, and expert guidance, while connecting participants to a global cohort and a wider network of nonprofit AI leaders. According to the post, support for the fellowship includes Microsoft and launch partners EY and Caribou.

Microsoft places the announcement within a broader argument about how AI is affecting labour, communities, and service delivery. The company says nonprofits are often closely connected to people seeking new skills, employment pathways, and community support, and that such organisations are well-positioned to help shape AI adoption at the local level. Microsoft also says the programme forms part of its wider Microsoft Elevate commitment and refers to plans to deliver more than $5 billion in discounts, donations, and grants over the next year to support nonprofit organisations and education systems.

Several examples in the post illustrate how Microsoft says AI is already being applied in nonprofit work. Microsoft says ARcare has used AI to reduce administrative work and estimates it has eliminated six to eight hours of manual tasks per day. Opportunity International is cited as using AI to scale a local-language chatbot for farmers, while Head Start Homes is described as using AI to increase organisational bandwidth and attract new funding. The tech conglomerate also points to de Alliantie, saying AI has helped the organisation improve efficiency in housing support operations while maintaining a human-centred approach.

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UNESCO and Tecnológico de Monterrey partner on AI in education initiative

UNESCO and Tecnológico de Monterrey have signed an agreement to collaborate on advancing the use of AI in education, as digital transformation reshapes learning systems and workforce skills across Latin America and the Caribbean.

The agreement establishes a framework for joint work on generating evidence, developing standards and formulating public policy recommendations on AI in education, and supports the launch of a Regional Observatory on Artificial Intelligence in Education.

A financial contribution of $90,000 will support the Observatory’s implementation, following months of technical coordination and institutional validation between the two organisations.

After the signing, technical teams reviewed the operational plan for the first year, including methodological frameworks on teachers’ digital competencies and AI ethics, as well as pilot projects in Chile, El Salvador and Mexico.

According to Esther Kuisch Laroche, the initiative aims to ensure AI contributes to more inclusive, ethical and relevant education systems, while moving from principles to practical solutions.

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Scotland publishes AI guidance for schools

The Scottish government has published national guidance on the use of AI in schools, aiming to support the safe and ethical adoption of AI in classrooms. The document provides advice for teachers and pupils as AI use continues to expand across society.

The guidance outlines potential benefits of AI alongside risks that need to be considered, and includes examples of appropriate classroom use. It was developed with the EIS teaching union, local government and Education Scotland.

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said AI should support creativity, critical thinking and personalised learning while protecting pupils’ rights and privacy. She added that technology must not replace teachers or human relationships in education.

Andrea Bradley said AI should remain a tool for teachers and not replace professional judgement. The non-statutory guidance allows schools and local authorities flexibility to develop their own policies as AI continues to evolve.

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UK tests social media bans for children in national pilot

The UK government has launched a large-scale pilot programme to test social media restrictions in the homes of 300 teenagers, aiming to improve children’s well-being instead of relying solely on existing digital safety measures.

The initiative, led by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and supported by Liz Kendall, will run for six weeks and examine how limits on digital platforms affect young people’s daily lives, including sleep, schoolwork, and family relationships.

Families across the UK will be divided into groups testing different approaches. Some parents will block access to social media entirely, while others will introduce a one-hour daily limit on popular platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.

Another group will implement overnight curfews, restricting access between 9 pm and 7 am, while a control group will maintain existing usage patterns rather than introducing changes.

Participants will be interviewed before and after the trial to assess behavioural and practical outcomes, including how easily restrictions can be enforced and whether teenagers attempt to bypass controls.

The pilot runs alongside a national consultation on children’s digital well-being, which has already received nearly 30,000 responses. Government officials and academic experts will analyse data gathered from both initiatives to guide future policy decisions.

A programme that aims to ensure that any regulatory steps are evidence-based, reflecting real-life experiences rather than theoretical assumptions about digital behaviour.

Alongside the government trials, an independent scientific study funded by the Wellcome Trust will examine the effects of reduced social media use among adolescents.

Led by researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Bradford Institute for Health Research, the study will involve around 4,000 students aged 12 to 15.

Findings are expected to provide deeper insight into how social media influences anxiety, sleep, relationships, and overall well-being, supporting policymakers in shaping future online safety measures instead of relying on limited evidence.

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