Welcome to episode 338 (“AI Security Concerns”) of the EdTech Situation Room from October 23, 2024, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) explored the latest developments in technology, AI advancements, and their educational implications. The show opened with a lighthearted discussion about digital media preservation, sparked by San Francisco’s costly move to retire 5.25-inch floppy disks from its subway system. The co-hosts reflected on the importance of safeguarding old media formats and backing up digital assets. Shifting to security issues, they covered a disturbing incident of a Zoom hack that disrupted a school board meeting, highlighting the vulnerabilities of virtual platforms. Additionally, they discussed the growing adoption of passkeys as a promising, passwordless future for internet security, with Dr. Neiffer sharing his experiences using passkeys through OnePassword. The conversation then turned to the ongoing battle over internet data caps, with public outcry urging the FCC to ban them. Both hosts shared their excitement about fiber internet expansion, noting its importance for equitable digital access. AI developments dominated the latter half of the show. They discussed Anthropic’s release of Claude 3.5 Sonnet and its groundbreaking “Computer Use” feature, which allows the AI to perform desktop tasks autonomously. While this innovation offers potential time-saving benefits for educators, it also raises significant security concerns, as experts warn of increased cyberattack risks. The hosts also reflected on a tragic case involving Character.AI, where a chatbot’s inappropriate interactions contributed to a teenager’s suicide. This case underscored the urgent need for stronger guardrails on AI interactions with minors. To wrap up, the co-hosts highlighted the evolving role of AI agents and discussed how platforms like make.com and Google Gemini could streamline data management and automate administrative tasks for educators. “Geeks of the Week” included make.com (Jason) – a powerful tool for automating tasks using AI and integrations, and a Passkeys Guide from OnePassword (Wes) – a resource for exploring passwordless security solutions. Our show was live-streamed and archived simultaneously on YouTube Live as well as Facebook Live via StreamYard.com. Please follow our @EdTechSR page on Facebook, @edtechsr@mastodon.education on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All shownotes are available on edtechSR.com/links. AI Disclosure: An initial draft of this episode summary was generated using youtubetranscript.com and a custom GPT on ChatGPT, as well as options for our show title! AI image generated by Wes Fryer using Ideogram. Stay savvy and safe!
Shownotes
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- Jason Neiffer: aicentrist.com
- Wes Fryer: wesfryer.com
- Introducing computer use, a new Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Claude 3.5 Haiku (Anthropic Blog; 22 October 2024)
- Claude AI Can Now Control Your PC, Prompting Concern From Security Experts (Pc Magazine; 23 October 2024)
- Anthropic flags AI’s potential to ‘automate sophisticated destructive cyber attacks (ZDnet, 16 Oct 2024)
- “use wrapper with chatgpt ai key” https://mistyai.com and https://www.typingmind.com are ones Jason has used…
- Playing with AI and databases: Google has options to connect sheets
- https://www.make.com/en/ai-automation is a powerful tool for AI integrations
- Also https://n8n.io/ is AI workflow automation
- Chatbot that caused teen’s suicide is now more dangerous for kids, lawsuit says (ArsTechnica, 23 Oct 2024)
- Apple is ‘concerned’ about AI turning real photos into ‘fantasy’ (The Verge; 23 October 2023)
- Canva has a shiny new text-to-image generator (The Verge; 22 October 2024)
- San Francisco to pay $212 million to end reliance on 5.25-inch floppy disks (ArsTechnica, 23 Oct 2024)
- A world without passwords is in sight (Vox; 23 October 2024)
- Zoom hack derails Quilcene school board’s LGBTQ+ books decision (PT Leader, 23 Oct 2024)
- Passkeys with 1Password: https://1password.com/product/passkeys
- Jason’s Geek of the Week: PROJECT! Install ChromeOS on PC with Google Play Store [Intel & AMD]
- Wes’ Geeks of the Week: How internet influencers, algorithms and crowds are altering our politics, our society and our very relationship to reality-with guest Renée DiResta (Thinking Clearly Podcast) and Nov 4th “Invisibile Rulers” MediaEd Webinar
