AI Leaders Weigh Security Jobs and Cancer Research

Key Takeaways

• IIT Madras Pravartak and BodhBridge offer free technology and innovation courses for Classes 7–12, with online sessions from November 14, 2026, to January 9, 2027, and an offline AI Bootcamp on November 29.
• More than 45,000 teachers have benefited from IIT Madras foundation training; student certificates are optional and paid.
• Codex ran as a CI agent for six weeks, merging 213 fixes and opening more than 100 pull requests per week; the reported token cost was about $32 per hour.
• An article proposes directing some revenue from potential AI-related taxes to local journalism; it cites a $350 million annual federal journalism employment credit and California tax credits for local news hiring.
• Spelman College president Dr. Howard’s book argues for human values, ethics and diverse perspectives in AI; sales proceeds support Spelman student scholarships.
• Researchers used recordings from 15 families—over a million hours of audio and video—to train child-specific language models, including Coral.
• EPFL plans a bachelor’s degree in AI, with a shared first year alongside computer science and separate courses from year two.
• Cisco Isovalent’s Liz Rice advocates layered AI-agent security, balancing microVM isolation with container performance and visibility.
• TechSparks leaders recommend more AI-agent freedom for low-risk tasks, human oversight for high-impact changes and accountability for reviewing generated code.
• Robert Half’s Jason Pasola says Microsoft and Claude can help format resumes, while Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is working with researchers on AI tools for cancer treatment.

IIT Madras opens free online courses for students in Classes 7 to 12

IIT Madras Pravartak and BodhBridge Education are offering free online courses for students in Classes 7 to 12. Topics include artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, future mobility, entrepreneurship, and design thinking. The November 2026 to January 2027 programme uses expert sessions, case studies, and hands on activities. The published schedule includes online courses from November 14, 2026, to January 9, 2027, and an offline AI Bootcamp on November 29. Students should check the official portal for registration details and course requirements.

IIT Madras offers free AI and innovation courses to school students

IIT Madras is accepting registrations for free training courses for students in Classes 7 to 12. The courses cover artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, design thinking, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Training includes live online classes, case studies, and practical activities to build problem solving, creative thinking, and communication skills. Students can choose to pay for an optional certificate through IITM Pravartak. The initiative also offers professional development programmes for teachers and educators, and more than 45,000 teachers have benefited from its free training programmes.

IIT Madras opens free technology courses for Classes 7 to 12

IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation and BodhBridge Education are offering free courses for school students and teachers, with applications open for the November 2026 to January 2027 batches. Students in Classes 7 to 12 can study artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, future mobility, entrepreneurship, design thinking, and innovation. Online sessions will use practical activities and real life examples, with experts from the IIT Madras alumni network, start ups, and industries. Students may choose an additional certificate for a fee. Teacher courses include Career Counselling Certification Training, Leadership Development Programme for Educators, and Classroom Management and Student Engagement; the foundation says more than 45,000 teachers have benefited from its free training programmes.

Codex agent handled CI work for six weeks and fixed 213 issues

At DevDay 2026, Friel described using Codex as a continuous integration agent for more than 1,000 hours. Given a short prompt to monitor tests, reproduce failures, suggest fixes, and open pull requests, it opened more than 100 pull requests per week, made more than 1,000 commits, sent more than 600 Slack messages, and merged 213 fixes over six weeks. After about four days, Friel split the work between a main thread and subagents, leading to 5,800 subagent sessions and nearly half a million tool calls. The hardest fix involved a floating point error in a GPU test. Friel said the run cost about $32 per hour in tokens, compared with about $16 per hour on GPT-6 Sol, while 6.1 Sol was more efficient still.

AI taxes could help protect local news and communities

The article argues that AI companies can weaken local news by using journalism without compensation and giving people answers that may reduce visits, subscriptions, and donations to news outlets. It also says AI can make news sources less visible and may worsen misinformation. Strong local news can help reduce corruption and government waste, improve elected officials’ responsiveness, and limit misinformation and division. Lawmakers are considering taxes on AI companies and data centers, including taxes tied to power use, data scraping, and computing power. The article proposes using a small share of the revenue to support local journalism, noting that a previous federal local journalism employment credit cost $350 million per year and that California passed refundable tax credits for news outlets that hire and retain local journalists.

AI Learns Words From a Baby’s First 1,000 Days

Researchers trained AI models using recordings of babies’ everyday lives to study how children learn language. The project involved 15 families, who could control or delete their recordings. Devices in their homes captured more than a million hours of audio and video, and researchers used an AI system to find babies and speech in the recordings. They then selected up to 6,600 hours of audio per child to train individual models, including one called Coral. The researchers hope this work can explain early learning and help create more efficient AI.

Cisco Security Leader Calls for Multiple Layers of AI Protection

Liz Rice, chief open source officer at Cisco Isovalent, discussed how to protect AI agents during KubeCon in Salt Lake City. Isovalent supports Cilium and Tetragon, open source security and network monitoring projects that use eBPF. Rice said the cloud computing community is debating whether microVMs or containers provide the right level of isolation for AI agents. MicroVMs can offer stronger separation, while containers can provide better performance and visibility into workloads. She said companies will likely use several security layers, and pointed to Tetragon’s role in Cisco smart switches’ virtual patching feature, launched in June, which can shield devices from newly found vulnerabilities before upstream patches are available.

Spelman President’s New Book Calls for Human Values in AI

Dr. Howard, an AI and robotics expert who became Spelman College president in August 2026, has released REBOOTING THE MACHINES. The book argues that AI does not have its own moral center, so people must guide its development with human values, ethics and diverse perspectives. It offers advice on what to demand from technology companies and how to push for ethical values in AI. At the book launch, Dr. Kamau Bobb and WABE’s Rose Scot joined Howard to discuss AI’s effect on work, diversity among developers and ways to address bias. All book sales proceeds support Spelman College student scholarships.

AI Tools Could Help Job Seekers Get Resume Interviews

Jason Pasola of staffing company Robert Half says many employers use technology to scan resumes for words from job descriptions, often before a person reviews them. He recommends tailoring a resume to each job without copying the posting word for word, which can raise a red flag. Pasola says job seekers can use AI tools such as Microsoft and Claude to organize and format a resume, but should not claim skills they do not have. He believes some qualified applicants miss opportunities because they do not use AI to highlight their skills.

Anthropic CEO Says AI Could Help Him Fight Cancer

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said artificial intelligence could change health care and may help make cancer a thing of the past. Diagnosed with cancer in 2020, he has been using AI in an effort to treat his own disease. He is working with a team of researchers to develop AI-powered tools that can identify and treat cancer more effectively. The article says this work could potentially save millions of lives.

EPFL plans a new bachelor’s degree in artificial intelligence

EPFL is introducing a bachelor’s program in artificial intelligence to teach students the math and computing behind AI. Students will learn to design intelligent systems and assess their ethical and social effects. The program reflects AI’s growing role in science and engineering, including medical research and climate modeling. Its first year will be shared with the computer science bachelor’s program, while students will follow separate courses from the second year. Both programs will include theory and hands-on projects.

Tech leaders share five lessons on AI reliability and recovery

At TechSparks 2026, OPPEX hosted a roundtable on whether companies can keep software reliable as AI speeds up engineering work. Technology leaders said faster code does not automatically lead to better business results, since testing and deployment may not keep pace. They recommended giving AI agents more freedom for low-risk tasks while keeping human oversight for changes involving money, patient data, or manufacturing. The group also stressed that agents need useful information about systems and past failures, and that teams should manage this information efficiently. Human accountability remains important, especially when engineers review AI-generated changes they may not fully understand.

Sources

• IIT Madras offers free online courses for Class 7 to 12 students: Learn AI, electric vehicles and entrepreneurship; Check eligibility and how to apply
• IIT Madras offers free online courses for Class 7 to 12 students in AI, EV and entrepreneurship
• IIT Madras announces free online courses in AI, EVs for classes VII to XII
• Codex fixed CI for six weeks straight
• AI: How to Preserve Water, Lower Utility Rates—and Save Local News
• This AI Learned Language From the Recordings of a Baby’s First 1,000 Days
• Beyond the sandbox: Cisco leader urges AI security in depth
• AI Expert, Spelman College President’s New Book Offers a New Vision for the Future of Artificial Intelligence
• Using AI for your resume might help you land a job interview, expert says
• ‘I’m Using AI to Try to Cure Cancer—and Save My Own Life.’ Plus. . .
• EPFL Introduces New Bachelor In Artificial Intelligence
• Beyond code generation: Five lessons on AI, reliability, and recovery