AI Use Raises Questions Across Education and Industry

Key Takeaways

• UToledo hosted Great Lakes AI Week on Nov. 12; President James Holloway welcomed attendees, and researchers presented A3GENT for Army vehicle training.
• Ukrainian Defense Drones plans a multimillion-dollar manufacturing and assembly center in Holland, Ohio, expected to create at least 300 jobs.
• A review of 32 studies found limited evidence that student-facing AI improves learning; teacher uses such as lesson preparation and feedback show more promise, though evidence remains limited.
• Rhoda AI raised $450 million in Series A funding and trains its robotics model on internet-scale video before 10 to 20 hours of task-specific training.
• The FAA says SMART has helped more than 180 flights and 24,000 passengers since September, saving an average of 10 minutes and nearly 80 gallons of fuel per flight; American Airlines CEO Robert Isom highlighted its potential during bad weather.
• Ballad matched or outperformed individual language models in tests across five NP-hard problems and four models, cutting API costs by up to 65.6% versus always using the strongest model.
• Spinnaker Support urged African organizations to strengthen layered cybersecurity, recovery planning and rules for data entered into AI tools; South Africa’s POPIA Section 19 requires reasonable safeguards for personal information.
• Fractile’s Series C exceeds £500 million and values the company above £5 billion; no NHS trust currently uses its hardware, and planned ambient voice technology from April 2026 raises cost, energy and clinical-data-location questions.
• A Linux kernel maintainer stepped down amid AI-generated submissions; a cited study reported that as much as 25% of new pull requests were AI-generated.
• Silla University trained 33 teachers in AI-supported lesson design, Sino Biological uses 4RISE™ to validate AI-designed molecules, and telecom carriers are assessing AI assistants amid concerns about jobs and data security. The supplied articles do not provide verified details about Scale AI or its founder.

Ulsan teachers use global data and AI to design lessons

Silla University’s Graduate School of Education trained 33 teachers from the Ulsan region in “Gapminder + AI Lesson Design” from November 5 to 8, in partnership with the Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education. The 15-hour program taught teachers to use Gapminder’s global statistics and generative AI to create lessons for their subjects. Teachers checked data sources, shaped lessons for students’ needs, and shared plans for feedback. Silla University will hold another program on AI use guidelines from November 19 to 22.

Research review finds AI helps teachers more than students

A review of 32 new studies found limited evidence that many student-facing AI tools improve learning, and education-specific tools do not always outperform general chatbots. Students who use AI to write essays or solve problems may do worse when they later work without it, while tools for explaining and practicing concepts show mixed results. AI can help teachers save time, give more detailed feedback, and prepare lessons, but some studies found possible downsides for students. Susanna Loeb, an author of the review, said schools should use AI thoughtfully and track whether it benefits students. The review notes that research on AI in U.S. K-12 schools remains limited.

Rhoda AI trains robot models with vast amounts of internet video

Rhoda AI uses internet-scale video to pretrain its direct video action, or DVA, model for robotics. Co-founder and CEO Jagdeep Singh said the videos help the model learn about motion, physics, and how objects interact, before it receives 10 to 20 hours of task-specific training. The model predicts what will happen next from video, language, and action data, then converts its prediction into robot actions and repeats the process as the scene changes. Rhoda AI emerged from 18 months of stealth earlier this year with $450 million in Series A funding. It is working with customers in automotive, manufacturing, logistics, and e-commerce.

Spinnaker Support urges layered cybersecurity and clear AI rules

Spinnaker Support executives urged African organisations to combine layered security, clear AI rules, and tested recovery plans as AI changes how attackers find and exploit software weaknesses. During a webinar led by Andrew Strachan, Craig Savage and Mark Fetches discussed identity controls, network segmentation, monitoring, and ways to protect older systems that no longer receive vendor patches. They also advised setting rules for which business data employees may enter into AI tools and addressing privacy and data sovereignty. In South Africa, Section 19 of the Protection of Personal Information Act requires organisations to take reasonable steps to protect personal information and review safeguards as risks change. Organisations across Africa must also understand the data-protection rules in each country where they operate.

Great Lakes AI Week brings employers, researchers, and students to UToledo

The University of Toledo hosted the November 12 program of Great Lakes AI Week, a three-day event held November 10 to 12 at UToledo and Bowling Green State University. UToledo President James Holloway welcomed attendees for a day focused on practical and responsible AI. Researchers Grace Bochenek and Ahmad Javaid discussed A3GENT, which uses AI to create adaptive adversaries for Army vehicle training. Darren Moore of Ukrainian Defense Drones also joined the program; the company’s first U.S. assembly and manufacturing center in Holland, Ohio, is a multimillion-dollar investment expected to create at least 300 jobs. The day began with a Women in AI and Business Breakfast where women shared their experiences.

FAA uses SMART system to help reduce Charlotte flight delays

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy unveiled SMART, a system that uses real-time weather, traffic and staffing data to suggest faster flight routes. Air traffic controllers make the final decisions. Since its launch in September, SMART has helped more than 180 flights carrying 24,000 passengers, saving an average of 10 minutes and nearly 80 gallons of fuel per flight. In one recent flight from Charlotte to Philadelphia, a route change around severe weather saved more than 30 minutes and 219 nautical miles. American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the system could help make better use of airspace, especially during bad weather.

Ballad routes AI models to discover better, lower-cost heuristics

Ballad is an online system that chooses among large language models to help discover solutions to hard optimization problems. Researchers found that larger, more expensive models did not consistently produce better results. Ballad learns which model to use as a search progresses, giving preference to rare, high-scoring solutions and tracking how ideas develop from earlier ones. In tests across five NP-hard problems and four models, it matched the best single model and sometimes outperformed every model on its own. It also cut API costs by up to 65.6% compared with always using the strongest model.

UK funding for Fractile chips raises NHS cost and privacy questions

The Sovereign AI venture fund and British Business Bank have joined a Series C funding round for Fractile, a London and Bristol-based company developing chips for running trained AI models. The government says the round exceeds £500 million and values Fractile at more than £5 billion, but the public bodies have not shared their contributions. No NHS trust currently uses Fractile hardware. However, the NHS expects providers to adopt ambient voice technology from April 2026, raising questions about the long-term computing costs, energy use and location of sensitive clinical data. The article says the government and health service have not published a clear estimate of the cost of expanding AI use.

Linux kernel maintainer steps down amid AI-generated submissions

A long-time Linux kernel maintainer has stepped down after receiving a large number of AI-generated submissions. The article says coding agents have led to a rise in submissions to open-source and Linux projects. It also cites a study that found as much as 25% of new pull requests were reported to be AI-generated. The provided article text does not give the maintainer’s name or further details about the decision.

Sino Biological uses 4RISE to validate AI-designed molecules

Sino Biological is advancing the validation of AI-designed molecules with 4RISE™. AI can quickly generate protein candidates, but laboratory testing is still needed to check whether they express properly, bind to targets and show the desired biological properties. The article highlights experimental validation as an essential step in assessing AI-generated proteins.

AI could help telecom companies find a new voice

The Five Nine examines whether AI can renew the role of voice in the telecom industry. Telecom companies face years of decline, but AI chatbots and virtual assistants could improve customer service and lower costs. AI use in the industry is still new, and carriers have concerns about job losses and data security. The series plans to explore what AI could mean for the future of communication.

Sources

• Designing Lessons with Global Data... 33 Ulsan Teachers Receive AI Training
• AI tools might help teachers. Students? Not so much, research review finds
• How Rhoda AI is using video data to create generalized AI models for robots
• Spinnaker Support sets out cyber security priorities for African organisations amid AI risks
• Great Lakes AI Week Wraps up at UToledo With Employers, Researchers and Students
• FAA taps AI to ease air traffic jams for Charlotte’s airport ahead of holiday rush
• Ballad: Bandit-Based LLM Routing for Automated Heuristic Discovery
• Public Money for British AI Chips Poses Questions the NHS Has Yet to Answer
• Long-Time Linux Kernel Maintainer Inundated With AI-Generated Submissions Steps Down
• Sino Biological advances AI-designed molecule validation with 4RISE™
• The Five Nine: Can AI give telecom a new voice?