Et Tu, American Federation of Teachers? (with Charles Logan), 2025.07.14

The chatbot boosters are looking for educators to play brand ambassador for more intrusion of so-called "AI" into the classroom. From the American Federation of Teachers' new partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft for a "national academy for AI instruction" to yet more articles extolling the alleged time-saving and future-proofing virtues of LLM-powered ed tech, the hype can feel relentless. Charles Logan joins Alex and Emily for a critical look at the latest propaganda for "AI" in the classroom.
Charles Logan (linkedin.com/in/charleswlogan) is a former English teacher and current PhD candidate in Learning Sciences at Northwestern University.
References:
Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT. (archive.ph/ThjPA)
AI isn’t replacing student writing – but it is reshaping it (theconversation.com/ai-isnt-replacing-student-…)
AFT to Launch National Academy for AI Instruction with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and United Federation of Teachers (aft.org/press-release/aft-launch-national-acad…)
Also referenced:
Tressie McMillan Cottom on "predatory inclusion" (journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23326492…)
Daniel Greene's "The Access Doctrine" (logicmag.io/distribution/the-access-doctrine)
The Group Chats that Changed America (semafor.com/article/04/27/2025/the-group-chats…)
Fresh AI Hell:
Missouri AG investigating why chatbots don’t like Trump (theverge.com/news/704851/missouri-ag-andrew-ba…)
Gig workers calling ICE on other undocumented gig workers (sourcenm.com/2025/07/11/resentment-against-alb…)
Tech billionaire Trump adviser Marc Andreessen says universities will ‘pay the price’ for DEI (archive.ph/lhknB)
USF makes a PTSD detector...trained on children (bsky.app/profile/hypervisible.bsky.social/post…)
People falling in love with Replika chatbots (theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jul/12/i-fel…)
Elon Musk thirsting over xAI anime construct (bsky.app/profile/quantian.bsky.social/post/3lt…)
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Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park (naomipleasurepark.com).
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.