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Submission + - Microsoft: In 2029, 12-Year-Olds Will Outperform 2025's Professional Programmers

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: On Wednesday, Microsoft published a clip from a June interview with the AI Report podcast's Alexander Klöpping to its YouTube channel in which CEO Satya Nadella is asked a series of questions about "What will the world look like in 2029?" When questioned if "12-year-olds with AI will outperform today's professional programmers?", Nadella replies, "Yes."

On the same day, Microsoft President Brad Smith announced Microsoft would provide support for Code.org's new Hour of AI, which aims "to expand foundational AI literacy alongside computer science" for K-12 students. "The Hour of Code sparked a generation," the tech-backed nonprofit proclaims on its home page. "This fall, the Hour of AI will define the next," adding that there are "millions of futures to shape" with the new initiative. Code.org in May launched Unlock8, a national campaign supported by tech leaders led by Nadella to make CS and AI a graduation requirement.

Submission + - Microsoft: You Can't Make an $80B AI Omelet Without Breaking 15K Employee Eggs

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "After Microsoft this week unveiled a $4 billion, five-year global initiative to help millions of people adapt to the rise of artificial intelligence," GeekWire reports, "the first question for Brad Smith, the company’s vice chair and president, wasn’t about the new program. It was about the company’s own layoffs. What does he say to laid-off Microsoft employees who blame AI for taking their jobs?"

"Addressing the recent Microsoft cuts, he said, 'The notion that AI productivity boosts have somehow already led to this, I don’t think that’s the story in this instance.' In the follow-up interview, he acknowledged that rising capital spending have created pressure to rein in operating costs, which in the tech sector are 'more about the number of employees than anything else,' he said. Microsoft logged an estimated $80 billion in capital investments in its recently completed fiscal year, a record sum driven by the expansion of its infrastructure for training and running advanced AI models."

"He said the reductions were driven by business needs, not employee performance. 'We want the world to know that,' he said, 'so that when they see somebody from Microsoft applying for a job, they know that in all likelihood, they have the opportunity to hire an extraordinarily talented individual.'"

"What would he say to longtime Microsoft employees who lost their jobs and then saw the company commit billions to broader workforce development? Smith acknowledged the difficult juxtaposition but defended the separate moves as necessary. 'Success in life, whether it’s for an individual or a company or any kind of institution, is always about prioritization, and it’s always about investing in the future,' he said. 'This is something that Microsoft should do for the future.'"

Submission + - With Microsoft's Support, Code.org Announces New 'Hour of AI' for Schoolkids

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Tired: Hour of Code. Wired: Hour of AI. "The Hour of Code sparked a generation," proclaims tech-backed nonprofit Code.org. "This fall, the Hour of AI will define the next,"

Twelve years after Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi announced the Hour of Code with Microsoft President Brad Smith at his side, Partovi announced the Hour of AI ("Coming Fall 2025") at Wednesday's Microsoft Elevate launch event, again with Smith at his side. The announcement of the Microsoft-bankrolled nonprofit's new Hour of AI, which aims to get K-12 schoolchildren to take their first step into AI much like the Hour of Code has done with CS for hundreds of millions of children since 2013, comes in a week that saw Microsoft pledge $4B for AI education training programs and announce the launch of a $22.5M AI training center for members of the American Federation of Teachers.

“Coding changed the work of software developers, but it didn’t change every occupation and profession, or the work of every professional, the way A.I. probably will,” Microsoft's Smith explained. “So we need to move faster for A.I. than we did for computer science [Smith was a founding Board member of Code.org].” As its tech company sponsors aim to disrupt traditional coding and education with their AI offerings, Code.org has pivoted its own mission to "make CS and AI a core part of K-12 education" and launched a new campaign with support from tech leaders including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to make CS and AI a graduation requirement.

Comment First AI Lesson for Teachers? Minecraft/Copilot (Score 1) 40

OpenAI and Microsoft Bankroll New A.I. Training for Teachers: "Microsoft will provide $12.5 million for the A.I. training effort over the next five years, and OpenAI will contribute $8 million in funding and $2 million in technical resources. Anthropic will add $500,000 for the first year of the effort. On Monday, some 200 New York City teachers taking an A.I. workshop at their union headquarters got a glimpse of what the new national effort might look like. A presenter from Microsoft opened by showing an A.I. explainer video featuring Minecraft, the popular game owned by Microsoft. Next, the teachers tried generating emails and lesson plans using Khanmigo, an A.I. tool for schools for which Microsoft has provided support. Then they experimented with Copilot for similar tasks."
 
  Microsoft Press Release: "'To best serve students, we must ensure teachers have a strong voice in the development and use of AI,' said Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft. 'This partnership will not only help teachers learn how to better use AI, it will give them the opportunity to tell tech companies how we can create AI that better serves kids.' The announcement was made at the headquarters of the AFT's largest affiliate, the 200,000-member New York City-based UFT, where hundreds of educators were on hand for a three-day training session, including six hours of AI-focused material that highlighted practical, hands-on ways to marry the emerging technology with established pedagogy."

Submission + - The Trump WH K-12 AI Skills Crisis is The New Obama WH K-12 CS Skills Crisis

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Last week, the Trump White House declared a K-12 AI skills crisis, announcing that 60+ organizations — including tech giants Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Apple, as well as the tech-backed-and-directed nonprofit Code.org (now aka TeachAI) — had signed a White House pledge to support America’s youth and invest in AI education.

The move evokes memories of when the Obama White House in 2016 declared a K-12 CS skills crisis, announcing that 50+ organizations — including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple, and Code.org — were making commitments to expand K-12 CS nationally.

Microsoft recently announced big K-12 AI and Copilot wins in the Los Angeles Unified School District (409,000 students) and Broward County Public Schools (247,000 students), while Google is bringing its AI chatbots to 105,000 high school students at the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Interestingly, all three school districts are currently or were formerly led by school superintendents who are Code.org Board members — Albert M. Carvalho (currently L.A., formerly Miami) and Robert Runcie (formerly Broward). Their fellow Code.org members include Microsoft CTO & EVP of AI Kevin Scott, Microsoft Developer Division President Julia ('using AI is no longer optional') Liuson, Google VP Parisa Tabriz, and Sequoia's Alfred Lin (who bet early on OpenAI).

Submission + - Microsoft Dubs Itself and Code.org "AI Thought Partners" for U.S. K-12 Schools

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In a 2022 Medium post, tech giant-bankrolled nonprofit Code.org announced that Microsoft CTO & EVP of AI Kevin Scott and Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho had joined its Board of Directors and would "help advance Code.org’s mission, which it says is "to make computer science (CS) and artificial intelligence (AI) a core part of K–12 education for every student."

Mission accomplished. In a LinkedIn post on how it's Bringing AI Literacy and Skilling to Students and Educators across the U.S., Microsoft reports that in pursuit of LAUSD's commitment to providing AI literacy and skilling for all its 409,000 students, "the district has partnered with Code.org, which advances AI education policy, provides ready-to-use resources through its TeachAI initiative, and provides educator and staff training as well as train-the-trainer opportunities. As a Code.org partner since the organization’s founding 12 years ago, Microsoft supports the crucial work of AI education through funding, technical expertise, and thought partnership. [...] Importantly, school districts like LAUSD do not approach this new [AI] frontier on their own. Code.org and Microsoft act as thought partners, such as through multidisciplinary task forces, and provide ready-to-implement resources so school districts do not have to start from scratch."

Vouching for the partnership in Microsoft's post is LAUSD Director of Educational Technology and Innovation Dominic Caguioa, who adds: "Code.org and Microsoft bring the technical infrastructure and knowledge base around what AI education can look like in K-12 school districts. These two organizations help us have a global perspective and improve our initiatives around edtech and AI." Caguioa's LinkedIn profile notes he "also serves as a computer science facilitator for the global non-profit Code.org [since 2014], preparing US and international facilitators to teach and adapt the Code.org computer science fundamentals curriculum to their local contexts."

Last month, Microsoft boasted of another big K-12 AI win with the Broward County Public Schools (BCPS), which it touted as "the largest K–12 adoption of Microsoft Copilot in the world [BCPS has 247,000 students]." Underscoring the importance of AI and Copilot adoption, Microsoft Developer Division President Julia Liuson — who is also a Code.org Board member — garnered attention last week for her declaration that 'using AI is no longer optional' in Microsoft's eyes. Interestingly, yet another current Code.org Board member — Robert Runcie — was the Superintendent of BCPS back in 2014 when it announced a K-12 CS partnership with Code.org, not long after Runcie joined Microsoft and Google execs on Code.org's early Board. Commenting on that partnership in a news release, Microsoft VP of U.S. Education Margo Day said, "Broward County Public School’s leadership in helping students gain the computer science education needed to succeed and thrive in the 21st century is essential. Across sectors, our nation is facing a critical shortage of workers with the skills and computer science training needed to sustain American innovation. By 2020, there will be one million more computing jobs than students with the education needed to fill these openings. That’s why more districts across the country should consider following Broward’s lead."

So, is the K-12 AI skills crisis the new K-12 CS skills crisis?

Submission + - Nonprofit Led by Microsoft's AI-Is-Not-Optional Exec Seeks Same Policy for Kids

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Business Insider reports that Julia Liuson, president of the Microsoft division responsible for developer tools such as AI coding service GitHub Copilot, recently sent an email instructing managers to evaluate employee performance based on their use of internal AI tools. "AI is now a fundamental part of how we work," Liuson wrote. "Just like collaboration, data-driven thinking, and effective communication, using AI is no longer optional — it’s core to every role and every level." Liuson told managers that AI "should be part of your holistic reflections on an individual’s performance and impact."

Liuson is also a member of the tech exec and K-12 school administrator-laden Board of Code.org, the tech giant-funded nonprofit (Microsoft is a $25M+ Code.org Lifetime Supporter) that recently teamed with tech CEOs (led by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella) and leaders to launch a new Code.org-orchestrated national campaign to make CS and AI a graduation requirement. Other Code.org Board members include Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, who helped forged Microsoft's alliance with OpenAI and whose assistant held Microsoft's controversial OpenAI Board 'observer' seat until the relationship came under regulatory scrutiny (OpenAI is a Code.org In-Kind Supporter and a supporter of Code.org's TeachAI initiative).

Microsoft has recently boasted of big AI and Copilot wins in the Los Angeles Unified School District (the nation's 2nd largest school district, with 409,000 students), which is led by Code.org Board member Alberto M. Carvalho, as well as the Broward County Public Schools (247,000 students, touted as " the largest K–12 adoption of Microsoft Copilot in the world"), which was formerly led by Code.org Board member Robert Runcie. What about Google? Well, it's bringing its AI chatbots to 105,000 students at the Miami-Dade County Public Schools (the nation’s third-largest school district).

The tech industry-driven K-12 AI frenzy of 2025 certainly evokes memories of the tech industry-driven K-12 CS frenzy of 2013, when Code.org emerged on the scene — with Microsoft President Brad Smith and Head of Google.org Maggie Johnson as founding Board members — and quickly scored partnerships with the New York City Public Schools (the nation's largest school district), Chicago Public Schools, and Broward County Public Schools. Given the much-bigger population of potential AI users and creators, as well as the staggering sums of money at stake, will the K-12 AI frenzy put the K-12 CS frenzy to shame?

Submission + - Jeff Bezos's Big Fat Venetian Wedding

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: The NY Times reports: "On Friday, Venice's canals filled with polished motorboats bearing Hollywood stars, millionaires and Khloé Kardashian in a cape of pink feathers as they headed to Jeff Bezos’ wedding to Lauren Sánchez. [...] Despite his efforts to have a private if star-studded multimillion-dollar wedding in Venice, Mr. Bezos’ wealth and powerful connections left the couple’s thoroughly curated celebrations caught up in an intensely political and moral debate. [...] The result was an over-the-top party in one of the world’s most stunning cities mixing Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Ivanka Trump and political overtones."

GeekWire reports that an SEC filing made public on the couple's wedding day announced Bezos is selling another $5.4 billion worth of Amazon stock, so the newlyweds will have no problem covering the bills from their celebration, which reportedly cost around $50 million.

Submission + - Zuck's FWD.us Warns U.S. Families They Can't Afford Immigration Policy Changes

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: FWD.us, the immigration and criminal justice-focused nonprofit of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — the world's third richest person according to Forbes with an estimated $250B net worth — has released a new research report warning that announced immigration policies will hurt American families, who can't afford it with their meager savings.

The report begins: "Inflation remains a top concern for the majority of Americans. But new immigration policies announced by President Trump, and already underway, such as revoking immigrant work permits, deporting millions of people, and limiting legal immigration, would directly undermine the goal to level out, or even lower, the costs of everyday and essential goods and services. In fact, all Americans, particularly working-class families, are about to unnecessarily see prices for goods and services like food and housing increase substantially again, above and beyond other economic policies like global tariffs that could also raise prices. Announced immigration policies will result in American families paying an additional $2,150 for goods and services each year by the end of 2028, or the equivalent of the average American family’s grocery bill for 3 months or their combined electricity and gas bills for the entire year. Such an annual increase would represent a tax that would erase many American families’ annual savings, and amount to one of their bi-weekly paychecks each year. Unlike past periods of inflation, Americans have not been saving at the same rate as earlier years, and can’t as easily absorb these price increases, squeezing American budgets even further."

In 2021, Zuckerberg's FWD.us teamed with the nation's tech giants to file a brief with the Supreme Court case to help crush WashTech (a tiny programmers' union), who challenged the lawfulness of hiring international students under the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program. "Striking down OPT and STEM OPT," FWD.us and its tech giant partners argued in their filing, "would create a sudden labor shortage in the United States for many companies' most important technical jobs" and "hurt U.S. workers." The brief also dismissed WashTech's contention that the programs coupled with a talent surplus would shut U.S. workers out of the labor market, citing Microsoft's President Brad Smith's claim of an acute talent shortage and a 2.4% unemployment rate for computer occupations (that was then, this is now).

Submission + - The Computer-Science Bubble Is Bursting

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "The job of the future might already be past its prime," writes The Atlantic's Rose Horowitch in The Computer-Science Bubble Is Bursting. "For years, young people seeking a lucrative career were urged to go all in on computer science. From 2005 to 2023, the number of comp-sci majors in the United States quadrupled. All of which makes the latest batch of numbers so startling. This year, enrollment grew by only 0.2 percent nationally, and at many programs, it appears to already be in decline, according to interviews with professors and department chairs. At Stanford, widely considered one of the country’s top programs, the number of comp-sci majors has stalled after years of blistering growth. Szymon Rusinkiewicz, the chair of Princeton’s computer-science department, told me that, if current trends hold, the cohort of graduating comp-sci majors at Princeton is set to be 25 percent smaller in two years than it is today. The number of Duke students enrolled in introductory computer-science courses has dropped about 20 percent over the past year."

"But if the decline is surprising, the reason for it is fairly straightforward: Young people are responding to a grim job outlook for entry-level coders. In recent years, the tech industry has been roiled by layoffs and hiring freezes. The leading culprit for the slowdown is technology itself. Artificial intelligence has proved to be even more valuable as a writer of computer code than as a writer of words. This means it is ideally suited to replacing the very type of person who built it. A recent Pew study found that Americans think software engineers will be most affected by generative AI. Many young people aren’t waiting to find out whether that’s true."

Meanwhile, writing in the Communications of the ACM, Orit Hazzan and Avi Salmon ask: Should Universities Raise or Lower Admission Requirements for CS Programs in the Age of GenAI? "This debate raises a key dilemma: should universities raise admission standards for computer science programs to ensure that only highly skilled problem-solvers enter the field, lower them to fill the gaps left by those who now see computer science as obsolete due to GenAI, or restructure them to attract excellent candidates with diverse skill sets who may not have considered computer science prior to the rise of GenAI, but who now, with the intensive GenAI and vibe coding tools supporting programming tasks, may consider entering the field?"

Submission + - Microsoft Says It's In an AI Relationship With L.A. Schools

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Last July, following the collapse of the company that created the ill-fated AI chatbot 'Ed' for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Government Technology reported that LAUSD Supt. Alberto Carvalho vowed to move ahead with LAUSD's venture into artificial intelligence. Less than a year later, Microsoft reports it's bringing AI literacy and skilling to educators and 409,000 students at LAUSD (and across the US) through its partnership with the tech-backed nonprofit Code.org. "Importantly, school districts like LAUSD do not approach this new frontier on their own," Microsoft explains in a LinkedIn post. "Code.org and Microsoft act as thought partners, such as through multidisciplinary task forces, and provide ready-to-implement resources so school districts do not have to start from scratch." LAUSD Director of Educational Technology and Innovation Dominic Caguioa adds, “Code.org and Microsoft bring the technical infrastructure and knowledge base around what AI education can look like in K-12 school districts. These two organizations help us have a global perspective and improve our initiatives around edtech and AI.”

LAUSD Supt. Carvalho is a member of Code.org's Board of Directors, which he joined in the summer of 2022 together with Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, who helped forge Microsoft's AI strategy. Microsoft is a $30+ million Code.org 'Lifetime Sponsor' (Microsoft President Brad Smith was a founding Code.org Board member). In July 2023, Carvhalo informed LAUSD Board Members that the District would "join the national Teach AI coalition [TeachAI is a Code.org-led and seed-funded effort supported by Microsoft, OpenAI, Amazon, Meta, and others] to contribute to the guidelines, policies, and practices for safely using AI in education." In an update on the District's AI efforts later that year, Carvhalo advised Board Members that LAUSD was leveraging "partnerships with ISTE, Code.org, and the AI Education Project to provide policy, professional learning, and school-site support and resources." A pitch deck for a May 2024 LAUSD AI Task Force meeting touted Code.org's AI curriculum, as well as its AI Teaching Assistant and an AI Tutor ("coming soon").

On its website, LAUSD's Instructional Technology Initiative department explains it leverages key partnerships with tech-backed nonprofit Code.org, Amazon, and Google to stretch its "finite budget to support all learners." LAUSD is a Code.org District and Regional Partner, and both Code.org and Google have employees on LAUSD's AI Task Force. Last year, Carvalho joined Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi and Amazon Music's Director of Global Programming for Mike Tierney in a PR campaign that launched Code.org's Music Lab, which was developed through an educational partnership with Amazon (like Microsoft, Amazon is a $30+ million Code.org 'Lifetime Sponsor'). Music Lab, Carvalho said in a press release, "helps to bring joy and curiosity into the classroom, while also preparing students with essential computer science skills." Last month, Code.org launched Unlock8, a campaign with tech Leaders led by Microsoft CEO Nadella that aims to make CS and AI a graduation requirement.

Submission + - NYT: Inside DOGE's Chaotic Takeover of Social Security

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In The Bureaucrat and the Billionaire: Inside DOGE’s Chaotic Takeover of Social Security, the New York Times begins: "Throughout the early months of this Trump presidency, Mr. Musk and his allies systematically built a false narrative of widespread fraud at the Social Security Administration based on misinterpreted data, using their claims to justify an aggressive effort to gain access to personal information on millions of Americans, a New York Times investigation has found. [...] At Social Security, Mr. Musk’s efforts amount to a case study in what happened when his team of government novices ran a critical government agency through misinformation and social media blasts. The Times’s investigation found that Mr. Musk became fixated on the program in early February after members of his team misread government spending data — a pivotal and previously unreported moment that DOGE believed had exposed massive fraud inside the agency." (Spoiler Alert: Things only go downhill from there.)

Submission + - Microsoft Spins $4M Dept. of Education Grant Into an Ad for Minecraft

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: If you believe Coding, Creativity and the New Digital Fluency — "sponsored content from Minecraft Education" published by EdSurge and penned by Laylah Bulman, a senior program manager at Minecraft Education — the way to a child's creative coding heart is through Microsoft Minecraft. "One example of creative coding comes from a curriculum that introduces computer science through game design and storytelling in Minecraft, a game-based learning platform used by millions of students worldwide," writes EdSurge. "Developed by Urban Arts in collaboration with Minecraft Education, the program offers middle school teachers professional development, ongoing coaching and a 72-session curriculum built around game-based instruction. Designed for grades 6-8, the project-based program is beginner-friendly; no prior programming experience is required for teachers or students. It blends storytelling, collaborative design and foundational programming skills with a focus on creativity and equity."

The Urban Arts and Microsoft Creative Coders program touted by EdSurge in its advertorial was funded by a $4 million Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant that was awarded to Urban Arts in 2023 by the U.S. Dept. of Education "to create an engaging, game-based, middle school CS course using Minecraft tools" for 3,450 middle schoolers (6th-8th grades)" in New York and California (Urban Arts credited Minecraft for helping craft the winning proposal). A year prior, at the 2022 grand opening of the Microsoft Garage in New York City, Urban Arts alums pitched NYC Mayor Eric Adams on the idea that game development education can prepare public school students for the modern workplace as Microsoft President Brad Smith looked on. New York City is a Minecraft Education believer — the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment recently kicked off summer with the inaugural NYC Video Game Festival, which included the annual citywide Minecraft Education Battle of the Boroughs Esports Competition in partnership with NYC Public Schools.

Interestingly, the $4M in federal funding for Creative Coders — as well as $8M in earlier EIR grants awarded to Urban Arts for STEM education — may have been unlocked thanks to the efforts of Microsoft and Smith. In his 2019 book Tools and Weapons, Microsoft President Brad Smith indicated Microsoft made a $50 million K-12 CS education spending pledge to secure Ivanka Trump's assistance in persuading Donald Trump to sign a 2017 presidential order "to ensure that federal funding [$1 billion] from the Department of Education helps advance [K-12] computer science," including via EIR STEM+CS grants.

Submission + - EdSurge Touts Minecraft for 'Creative Coding' in Microsoft-Sponsored Advertorial

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In Coding, Creativity and the New Digital Fluency ("sponsored content from Minecraft Education"), EdSurge reports: "One example of creative coding comes from a curriculum that introduces computer science through game design and storytelling in Minecraft, a game-based learning platform used by millions of students worldwide. Developed by Urban Arts in collaboration with Minecraft Education, the program offers middle school teachers professional development, ongoing coaching and a 72-session curriculum built around game-based instruction. Designed for grades 6-8, the project-based program is beginner-friendly; no prior programming experience is required for teachers or students. It blends storytelling, collaborative design and foundational programming skills with a focus on creativity and equity."

The Urban Arts and Microsoft Creative Coders program touted by EdSurge was awarded a $3,999,988 Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant last year by the U.S. Dept. of Education "to create an engaging, game-based, middle school CS course using Minecraft tools" for 3,450 middle schoolers (6th-8th grades)." Interestingly, that federal funding may have been unlocked by Microsoft — in his 2019 book Tools and Weapons, Microsoft President Brad Smith credited a $50 million K-12 CS pledge made to Ivanka Trump by Microsoft as the key to getting Donald Trump to sign a 2017 presidential order "to ensure that federal funding [$1 billion over 5 years] from the Department of Education helps advance [K-12] computer science," including via EIR grants. At the 2022 grand opening of the Microsoft Garage in New York City, Urban Arts alums told Smith and NYC Mayor Eric Adams how game development education can prepare public school students for the modern workplace, a pitch that certainly seemed to work. Two weeks ago, the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) kicked off summer with the inaugural NYC Video Game Festival (NYCVGF), which included the annual Minecraft Education Battle of the Boroughs Esports Competition in partnership with NYC Public Schools.

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