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Submission + - First Lady Melania Trump Launches Nationwide K-12 Presidential AI Challenge

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Melania Trump on Tuesday invited students in grades K-12 to participate in a government-sponsored nationwide contest that is designed to encourage them to work together to use artificial intelligence tools to solve community issues.

"As someone who created an AI-powered audio book and championed online safety through the Take It Down Act, I’ve seen firsthand the promise of this powerful technology," the first lady says in a short video announcing the Presidential AI Challenge. "Now, I pass the torch of innovation to you. [...] Just as America once led the world into the skies, we are poised to lead again. This time, in the age of AI."

Every student from kindergarten through 12th grade is invited to "unleash their imagination and showcase the spirit of American innovation," Trump said. K-12 students who sign up will complete a project using an AI method or tool to address a community challenge. According to the Presidential AI Challenge Guidebook for Participation, prizes of $10,000 per team member will be awarded in the Middle Youth Category (grades 6-8) and the High School Youth Category (grades 9-12).

Submission + - Tech-Backed Nonprofit Code.org Pondering What AI Means for Its Brand

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "There won't be an Hour of Code and an Hour of AI," tech-backed nonprofit Code.org clarified for members of its Advocacy Coalition in a meeting last week (video, 29:34). "Hour of Code is totally becoming Hour of AI. [...] There will be adult-facing activities [...] We're leaning into the 'K-Gray' learning [a switch from the Hour of Code's focus on K-12 schoolchildren]."

Asked what the switch from the Hour of Code to Hour of AI means for the Code.org brand, Chief Academic Officer Pat Yongpradit replied, "That is a question that needs to be answered, for sure. And certainly something that all of us need to wrestle with. What is our place in a world where CS and AI are mashing together and evolving and everything." Code.org Director of Government Affairs Anthony Owen added, "I'm not touching the brand-changing question with a 10-foot-pole, but I will say that [...] we need to accept [...} AI is CS."

Slides from the meeting show that the new Hour of AI, which will launch during CS Education Week in December, aims to have 25 million participants ("Every Student. Every Teacher. Every Leader"), including 1,000 'Policymakers.'

Submission + - NYT: Goodbye, $165,000 Tech Jobs. Student Coders Seek Work at Chipotle.

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: The New York Times reports from the CS grad job-seeking trenches: Growing up near Silicon Valley, Manasi Mishra remembers seeing tech executives on social media urging students to study computer programming. “The rhetoric was, if you just learned to code, work hard and get a computer science degree, you can get six figures for your starting salary,” Ms. Mishra, now 21, recalls hearing as she grew up in San Ramon, Calif.

Those golden industry promises helped spur Ms. Mishra to code her first website in elementary school, take advanced computing in high school and major in computer science in college. But after a year of hunting for tech jobs and internships, Ms. Mishra graduated from Purdue University in May without an offer. “I just graduated with a computer science degree, and the only company that has called me for an interview is Chipotle,” Ms. Mishra said in a get-ready-with-me TikTok video this summer that has since racked up more than 147,000 views.

Some graduates described feeling caught in an A.I. “doom loop.” Many job seekers now use specialized A.I. tools like Simplify to tailor their résumés to specific jobs and autofill application forms, enabling them to quickly apply to many jobs. At the same time, companies inundated with applicants are using A.I. systems to automatically scan résumés and reject candidates.

Submission + - Microsoft President to Kids: The Hour of Code is dead, long live the Hour of AI

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: A July blog post by Microsoft President Brad Smith has been recently updated to include the complete video from the launch of Microsoft Elevate, which will bring "more than $4 billion in cash and AI and cloud technology to K-12 schools, community and technical colleges, and nonprofits." The initiative, Smith wrote, "will focus on advancing AI education and training with schools, community colleges, and nonprofits. It will launch new and innovative initiatives, including the support we’re announcing today for a new 'Hour of AI' with Code.org."

Later in the video, Smith asserts it's time to 'switch hats' from coding to AI, adding that "the last 12 years have been about the Hour of Code, but the future involves the Hour of AI." This sets the stage for Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi's announcement that his tech-backed nonprofit's Hour of Code — the wildly popular learn-to-code annual event for K-12 schoolchildren that's held during Computer Science Education Week in December — is being renamed to the Hour of AI.

Explaining the pivot, Partovi says: "Computer science for the last, you know, 50 years has been, has had a focal point around coding that's been sort of like you learn computer science so that you create code. There's other things you learn like data science and algorithms and cybersecurity. But the focal point has been coding. And we're now in a world where the focal point of computer science is shifting to AI. It's, we all know that AI can write much of the code. You don't need to worry about where did the semicolons go, or did I close the parentheses or whatnot. The busy work of computer science is going to be done by the computer itself. The creativity, the thinking, the systems design, the engineering, the algorithm planning, the, the security concerns, privacy concerns, ethical concerns, those parts of computer science are going to be what remains with a focal point around AI. And what's going to be important is to make sure in education we make, give students the tools so they don't just become passive users of AI, but so that they learn how AI works."

Speaking to Smith, Partovi vows to redouble the nonprofit's policy work to "make this [AI literacy with a focus on AI engineering] a high school graduation requirement so that no student graduates school without at least a basic understanding of what's going to be part of the new liberal arts background [...] As you showed with your hat, we are renaming the Hour of Code to an Hour of AI."

Code.org launched in 2013 with the tagline "Leaders and trendsetters agree more students should learn to code." So, does this pivot mark the final death knell for 'Learn to Code'?

Submission + - OpenAI Opens an AI 'Dollar Store' for Federal Agencies

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: OpenAI said Tuesday it will offer ChatGPT to federal agencies for $1 a year as part of a new partnership with the General Services Administration (GSA). The announcement comes one day after the agency added OpenAI’s AI model to its government purchasing system, alongside Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude.

"One of the best ways to make sure AI works for everyone is to put it in the hands of the people serving the country," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement. “We’re proud to partner with the General Services Administration, delivering on President Trump’s AI Action Plan, to make ChatGPT available across the federal government, helping public servants deliver for the American people.”

Anthropic is also reportedly planning to make its models available to the government for as little as $1. Last month, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Anthropic announced the launch of a $22.5 million AI training center for members of the American Federation of Teachers union, which represents about 1.8 million workers, including K-12 teachers, school nurses, and college staff. On the heels of that announcement, Microsoft separately pledged $4 billion for AI education training programs, targeting schools, community colleges, technical colleges and nonprofits.

Submission + - AP CSA Exam Takers Struggled Again in 2025 With Simple Array Questions

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Presenting the 2025 AP Computer Science A (Java) Exam scores for high school students, The College Board's Trevor Packer reports that after a year's study, students did a far better job of answering multiple-choice questions that included IF statements than they did when asked to come up with actual code to initialize and search a 2-D array (AP CSA students' have long-struggled with array questions).

Regarding multiple-choice questions [MCQs], Packard writes that students exhibited "strong performance on primitive types, Boolean expressions, and if statements (units 1 & 3); 44% of students earned 7-8 of these 8 points," but were challenged by "questions on Arrays, ArrayLists, and 2D Arrays (units 6-8); 17% of students earned 11-12 of these 12 points." Regarding free-response questions [FRQs], Packard writes "The most challenging AP Computer Science A FRQ was #4, the 2D array number puzzle; 19% of students earned 8-9 of the 9 points possible." Despite the low success rate, a sample Java solution is pretty straightforward (as is an Excel VBA solution, which also incorporates a visual presentation).

So, with students having the benefit of access to AI coding assistants and tutors for the full school year and a purported game-changing $15 million AP CS A curriculum from Code.org and Amazon, is it surprising that 33% of students failed to receive a 3+ passing score on the AP CSA exam? Indeed, fifteen years after the tech giants teamed with nonprofit partners to assert control over K-12 computer science education in the U.S., AP CS A has the dubious distinction of having a higher percentage of students receiving the lowest possible AP exam score (1 out of 5) than any other subject except AP Statistics. Still, that track record didn't dissuade the American Federation of Teachers from entrusting the future of education for all subjects to the likes of Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

Comment Claude Code is a Slot Machine (Score 5, Interesting) 77

Claude Code is a Slot Machine": "I'm guessing that part of why AI coding tools are so popular is the slot machine effect. Intermittent rewards, lots of waiting that fractures your attention, and inherent laziness keeping you trying with yet another prompt in hopes that you don't have to actually turn on your brain after so many hours of being told not to. The exhilarating power of creation. Just insert a few more cents, and you'll get another shot at making your dreams a reality."

Submission + - U.S. Dept. of Education Moves to Make AI the Fourth 'R'

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic, and now, 'rtificial intelligence? The U.S. Department of Education this week sent a Dear Colleague Letter to grantees and future grantees on leveraging federal grant funds to improve education outcomes through AI, including 'AI-Based High-Quality Instructional Materials' and 'AI-Enhanced High-Impact Tutoring.'

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon also announced her fourth proposed supplemental grantmaking priority, advancing AI in education, including "the integration of AI literacy skills and concepts into teaching and learning" and "expand[ing] offerings of AI and computer science education" in K-12 and higher education.

"Artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionize education and support improved outcomes for learners," said McMahon. "It drives personalized learning, sharpens critical thinking, and prepares students with problem-solving skills that are vital for tomorrow's challenges. Today’s guidance also emphasizes the importance of parent and teacher engagement in guiding the ethical use of AI and using it as a tool to support individualized learning and advancement. By teaching about AI and foundational computer science while integrating AI technology responsibly, we can strengthen our schools and lay the foundation for a stronger, more competitive economy."

This week's actions, the Dept. of Education notes, "are in response to President Trump’s April 23 Executive Order, Advancing AI Education for American Youth." The actions also come on the heels of announcements by Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic to partner with teacher unions on AI and a pledge by Microsoft to spend $4 billion to push AI into schools and the workforce, as well as the launch of a national campaign by tech leaders and Code.org to make AI and CS a graduation requirement.

McMahon's 2025 AI+CS spending directive is reminiscent of a similar 2017 directive to prioritize K-12 STEM+CS funding enacted by U.S. Dept. of Education Secretary Betsy Devos in response to a Trump Presidential Memorandum "to ensure that federal funding from the Department of Education helps advance [K-12] computer science." In his book Tools and Weapons, Microsoft President Brad Smith credited tech companies' efforts — including private sector pledges to spend $300 million on K-12 CS — for unlocking that $1 billion in Federal support.

Submission + - White House AI Action Plan Calls for Luring Children into AI Infrastructure Jobs

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In Disney's 1940 Pinocchio, boys are lured to Pleasure Island, where they are magically transformed into donkeys and sold into slavery, often to work in circuses or salt mines.

In the White House's 2025 American AI Action Plan (full pdf), plans call for Federal agencies to team with tech companies to lure middle school boys and girls (10-14 years old) into AI infrastructure jobs: "Led by DOL [U.S. Dept. of Labor], ED [U.S. Dept. of Education], and NSF [National Science Foundation], partner with education and workforce system stakeholders to expand early career exposure programs and pre-apprenticeships that engage middle and high school students in priority AI infrastructure occupations. These efforts should focus on creating awareness and excitement about these jobs, aligning with local employer needs, and providing on-ramps into high-quality training and Registered Apprenticeship programs."

Echoing Microsoft President Brad Smith's March call for more electricity and 500,000 new electricians to build out the AI infrastructure, the White House AI Action Plan explains that "America's path to AI dominance depends on [...] streamlining permitting, strengthening and growing the electric grid, and creating the workforce to build it all." Referring to tech's insatiable demand for electricity to power its AI data centers at the AI Action Plan event, President Trump quipped to tech leaders, "You need more electricity than any human beings ever in the history of the world. [...] My father always used to say, 'Turn out the lights, son.' But you guys are turning up the lights."

Submission + - Microsoft President: Teaching Kids to Code is Out, Teaching Kids to Use AI is In

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi on Friday shared a video on Twitter from the Microsoft Elevate event, where Microsoft pledged $4 billion to support schools and nonprofits with AI tools and training, including a new Hour of AI event for K-12 schoolchildren. In the video, Microsoft President Brad Smith drives home the point that tech-backed nonprofit Code.org and the K-12 computer science education movement will be shifting from the Hour of Code to the Hour of AI by taking off his Hour of Code baseball cap to reveal an Hour of AI baseball cap underneath. "Hour of Code is evolving to the Hour of AI," announces a banner on the HOC website.

"The last 12 years have been about the Hour of Code but the future involves the Hour of AI," Smith said to applause from the crowd at at Seattle’s Museum of History & Industry as he high-fived Partovi. Smith, a founding Code.org Board member (Microsoft AI execs Kevin Scott and Julia Liuson are current Code.org Board members), noted at the 2018 Hour of Code kickoff that he was Partovi's next-door neighbor.

Currently, only three AI activities are available on the Hour of AI website. All were developed in partnership with Microsoft and Amazon, who are both $30+ million Lifetime Supporters of the nonprofit. On Friday, Code.org announced on LinkedIn that one of those offerings — Music Lab, videos for which feature Amazon Music employees as instructors — "is now part of our K–5 curriculum" (ages 5-11).

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.

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