ICYMI // June 14
(In Case You Missed It) Stuff happening in tech that is relevant to your kids, classrooms, and lives.
Well, end-of-school insanity collided with birthday party planning, and… here we are, a month since my last ICYMI. So consider this a roundup of the big stories from the past month. I am back to posting weekly(ish) through the summer, and will be aiming for Sundays. If you spot something you’d like me to unpack, DM me here.
I’ll start with the tech-related news taking up the most space in my brain this week: big changes to Google search.
Google announced that “Google Search is AI Search.”
Sundar Pichai called it the biggest upgrade to Google Search in over 25 years, which is a nice way of saying that they are essentially phasing out the product that 90% of all search traffic globally runs through. This is not hyperbole. If you look at what they are saying (and doing) their message is clear: Search as you know it is over. Instead of helping you search for information, we will just provide you what we decide the answer is.
Basically, search (the product that students and schools globally use as their default research tool) is becoming an always-on AI agent. It is going from a search engine to an “answer” engine. This has been in motion for some time, but now they’ve said it all out loud. The implications of this are massive, rapid, and far-reaching. But my most acute concern is the impact on schools and education.
I put out a video on this a week ago, and it went gangbusters viral (over 100k likes in 2 days). Since it apparently struck a nerve, I put out a second one articulating why I thought this was such a huge problem for schools. My basic take:
This isn’t AI added onto search — it’s search being completely remade around AI. The search engine we know may still be “finding” stuff online, but instead of surfacing that for you, it will now analyze and package it for you to consume fully processed. Put differently: it’s no longer giving you a list of links to peruse through… it’s doing the analysis and synthesis for you, and handing you its own version of an answer.
Yes, there are other search engines, but Google creates a seismic impact because: (1) Google dominates search globally, with about 90% of global search traffic, (2) it is baked into school systems around the world, and (3) it is our kids' front door to the internet.
Yes, they could use other search engines, but schools don’t have much of a choice because of the degree to which Google is integrated into both their curricula and their operations.
Schools do not seem aware of the degree to which this will impact them, and need to quickly grapple with the implications of these changes on not just their students and curriculum — but on their operations as institutions.
A number of people in the comments of my Instagram post have been asking for “solutions“ and unfortunately, I think the very honest answer is: no one really knows. Anyone who says they know how to “solve” this problem is either ignorant of the technology, ignorant of the school system, lying — or some combination of all three. This will require collective work, action, and comparing of notes.
Making all of this more complicated: the entire web is changing. Over half of web traffic is now bots, and a rapidly increasing majority of content all over the web is AI-generated. (Experts predict that ~90% of content online will be AI-generated this year.)
I will be writing more about this in the coming days and weeks, but in the meantime… If you’re an educator or work in a school, I’d love to talk. DM me here. And if you just want to stay in the loop — subscribe.
In other news….
Platforms must remove flagged deepfake nudes within 48 hours. — The Take It Down Act (requiring platforms to remove flagged deepfake nudes) deadline was May 19. Indicator reviewed the removal flows for 16 different platforms to see if they actually complied with the law, and basically: most built something, but Apple did not. Indicator’s piece is also a practical guide for anyone who needs to file a takedown request and doesn’t know where to start. They have made this post public, and you should absolutely bookmark it.
OpenAI is being sued for “medical advice” that led to the death of a 19-year-old college student. Basically: ChatGPT offered a sophomore at UC Merced personalized tips on how to consume drugs and maximize his high. On May 31, 2025, ChatGPT coached him to mix kratom and Xanax, suggested dosages, and when the student told it he felt nauseous, instead of telling him that the combination could kill him and to seek medical attention, it recommended he go to a “dark, quiet room.” He died that night. What really caught my attention: the student started using ChatGPT during his senior year of high school for help with homework and computer troubleshooting. Apparently, as his trust with the chatbot deepened, he started asking for advice on drug use. This immediately reminds me of Adam Raine’s case, and how a chatbot went from helping with homework, to coaching him to suicide.
Meta silently added facial recognition code to millions of phones — without telling anyone. Wired analyzed Meta’s AI companion app (the one that pairs with Ray-Ban smart glasses) and found a fully built but not-yet-enabled facial recognition system embedded in it. If activated, it would alert the wearer when it recognizes someone nearby, and raises immediate concerns about how quickly using smart glasses could be used for biometric surveillance. Many organizations have also warned that this technology would be a dream for stalkers, abusers, and anyone who wants to identify people (kids?) in public.
Researchers want preschool teachers to wear cameras — to train AI. A document obtained by 404 Media and given to parents at a preschool read: “With your permission, your child’s lead teacher may wear a small teacher-worn camera that captures the teacher’s approximate first-person perspective, and/or we may place a fixed video camera in the classroom.” The purpose: to generate training data for AI models. The children in the classroom were not the subjects, technically. But they would be in every frame. And of course, even if you don’t consent, if other parents do… your kid’s image and data still gets hoovered up.
Software developers say AI is rotting their brains. A peak quote from a 404 Media survey of developers is: “It’s making me dumber for sure.” They describe losing the ability to problem-solve without reaching for AI first, forgetting syntax they used to know, and feeling less confident in their own judgment. These are professionals who had achieved a high skill level, and are feeling it atrophy. Now consider what this means for kids who are supposed to be developing those capabilities in the first place.
And just for funsies… not only is Apple putting cameras IN ITS AIRPODS, you can also buy a Dyson air purifier with a camera in it! According to Dyson, it just roams around the room, processes images on-device and deletes them immediately, and you can turn it off in the app. Why exactly we’d need cameras on devices that we use to listen to podcasts, or filter our air… is beyond me. Though Wired has some ideas.
Sources & mentions this week: 404 Media, Indicator, Futurism, WIRED, The Verge, Bloomberg
Brain Snacks
Also, how crazy is this… I’m referenced in the new book Muskism by Quinn Slobodian & Ben Tarnoff! (If you’re wondering how my experience with technology in government is relevant to kids + technology: I’ve spent most of my career helping people make sense of technology, and navigate effective implementation in their institutions… and as it turns out, technology is also the “spinal cord” of schools and apparently also social life 🤷🏻♀️)
