In this week’s episode of the AI and Education Podcast, Ray and Dan dive into one of the most chaotic – and entertaining – weeks in AI news so far. From councils losing millions to AI-powered scams to the idea of having a “family safe word,” this one swings between hilarious and hair-raising.

They unpack what’s new in AI assessment research - including TEQSA’s AI guidance for universities, the “wicked problem” of AI and assessment, and why Turnitin’s detection tools are under fire (again). You’ll hear how South Australia’s EdChat report shows teachers and students deepening their learning with AI, and which countries are quietly leading the world in classroom AI use (spoiler: it’s not who you think).

Plus, a few surprise stats on politeness and prompt-writing - turns out being rude to AI might actually get better results.

We've just arrived on YouTube and TikTok!

YT Channel - the podcast in video form, and Shorts https://www.youtube.com/@aiineducationpodcast 

TikTok https://tiktok.com/@aipodcast.educati

Links to news items discussed

AI Safety https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-14/noosa-council-scam-mayor-blames-ai-imitation/105887962 

Mike Tholfsen's Microsoft 365 Copilot Tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbOJliF-Cn4 

South Australia's Edchat Insights Report https://www.education.sa.gov.au/docs/ict/edchat-insights-report.pdf 

Enacting assessment reform in a time of artificial intelligence  https://www.teqsa.gov.au/guides-resources/resources/corporate-publications/enacting-assessment-reform-time-artificial-intelligence     And the link to 'Assessment reform for the age of artificial intelligence' - https://www.teqsa.gov.au/guides-resources/resources/corporate-publications/assessment-reform-age-artificial-intelligence  

Syracuse University gives Claude Education to all students and staff https://news.syr.edu/2025/09/22/syracuse-university-among-first-universities-to-provide-campuswide-ai-access-to-anthropics-claude-for-education/

Jordan - the whole country, one man chat app for education https://x.com/cryptoprio/status/1974040334737846279?s=46&t=p57lLRpTCXGNBiwhIjsl7Q 

California Community Colleges also rolling out Nectir to staff and students https://www.axios.com/local/san-francisco/2025/10/06/california-community-colleges-ai-nectir-tutors 

2025 "State of AI" report https://www.stateof.ai/ 

Oxford University Press report on AI use by UK school students https://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/oxed/secondary/Teaching_the_AI_Native_Generation.pdf?internal=true 

OECD’s latest Teaching and Learning International Survey https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/results-from-talis-2024_90df6235-en.html 

University wrongly accuses students of using artificial intelligence to cheat https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-09/artificial-intelligence-cheating-australian-catholic-university/105863524

ACU's checklist for spotting AI written text: https://staff.acu.edu.au/our_university/news/2025/march/turnitin-ai-indicator-tool 

And in researching this, I also stumbled across the Wikipedia page "Signs of AI Writing" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writing  And that includes things like "LLMs overuse the rule of three - 'the good, the bad and the ugly'"; the use of Title Case; and our old friends em dashes and emojis. And if you really want to go down the rabbit hole, read the 'Talk' tab on that page, were people are discussing their own opinions/beliefs on this.

Research

The wicked problem of AI and assessment https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02602938.2025.2553340 

Reimagining the Artificial Intelligence Assessment Scale: A refined framework for educational assessment https://open-publishing.org/journals/index.php/jutlp/article/view/1707 

Assessment Twins: A Protocol for AI-Vulnerable Summative Assessment https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.02929 

Heads we win, tails you lose: AI detectors in education. https://osf.io/preprints/edarxiv/93w6j_v1 

What Does YouTube Advise Students About Bypassing AIText Detection Tools? A Pragmatic Analysis https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s10805-025-09675-3? sharing_token=kzKMqOrKt2K7wqe8A4GjkPe4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY4_QVVFXJUooOb6QsKcPKSMAsHQtQeY4Cum-OXBICfYzSVfT9TAv2Z95XVx8D3vm13plNOq1vh5iCbse0XidDrUCW182PR7BzDUTrlz7Gv1UGB5U-ao_gJKy9vc-WRHd_U%3D 

Mind Your Tone: Investigating How Prompt Politeness Affects LLM Accuracy https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.04950