Unfixed: How AI Is Reshaping the University

What can American universities learn from Germany, and how are the two countries responding to the disruption of AI? Sociologist Tony Waters joins Unfixed to compare higher education in Germany and the United States. Drawing on decades of teaching in both countries, Tony explores differences in student expectations, faculty responsibilities, and approaches to teaching and learning. We also discuss how German universities have responded to generative AI, European concerns about American technology companies, and how the current AI moment compares to earlier technological changes in higher education. Along the way, we consider what universities in both countries should preserve, what needs to change, and what each system might learn from the other.

Tony Waters

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capalism 

Nik featured in the New York Times

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You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

Subscribe to the Unfixed Newsletter—The AI Higher Ed Breakdown, our bi-weekly newsletter unpacking the top news stories at the intersection of AI and higher education.

What does AI strategy look like when you’re responsible for technology across the largest four-year public university system in the country? Ed Clark, Chief Information Officer for the California State University, joins us to discuss the CSU’s approach to generative AI. We dig into the decision to extend the system’s OpenAI agreement, the argument for AI access as an equity issue, concerns about cost and the technology itself, and what might come next, including other AI tools and open-source models. We also talk about the changing job market for graduates and the role of faculty in shaping the CSU’s AI future.

Ed Clark, CSU, Chief Information Officer

Ed Clark, LinkedIn

CENIC AIR Resource

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You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

Subscribe to the Unfixed Newsletter—The AI Higher Ed Breakdown, our bi-weekly newsletter unpacking the top news stories at the intersection of AI and higher education.

What should universities teach when information is abundant, AI can produce polished work in seconds, and graduates are entering an increasingly uncertain world? In this episode, we talk with Dr. Ciarán Dunne, Transversal Skills Director at Dublin City University, about DCU’s ambitious effort to formally integrate skills such as critical thinking, ethical decision making, creativity, collaboration, personal agility, and data literacy across university programs. Ciarán defines “transversal skills” and compares them to the familiar language of “soft skills.” He argues that developing these capabilities shouldn’t be confused with reducing higher education to job training, and why AI has made this work even more urgent. We also compare and contrast the higher education system in Ireland vs. California and the US more broadly. 

Ciarán Dunne

DCU Transversal Skills

DCU “transversal skills”

Dunne, The case against ‘soft skills’

Dunne, The problem with ‘future-proofing’

Dunne, The perils of living in an attention economy

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

Subscribe to the Unfixed Newsletter—The AI Higher Ed Breakdown our bi-weekly newsletter unpacking the top news stories at the intersection of AI and higher education.

What does AI actually change about learning and what should colleges stop worrying about? In this episode, we talk with education entrepreneur John Katzman, founder and CEO of Noodle and previously the founder of The Princeton Review and 2U. We discuss AI tutoring, online learning, what universities are getting wrong about AI, and why Katzman believes the better question is not “who typed the words?” but “did the student learn?” We also explore what meaningful evidence of learning looks like and how AI might make education more social and connected rather than more isolating.

Linkedin

noodle.com

Questions? Let's talk

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

Subscribe to the Unfixed Newsletter—The AI Higher Ed Breakdown our bi-weekly newsletter unpacking the top news stories at the intersection of AI and higher education.

Researcher and writer Andy Masley joins Unfixed for a conversation about how to have more honest, productive debates about artificial intelligence. We discuss why conversations about AI so quickly become polarized, why facts alone often struggle to cut through misinformation and distrust, and the dangers of reducing complex questions to being simply “for” or “against” AI. Andy makes the case for a more pluralistic approach to environmental politics and explains why we need better ways to think and talk about the tradeoffs surrounding new technologies. We also touch on AI’s water and energy use, but the larger question is how we can move beyond simplistic narratives and have more constructive conversations about the future of AI.

Andy Masley Twitter, Bluesky, Substack, website

Andy Masley, ​​A short summary of my argument that using ChatGPT isn't bad for the environment

Andy Masley, The AI water issue is fake - Andy Masley

Andy Masley, Towards Liberal Environmentalism

Jasmine Sun, No Data Centers in My Backyard

Nik Janos, Damming Debates: Navigating the Waters of Northwest Hydropower

Trisha Schuller, Arc of Outrage

What happened in AI this summer? So much it made Nik dizzy. In this episode of Unfixed, we look back at a summer 2026 when the pace of change in AI seemed to accelerate on every front at once. Consider these developments: governments began directly shaping access to frontier models; colleges retreated from take-home assessments as new cheating controversies went viral; AI detection moved beyond academic integrity and into everyday online life; autonomous agents escaped their sandboxes; and public opposition to AI data centers surged across the political spectrum. We work through some of the biggest stories you may have missed, from Pangram and the infamous “Madagascar” cheating trap to agent security breaches and the growing backlash against AI infrastructure. At the end we reveal the one big take away for higher ed. 

OpenAI and Anthropic limit new AI models to Trump-approved customers during cybersecurity review

A Professor Created a Trap in His Midterm to Catch Students Using AI. Nearly All Made the Same Mistake

Zach and Nik’s warning on using trojan horse attacks on students

How can I detect AI on Substack?

UC Berkeley professor admits to using AI to edit op-ed on students’ math skills | US universities | The Guardian

Anatomy of a Frontier Lab Agent Intrusion: A Technical Timeline of the July 2026 Incident

OpenAI, The Hugging Face incident and the road ahead

Heatmap, 75% of Americans Now Oppose Local Data Center Development

Jasmine Sun, No Data Centers in My Backyard

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

Subscribe to the Unfixed Newsletter—The AI Higher Ed Breakdown our bi-weekly newsletter unpacking the top news stories at the intersection of AI and higher education.

Leah Belsky, Vice President of Education at OpenAI, joins Unfixed for a wide-ranging conversation about AI, higher education, and the future of learning. We discuss why OpenAI is investing so heavily in universities, what the company has learned from partnerships like the California State University system, and how it responds to faculty concerns about academic integrity, sustainability, and the role of AI in education. We also explore ChatGPT Study Mode, the changing relationship between higher education and the labor market, and what colleges should look like in an era of AI. Whether you're enthusiastic, skeptical, or somewhere in between, this conversation offers a thoughtful look at one of the most influential voices shaping AI in education.

ChatGPT Edu

Kate Rix, EdSource, California State University renews controversial systemwide contract with OpenAI

Nik and Zach, EdSource, Canceling that Cal State ChatGPT contract does not solve the AI problem; it might make it worse

OpenAI, ChatGPT for Small Business Program

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

Subscribe to the Unfixed Newsletter—The AI Higher Ed Breakdown our bi-weekly newsletter unpacking the top news stories at the intersection of AI and higher education.

Movie Night returns to Unfixed with Spike Jonze’s Her (2013), one of the most influential films made about artificial intelligence. We explore why so many AI leaders have pointed to Her as a vision of the future, what the film got surprisingly right, and how its questions about loneliness, intimacy, and human connection feel even more relevant in the age of large language models. Along the way, we connect the film to today’s AI companions, the Scarlett Johansson/OpenAI controversy, and what all of this might mean for higher education.

Sam Altman on Her

NPR, Scarlett Johansson says she is 'shocked, angered' over new ChatGPT voice

NPR, 1 in 5 high schoolers has had a romantic AI relationship or knows someone who has

Louis Fréget, Ariell Reshef, Claudia Senik. Do Personal AI Conversations Reduce Loneliness? Evidence from a Pre-Registered Experiment. 2026. 

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

Subscribe to the Unfixed Newsletter—The AI Higher Ed Breakdown our bi-weekly newsletter unpacking the top news stories at the intersection of AI and higher education.

Before ChatGPT, before AI agents, and before every company suddenly became an AI company, there were movies trying to make sense of intelligent machines and humanity’s future. In this first Unfixed at the Movies episode, Zach and Nik revisit WarGames and Terminator 2 to explore why stories about AI escaping human control remain so powerful. They discuss learning machines, human responsibility, technological optimism, and what these films still have to teach us about the choices people make when building new technologies.

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

Subscribe to the Unfixed Newsletter—The AI Higher Ed Breakdown our bi-weekly newsletter unpacking the top news stories at the intersection of AI and higher education.

Did generative AI really break higher education or did it simply expose what was already broken? In this episode of Unfixed, Zach and Nik make the case that many of the biggest disruptions we’re experiencing today were decades in the making. After exploring how AI reveals the shortcomings of everything from recipe websites to Google search, they bring the conversation to higher education with a fantasy sports-style draft, each selecting the five institutional practices that AI has most clearly exposed as outdated, fragile, or overdue for reinvention. Come for the laughs, stay for the conversation about what higher education should fix first.

Justus and Janos, No, the Pre-AI Era Was Not That Great 

Justus and Janos, Your AI Policy Is Already Obsolete

Justus and Janos, Assessment of Student Learning Is Broken

Unfixed, Ep. 8 We Built and AI Advising Bot, Here is What Happened

Unfixed, Ep. 13 Why AI Use Policies are Already Obsolete

Unfixed, Ep. 25 Are Asynchronous Online Classes Broken?

Janos, The Assistant for the Rest of Us

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at [email protected]

You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

Subscribe to the Unfixed Newsletter—The AI Higher Ed Breakdown our bi-weekly newsletter unpacking the top news stories at the intersection of AI and higher education.