AI just changed again - what schools and universities need to know this week

This week delivered one of the biggest waves of AI news in recent memory - and Dan and Ray unpack what it all means for schools, universities and vocational education. From Microsoft's upcoming Copilot upgrades to Google's jaw-dropping Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro image model, the landscape for teachers shifted fast. They explore how these tools are already reshaping lesson design, image generation, student support and academic workflows - and why NotebookLM might quietly be the most important education tool Google has ever released. They also break down newly released case studies from the Australian Industry Group, discuss Claude's expansion through Azure, and look at how sectors like health, logistics and vocational training are adopting AI at speed. In the second half, the episode dives into three significant peer-reviewed research papers - including new evidence of gender bias in AI explanations, emerging AI-pedagogy frameworks, and fresh insights into how students actually use (and feel about) AI in their studies. News   Microsoft   Microsoft rolling more into the free version of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat https://www.theverge.com/news/822789/microsoft-copilot-chat-outlook-word-excel-powerpoint  Microsoft and NVIDIA invest $15 billion in Anthropic - and Anthropic agree to buy $30B of Microsoft's Azure  https://www.anthropic.com/news/microsoft-nvidia-anthropic-announce-strategic-partnerships  Google Useful review of Gemini 3 by Ethan Mollick https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/three-years-from-gpt-3-to-gemini  Examples of the infographics we created with Google's NotebookLM can be found on these two links: The podcast episode infographic from the Aaron Driver, of UNE, interview https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ai-in-education-podcast_aiineducation-notebooklm-podcast-activity-7398861734071083008-08GD The podcast series infographic from Series 14 "the Humans of AI" https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rayfleming_aiineducation-podcast-notebooklm-activity-7398515648089468928-vOUS  NotebookLM announcements https://x.com/notebooklm/status/1989078069454270649?s=46&t=p57lLRpTCXGNBiwhIjsl7Q  Google announce new Gemini certifications for education https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/gemini-certifications-education/  Cogniti 29 teachers sharing their stories about using AI with students https://cogniti.ai/2025-cogniti-mini-symposium-resources/  Anthropic   Anthropic partners with Rwandan Government and ALX to bring AI education to hundreds of thousands of learners across Africa https://www.anthropic.com/news/rwandan-government-partnership-ai-education  The London School of Economics has provided all students with access to Claude for Education https://www.lse.ac.uk/news/latest-news-from-lse/d-april/lse-partners-with-anthropic-to-shape-the-future-of-ai-in-education  OpenAI   OpenAI announce "ChatGPT for teachers" for US school teachers - and makes it free until the middle of 2027 https://openai.com/index/chatgpt-for-teachers/ https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12844995-chatgpt-for-teachers  First ChatGPT Edu deployment in Australian Vocational Education https://connectweb.com.au/news.aspx?id=1038171&headline=nexted-launches-australias-first-chatgpt-edu-deployment-in-vocational-education    Australian Industry Group Report: AI positive for companies, their people and Australian industry https://www.australianindustrygroup.com.au/news/reports/2025/artificial-intelligence-positive-for-companies-their-people-and-australian-industry/    Research   Gender equity in GenAI science explanations https://www.ase.org.uk/resources/school-science-review/issue-395/gender-equity-in-genai-science-explanations https://www.linkedin.com/posts/victoriamhedlund_biasaware-aiineducation-genderbias-activity-7394637681978212352-1UUB    Bonus research mentioned: Sexist textbooks: Automated analysis of gender bias in 1,255 books from 34 countrieshttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11463758/    A dialogic theoretical foundation for integrating generative AI into pedagogical design https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjet.70026    Time, emotions and moral judgements: how university students position GenAI within their study https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2025.2580616