EdTechSR Ep 359: Phishing Meets Copilot

What this episode covers

Welcome to episode 359 (“Phishing Meets Copilot”) of the EdTech Situation Room from September 24, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) unpack how AI is reshaping both the attack surface and the classroom: we start with MIT Tech Review’s claim that 80% of ransomware now uses AI, then swap real-world spear-phishing stories and practical school-IT hygiene—like rethinking public staff email directories to reduce pattern-based credential attacks and mass phishing. From there we zoom out to information warfare and media literacy via PRX’s “GoLaxy Papers,” a report on targeted AI personas trained on individuals to covertly influence U.S. audiences—prompting a broader conversation about nation-state psy-ops and what educators can do to help students (and themselves) discern manipulation at scale. We also discuss the shift to short-form video: TikTok’s pull on teen news habits, YouTube’s push to Shorts, weak sponsor-disclosure norms among creators, and why this all raises the stakes for day-to-day media-literacy instruction. On the tools front, Microsoft’s strategic partnership with Anthropic brings Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4.1 into Copilot—expanding multi-model options for educators and admins—and we map concrete “first-week” workflows inside Office apps. We tie that to “vibe coding” (prompt-based programming) as a teachable practice: Wes shares a personal project (an AI-assisted AppleScript/JS “federated reader” that curates newsletters and posts to Mastodon) and floats the idea of a high-school vibe-coding elective. We balance the security talk with a hopeful AI-in-healthcare segment—Nature-reported work (via ScienceAlert) on a model trained on UK Biobank data that forecasts 1,000+ diseases years in advance, and what “predict-then-prevent” might mean for future wellness curricula. Finally, Jason gives early impressions of Apple’s new iPhones (hello, 17 Pro Max) alongside pragmatic upgrade advice for families on carrier plans. Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links. 🔗 Links We Discussed * Google Gemini for Students * Claude on Copilot * Scientists Train AI to Forecast Over 1,000 Diseases, Years in Advance (Science Alert; 19 September 2025) * 80% of ransomware attacks now use artificial intelligence (MIT Technology Review, 8 Sept 2025) * The GoLaxy Papers: Inside China’s AI persona army (PRX Podcast, 19 Sept 2025) * Vibe Coding: How Prompt-Based AI Is Transforming Software Development (Forbes, 23 Sept 2025) * By some measures, TikTok has grown bigger than Facebook or Instagram in the US (Sherwood News, 17 Sept 2025) * The Firing of Educators Over Kirk Comments Follows a Familiar Playbook (NY Times, 22 Sept 2025) * OMGGGGG NEEWWWW IPhoneeeee! * nanobanana.ai * obsidian.md * An Introduction to MCP and Authorization * www.descript.com * code.visualstudio.com * Jason’s Geek of the Week: nativemind.app * Wes’ Geeks of the Week: January 2026 Thrive Conference - Kahoot Quiz from YouTube Video via OpenMCQ 🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss * Mixtral for Students/Educators * Audible’s new AI “Ask a Question” feature lets you interrupt Jane Austen (TechRader; 19 September 2025) * DeepMind AI safety report explores the perils of “misaligned” AI (ArsTechnica, 22 Sept 2025) * Police make 30 arrests a day for offensive online messages (Times of London, 4 April 2025) * “China Keeps the Algorithm”: Critics Attack Trump’s TikTok Deal (Ars Technica, 17 Sep 2025) * China Blocks Sale of Nvidia AI Chips (Ars Technica, 17 Sep 2025) * Security Analysts Flag Rise in Russian-Created Misinformation Posts (ABC News, 23 September 2025) * UN aviation gathering opens under shadow of cyberattacks, geopolitical tensions (Reuters, 23 Sept 2025) Episode 359 is also available on YouTube. Get full access to EdTech Situation Room Podcast at edtechsr.substack.com/subscribe