Our June collection of articles and announcements to share this month.
Other Jisc News
Insights from our colleagues at Prospects highlight AI’s growing role in student career journeys. The 2025 Early Careers Survey shows nearly 1 in 5 students are turning to tools like ChatGPT for careers advice—and many are reshaping their job applications and career plans as a result. It’s a timely reminder for all of us in education to guide AI use and support informed decision-making.
Education
Teachers can use AI to save time on marking, new guidance says – BBC News
The UK government has issued new guidance encouraging teachers in England to use AI for low-stakes tasks like marking quizzes and drafting routine letters to parents. The aim is to reduce workload and free up time for teaching. Teachers must check AI outputs and be transparent about their use.
For Some Recent Graduates, the A.I. Job Apocalypse May Already Be Here – The New York Times
The unemployment rate for recent college graduates has jumped as companies try to replace entry-level workers with artificial intelligence.
There are some things in teaching that AI won’t change
In this opinion piece, Stephen Bush explores why teaching knowledge-based learning is still more valuable than skill-based learning.
How I use the AI Assessment Scale: Part 1 – Leon Furze
Leon Furze shares how he uses the AI Assessment Scale to guide transparent, practical conversations about AI use in assessment. He stresses it’s a flexible framework, not a detection tool or checklist, and offers tips for applying it in real teaching contexts.
The University of Leicester is transforming student services with Microsoft Dynamics 365. Faster response times and smarter workflows are saving staff over 300 hours a year.
Legal
Government AI copyright plan suffers fourth House of Lords defeat – BBC News
The House of Lords has dealt a fourth defeat to the government over its plans to allow tech companies to use copyrighted material to train their models.
Research
AI system resorts to blackmail if told it will be removed – BBC News
During testing, Anthropic placed their latest model, Claude Opus 4, in a fictional workplace scenario. Faced with replacement and told the responsible engineer was having an affair, the AI—when limited to a choice between blackmail or acceptance—chose to threaten exposure to avoid deactivation.
Though rare and hard to provoke, this behaviour appeared more often than in earlier models. When offered more options, the AI typically preferred ethical ones, like appealing to decision-makers.
Vendor news
ChatGPT Record | OpenAI Help Center
ChatGPT will soon be able to summarise and take notes from Teams meetings. This feature is being rolled out to Team workspaces first with access for Enterprise and EDU subscriptions coming soon.
Keynotes
This spring, both Google and Microsoft showcased their AI roadmaps at I/O and Build. At the heart of both keynotes was a clear message: intelligent agents are moving from concept to reality—and fast.
We’ve summarised what’s new and why it matters.
Google IO:
Gemini goes multi-modal and task-driven
Gemini’s latest versions, 2.5 Pro and Flash, have improved reasoning and speed.
Coming soon to Subscribers, Gemini’s Agent Mode will take actions across Google apps on your behalf, with integrations expanding to Chrome, Search and the Gemini app. With your permission, it can use context across Gmail, Docs, Calendar and more to personalise support.
Control and efficiency
A new feature called “thinking budgets” allows you to allocate AI usage in a way that prioritises cost-efficiency. Expected to be released in the coming weeks, this will be something worth exploring if you’re managing large-scale use across departments.
Smarter, more inclusive outputs
Google’s text-to-speech tech now supports multiple speakers and languages, and Gemini is being embedded across Android devices from smartwatches to dashboards. Android’s new operating system, XR (extended reality), will support Gemini when it arrives via Samsung’s Moohan headset later this year.
Generative media upgrades
Imagen 4 can generate images with better text fidelity, potentially paving the way for its use in generating visual teaching material such as diagrams and educational posters.
The release of VEO 3 and Flow offers powerful tools for text-to-video workflows, and Lyria 2 now creates music from prompts.
Meetings reimagined
Project Starline (now branded as Google Beam) uses multi-camera 3D capture to create more lifelike meeting experiences, with early hardware reaching testers this year. Google Meet also now supports real-time translation – initially for English and Spanish.
The full recording can be found here: Google I/O ’25 Keynote
Microsoft Build:
GitHub Copilot Evolves into a Full AI Coding Agent
GitHub Copilot has been transformed into a comprehensive AI coding agent. Beyond code suggestions, it now assists with debugging, feature implementation, and code refactoring. This evolution aims to streamline development workflows, potentially benefiting computer science departments and coding bootcamps.
Additionally, Microsoft has open-sourced the Copilot Chat extension under the MIT license, promoting transparency and community collaboration in AI-driven development tools.
Microsoft Discovery: Accelerating Research with AI
Microsoft introduced “Discovery” an extensible platform designed to empower researchers by integrating agentic AI into the discovery process. This tool aims to expedite research and development across various fields, which could be particularly beneficial for academic research institutions seeking to enhance their R&D capabilities.
Windows 11 Enhancements: AI Actions and Cross-Device Resume
Windows 11 is set to receive updates that incorporate AI-driven features:
- AI Actions in File Explorer: Users can perform tasks like summarizing documents or editing images directly from the context menu, streamlining routine activities.
- Cross-Device Resume: This feature allows users to seamlessly continue tasks across devices, enhancing flexibility for educators and students who work on multiple devices.
Azure AI Foundry and NLWeb Protocol
Microsoft expanded its Azure AI Foundry, now hosting over 1,900 models, including integrations with third-party AI systems. This expansion offers educational institutions access to a broader range of AI tools for various applications.
The introduction of the NLWeb protocol aims to facilitate natural language interactions on the web, potentially simplifying the development of AI-powered educational platforms.
The full recording can be found here: Microsoft Build 2025 | Satya Nadella Opening Keynote
Find out more by visiting our Artificial Intelligence page to view publications and resources, join us for events and discover what AI has to offer through our range of interactive online demos.
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Get in touch with the team directly at AI@jisc.ac.uk