I’m talking about AI and safeguarding at the AoC Digital Futures conference next week. The subject was suggested by the conference organising team, as it’s coming up a lot in their discussions. I think it’s a good choice, and highly topical – especially with the UK government’s conversations around social media (which is driven by […]
Author: Michael Webb
We hear a recurring thread that AI isn’t necessarily improving productivity, but it is helping people cope when under pressure. I’ve been reflecting a lot on this from a personal perspective – over the last few months, I’ve been under additional pressure as my team has been down on numbers for various reasons, some good, […]
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A Generative AI Primer
Version 1.7– January 2026. First version published in April 2023. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. An Introduction to the Generative AI Technology 2.1 ChatGPT 2.2. Microsoft Copilot 2.3. Google Gemini 2.4. Other Models 2.5. A summary of key capabilities, limitations, and concerns around ChatGPT and other Large Language Models 2.6 Image and Video Generation […]
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An Agentic AI Primer
Contents 1. Introduction 2. An overview of agentic AI technology 2.1 When is an Agent not Agentic? 2.2 Agentic Mode in AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude 2.3 Agentic Browsers such as ChatGPT Atlas and Perplexity Comet 2.4 Microsoft Copilot and Agents 2.5 Agents working together 3. Impact of Agentic AI on Education 3.1 […]
In September, I wrote a blog post advising against enabling Anthropic in Microsoft Copilot. The reason was that the integration was under completely separate terms and data processing agreements. Thankfully, Microsoft has listened to feedback and onboarded Anthropic as a subprocessor. Whilst this doesn’t significantly change the technical implementation, it completely changes the contractual side. […]
Important update! Microsoft have now updated their approach, so this is outdated information. You can read the update here: A welcome update on Microsoft Copilot and Anthropic I’ve left this blog post here in case anyone wants to understand the history of this and the original issue. An unusually blunt blog title for me, but […]
Artificial intelligence is already part of the everyday reality of colleges and universities, shaping how students learn, how staff work, and how institutions operate. Across the board, we see institutions moving along our AI maturity model towards embedding AI. That makes leadership and strategy essential. We are working on a new framework to help the […]
The US Government has just published its AI action plan. Given the UK’s own AI Opportunities Action Plan was published earlier this year, and that both plans touch directly or indirectly on education and research, it’s worth comparing the two. What’s changing in the US? How does it differ from the UK approach? And what […]
This blog post is an update to two previous entries that focused on AI detection tools: ‘AI Detection: Latest Recommendations’ (September 2023) and ‘AI Writing Detectors – Concepts and Considerations’ (March 2023). As we look ahead to the next academic year, this feels like an opportune moment to revisit the topic. The core concepts and […]
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Farewell ExploreAI!
In the dim and distant past (well, about 5 years ago), there was a time when very few people working in education were interested in AI. And if they were, most people only had the vaguest of understanding on what it could do – either vastly overestimating what was possible, almost seeing it as akin […]