How AI is depriving students of basic human skills
The debate over how to use AI in schools — and what constitutes cheating — may seem like a replay of previous debates that occurred when technology disrupted education. But AI feels different. Columnists Molly Roberts, Megan McArdle and Monica Hesse unpack AI's pernicious effects and discuss how we might bring about a better AI future.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fast Company
19 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Bridging the gap: How fusion teams drive business-IT alignment
The traditional boundaries between information technology (IT) and business units are becoming increasingly blurred. Especially as organizations adopt digital transformation initiatives such as artificial intelligence, the need for alignment across teams becomes even more critical. To stay competitive and drive innovation, organizations should work to bridge the gap early between these two domains with high-impact collaboration and consensus on objectives. THE CHALLENGE AND IMPLICATIONS OF SILOED OPERATIONS Historically, IT and business units have operated in silos, each focusing on their individual department goals. In fact, according to McKinsey & Company's 2023 The State of Organizations report, 33% of respondents say initiatives in their companies are being launched in organizational silos, thereby limiting their effectiveness. This separation can lead to miscommunication, misaligned goals, and inefficiencies. Business teams may view IT as a support function, while IT departments might see business units as lacking technical understanding. When IT and business strategies are not in sync, the consequences can be significant. Common challenges include: Delayed Projects And Outcomes: Without clear communication and shared objectives, projects may face delays due to conflicting priorities or misunderstandings yielding delayed benefits. Increased Costs And Risk: Disjointed priorities can lead to redundant efforts or investments in technologies that do not support business goals, resulting in wasted resources or increased risk. Reduced Agility: Organizations may struggle to adapt to market shifts if IT and business units are not working cohesively, leading to missed opportunities. THE SOLUTION: BUILDING FUSION TEAMS To overcome these challenges, organizations should consider embracing fusion teams, which are cross-functional groups that integrate members from IT and business units. These teams work collaboratively toward shared objectives, leveraging diverse expertise to drive innovation and efficiency. By breaking away from the traditional silos, fusion teams can combine technical knowledge with business insights to ensure both perspectives are considered from the start. At my company, we've embraced the fusion team model to connect the dots between IT and business units. By dedicating professionals from operations, marketing, and technology to work together as cohesive pods, we've witnessed great improvements in project delivery times and value realization, without losing oversight. This collaborative approach has facilitated our ability to align our technological initiatives closely with business objectives, resulting in solutions that are both technically sound and strategically relevant. KEY STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL FUSION TEAMS Building a fusion team is a strong first step toward spanning the divide between IT and business, but assembling the team is only the beginning. To unlock real value, leaders should focus on how to set these teams up for long-term success by ensuring they have the structure, support, and shared goals needed to drive meaningful outcomes. Strategies leaders can consider include: Align On Shared Goals: Set clear, common objectives and target outcomes that connect directly to your organization's broader strategy. When everyone understands what they're working toward, teams remain focused, motivated, and aligned. Regularly revisit these goals to ensure they remain relevant as priorities evolve. Dedicate Resources: Assign employees from IT and business units to work together full time with clear role definition and embedded decision rights. By committing dedicated resources, you foster stronger collaboration and create a sense of ownership within the team. Choose The Right Team Structure: Think about whether a centralized or decentralized approach fits your organization best. Centralized teams provide structure, consistency, and focus, while decentralized teams may offer more agility and closer ties to specific business functions. In some cases, a hybrid model may offer the best balance. Rethink Reporting: Consider adjusting reporting lines to drive deeper collaboration. For example, having IT team members temporarily report to business leaders across certain projects can help shift mindsets and instantly realign priorities. Bridging the gap between IT and business teams is no longer a luxury, but a necessity in today's business environment. By fostering fusion teams and promoting a culture of collaboration, organizations can enhance efficiency, drive innovation, and achieve strategic objectives more effectively.
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
BlackLine's Signature Finance Transformation Event Returns to London and Debuts in Paris
LONDON, June 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BlackLine is expanding the reach of its flagship finance transformation event, BeyondTheBlack, with two key events in Europe this June. BeyondTheBlack will return to London on June 17, followed by its debut in Paris on June 19, marking the first time the event has been held in France. Each event brings together finance and accounting leaders across industries to explore how world-class companies are achieving smarter, faster, and more scalable financial operations through BlackLine's AI-powered automation and platform innovation. Event Details: BEYONDTHEBLACK LONDONDate: June 17, 2025Location: De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, LondonDetails & Registration: The London event will feature executive keynotes, live demos, and customer transformation stories from: AstraZeneca Hitachi Kier Group The LEGO Group BEYONDTHEBLACK PARISDate: June 19, 2025Location: Cloud Business Center, ParisDetails & Registration: Marking its debut in France, the Paris conference will be conducted in French and feature customer sessions from: Hilti Renault Savencia Why Attend: Explore BlackLine's latest innovations, including the Studio360 platform Hear directly from customers achieving meaningful business outcomes Participate in deep-dive sessions led by BlackLine experts and partners Connect with a community of finance leaders shaping the future of the Office of the CFO About BlackLine Companies come to BlackLine (Nasdaq: BL) because their traditional manual accounting processes are not sustainable. BlackLine's cloud-based financial operations management platform and market-leading customer experience help companies move to modern accounting by unifying data, automating repetitive work, and driving accountability through visibility. BlackLine provides solutions to manage and automate financial close, intercompany accounting, invoice-to-cash, and consolidation processes—trusted by more than 4,400 customers worldwide, including 50% of the Fortune 500. For more information, visit Media Contact: Samantha DarilekVP, Corporate in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Wire
20 minutes ago
- Business Wire
Udemy Bolsters Leadership Team with Appointment of New Chief Technology Officer to Accelerate Product Roadmap and Technology Innovation
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Udemy (Nasdaq: UDMY), a leading AI-powered skills development platform with nearly 80 million users globally, announced today that Ozzie Goldschmied has been appointed Chief Technology Officer ('CTO'), effective immediately. Simultaneously, founder Eren Bali will transition to a newly created role as Head of Innovation, where he will focus on driving forward the company's product strategy with an emphasis on innovation and artificial intelligence. Ozzie's expertise in developing innovative enterprise solutions that serve millions of users globally will be instrumental as we advance our transformation into a world-class AI-powered platform to reskill and upskill the future workforce. Share In his role as CTO, Goldschmied will report to Hugo Sarrazin, President and CEO of Udemy, and will have oversight of Engineering, Design, Product, Data Science, and Technical Product Management teams. Goldschmied will spearhead the company's continued transformation to a comprehensive AI-powered platform to reskill/upskill the workforce of the future. 'We are excited to welcome Ozzie to Udemy's leadership team at this transformative moment for our company,' said Sarrazin. 'Ozzie's expertise in developing innovative enterprise solutions that serve millions of users globally will be instrumental as we advance our transformation into a world-class, AI-powered platform to reskill and upskill the future workforce. We look forward to leveraging Ozzie's technical leadership to further accelerate execution of our strategy.' 'Udemy is uniquely positioned at the intersection of two powerful growth drivers: the rapid adoption and disruption of AI and the global imperative for continuous skills development,' said Goldschmied. 'AI is impacting every industry and presents a significant opportunity to build solutions that fundamentally transform how skills are developed, measured, and applied. We have enormous potential to leverage Udemy's global scale and massive network of content creators to support our customers' evolving needs as their preferred skills development platform for the AI era and beyond.' With nearly 30 years of technology industry experience, Goldschmied is best known as the co-founder and Head of Engineering at Dayforce, where he spearheaded the creation of its human capital management platform until its acquisition by Ceridian HCM Holdings, Inc. ('Ceridian') in 2012. Following the acquisition, Goldschmied served as CTO of Ceridian, where he led a global team of over 1,200 employees in Research and Development and Product Management functions, driving engineering excellence and innovation that delivered value to thousands of organizations and millions of workers globally. The solution ultimately became Ceridian's flagship platform, and the company rebranded to Dayforce in 2024. Goldschmied was also part of the core team at Workbrain, a workforce management software vendor, where he served as Development Team Lead and Architect. In 2007, Workbrain was acquired by Infor Global Solutions, a global provider of ERP software. Most recently, he served as the founder and CEO at GoldenRock Inc., where he worked closely with private equity and venture capital clients to evaluate potential investments in companies, and to support scaling their businesses and driving product innovation, particularly with AI. Eren Bali to Lead Udemy Innovation Udemy also announced that founder and former CTO Eren Bali will transition to a newly created role, Head of Innovation. In this role, Bali will continue to focus on driving forward Udemy's product vision with a concentrated focus on breakthrough innovations and AI advancement. This strategic move leverages Bali's visionary leadership and deep technical expertise in a capacity where he can have maximum impact on Udemy's future, while Goldschmied oversees the day-to-day operational responsibilities of the broader engineering organization with a focus on scaling its impact. 'I am incredibly excited to focus my energy on pushing the boundaries of what's possible in skills development with technology, which is what I'm most passionate about,' said Bali. 'Udemy's new Innovation Studio is a dedicated space to explore and develop next-generation skilling experiences powered by AI. This transition allows me to leverage my entrepreneurial mindset within Udemy while collaborating with Ozzie to scale our technology and product strategy for the future. Together, we will accelerate Udemy's impact in ways I could never have imagined when we started this journey 15 years ago.' Sarrazin added, 'With Eren in this new role, we can harness his exceptional talents for innovation while strengthening our executive team with Ozzie's enterprise scaling expertise. This strategic pairing will drive Udemy's journey towards becoming the definitive AI-powered skills development platform for customers around the world.' About Udemy Udemy (Nasdaq: UDMY) is an AI-driven skills development platform transforming how companies and individuals across the world build the capabilities needed to thrive in a rapidly evolving workplace. By combining on-demand, multi-language content with real-time innovation, Udemy delivers personalized experiences that empower organizations to scale workforce development and help individuals build the technical, business, and soft skills most relevant to their careers. Today, thousands of companies, including Ericsson, Glassdoor, On24, The World Bank, and Volkswagen, rely on Udemy Business for its enterprise solutions to build agile, future-ready teams. Udemy is headquartered in San Francisco, with hubs across the United States, Australia, India, Ireland, Mexico and Türkiye. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Udemy's expectations relating to future operating results and financial position; anticipated future expenses and investments; and our business strategy and plans. The words 'believe,' 'may,' 'will,' 'estimate,' 'potential,' 'continue,' 'anticipate,' 'intend,' 'expect,' 'could,' 'would,' 'project,' 'plan,' 'target,' and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted include, among others, those risks and uncertainties included under the caption "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC'), including, without limitation, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2025, filed with the SEC on May 1, 2025. All information provided in this release is as of the date hereof, and we undertake no duty to update this information unless required by law.
