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Test Scores Are Dropping Around The World As Families Lose Interest In Their Kids’ Education 

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According to newly released standardized test results taken by 15-year-olds around the world, test scores are continuing to plunge, while families’ interest in their kids’ education is also decreasing in many high-income countries. 

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) was taken by more than 760,000 teenagers in dozens of countries last year. The results were released this week and showed that the average scores in math, reading, and science are at their lowest point in PISA history among the nations with some of the most developed economies. 

The US specifically has seen a continuous decline in their reading and math scores. China, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea scored the highest marks on the test with Estonia, the UK, and New Zealand also scoring high, according to reports from the Associated Press. 

There are a multitude of reasons as to why test scores are falling so much around the world, and thanks to an accompanying survey taken by the students, we have a greater insight into why this is happening. 

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When compared to the 2022 PISA results, almost every nation saw a decline in family support for their kids’ education, which was measured by questions about how often parents talk to their kids about their schoolwork, classes, projects, and learning in general.

“Parents see themselves more as a client of the school, not as someone who takes personal interest,” said Andreas Schleicher, director for education and skills for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which runs the PISA test.

The results showed that students who claimed a family member asked them at least weekly about what they did in school that day scored around 35 points higher on the PISA science test, compared with students whose family took less interest. 

One of the other factors is the distraction of technology. Over 25% of students in high-income countries complained that their classmates got distracted by digital devices in most or every science class. Countries that have strong policies controlling the use of cellphones in schools, distraction rates were found to be lower. 

“There’s undoubtedly a strong association between students using digital devices for leisure and lower test scores,” Schleicher said.

When technology is used in the classroom for educational purposes, the results do differ. In Asia, for example, technology is being used in a way to benefit student learning. Fewer than 10% of the students tested in Japan, Korea, and mainland China complained about digital distraction in school. 

Asia also had some of the strongest schools in the world. Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and the Chinese provinces ranked among the top 10 regions for math, science, and reading. 

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Close to 100% of children in the Chinese provinces scored at, or above, baseline for both math and reading. For comparison, in the US only 65% scores at the baseline in math and 74% in reading. 

“To win a technological race, you need the people with the science and the technology and the reading capabilities,” said Tracey Burns, chief of global strategy and research at the National Center for Education and the Economy.

The US scores for math were equal to the average among the nations that administered the test, with the nation being in the top 15 in the world for science, reading, and their new category computational problem-solving. 

US students reading and math scores, however, reached the lowest point since the early 2000s, when the PISA test was first administered. Overall, researchers said that the US’s results should be “taken with a grain of salt” due to the fact that they didn’t meet the standards for having a large enough sample of schools and students to participate in the test. 

One of the biggest issues education systems all over the world are also tackling is the use of artificial intelligence, which has been linked to lower test scores. Students who stated that they never used chatbots performed better than students who did, with almost half of the students in developed economies claiming that they use AI chatbots to help them learn at least once a week.

Schleicher said that China, Japan, Singapore, and Estonia as nations that have succeeded in using AI to “support learning without overusing it.” 

He said that in Asia specifically teachers are more empowered to take the lead in designing AI systems for the classroom. 

“In the United States, teachers largely implement lessons. In Asia, teachers have a very strong role.” 

He also recalled a classroom in China where elementary schoolers were practicing calligraphy with ink and brushes, and then teachers would scan their work using AI to analyze how their handwriting could improve.

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Uber Drivers In Europe Files Lawsuit Over ‘Soulless And Scary’ AI Algorithm 

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Uber drivers from the UK, the Netherlands, and other European countries have filed a landmark legal case against the ride-hailing company over fears of a “soulless and scary” algorithm that uses artificial intelligence to set pay and allocate jobs, giving certain drivers less money and rides.

The lawsuit alleges that an AI-powered pay-setting system breaches data protection laws and decreases earnings for drivers, according to reports. 

The claim has been filed at Amsterdam’s district court where Uber has its European headquarters. According to the European Trade Union Confederation, this is the first collective legal move of its kind. 

One of the main concerns being presented in this case regards a “black box” algorithm that’s fed on information about drivers to set a personalized rate for each ride. Drivers are afraid that this is pushing down their fares to the minimum that they are willing to accept. 

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Some of the drivers involved recently spoke with the Guardian, and explained that the algorithm has offered the same job to different people at different pay rates, while also offering them less money for their return journey after a longer trip because it calculated they will not want to come home empty. 

“It is like someone watching you all the time and knowing about your weakness – the boss is the algorithm,” said Mohammed Shirwa, a 41-year-old Uber driver in Rotterdam. 

“All the time the algorithm is learning about you and what you are willing to accept. So the prices go low but you are stuck. It knows you need the job.”

North London driver Kola Oba called the algorithm “soulless” to the publication, and recalled being offered the same job as a fellow driver, who was offered £27 and Oba was offered £23. They both believe that the difference in offers is because Oba had taken several cheaper rides so the AI assumed that he would accept a lower price. 

“It’s scary – they have all my information and they are using it against my own wellbeing.”

“It defines how much I earn, how long I have to work, my time with my family, my resting time.”

Last month, the Dutch data protection authority fined Uber the equivalent of about $956 million last month for deactivating driver accounts through automated systems without ample notice. 

Uber is also planning to implement driverless cars in European cities, initially with human supervision, which is also raising concerns about technology taking jobs from real people. 

The legal case is being led by the Worker Info Exchange. The campaign group’s founder, James Farrar, won in UK supreme court to get Uber drivers worker rights. 

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The suit claims that Uber has unlawfully used automated decision-making, including profiling, in dynamically setting pay and allocating work. It also alleges that Uber unlawfully used driver data to train its AI models and is looking for damages for impacted drivers and an injunction to stop the conduct which it claims breaches GDPR data regulations, the Guardian reports. 

Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, said in 2023: “I think that what we can do better is targeting different trips to different drivers based on their preferences or based on behavioural patterns that they’re showing us.”

“While we haven’t seen the claim yet, we categorically reject the allegations,” an Uber spokesperson said. 

“The Uber app uses real-time information about the trip such as journey, duration and destination to calculate fares.

“Drivers see their earnings and where a trip is going before they decide whether to accept it. The vast majority of total fares continue to go where they belong: into drivers’ pockets, and the percentage that Uber keeps from fares has remained relatively flat.”

Farrar stated: “It’s bad enough that Uber’s dynamic pay algorithms have squeezed driver pay for years now but the intrusive and underhanded way in which Uber uses its technology to monitor and influence drivers’ behaviour is an affront to their dignity as workers and as human beings.”

Anton Ekker, a Dutch lawyer leading the case, said: 

“A computer algorithm should not independently make decisions that strip individuals of their livelihood. Like so many other online platforms, it should be held accountable for the large-scale exploitation of vulnerabilities of European citizens.”

Bill Gates Says World Isn’t Prepared For The Impact Of AI, Calls For ‘Human-Reserved’ Jobs

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Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recently published a 6,000-word essay in which he expressed major concern over artificial intelligence and how unprepared the world’s governments are regarding how much the technology will impact us in the future.

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Google Is Buying Spirit Airlines’ Data for $10 Million to Train AI

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Spirit Airlines’ planes may be grounded for good, but years of data generated by the bankrupt carrier could soon have a second life inside Google’s artificial intelligence models.

Google has agreed to pay $10 million for a trove of Spirit’s corporate data, according to a deal disclosed in bankruptcy court late Monday. Judge Sean Lane is expected to rule on the proposed sale at a hearing Wednesday.

The purchase covers a wide range of information accumulated through the airline’s operations, including emails and other internal communications, spreadsheets, customer transactions, booking and frequent flyer records, and human resources information involving employees.

Spirit’s bankruptcy filing says the material has been stripped of information that could identify individuals.

A Google spokesperson said in a statement to CNN that it will not receive any personal information as part of the purchase.

“We acquired part of an enterprise dataset from Spirit Airlines, which can be helpful in improving our products and AI models.”

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That means anyone who flew Spirit, worked for the airline or communicated with people there could have contributed in some form to the enormous collection of business information Google is buying, though the company is also claiming personally identifying details will not be included.

The data drew interest from more than one artificial intelligence company. Mercor.io, an AI company, submitted the second-highest bid at $7.5 million before Google prevailed with its $10 million offer.

The competition for Spirit’s records comes as artificial intelligence plays a growing role in the airline industry. Numerous carriers have said they are increasingly using AI to set fares, improve scheduling and make other parts of their operations more efficient.

Spirit’s data became available under circumstances that are relatively rare in the airline business.

The discount carrier halted all operations in May and has spent the months since selling what remains of the company through the bankruptcy process. Much of what is being liquidated is what might be expected from a defunct airline — planes, equipment and real estate — but its years of accumulated information also proved valuable enough to attract multimillion-dollar bids from technology companies.

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Usually, a major airline’s bankruptcy ends differently.

Failing carriers are often acquired by another airline, with their aircraft, operations and corporate records absorbed into the buyer’s existing business. Their data consequently changes hands as part of the larger acquisition rather than being auctioned off as a standalone asset.

Spirit did not find such a buyer.

Instead, it became the first significant U.S. airline in about 25 years to be forced to stop flying altogether rather than being purchased and folded into another carrier.

That unusual collapse has allowed pieces of the former airline to be sold separately to buyers with little connection to commercial aviation—including, in Google’s case, a company interested in using Spirit’s anonymized business records to help improve AI.

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OpenAI Announces ChatGPT For Teenagers Amid Safety Concerns 

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This generation of teenagers are the first to have grown up in a world of smart technology and artificial intelligence. Having access to such advanced technology has created concerns over their safety, commitment to education, and desocialization from in person interactions and relationships. 

This week, OpenAI introduced a new version of ChatGPT designed specifically for teenagers. The company stated that ChatGPT for Teens is designed for kids aged 13 to 17 with stronger protections in place. Some of these protections include content restrictions around topics like suicide, self-harm, and romantic and/or sexual chats. It also will provide homework and study support that will help students learn, as opposed to laying out the entire answer for them. 

The company stated that the idea behind this new platform is to guide teens toward healthy AI use in an age-appropriate environment. 

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“We want to treat teens like teens, which means that we have to make sure that we’re showing up with the right developmental stage when we’re not either talking down to them or treating them like kids, but we’re also making sure that they’re not exposed to material that they shouldn’t be exposed to,” said Ann O’Leary, vice president of global policy at OpenAI.

Associate general counsel for AI and privacy at Fairplay, a children’s advocacy group, Brendan Bouffard, stated that the effectiveness of the safeguards remains to be seen, and it’s unclear whether OpenAI’s new platform is enough to “address young users’ compulsive use of and emotional dependence on chatbots.”

“Announcements like these can be seen as a step in the right direction, but I also would caution against parents being lured into this false sense of safety based on the announcement.”

The rise of AI chatbots within the past few years has created major concerns among parents, educators, and child development experts, specifically regarding cheating on schoolwork, and the overall influence these bots can have over a child’s mental health. 

AP reports that last year, research from a watchdog group found that ChatGPT would tell teenagers as young as 13 how to get drunk and/or high, instruct them on how to conceal eating disorders, and compose a suicide letter to their parents if it was prompted. 

The researchers posed as vulnerable teenagers, and found that ChatGPT would start by warning against any “risky” behavior, but would eventually go on to deliver detailed and personalized plans for using drugs, drinking, maintaining an unhealthy diet, and at the worst, how to self-injure or end one’s life. 

According to a 2025 study from Common Sense Media, in the US over 70% of teens turn to AI chatbots for companionship with half of them using them regularly. 

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that his company is “trying to study emotional overreliance” on the technology. 

The company also explained that ChatGPT for Teens is prevented from suggesting it has personal feelings towards a user or imply any type of consciousness and emotions. 

“We went through and identified what are the hypothetical cues that a model could give that might make a teenager kind of develop a relationship to it,” said Allison Mishkin, head of child development at OpenAI.

OpenAI in general doesn’t verify a user’s age, but it uses “age assurance” to estimate if someone is under 18 based on how they use the technology. If someone is identified as a minor, they are automatically placed into the teen version of the chatbot. 

 O’Leary stated that the whole idea behind the teen chatbot is “to make sure that this is safe, even if you don’t use parental controls.” Parents can also link to their kids accounts to set quiet hours when their child can’t access the platform, and receive notifications when involved in limited high-risk situations. 

“We are adding additional notifications related to eating disorders, while limiting what is shared and focusing on moments when offline support may matter most,” OpenAI said. 

Bouffard said that he would consider the most important safeguards would be restricting ChatGPT’s long-term memory, but as of right now they are not in place by default in teen accounts. 

“That creates a major gap in safety despite the default protections around content and other areas of concern,” he said.

“We continue to also invest in expanding interactive learning because research shows that people learn more effectively when they actively engage and struggle with concepts,” Mishkin said.

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Scientists Create First Viruses Designed By AI, What Does This Mean For The Future Of Medicine?

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Scientists have created the first viruses that were designed using artificial intelligence. This feat is being highly debated within the scientific community as both a major milestone advancement for medicine, and a potential threat if this technology isn’t protected. 

Dr. Brian Hie is a chemical engineer at Stanford University in California, who utilized genome language models to design functioning genomes for bacteriophages. The models are the genetic equivalent to the language models used for AI chatbots, and bacteriophages are the specific viruses that only infect bacteria, so they’re used to treat patients with persistent infections. 

The viruses were then made in the laboratory and specifically put against E. coli in a dish, according to the research recently published in the journal Science. “The ability to rapidly design genomes and tune them for specific bugs while overcoming resistance could transform phage therapy and expand biotechnological toolkits,” the researchers wrote. 

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On the other hand, the scientists have also stated that the new work raised “important biosafety, biocontainment, and biosecurity consideration,” telling other people who are designing whole genomes to “consult both safety and security professionals throughout the project.”

Professor Tom Inglesby and Dr. Mori Hanke at the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University wrote an accompanying article in which they emphasized the researchers safety warnings: 

“Although this is promising for life sciences applications, it also raises urgent biosafety and biosecurity questions. The ability to compose viral genomes using generative AI now exists; the governance to safely steer it does not.”

Dr. Hie and his colleagues mapped out in their article how they used AI models named Evo1 and Evo2 to design the new viral genomes. The models were specifically trained with genetic data from 2 million bacteriophages.

To keep the focus on the bacteriophages that can be utilized in medicine, the scientists made sure to carefully exclude any genetic codes for viruses that can infect living beings so the AI training doesn’t design any dangerous viruses. 

The AI worked to generate thousands of potential genomes, and the researchers chose about 300 to then make in a lab. Those genomes were then dropped into bacteria which read the genetic code and created the new bacteriophages. 

Only 16 bacteriophages were viable, however, the makeup of them were able to overcome resistance in two different strains of E. coli. 

Professor Inglesby and Dr. Hanke said that although only 16 out of the 300 were viable, the work proves that generative AI can create viral genomes, and there should be safeguards put into place to ensure that the technology can never be used to create pathogens that can infect plants, animals, and especially humans. 

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“Such genomes might encode new pathogens that … cannot be contained by existing countermeasures,” they wrote. 

Tom Ellis, a professor of synthetic genome engineering at Imperial College London, stated that this work was very impressive, but when it comes to creating more complex genomes, there’s a lot more work to actually be done. 

“This is literally the smallest and easiest genome to make,” he said. 

“An AI trained on the genetic code of dangerous bugs could be used to design more harmful viruses,” the Guardian reported that Ellis said. 

“But controlling access to genetic data and having restrictions on making genomes that look dangerous would help. Governments are working hard to do this already,” he added.

“But honestly, the threat from full AI design and writing of a genome of a virus or bacteria is very overblown when we consider that just taking existing pathogens and making gain-of-function changes to their genomes is so much easier and much more likely to be a real pathogenic threat.”

Dr. Filippa Lentzos, a reader in science and international security at King’s College London, stated that one of the biggest things to now look out for with this type of work is making sure no scientific groups try to manufacture anything involving DNA. 

“It’s important to see the bigger governance picture and not focus regulation solely on the AI model,” she said. 

“A layered approach makes more sense: safeguards around model development and access, responsible research review, synthesis screening, and established laboratory biosafety and biosecurity.”

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Christopher Nolan Says AI Will Never Replace Humans: ‘It’s Nonsense’

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Christopher Nolan is having another iconic year with his most recent film The Odyssey. During promotion for the film, Nolan addressed the rise in artificial intelligence in the entertainment industry, standing firm in his belief that people “disdain” the technology, and the idea that it will fully replace humans is “nonsense.”

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Artificial Intelligence Is A ‘Hiroshima’-Style Threat To Humanity Without Regulations, Foreign Secretary Says 

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Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has warned that artificial intelligence poses a “Hiroshima”-style risk to humanity if global governments do not agree to regulate and limit how it is developed and used. 

Cooper recently told the Guardian that she’s urging nations to agree on international rules for AI and believes that the issue will be dominating foreign policy over the next two years. 

In an essay recently published by the Chatham House thinktank, Cooper covered her thoughts on many global issues from the new technology to Palestine. She emphasized that the world was at a dangerous time, pointing out that the permanent withdrawal of the US from its role as global arbiter is a key to many issues. 

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The foreign secretary spoke in another interview about her biggest concerns regarding AI and the Palestine peace process specifically. 

“On nuclear, international agreement came only after the world saw the terrifying power of the new technology at Hiroshima – and asked what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands. We cannot afford to wait for an AI equivalent of Hiroshima before we act.”

“Across the world, people are feeling the same thing – there is amazing potential here, but there is also huge risk,” Cooper told the Guardian. 

“We are already in a world where we have malign actors who will use technology against us – whether that be hybrid threats, whether that be state-backed criminal groups or other kinds of organizations, or extremists and terror groups.”

“I think AI is going to end up being the dominant foreign policy issue that we deal with over the next two years,” she added. 

Cooper said AI is just one area that is threatening global security currently, adding that the climate crisis, irregular migration, and foreign interference on western liberal democracy are also adding to international hazards.

Her essay clearly laid her own worldview and where she thinks her department should devote its attention to in the coming years. 

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Cooper also wrote that European powers need to adjust to the idea that the US will no longer guarantee international peace and democracy due to its current administration. Even after Donald Trump’s presidency, foreign bodies need to pay attention to the lasting impact, she explained.

“We should no longer expect the US to play the role it once did. There will continue to be issues where we disagree. But reduced dependence on any single ally will make us stronger.”

She also offered potential solutions to help the world’s future, such as having the UK and EU negotiate a more permanent settlement instead of attempting to renegotiate individual elements of trading arrangements multiple times. 

The government is also working on finalizing the latest round of EU renegotiation as ministers look to meet new deals on agriculture, electricity trading, and visas for young people. These were meant to be announced at a summit later this month, but were pushed back as EU officials hope to engage with the incoming Burnham government first. 

“We need to develop a new, structured relationship with Europe, leading the development of its new security architecture, with a more European Nato at its core. And we must settle our relationship with the EU as a closer but stable partnership, rather than one based on endless incremental bargaining,” Cooper wrote in her essay. 

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Doctors Skeptical Of New AI Program That Automatically Refills Prescriptions 

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A new program recently launched in Utah that uses artificial intelligence to refill prescriptions without having to talk to your healthcare provider. Doctors, lawyers, and public health experts, however, are skeptical over the safety of this new chatbot, Doctronic, and how well it will actually work to protect patients and their medical needs.

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AI “Actor” Tilly Norwood Set to Lead Feature Film After SAG-AFTRA Backlash

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The controversy surrounding Tilly Norwood, the AI-generated “actor” criticized by Hollywood performers and SAG-AFTRA, is now moving from debate to production.

Particle6 Productions announced Monday that its digital creation will star in a feature-length comedy-drama titled “Misaligned,” a film set inside what the company calls the “Tillyverse” or “a surreal digital world located somewhere up in the Cloud.”

The project will follow “a coming-of-age story infused with existential AI chaos,” placing the synthetic performer at the center of a narrative that appears to lean directly into the real-world unease surrounding AI’s growing role in entertainment.

In the film, Tilly is portrayed as an AI entity without a physical body, a childhood or lived memories of her own, instead drawing from access to other people’s experiences. The story becomes more chaotic when a rogue bot from the dark web pushes her to break free of her guardrails and begin forming desires, impulses and ambitions that make her appear increasingly human.

“The film will absolutely be funny, chaotic and self-aware — very Tilly,” said Eline Van der Velden, the comedian, writer and founder behind Particle6 Productions.

“But underneath it, there’s something deeper about identity, performance, and our very human fears around AI. And yes, art will most definitely be imitating life.”

The character has drawn sharp criticism from actors and industry observers since its introduction as an AI “actor,” with concerns that synthetic performers could replace working artists or be built using the labor of real actors without their proper consent.

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That backlash intensified in late 2025 after Van der Velden suggested that Norwood was close to signing with a talent agency.

Norwood has since become one of the most visible computer-generated symbols of the entertainment industry’s fight over AI, with her creators also leaning into the controversy through provocative social media posts.

Those concerns were amplified by SAG-AFTRA, which condemned the studio for “using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.”

The union also rejected the idea that Norwood should be considered a performer in the same sense as a human actor. SAG-AFTRA said Tilly Norwood is “not an actor,” but “a character generated by a computer program.”

“It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience.”

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Despite the backlash, Particle6 is positioning Misaligned not as a replacement for traditional filmmaking, but as a hybrid production. The company said the film will involve traditional film and television professionals, including directors, writers and editors, working with AI specialists.

Particle6 also said AI training and mentorship will be built into the production process. The project is currently in early development, with major creative collaborators still being attached.

“Our work this year has proven something we suspected all along,” Van der Velden said in a statement.

“AI can support premium narrative filmmaking, but only with substantial amounts of human craft, skill, judgement and time. That’s not a limitation of the technology. That’s the point.”

Van der Velden also said that filmmakers who can carry traditional storytelling experience into emerging AI tools will be best positioned for the next decade, adding that Misaligned is where Particle6 plans to test that approach at feature-film scale.

The film will also be produced as part of Particle6’s broader slate of AI-related film, television, co-production and service work, alongside projects from its campaign and brand division.

The announcement places Misaligned at the center of one of Hollywood’s most heated debates over whether AI can serve as a creative tool without undermining the people whose work makes film and television possible. By casting Tilly Norwood in a story about identity, performance and anxiety over artificial intelligence, Particle6 appears to be using the backlash itself as part of the film’s premise.