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Oh dear. "These apps are designed to be addictive"

Study Shows Teens Use Phones More Than an Hour a Day at School "These apps are designed to be addictive," says one of the study's authors.

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Very interesting. An experimental brain-computer interface, or BCI. Made by New York–based startup Synchron, it decodes brain signals to carry out commands on the laptop and other devices.

There's Neuralink—and There's the Mind-Reading Company That Might Surpass It Unlike Elon Musk's brain-computer interface, Synchron's doesn't require open-skull surgery, and it has an OpenAI chatbot baked in.

New York Times: A.I. in the classroom
By Evan Gorelick
Chatbots have wormed their way into everything: phones, cars, TVs, offices. They’re also in kids’ classrooms.

Microsoft and OpenAI announced yesterday that they would spend millions on a new program that will train teachers to use artificial intelligence. It’s part of a bigger push by tech companies to get their chatbots into schools. They’re selling A.I. subscriptions to administrators and promising them that the bots will help teachers grade assignments, prepare lessons and draft recommendation letters. The companies say A.I. proficiency will prepare kids for the work force.

They also approach students directly with discounted subscription rates around exam periods. It’s an old playbook: Get kids hooked, and you’ve got future customers.

But do chatbots actually help them learn? So far, there’s little evidence. Today, I explain how students have become guinea pigs in a national classroom-learning experiment.
What’s happening?

After years of hesitancy and hand-wringing about A.I., schools are starting to experiment with chatbots — some with enhanced privacy guardrails, some without. In a nationally representative survey, nearly half of districts reported having provided A.I. training for their teachers as of last fall. That’s twice the number from the previous year.

In Kelso, Wash., middle and high schoolers used Google’s Gemini this school year for tasks like research and writing. In Newark, an A.I. tool from Khan Academy helps teachers place elementary-school students into study groups based on their skill levels. It also answers students’ questions as teachers give lessons.

Colleges are buying chatbots, too. The California State University System just signed a $17 million deal with OpenAI to give its 460,000 students access to ChatGPT, despite major state funding cuts. The school wants to equip students with A.I. to debug computer code, make digital art, edit essays and research assignments. Schools like Duke and the University of Maryland are among a growing group that have introduced homegrown chatbots for similar tasks.
Same pitch, new era

Tech companies are using an old marketing strategy: Promise that the latest tech will solve classroom problems. In the early 2000s, they told parents and educators that laptops would revolutionize classroom learning. Districts spent millions.

Two decades later, tech companies are still peddling the same fear of missing out: They suggest students need cutting-edge tools for tomorrow’s economy, and schools that don’t provide them are setting their students up for failure. “‘I don’t want my kids to get left behind.’ That’s the first thing we hear from districts,” Vicki Zubovic, who heads outreach for Khan Academy’s new classroom A.I. service, told me.

The government is on board, too. President Trump signed an executive order in April urging schools to integrate A.I. into classrooms at all grade levels. He said doing so would be necessary “to ensure the United States remains a global leader in this technological revolution.”
Will it help students learn?

While tech companies promise that A.I. can facilitate “personalized learning,” many students and educators are simply using chatbots as a sophisticated search engine. (Some also use it to cheat, including by drafting essays.) The Jetsonian features are familiar; interview-prep bots and virtual tutors have been around for years.

Julia Kaufman, who tracks national education data for the RAND Corporation, told me that it was “really hard to know” whether A.I. would actually improve student learning. Since the tools are so new, there’s virtually no research on their efficacy yet.

Laptop programs offer a sobering precedent. They modestly improved students’ long-term achievement: An analysis of 10 studies found “small” but statistically significant bumps in writing, math and science. But those gains often relied on teacher buy-in and revamped curriculums — and fell short of interventions like reducing class sizes and offering tutors.

This time around, the stakes are arguably higher. A generation of students is learning what it means to coexist with — and depend on — powerful, often opaque technology. In many cases, they’re handing over their data to tech companies. And researchers won’t know for years whether the experiment has worked.

Two girls at a school desk look at the same laptop screen.
At First Avenue Elementary School in Newark, N.J. Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times

Ugliest Dog Day on June 20 celebrates the pups out there with a face only a mother could love. But when it comes to man’s best friend, is there really any dog that can’t be deemed adorable? We honor the facially challenged ones on June 20, Ugliest Dog Day. What started as a fun contest has grown into an annual celebration of the not-so-handsome dogs amongst us. So grab your favorite pup and give him an extra snuggle today and as you go about your day, say hi to every pup, pretty and not so pretty.

Ugliest Dog Day Ugliest Dog Day on June 20 celebrates all canines, no matter their looks. We’ve got the scoop on how to pay tribute to the unattractive dogs of the world.

The freedom of African Americans from slavery in the U.S. in 1865 is celebrated on the holiday Juneteenth on June 19. Juneteenth is made up of the words ‘June’ and ‘nineteenth,’ and it is on this day that Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Texas more than 155 years ago to inform slaves that slavery had been abolished.

Juneteenth Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the U.S., commemorates African American freedom — while emphasizing education and achievement

NATIONAL SMILE POWER DAY
On June 15 we smile on National Smile Power Day in hopes our smile makes another person smile who makes another person smile.

When you smile at someone, you are telling them that they are valued and worth the smile that you just gave them. Smiles are morale boosters and confidence builders. On National Smile Power Day, show your power by sharing a smile with everyone you meet.

NATIONAL SMILE POWER DAY | June 15 NATIONAL SMILE POWER DAY On June 15 we smile on National Smile Power Day in hopes our smile makes another person smile who makes another person smile.

FATHER'S DAY
Father's Day falls on the third Sunday in June to honor the role fathers play in the family structure and society. This day recognizes not just fathers, but the father figures in our lives. These are the men we look up to who set solid examples for us and guide us throughout our lives.

FATHER'S DAY | Third Sunday in June FATHER'S DAY Father's Day falls on the third Sunday in June to honor the role fathers play in the family structure and society. This day recognizes not just

National Dog Dad Day is celebrated every year the day before Father’s Day and this year, it falls on June 14. It is an opportunity for all the dog dads out there to acknowledge the love they have for their pets and strengthen the relationship between pups and their owner dads. Like all relationships between humans and pets, the bond between dog and their dog dads is special. The day is recognized so that you can spend time with your dog and give it all the treats it deserves.

National Dog Dad Day National Dog Dad Day is a beautiful day for all dog dads! It is the day to celebrate the meaningful relationship between a dog and its owner.

America’s Flag Day marks the Second Continental Congress’s adoption of the first U.S. national flag on June 14, 1777. The first flag featured the same 13 red and white stripes we see today. However, the number and arrangement of stars have changed as the number of states has increased over the centuries. The current flag has remained the same since 1960. Will we ever go from 50 to 51? Read on for a look at some possible statehood candidates. And consider this a warmup for Independence Day — in just 20 days.

Flag Day Flag Day marks the Second Continental Congress' adoption of the first U.S. national flag on June 14, 1777. Question of the day: What will be the 51st state?