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MacKenzie Scott backs last-gap student lending — Funding U gets support tied to personal story
Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has provided support to Funding U, a lender offering last-gap, merit-based loans to low-income students without co-signers, citing her own college experience with a...
AlphaFold at five: AI remakes protein science, reshapes lab training
Five years after AlphaFold 2’s debut, DeepMind’s protein-structure AI has become integral to biochemical research and graduate training, scientists say. The model’s accuracy in predicting protein...
AI therapy startup shutters — Founder warns chatbots are dangerous for crisis care
An early-stage AI therapy startup, Yara AI, was shut down by its founders who concluded that chatbots pose unacceptable risks for users in crisis. Founder Joe Braidwood and clinical cofounder...
Dartmouth instructor flags AI disruption — ChatGPT arrived mid‑career shift to teaching
A faculty member who left consulting to teach at Dartmouth described how the arrival of ChatGPT in late 2022 upended early experiments in curriculum design. The instructor developed a course on AI...
AI valuations skyrocket — Startups double and triple valuations within months
A wave of back-to-back funding rounds has driven rapid, multi-fold valuation increases at leading AI startups, with firms raising subsequent rounds months apart and posting dramatic valuation...
Northwestern reaches $75 million settlement — research funding restored
Northwestern University agreed to pay $75 million to settle probes by the Trump administration and to regain federal research funding. The payment ends an investigation that had put the...
AI and accreditation: colleges forced to redraw faculty and staff roles
A sector analysis warns that generative AI is reshaping instruction, research and administrative work and that accreditation systems must adapt. The piece argues universities treat faculty as...
MBAs and incubators: NYU lab wins Prix Galien — Georgetown commits $10m
NYU Stern’s Endless Frontier Labs captured the Prix Galien honor for best incubator, while Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business secured a $10 million commitment to fund 20...
Enrollment chiefs go private‑market rich — universities pay big to boost early applicants
Admissions leaders at Tulane and the University of Chicago have drawn attention for seven‑figure compensation packages after steering surges in early applications. The reporting shows senior...
Founder‑student balances scale and study — campus entrepreneurship in action
Elijah Khasabo, a 22‑year‑old University of Massachusetts Amherst senior, is scaling Vidovo toward $1 million in revenue while completing his degree. He represents a growing cohort of student...
MacKenzie Scott backs student lending innovation — funding gaps in higher ed finance
Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has supported Funding U, a lender offering last‑gap, merit‑based loans to low‑income students without co‑signers, following a personal story about a college loan...
MIT digital twin: AI can already perform tasks equal to nearly 12% of US jobs
MIT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Project Iceberg estimates current AI systems can economically substitute for tasks covering about 11.7% of U.S. wage value. The simulation mapped 32,000...
AI therapy app shut down over safety concerns — campuses warned on chatbot care
Yara AI’s founders discontinued their mental‑health chatbot product and cancelled a paid launch, saying the technology posed safety risks for vulnerable users. CEO Joe Braidwood and clinical...
Signal warns AI agents threaten secure messaging — campus privacy risk escalates
Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal, warned that AI agents — software that performs tasks by accessing a user’s data — pose an 'existential' threat to secure messaging. She cautioned that...
Buoniconti Fund drives $550m for paralysis research — Miami Project expands
The Buoniconti Fund has helped raise more than $550 million for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Founded after Marc Buoniconti’s paralysis,...
Northwestern deal: $75 million to end probe and restore research funding
Northwestern University agreed to pay $75 million to resolve a federal investigation and restore its access to research funding, the institution said in a settlement with the Trump administration....
AI and accreditation... Institutions told to redefine faculty and staff roles
A new policy brief argues that the arrival of generative AI requires colleges and accreditors to reshape faculty and staff roles to protect mission and continuity. The piece—addressing...
MIT report: AI can replace nearly 12% of U.S. workforce
A new MIT study using a large-scale labor simulation found current AI systems can economically and technically perform work equal to roughly 11.7% of U.S. jobs, a finding that has direct...
AlphaFold five years: protein folding prediction joins the lab toolkit
Five years after AlphaFold 2's debut, Google DeepMind’s protein‑structure AI has become a standard research tool in biochemistry and biology training programs, the company’s scientists say....
MacKenzie Scott backs Funding U: philanthropy aimed at last‑gap student loans
Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott is backing Funding U, a lending startup that offers merit‑based, last‑gap loans to low‑income students without co‑signers, the company and Scott disclosed. The...