AI Research
How is AI shaping the future of education? A Baltimore tech founder weighs in.
Maryland education and tech professionals are weighing in as this Question Everything asks, “How is AI and new technology shaping the future of education?”
There is no generation that is more important for our future than the next one, and the future is changing by the minute, especially with technology.
The heavy focus on artificial intelligence has many parents wondering how it will impact the classroom.
AI in education
When it comes to education these days, it’s not what many of us remember as kids.
Who would have thought that kids would be learning virtually, using laptops and iPads instead of pencils and paper, and also experimenting with artificial intelligence?
“I would say AI is coming whether you like it or not. That’s the most direct way I can say it. The best thing we can do is get in front of it,” said Brandon Phillips, Future Think Hub Founder, Creator of A.I. Software.
Seventh-grader De’Aria Johnson is embracing every second of it.
“It’s a new thing to me, but it’s super fun and cool,” said Johnson, a student at City Springs Elementary School.
AI programs in schools
WJZ got an inside look at City Springs’ Future Think Edge summer program. The pilot program includes trying out new AI software that was developed by Phillips.
“It’s an AI software that gives each student an individual teacher,” Phillips said. “That software learns that student and teaches that student at their capacity.”
The software caters to the personal needs of every student to teach them subjects like math, science and coding in a game-like setting.
“It’ll engage with you almost like a human being. It’s a computer, but it’s going to learn you and build your profile around you,” said Phillips.
It helps students solve problems and think critically, but even more importantly, it maximizes their learning potential.
“I realized by paying attention in school and also being a student that was gifted, that the gifted students get attention,” Phillips said. “Even if I was a special needs student or a gifted student, I would still get the same amount of attention.”
“I would love to use this during school because if I don’t know something that the teacher tells me, I can just go on Future Think and they can like explain it more,” said Johnson. “I can ask about the question instead of just asking my teacher.”
School leaders react
City Springs Elementary School Assistant Principal Rob Summers sees the importance of having students engage with technologies like this that could soon dominate our future.
“We can’t just be preparing our kids for the economy of five years ago or the economy today; we have to be ready for what’s next,” said Sumers.
“The teacher’s still there. The teacher still has their own lesson plan and they push that student, but the computer is assisting them one-by-one to make sure they get the best outcome,” Phillips said.
It’s a front row seat on how AI and new technology are shaping the future of education. It’s even shaping how we do interviews.
We sat down virtually with Dr. Aileen Hawkins, CEO of Inspired Online Schools USA.
She feels her school is ahead of the game as well.
We asked Dr. Hawkins about some of the benefits that students can look forward to at her school.
“The flexibility that online schooling provides is just second to none,” said Dr. Hawkins. “The ability for students to engage with their learning wherever, whenever they are, and the ability to take school with them when they’re on the go is just, it’s fantastic.”
Enrollment for the school exploded beyond what started as mostly student-athletes.
It picked up steam post-pandemic, and the school now offers live classes in the U.S. and enrolls students all year round.
“The growth in online schooling says to me that parents are looking for alternatives for their children,” Dr. Hawkins said. “They know that their children deserve an education that’s built expressly for them, and an online school can do that in ways that brick and mortar schools aren’t quite yet set up for. So the future is already here, in my opinion.”
At Inspired Online Schools USA, students can interact with classmates all around the world and use augmented reality for lessons, allowing them to step inside a museum or learn about the human heart in a virtual lab.
When asked if she thinks every school will have to catch up to this technology and artificial intelligence, Dr. Hawkins said. “Absolutely.”
“In the same way that we all had to wrap our brains around using a calculator to do math when we were all in school, now we have to embrace these technologies because they are essential to the jobs of the future and most importantly, they accelerate students along their own learning pathways and to be able to reason critically, Dr. Hawkins said. “To be able to analyze, to be able to create. Those are higher-order thinking skills and competencies that students today must master in order to be competitive in the workforce tomorrow.”
It’s uncertain what the future holds, but we have a glimpse. Covered books, chalkboards and other classrooms could soon be history.
Educators say don’t resist, embrace it.
“If we try to just bury our heads in the sand, the outcomes are not going to be helpful to us,” said Assistant Principal Summers.
“We have an opportunity to jump in front and take control of it, or we can let it take control of us,” said Phillips.
Despite the growing trend of artificial intelligence, a new survey by Junior Achievement shows that more than half of teens, 64%, report that their schools or teachers do not encourage the use of AI as learning tools.
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has partnered with publishing solutions company Enago to deploy bespoke artificial intelligence (AI) technology for screening incoming journal submissions. The move is designed to streamline the manuscript submission process and enhance the author experience.
The collaboration will see Enago’s AI-powered manuscript screening technology, built on the company’s Enago Reports platform, integrated into RSC’s submission workflow. The system will check manuscripts against journal-specific requirements across RSC’s portfolio, providing authors with targeted guidance on compliance before submission.
“We are excited to partner with Enago to deliver this innovative pre-submission tool to support our authors with manuscript preparation and to speed up the submission process,” said Emma Wilson, Director of Publishing at RSC. “Investing in author tools such as this supports our goal to provide an enhanced and excellent author experience.”
The technology represents a shift towards automated pre-submission checking, addressing a common pain point in academic publishing where manuscripts are frequently rejected or delayed due to formatting and compliance issues rather than scientific content.
Abhigyan Arun, CEO of Enago said: “The RSC is one of the foremost publishers progressing high quality scientific research and it is a privilege to partner with them,” he said. “Providing authors with accurate actionable information on their manuscript is a step towards improving editorial and peer review efficacy.”
The system is designed to reduce the administrative burden on editorial teams while helping authors prepare submissions that meet specific journal requirements from the outset. This could potentially reduce submission-to-decision times and improve overall publishing efficiency.
The partnership also reflects a broader trend in academic publishing towards AI-assisted manuscript processing, as publishers seek to balance efficiency gains with maintaining rigorous peer review standards.
Earlier this year, Enago announced the launch of DocuMark, developed by Trinka AI. DocuMark is a platform designed to transform how academic institutions address AI-assisted student submissions, shifting the focus from detection to transparency.
Greece recently witnessed the world’s first International Humanoid Olympiad in Olympia, where humanoid robots played boxing and soccer matches to attain glory.
The event, held from August 29 to September 2, was organized by Acumino and Endeavor, who invited industry leaders to line up as speakers, apart from the smart machines displaying their abilities.
While humanoid robots have increasingly gained popularity for mirroring human actions, we have yet to see them involved in routine household chores like washing dishes and tidying closets.
Comparisons with AI
AI has advanced explosively in the past year through applications like ChatGPT, but the same cannot be said about its physical cousins – the humanoid robots. Humanoid robots are miles behind in learning from data compared to AI software and tools.
Minas Liarokapis, a Greek academic and startup founder who organized the Olympiad, made a rather bold prediction regarding humanoids becoming a helping hand in the kitchens and other household chores.
“I really believe that humanoids will first go to space and then to houses … the house is the final frontier,” she told the Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday.
“To enter the house, it’ll take more than 10 years. Definitely more,” said Liarokapis.
“I’m talking about executing tasks with dexterity, not about selling robots that are cute and are companions,” she continued.
Pinpointing the AI advantage
Any AI tool or software needs vast data for training to perform at its best. Fortunately, there’s colossal data available for training with such tools. The same, however, cannot be said for humanoids and robots.
Humanlike robots are roughly 100,000 years behind AI in learning from data, all thanks to that large divide in data availability.
Ken Goldberg, a University of California, Berkeley professor, devised a novel solution to bridge this gap. He has urged makers to go beyond simulations and make robots “collect data as they perform useful work, such as driving taxis or sorting packages.”
As it happens, researchers and scientists are already using reinforcement learning as a means to help humanoid robots learn from data in real time. This technology has helped them save valuable time by programming the machines for every action at every step.
Developing a robotic brain
The Olympiad event also hosted Hon Weng Chong, CEO of Cortical Labs, as one of the esteemed personalities in the lineup of speakers.
Chong revealed that his biotech company is developing a biological computer brain that will learn like humans.
This brain uses real brain cells grown on a chip for learning from data. These cells can learn and respond to information at a faster rate, helping robots think and adapt like humans.
The dire need for faster robotic learning
At the Humanoid Olympics, organizers focused on realistic challenges to ensure fair progress checks. Co-founder Patrick Jarvis noted that while events like discus or javelin were considered, they proved too complex.
High jump was also ruled out due to the need for specialized legs. Instead, competitions highlighted tasks that humanoid robots could practically achieve, ensuring meaningful demonstrations of capability.
However, those limitations are also a stark reminder of why faster learning is essential for humanoid robots to rival the rise of AI software and tools. Bridging that gap will decide whether humanoid robots remain niche performers or evolve into everyday companions alongside advanced AI.
The University of Oxford has announced the launch of a new vaccine research programme in collaboration with the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), following the receipt of £118m ($159.2m) in research funding.
The initiative, named CoI-AI (Correlates of Immunity-Artificial Intelligence), will be led by the Oxford Vaccine Group.
This programme aims to integrate Oxford’s expertise in human challenge studies, immune science and vaccine development with EIT’s advancements in AI technology.
The objective is to enhance the understanding of the immune response to infections and the protective effects of vaccines.
The CoI-AI programme will focus on the immune system’s reaction to pathogens that lead to severe infections and contribute to antibiotic resistance, including Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus and E coli.
These pathogens are responsible for widespread illnesses and have proven challenging for traditional vaccine strategies.
Researchers will employ human challenge models, where volunteers are safely exposed to specific bacteria in controlled environments, alongside modern immunology and AI methodologies to identify immune responses that correlate with protection.
Oxford Vaccine Group director Professor Sir Andrew Pollard stated: “This programme addresses one of the most urgent problems in infectious disease by helping us to understand immunity more deeply to develop innovative vaccines against deadly diseases that have so far evaded our attempts at prevention.
“By combining advanced immunology with artificial intelligence, and using human challenge models to study diseases, CoI-AI will provide the tools we need to tackle serious infections and reduce the growing threat of antibiotic resistance.”
In December 2024, Oxford and EIT formalised a long-term strategic partnership aimed at addressing some of the most pressing challenges faced by humanity.
This collaboration encompasses a range of disciplines: generative biology, clinical medicine, plant science, sustainable energy and public policy.
The initiative is supported by computational resources provided by Oracle, which include a dedicated AI team and a scholars programme designed to cultivate the next generation of scientists.
EIT chairman Larry Ellison stated: “Researchers in the CoI-AI programme will use artificial intelligence models developed at EIT to identify and better understand the immune responses that predict protection.
“This vaccine development programme combines Oxford’s leadership in immunology and human challenge models with cutting-edge AI, laying the groundwork for a new era of vaccine discovery – one that is faster, smarter and better able to respond to infectious disease outbreaks throughout the world.”
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