Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Platforms Inc. has finalized a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI â taking a 49% stake â and recruited the company's CEO, Alexandr Wang, 28, to join its AI team for producing data models. Scale offers data services to help companies, including Meta and OpenAI, train and improve their AI systems. It also builds custom AI applications for businesses and governments. The startup generated approximately $870 million in revenue in 2024 and is expected to reach $2 billion in revenue by the end of this year. Its new interim CEO will be Jason Droege. Zuckerberg was frustrated with Metaâs progress following the rollout in April of the companyâs latest large language model, Llama 4. Not wanting to be left behind, the CEO of Meta took a more hands-on approach, making the recruitment of AI experts and scientists a top priority. He has been offering lucrative pay packages to attract top researchers from Alphabet Inc.âs Google and startup Sesame AI Inc. He has been following a playbook similar to Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Google, with arrangements designed to avoid the regulatory scrutiny that comes with significant acquisitions. Alphabet's Google, the largest customer of Scale AI, announced it would cut ties with Scale after rival Meta bought a 49% stake in the AI data-labeling startup. Google was paying Scale approximately $200 million this year for the human-labeled training data, which is crucial for developing technology, including the sophisticated AI models that power Gemini, its ChatGPT competitor, one of the sources said. Other major customers of Scale, including Microsoft, are also backing away. Elon Musk's xAI plans are exiting, too, arguing their concern to expose their research priorities and road map to a rival.
President Trump signed a long-awaited executive order on Thursday that begins the process of dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, fulfilling a longstanding campaign promise to conservatives. The order is designed to leave school policy almost entirely in the hands of states and local boards, a prospect that alarms liberal education advocates. Surrounded by schoolchildren seated at desks in the East Room of the White House, President Trump cited poor test scores as a key justification for the move. He instructed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin shutting down her agency. According to Article I of the Constitution, this task cannot be completed without congressional approval. However, Trump also said Thursday that the department would continue to provide critical functions required by law, such as administering federal student aid, including loans and grants, funding special education and districts with high levels of student poverty, and continuing civil rights enforcement. Since taking office, Trump has slashed the departmentâs workforce by more than half and eliminated $600 million in grants. "This is political theater, not serious public policy," said Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, an association that includes many colleges and universities in its membership. "To dismantle any cabinet-level federal agency requires congressional approval, and we urge lawmakers to reject misleading rhetoric in favor of what is in the best interests of students and their families." Lawyers for supporters of the Education Department anticipated they would challenge Mr. Trumpâs order by arguing that the administration had violated the Constitutionâs separation of powers clause and the clause requiring the president to take care that federal laws are faithfully executed. Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican who chairs the chamberâs Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he would submit legislation to eliminate the Education Department. "I agree with President Trump that the Department of Education has failed its mission," Cassidy said. "Since the department can only be shut down with congressional approval, I will support the presidentâs goals by submitting legislation to accomplish this as soon as possible." Under the Biden administration, the department was criticized as being deferential to teachersâ unions and overreaching on specific issues, such as student loan forgiveness and its interpretations of civil rights laws on behalf of transgender students.
Researchers at the South China Normal University in Guangzhou, highly focused on teacher education and training, explored how AI-driven visual reports can transform assessment in K12. A 13-week study analyzed the performance of half of the students who received personalized reports with clear visuals, personalized feedback, and actionable insights versus the other half who received oral feedback from instructors. The "AI reports" group demonstrated a 12.8% improvement in test scores over those only receiving oral. In addition, the vast majority expressed interest in using the report for other classes. Experts highlighted that AI tools get learners more efficient and faster personalized feedback and actionable feedback. Students can see their learning journey in these reports and act on it. They review areas of strength, identify learning gaps, and plan where to focus their effort.
OpenAI announced yesterday the launch of its video model Sora, an AI tool for creating realistic clips from text. It lets users generate videos up to 20 seconds long. It includes dropping images in as prompts and a timeline editor that allows users to add new prompts at specific moments in a video. "We don't want the world just to be text," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a live-streamed announcement Monday. "Video is important to our culture," Altman added. The San Francisco-based research lab, backed by Microsoft, said that this current version of Sora, named Sora Turbo, is faster than the model showed in February. Sora has been released as a standalone product at Sora.com to ChatGPT Plus and Pro users. ChatGPT Plus offers up to 50 videos at up to 480p resolution, up to 20 seconds long, or fewer videos at 720p monthly. These videos are in widescreen, vertical, or square aspect ratios at no additional cost. Users bring their assets to extend, remix, and blend or generate entirely new content from text. Meanwhile, ChatGPT Pro offers up to 500 monthly videos at up to 1080p resolution and longer duration. OpenAI developed new interfaces to make it easier to prompt Sora with text, images, and videos. Its storyboard tool lets users precisely specify inputs for each frame. OpenAI acknowledged that "the version of Sora we are deploying has many limitations, and it often generates unrealistic physics and struggles with complex actions over long durations." "Although Sora Turbo is much faster than the February preview, weâre still working to make the technology affordable for everyone." The Sora model is blocking particularly damaging forms of abuse, such as child sexual abuse materials and sexual deepfakes. Sora could also violate many creators' rights, experts said. ⢠Sora features ⢠Video
Linda McMahon, President-elect Donald J. Trumpâs pick for education secretary, will work on "sending Education back to the statesâ while reducing or eliminating the federal Department of Education. This was one of Trump's key education campaign pledges. With a slimmer educational rĂŠsumĂŠ than typical of candidates for the Secretary of Education position, she served 16 years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, where a student center is named for her. She also spent just over a year on the Connecticut State Board of Education, where she was one of fifteen members overseeing all public education in the state, including its technical high school system. Later, in 2010, she would resign to run as a Republican for a Senate seat. Linda McMahon, a leader of President-elect Donald Trumpâs transition team, is known for her many years in wrestling as the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). According to President Trump's statement, her approach to education is based on advocating for parents' and families' rights and universal school choice. This means that money typically flowing to public schools will instead go to families so they can spend it on private education. "As Secretary of Education, Linda will fight tirelessly to expand âChoiceâ to every State in America and empower parents to make the best Education decisions for their families," Mr. Trump said. On Tuesday, Ms. McMahon posted a message on social media praising âapprenticeship programsâ and highlighting their examples in Switzerland, which is often cited as a high-performing country whose model the United States should follow. She also has backed a House bill to make federal Pell Grants available for those pursuing skills training programs and technical education, not just traditional college degrees. The for-profit college sector applauded Ms. McMahonâs selection. âUnder her leadership, we are confident that the new Department of Education will take a more reasoned and thoughtful approach in addressing many of the overreaching and punitive regulations put forth by the Biden administration, especially those targeting career schools,â Jason Altmire, president of Career Education Colleges and Universities, a trade group that represents the for-profit sector, said in a statement. ⢠NYT: How Linda McMahon Might Approach the Dept. of Education â Comments of the audience
