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Ian has delivered this to a number of u3as.

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How to find which u3as have particular groups

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How to find which u3as have particular groups

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Presentation for a zoom call to promote an AI event.

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Presentation for a zoom call to promote an AI event.

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This deck from AI-for-Everyone team member Gillian can be tailored to promote a Regional Event, an AI course, or the creation of an AI Group.

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u3a Bury AI What's in it for me - 26 March 26

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The press always emphasises the bad. There are lots of good news stories around AI. Here are some of them.

And a video produced by NotebookLM: https://padlet.com/u3alearning/u3a-ai-resources-for-u3a-groups-5dhdnjgfd2bencvl/wish/YDgnZe1A3rL1ZwrA

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complete with speaker notes

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Powerpoint with speaker notes

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AI Futures by Ian Hawker - July 2026 AI News

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AI Futures by Ian Hawker - July 2026 AI News

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There is a Q&A document relating to this talk. It is in the adjacent post.

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comments in blue from Alan , in red from Ian

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Remaining chat questions from AI News 24July 26-AI Futures-Ian Hawker

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Robert is an AI for Everyone team member and an enthusiastic user of AI. This is Roberts AI journey and insight.

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u3a member Charles Symons explains what AI is, what precautions we should take using it and what things we should and shouldn't worry about. Charles is willing to share his powerpoint which is complete with speaker notes.

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Some of our AI News monthly zoom calls are recorded. You can find them here. For GDPR reasons only the presenters part of the session is recorded and sometimes edits have to be made for copyright reasons.

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‘AI for everyone’ is a set of resources created by u3a members. It includes recording monthly online learning events exploring different aspects of AI. Find…

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This section of the padlet contains documents that are referenced elsewhere on the padlet - you shouldn't need to access any of these documents directly

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Hopefully these are the terms that a u3a member is most likely to come across

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These are some initial thoughts if you have other ideas please share. alan.freeland@u3a.org.uk

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Ethan Mollick Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI

Ray Kurzeill: The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge with AI

Gary Marcus: Taming Silicon Valley

Yuval Noah Harari’s Nexus. Non technical – provides an historical context to the importance of Information

Shannon Vallor The AI Mirror – the moral social and political problems of Generative AI.

Karen Hao: Empire of AI - the dark side of how ChatGPT was developed

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Using Google's Gemini for  the first time

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Using Google's Gemini for  the first time

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content to come

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BBC Radio 4 – The Artificial Human

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001wjf8

Surrey Speaks: Will AI….? Occasional 15min podcasts from Surrey University

https://www.surrey.ac.uk/news/surrey-speaks-podcast

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Who to Follow

AI Technology

ARS Technica – a popular and highly readable science and computing blog
https://arstechnica.com

TechCrunch – their AI blog
https://techcrunch.com/category/artificial-intelligence/

AI Explained
https://www.youtube.com/@aiexplained-official

Dr. Alan Thompson – Lifearchitect.ai https://lifearchitect.ai/

Andrew NG’s DeepLearning for technical courses on machine learning
https://www.youtube.com/@Deeplearningai

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Pros and Cons of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini

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Pros and Cons of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini

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Google's Gemini has for some people overtaken ChatGPT as their go to AI ChatBot. This document explains the difference between Google's free and entry paid for AI plan

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The difference between Google Gemini free plan and Gemini Pro

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How to get better results from your AI Chatbot

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How to get better results from your AI Chatbot

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Also check out joebloggs post on providing more detailed prompts. The post should be next to this one.

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How to get better results from your AI Chatbot v4

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Silver AI Project - Creating an AI Aware Community

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Silver AI Project - Creating an AI Aware Community

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David Mcall of Yate and Sodbury u3a developed a six week course supplemented by monthly newsletters. The course is web based and you are welcome to reuse this material

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“I do worry about AI actually. Because we are creating an intelligence that ultimately will be far more intelligent than any human and ultimately more intelligent than the sum of all humans ...” Elon Musk 19 Oct 2024 “This is the most interesting year in human history, except for all future years.” Sam Altman 17 March 2024

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OpenAi have just published a report investigating political bias. The report highlights that for a neutral prompt ChatGPt does quite well in avoiding bias. For a political biased prompt it does tend to amplify Liberal rather than conservative bias. As is often the case, to avoid bias be careful how you word the prompt.

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Defining and evaluating political bias in LLMs

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Learn how OpenAI evaluates political bias in ChatGPT through new real-world testing methods that improve objectivity and reduce bias.

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General advice about Copyright for u3a members is provided by the u3a trust at this link. An update to include AI is expected.: https://www.u3a.org.uk/all-documents/copyright-and-licences-2025

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These discussion guides are designed to enable u3a members in local u3as to discuss an AI related theme. This can be done in informal discussion groups , as part of a AI course, or within a u3a AI Group.

They will often link to an AI News Event.

Do let us know, via a comment on the resource, how you used the resource and how it went. Thank you. The comment icon is the speech button on the bottom right of each post.

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Discussion Paper on Conversation is all we need

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Discussion Paper on Conversation is all we need

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From a u3a AI colleague of ours in Australia, Ross, a thoughtful document on why "Seniors" should engage with AI and why it is more like the telephone than the telegraph.

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AI In Fiction - Sentient Artificial Intelligence

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AI In Fiction - Sentient Artificial Intelligence

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AI for Everyone - Sentient Artificial Intelligence - Discussion Guide

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a users chat with ChatGPT about Copyright

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a users chat with ChatGPT about Copyright

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AI Trust volunteers are not allowed to give advice on Copyright. Unless the post explicitly states it is the view of the u3a Trust then the post isn't endorsed by the u3a and may not represent the u3a's views.

Many u3a members are having conversations with AI Chatbots about copyright. This is one of many such conversations that u3a members are having. It was posted by an anonymous u3a user and reflects the views that the AI Chatbot expressed at the time. The AI for Everyone Team would always advise, if it is important, then check the AI response with a reliable source.

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six slides that can help prompt a discussion about AI and Bias.

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three part programme exploring if or when the bubble bursts what happens.

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The Artificial Human - AI’s Bubble Trouble? - 1. Is the AI bubble about to burst? - BBC Sounds

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Aleks and Kevin explore the biggest story in the AI business. Is it all about to crash?

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A video (1hr 40 mins ) talk by Anil Seth of University of Sussex. The talk focuses on what is Consciousness and how can we detect it. It is primarily about human and animal conciousness with a short reflection on AI. Anil Seth does highlight that there are many different views on this subject. This is his view.

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Russell Whitworth of Guildford u3a has produced a Powerpoint version of the Silver AI Course. Click on links for content. These are pdf version. Contact Russell for the Powerpoint versions

Class 1 Making AI Images and Songs

Class 2 AI Chat

Class 3 Advanced AI Images

Class 4 Prompts, creative writing and more

Class 5 Ethics and AI Futures

Class 6 The rise of robots

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Tips on more detailed prompting from Joebloggs

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Tips on more detailed prompting from Joebloggs

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AI for Everyone - Human Dependence on AI - Discussion Guide

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AI for Everyone - Human Dependence on AI - GL Guide

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Who To Follow for  AI Tools, trends and Ethics

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Who To Follow for  AI Tools, trends and Ethics

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AI Tools, Trends and Ethics

Matt Wolfe – an enthusiast who focuses on AI tools and trends
Blog: https://futuretools.beehiiv.com/?utm_source=futuretools.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=apple-intelligence-loading&_bhlid=1583721c555f34afff7ba6071776f8e7ce701265
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mreflow

Dr Alan D. Thomson – a super enthusiast with a focus on Ethics and Responsible use
Blog:
https://lifearchitect.substack.com/subscribe?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=email-subscribe&r=dvb0q&next=https%3A%2F%2Flifearchitect.substack.com%2Fp%2Fthe-memo-1oct2024&utm_medium=email
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrAlanDThompson

Ethan Mollick (@emollick on X) for practical uses of AI

Website https://www.oneusefulthing.org/

Tony Seba https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgULCgo4eZ8 and https://www.rethinkx.com/team/tony-seba

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The Great Transformation [Part 5] - Implications

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AI Skeptics and the Dangers of AI

Gary Marcus – a long haul AI specialist who’s skeptical of the current hype
Blog:
https://garymarcus.substack.com/subscribe?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=email-subscribe&r=dvb0q&next=https%3A%2F%2Fgarymarcus.substack.com%2Fp%2Fsorry-genai-is-not-going-to-10x-computer&utm_medium=email

Brian Merchant – a skeptic
https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/subscribe?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=email-subscribe&r=dvb0q&next=https%3A%2F%2Fbloodinthemachine.substack.com%2Fp%2Fin-california-no-ai-bill-is-safe&utm_medium=email

Edward Zitron – a skeptic of all of Big Tech and their power
https://www.wheresyoured.at/saaspocalypse-now/?ref=ed-zitrons-wheres-your-ed-at-newsletter

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BBC Radio 4 – The Artificial Human

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001wjf8

Surrey Speaks: Will AI….? Occasional 15min podcasts from Surrey University

https://www.surrey.ac.uk/news/surrey-speaks-podcast

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I think this is a coherent well argued 13 minute video. Well worth watching. For balance I would like to add a video that paints the tech CEO's view point of what employment should look like once AI replaces millions of jobs. Please share with me any recommendations.

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AI Could Wipe Out the Working Class | Sen. Bernie Sanders

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This is our "home page" you can get to all u3a AI related sites from here.

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Breakfast Zoom every Wednesday 8.30am. Your chance to ask any question about AI. Barry

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For topical messages from the u3a AI Subject Advisor Barry Claydon

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Lesson 1
AI is a friendly helper rather than a mysterious machine.

Seeing a helpful reply often brings that first "Oh, I get it now!" moment.

1. Click this link chat.openai.com to open an AI Chatbot, called ChatGPT.
Type "Hello" where it says, 'Ask me anything' and press the up arrow.

2. Try a simple request, such as "Tell me a story about a frog", or "Write a short poem about a u3a member", or "Draw me a picture of a u3a group flying in pink clouds", or "Is AI a friend or a foe" (you do not need to put a question mark), etc.

3. Keep exploring, ask follow-up questions, try different topics and enjoy seeing what it can do.

4. AI Chatbots always come back enthusiastically and sound convincing. They are programed to do so. Like people, they occassionally make mistakes and provide misinformation. Use your thinking skills to assess the accuracy of the response.

5. I personnally only share detailed personal information with my Bank and the NHS apps. Anything you put online through Social Media, AI, or any Apps may end up being used by a 3rd party and/or a scammer.

6. There are other AI Chatbots: Microsoft's Copilot, Google's Gemini, etc.

You don't need special knowledge to use AI - only a bit of curiosity and the confidence to give it a try. I've seen how quickly members surprise themselves once they start chatting with these tools. AI is not something to fear; it's another way to make learning, creativity, and everyday life a little easier and a lot more interesting.
Lesson 2

You only get a limited access with the FREE ChatGPT account. Not a problem, just come back tomorrow and get a new allowance.

ChatGPT encourages you to register and gives you more options.

You can download the ChatGPT App. Make sure it is the one from OpenAI. There are a lot of impersonators.

You might find a microphone icon next to where you type your instruction.
Click the microphone and dictate your instruction, then press the upward arrow.

You might have a squiggly icon next to the microphone.
Click the squiggly icon, wait for a window to appear and then talk and listen to it as you would a friend.

Remember it is just a machine. It does make mistakes. It does NOT understand what it is saying, unlike you.

Always verify important information.

Join me on a Breakfast time Zoom to ask any questions about AI. I am there every Wednesday at 8.30am.

We have a comprehensive library of useful AI related resources. AI for Everyone Library

Visit the u3a Online Learning events webpage to register for events.. u3a Online Learning Events

We have a vibrant network of members interested in AI AI Network.

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u3a Subject Advisers and Subject Networks

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Lesson 1 AI is a friendly helper rather than a mysterious machine. Seeing a helpful reply often brings that first "Oh, I get it now!" moment. Click this link chat.openai.com to open an AI Chatbot, called ChatGPT.Type "Hello" where it says, 'Ask me anything' and press the up arrow.

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To understand our AI Network and to sign up for our monthly AI Newsletter visit this site

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AI for Everyone - Subject Network - u3a Subject Advisers and Subject Networks

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A more academic approach to more complex prompting

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A more academic approach to more complex prompting

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AI Agitator Bryan Irving has produced this guide to how to align your human thinking with AI thinking for better results. Thank you Bryan.

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Updated with examples from the February 2026 Preparing for an AI World course. last updated April 15th

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Andrew is an Economist, he has no skills in writing children's story books. When another grandparent challenged all the grandparents to produce a story book for their young grandchildren Andrew turned to AI. This is the book. Total effort by Andrew - 2.5hrs. Total cost £0. Names and portrait photo changed to protect anonymity

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Click on the Blue rectangle labelled " How to get started using Padlet" to open a pdf guide.

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Click on the Blue rectangle labelled " How to get started using Padlet" to open a Powerpoint guide.

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Posting articles and presentations to padlet

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Posting articles and presentations to padlet

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If you want to share what you have created re AI read this.

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Posting articles and presentations to padlet

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The BBC has produced four, less than 5 min long, cartoons that give an easy introduction to AI. If you are finding the other posts on this site daunting start here:

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BBC Bite site easy introduction to AI Chatbots

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BBC Bite site easy introduction to AI Chatbots

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How to turbocharge your AI skills.

How to get started with AI chatbots.

Can you spot an AI scam?

Should your kids be using AI in their homework?

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Started using AI chatbots, but not sure you’re getting the best out of them? This is the guide for you.

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If you prefer all your learning material in one place and in a document format, John Ladely from Watford Park u3a has produced this guide to getting started with AI. And John very kindly has been keeping it up to date.

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This Powerpoint video of 8 slides will last 10 minutes and gives an introduction to AI for those totally new to AI.

You can download this video or play it from the padlet.

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Recommended Science Fiction Books with AI themes

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Recommended Science Fiction Books with AI themes

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David Topping has kindly put together this list of science fiction books which relate to our now understanding of AI. For each one David has provided a brief personal comment.

If you do decided to have a group discussion on any of these, please produce a Discussion Guide as others my benefit form your insight. thank you

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AI for Everyone Recommended Science Fiction

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There is no unified Republican view on what the impact of AI will be on jobs nor what should be done about any impact. There are no equivalent videos to the Bernie Sanders video. I worked with ChatGPT to produce this briefing paper. If you find something better please let me know.

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GoodThings Foundation Introduction to Generative AI

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GoodThings Foundation Introduction to Generative AI

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Good Things Foundation have produced a non technical overview to Generative AI for those new to this topic.

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Artificial Intelligence | Artificial Intelligence | Good Things Foundation Learning

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Welcome to our artificial intelligence learning. Please choose a section below to get started.

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World History and Local History Groups use of AI

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World History and Local History Groups use of AI

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High level summary presented by Nadia Phillips at the February AI Agitators group meeting

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Presented at AI News October 2025

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This powerpoint narrated video lasts 10 minutes and talks through getting started with ChatGPT. The pdf version in the adjacent post has clickable links.

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Peter Lord ,who runs the u3a Computing Community, has some excellent talks on how Generative AI actually works. This post links to one of those talks.

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How generative AI works – followup – U3A Communities

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This month we look at Generative AI, including a bit of history, opening the pandoras box, how they work and how they compare. Will include a demo or two.

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Best Opensource LLMs for running locally

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Best Opensource LLMs for running locally

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If you are a bit technical and have a powerful laptop you can run some impressive LLMs locally. Here are five of the best

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Best Open Source LLMS for running locally 2nd Dec 2025

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Tips on describing the sort of image you want

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Tips on describing the sort of image you want

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Click on the image above to run this video (with sound) - created in Canva, of course!

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This narrated powerpont slide deck allows local u3a groups to use this presentation with a Current Affairs group. As it is not a video, users remain in full control of the presentation and can easily break for discussions.

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This is the pdf version of the narrated powerpoint video "Second Steps with AI". It talks through getting started with ChatGPT.

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This illustrated short story was created using Magic Write and AI Image in Canva. Click on the picture to view it.

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Am I being socially Irresponsible using an AI Chatbot given how much energy and water they use.

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Am I being socially Irresponsible using an AI Chatbot given how much energy and water they use.

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Short answer is no.

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Powerpoint with speaker notes

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Online Adverts, Shopping and How Google Search is changing

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Online Adverts, Shopping and How Google Search is changing

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u3a AI Agitator Bryan Irving explores with Gemini how AI Chat is changing how Google protects its advertising revenue and what we see when prompting about products.

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L ately, it seems everyone in higher education has been handed the same essay prompt: describe how AI is destroying your classroom. In The New Yorker, literature professor Hua Hsu considers the demise of the term paper while shadowing an undergraduate who systematically forges his coursework. Writing for this publication, Troy Jollimore mourns the link between writing and thinking, as students use the technology to deprive themselves of the critical spirit philosophy has to offer. ChatGPT's style is spreading like an infection: symptoms include em dashes, three-point lists, the verb "delves," and sentences using "not only."

I am among the educators reverting to old-school methods in an effort to exclude robots from the room. This approach seems logical to me; I teach literature, so, surely, I need to ensure my students do their own reading and writing. In Quebec's junior college system, where I have four hours a week to play with, I've implemented more reading quizzes. My students now write most of their essays in class by hand. When I taught a university course this past spring, I assigned oral defences for the final paper, thinking students would be less likely to fabricate work they needed to justify to my face. Take-home assignments come with a plea about the importance of developing one's own voice alongside new grading criteria that lets me give a zero for a single hallucinated quotation.

As with any overhaul triggered by despair, I'm worried about what I might be sacrificing: the presumption of trust in my charges, the deep reflection that comes from long-form writing, and the opportunity to revise at one's own pace. I'm also acutely aware that another reaction is possible. A mushrooming class of pedagogy influencers on TikTok, LinkedIn, and X insists that generative AI can "revolutionize" my teaching. Tech companies have adopted the tactics of drug dealers, handing out free trials in hope of getting students hooked.

But I can also find counterpoints to my approach by walking across the hallway. The AI enthusiasts who I cannot dismiss, and who are most likely to convince me to reconsider my methods, are my own colleagues.

S téphane Paquet is in the English department with me at Champlain College-Saint Lambert, but his reaction to the past few years could not be more different. "The whole AI thing, in a way, saved my interest in my career," he told me over coffee in Montreal's Rosemont neighbourhood.

Paquet has a long-standing interest in technology: he taught high school computer science before switching to English literature and wrote his MA thesis on scientific discourse and Romantic poetry. Then he settled into his teaching routine, refining and repeating courses on graphic novels, short stories, and essay composition. By the time ChatGPT emerged, he needed some kind of a challenge. Otherwise, "Fifteen years felt like a long time before retirement."

Over the past two years, Paquet has become one of the faces of AI at our college. After teaching himself the tools-a gratifying if interminable process-he launched a series of workshops to help faculty get their own bearings. An introductory session explained the basics of large-scale language models, their strengths, and their limitations. Other workshops focused on topics like rethinking assignments to either include or resist ChatGPT and looking at AI's ability to provide a personalized feedback template.

By the second year, however, teacher interest dropped; Paquet suspects many of us had made enough adjustments to survive this new era without engaging the technology, either because of ethical objections or because revamping our pedagogy was too time consuming. Now, he focuses on training students, who can earn an AI certificate from attending his sessions.

I'll admit that, when I first heard Paquet was teaching teens how to best prompt ChatGPT, I saw him as a traitor. But he had conducted a poll revealing that some 87 percent of our students were using AI on a weekly basis anyway, and, based on what he's seen online and in his classrooms, they're doing it largely without our guidance, using tips from TikTok and YouTube. "It's not healthy," he argued, "to have this kind of clash between the way the students learn in the class and the way they learn outside the class."

His workshops are also designed to pre-empt reactions like mine. In order to increase AI literacy, he demonstrates how algorithms can reproduce bias and falsify results. When it comes to coursework, he details the most unobjectionable ways of deploying these tools, like training a chatbot to re-organize your notes or quiz you in preparation for an exam.

The goal is to increase transparency and reduce plagiarism anxiety by focusing on what is obviously permitted. In his own classes, he shows students how AI can illustrate comic books for a creative assignment and revise essays that they have already drafted by hand.

Still, buy-in isn't universal. While many adored the image generators, far fewer completed the editing exercise when he made it optional: "They saw it as more work."

To me, that gap hints at a basic truth about how students treat AI-not as an aid for thinking, but as a shortcut. If it isn't saving them time, why bother? One might argue the same logic applies in the workforce. At Concordia University, where I teach part time, Maggie McDonnell coordinates the composition and the professional writing programs, prioritizing AI integration in the latter. "If I'm going to become a technical writer and go out there into the 'real world,' I'm using AI," she explained to me.

She therefore promotes AI as an efficiency tool, all while stressing the importance of refining the output. For a group project on producing a technical manual, she asks students to use AI for brainstorming, outlining, and image generation, then has them edit and reflect on the results. Any group that wants to do the assignment on their own needs to submit a short essay justifying their choice.

McDonnell's openness to the technology extends to her own work life. She finds AI to be a "phenomenally effective tool" for lesson planning when combined with her pre-existing teaching expertise. (Paquet, likewise, uses ChatGPT for coding and organizing notes.)

In the composition program, by contrast, McDonnell discourages AI use, not because of philosophical objections but due to the learning objectives. These courses are meant to develop core reading and writing skills, moving step by step through the process of drafting and revision. McDonnell advises instructors to explain the goals of the class, so participants understand why they should avoid AI. She also recommends learning student writing styles early, as they will be less likely to cheat if they know their professor can spot their voice.

But she pushes back against the impulse to move all assignments in class. "In terms of accessibility and in terms of your own teaching," she says, "it becomes problematic." Students with learning disabilities may need accommodations, such as extra writing time or the use of a computer, and they risk being singled out and stigmatized. And for writing-intensive courses that only meet for twelve weeks during the semester, it's simply impractical to sacrifice so much instructional time in order to watch students as they work.

There is also the cost of appearing obsolete. Mary Towers, who works for the McGill Writing Centre, describes herself as "techno-cautious." While she would love for her students not to touch AI, she feels like banning it would strike the wrong note. "In some sense," she tells me, "I'm undermining my own credibility because I think they will see me as an ancient, outdated professor and might not take valuable advice that I have to offer them."

Instead, she gives students concrete examples of how AI tools can help improve their writing, such as asking for advice on a troublesome sentence or paragraph and deciding what suggestions to adopt. By contrast, having AI edit the paper is unacceptable for Towers, as is having it outright generate a first draft. "My goal here is to get them making conscientious choices as writers, not just assuming that the tech can do the work or the thinking for them."

In all cases, she stresses transparency, requiring students to file a report on what software was used, which prompts were given, and before-and-after versions of the text. She also asks students to submit annotated versions of the sources they cite as a way of pushing them to do the research properly rather than relying on AI summaries. Sifting through so much documentation significantly increases her workload overall but allows her to have a better sense of when something really is plagiarized.

In these conversations, I realized our approaches to AI reflected our relationships with technology in general. The daughter of a physicist and an engineer, McDonnell happily declares herself an early adopter: "I have always felt like if something is new, it isn't by default bad or scary."

Meanwhile, I fought having a cellphone for years, and a smartphone for years after that. Now I'm as dependent on Google Maps as anyone, and my rage at QR code menus is shifting to acquiescence. The pattern suggests that I'll cave after social norms move too far to resist.

Yet I can't help but think that, for all the comparisons between AI and calculators, we still teach children to add and subtract by themselves. I'm not sure students are skilled enough to outsource any part of the writing process and remain in control of the product.

U niversity and college administrations seem to be hedging their bets. Guidelines at Concordia, like those at the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia, leave the details of AI use at the discretion of the instructor, though Concordia's Centre for Teaching and Learning also advises blanket bans as unenforceable. The Université de Sherbrooke stresses the pitfalls of traditional, pen-and-paper examinations and the inaccuracy of AI detectors, suggesting instead that assignments be overhauled to reduce the utility of cheating.

Most distressing for me was an interactive lesson provided by the University of Waterloo to advise students on ethical AI use. The module cast me as an overworked biology student struggling with an assignment and asked me a series of questions about whether I would use ChatGPT. The first time through, I impersonated my nightmare student, deciding to copy and paste AI-generated text into my assignment and denying it when confronted by the instructor. I was relieved that this scenario saw me receiving a zero after a meeting with the associate dean.

But when I tried the opposite tack and refused to use generative AI at all, the module told me I had handed in my work late, resulting in a reduced grade-as though opting out would necessarily lead me to underperform. "Could ChatGPT have made things easier?" the lesson prompted. "How can I use it to support my learning without resorting to academic misconduct?" The implication was that taking a hard line was only punishing myself.

The lesson's mixed message captures the broader confusion on campuses these days: use AI, but don't rely on it; resist it, but not too much. Yet there are surprising pockets of consensus. Despite our opposing reactions to the technology itself, Paquet and I have both shifted our pedagogy to become more process oriented.

For Paquet, this means making his assignments more unique, justifying the value of doing them oneself, and changing his grading. On one of his rubrics, an essay might now only be worth two-thirds of the final grade, with the other third awarded for completing brainstorming, revision, and drafting steps. As he explained, these choices are not especially new. "All the solutions teachers come up with are all pedagogical approaches that have been around for decades," he says. Ironically, the end result of integrating these supposedly more efficient approaches has been to slow down Paquet's teaching.

I've likewise increased my emphasis on process, with oral seminars that build toward final papers, mandatory outlines, and, above all, a different relationship to polish. Yes, I still underline grammatical mistakes and include mini-lessons about comma splices and fragments. Yet I now find awkward syntax reassuring, the mark of a human mind struggling to figure out what to say. I'm less punitive about style and give students more revision opportunities before I assign grades, all in the name of rewarding them for actually doing the work. I hesitate to dig into the details, because part of me thinks I'll need to change it all again next semester.

As destabilizing as the situation may be, this openness is exactly what our college's pedagogical counsellor, Sara Hashem, recommends. At first excited by the release of ChatGPT, Hashem has since grown more skeptical about handing the reins of public education over to private companies, and she cautions against rushing forward too fast or blindly trusting the AI education "experts."

"I would like to see people being more humble about it and say we are in reactive mode," she told me. Hashem is now partnering with the Université de Montréal's Neerusha Baurhoo Gokool on a project that surveys emerging research and brings together instructors from different disciplines to discuss how they are-or aren't-integrating AI. She has no idea what the conclusions will be.

I find some comfort in the idea that we are all still experimenting. Maybe the return to in-class assignments will prove beneficial. With cellphones increasingly being banned from elementary and high school classrooms across the country, there might be a case for post-secondary education to continue the digital detox. Or maybe generative AI will become this generation's spell check. Writing might be reconceived as a form of collaboration with online tutors, and solo composition may become a niche skill, like developing film negatives.

In the meantime, I'll probably be deciphering student handwriting for a while yet-until there's hard evidence that inviting these algorithms into the classroom does more good than harm.

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I Thought My Colleague Was a Traitor for Teaching Students to Use AI. Then We Talked | The Walrus

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The one thing we agree on? Every part of our job has changed

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Try asking AI Chatbots (GPT, Gemini, Perplexity, etc) using the following prompt, 'You are local expert in sources of grants and venues in ...... suggest local sources of funds and low cost venues for a new u3a group leaders'

Or register with https://www.charityexcellence.co.uk and have access to hundreds of sources of grants.

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You can use Canva's "Code" to create quizzes, games, images, forms, and many other designs. Click on the picture of this invoice form for the explanatory website.

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Step-by-step guide to using Canva’s AI “Code”

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An example chat re Continuity & Resilience

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An example chat re Continuity & Resilience

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“Making these systems behave in a reasonable way is much like making a child behave in a reasonable way.” 2024 physics laureate and pioneer in artificial intelligence, Geoffrey Hinton, discusses the question currently captivating society – what are the potential implications when AI surpasses human intelligence?  Watch our full interview: https://bit.ly/40vYiM0 | Nobel Prize

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Geoffrey Hinton video clips on Societal Risks

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Geoffrey Hinton video clips on Societal Risks

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1.1M views · 19K reactions | “Making these systems behave in a reasonable way is much like making a child behave in a reasonable way.” 2024 physics laureate and pioneer in artificial intelligence, Geoffrey Hinton, discusses the question currently captivating society – what are the potential implications when AI surpasses human intelligence? Hinton played a key role in developing foundational techniques in modern AI, including backpropagation and deep neural networks, which form the basis for technologies such as ChatGPT, facial recognition, and autonomous vehicles. Prior to his resignation in 2023, he was a long-standing researcher at Google, where he contributed significantly to their AI advancements. He now publicly emphasises the importance of addressing the associated risks of AI development. Watch our full interview: https://bit.ly/40vYiM0 | Nobel Prize

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“Making these systems behave in a reasonable way is much like making a child behave in a reasonable way.” 2024 physics laureate and pioneer in artificial intelligence, Geoffrey Hinton, discusses the…

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This powerpoint narrated video lasts less than 10 minutes and talks through getting started with Google's Gemini. The pdf version in the adjacent post has clickable links.

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This is the pdf version of the narrated powerpoint video "Second Steps with AI- Gemini". It talks through getting started with Googles AI Chatbot Gemini

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Although this presentation isnt narrated it does have comprehensive speaker notes. It was used for the u3a AI News April 2026. A narrated video version is on our youtube channel.

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Converting handwritten notes to typed notes

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Converting handwritten notes to typed notes

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This couldn't be easier. Take a photograph of the handwritten notes , upload to an ai chatbot and ask for a nicely formatted typed transcription.

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Using Live Captioning on your phone or tablet

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Using Live Captioning on your phone or tablet

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If you are hard of hearing then enabling live captioning on your phone or tablet could be very helpful. It gives you a real time text display of what is being spoken

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This powerpoint narrated video lasts 10 minutes and talks through getting started with Microsoft AI Chatbot called Copliot. It has clickable links which will take you to the AI resources for Groups Padlet.

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Getting AI Chatbots to create the images you want

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Getting AI Chatbots to create the images you want

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Some basic photography terms and some tips that can help in getting the image you want.

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I want to be able to compare LLMs or choose between LLMs

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I want to be able to compare LLMs or choose between LLMs

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I want to be able to compare LLMs or choose between LLMs

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Elmbridge u3a Photography group were sceptical about how useful AI could be but in an open minded way decided to evaluate it. This is a case study. The image is copyright of the photographer, Nicola Lindsey and the article was produced by Elmbridge u3a Photography and AI groups.

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Elmbridge  Photography Groups Case Study for the Tottenham Court Road Photo 

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Presentation for the March 2026 AI Agitators group.

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Gaining hands on confidence with using AI

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Gaining hands on confidence with using AI

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This is a structured set of exercises designed to help someone who is totally new to using AI Chatbots gain confidence in their use. additional collateral is available to support these excercises.

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Google's NotebookLM helps you learn using just the information you trust. You can produce presentations, quizzes, podcasts and many other views of the information. This section contains Notebooks on different topics that you can use. and tips on using NotebookLM