Unfixed: How AI Is Reshaping the University

What does AI strategy look like when you’re responsible for technology across the largest four-year public university system in the country? Ed Clark, Chief Information Officer for the California State University, joins us to discuss the CSU’s approach to generative AI. We dig into the decision to extend the system’s OpenAI agreement, the argument for AI access as an equity issue, concerns about c...

What should universities teach when information is abundant, AI can produce polished work in seconds, and graduates are entering an increasingly uncertain world? In this episode, we talk with Dr. Ciarán Dunne, Transversal Skills Director at Dublin City University, about DCU’s ambitious effort to formally integrate skills such as critical thinking, ethical decision making, creativity, collaboration...

What does AI actually change about learning and what should colleges stop worrying about? In this episode, we talk with education entrepreneur John Katzman, founder and CEO of Noodle and previously the founder of The Princeton Review and 2U. We discuss AI tutoring, online learning, what universities are getting wrong about AI, and why Katzman believes the better question is not “who typed the word...

Researcher and writer Andy Masley joins Unfixed for a conversation about how to have more honest, productive debates about artificial intelligence. We discuss why conversations about AI so quickly become polarized, why facts alone often struggle to cut through misinformation and distrust, and the dangers of reducing complex questions to being simply “for” or “against” AI. Andy makes the case for a...

What happened in AI this summer? So much it made Nik dizzy. In this episode of Unfixed, we look back at a summer 2026 when the pace of change in AI seemed to accelerate on every front at once. Consider these developments: governments began directly shaping access to frontier models; colleges retreated from take-home assessments as new cheating controversies went viral; AI detection moved beyond ac...

Leah Belsky, Vice President of Education at OpenAI, joins Unfixed for a wide-ranging conversation about AI, higher education, and the future of learning. We discuss why OpenAI is investing so heavily in universities, what the company has learned from partnerships like the California State University system, and how it responds to faculty concerns about academic integrity, sustainability, and the r...

Movie Night returns to Unfixed with Spike Jonze’s Her (2013), one of the most influential films made about artificial intelligence. We explore why so many AI leaders have pointed to Her as a vision of the future, what the film got surprisingly right, and how its questions about loneliness, intimacy, and human connection feel even more relevant in the age of large language models. Along the way, we...

Before ChatGPT, before AI agents, and before every company suddenly became an AI company, there were movies trying to make sense of intelligent machines and humanity’s future. In this first Unfixed at the Movies episode, Zach and Nik revisit WarGames and Terminator 2 to explore why stories about AI escaping human control remain so powerful. They discuss learning machines, human responsibility, tec...

Did generative AI really break higher education or did it simply expose what was already broken? In this episode of Unfixed, Zach and Nik make the case that many of the biggest disruptions we’re experiencing today were decades in the making. After exploring how AI reveals the shortcomings of everything from recipe websites to Google search, they bring the conversation to higher education with a fa...

What does it actually mean to be AI literate in higher education? In this episode of Unfixed , we sit down with Allison Vaughn and D.J. Hopkins from San Diego State University to explore how one institution is building AI literacy for faculty, staff, and students. We discuss what belongs in an AI literacy curriculum, how to teach skills that seem to change every few months, and whether AI literacy...

Higher education has spent decades evaluating and adopting educational technology, but generative AI may be something fundamentally different. In this episode, Zach and Nik argue that AI is not simply the next ed tech tool and explore why universities continue to approach it as if it were. From AI agents and enterprise adoption to data governance, faculty alignment, and the growing tension within...

The California State University system just renewed its OpenAI contract, turning what began as a bold AI pilot into a long-term institutional commitment. In this special Unfixed reaction episode, Zach and Nik break down the costs, controversies, and consequences of the ChatGPT Edu deal—from academic freedom and governance to vendor lock-in and the future of teaching. Is CSU building essential educ...

In this episode of Unfixed , Nik and Zach are joined by our producer and special education scholar Jamie Gunderson to explore how AI is reshaping teacher education and K-12 classrooms. Drawing from her work preparing future teachers and her expertise in Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Jamie discusses the major gaps in AI training for educators, the challenges facing teachers already in the cl...

In this episode of Unfixed , Nik and Zach sit down with Inara Scott, a leading expert on AI strategy and innovation in higher education, to examine why the conversation around AI may be moving backward instead of forward. They explore faculty resistance, the limits of AI bans and opt-out policies, and the widespread concern that generative AI is eroding students’ critical thinking. Inara introduce...

In this episode of Unfixed , we unpack what it actually means to run AI retrofit workshops—where faculty redesign assignments and learning outcomes for a world shaped by generative AI. Rather than hype or quick fixes, this work starts from disruption: courses no longer behave as intended, and instructors are left to figure out what still holds. We explore the emotional and intellectual reality fac...

In this episode of Unfixed , we talk with Nicholas (Nick) Dirks, President and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences and former Chancellor of UC Berkeley, about what AI really means for the future of higher education. Rather than treating generative AI as just another technological shift, Dirks helps us unpack where institutions may be misreading the moment—and what a serious response could look...

In this episode of Unfixed, we sit down with William Hardaway and Jason McGensy from CSU Fresno to explore how institutions are actually implementing AI in higher education. The conversation moves from the practical—faculty training, instructional design, and scaling AI initiatives—to the emotional, including the idea of “grief” as faculty confront rapid technological change. We also examine how t...

Asynchronous online courses have become a cornerstone—and a cash engine—of modern higher education, but in the age of AI, the model is starting to crack. In this episode, we unpack how large-scale, low-touch online classes create fragile conditions for trust, especially as generative AI makes it easier than ever for students to outsource their thinking. We explore the growing tension between insti...

Generative AI is transforming how students write and how professors teach writing. In this episode of Unfixed, we’re joined by Stephanie Tran (Cypress College) and Tamara Tate (UC Irvine Digital Learning Lab) to explore what AI means for composition, academic writing, and digital literacy in higher education. Together, we examine the scale of the challenge facing writing instructors as AI models b...

Higher education is facing two converging pressures: generative AI disrupting early-career labor markets and new federal “earnings test” accountability rules tying program viability to graduate income. In this episode of Unfixed, we examine how AI is thinning entry-level work, why mid-tier public universities may be especially exposed, and how federal accountability metrics could amplify wage supp...

Ep. 22 Building AI Capacity in Public Higher Ed with James Frazee In this episode of Unfixed, we’re joined by Dr. James Frazee, Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at San Diego State University, to unpack how large public universities are navigating AI strategy, governance, and equity at scale. As a nationally recognized leader in AI and data-informed decision-m...

In this episode of Unfixed Newswire, Nik and Zach break down the most consequential—and occasionally absurd—AI news. The conversation spans OpenAI’s push toward ads and potential NSFW content; the relentless churn of new AI models like Gemini 3 and GPT-5.x; and why tools like Claude Code and Claude Cowork may signal a real shift toward AI agents as co-workers. They also interrogate the current AI...

In this episode of Unfixed , Nik and Zach take on a difficult but necessary conversation about nostalgia in higher education. Using real media headlines, faculty experiences, and their own teaching histories, they explore how AI panic taps into a deeper longing for a pre-pandemic, pre-ChatGPT past that may never have been as stable as we remember. The discussion unpacks what nostalgia is, why it’s...

Nik and Zach review the best and worst of AI in higher ed for 2025. AI and Higher Education: 2025 We unpack the collapse of AI detection, the rise of system-wide AI partnerships like CSU and OpenAI, uneven assessment redesign, growing faculty stratification, and mounting concern that generative AI is hollowing out entry-level knowledge-work jobs. The episode closes by looking ahead to 2026, includ...

Dr. Shelley Hart joins Nik and Zach to explore how children and adolescents are forming relationships with generative AI. We discuss what “too young” means in an AI-saturated world, and how parents, teachers, and caregivers can responsibly shape norms, boundaries, and ethics around AI use. Drawing on her expertise in child development, Dr. Hart offers practical insights for guiding kids through em...