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DAILY AI BRIEFING FOR EDUCATORS
HigherEd AI
Thursday, December 11, 2025
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Today’s Focus
Adobe Photoshop is Now Inside ChatGPT
Adobe embedded free versions of Photoshop, Adobe Express, and Acrobat directly into ChatGPT this week. Users can now edit images, apply effects, design graphics, and manipulate PDFs entirely through natural language prompts—without leaving ChatGPT.
This integration fundamentally changes what students can accomplish without specialized software or training. A communications student can remove backgrounds, adjust lighting, and resize images for multiple platforms in one conversation. A business student can design mockups without opening Canva. A researcher can extract and reorganize PDF content without leaving their chat interface.
What matters most is this: the barrier between thinking about what you want to create and actually creating it has collapsed. Students no longer spend time learning tool interfaces. They describe what they want and iterate. For higher education, this means curriculum built around creative thinking instead of software proficiency.
Worth considering:
If professional-grade creative tools are free and accessible through conversation, what becomes the value of formal design education?
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Research Update
Google DeepMind Opens Automated Materials Research Lab
Google DeepMind announced a new research lab in the UK focused on using AI to discover new materials. The lab represents a partnership between Google’s AI research division and the UK government. Researchers will use AI agents to accelerate materials science discovery—automating both the design and experimental validation of new compounds.
For universities with strong materials science, chemistry, or physics programs, this signals a shift in how research infrastructure is evolving. The tools and methodologies being developed at DeepMind’s lab will eventually become accessible to academic researchers. This is an opportunity to start thinking about how your institution can partner with or benefit from these emerging research frameworks.
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Creative Update
Google Photos Launches AI-Powered Video Editing
Google Photos rolled out new AI video editing tools this week. Users can now trim, enhance, and apply effects to videos directly within the Photos app—no need to move files to a separate video editor.
This matters for students creating content on their phones. Video editing is no longer a desktop skill requiring specialized software. It’s becoming a mobile-first capability built into the apps people already use. For educators teaching media literacy or communication, this is the new baseline.
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A Final Reflection
When professional tools become free and embedded in the interfaces people use daily, how do you teach the discipline and intention that separates amateur from professional work?
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This newsletter synthesizes developments from TLDR AI, TLDR Design, and primary source documentation. Each edition is curated specifically for higher education professionals.
Visit AskThePhD.com for more resources, daily tool tests, and tutorials for educators.
Dr. Ali Green
Professor & AI in Education Specialist
From the AskThePhD team at HigherEdAI
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