Hello,
Short on Time? Essential Links
Anthropic Redesigns Coding Curriculum: The Vendor Takeover of Education Begins
Anthropic announced today that it has struck an exclusive deal to help redesign computer-coding curricula taught in hundreds of community and state colleges across the United States. This is not a partnership. This is a curriculum takeover.
The implications are staggering. Anthropic isn't just providing tools. It's redesigning what students learn, how they learn it, and which tools they use to learn it. Once hundreds of colleges adopt Anthropic-designed curricula, switching costs become prohibitive. Student and faculty expectations lock in. Institutional dependency deepens.
What this means: Vendor influence over higher education curriculum is now explicit and structural. This is not a tool adoption. This is a pedagogical takeover.
Critical question for your leadership: If Anthropic can reshape coding curricula at hundreds of colleges, what's stopping OpenAI, Google, or Meta from doing the same in other disciplines? How much of your curriculum is now vendor-controlled without your explicit awareness?
AI Companies Are "Eating" Higher Education: The Institution Loses Control
A piece in The Business Times argues that AI companies are increasingly exerting outsize influence over higher education and using these settings as training grounds to further their own commercial interests. Universities are surrendering control. AI companies are gaining it.
The dynamic is straightforward: AI companies offer free or discounted access to their tools on campus. Students and faculty adopt them. Institutions become dependent. Vendor lock-in happens. Institutions lose autonomy over their own educational mission.
What this means: Your institution's future is being shaped by vendors, not by your faculty or your strategic plan. The battle for educational sovereignty is happening now. Most institutions don't realize they're already losing.
Immediate action: Conduct a vendor audit. Which AI companies have deepest access to your campus? Which have influenced your curriculum? Which are positioning themselves for exclusive deals? Document this. You cannot reclaim control if you don't see the problem.
K-12 AI Tools Are Only for Rich Kids: The Equity Crisis Deepens
A Fortune op-ed published this morning argues that America's K-12 school system is sending a clear message: AI tools are for the rich kids. Private schools and wealthy districts are deploying AI literacy programs. Public schools and under-resourced districts cannot afford the tools or the professional development.
This is not a marginal issue. This is a structural equity crisis. Students from wealthy backgrounds are being trained to work with AI. Students from poor backgrounds are not. The skills gap will become unbridgeable within 5-10 years.
Implication for higher education: Your incoming students will have wildly different AI literacy levels based on their socioeconomic background. Students from wealthy schools will arrive AI-fluent. Students from poor schools will arrive unprepared. Your institution will inherit this equity crisis.
What your leadership should do: Prepare for students with extreme AI literacy variance. Plan remedial AI literacy pathways. Budget for expanded AI literacy support in your first-year programs. Don't assume all students arrive with basic AI competency.
How Fast Can AI Change the Workplace? Faster Than Your Curriculum
The New York Times published an opinion piece today asking: How fast can AI change the workplace? The answer, based on current evidence, is much faster than higher education can adapt.
Amazon cited AI for 16,000 layoffs. Dow announced 4,500 job cuts. Companies are "AI-washing"—citing AI as the reason for layoffs even when AI had little to do with it. The narrative that AI is causing massive job disruption is now embedded in corporate strategy.
The workforce question: If companies can transform their staffing models in months using AI, but your curriculum takes 2-3 years to redesign, how will your graduates ever catch up? The velocity mismatch is becoming catastrophic.
What institutions must do: Stop designing 4-year degree programs as if the workplace will stay the same. Start designing curricula around agility, adaptability, and continuous learning. Emphasize skills that AI cannot replicate: judgment, ethics, human connection, complex problem-solving across ambiguity.
China's AI Models Compete at Spring Festival: The Global Race Heats Up
Chinese AI companies released new models during Spring Festival this week, continuing the global AI arms race. ByteDance released Doubao 2.0. Zhipu unveiled a new model. The competition is no longer bilateral (US vs. China). It's now a three-way race between US tech giants, Chinese tech giants, and European regulators trying to keep up.
What this means: The assumption that OpenAI and Anthropic dominate AI is outdated. Chinese models are catching up or ahead on certain benchmarks. Your institution's technology choices are now entangled in geopolitical competition.
Question for your leadership: Does your institution have exposure to Chinese AI models? Are you aware of the regulatory and geopolitical risks? These questions matter now, not next year.
Try something new today
Curriculum Audit with Faculty Leaders: Invite three faculty leaders from different schools/colleges to a 30-minute conversation. Ask: How much of your curriculum is now influenced or controlled by AI vendors? Which tools are students using? Are students from wealthy backgrounds more AI-fluent than students from poor backgrounds? What should your institution do about vendor takeover? Document their responses and use this to inform your strategic plan.
A Final Reflection for Today
February 14 reveals the deepening crisis of institutional sovereignty. Vendors are redesigning your curricula. AI companies are "eating" higher education. K-12 is stratifying by wealth and AI access. Workplaces are transforming faster than colleges can adapt. And global competition is heating up.
The common thread: Your institution is losing control of its own future to forces outside your direct influence. Vendors, markets, and geopolitical competition are shaping your institution faster than your leadership can respond.
The question: At what point does this loss of sovereignty become unacceptable? How many vendor takeovers can your institution sustain before it loses its educational mission entirely?
The time to reclaim control is now. Not next year. Not after the next committee meeting. Now.
HigherEd AI Daily