Building and Configuring Conversational Agents

In this episode of ChatEDU (College Degrees to Beat the Bot), Matt and Liz kick things off with a voice AI agent for small businesses (including Liz’s very own Studio 217) and trippy new uses for chatbots. From there, they dig into the fast-moving world of robotics, sharing stories of clumsy soccer-playing humanoids, robot warehouse takeovers, and AI-assisted classroom companions. Then, they go Beneath the Surface with a deep dive on seven college majors that may just “beat the bot” — plus an acronym from MIT you’ll actually want to remember. Finally, this week’s Bright Byte delivers a surprising (and heartwarming) AI breakthrough in infertility treatment.

Story #1 — Tsunami of Early-Summer AI Stories

Matt and Liz cover a load of stories in the AI news including prompt injection in academic papers, reports from ISTE, and reported big K-12 AI investments.

Story #2 — Robots on the Rampage

Humanoid robots fall down (a lot) in 3-on-3 soccer matches. Amazon’s warehouse bots are on the rise, and on track to outnumber human workers. Misty II charms students in special education, and Hugging Face releases a DIY robot you can program yourself. It’s fun, freaky… and definitely closer than you think.

Story #3 (Beneath the Surface) — College Majors that Beat the Bot

Cognitive science, bioinformatics, creative tech, and more. Forbes calls these “AI-durable” degrees that blend human creativity, ethics, and empathy with AI savvy. Matt and Liz also explore MIT’s EPOCH framework for future-proof skills: Empathy, Presence, Opinion, Creativity, Hope. Whether you’re advising students or thinking about your own next move, this one’s worth the listen.

Bright ByteAfter 18 years of infertility, AI called STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery) helped a couple conceive by finding viable sperm human eyes missed, no invasive surgery required. Sometimes AI really is a miracle worker.

Links and References

11 Labs AI Voice Agent Tool

https://elevenlabs.io/app/talk-to?agent_id=agent_01jzxnd7e5fsv9cvve4g6np8v7

Hugging Face Reachy Mini Robot 

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/09/hugging-face-opens-up-orders-for-its-reachy-mini-desktop-robots/

ISTE AI in Education Highlights

https://www.edweek.org/technology/can-ai-make-history-class-more-fun-for-students/2025/07

OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft Invest in AI/K-12

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danfitzpatrick/2025/07/08/microsoft-openai--anthropic-fund-a-national-ai-academy-for-teachers/

Japan Times on AI Peer Review Hacks

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/07/04/japan/ai-research-prompt-injection/

3 v 3 Robot Soccer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPL7sK0pJOE

Amazon Scales Robots

https://unionrayo.com/en/amazon-new-autonomous-robots/

Misty II

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danfitzpatrick/2025/07/07/how-an-ai-robot-helped-silent-kids-speak/

Forbes: College Majors to Beat the Bot 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhernholm/2025/06/30/7-college-majors-that-prepare-you-to-lead-in-an-ai-driven-economy/

MIT EPOCH Framework on Human Capabilities

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/these-human-capabilities-complement-ais-shortcomings

CNN on STAR AI and Infertility Breakthrough

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/03/health/ai-male-infertility-sperm-wellness

Sponsor

This episode is supported in part by the National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing — nextgenmfg.org