College Degrees to Beat the Bot | Ep. 67

8 snips

Jul 18, 2025

The hosts kick off with a demo of a voice AI agent for small businesses. Humanoid robots are discussed, including their clumsy attempts at soccer and their growing role in warehouses. They delve into seven college majors that could 'beat the bot,' emphasizing the importance of blending human creativity with AI skills. A heartwarming breakthrough in infertility treatment highlights AI's potential in healthcare. Plus, captivating insights into using AI as psychedelic trip sitters raise safety concerns.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ADVICE

Deploy Voice AI Agents Strategically

Use Eleven Labs agents to handle routine customer calls and free staff time for complex tasks.
Ground agents with RAG and set strict guardrails like emergency redirects and no-call-transfer rules.

INSIGHT

AI As Trip Sitter Is Risky

People are using AI chatbots as "trip sitters" during psychedelic experiences despite safety concerns.
Experts warn bots can reinforce delusions and lack accountability compared to sober human sitters.

INSIGHT

Prompt Injection Threatens Research Integrity

Researchers hid AI prompts in academic papers to bias AI-assisted peer reviews, exposing integrity gaps.
Hidden white-text prompts exploit AI review systems and call for updated research guidelines.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

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