Weekly Newsletter

Practical AI Strategies

Expert Signals

Hi everyone,

For the past few years I've been writing about "expertise" and GenAI. These articles have covered the importance of educator expertise, as well as the ways students might develop their expertise with AI.

To capture these ideas, I've written about technological expertise, domain expertise, and situated expertise. but it occurred to me recently that an important part was missing: the ways in which expertise is transmitted from one person to another.

a huge problem AI is that it presents subject-matter expertise almost effortlessly. Increasingly accurate and sophisticated models give the appearance of expertise and allow anyone to feign expertise in any discipline. But real, genuine, human connection is still needed for the meaningful transfer of knowledge.

I'm calling this knowledge transfer, "expert signals." In this week's article I explore the term, explain where the idea came from, and discuss how we can preserve expert signals in the face of AI.

I have also publicly launched the Practical AI Library. Thanks to everyone who has already joined, and especially to those who gave feedback while it was under development. The library is a curated collection of research, articles, and videos on GenAI. It will continue to grow and evolve over time.

The library is designed to help educators negotiate the overwhelming glut of information on GenAI: if it's in there, then I've personally read it, cited it, or shared it. Check out the article for more information and examples of the content you'll find on the new "library shelves".

I haven't written anything major yet about the arms race between Anthropic and OpenAI, and everything unfolding in the US, but people certainly keep asking me about it! Over the coming weeks, keep an eye out for posts exploring the growing tension between the two major AI companies, and what these conflicts mean for AI in education.

Cheers,

Leon

PS: For the first time, I'm releasing a course from another educator on the Practical AI Strategies platform. This is the first in a series of 2026 courses from experts around the world.

​The Human Advantage (part one) by Dr Tim Kitchen.​

Dr Tim Kitchen has been an educator for over 30 years and is considered one of Australia’s leading voices in digital creativity and education innovation. A passionate advocate for empowering students and teachers through creative technologies, Tim has taught across primary, secondary, and higher education. Between 2013 and 2025 he has inspired thousands of students and teachers through his workshops and keynotes as the K–12 face of Adobe for Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. Tim is a bestselling author and frequent presenter at national and international education events.

The Human Advantage is the first of a two-part course responding to the growing anxiety among educators that generative AI tools may replace creative thinking, originality, student effort and even the job of a teacher. Rather than positioning AI as a threat, the course re-frames creativity as the essential human capability that gives learning meaning, relevance, and integrity in an AI-rich world.

​Check it out here.​

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