Weekly Newsletter

Practical AI Strategies

Teaching AI Ethics: Power and the AI Resistance

Hi everyone,

Two new articles on the blog this week, and both are a bit heavier than usual. I think that's okay. One of my goals for this year was to get back to writing about the bigger picture of AI: the stuff behind the products, the marketing, and the hype.

Teaching AI Ethics 2026: Power

The first is a 2026 update to my Teaching AI Ethics series: specifically, the article on Power. The original was written in 2023 and introduced the concept of hegemony to help students understand how AI systems reinforce existing power structures. This update takes stock of what's happened since: the $500 billion Stargate project, Microsoft's $135 billion stake in OpenAI, Amazon and Google's billions poured into Anthropic, and the increasing entanglement between AI companies and government policy.

There's a lot of "big numbers" in this one, but the takeaway is fairly simple: the companies building AI are now so large, so wealthy, and so deeply embedded in policy that challenging their practices has become harder than ever. The article also includes a set of teaching ideas across subjects like English, Economics, History, Civics, and Computer Science, because we don't need a separate "AI literacy" class to help students think critically about all of this. We already have the expertise in our schools.

Stay tuned to these emails, because in a week or so I'll be releasing a free eBook exclusively to subscribers with all of the 2025-2026 Teaching AI Ethics articles and resources. It's a 100+ page eBook that covers everything from bias, through environmental concerns, to copyright, privacy, and power.

Artefacts of the AI Resistance

The second article is more personal. For as long as AI hype has been building, pockets of resistance have been forming: artists and writers pushing back against the scraping of their work, educators raising concerns about the future of teaching and learning, and communities taking creative action against the environmental costs of AI.

I've been receiving some brilliant examples of this resistance over the past few months - handmade zines, protest records, grassroots campaigns - and I wanted to write about them. The article also turned into something of a nostalgic piece about punk bands, underground zines, and how the impulse to pick up a pen and make something hasn't really changed in decades.

Cheers,

Leon

P.S. I'm running a new 6-week live program for curriculum leaders on AI – covering assessment, curriculum design, strategy, and building staff capability. Tuesdays 4–5pm AEDT, 24 Feb to 31 Mar. Small cohort, capped at 25.

Early bird $1,440 + GST ends 14 Feb. Details here: https://leonfurze.com/curric-leaders/​

Stay informed.​
The AI Reads page curates fresh, practical articles on AI and education—updated every week, free to browse.
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