EdTechSR Ep 362: Browsers Gone Agentic

EdTech Situation Room by Jason Neiffer and Wes Fryer

Welcome to episode 362 (“Browsers Gone Agentic”) of the EdTech Situation Room from Wednesday, October 29, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) unpack the fast-moving world of agentic AI browsers—Atlas, Comet, and an open-source “BrowserOS”—including why they’re built atop Chromium, where they currently feel clunky in real workflows, and how prompt-injection and data-exfiltration risks translate to concrete school safeguards (sandboxing/air-gapping, limiting LMS credentials, and policy updates). We review TechCrunch’s warning on “glaring” browser-agent risks, Perplexity’s Comet prompt-injection mitigations, and real-world demos that show why an agent could plausibly log into an LMS and complete assignments—raising new academic-integrity and supervision questions for districts. Beyond the browser, we explore creator-tool shifts—Adobe + Google AI model integrations, YouTube Shorts/Studio nudges, and Meta’s AI editing tools in Instagram Stories—and how educators can balance creative possibilities with a rising tide of AI “slop.” We also dig into media-literacy lessons from “Grokipedia” vs. Wikipedia: edit histories, transparency, bias, and why source-checking remains a must-teach habit. Rounding out the hour, the duo spotlights a readable primer on quantum computing’s looming “Q-Day” encryption risk—and why starting the transition to quantum-safe practices belongs on IT roadmaps now. Wes also shares how our new Substack-first post-production workflow (YouTube → Substack with full link lists) is keeping the back catalog current and easier to find.

Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.

🔗 Links We Discussed

* Adobe and Google team up to offer more AI models and YouTube integration (TechRadar; 29 October 2025)

* Elon Musk launches Grokipedia — an encyclopedia where AI gets the last word (Cointelegraph; 28 October 2025)

* The glaring security risks with AI browser agents (TechCrunch; 25 October 2025)

* Reference to Oct 22 Windows Weekly from TWiT

* Mitigating Prompt Injection in Comet (Perplexity Blog; 22 October 2025)

* What is Education Pro for Perplexity?

* BrowserOS

* Instagram users can now use Meta AI editing tools directly in IG Stories. (TechCrunch, 23 Oct 2025)

* CustomGPT for EdTechSR podcast post-production

* Chat transcript example: https://chatgpt.com/share/6902be89-2950-800e-aabf-cea6567ca611

* Custom GPT: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-68fd20ce2f1c8191ac7f3fb207ca6487-edtechsr-podcast-post-production-oct-2025

* Quantum Computing Is Coming for Your Digital Secrets (The Walrus, 2 Oct 2025)

* Elon Musk Launches Grokipedia, an AI‑Powered Wikipedia Rival (The Washington Post, 27 Oct 2025) - paywall free

* grokipedia.com

* Turing Test (WikiPedia)

* HBO Silicon Valley

* Wes’ Geek of the WEek: My Pinboard

* Jason’s Geeks of the Week: Software Treats: Gemini Desk and Ollama + Thunderbird + ThunderAI

🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss

* Anthropic Reaches Settlement With Authors Guild Over AI Copyright Dispute (Authors Guild, 21 October 2025)

* What Past Education Technology Failures Can Teach Us About the Future of AI in Schools (The Conversation, 18 October 2025)

* Senators announce bill that would ban AI chatbot companions for minors (NBC News; 28 October 2025)

* Open AI Non/For Profit

* Built to benefit everyone (OpenAI News; 28 October 2025)

* The next chapter of the Microsoft–OpenAI partnership (OpenAI News; 28 October 2025)

* Projects Sharing Available to All

* The Majority View of AI (Anil Dash; 17 October 2025)

* Why Open Source May Not Survive the Rise of Generative AI (ZDNET, 28 Oct 2025)

* Homework Faces an Existential Crisis — Has AI Made It Pointless? (L.A.Times, 25 Oct 2025)

* The Homework Apocalypse (Ethan Mollick; 1 July 2023)

Episode 362 is also available on YouTube.

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