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Americans have done a shoddy job of teaching reading and math to the majority of our students. Our scores, when compared to other nationsmost with fewer resourcesare plummeting. As a scientist, I try to stay solution oriented. To ensure that we bend the curve and change the future, we must first concede that we have failed our students. We’re at the dawn of a new educational erathe age of artificial intelligence. And there is no way we will get it right in this new era if we are still struggling with the previous one. As a congenital optimist, I am hopeful that when it comes to teaching AII mean this in its broadest sense, well beyond the practice of codingthat we will learn from our mistakes and get it right this time. My genetic positivity is reinforced by two recent developments that are important milestones in building a national consensus for assuring that we create generational AI skills and wisdom. The White Houses executive order Trump’s executive order speaks directly to the existential need for our country to cultivate the skills and understanding to use and create the next generation of AI technology. Upon its issuance, I wrote a column commending its intention. But I also noted, speaking as president and CEO of the Center of Science and Industry (COSI), a board member of the National Academies of Sciences, and a lifelong STEM advocate, that the EO was insufficient: We cannot teach AI without also teaching critical thinking, ethics, and wisdom. Since then, I was asked to participate in the White House Task Force on AI Education that is guiding the implementation of the EO, and is also establishing public-private partnerships with leading stakeholders in AI. COSI is part of this group and we have signed on to President Trump’s pledge to invest in AI education. I recently attended a meeting of the White House Task Force on AI Education, where the inexorable link between national security, economic prosperity, and AI proficiency was the dominant theme. I would summarize it as: We need to winand we must be the global leader in AI capabilities to keep America on top. Yesbut how? The state of Ohio creates a new state of tomorrow After the meeting, I returned to Ohio, which has joined the AI conversation in a big way. Ohio is the first state to require that every school district adopt formal policies to govern AI use in schools. To put it simply, the EO urges the mustthat AI education needs to be a priority. The Ohio regulation, by contrast, insists on the how. It proceeds from the recognition that our schools will be teaching the technology of the future, and demands that the complex nuances of how be determined and agreed to. Chris Woolard, the chief integration officer at the Ohio Department of Education, described the challenge as creating new guardrails that include ground rules for privacy, data quality, ethical use, and academic honesty. And, importantly, What are the critical thinking skills that are needed for students. Beyond just governed, to taught I commend what Ohio has done. But there is a long way to go. To build foundational pedagogical techniques for the teaching of AI, with no baseline, no historical data, and no trials, is far from trivial. In fact, it is enormously complicated, as we have seen from our inability to effectively teach STEM. Ohios regulatory framework, which other states should follow, will involve the creation of new practices and metrics and will require vast sensitivity and nuance, given that every single aspect of education can be weaponized in our undeniably fraught world of culture wars. But we can learn from our mistakes. For example, so-called whole languageversus phonicsis ineffective for the 20% of children with dyslexia. We need to bring all children into the future, and to do that we need to assure that AI literacy becomes a core marker of educational success. Interestingly enough, AI can help with this Teaching AI is like developing AI. Sort of The rapid evolution of AI comes from the process of training the model; it is how the large language models (LLMs) learn and improve in an iterative and focused manner. But it is also a black box in many ways, which cannot be the case with how we teach AI in our schools. Only transparency and continual improvement will ensure that our K-12 students develop the skills necessary to succeed in a changing workforce. None of this will be easy. AI represents a profound turning point; the EO is broad and conceptual, while our Constitution assigns the responsibility of education to the states. But nothing can be more important, and I call upon educators everywhere to come together and work together. What makes their mission even more challenging is that AI is changing all the time, and with such speed. So those teaching it must also be capable of commensurate change. But educational standards tend to be fixed. It is hard enough to set them, let alone to build in agility and responsiveness. I look forward to working with educators, continuing to participate with the AI Task Force, to help develop standards and guardrails that are as responsive and dynamic as artificial intelligence itself. Indeed, the time is now.
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E-Commerce
Every year, American taxpayers are eligible to put a certain amount of money into their retirement accounts, including 401(k)s and IRAs. But each year, the upper allowable threshold for these accounts tends to rise. This is done in order for the limits to keep up with the rate of inflation. And now, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced its new limits for 2026. Heres what you need to know. What is the IRS 2026 401(k) limit? According to a notice published by the IRS on November 13, the limit on individual contributions to various retirement accounts in 2026 is rising. If you have a 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457 plan, or the federal governments Thrift Savings Plan, youll now be able to contribute up to $24,500 for the 2026 year. This represents an increase of $1,000 from the $23,500 limit in place for the 2025 year. But the IRS has also announced new catch-up contribution limits for 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457 plans, and the federal governments Thrift Savings Plan for 2026. The agency says that if you are 50 or older, your catch-up contribution limit will increase by $500 in 2026 to a total of $8,000. Therefore, participants in most 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457 plans and the federal governments Thrift Savings Plan who are 50 and older generally can contribute up to $32,500 each year, starting in 2026, the agency noted. Catch-up contribution limits for employees aged 60 to 63 will remain at $11,250, the same level they were in 2025. What is the IRS 2026 IRA limit? If you have an individual retirement account (IRA), the IRS has announced that the limit for that type of account is rising in 2026, too. In 2026, the new IRA contribution limit will be $7,500. Thats a rise of $500 over the 2025 limit. Additionally, the IRA catchup contribution limit for those aged 50 or over is also rising in 2026. In 2025, that limit was $1,000. But in 2026, that limit is rising by $100 to $1,100. In addition to the 401(k) and IRA contribution limits for 2026, the IRS announced additional changes for Roth IRAs, the Savers Credit, and SIMPLE retirement accounts for 2026. You can find details of all the changes in the IRSs notice here.
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E-Commerce
A London judge ruled Friday that global mining company BHP Group is liable in Brazil’s worst environmental disaster when a dam collapse a decade ago unleashed tons of toxic waste into a major river, killing 19 people and devastating villages downstream.High Court Justice Finola O’Farrell said that Australia-based BHP was responsible, despite not owning the dam at the time, finding its negligence, carelessness or lack of skill led to the collapse.Anglo-Australian BHP owns 50% of Samarco, the Brazilian company that operates the iron ore mine where the tailings dam ruptured on Nov. 5, 2015.Sludge from the burst dam destroyed the once-bustling village of Bento Rodrigues in Minas Gerais state and badly damaged other towns. Enough mine waste to fill 13,000 Olympic-size swimming pools poured into the Doce River in southeastern Brazil, damaging 600 kilometers (370 miles) of the waterway and killing 14 tons of freshwater fish, according to a study by the University of Ulster in the U.K. The river, which the Krenak Indigenous people revere as a deity, has yet to recover.A decade later, legal disputes have prolonged reconstruction and reparations and the river is still contaminated with heavy metals. Even as Brazil tries to define itself as a global environmental leader while hosting the U.N. COP30 climate summit, advocacy groups say the dam collapse is a reminder of industry-friendly policies that have ecological protection.Victims of the disaster called the ruling a historic victory in seeking justice.“We had to cross the Atlantic Ocean and go to England to finally see a mining company held to account,” said Mônica dos Santos of the Commission for Those Affected by the Fundo Dam.Gelvana Rodrigues, whose 7-year-old son, Thiago, was killed in a mudslide, celebrated the step forward and said she wouldn’t rest until those responsible are punished.“The judge’s decision shows what we have been saying for the last 10 years: it was not an accident, and BHP must take responsibility for its actions,” Rodrigues said.The judge agreed with lawyers representing 600,000 Brazilians and 31 communities in the class-action case who argued that BHP was heavily involved in the Samarco operation and could have prevented the disaster, but instead encouraged raising the dam to allow more production.“The risk of collapse of the dam was foreseeable,” O’Farrell wrote in the 222-page decision. “It is inconceivable that a decision would have been taken to continue raising the height of the dam in those circumstances and the collapse could have been averted.”BHP said that it plans to appeal.The claimants are seeking 36 billion pounds ($47 billion) in compensation, though the ruling only addressed liability. A second phase of the trial will determine damages.The case was filed in Britain because one of BHP’s two main legal entities was based in London at the time.The trial began in October 2024, just days before the federal government in the South American country reached a multibillion-dollar settlement with the mining companies.Under the agreement, Samarco which is also half owned by Brazilian mining giant Vale agreed to pay 132 billion reais ($23 billion) over 20 years. The payments were meant to compensate for human, environmental and infrastructure damage.BHP had said the U.K. legal action was unnecessary, because it duplicated matters covered by legal proceedings in Brazil.The judge ruled that those who were compensated in the settlement in Brazil could still bring claims, though they might be limited by any waivers they signed.Brandon Craig, BHP’s president of Minerals Americas, said that nearly half of the claimants could be eliminated from the group because of settlement agreements they signed in Brazil.BHP shares fell more than 2% on the London market after the ruling and the company said that it would update its financial provisions. Brian Melley, Associated Press
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