Kevin P. Taylor

Sweden is committing more than €100 million to a sweeping classroom overhaul: replacing tablets and screens with traditional printed textbooks to help reverse falling student performance and sharpen focus. After more than a decade of embracing digital-first education, Swedish authorities are now pivoting back to paper-based learning. Official data and recent studies cited by the Ministry of Education show that prolonged screen use in class has been linked to shorter attention spans, weaker reading comprehension, and reduced critical-thinking abilities. Research consistently finds that reading on illuminated screens requires greater mental effort and invites more distractions compared to the calm, linear experience of physical books—factors believed to have contributed to declining academic outcomes in recent years. Under the new plan, every student will receive printed textbooks for all core subjects, restoring books as the central learning tool. Digital devices and online resources will remain available as supportive tools, but they will no longer dominate daily instruction. This bold €100+ million investment signals Sweden’s leadership in rethinking the role of technology in education. It underscores a broader, growing recognition worldwide: while screens provide speed and access, the hands-on, distraction-free engagement of physical books supports deeper concentration, stronger memory retention, and more effective long-term learning. By choosing paper over pixels, Sweden is charting a path toward a more balanced, evidence-informed classroom future—one that puts proven pedagogical principles ahead of unchecked digital trends.

In the coming weeks, we plan to start testing ads in ChatGPT free and Go tiers. We’re sharing our principles early on how we’ll approach ads–guided by putting user trust and transparency first as we work to make AI accessible to everyone. What matters most: - Responses in ChatGPT will not be influenced by ads. - Ads are always separate and clearly labeled. - Your conversations are private from advertisers. - Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise tiers will not have ads.

Claude Code and its ilk are coming for the study of politics like a freight train. A single academic is going to be able to write thousands of empirical papers (especially survey experiments or LLM experiments) per year. Claude Code can already essentially one-shot a full AJPS-style survey experiment paper (with access to Prolific API). We'll need to find new ways of organizing and disseminating political science research in the very near future for this deluge.

I'll say the quiet parts out loud: A lot of AI companies that raised $10M, $50M, even $250M+ have SERIOUS churn problems. A lot of AI products get tried because they’re the cool new thing. People sign up, poke around, feel the wow moment, tell a friend, maybe even pay for a month or two. Then real life kicks in and the subscription quietly gets canceled 3-6 months later. I call this "vibe revenue". Money that comes from curiosity, novelty, or FOMO rather than a product becoming essential to someone’s workflow. People pay because it’s cool to try, not because they can’t imagine their week without it. The dangerous part is that vibe revenue looks exactly like PMF at first!! Growth curves go up and to the right. Feedback sounds positive. Founders keep saying “this is the worst the models will ever be.” when confronted with churn. If I had a nickel, everytime I heard that! But the truth is better models don’t automatically create habits. They don’t fix shallow integration or give a product staying power. In AI, switching costs are low and alternatives show up weekly. Curiosity can carry revenue longer than it should, especially when capital is plentiful. Some of these companies will keep raising. Many will hit a wall when retention tells the full story. A lot of employees who on paper will think they are millionaires will learn this lesson the hard way. The businesses that survive feel different. They get used on boring days, stressful days, and busy days. They don’t rely on wow moments. They earn a permanent slot in how work actually happens and they'll deserve the valuation, the funding etc. Vibe revenue, it's everywhere. Stay safe out there. Am I wrong?

The current state of education. If we do nothing about it, it's going to get worse.