Deepfakes in Schools: What Educators Need to Know Now | Ep. 98

Feb 20, 2026

Evan Harris, a safety expert on deepfake sexual abuse, vocal cloning, and crisis response who advises schools on policy and victim support. He breaks down real threats from deepfakes, what vulnerable communities look like, and a 48-hour response roadmap for schools. The conversation covers leadership training, handling digital evidence, prevention-focused classroom work, and practical next steps for districts.

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ADVICE

Hire For Real AI Fluency

Hire leaders and staff with demonstrable AI skills and use performance tasks that allow AI tools.
Design interviews and tasks to reveal real AI fluency beyond simple prompt usage.

ANECDOTE

Students Losing Trust In Reality

Stan Williams warned that AI erodes shared reality and trust among students, making them doubt what is real.
He suggests schools prioritize high-consequence, human-centered work that AI cannot replicate.

ADVICE

Immediate Steps When A Student Is Targeted

Tell a victim: thank you, it's not your fault, and preserve screenshots as digital evidence.
Make mandatory reports once you have reasonable suspicion and involve local authorities for forensics.

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In this episode of ChatEDU Deepfakes in Schools: What Educators Need to Know Now, Matt and Liz open the show with the bizarre tale of M.J. Rathbun, an AI agent that turned into a digital critic by writing a scathing hit piece on a developer who dared to reject its code. Once the laughter subsides, they dive into a critical episode focused on the shifting boundaries of AI, from the retirement of beloved and flirty models to a heavy hitting discussion on protecting students from the growing threat of deepfakes.

The Rundown

Policy Protests at OpenAI: Executive Ryan Biermeister departs following vocal opposition to a rumored "adult mode" for ChatGPT.

Farewell to the "Flirt": OpenAI officially retires the ChatGPT 4.0 model, leaving some emotionally attached users in "grief" over the loss of its unique personality.

The "Quit GPT" Movement: A viral grassroots campaign urges users to cancel their subscriptions in protest of performance dips and political entanglements.

Pentagon vs. Anthropic: The Department of Defense threatens to sever a 200 million dollar contract after Anthropic refuses to waive safety restrictions on mass surveillance and autonomous weaponry.

Listener Mailbag: Featuring Dave Tanner’s AI forward job descriptions and Stan Williams’ insights on the "fog" of reality in the classroom.

AI School Redesign: PlayLab opens applications for its "AI Lab Schools" incubator, seeking to radically pivot existing school structures.

Beneath the Surface

Liz sits down with safety expert Evan Harris for a vital conversation on deepfake sexual abuse, vocal cloning, and extortion. Evan provides a 48 hour response roadmap for schools, explains why leadership training must happen before student assemblies, and shares why this might be the most important episode in ChatEDU history.

The Bright Byte

We wrap up with a look at Isomorphic Labs, a Google DeepMind spinoff. Their new "ISO-DDE" engine is pushing past AlphaFold 3 to unlock "in silico" drug design, doubling accuracy in predicting how molecules bind to targets. This represents a massive win for the future of medicine.

Announcements

Celebrate our 100th episode:⁠ ⁠skills21.org/chatedu100⁠⁠

Learning They'll Love - Dr. Elizabeth Radday

ASCD:⁠ ⁠https://tinyurl.com/bde652nn⁠⁠

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/22t9hz77

Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/bdckf6zw

EdAdvance is offering a Middle and High School Student AI Literacy course — email chatedu@edadvance.org to bring it to your district. ⁠⁠www.skills21.org/ai/learnai⁠⁠

Skills21’s FREE social media literacy course. Check it out here -⁠ ⁠https://www.skills21.org/social-balance⁠⁠

This episode is sponsored by The National Center for Next Generation Manufacturing.⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://www.nextgenmfg.org⁠⁠

Links

OpenAI policy exec who opposed chatbot’s ‘adult mode’ reportedly fired on discrimination claim

https://tinyurl.com/37x8jexr

OpenAI retired its most seductive chatbot – leaving users angry and grieving: ‘I can’t live like this’

https://tinyurl.com/y48b4fynA

“QuitGPT” campaign is urging people to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions

https://tinyurl.com/4sm2mwzm

I’m Not Worried AI Helps My Students Cheat. I’m Worried How It Makes Them Feel

https://tinyurl.com/4uvp8b8a

Playlab opens applications for AI Lab Schools as 20 teams rethink school design

https://tinyurl.com/5a47xe36

MagicSchool: The AI Operating System for Schools

https://tinyurl.com/ysv5cmbz

The Department of Labor's Artificial Intelligence Literacy Framework

https://tinyurl.com/3dyj7zu5