EdTechSR Ep 376: Fable is Back

Welcome to episode 377 (”Fable Is Back”) of the EdTech Situation Room from July 1, 2026, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) dug into the growing “ed tech backlash,” examining an Education Week piece on schools pushing back against screens and AI, and made the case for nuance over blanket bans. They traded stories about DIY home tech — from Home Assistant automation to repurposed mini PCs — and how AI tools have accelerated their own technical skills. Apple’s recent price increases, driven by a global RAM shortage tied to AI data center demand, prompted a discussion of shrinking memory options in Apple’s newest hardware. The hosts also explored signs that the “open web is closing,” pointing to Reddit’s new login requirements and the broader trend of platforms locking content behind logins. A wild story about AI data poisoning — where a manipulated Reddit thread caused DuckDuckGo’s AI to hallucinate a false story about a public figure’s death — sparked a conversation about misinformation, trust, and the need for AI tools to cite sources. They closed out the AI news with an update on Anthropic’s Claude Fable and Mythos models, which briefly became unavailable after an export-control order and were later restored, along with a look at “agentic loops,” DeepSeek’s low-cost API appeal, and Google’s upcoming Spark agent platform. Geeks of the Week included the Civics of Technology conference, open-source Whisper-based transcription apps, and the agentic BrowserOS browser.

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

1. The Ed-Tech Backlash Is Here. What It Means for Schools (Education Week, 30 April 2026)

2. closescreensopenminds.com

3. I run my whole house on Home Assistant — and Prime Day is the cheapest time to actually start (MakeUseOf, 24 June 2026)

4. Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebooks, Separated for 400 Years, Have Been Reunited and Put Online (Open Culture, 24 June 2026)

5. OpenAI and Anthropic face new AI reality as users shift from ‘tokenmaxxing’ to efficiency (CNBC, 26 June 2026)

6. DuckDuckGo AI hallucinates Trump’s death after AI data poisoning campaign (CyberNews, 26 June 2026)

7. AI Search Says Trump Analived via Rabies (Instagram VIDEO: ArtificialInstanityPod, 30 June 2026)

8. Do not share with children: https://www.reddit.com/r/poisonai/

9. Getting started with loops (Anthropic; 30 June 2026)

10. Fable Drama!

11. US allows Anthropic to release Mythos AI to ‘trusted’ US organizations (Reuters, 26 June 2026)

12. When will Apple prices drop again? Maybe years, maybe never … (9to5 Mac, 29 June 2026)

13. Reddit will require you to log in to use old.reddit.com (ArsTechnica, 30 June 2026)

14. Exploring Reddit’s third-party app environment 7 months after the APIcalypse (ArsTechnica, 1 Feb 2024)

15. Jason’s Gees of the Week: Examples of open source speech-to-text apps: OpenWhisper, Handy, TypeWhisper;

    1. BrowserOS Agentic Browser

16. Wes’s Geeks of the Week: Civics of Technology Conference: 6-7 Aug 2026 (free!) - “Your Feeds, Your Algorithms” - Streamlining Student Logins for Summer STEM Camps - “Oral History for Geneaology” (20 June 2026) Notes: Genealogy for Everyone http://wfryer.me/45d

🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss

1. Most K-12 teachers say AI’s impact on education will eclipse the internet or computers (NPR, 5 June 2026)

2. Building AI tailored for education, with educators in the lead (Google Blog, ~29 June 2026)

3. Gemini LTI (Google Official Support)

4. Google brings a massive wave of connected Gemini tools to classrooms and Chromebooks (Chrome Unboxed, 29 June 2026)

5. The Gemini app is bringing personalized image creation to more users. (The Keyword)

6. Gemini 3.5 Pro Cleared for July Launch as Fable 5 Nears Return, GPT-5.6 Stays Locked (Tech Times; 29 June 2026)

7. ‘Tell Him He’s a Piece of Sh**’: Meta’s New AI Unit Is a Total Mess (Wired, 12 June 2026)

8. An Engineer’s Post Protesting Laptop Surveillance Is Going Viral Inside Meta (Wired, 14 May 2026)

9. Netflix is using an AI-generated Gene Wilder voice in its Willy Wonka reality show (The Verge; 30 June 2026) Archive Link

10. Supreme Court rules your cellphone location data is protected by the Fourth Amendment (Anne Toomey McKenna, The Conversation, 30 June 2026)

11. I pin my Android screen before handing it over to strangers, and you should too (MakeUseOf, 29 June 2026)

12. I use this iPhone feature every single time someone wants to borrow my device (DigitalTrends, 17 May 2026)

13. Google Betrayed the Web (Machine Society, 23 May 2026)

14. Philippines bans video game played by alleged high school shooter (BBC, 24 June 2026)

15. GoreBox (English WikiPedia)

16. The Warrior-Witches of Ukraine’s Resistance (The Atlantic, 21 June 2026)

Episode 377 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones (unedited from our live version, 7.5 minutes longer) and a Descript-edited, Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! (filler words removed and subtitles added)