EdTechSR Episode 370: AI Frontier Geopolitics

Welcome to episode 370 (“AI Frontier Geopolitics”) of the EdTech Situation Room from March 4, 2026, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neifer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) discuss the high-stakes clash between the Trump administration and Anthropic over AI safety and military contracts. The conversation explores the shifting landscape of “vibe coding” with Claude, the rise of agentic workflows in Google Workspace, and Apple’s disruptive new hardware lineup featuring the MacBook Neo. From the geopolitics of open-source models like Alibaba’s Qwen to the practicalities of AI-driven media literacy for seniors, the hosts examine how the frontier of artificial intelligence is reshaping both national security and the classroom. 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 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. Do the people building the AI chatbot Claude understand what they’ve created? (NPR Fresh Air, 18 Feb 2026)

2. Alibaba Releases Qwen Small Models (x)

3. Trump orders US agencies to stop using Anthropic technology in clash over AI safety (AP, 27 Feb 2026)

4. []VIDEO] Full interview: Anthropic CEO responds to Trump order, Pentagon clash (28 Feb 2026, 28 min)

5. A Dire Warning From the Tech World (The Atlantic, 3 March 2026) - archive.ph

6. Clawed - On Anthropic and the Department of War (Substack of Dean W Ball, 2 March 2026)

7. Say hello to MacBook Neo (Apple PR, 4 March 2026)

8. Apple introduces the new MacBook Air with M5 (Apple PR, 3 March 2026)

9. Apple Introduces iPhone 17e (Apple PR, 2 March 2026)

10. Apple introduces the new iPad Air, powered by M4 (Apple PR, 2 March 2026)

11. I just went hands-on with MacBook Neo: It’s game over for cheap Windows laptops (Tom Guide, 4 March 2025)

12. duck.ai (AI search from Duck Duck Go)

13. arena.ai (comparisons of AI models)

14. https://mediaeducationlab.com/events/media-literacy-seniors-0

15. https://labs.google/cc

16. swappa.com (used iOS devices)

17. Wes’ Geeks of the Week: Normalize Your Video Audio with Auphonic - Fact Checking a Misleading Iran War Meme - Change local DNS for archive.ph access

18. Jason’s Geek of the Week: LocallyAI for iOS/iPadOS

🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss

1. A Guide to Which AI to Use in the Agentic Era (Ethan Mollick, 17 Feb 2026)

2. New tools for understanding AI and learning outcomes (Open AI Blog; 4 March 2026)

3. Generate your own Cinematic Video Overviews in NotebookLM (Google; 4 March 2026)

4. Does fact-checking work? What the science says (Nature, 10 Jan 2025) - archive.ph version

Episode 370 is also available on YouTube in two formats: Portrait mode optimized for mobile phones, and Landscape mode optimized for laptop / desktop computers! This Substack version (syndicated to other podcasting platforms) was edited using Descript.com to remove “filler words!”

EdTechSR Episode 370: AI Frontier Geopolitics (CC BY 4.0) by Wesley Fryer