Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how colleges and universities educate students and prepare them for the workforce. 

As higher education works to establish guidelines around AI, they must address a larger picture: How can students use AI without losing critical skills? 

In an interview with Fox Digital Business, Richard Corcoran, president of New College of Florida and the state’s former education commissioner, said AI could either strengthen education or create shortcuts that weaken the learning process.

“I think it could be a great thing, and it could be a very dangerous thing,” Corcoran told Fox News Digital. “It’s how we manage it and what we do from here.”

PURDUE UNIVERSITY INTRODUCES ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COURSEWORK AS A GRADUATION REQUIREMENT FOR INCOMING FRESHMAN

Artificial intelligence is transforming colleges and universities. (Getty Images, File / Getty Images)

AI tools are already being used across the U.S. by students to brainstorm, summarize information and improve writing skills. Universities are responsible for adapting and creating guidelines for students’ success. 

Corcoran said universities should focus on teaching students how to think critically and evaluate information rather than preparing them for a specific job or technical skill.

“You’ve got to go back and teach those critical thinking skills,” Corcoran said. “You’ve got to have all those soft skills. You have to have them be great thinkers.”

He also said that AI could be a great use for universities to operate more effectively. Colleges can use technology in student recruitment, marketing, human resources and administrative work. 

MELANIA TRUMP URGES AI ‘VIGILANCE,’ SAYS AMERICANS NEED TO GET EDUCATED

Students use laptops during college class as universities navigate the growing use of AI in higher education. (Getty Images, File)

By using AI in these areas, universities are able to run smoothly and effectively. 

“AI tools in achieving efficiency have been excellent,” Corcoran said.

At the same time, the growth of AI is also forcing universities to rethink what skills students need to learn before entering the workplace. As technology is doing more entry-level tasks, employers are starting to look for skills centered on communication and creativity. 

Corcoran said New College has sought to combine technology and the liberal arts in its curriculum. 

This approach is designed to help students apply AI in practical ways while still using their critical thinking skills. 

OVERRELIANCE ON AI COULD REPLACE ‘SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE’ IN THE WORKPLACE, PROTOCOL EXPERT WARNS

People walk toward an office building as universities prepare students for a workforce increasingly shaped by AI (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images, File)

Corcoran also pointed to New College’s senior thesis requirement as an example of how students can use AI without allowing it to replace independent thought. 

Students may use AI to assist with research or drafting, but they must defend their work before a panel of professors.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

“AI can help you draft that document,” Corcoran said. “It cannot help you defend it standing before three professors.”

As AI continues to develop, universities will continue to adapt their policies. 

The challenge, Corcoran said, will be ensuring that AI remains a tool that enhances education rather than a substitute for learning.

The car was shown Sept. 24 at the Renault Carwalk and is due on the brand’s stand at the Paris Motor Show from Oct. 12 to 18. After that it is earmarked for the Renault Collections museum in Flins, France, planned to open in about 15 months. Flins is where the original 8 was built.

Alexandre Malval, Renault’s vice president of design, said: “With Renault 8 Gordini Concept, we wanted to spark emotion by drawing on both our heritage and modern times, bringing together the icons of yesterday and the future. This exercise in style sets out to reinvent Renault 8 Gordini for the modern day. The aim of this coupé is to inspire emotion and capture the imagination of all car enthusiasts. And when I talk about emotion, I’m not talking about nostalgia, but real passion for cars.”

On the stance he added: “We updated the distinctive styling of the original Renault 8, which was virtually symmetrical from front to rear, to give it a more dynamic look. With the flowing cabin lines, wide track, prominent wings and wheels of 19 inches at the front and 20 inches at the rear, it appears to hug the road.”

Romain Gauvin, Renault’s concept design chief, told Autocar: “The original 8 was a very humble car, a sort of working class hero. We wanted to keep that honesty for this concept. It’s not a two-metre-wide, 1000bhp machine: it’s still approachable and makes you smile.”

Asked about a production run, Gauvin said: “Production is not something we considered for this car. It is really a one-off concept. But I’m a designer, so if the company decides to make a production run out of it, I would be very happy to make it.”

Thomas Altet, a color and materials designer, said: “The colour of the concept car was inspired by Bleu de France, the signature colour of the original Renault 8 Gordini.”

The concept measures 4.12 meters long, 1.88 meters wide and 1.27 meters tall — short, wide and very low. Renault lists a single rear electric motor at about 270 horsepower, or 266 bhp / 198 kW in some briefings, driving the rear wheels. Torque, battery size, range, weight and 0-60 times were not published. The body is described as carbon. The front end is treated as a single lift-off panel, a motorsport nod that also hides shut lines.

Round lamps recall the 1962–71 Renault 8. Extra spotlights echo period rally cars. White Gordini stripes run as a graphic that ties the windscreen grille to the tail lamps. Staggered 19- and 20-inch wheels and a deep diffuser complete the café-racer brief Renault used in its press language.

The original 8 Gordini of 1964 put a tuned, rear-mounted four-cylinder of about 95 horsepower in a four-door family shell. Rear drive and a light tail made it a cheap way to learn car control. Jean Ragnotti and other French rally names used similar cars as trainers. Amédée Gordini’s name later sat on hotter Clios before Alpine absorbed the performance role.

This concept is not that car. It is a two-door, two-seat show piece after an internal contest of more than 300 sketches. Two designs were modeled at 2:5 scale; the final car mixed both. It follows other heritage one-offs: an electric R17 restomod with Ora Ïto and the Renault 5 Diamant art car with Pierre Gonalons. Unlike those collaborations, the 8 Gordini was designed in-house and is the first studio show car under Malval.

Renault has put the 4 and 5 back into production as EVs. Autocar and others note that Alpine already covers small sports cars, which weakens the business case for a second compact two-seater with a revived tuner badge. Auto Express reported that, at unveiling, Renault had no plan for a road-legal version.

A review of the object, not a road test, stops at what can be seen. Proportions are the story: shorter than many hot hatches, wider than the old 8, low enough that the glasshouse looks perched. The power figure is in Alpine A110 territory, not hypercar theater. Without a published curb weight, that number is a brochure line.

What buyers cannot do is order one. What designers can do is lift lamps, stripes, blue paint and the idea of a small rear-drive coupe into later Clios or Alpines. That is the usual job of a Carwalk car.

Paris will judge the surface. The museum will keep the artifact. Until Renault opens an order book, the 8 Gordini of 2026 remains a 270-hp electric sculpture with rally lights and a designer’s smile — not a car you can drive home.

President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he has approved new fuel economy standards that end the Biden-era electric vehicle mandate.

“The Dumocrats cost our Great Auto Manufacturers $Billions, forced Americans into cars they never wanted, and wasted Billions on Chargers that were never built,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday afternoon.

The president added that the new standards will “take the waste out of building cars in America. That means LOWER PRICES, saving families thousands on a new, beautiful, and safe car — Far better than the Environmental Monsters that we were building heretofore. Every Manufacturer, from General Motors to Ford to Stellantis, has called me wanting to build here, and now they can!”

He said his administration is investing $100 billion in American autos.

BIDEN-ERA ENVIRO RULE ACCUSED OF STRANGLING TRUCKERS, SQUEEZING AMERICANS LANDS ON TRUMP CHOPPING BLOCK

Workers assemble Ford vehicles at the Chicago Assembly Plant on June 24, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images / Getty Images)

“The Plants are coming back, and Jobs are returning, to Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, South Carolina, and all over our Country,” he said. “Thank you to our Great Secretaries of Transportation and Commerce, Sean Duffy and Howard Lutnick.”

Former President Joe Biden’s Environment Protection Agency issued stricter fuel emissions standards in 2024 that would require automakers to build more electric vehicles in the coming years.

TRUMP ADMIN AXES ‘GREEN NEW SCAM’ APPLIANCE RULES AS EUROPE BAKES IN BRUTAL HEAT

Trump also ended Biden’s electric vehicle tax credits last year in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Ford CEO Jim Farley hailed Trump’s plan last year to lower fuel standards as a “victory for affordability and common sense.”

Brand new Nissan cars are displayed on the sales lot at North Bay Nissan in Petaluma, California last year. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“As the president said, we will be able to offer more affordability on our popular models, and we’ll be able to launch new vehicles built in America that are more affordable because of this rule change,” he told “Fox & Friends” in December.

Trump also signed a trio of congressional resolutions in June ending California’s restrictive rules for diesel engines and mandates on elective vehicle sales, with Trump celebrating that his signature “will kill the California mandates forever.”

CALIFORNIA’S INSANE PLAN TO REGULATE WHAT TIRES WE BUY IS FULL OF HOT AIR

President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he has approved new fuel economy standards that end the Biden-era electric vehicle mandate. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / Getty Images)

“Under the previous administration, the federal government gave left-wing radicals in California dictatorial powers to control the future of the entire car industry all over the country, all over the world, actually,” Trump said before signing the resolutions.

“They approved Governor Gavin ‘Newscum’s’ ridiculous plan to impose a 100% ban on all new gas-powered cars within a very short period of time,” he said. “Think of this, you can’t buy any other car except an electric powered car, and in California they have blackouts and brownouts. They don’t have enough electricity right now.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton and Kristen Altus contributed to this report. 

This article was written by

Follow

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of NVDA, AVGO, GOOGL either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Conor McKenna is co-founder and chief executive of Go Swag, a Glasgow company that sources, stores and ships branded gifts and merchandise for more than 1,000 organisations, including Meta, Apple and Netflix.

In May 2026 the business raised $5m (£3.7m) in a round led by Mercia Ventures with Techstart Ventures, taking total funding to $6.2m. The money will push Go Swag further into the United States, open a warehouse in Southeast Asia and grow the team from 30 to 70 people. He tells Business Matters why he learned to say no to clients, and why he thinks the catalogue is finished.

What do you currently do at Go Swag?

As co-founder and CEO, my core focus is setting the strategic direction of the company, driving our global expansion and leading product innovation. We have built Go Swag as a tech-enabled corporate gifting platform to take the heavy lifting out of branded merchandise for global enterprises.

That means a lot of my day-to-day involves pushing our technology suite, from AI-driven product curation to customisable recipient management systems. Our Claim Pages let recipients enter their own details, and Sonny, our AI recommendation engine, helps clients choose products. Anything that ensures we are eliminating friction for our clients at every step.

What was the inspiration behind your business?

Go Swag started with a problem my co-founder Ben and I ran into first-hand while working at a software agency in Glasgow. We were asked to build an onboarding pack for a new designer, but quickly found that the available options were low quality and split across fragmented suppliers. We ended up sourcing and packaging everything ourselves to create the kind of first impression we wanted the new joiner to have.

When we asked HR about scaling that experience, they showed us the operational nightmare behind it: managing dozens of vendors, holding inventory and handling international shipping.

Coming from design backgrounds, we saw a trillion-dollar industry running on 20-year-old catalogues and manual processes. Companies were spending millions perfecting their digital brand, yet handing out disposable merchandise physically. We launched Go Swag to bridge that gap completely.

What will the new funding be used for?

We raised $5m, led by Mercia Ventures with Techstart Ventures and a group of strategic angel investors. It will help us grow in the United States and open a warehouse in Southeast Asia, alongside the ones we already run in the UK, the Netherlands and the US.

We also plan to grow the team from 30 to 70 people across sales, engineering and operations, and to keep automating quoting, account management and product recommendations.

Who do you admire?

My biggest inspiration is my mum. She left home at 17 and built a remarkable career through sheer determination and work ethic, eventually becoming a CEO. Watching her resilience up close taught me what leadership, adaptability and perseverance look like in practice.

In business, I admire founders and builders who question industry status quos rather than accepting them. Anyone who takes a stagnant category and fundamentally rebuilds it through better technology and design principles is someone I look up to.

Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?

We should have learned to say no sooner. Early on, it is easy to assume the goal is simply to hit the brief and match the target price, when in fact clients rely on your expertise to push back. Accepting a product compromise might feel fine in the moment, but taking shortcuts on quality is too big a risk for any brand to take.

We work with some of the world’s most ambitious companies, and we have staked our reputation on making sure physical merchandise gets exactly the same attention to detail as their digital homepage. Bringing that level of honesty to a pitch is not always the easiest way to win business, but it is how you build real trust in the long term.

What defines your way of doing business?

I have always been a builder, someone who likes taking complex systems apart to figure out where they fail and how to rebuild them cleaner. That mindset dictates how we operate: lean teams, rapid execution and an uncompromising focus on quality.

We believe corporate gifting should not be treated as a transactional procurement task; it is a high-impact brand touchpoint. We act as an extension of our clients’ teams by taking complete ownership of the back end. That means handling everything from recipient sizing to global distribution across three continents, so enterprise leaders can stay focused on their core business.

What advice would you give to someone starting out?

Be prepared to outwork everyone, and surround yourself with smart, determined people. Most of building anything worthwhile is boring, repetitive work that nobody sees. You have to learn to enjoy that bit, not just the outcome.

And do not outsource your conviction. Most interesting businesses sound like terrible ideas until someone proves otherwise. Ask for opinions, listen and learn, but remember that most people have not tried what you are trying. Build it, find customers and let real transactions tell you whether you are right.

SAN DIEGO — San Diego County health officials are urging residents to take precautions against mosquito bites after West Nile virus cases surged to their highest level in a decade, prompting emergency spraying operations in neighborhoods identified as having elevated risk.

The county has confirmed 11 cases of West Nile virus so far this year, a stark increase from last year, when no cases were reported in the county at all. Of those 11 confirmed cases, four people have required hospitalization.

In response to the surge, county vector control officials deployed spraying trucks early Friday morning in Coronado, an area identified as having a particularly high concentration of cases, with plans to return Saturday at 1 a.m. to spray again. Signs alerting residents to the spraying operation have been posted throughout the affected neighborhoods, with a map outlining the treatment area spanning from 2nd Street to Ocean Boulevard and from F Avenue to Glorietta Boulevard.

Vector control officials explained the basis for targeting that specific area. “Identified an area that we see as having a higher risk of West Nile virus, based on finding positive mosquitoes within a limited area,” officials said.

West Nile virus typically originates in infected birds, which mosquitoes then pick up and transmit to humans through bites. According to health officials, approximately 80% of people who become infected with the virus do not develop any symptoms at all. Among the remaining 20% who do become symptomatic, most experience flu-like symptoms, including fever and muscle aches. Severe symptoms occur in roughly 1% of cases, and in some of those instances, the virus can prove fatal.

San Diego County Public Health Officer Dr. Sayone Thihalolipavan emphasized the importance of prevention given the current lack of medical treatment options for the virus. “It’s really important to understand there is no vaccine, there is no treatment for West Nile virus, so we have to take prevention really, really seriously,” Thihalolipavan said.

With no vaccine or specific treatment available, county officials are focusing their public messaging on practical prevention steps residents can take at home. Officials are advising residents to eliminate any standing water around their properties, including in flower pots and bird baths, since stagnant water provides breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Additional recommended precautions include using insect repellent and wearing long sleeves and pants when outdoors, particularly during dawn and dusk hours, when mosquito activity typically peaks and residents face the greatest risk of exposure.

Officials also flagged a broader environmental factor that could extend the current elevated risk beyond the season’s typical peak. A forecasted El Niño weather pattern may generate additional standing water across the region, potentially prolonging mosquito breeding conditions beyond West Nile virus’s typical peak season, which generally runs from June through October in the county.

The surge in San Diego County cases mirrors a broader national trend this year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an unusually warm and wet spring contributed to an early surge in mosquito breeding and virus circulation across the United States this year, a pattern that appears to be reflected in San Diego County’s own significant year-over-year increase in confirmed cases.

West Nile virus has circulated in the United States for more than two decades since it was first detected domestically, with case counts fluctuating from year to year depending on weather conditions, mosquito population levels and other environmental factors that influence transmission. The jump from zero confirmed cases in San Diego County last year to 11 this year, with four requiring hospitalization, represents a particularly sharp swing that has prompted the county’s more aggressive spraying response in the areas identified as highest risk.

Residents in Coronado and surrounding areas covered by the current spraying operation are advised to review the posted notices and treatment area maps for specific guidance on the timing and scope of the mosquito control efforts in their neighborhoods. County officials have indicated they will continue monitoring mosquito populations and case counts closely, with additional spraying operations possible in other areas of the county should further zones of elevated risk be identified through ongoing mosquito surveillance testing.

With the current case count already the highest recorded in the county in ten years and the season’s typical peak transmission window still ongoing, county health officials are continuing to emphasize that individual prevention measures, eliminating standing water, using repellent, and covering exposed skin during peak mosquito activity hours, remain the most effective tools available to residents in the absence of any vaccine or specific medical treatment for the virus.

MELBOURNE — Kylie Minogue delivered on her promise of a hometown spectacle Saturday, dazzling more than 100,000 fans packed into the MCG, along with millions more watching at home, with a 20-minute AFL grand final pre-game show that packed in greatest hits, multiple costume changes and a literal flight through the stadium’s airspace.

Minogue opened the show with a video package, narrated by the singer herself, splicing childhood footage of Minogue with images of the two teams competing in that day’s final. “A homecoming like this? I should be so lucky,” she said in the voiceover, a nod to one of her own early hits. The set then launched directly into “Love at First Sight,” backed by blue-clad dancers and pyrotechnics.

Minogue crammed more than three decades of hits into her brief set, working through “Love at First Sight,” “In Your Eyes,” “Get Outta My Way,” “On a Night Like This,” “All the Lovers,” “Spinning Around,” “Confide in Me,” “Slow,” “Padam Padam,” “The Loco-Motion” and “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” the last performed with a Dom Dolla remix. The rapid pace reflected the central logistical challenge of condensing a career spanning more than 30 years into a single 20-minute broadcast window.

Several distinct moments stood out across the performance. A tonal shift arrived when Kalkadunga songman William Barton joined Minogue on stage to accompany her 1994 track “Confide in Me” on guitar, with the pair dressed in matching black and gold and accompanied by orchestral strings and pyrotechnics as they moved toward one another on the catwalk for the ballad. The mood shifted again for “Padam Padam,” Minogue’s 2023 hit, performed as a rock rendition alongside Australian musician G Flip, with both artists dressed head to toe in red.

Minogue built a moment of dramatic tension ahead of “The Loco-Motion,” pausing to ask the crowd, “Wait did you hear that sound? Are you telling me THE loco-motion stops right here at the MCG?” before leading more than 100,000 fans in the dance associated with the song. The performance of “The Loco-Motion” also featured Australian comedy duo The Inspired Unemployed joining Minogue on stage for the number.

The show’s most technically ambitious moment came during the closing performance of “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” when Minogue emerged from a giant, bedazzled sculpture spelling out “KYLIE” shaped like an AFL football and appeared to fly through the stadium’s airspace via a camera-mounted flight system, spinning above the crowd as she sang. Minogue nearly became stuck in her safety harness following the aerial sequence, according to coverage of the performance, but continued the show after saluting the technical crew managing the rigging.

Minogue’s outfits shifted repeatedly throughout the set. She opened in a black tank top featuring a vintage poster image of her own face, paired with black hot pants trimmed in red and white tassels and black knee-high boots. She then changed into a small black dress featuring additional tassels and gold knee-high boots, with “2026 Grand Final” embossed in gold and “Melbourne” printed across the back. A floor-length golden jacket was added for the segment featuring William Barton, before Minogue’s final costume, a silver-white gown paired with black sunglasses, appeared for her airborne finale.

G Flip also handled broader pre-show entertainment duties beyond the Padam Padam collaboration, opening the entertainment segment on drums with a performance of “Worst Person Alive,” before moving to guitar for the 2026 ARIA-nominated track “Bed on Fire,” and finishing the set on saxophone. Separately, as retired AFL players completed a lap of honor around the MCG, musician Mike Brady performed “Up There Cazaly,” a song closely associated with Australian rules football.

Observant fans also noted several possible Easter eggs scattered throughout the performance, including a segment featuring disco-styled dancers that some viewers interpreted as a reference to either Minogue’s 2020 lockdown-era album or her earlier glittery club hit “Your Disco Needs You,” released two decades prior.

Minogue had teased the possibility of surprises ahead of the show without confirming specific details, and her performance closed with a direct callback to her own lyrics. “On a night like this, I wanna stay forever,” she said, quoting her own 2000 hit “On a Night Like This” in her closing remarks to the crowd.

The AFL grand final itself concluded with Brisbane defeating Fremantle to claim a third consecutive premiership, capping the 2026 season with the Lions securing another three-peat while Fremantle continued its wait for a first-ever flag. With Minogue’s pre-game show now behind her, the performance is likely to be remembered as one of the more elaborate AFL grand final entertainment segments in recent years, combining the scale of Australia’s biggest single sporting event with a career-spanning showcase from one of the country’s most enduring pop exports.