A Columbia University student was expelled for developing an AI-driven tool to help applicants to software coding jobs cheat on the tests employers require them to take. You can call such a tool deplorable or agree with the student that it’s a legit resource. It’s hard to argue with the $5 million in seed funding the student and his partner have raised. Also in this long-form monthly episode for April 2025:

How communicators can use each of the seven categories of AI agents that are on their way.
LinkedIn and Bluesky have updated their verification programs in ways that will matter to communicators.
Onboarding new talent is an everyday business activity that is in serious need of improvement.
A new report finds significant gaps between generations in the PR industry when it comes to the major factors impacting communication.
Anthropic — the company behind the Claude LLs — warns that fully AI employees are only a year away.
In his Tech Report, Dan York explains how Bluesky experienced an outage even though they’re supposed to operate under a distributed model.

Links from this episode

FIR #462: Cheaters Never Prosper (Unless They're Paid $5 Million for Their Tool)