In this episode of Intelligence for GOOD, Grant speaks with Aaron Ament, cofounder and president of Student Defense, about how artificial intelligence is changing higher education.

Student Defense is a nonprofit organization that uses litigation, advocacy, and policy development to protect students and ensure college remains a pathway to economic mobility.

Aaron discusses the organization’s Shape AI initiative, which stands for Safeguarding Higher Education Through AI Practices and Ethics. The initiative brings together students, faculty members, college administrators, policy experts, and AI leaders to create practical guidance for responsible AI adoption.

The conversation explores how colleges are already using AI in admissions, recruitment, grading, academic advising, student support, and workforce preparation. Aaron explains why university governance policies have not kept pace with adoption and why institutions need stronger standards for transparency, data protection, human oversight, and accountability.

Grant and Aaron also examine the positive potential of AI, including personalized learning, expanded tutoring, earlier identification of students who need support, and better access to benefits and campus resources.

They discuss the risk of creating a new affordability divide between students who can access premium AI tools and those who cannot, as well as the responsibility universities have to prepare graduates for a rapidly changing job market.

Topics discussed

• Why Student Defense was founded
• The risks students faced from predatory for profit colleges
• Why Student Defense launched the Shape AI initiative
• How AI is being used across the college experience
• The lack of formal AI governance policies at many universities
• Human accountability in admissions and other major decisions
• Transparency and disclosure when AI affects students
• Protecting student data from third party technology vendors
• Personalized learning and AI powered tutoring
• Using data to identify students who need transportation, food, childcare, or financial support
• Georgia State University’s approach to tracking student risk factors
• The potential gap between students using free and premium AI models
• Why colleges may need to provide institution wide AI access
• Teaching AI literacy across every academic discipline
• Preparing students for a changing workforce
• Why universities should begin with use cases rather than technology
• The importance of preserving human relationships and campus communities
• The future of Student Defense and its work protecting students

About Aaron Ament

Aaron Ament is the cofounder and president of Student Defense, a nonprofit organization focused on protecting students from fraud, deception, and harmful practices within higher education.

Before founding Student Defense, Aaron worked on education policy and student protection issues at the state and federal levels, including serving in the United States Department of Education during the Obama administration.

Through Student Defense and its Shape AI initiative, Aaron is helping colleges and universities develop policies for adopting artificial intelligence in ways that improve student success while protecting privacy, access, fairness, and human accountability.

About Student Defense

Student Defense is a nonprofit organization that uses litigation and advocacy to protect students and promote economic mobility through higher education.

Its work includes student lending, consumer protection, public service loan forgiveness, for profit college accountability, and the responsible use of artificial intelligence across higher education.

Key takeaway

AI can help colleges personalize learning, identify students who need support, and prepare graduates for a changing economy. Those benefits will depend on whether institutions adopt clear governance policies, protect student data, provide equitable access, disclose how AI is being used, and keep people accountable for decisions affecting students.

In the inaugural episode of Intelligence for GOOD, I sit down with Andrew Sweet, Vice President of Innovation at The Rockefeller Foundation, to explore how AI is already being used to solve real-world challenges in agriculture, education, healthcare, workforce development, and public services.

Andrew brings a unique perspective to the conversation. From serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo and a presidential appointee at USAID, to leading global COVID-19 initiatives at The Rockefeller Foundation, his career has focused on tackling complex challenges at scale.

The discussion also explores Rockefeller's remarkable connection to the origins of artificial intelligence. In 1955, the Foundation funded the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, the gathering where the term "artificial intelligence" was first coined and the modern AI field was born.

Today, nearly seventy years later, Rockefeller is helping shape how AI can be deployed for public benefit around the world.

In This Episode

• The untold history of The Rockefeller Foundation's role in the birth of artificial intelligence
• How AI is helping millions of smallholder farmers improve crop yields and livelihoods
• Why developing countries often have a more optimistic view of AI than the United States
• The growing importance of AI sovereignty and locally owned AI infrastructure
• How AI can expand access to public benefits and government services
• Why AI literacy should become a core part of education
• The rise of solo entrepreneurs building businesses with AI tools
• How states like Maryland and West Virginia are preparing citizens for an AI-driven economy
• The role philanthropy can play in ensuring AI benefits everyone, not just a small group of technology companies
• Why Andrew believes AI can help reduce inequality rather than increase it

Key Takeaways

AI is already creating measurable social impact.

From Digital Green's Farmer.Chat platform reaching millions of farmers across multiple countries to new AI-powered health and education tools, practical applications are delivering results today.

The biggest opportunity may be where talent is scarce.

Rather than replacing workers, AI can fill critical gaps in sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, and education where there simply are not enough professionals available to meet demand.

AI literacy is becoming essential.

Just as previous generations needed proficiency in Microsoft Office and internet tools, future workers will need a working understanding of AI systems and how to collaborate with them effectively.

Public services are ripe for transformation.

AI has the potential to make government services more accessible, responsive, and human-centered by reducing complexity and improving citizen experiences.

Optimism matters.

While risks deserve serious attention, Andrew argues that society needs more conversations about the opportunities AI creates, especially for entrepreneurship, workforce development, and global problem solving.

About Andrew Sweet

Andrew Sweet is Vice President of Innovation at The Rockefeller Foundation, where he leads AI partnerships and strategy initiatives.

Before joining Rockefeller, Andrew served as a presidential appointee at USAID, worked with Dalberg Advisors in Africa and the United States, and began his career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa.

His work today focuses on helping governments, nonprofits, and communities leverage emerging technologies to improve lives and create economic opportunity.

A new Linux Foundation report shows AI is driving a net hiring effect of +27% across European tech organizations in 2026. The real barrier to AI value isn't the technology itself, t's the foundational readiness to deploy it safely.

Key takeaways

• European organizations expect a +27% net hiring effect from AI in 2026, with smaller organizations trending most positive.
• Security concerns (51%) and skills gaps (44%) are the top barriers to realizing AI value -- not the technology itself.
• Organizations are 3.7x more likely to upskill existing staff than hire externally for AI and strategic tech roles.
• Open source is the leading strategy for AI implementation among European organizations, cited by 54% of respondents.

The dominant narrative around AI and employment has been one of displacement. But a new report from the Linux Foundation and LF Research tells a more complicated story: in Europe, artificial intelligence is a net job creator, at least for now.

The 2026 State of Tech Talent Europe report, surveyed European organizations across multiple sectors and found an aggregated net hiring effect of +27% expected in 2026, dropping to +17% in 2027. It's a solid signal that AI adoption is opening roles faster than it's closing them, at least at the organizational level.

AI for GOOD is a podcast exploring how artificial intelligence can help solve some of humanity’s biggest challenges and unlock new possibilities for society.

Hosted by Grant Trahant, founder of Causeartist, the show features conversations with founders, researchers, nonprofit leaders, investors, technologists, and builders using AI to create positive impact across climate, healthcare, education, accessibility, finance, agriculture, humanitarian work, and beyond.

While much of the conversation around AI focuses on fear, disruption, and uncertainty, AI for GOOD looks at the other side of the story: the people building tools that could improve lives, expand opportunity, accelerate scientific discovery, and help communities around the world thrive.

Each episode breaks down real world applications of AI, the ethical questions that matter, and the bold ideas shaping the future of humanity.