The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - How AI Keeps Changing The Classroom

Episode Date: May 13, 2026

It didn't take teachers long to realize how some students were doing their essays at home by using AI - things were just a little too perfect. So, the solution? Pretty simple, actually. It's just one of the stories we tell in this week's End Bits special. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You're just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge, how AI has killed student writing and perhaps revived it. That's coming up on an NBid special right after this. And hello there, Peter Mansprich here. It's Wednesday. It's the middle of the week. We can see the end of the week.

It's just off there, just off the horizon. But there's lots more to talk about before we get there, including five or six great in-bit stories today. But I've got something to say before we get there. You know, we've been doing this program where I think we're in our fifth year now. And we've been doing your turn for, what, three years? And it's been great. Your turn is great because I hear from so many of you,

loyal listeners who write in every week. And, you know, we have certain conditions. You all follow them. You know, the 75 word rule. Use your name, use your location. Have it in by a certain time. All of that. It's all good.

And, you know, I appreciate hearing from you. And I, you know, in many ways, it's kind of our polling center, our data center where we collect. information about issues and we collected from you. You tell us what you're thinking and sometimes it has an impact on the way others think, including me. So that's all good. Well, this was bound to happen at some point and it's happened this week.

I believe for the first time. Your turn is kind of being hijacked. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does take away from what we've been for these last few years. And I would hate for that to happen. So what happened here this week? Well, it appears when we put out the question on Monday, and the question was basically about high-speed rail. What do you think of the idea?

would you rather have the money which is considerable spent in other areas? Are you for it or you against it? That kind of stuff. Well, it appears that one of the people who heard that, one of our loyal listeners, thought, oh, I know what I'm going to do because I feel very strongly about this issue and I belong to a group. It appeared to be in southern Ontario,

kind of in between Montreal and Toronto along that route. I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to put this on Facebook and tell people all my fellow anti-rail people, anti-high-speed rail, I'm going to tell all of them right to Peter Mansbridge. Here's his address. And so as a result, after that Facebook post, we've been kind of steamrolled by one side. at the debate.

However, I became suspicious fairly quickly, and then I realized absolutely, these aren't people who listen to the podcast. This isn't part of our family. They have strong feelings, and there's no reason to dismiss that. But they're not part of our loyal family, who write in once a week on whatever the issues are.

And how did I realize that? That's right. They didn't follow the rules. Whoever told them to do this on Facebook didn't tell them what the sort of conditions are at the bridge. A lot of these letters came in way over 75 words. A lot of the letters came in with no location. A lot of the letters came in in some,

well, not a lot, but some came in without a name. So what do you think? you probably think the same way I do. These weren't listeners to the bridge. These are just people who feel very passionately and good for them on this issue of the high-speed rail line. They don't like it, they don't want it. Anyway, within a couple of hours of that happening on Monday,

we had more than enough letters to fill a show. Like, we had a lot. but we rejected a lot because they weren't they weren't following the conditions that we place on this that everybody else adheres to and occasionally we need to sort of remind people oh you forgot your location and that happens

but I was not going to go and explain all the rules to people who don't even listen to the show so there we go So we will still go ahead with this, and there's a nice mix of those who are against the idea, but also those who are for the idea. And we'll hear from those tomorrow. But I wanted to let you know what had happened. And quite frankly, we don't need any more.

We don't need any more. We got lots. So let's get started on something different. It's our first end bit of the day. It's a headline in the New York Times, and it's basically the headline that I read at the teased at the top of the program, how AI, artificial intelligence, killed student writing and revived it. So I'm going to read a little bit of this by Dana Goldstein in the New York Times because it's really good.

For today's high school and college students, the all-night writing session hunched over a laptop at home or in a library is on the way out. In the era of artificial intelligence, take-home writing assignments have become so difficult to police for integrity that many educators have simply stopped assigning them. Instead, in a rapid shift, teachers are requiring students to write inside the classroom, where they can be observed. Assignments have changed, too, with some educators prompting students to reflect on their personal reactions to what they've learned and read,

the type of writing that AI struggles to credibly produce. This transformation is happening across the educational landscape, from suburban districts and urban character schools to community colleges and the Ivy League. The New York Times heard from nearly 400 college and high school teachers who responded to a call-out about how, Generative AI is changing writing instructions. Almost all of them described a deep rethinking of how to teach writing and whether it still matters,

since AI has become a better writer than most students and adults. Teachers are responding to a widespread challenge. Over the past year, AI use has become ubiquitous among American students. Between May and December of 20, That is not that long ago. Between May and December of 2025, the share of American middle school, high school, and college students who reported regularly using AI for homework increased from 48 to 62 percent, according to polling. Even as two-thirds of students said the technology harmed critical thinking skills. A third of the students reported using AI,

to draft or revise their writing. Chatbots can easily produce polished essays in response to any prompt, analyzing Supreme Court cases, parsing symbolism in the Great Gatsby, explaining the science behind the Artemis mission. AI-powered browser extensions allow students to instantly generate and revise text as they complete online assignments. The tools are able to find and replace language in student writing that could trigger AI detection software

and can also rephrase published writing into new texts that students can turn in as their own. Just a couple more lines from this. It's a long article, and you can access it through the New York Times. But here, let me just finish the part I'm reading. Educators consider many of these uses akin to plagiarism. But some are also worried about students falling behind the curve of a technology that is reshaping the economy and day-to-day life. The standard curriculum was a thesis-driven research essay that students completed on their own time outside of class,

said Mark Watkins, who directs the AI Institute for Teachers at the University of Mississippi. That, he says, is unfortunately gone. All right, there you go. That's interesting. And I know we have a lot of teachers out there because I've already heard from many of you are anxious to read the new book that Mark Bullock and I have coming out this November.

We just announced it yesterday with some social media post showing you what the cover is. The Noble profession is the title of our book. And it's the third one that Mark and I have done together. the other two have been extremely successful, extraordinary Canadians, and a story about the people who actually make the country work. So look forward to the noble profession.

As I said, it comes out in November. But if you see those social media posts, including on my various social media, You can pre-order at Simon & Schuster right now. So you can be the first one on your block to have our book. And we appreciate that. Okay. Let's stay on the AI theme for a minute because this headline got my attention.

I'm sure it probably got your attention too. The story is on NBC News. The headline is AI finds signs of pancreatic. pancreatic cancer before tumors develop. Area Bendix wrote the piece. By the time doctors detect pancreatic cancer, it's often too late to treat effectively. But a new study suggests that artificial intelligence

might be able to find signs of the disease before tumors are visible on a scan. The scientists behind the model at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, so this is serious stuff, which is now being evaluated in a clinical trial, trained it by feeding its CT scans from patients who had been screened for other medical conditions, then were later diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

The team that had radiologists review the scans and compared their ability to find early signs of cancer to that of the AI model. The model was found to be three times better at identifying the early signs. We knew, based on the biology of the disease, that this is not something which is coming all of a sudden in three months. We knew that the signal was there.

We just needed to find a way to be able to detect it, said Dr. Agit Gonka, a radiologist at the Mayo Clinic, and an author of the study. With a five-year survival rate of 13 percent, pancreatic cancer is on track to become the second leading cause of cancer deaths by 2030. Around 80% of patients are diagnosed after the disease has reached an advanced stage. That's what makes this so interesting. Unlike colon or breast cancer, there is no routine screening for pancreatic cancer in healthy people. Feeling for a lump is nearly impossible since the pancreas is buried deep in the abdomen.

And typical symptoms like stomach pain and sudden weight loss usually don't begin until the cancer is spread to other organs. Early markers of the disease are often too subtle to be seen by the human eye on a scan. In many cases, patient scans appear normal as little as six months before they're diagnosed. So this is like, you know, this is all the potential of being kind of a groundbreaking, right? This model is one of several recent advancements in pancreatic cancer research. A couple more lines here. Last month, the results of an early stage trial showed that an

MRI vaccine prolonged survival and eight patients with pancreatic cancer. An experimental drug called Diraxon-Raseb was also found to double patient's life expectancy in a later stage trial. The Food and Drug Administration said just last week that the drugs developer, Revolution Medicines, could expand access to it in a controlled setting for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who have already tried other treatments. That drug hasn't been approved yet, but is expected a decision on it soon.

We're making actually major strides. It hasn't turned this disease around, but we're making strides. It says Dr. Tamas Gonda, director of pancreatic disease program at the NYU. cancer center. Okay, there you go. There's two AI stories that affect A, our education and B, our health. Here's a third and final one that affects our entertainment. Okay, so listen to this. Everybody can buy into this, one way or the other.

Here it is. The headline in the Hollywood Reporter, Is the AI revolution Hollywood feared is already happening in India. With no unions to slow the collision and scant regulation to cushion the aftermath, India has become the world's most consequential live experiment in AI filmmaking, and the results may preview the future of cinema everywhere. Okay. We all saw Titanic, right?

Come on, admit it, you saw it. Listen to this. Picture the climatic ending of James Cameron's Titanic. Kate Winslet as rose, promising to never let go, as Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack tragically succumbs to hypothermia in the icy Atlantic Sea. Now, imagine instead of slipping beneath the waves, Jack revives, hauls himself aboard the lifeboat, pushes back his floppy hair, pushes back his floppy hair, and embraces Rose, so the duo may sail away to live happily ever after. Is that the ending you wanted? Well, guess what? This alternate ending could surely be achieved in relatively convincing fashion, using some combination of the best visual effects and artificial intelligence tools currently available.

But what would the industry reaction be if the Walt Disney Company, rights holder of Titanic, were to alter the beloved classic in just this way, and then release it in cinemas, over the vocal objections of DiCaprio and Cameron, no less. A situation of just this kind played out in the Indian entertainment industry last year. Now, I'm going to have trouble with some of these names, but let me try because it gives you the example.

Romantic drama Rajanjana, produced by Eros International and directed by Anand El Rai was one of India's sleeper hits of 2013. Made for about 3.5 million. It earned 11 million at the Indian box office and became something of a cult classic in the years that followed. The film features Tamil superstar Danush and Bollywood royalty Saddam Kapoor in a wrenching romantic tragedy set in Varanasi. and New Delhi. Danush plays Kundan, a Hindu boy,

whose lifelong unrequetted love for Zoya, that's Kapoor, a Muslim woman, with political ambitions and another man in her heart, drives him into a spiral of deception, self-destruction and sacrifice that ends with his heartbreaking death by assassination in the film's final moments. Well, last August, Eros International

released a new Tamil version of the movie, with its final scenes altered with AI reconstructions so that the romantic lead survives. The new closing sequence, fully synthetic, ends with the opposite of the original's tragic note, as Dnush's character wakes up and smiles in a hospital bed having survived the assassination attempt. The film's director and the stars were vehement in their opposition to the release. This alternate ending has stripped the film of its very source, and the concerned parties went ahead with it despite my clear objection. Dinoos wrote on social media,

adding that AI alternations threaten the integrity of storytelling. All right. Here you go. What do you make of that? That's just the beginning of the articles, lots more. Hollywood reporter, you can find it. But is that going to destroy? I mean, we, you know, remember when they colorize,

started colorizing some of the old black and whites and some people were really upset about that. Well, if they were upset about colorizing, imagine what they're going to say when you change the whole ending of a film. Take the Titanic, for example. Now, that may have been what you wanted in your heart when you were sobbing away watching the James Cameron's

ending to the movie, but that was it. that was what the writer, in this case Cameron, and the actors DiCaprio and Winzell wanted and acted. And so now just through some manipulation, you're going to make them act to a different script. Hmm. Could be interesting, right? Okay, we're halfway.

Halfway means break time. so let's do that and we'll be right back after this and welcome back Peter Mansbridge here you're listening to the bridge the Wednesday episode it's an N-bit special

you're listening on series XM Channel 167 Canada talks are on your favorite podcast platform glad to have you with us a reminder that tomorrow is your turn your turn and the random ranter

and we're glad to have them both with us, as they always are on Thursdays. It's become an extremely popular program, and we're glad you take part. And we welcome the new people, especially if they will listen to the program. Then they'll understand the conditions for your turn, and I'm sure we'll hear from them in the future.

Friday, of course, is Good Talk with Chantelle and Bruce. They'll be long at their, normal time. And that one is also available on YouTube. As was yesterday's War Butts conversation. A really interesting one. If you missed it, catch it.

As I said, available on YouTube or on the podcast. Okay. Let's get to the next story in our N-Bit specials here. You know, two books ago, one I wrote solo off the record. It's kind of about my lifestyle, my life story. Very well received.

It was a number one bestseller. It's sold lots of copies. Thousands in fact, tens of thousands of fact. And happy about that, as we always are, on books. But that was the first book where the publisher, Simon & Shoeser came to me and said, let's do an audiobook on this. It's your story

and your voice. Let's put it out. Now, at that time, and I'm trying to remember, that was four or five years ago. Audio books were still, they were in their infancy in terms of success. They'd been around for a while, no doubt about that.

They weren't taking off. They're taking off now. The process for that one was pretty straightforward. I did it from my home on the same kind of setup that I used for the podcast, but I was connected to a recording studio in New York, and they handled the logistics of it all. Well, they came to me again for our new book, The Noble Profession, the one that Mark and I are doing.

Now, it's a different kind of book because it's the stories in their own words from teachers and students about the noble profession. But obviously, we collected these stories through interviews and wrote them as best we could in their own voice. So they said, we want to do this again, but we want your voice to do the whole book. And I thought, okay, let me think about that because obviously it's different

than what it had been. But they're really pushing the idea because book sales have taken off and this next little story, or audiobooks have taken off and this is one way to prove that. It's a story on AFP of Jean-S-France-Buss.

The headline is Bookless Bookstore, audio-only bookshop. opens in New York. Audio book giant Audible opened what it billed as the first bookless bookstore in New York a week ago. As industry statistics show more

American consumers embracing the format. There's no rustle of pages or stacks of best-selling novels of the pop-up store, opened by the Amazon subsidiary on the lower east side of Manhattan. There is a physical place entirely dedicated to bringing audio

storytelling to life. Audible CEO Bob Carrigan said during a press tour of the Audible Story House on Thursday of last week. It was a slightly wild idea which took quite a bit of imagination, Kerrigan said, adding that the month

long pop-up aims to bring audiobooks to life in this environment where you can browse, you can connect with people. According to the Audio Publishers Association, audiobook sales reached $2.22 billion dollars in the United States in 2024, nearly doubling over the past five years.

In the store, audiobook tablets called story titles line the shelves, ready to be inserted into a player for listening through headphones. Each tile plays a short excerpt and the full title can be accessed on the audible app. The platform which dominates the audiobook market offers paid subscriptions, individual purchases, and free access to some titles for Amazon. on account holders. The venue also has a room lined with speakers for headphone-free listening, as well as a listening bar, where story tenders will guide attendees in finding the perfect audiobook for their tastes and interest, according to the press release. The space aims to reflect the fast-growing popularity of the format, as well as the shift

towards offline experiences and real-world connection. Audible storyhouse taps into the nostalgia and community feel of book culture while bringing it fully into the present. One company official said. So there you go. I like that? A bookless bookstore. Okay.

This next story. This is a classic. I love this story. Have you been watching the, the back and forth between the Pope and Donald Trump? Okay, well, you know, who's on the side of God on that one? Anyway, this is a story not about Trump, but it is about the Pope. It was in the Irish Times.

Julie Bossman wrote it last week. Even the Vicar of Christ can be thwarted by a customer service representative. about two months after Robert Francis Prevo. You know who that is? Little Bobby Prevo from down the street in Chicago. Robert Francis Prevo was a Chicago-born Cardinal at the time and became Pope Leo the 14th in Vatican City. So this is just after he became Pope.

He put in a call to his bank back home in Chicago. Here's what happened. I know you're figuring out of it already, right? The new Pope identified himself as Robert Prevo, saying that he wished to change the phone number and address that the bank had on file. The Pope judifully answered the security. questions correctly. Then the woman on the line for the bank told him that wasn't enough.

You'd have to come to the branch in person. The Pope says, well, you know, I'm not going to be able to do that. I gave you all the security answers to your security questions. The bank employee apologized. The Pope tried a different tack. Would it matter to you if I told you, I'm Pope Leo? He asked. she hung up

I love it she hung up she went yeah right you're the Pope even while leading more than a billion Catholics around the world and living in a gilded spender amid priceless works of art popes can sometimes be entangled

in the mundane both accidentally and with purpose in the first 24 hours of former Pope Francis's papacy in 2013 he insisted on paying his own hotel bill and collecting his own luggage, a gesture of humility to Catholic clergy. Leo, meanwhile, rose from modest roots in Dulton, Illinois,

a small suburb just outside Chicago before serving as a bishop in Peru and an influential post of the Vatican when he was elected Pope nearly a year ago now. Man, it doesn't seem that long. already. The priest is a well-known figure among Catholics on the south side of Chicago, an Augustinian and leader at St. Rita at Cassia High School. This is his friend, I think it's Tom McCarthy. He first met Leo in the 1980s in Chicago, where they grew up in similar working-class neighborhoods

in the city in its close suburbs and has visited the Pope of the Vatican. He's the one who tells this story about the bank. I love it. Sure, you're Pope Leo. Click. Okay. How are we doing on time? Oh, we got time for, well, at least one more.

You know how we're known as Canadians as being the ones who say, I'm sorry. Sorry. You know, the Americans make fun of us all the time, saying, well, Canadians, they're always sorry. Well, you know who's just a sorry? or perhaps even more sorry? The Brits, here's a piece in the BBC. You'll get a kick out of this.

What British people really mean when they say they're sorry. So they outline a number of little situations. What do they really mean when they say sorry on the street? Sounds like an apology, but what it often means is you're in my way, I'm in your way. We have both briefly existed to physically near one another

and must now neutralize the awkwardness immediately. That's what they mean when they say they're sorry. On the street. Here's another sorry. It's like sorry with a question mark, right? What it sounds like a request to repeat something. What it often means, I didn't hear you. Or I did, but I need a moment to process what you just said.

So you go, sorry? That's what they really mean. Now, there are lots more of these. So be patient. There's, sorry, can I just, what it sounds like is a polite request. What it often means, I need to take up a tiny, bit of space and I'm apologizing in advance for the inconvenience of my existence. This is the apology of British self-minimization. You'll hear it on trains and cafes at

theater seats and hotel lobbies and anywhere someone needs to talk a perfectly reasonable question. Sorry, can I just squeeze past? Sorry, is anyone sitting here? Speaker is not really sorry. they're softening the act of asking. Okay, here's another one. Oh, sorry. What it sounds like, an actual apology. What it often means,

I'm ejecting, but I'm going to make it sound like an apology. This may sound like a sincere apology, but it usually isn't. In the UK, where directness can feel horribly awkward, a clipped, oh, sorry, is what you might hear when someone needs to reclaim their place without sounding openly confrontational. Oh, sorry, I think I was next.

Oh, sorry, that's my seat. Oh, sorry, I was using that. Okay, is there another one here? Actually, there are two more. Sorry, but what it sounds like, a polite throat-clearing interruption before a blunt contradiction. That's what it sounds like, what it often means. Try as I might to agree with you, I can't. What British people really mean when they say, sorry, but, it allows the speaker to challenge

contradict or correct while signaling they're not trying to start a fight, even when they're absolutely certain about it. Depending on the tone, it can sound conciliatory, mildly, exasper, or one step short of saying sorry but I'm not sorry. For visitors the trick is to listen to what comes after the butt in Britain. That's usually where the real message begins. Okay, here's the last one. These are funny. This is from the travel section of the BBC.

So I guess it's mainly for those who are coming into the country who want to be briefed on what's really going on when somebody says they're sorry to you. Here's the last one. Sorry, in a queue or pub. What it sounds like, an etiquette reminder.

What it often means, I'm trying to not make this awkward, but this isn't fair, you've broken the rules. The blood runs cold of the thought of cue jumping in Britain. Here the queue is sacred territory. Like Westminster,

or Wimbledon, and a politely interjected sorry acts as an etiquette reminder that everyone must adhere to the rules instead of hustling for territory. In this scenario, sorry is code for get to the back. Don't push in. Keep your distance. Or cue jump if you dare. In the pub, the same phrase can mean just behind you. I think.

I think I was next. Or please don't pretend you didn't see me waiting. It's a correction dressed up as a courtesy, which is often the most British correction of all. There you go. A whole list of N-bits for you for this day. I've got more. I've got lots more, but, well, shall we try and squeeze the last one in?

Did you hear you saw Spirit Airlines, went under last, when was it last week or the week before? And spirit is easy to recognize. I don't think it flew into Canada. Maybe it did. Maybe there were some locations that it flew into Canada,

but not that I'm aware of. Anyway, it's hard to misplace their planes because they're yellow, bright yellow with the word spirit on them. And they had like almost 100 planes. So they'd go under. What happens to the planes? Good question.

National Public Radio answered that one. Here's some of what they said. Most of Spirit Airlines fleet is grounded, but a few of its bright yellow planes were in the air this week, including Nomadic Flight 189 from Spirits' former hub in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Phoenix Goodyear Airport. It wasn't carrying any passengers, just a skeleton crew faring the plane

to Arizona for storage. You know, they have those airplane graveyards and parts of Arizona. When Spirit Airlines stopped flying last weekend, it left more than 90 planes at dozens of airports around the country. Spirit also has engines, spare parts,

real estate, and other valuable assets that it's hoping to liquidate. Within days, Spirit's lawyers were in court asking for permission to start an orderly wind-down of operations. This is complicated because Spirit doesn't actually own most of its planes. The majority, more than 60 planes, nearly two-thirds of its active fleet, were leased, according to court filings,

and the owners want those planes back. Everybody tries to move them as quickly as possible, said one expert. Some are already probably in the pipeline to be leased again. Some are going to have the engines removed, moved on to different airframes, and those aircraft are going to get leased. Some are going to get parted out. Some, nobody knows.

Spirit, too, is looking to monetize anything it can, planes, engines, gates, even landing slots at congested airports. According to court filings, Spirit has 28 planes it could sell, all of them in the Airbus A320 family. It also owns an office building in South Florida. Florida maintenance facilities and other assets that another airline might want to buy. Funny, you don't think of it this way, although every once in a while you'll pass by an airport, where was I recently?

Calgary. I was in Calgary last week, or the week before last. And when we landed at one end of the airport in a kind of remote location where a whole bunch of planes parked. I can't remember now whether they were jet engines or props, but they were, you know, looked relatively new like planes, but they were all parked together at one end of the airport in a remote area. So they were obviously parked. Either the airline has, you know, gone under or on standby of some kind.

But you'll see this in different airports, in different locations, literally around the world. It's that life after an airline goes bust. It's not a pretty sight, especially if you're a big airplane buff, of which I am. Anyway, there you go. There's our collection of little end-bit stories for this week.

I hope you found some of them interesting. I certainly did. Tomorrow, it's your turn. Your turn, our loyal listeners who weigh in on their feelings about, well, high-speed rail. That's tomorrow, along with the random ranter. And I don't know what the random ranter's got to say this week, but he always has something. It always spurs a good deal of reaction from you, and we appreciate that. Thursday, that's Thursday. Friday, good talk with Chantell and Bruce.

All right, I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks so much for listening today. We'll talk to you again in roughly 24 hours. Bye for now.