4The Batch (DeepLearning.AI)·
U.S. universities rapidly expanding AI degree programs, now exceeding 1,000 offerings
As of April 2026, at least 1,000 AI programs exist across nearly 584 U.S. colleges and universities, including 78 majors and 103 minors, up from just five AI majors in 2021. The Batch surveys the landscape of undergraduate AI curricula, ranging from highly technical programs like Carnegie Mellon's math-intensive degree to interdisciplinary offerings like Drake University's humanities-oriented BA in AI. Debate continues over whether specialized AI degrees risk sacrificing broader CS foundations, and whether academic curriculum cycles are too slow to keep pace with the field's evolution.
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Most States Are Regulating AI Despite President Trump's Opposition to State-Level Laws
Over 40 U.S. states are actively pursuing AI legislation in 2025-2026, with more than 1,500 bills under consideration and over 100 laws already enacted across 40 states, covering areas from deepfakes and algorithmic discrimination to safety testing and watermarking. Key states include California (comprehensive AI safety and watermarking mandates), Colorado (high-risk AI system requirements), New York (strict protocols for large model makers), and Utah (refined AI policy acts). This proliferation of state-level regulation continues despite the Trump Administration's executive order discouraging state laws and threatening to withhold federal funds from states with 'onerous' AI regulations. The resulting patchwork creates significant compliance complexity for AI developers operating across multiple jurisdictions.
OpenAI and the CSU System Bring ChatGPT to 500,000 Students & Faculty
OpenAI has partnered with the California State University system to deploy ChatGPT to approximately 500,000 students and faculty, described as the largest single deployment of ChatGPT to date. The initiative aims to expand AI use in higher education and develop an AI-ready workforce in the United States. No technical details about the deployment configuration or specific product tier are disclosed in the announcement.
Anthropic publishes 'Build AI in America' energy and infrastructure policy report
Anthropic released a policy report calling for major U.S. investments in energy infrastructure to support frontier AI development, projecting that the U.S. AI sector will need at least 50GW of electric capacity by 2028. The report proposes two strategic pillars: building large-scale AI training infrastructure on federal lands with accelerated permitting, and broader nationwide AI deployment infrastructure including geothermal, natural gas, and nuclear expansion. Anthropic discloses internal projections that single advanced model training will require 2GW data centers in 2027 and 5GW in 2028, framing the recommendations in the context of competition with China's rapid energy buildout.
Anthropic publishes large-scale study of how university students use Claude
Anthropic analyzed one million anonymized student conversations on Claude.ai to produce one of the first large-scale empirical studies of real-world AI usage in higher education. Key findings: Computer Science students are heavily overrepresented (36.8% of conversations vs. 5.4% of U.S. degrees), while Business, Health, and Humanities students underuse the tool relative to enrollment. Students primarily engage in higher-order cognitive tasks per Bloom's Taxonomy—creating and analyzing—though the study raises concerns about offloading critical thinking. The analysis used Anthropic's internal Clio tool, which aggregates conversation patterns while stripping personal information.
Import AI 445: Timing superintelligence; AIs solve frontier math proofs; a new ML research benchmark
Import AI issue 445 covers three main topics: speculation on whether 2026 will be a pivotal year for superintelligence decision-making, AI systems solving frontier mathematics proofs, and the introduction of a new ML research benchmark. The newsletter synthesizes recent developments across capability milestones and evaluation tooling. As a tier-2 commentary source, it provides curated signal on frontier AI progress rather than primary research.
Accelerating the next phase of AI
OpenAI has raised $122 billion in new funding, marking one of the largest capital raises in AI history. The funds are earmarked for expanding frontier AI development globally, investing in next-generation compute infrastructure, and scaling to meet growing demand for ChatGPT, Codex, and enterprise AI products. The announcement signals continued aggressive investment in AI infrastructure and model development at the frontier.
The Batch digest: U.S. chatbot adoption tops 50%, AA-Briefcase benchmark, ARD spec, North Mini Code, Fable/Mythos export controls
A weekly digest from DeepLearning.AI covers five AI developments: a Pew Research Center survey showing nearly half of U.S. adults now use AI chatbots (ChatGPT at 44% adoption); Artificial Analysis releasing AA-Briefcase, a new benchmark for complex knowledge-work tasks where Claude Opus 4.8 is a top performer; Hugging Face publishing a reference implementation of the Agentic Resource Discovery (ARD) open spec co-developed with Microsoft, Google, and others for runtime tool discovery by agents; Cohere releasing North Mini Code, a 30B-parameter open-weight MoE coding model under Apache 2.0; and over 100 cybersecurity professionals signing an open letter urging the U.S. government to reverse export controls on Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5. The ARD and export-control items are the highest-signal stories, touching agent infrastructure standards and AI regulatory policy respectively.
Import AI 455: AI systems are about to start building themselves
Import AI issue 455 covers the emerging trend of AI systems automating AI research, framing it as a first step toward recursive self-improvement. The commentary synthesizes recent developments suggesting AI is beginning to participate meaningfully in its own development pipeline. As a tier-2 newsletter, this represents curated analysis of frontier AI research directions rather than primary reporting.