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The state of AI in 2026: On the road to ROI

ThinkingNews Desk · how this was written

AI development is accelerating, with OpenAI creating versatile AI agents that can be applied across many tasks. This rapid progress is prompting widespread speculation about how humans will adapt, including concerns that reliance on AI could diminish coding expertise and reshape future work.

Written from all 4 reports below, not from any single one.

How it was reported

  1. MIT Tech Review·
    How to encourage smarter AI use in the classroom

    Cheshire Academy, a 400-student Connecticut high school, permits teachers to select AI tools but does not require them; most staff use ChatGPT, Perplexity, and MagicSchool after a training on prompt design and model bias. Teachers apply generative AI for lesson planning and rubric creation, while French teacher Miriam Przybyla-Baum incorporates AI-awareness assignments. The school has established a Student AI Council and a traffic-light labeling system (green, yellow, red) to define allowable AI use in coursework.

  2. TechCrunch·
    OpenAI is building AI agents for everything. Will everyone use them?

    OpenAI’s new ChatGPT Work, priced at $20 per month, extends large-language-model agents to non-technical tasks by granting them access to users’ inboxes, Slack, phone, Notion, Figma and other tools, allowing autonomous completion of multi-step projects. Lead engineer Andrew Ambrosino says internal adoption is near-universal, yet external usage remains low—under 1% of individual subscribers—highlighting the challenge of scaling agentic AI beyond software-engineer workflows.

  3. Hacker News·
    Coding expertise is going to collapse from AI reliance

    The article argues that reliance on AI coding assistants erodes the very expertise needed to wield them, creating an “expert novice” paradox where newcomers must possess veteran-level skills to use the tools effectively. A JetBrains study found heavy AI assistance leads users to skip planning, produce code without true understanding, and develop an illusion of competence.

  4. The Next Web·
    The biggest question about AI is what humans will do next

    Monty McCoy argues that the pivotal issue of AI is not job loss but how people will use the freed-up time once routine tasks are automated, warning that without purposeful engagement the void could be filled with distraction and division. He stresses that individuals must deliberately claim ownership of their attention, skills and purpose, because the societal outcome will depend on human choices, not the technology itself.

  5. Hacker News·
    Vintage Artificial Intelligence: Before It Got Awkward

    The Vintage Artificial Intelligence collection on the Internet Archive hosts emulated software from the 1970s-1990s that simulates thinking machines on early home computers and consoles. It features Joseph Weizenbaum’s ELIZA, whose “DOCTOR” script was ported to platforms such as Apple II, Radio Shack Color Computer, PalmPilot and Atari 800, and generated variants like German Eliza and Psycho Eliza, establishing it as a benchmark for conversational AI of the era.

  6. TechCrunch·
    ‘The world seems to be ready’: An interview with OpenAI head of product Thibault Sottiaux

    OpenAI’s product lead Thibault Sottiaux explains that ChatGPT Work extends Codex’s coding-agent capabilities to a broader, non-technical audience, offering mobile, web, and voice interfaces for $20/month. The goal is to deliver high-utility, safe AI tasks that encourage users to pay for the service, while expanding public adoption of AI.

  7. Hacker News·
    The state of AI in 2026: On the road to ROI

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