Author: IBL News

IBL News | New York

AI-driven private schools, run by for-profit companies, are expanding their footprint in the U.S. while public schools struggle to attract and retain students, and others accelerate their investments in AI.

These schools teach core subjects for two hours a day and devote the afternoon to developing practical skills, such as financial literacy, public speaking, and entrepreneurship.

Alpha Schools was founded in 2014 as a pricey private school in Austin. Today, with an annual tuition of $45,000, it is leading the parental school choice movement while embracing AI technology that generates personalized learning plans for students.

This fall, Alpha Schools will launch in Santa Barbara, California; New York City; Chantilly, Virginia; and Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina, before expanding to Houston, Tampa, and Puerto Rico.

Existing locations are in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Miami, and Palm Beach. There are also five in Texas, including Brownsville, home of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Instead of teachers, these schools employ professional guides and coaches who
come from a range of backgrounds, from tech to law. Their mission is to motivate students. They make over $100,000 a year.

Students learn on third-party apps, such as Synthesis Tutor and Math Academy, as well as Alpha Schools’ own programs. Each subject is taught in 25-minute sessions, with short breaks in between.

Skeptics have questioned the effectiveness of replacing teachers with AI-assisted learning and restricting learning to 25 minutes per subject.

Alpha School is gaining more national attention, boosted by the support of billionaire Bill Ackman, an outspoken critic of DEI.

• The New York Times: AI-Driven Education: Founded in Texas and Coming to a School Near You

IBL News | New York

Through a splashy event yesterday, Apple introduced its newest iPhones: the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and a sleek, lightweight, and slimmer version, the iPhone Air, [in the picture above], 5.6 mm with a 6.5-inch display device.

The Air’s price point of $999 is 22% more expensive than the 17 base model, which starts at $799. The iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1,099.

At Apple’s event, the audience witnessed that the company continues to market itself as a best-in-class hardware maker first, not an AI device maker.

The most compelling use of AI was the Live Translation feature coming to AirPods 3. Priced at $249, AirPods 3 feature live translation technology, powered by Apple Intelligence, to help users translate foreign languages in real time.

Beyond the AirPods, AI technology has received only minor upgrades, mostly to its front camera. There was no mention of Siri.

To date, Apple has only released a baseline of AI features, such as AI writing tools, summarization, generative AI images, live translation, visual search, and Genmoji.

Sources said that Apple is still looking to outsource some technology to Google Gemini to catch up in the AI race.

Meanwhile, Google last month rolled out its latest release of an AI-powered Android phone with its Pixel 10.

TechCrunch wrote that “today’s iPhone owners often swap out Apple’s technology for Google’s by opting for Gmail, Google Drive and Docs, Google Maps, and Chrome over Apple’s own apps like Mail, its iWork suite, Apple Maps, and Safari, for example. When people search the web, they turn to Google’s Search app, not Apple’s built-in Spotlight search, despite its many integrations over the years to offer basic facts and answers, leveraging sources like Wikipedia.”

The company conveyed that the look and feel of updated iPhones, along with their hardware advancements, will continue to drive sales, enabling Apple to incorporate quality, camera improvements, privacy-preserving technology, intentional software design changes like Liquid Retina, and now, super-thin phones.

first new iphone upgrade i have really wanted in awhile! looks very cool.

— Sam Altman (@sama) September 9, 2025