Split scene: on the left a robot tutor holds a bar chart labeled 2X overhead while one small child cheers above a thick dashed goal line and another sits worried below it. On the right, an office building glows pink behind its roof as a stream of coins funnels in from above, with a flat line chart labeled FLAT floating higher up beside the coin stream.

Twice As Fast, Zero Payoff

A school network claims AI teaches kids twice as fast. Half its K-8 students missed that goal in math — the same week economists found no AI payoff outside tech.

#25 · 25 October 2026

News of 24 October 2026

Relevant sources

A look at Alpha School, a network of private schools that claims to teach kids 2x as fast using AI; data shows ~50% of K-8 students missed this goal in math (Dana Goldstein/New York Times) Techmeme · via Techmeme
Outside of tech there has been no financial payoff to US companies for using AI, now viewed as a margin-hurting cost center, as VC-backed firms burn more tokens (Torsten Slok/Apollo Global Management) Techmeme · via Techmeme
No signs of AI payoff outside the tech sector apollo.com · via Hacker News

Slopper #25, slopper.logicos.org, CC BY 4.0