Community colleges, especially Southwestern College in California, are battling a surge of AI-driven bot students who fraudulently enroll in online classes to collect financial aid. Professors are overwhelmed with vetting enrollees, while administrators scramble to respond. Despite some institutional efforts, faculty feel unsupported, and the problem only worsens, threatening education quality and student access. -Thinking of buying a Starlink? Use my link to support the show. Subscribe to the Newsletter. Join the Chat @ GeekNews.Chat Email Todd or follow him on Facebook. Like and Follow Geek News Central’s Facebook Page. Download the Audio Show File New YouTube Channel – Beyond the Office Support my Show Sponsor: Best Godaddy Promo Codes $11.99 – For a New Domain Name cjcfs3geek $6.99 a month Economy Hosting (Free domain, professional email, and SSL certificate for the 1st year.) Promo Code: cjcgeek1h $12.99 a month Managed WordPress Hosting (Free domain, professional email, and SSL certificate for the 1st year.) Promo Code: cjcgeek1w Support the show by becoming a Geek News Central Insider Full Summary: In the episode titled “Bot Crisis 101: Community Colleges Overrun by AI-Driven Financial Aid Scams,” host Todd Cochrane discusses a significant issue affecting community colleges, notably Southwestern College in California. He highlights the rise of AI-driven bot students who enroll in online classes to collect financial aid fraudulently. Cochrane explains that professors are overwhelmed with vetting enrollees while administrators struggle to address the problem, threatening the quality of education and student access. He shares a case from Professor Elizabeth Smith, who noted that her classes were filled with students who were bots, with a significant drop in real enrolments after two weeks. The bots aim to collect financial aid by submitting AI-generated work and remaining enrolled long enough for funds to be disbursed. As of now, these fraudulent activities have resulted in approximately $11 million in financial aid fraud, with an estimate suggesting that 25% of college applicants could be bots. Cochrane expresses concern that this issue may extend beyond California. Throughout the episode, he also engages with listeners, acknowledging GoDaddy as a sponsor and inviting them to become GNC insiders. He discusses various tech-related news items and updates, such as investigations into Chinese AI tools, a zero-day security flaw update for Apple devices, Google’s antitrust ruling, and a new lawsuit against Discord for failing to ensure child safety. Cochrane mentions various tech advancements, including NASA’s study on how solar wind creates water on the moon and improvements in construction with self-repairing buildings. He informs listeners about the escalating costs of broadband, innovations in materials, and ethical concerns over advertisements tailored to users’ emotions through smart TVs. Towards the end of the episode, he shares personal anecdotes, expresses gratitude to the podcast’s supporters, and encourages interaction from the audience. He wraps up by reminding listeners of future episodes and thanking them for being part of the show. Brendan Carr threatens Comcast 10:24–Google blocked billions of ads 10:49–Nvidia stock falls again 11:07–4chan taken down 11:32–Apple has removed yet another VPN app 11:58–Insta360 12:22–NASA recreates 80,000 years of moon exposure 13:49–Engineers create living concrete in construction 15:21–A ‘fireball’ lights up Mexico City skies 06:39–House investigation into DeepSeek 15:44–Discord gets sued 16:30–The first folding e-reader 16:50–Facebook considered offering an ad-free subscription You need to update your Apple devices immediately  Google loses monopoly case 17:26–Instagram launches Blend 17:52–Apple Intelligence 18:23–Red Robin’s $20.00 Burger Pass 18:41–Chris Krebs resigns from SentinelOne 08:46–ChatGPT spends ‘tens of millions’ 19:22–A Tesla odometer uses “predictive algorithms.” Samsung Galaxy Buds FE 2 20:31–This small, affordable 4K dashcam 21:06–Perplexity  21:36–Audio-Technica’s new $9,999 turntable 22:24–Library Internet Access is ‘World Changing’ 23:01–What’s new on Hulu 23:08–Archer 23:47–Nike and Hyperice 25:00–Android 16 25:26–Eufy’s new smart lock 25:55–Broadband is expensive 26:36–LG TV’s integrated ads 27:19–A ‘cosmic car radio’ 28:14–The slow, painful death of Fitbit continues 28:34–Millions of customers hit in a massive data breach 28:57–Is your Windows 11 PC crashing a lot? China bans ‘smart and ‘autonomous’ driving terms Colleges are battling bots The post Bot Crisis 101: Community Colleges Overrun by AI-Driven Financial Aid Scams #1814 appeared first on Geek News Central.