E34-Will Grube II, Gruvy Education

NewTech High Podcast

May 5, 2026

Will Grube, Interview II 

On Wednesday, we aired a second interview with Will Grube, of Gruve Education. Bill Sommers joined the cast. 

We talked about the advancement of AI in education--trying to understand what is happening from someone that we know on the frontline of this. I want to remind you that Will is only 24-25 years old and a graduate of Lakeview HS near Marshall, and a college graduate of NDSU. 

To paraphrase, we sidled the issues of AI, cellphone use and several other controversial concepts that we are facing in the current era. If your district is ready for AI in any form, or limiting it thereof, Will is worth talking to. He speaks about major changes that are happening right under our feet, including those things that even are unexpected for AI people. Computer science programming, of which Will is one of them, may be one of those acutely affected industries today. 

Will also addresses Acceptable Use policies, and a variety of other topics. Click into the podcast to listen to this young superstar talk about his knowledge and application base! 

Another Take on AI

Yann LeCun, former Meta AI chief and a scientist in the field for 40 years, has a message for those alarmed by AI doomerism: The panic is overblown.

  • Why it matters: LeCun tells Axios' Madison Mills that the real danger of AI is making life-altering decisions based on exaggerated claims about the technology's future.

📝 Advice from LeCun, executive chairman of AMI Labs:

  1. Ignore hype. CEOs of the frontier labs keep saying each model is more powerful and potentially world-ending than the last.
  2. Go to college. LeCun argues AI will increase demand for more educated, critical thinkers. He recommends majoring in physics or electrical engineering. 
  3. Jobs won't disappear. LeCun says some roles will disappear, but new ones will emerge, as they have in past tech shifts.

Redesign HS MN

Yesterday, we held a meeting in the Metro with a number of educational thinkers about how we can influence subtle to radical change in high schools at the State level. We have invited 12 folks that are integral to this discussion, and had about half-dozen show up. Over the course of the next eight months or so, we will have these meetings monthly. My idea is that we will move these meetings around some, as well as provide options to view them later. If you would like to attend one of these meetings, please let me know. There are several levels of change possible, with changes being proposed as early in the 2027. We have a lot of work to do on this!! This is kind of like a range of 0 to 100, so please accept this as the full range of options for where we want to go. 

Level Zero: No Change necessary. The Status Quo. 

          Level I Change:  Work on changing some of the requirements for all students such as the                   Algebra II and 3rd Year Science credits. 

Level II Change:  Eliminate all requirements for all 1th and 12th Grade students. In this scenario, there are no requirements beyond 2 credits in any subject. This gives more flexibility to design Work and Career options at the upper levels of HS. 

Level III Change:  Eliminate all requirements for all 9-12 HS students. No changes to diplomas, colleges, subjects, seat time, funding, etc.  

Level IV Change:  Eliminate all requirements for all 9-12 students. Totally revamp the meaning of a HS diploma. Consider changes to the college degree process. Streamline the 9-16 educational process from 9th Grade through a college graduate.

Where do you sit on these ideas? 

 

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