It seems to me that Akhil's mom is using various different cuing methods, but it's hard to assess because Ky Dickens does not always accurately describe what's going on in the audio podcast (when we can compare with video), and the video is minimal. I did want to highlight this test:
Trailer [0:13-0:23] [timestamped link]:
Ky Dickens: Let's please multiple two numbers and see if he gets it.
[Close-up of mom typing 25x36=900 into a calculator]
Mom: [looks over at Akhil on the floor] Okay, what is it?
[close-up of Akhil typing nine zero zero, which the ipad speaks]
Compare to the audio podcast which combines the live scene and voiceover - the red parts are missing from the trailer:
Ky Dickens: Let's please multiple two numbers and see if he gets it.
Ky [voiceover] Monicia types in 25 times 36 and as the answer pops up she points to her head and says: "The moment it comes here" and then she points to Akhil and says, "it goes there."
Mom: The moment it comes here, it goes there.
Ky: [edit]* Can you see it already in your mom's head?
Akhil: Yeah [+ unintelligible 2 syllables, "a-sah"]
Ky [voiceover]: The calculator is pointed totally away from Akhil, right up in Michael's camera, and Akhil is under his blanket and his speaking device is on the ground in front of him. By the way, 25 times 36 equals 900.
Mom: Okay, what is it?
Akhil's ipad as he types: nine. zero. zero.
Notes:
It does not appear that random numbers are used. From what we're shown, mom chose the calculation.
Ky makes a big deal (as usual) about how the child can't see the target, while failing to notice all the other cues that may be happening such as mom speaking 12 words before he types his answer. The camera angle makes it impossible to know if she's using her usual hand signs or other bodily cues.
*This edit is a clear edit in the audio, so some time has passed, possibly only a second but we can't know. Did mom say other things in the cut section that gave Akhil the answer?
Previous test
Right before that test is described in the podcast, Ky describes a test she came up with "on the spot" (no video): she types an 8-digit number times 4.
Ky [voiceover] I certainly don't know the answer to that. The answer that pops up is long.
Ky: Whoa, is that too long?
Mom: Yeah it's fine.
Akhil then types the answer correctly. Aside from the remarkable telepathy, the other remarkable thing is that he calculated the correct answer in his head. The second test (above, 25x36) is an easier calculation with a nice rounded answer, and less impressive on that front. But why does Ky make her calculator produce the answer
before Akhil types it? If he's supposed to be figuring out the answer himself, there's no need to learn the answer until after he types it. (Unless mom needs to know, so she can signal it to him, digit by digit...)
And if he's not supposed to be figuring out the answer himself but merely lifting it from mom's head, why go through the calculation process at all? Just type any long random number for him to divine.
Ky implies she did this test multiple times. Did she use complicated calculations and did she always produce the answer before Akhil typed it? (Not that anything times 4 is that hard to do as mental arithmetic, but on an 8 digit number it would require some practice.)
Did
mom ask to see the answer before Akhil typed it, or did Ky just not consider waiting until after Akhil gave the answer before asking the calculator for the answer, to check? And anyway, mom knows the answer, he is apparently taking it from her head, so there is no human calculation going on and therefore no need to have the calculator perform a calculation.
This whole test, which could have been exceedingly simple (including of course not letting mom speak or even look at Akhil while he answers), seems to be overly complicated and it's not clear what Ky is testing.
I made a previous comparison to Uri Geller's 70s testing at SRI where he pretty much ran the show - he picked the tests, he had a buddy constantly with him, he would jump up and down, create chaos, and express frequent doubts that he could do the test (to invoke sympathy so the experimenters would be on-side). Adding in Randi's Project Alpha hoax (where he sent in two young magicians to fake psychic powers during 1979-82), the experimenters didn't realize the distractions and were so fixated on elaborate ways to safeguard against cheating that they never noticed the simple tricks used.