From DSC:
This would be huge for all of our learning ecosystems, as the learning agents could remember where a particular student or employee is at in terms of their learning curve for a particular topic.


Say What? Chat With RTX Brings Custom Chatbot to NVIDIA RTX AI PCs — from blogs.nvidia.com
Tech demo gives anyone with an RTX GPU the power of a personalized GPT chatbot.



 

Generative AI in a Nutshell – how to survive and thrive in the age of AI — from youtube.com by Henrik Kniberg; via Robert Gibson and Adam Garry on LinkedIn


Lawless superintelligence: Zero evidence that AI can be controlled — from earth.com by Eric Ralls

In the realm of technological advancements, artificial intelligence (AI) stands out as a beacon of immeasurable potential, yet also as a source of existential angst when considering that AI might already be beyond our ability to control.

Dr. Roman V. Yampolskiy, a leading figure in AI safety, shares his insights into this dual-natured beast in his thought-provoking work, “AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable.”

His research underscores a chilling truth: our current understanding and control of AI are woefully inadequate, posing a threat that could either lead to unprecedented prosperity or catastrophic extinction.


From DSC:
This next item is for actors, actresses, and voiceover specialists:

Turn your voice into passive income. — from elevenlabs.io; via Ben’s Bites
Are you a professional voice actor? Sign up and share your voice today to start earning rewards every time it’s used.


 

 

Top 6 Use Cases of Generative AI in Education in 2024 — from research.aimultiple.com by Cem Dilmegani

Use cases included:

  1. Personalized Lessons
  2. Course Design
  3. Content Creation for Courses
  4. Data Privacy Protection for Analytical Models
  5. Restoring Old Learning Materials
  6. Tutoring

The Next Phase of AI in Education at the U.S. Department of Education — from medium.com by Office of Ed Tech

Why are we doing this work?
Over the past two years, the U.S. Department of Education has been committed to maintaining an ongoing conversation with educators, students, researchers, developers — and the educational community at large — related to the continuous progress of Artificial Intelligence (AI) development and its implications for teaching and learning.

Many educators are seeking resources clarifying what AI is and how it will impact their work and their students. Similarly, developers of educational technology (“edtech”) products seek guidance on what guardrails exist that can support their efforts. After the release of our May 2023 report Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learningwe heard the desire for more.


2024 EDUCAUSE AI Landscape Study — from library.educause.edu by Jenay Robert

Moving from reaction to action, higher education stakeholders are currently exploring the opportunities afforded by AI for teaching, learning, and work while maintaining a sense of caution for the vast array of risks AI-powered technologies pose. To aid in these efforts, we present this inaugural EDUCAUSE AI Landscape Study, in which we summarize the higher education community’s current sentiments and experiences related to strategic planning and readiness, policies and procedures, workforce, and the future of AI in higher education.


AI Update for K-16 Administrators: More People Need to Step-Up and Take the AI Bull By the Horns — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
AI capabilities are way beyond what most schools are aware of, and they will transform education and society over the next few years.

Educational administrators should not worry about every AI development, but should, instead focus on the big picture, as those big picture changes will change the entire world and the educational system.

AI and related technologies (robotics, synthetic biology, and brain-computer interfaces) will continue to impact society and the entire educational system over the next 10 years. This impact on the system will be greater than anything that has happened over the last 100 years, including COVID-19, as COVID-19 eventually ended and the disruptive force of these technologies will only continue to develop.

AI is the bull in the China Shop, redefining the world and the educational system. Students writing a paper with AI is barely a poke in the educational world relative to what is starting to happen (active AI teachers and tutors; AI assessment; AI glasses; immersive learning environments; young students able to start their own business with AI tools; AIs replacing and changing jobs; deep voice and video fakes; intelligence leveling; individualized instruction; interactive and highly intelligent computers; computers that can act autonomously; and more).


 

 

How This College Dropout Raised $29 Million for His Online Education Platform and Landed the Biggest Investor of All — Shaq — from entrepreneur.com by Dan Bova; via GSV
Campus founder Tade Oyerinde and investor Shaquille O’Neal discuss the debt-free mission of the online community college.

Key Takeaways

  • Campus offers two-year associate degrees with tuition costs that allow many students to go for free.
  • The online community college has garnered $29 million in investment.
  • Shaq says the company met his criteria for investment: a passionate founder, a mission to change lives and a solid exit strategy.

Colleges Were Already Bracing for an ‘Enrollment Cliff.’ Now There Might Be a Second One. — from chronicle.com by Dan Bauman; via GSV

[In addition to the decline of high school graduates starting in 2025] In recent months, however, the Census has updated its forecasts — instead of rebounding at some point in the mid-2030s, the number of 18-year-olds is now projected to contract after cresting at around 4.2 million people in 2033, shrinking to around 3.8 million by 2039. After that, the Bureau doesn’t anticipate the population of 18-year-olds will exceed 4 million people in any year this century.


How this Vietnam vet started a college program at a desert prison — from opencampusmedia.org; an essay by James “Sneaky” White as told to Charlotte West.

James “Sneaky” White, 80, spent nearly four decades incarcerated in California. His nickname “Sneaky” comes from his days as a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. While he was incarcerated, he helped create a college program that has since graduated more than 1,500 men. In this “as told to” story, he shares how he started a college program for veterans at a desert prison.


Virtual Forum – On Demand
Starting a Program for Incarcerated Students — from chronicle.com by Charles B. Adams, Ruth Delaney, and Laura Massa; via Goldie Blumenstyk

Does your institution have programming in place for incarcerated students? Thanks to new federal assistance, students in many prisons can now take college courses for credit. While colleges are interested in starting or expanding programs to serve those students, they often have no idea how to do so.


 

Digital Learning Pulse Survey Reveals Higher-Ed Unprepared for Expected Impact of AI — from prnewswire.com by Cengage
Research illustrates that while GenAI could ease ongoing challenges in education, just 1 in 5 say their school is ready

WASHINGTONFeb. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — While three-quarters of higher-education trustees (83%), faculty (81%) and administrators (76%) agree that generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) will noticeably change their institutions in the next five years, community college trustees are more optimistic than their community college counterparts, with (37%) saying their organization is prepared for the change coming compared to just 16% of faculty and 11% of administrator respondents.

Those findings are from the 2023-2024 Digital Learning Pulse Survey conducted by Cengage and Bay View Analytics with support from the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), College Pulse and the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) to understand the attitudes and concerns of higher education instructors and leadership.

From DSC:
It takes time to understand what a given technology brings to the table…let alone a slew of emerging technologies under the artificial intelligence (AI) umbrella. It’s hard enough when the technology is fairly well established and not changing all the time. But its extremely difficult when significant change occurs almost daily. 

The limited staff within the teaching & learning centers out there need time to research and learn about the relevant technologies and how to apply those techs to instructional design. The already stretched thin faculty members need time to learn about those techs as well — and if and how they want to apply them. It takes time and research and effort.

Provosts, deans, presidents, and such need time to learn things as well.

Bottom line: We need to have realistic expectations here.


AI Adoption in Corporate L&D — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
Where we are, and the importance of use cases in enabling change

At the end of last year, O’Reilly Media published a comprehensive report on the adoption and impact of generative AI within enterprises.

The headline of the report is that we’ve never seen a technology adopted in enterprise as fast as generative AI. As of November 2023, two-thirds (67%) of survey respondents reported that their companies are using generative AI.

However, the vast majority of AI adopters in enterprise are still in the early stages; they’re experimenting at the edges, rather than making larger-scale, strategic decisions on how to leverage AI to accelerate our progress towards org goals and visions.

The single biggest hurdle to AI adoption in large corporates is a lack of appropriate use cases.

 

Augment teaching with AI – this teacher has it sussed… — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark

Emphasis (emphasis DSC):

You’re a teacher who wants to integrate AI into your teaching. What do you do? I often get asked how should I start with AI in my school or University. This, I think, is one answer.

Continuity with teaching
One school has got this exactly right in my opinion. Meredith Joy Morris has implemented ChatGPT into the teaching process. The teacher does their thing and the chatbot picks up where the teacher stops, augmenting and scaling the teaching and learning process, passing the baton to the learners who carry on. This gives the learner a more personalised experience, encouraging independent learning by using the undoubted engagement that 1:1 dialogue provides.

There’s no way any teacher can provide this carry on support with even a handful of students, never mind a class of 30 or a course with 100. Teaching here is ‘extended’ and ‘scaled’ by AI. The feedback from the students was extremely positive.


Reflections on Teaching in the AI Age — from by Jeffrey Watson

The transition which AI forces me to make is no longer to evaluate writings, but to evaluate writers. I am accustomed to grading essays impersonally with an objective rubric, treating the text as distinct from the author and commenting only on the features of the text. I need to transition to evaluating students a bit more holistically, as philosophers – to follow along with them in the early stages of the writing process, to ask them to present their ideas orally in conversation or in front of their peers, to push them to develop the intellectual virtues that they will need if they are not going to be mastered by the algorithms seeking to manipulate them. That’s the sort of development I’ve meant to encourage all along, not paragraph construction and citation formatting. If my grading practices incentivize outsourcing to a machine intelligence, I need to change my grading practices.


4 AI Imperatives for Higher Education in 2024 — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

[Bryan Alexander] There’s a crying need for faculty and staff professional development about generative AI. The topic is complicated and fast moving. Already the people I know who are seriously offering such support are massively overscheduled. Digital materials are popular. Books are lagging but will gradually surface. I hope we see more academics lead more professional development offerings.

For an academic institution to take emerging AI seriously it might have to set up a new body. Present organizational nodes are not necessarily a good fit.


A Technologist Spent Years Building an AI Chatbot Tutor. He Decided It Can’t Be Done. — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young
Is there a better metaphor than ‘tutor’ for what generative AI can do to help students and teachers?

When Satya Nitta worked at IBM, he and a team of colleagues took on a bold assignment: Use the latest in artificial intelligence to build a new kind of personal digital tutor.

This was before ChatGPT existed, and fewer people were talking about the wonders of AI. But Nitta was working with what was perhaps the highest-profile AI system at the time, IBM’s Watson. That AI tool had pulled off some big wins, including beating humans on the Jeopardy quiz show in 2011.

Nitta says he was optimistic that Watson could power a generalized tutor, but he knew the task would be extremely difficult. “I remember telling IBM top brass that this is going to be a 25-year journey,” he recently told EdSurge.


Teachers stan AI in education–but need more support — from eschoolnews.com by Laura Ascione

What are the advantages of AI in education?
Canva’s study found 78 percent of teachers are interested in using AI education tools, but their experience with the technology remains limited, with 93 percent indicating they know “a little” or “nothing” about it – though this lack of experience hasn’t stopped teachers quickly discovering and considering its benefits:

  • 60 percent of teachers agree it has given them ideas to boost student productivity
  • 59 percent of teachers agree it has cultivated more ways for their students to be creative
  • 56 percent of teachers agree it has made their lives easier

When looking at the ways teachers are already using generative artificial intelligence, the most common uses were:

  • Creating teaching materials (43 percent)
  • Collaborative creativity/co-creation (39 percent)
  • Translating text (36 percent)
  • Brainstorming and generating ideas (35 percent)

The next grand challenge for AI — from ted.com by Jim Fan


The State of Washington Embraces AI for Public Schools — from synthedia.substack.com by Bret Kinsella; via Tom Barrett
Educational institutions may be warming up to generative AI

Washington state issued new guidelines for K-12 public schools last week based on the principle of “embracing a human-centered approach to AI,” which also embraces the use of AI in the education process. The state’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chris Reykdal, commented in a letter accompanying the new guidelines:


New education features to help teachers save time and support students — from by Shantanu Sinha

Giving educators time back to invest in themselves and their students
Boost productivity and creativity with Duet AI: Educators can get fresh ideas and save time using generative AI across Workspace apps. With Duet AI, they can get help drafting lesson plans in Docs, creating images in Slides, building project plans in Sheets and more — all with control over their data.

 

From DSC:
How does this sentence hit you? I read it in a fictional book recently and it gave me pause.

…we don’t have a justice system in this country. We have a legal system.


Innovative New Project Launches to Increase Access to Justice for the Overlooked Middle Class — from iaals.du.edu by Kelsey Montague

An important addition to the national access to justice landscape, the Above the Line Network (ATLN) has launched today to tackle the daunting challenges that middle-class Americans face when seeking legal help that doesn’t break the bank. While most organized access to justice efforts rightly focus on low-income and poor people who are especially vulnerable, we can never achieve our nation’s ideal of equal justice for all when middle-class people—who make up more than 50% of the nation’s population— and small businesses struggle to find quality, affordable legal services. They are “above the line” of income eligibility for the free legal aid reserved for the poorest Americans, but they also struggle to find quality and affordable legal services in the current legal market.


Top legal tech trends for businesses to watch in 2024 — from verdict.co.uk by

  • Data protection: a new regulator, more reforms and continued enforcement
  • Online reforms and increased regulation

2024 in-house legal outlook series: GCs, CLOs ready for hard decisions — from legaldive.com by Lyle Moran and Robert Freedman
Legal leaders look at practical generative AI use cases and get tough on outside counsel spend, among other priorities this year.

General counsel and chief legal officers will do more work in-house with the help of tech investments, especially as more legal tech companies add generative AI and other types of artificial intelligence capabilities to the tools they offer in-house teams. At the same time, legal leaders will be exploring ways to reduce outside counsel costs, in part by giving work to smaller firms and reserving the most complex work for the largest firms.


Politico Launches AI-generated Bill Summaries Available to Politico Pro Subscribers — from politico.com by Melissa Cooke; via The Neuron

ARLINGTON, Va. – POLITICO, today announced the launch of a new, innovative feature allowing POLITICO Pro users to quickly review an AI-generated summary of Federal bills, rapidly accessing critical legislative context while benefiting from the in-depth analysis and insights that subscribers rely upon. POLITICO Pro is the leading subscription policy intelligence platform.


Legaltech is revolutionizing the way lawyers work — from verdict.co.uk by
Legaltech focuses on increasing work efficiency by addressing important but low-value or high-volume work to provide more time for lawyers to work on tasks requiring a higher skill set.

For example, in February 2023, Allen & Overy launched its generative AI platform, integrating Harvey (based on GPT-4 technology by OpenAI), into its global practice to help its lawyers with drafting legal documentation. In December 2023, Allen & Overy also created an AI contract negotiation tool, ContractMatrix, in partnership with Harvey. The firm estimates that the tool saves around seven hours when negotiating a contract. When discussing these innovations, David Wakeling, Head of the Markets Innovation Group at Allen & Overy explained that the firm’s goal was to “disrupt the legal market before someone disrupts us.”


 

 

Unlocking productivity and personalizing learning with AI — from educationblog.microsoft.com by Microsoft Education Team

Today, we’re announcing the next wave of AI innovations from Microsoft Education that will help unlock productivity and personalize learning. This includes expanded Copilot for Microsoft 365 availability and Loop coming to education. We’re also sharing news about AI built for education such as Reading Coach and features designed to free up time for educators and personalize learning. As part of our continued work to build AI literacy, we’ve launched our latest course for educators and a new learning path on Microsoft Learn. And earlier this week we outlined Microsoft’s position and themes for policymakers to consider around advancing youth online safety and wellness.

With the latest AI technology, we have an opportunity to provide learners with personalized, engaging, and transformative reading experiences. Reading Coach, a Learning Accelerator now powered by generative AI, does just that. You can sign up for a preview of Reading Coach today and try it for yourself at coach.microsoft.com.


Recap: Winter AI Institute for Teachers — from umcetl.substack.com

Last week, CETL partnered with the Department of Writing and Rhetoric to offer a second iteration of the AI Institute for Teachers to an audience of UM instructors from across disciplines. Nearly 60 faculty from 26 different departments and schools attended the three-day event. In a wide variety of interactive sessions designed by Institute leader Marc Watkins, participants examined the impact of generative AI on teaching and learning, working in small groups to consider how to approach AI in their own disciplines.

If you’re not a UM faculty member or couldn’t attend the sessions, we have good news! All the materials from the Institute are publicly available at the following links:

And we’ve written a short recap of the Institute here.


Learn with AI from U Maine

Learn with AI — from the University of Maine

Rather than try to ban this technology from classrooms outright, the Learning With AI project asks if this moment offers an opportunity to introduce students to the ethical and economic questions wreaked by these new tools, as well as to experiment with progressive forms of pedagogy that can exploit them.

 

Enter the New Era of Mobile AI With Samsung Galaxy S24 Series — from news.samsung.com

Galaxy AI introduces meaningful intelligence aimed at enhancing every part of life, especially the phone’s most fundamental role: communication. When you need to defy language barriers, Galaxy S24 makes it easier than ever. Chat with another student or colleague from abroad. Book a reservation while on vacation in another country. It’s all possible with Live Translate,2 two-way, real-time voice and text translations of phone calls within the native app. No third-party apps are required, and on-device AI keeps conversations completely private.

With Interpreter, live conversations can be instantly translated on a split-screen view so people standing opposite each other can read a text transcription of what the other person has said. It even works without cellular data or Wi-Fi.


Galaxy S24 — from theneurondaily.com by Noah Edelman & Pete Huang

Samsung just announced the first truly AI-powered smartphone: the Galaxy S24.


For us AI power users, the features aren’t exactly new, but it’s the first time we’ve seen them packaged up into a smartphone (Siri doesn’t count, sorry).


Samsung’s Galaxy S24 line arrives with camera improvements and generative AI tricks — from techcrunch.com by Brian Heater
Starting at $800, the new flagships offer brighter screens and a slew of new photo-editing tools

 

Firms must continue to evolve to remain relevant — from lawyersweekly.com.au by Emma Musgrave
Law firms of all shapes and sizes must continue to reinvent themselves beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, according to two senior leaders at Piper Alderman.

“So [it’s] not saying, ‘We’re going to roll out ChatGPT across the board and use that’; it’s finding some particular cases that might be useful,” he explained.

“We’ve had, for example, [instances] where lawyers have said, ‘We’ve got a bunch of documents we use on a regular basis or a bunch of devices we use on a regular basis. Can we put these into ChatGPT and see if we can [find a] better way of pulling data out of things?’ And so use cases like that where people are coming up with ideas and trying them out and seeing how they go and [questioning whether] we roll this out more widely? I think that’s the approach that seems to be the best.”


Is Legal Technology the Future of Legal Services? — from lawfuel.com by Kelli Hall

Impact of Legal Technology on the Legal Industry

  • Virtual simulations and unrecognizable deep-fakes
  • eDiscovery investigations and the potential for cyberattacks
  • Enhancing efficiency, but potential risk for data leakage
  • Automation of administrative tasks and rapid data research

Revolutionizing Law Firm Strategies With AI And SEO — from abovethelaw.com by Annette Choti
Explore how AI and SEO are transforming law firm strategies, from automated keyword research to predictive SEO and voice recognition technology.

AI and SEO are two powerful technologies transforming the digital world for legal offices. AI can enhance SEO strategies, offering a competitive edge in search engine rankings. AI can streamline your content creation process. Learn about machine learning’s role in enhancing content optimization, contributing to more targeted and effective marketing efforts.


Navigating Gen AI In Legal: Insights From CES And A Dash Of Tequila Thinking — from abovethelaw.com by Stephen Embry
What should be our true north in making decisions about how to use technology?

Embracing Gen AI in Legal
So in all the Gen AI smoke and handwringing, lets first identify what we excel at as lawyers. What only we as lawyers are qualified to do. Then, when it comes to technology and the flavor of the day, Gen AI, let’s look relentlessly at how we can eliminate the time we spend on anything else. Let technology free us up for the work only we can do.

That’s Satya Nadella’s advice. And Microsoft has done pretty well under his leadership.


From Gavels to Algorithms: Judge Xavier Rodriguez Discusses the Future of Law and AI — from jdsupra.com by

It’s a rare privilege to converse with a visionary like Judge Xavier Rodriguez, who has seamlessly blended the realms of justice, law, and technology. His journey from a medieval history enthusiast to a United States district court judge specializing in eDiscovery and AI is inspiring.

Judge Rodriguez provides an insightful perspective on the need for clear AI regulations. He delves into the technical aspects and underscores the potential of AI to democratize the legal system. He envisions AI as a transformative force capable of simplifying the complexities that often make legal services out of reach for many.

Judge Rodriguez champions a progressive approach to legal education, emphasizing the urgency of integrating technology competence into the curriculum. This foresight will prepare future lawyers for a world where AI tools are as commonplace as legal pads, fostering a sense of anticipation for the future of legal practice.


 

 

Introducing the GPT Store

Introducing the GPT Store — from OpenAI
We’re launching the GPT Store to help you find useful and popular custom versions of ChatGPT.

It’s been two months since we announced GPTs, and users have already created over 3 million custom versions of ChatGPT. Many builders have shared their GPTs for others to use. Today, we’re starting to roll out the GPT Store to ChatGPT Plus, Team and Enterprise users so you can find useful and popular GPTs. Visit chat.openai.com/gpts to explore.



Introducing ChatGPT Team — from openai.com
We’re launching a new ChatGPT plan for teams of all sizes, which provides a secure, collaborative workspace to get the most out of ChatGPT at work.

ChatGPT Team offers access to our advanced models like GPT-4 and DALL·E 3, and tools like Advanced Data Analysis. It additionally includes a dedicated collaborative workspace for your team and admin tools for team management. As with ChatGPT Enterprise, you own and control your business data—we do not train on your business data or conversations, and our models don’t learn from your usage. More details on our data privacy practices can be found on our privacy page and Trust Portal.


GPT Store — from theneurondaily.com by Noah Edelman & Pete Huang

The App Store for ChatGPTs is here.

OpenAI finally launched its GPT Store—a hub offering access to over 3 million GPTs, for paid users (#sorrynotsorry).
If you missed pt. 1, pt. 2, and pt. 3 of our GPTs analysis, here’s the TLDR: GPTs are customized versions of ChatGPT pre-loaded with prompts or context, each designed to be good at specific tasks.

There’s a GPT for everything, like one for lesson plans, one that crunches numbers, and one that recommends books you’ll buy but never read.

The GPT Store is a game-changer.


OpenAI Just Released The GPT Store. Here’s How To Use It And Make Money With Your GPT — from artificialcorner.com by The Pycoach
Learn how to publish your GPT to the store and monetize it.

How to stand out on the GPT Store
The low barrier to entry for making GPTs will make earning money on the GPT store difficult. Not everyone will make tons of money off their GPT, but I think those with more chances of success will:

  • Use custom actions: This is a feature that allows your GPT to connect to an API. Connecting to APIs gives your GPT new functionalities that others won’t be able to replicate unless they have access to the API (here you can see my tutorial on how to add custom action to your GPT)
  • Use knowledge: Knowledge is a feature that allows you to add files to your GPT. Adding exclusive information could enrich your GPT and help it stand out from the pack. Just remember that files can be downloaded when the code interpreter is enabled.

OpenAI releases the app store of AI — from superhuman.ai by Zain Kahn

App stores are ginormous businesses. According to CNBC’s estimates, Apple’s App Store grossed north of $70 Billion in 2022. That’s more revenue than Spotify, Shopify and Airbnb generated in the same year — combined.

When you look at the size of the opportunity that app stores built on top of popular platforms unlock, OpenAI’s latest move to launch a GPT Store is another bold bet by the startup that’s already leading the LLM and chatbot markets with GPT-4 and ChatGPT.

Announced [on 1/10/24], the GPT Store is a place for ChatGPT users to find custom versions of the chatbot that are designed for specific use cases.

 

Your classmate could be an AI student at this Michigan university  — from mlive.com by Melissa Frick

BIG RAPIDS, MI – A Michigan university is believed to be the first in the country to use artificial intelligence (AI) to create virtual students that will enroll in classes and participate in lessons and assignments.

Ferris State University, which has one of just three undergraduate AI programs in the U.S., has developed two AI students who are enrolling at Ferris State as freshmen this semester and taking classes alongside human classmates.

At first, Ann and Fry will only be able to observe the class, but the goal is for the AI students to soon be able to speak during classroom discussions and have two-way conversations with their classmates, Thompson said.

Also relevant, see:

These two new Ferris State students are actually AI

These two new Ferris State students are actually AI — from woodtv.com by Demetrios Sanders

BIG RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — As Ferris State University gets ready for its spring semester, two virtual students will begin classes as part of a new artificial intelligence experiment.

Ferris State University offers one of three AI undergraduate programs in the entire country.

“We are leaders in the artificial intelligence area, and why not put us to the test?” said Dr. Kasey Thompson, special assistant to the president for innovation and entrepreneurship at Ferris State.

University enrolling AI-powered “Students” who will turn in assignments, participate in class discussions — from futurism.com
Even students aren’t safe from AI.

Students at Ferris State University in Michigan will soon be sharing the classroom with AI-powered freshman “students” who will enroll in classes alongside them, MLive reports.

And no, they won’t have humanoid robot bodies — they’ll be interacting with students via computers, microphones, and speakers.

In an experiment led by associate professor Kasey Thompson, AI students dubbed Ann and Fry will be listening — or scanning through? — lectures, work on assignments, and even actively participate in discussions with other students, per the report.


AI & “Un-Personalised” Learning — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
Exploring the full potential of AI to improve human learning, beyond the 1:1 AI tutor

In this week’s blog post we will look at AI from a different angle and ask: what are the pros and cons of using AI for personalisation? And what’s the potential impact of using AI to optimise and scale more connected, communal learning experiences?

TL;DR: while personalised learning has some benefits for some learner outcomes, the social interaction and connected aspects of communal learning are proven to offer similar academic benefits, as well as additional socio-cultural benefits for a broader range of students.

AI for “Un-Personalised” Learning
The next question is, of course: how could we use AI to scale the positive outcomes of “un-personalised”, communal learning?

Here are some initial ideas:


How to make the most of ChatGPT in 2024 — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan
A Wonder Tools guide


N.Y. Governor Hochul Proposes $400 Million To Launch University AI Consortium — from forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org by Michael T. Nietzel

New York Governor Kathy Hochul wants to make New York the nation’s leader in artificial intelligence research and development. As part of her State of the State address on Tuesday, Hochul proposed the creation of Empire AI – a consortium of the state’s research universities and other institutions that would form an artificial intelligence computing center in upstate New York.

Empire AI would include seven founding institutions—Columbia University, Cornell University, New York University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the State University of New York (SUNY), the City University of New York (CUNY), and the Simons Foundation.


North Carolina AI Education Guidance Release — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
“A” grade in my mind; it just needs to anticipate the near future a bit more

TLDR
The Guidance

*North Carolina has arguably issued the best AI guidance to date (IMHO), and I explain why below (my highlighted version is here). This is in no way a knock on the other guidance reports, as I think they offer a lot them of very important and essential guidance. I just really like how NC packages it and the emphasis they put on certain things.

 

CES 2024: Unveiling The Future Of Legal Through Consumer Innovations — from abovethelaw.com by Stephen Embry
The ripple effects on the legal industry are real.

The Emerging Role of Smart TVs
Boothe and Comiskey claim that our TVs will become even smarter and better connected to the web and the internet. Our TVs will become an intelligent center for a variety of applications powered through our smartphone. TVs will be able to direct things like appliances and security cameras. Perhaps even more importantly, our TVs can become e-commerce centers, allowing us to speak with them and conduct business.

This increased TV capability means that the TV could become a more dominant mode of working and computing for lawyers. As TVs become more integrated with the internet and capable of functioning as communication hubs, they could potentially replace traditional computing devices in legal settings. With features like voice control and pattern recognition, TVs could serve as efficient tools for such things as document preparation and client meetings.

From DSC:
Now imagine the power of voice-enabled chatbots and the like. We could be videoconferencing (or holograming) with clients, and be able to access information at the same time. Language translation — like that in the Timekettle product — will be built in.

I also wonder how this type of functionality will play out in lifelong learning from our living rooms.

Learning from the Living AI-Based Class Room

 


Also, some other legaltech-related items:


Are Tomorrow’s Lawyers Prepared for Legal’s Tech Future? 4 Recent Trends Shaping Legal Education | Legaltech News — from law.com (behind paywall)

Legal Tech Predictions for 2024: Embracing a New Era of Innovation — from jdsupra.com

As we step into 2024, the legal industry continues to be reshaped by technological advancements. This year promises to bring new developments that could revolutionize how legal professionals work and interact with clients. Here are key predictions for legal tech in 2024:

Miss the Legaltech Week 2023 Year-in-Review Show? Here’s the Recording — from lawnext.com by Bob Ambrogi

Last Friday was Legaltech Week’s year-end show, in which our panel of journalists and bloggers picked the year’s top stories in legal tech and innovation.

So what were the top stories? Well, if you missed it, no worries. Here’s the video:

 

AI University for UK? — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark

Tertiary Education in the UK needs a fresh idea. What we need is an initiative on the same scale as The Open University, kicked off over 50 years ago.

It is clear that an educational vision is needed and I think the best starting point is that outlined and executed by Paul LeBlanc at SNHU. It is substantial, well articulated and has worked in what has become the largest University in the US.

It would be based on the competence model, with a focus on skills shortages. Here’s a starter with 25 ideas, a manifesto of sorts, based on lessons learnt from other successful models:

  1. Non-traditional students in terms of age and background
  2. Quick and easy application process
  3. Personalised learning using AI
  4. Multimodal from the start
  5. Full range of summarisation, create self-assessment, dialogue tools
  6. Focus on generative learning using AI
  7. …and Donald lists many more (ending at #25)
 

Generative AI Is Set to Shake Up Education — from morganstanley.com
While educators debate the risks and opportunities of generative AI as a learning tool, some education technology companies are using it to increase revenue and lower costs.

Key Takeaways

  • Contrary to the view that generative AI is undermining education, it could ultimately improve access and quality.
  • Education technology companies have opportunities from generative AI that markets may be missing.
  • Generative AI could bring $200 billion in value to the global education sector by 2025.
  • Reskilling and retraining alone could require $6 billion in investments by 2025, with edtech companies poised to fill that need.

Outgoing SNHU president: AI means universities must change ‘dramatically’ — from msn.com by Steven Porter

In his next chapter, LeBlanc will work with a team of researchers to study emerging AI trends, impacts on education, and opportunities to innovate. (The initiative harkens back to his early scholarship. During grad school decades ago, LeBlanc studied the ways computers could impact how societies think.)

LeBlanc said the AI-induced changes on the horizon will require educational institutions to reimagine how they assess student learning and grapple with implications for privacy and data security. There are also bigger questions about what jobs will go away and what jobs will be created, which influences the fields of study schools will offer, he said.



AI & Education: A Year in Review — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
The top five use cases & most popular tools among educators at the end of 2023 – the year than Gen AI shook-up education

Use Case #1: Content Creation
Use Case #2: Brainstorming & Ideation
Use Case #3: Research & Analysis
Use Case #4: Writing & Communicating
Use Case #5: Task Automation


I Used ChatGPT for 12 Months. Here Are Some Hidden Gems That Will Change Your Life — from theaigirl.substack.com by Diana Dovgopol
Transform your life with these ChatGPT’s hidden gems.

1. Summarize videos, articles, papers and posts
Here’s how it works (note that you need to enable browsing or plugins for this)

  1. Find the video/article/paper/post.
  2. Copy the link.
  3. Ask ChatGPT to summarize it for you.

AI ADVISORY BOARDS: Giving Students and Teachers a Voice — from aiadvisoryboards.wordpress.com

My mission is to spread awareness about the incredible potential of AI and AI advisory boards in education. Through my website, aiadvisoryboards.wordpress.com, I aim to inspire educators, administrators, and students to embrace AI and create innovative learning environments.


Report Update: Human and Computer Deep Learning and the Future of Humanity — from by Stefan Bauschard
New Chapter on School Guidance; updates on technology, the labor markets, and deep learning


 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian