Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related

AI: Where are we now? — from educause.edu by EDUCAUSE
Is the use of AI in higher education today invisible? dynamic? perilous? Maybe it’s all three.

Also see:

Also relevant/see:

MLTut.com: A Website that helps learner’s to get everything in one place.

Radar Trends to Watch: June 2022 [O’Reilly]

On 06/03/2022, in 21st century, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, ethics, Facebook / Meta Platforms, Google, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, internet, IT in HE, NVIDIA, platforms, programming, robotics, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Radar Trends to Watch: June 2022 — from oreilly.com

Excerpt:

The explosion of large models continues. Several developments are especially noteworthy. DeepMind’s Gato model is unique in that it’s a single model that’s trained for over 600 different tasks; whether or not it’s a step towards general intelligence (the ensuing debate may be more important than the model itself), it’s an impressive achievement. Google Brain’s Imagen creates photorealistic images that are impressive, even after you’ve seen what DALL-E 2 can do. And Allen AI’s Macaw (surely an allusion to Emily Bender and Timnit Gebru’s Stochastic Parrots paper) is open source, one tenth the size of GPT-3, and claims to be more accurate. Facebook/Meta is also releasing an open source large language model, including the model’s training log, which records in detail the work required to train it.

Designing for Autism, ADHD, and More: Representing Neurodivergence [Katz]

On 06/02/2022, in adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, instructional design, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, neurodivergent/special needs, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Designing for Autism, ADHD, and More: Representing Neurodivergence — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Judy Katz

Excerpt:

Understanding inclusion from a neurodiversity perspective has both a DEI component (addressed in this article), and an accessibility component (addressed in the two articles to come in this series). As learning and development professionals, applying both is not just about accommodating impairment or staying compliant with the ADA. It’s about unlocking the talents that diverse neurotypes bring.

Positives of neurodivergence
One of the best things you can do to lead to greater acceptance of neurodivergence in the workplace is to learn and reinforce to others that neurodivergent brains are often different in positive ways, despite broad negative stereotypes. Here are some examples, but remember, not all traits apply to all individuals; if you know one neurodivergent, you know one neurodivergent.

#autistics #ADHD #Aspergers #neurodivergence #DEI

Also from learningsolutionsmag.com:

Automation, AI Will Advance—and Challenge—Learning Leadership — by Markus Bernhardt

Excerpt:

The current momentum of change, seen across all sectors and industries, is unparalleled in magnitude and speed; both are accelerating. The need for businesses to adapt has arguably never been more pressing, while challenges continue to grow at an increasing pace.

The digital revolution has arrived, and we already find ourselves in the thick of it. For learning and development (L&D), the time has come that deploying automation will be key. When we look at other departments within organizations, we can no longer imagine how marketing, sales, finance, or HR would fare without automation. Here, automation has celebrated some huge successes, gathering momentum as available technology is deployed more broadly. The results are increasing efficiencies, accuracy, and speed, and at scale.

This article introduces a short series on automation and AI and their impact on L&D.

Building a culture of pioneering responsibly [Ibrahim]

On 06/01/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), corporate / business world, ethics, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, Google, Microsoft, morals/values, by Daniel Christian

How to ensure we benefit society with the most impactful technology being developed today — from deepmind.com by Lila Ibrahim

In 2000, I took a sabbatical from my job at Intel to visit the orphanage in Lebanon where my father was raised. For two months, I worked to install 20 PCs in the orphanage’s first computer lab, and to train the students and teachers to use them. The trip started out as a way to honour my dad. But being in a place with such limited technical infrastructure also gave me a new perspective on my own work. I realised that without real effort by the technology community, many of the products I was building at Intel would be inaccessible to millions of people. I became acutely aware of how that gap in access was exacerbating inequality; even as computers solved problems and accelerated progress in some parts of the world, others were being left further behind.

After that first trip to Lebanon, I started reevaluating my career priorities. I had always wanted to be part of building groundbreaking technology. But when I returned to the US, my focus narrowed in on helping build technology that could make a positive and lasting impact on society. That led me to a variety of roles at the intersection of education and technology, including co-founding Team4Tech, a non-profit that works to improve access to technology for students in developing countries.

Also relevant/see:

Microsoft AI news: Making AI easier, simpler, more responsible — from venturebeat.com by Sharon Goldman

But one common theme bubbles over consistently: For AI to become more useful for business applications, it needs to be easier, simpler, more explainable, more accessible and, most of all, responsible.

What technology trends will—and should—lead business agendas in 2022? [McKinsey]

On 05/25/2022, in 21st century, 5G, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, cryptocurrencies, data related items, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, innovation, internet, Metaverse, NVIDIA, society, technology (general), trends, United States, Web3, by Daniel Christian

What technology trends will—and should—lead business agendas in 2022? — from mckinsey.com

Excerpt:

Metaverse. Web3. Crypto. 5G.

These are just a few of the technologies grabbing headlines at the start of 2022. But what technology trends truly sit atop business agendas this year? Which might be under executives’ radars but should be surfaced? And what should business leaders keep in mind as they consider these trends?

We asked some members of the McKinsey Technology Council, a group of global experts convened to assess, track, and debate real emerging trends in business and technology, for their perspectives on these questions. Specifically, we asked the following:

What technology trend do you predict will headline business agendas for the remainder of 2022 and why?
What technology trend do you think is under businesses’ radars but merits more of executives’ attention?
What’s one piece of advice you would give to business leaders as they consider incorporating new technologies into their business?

Also relevant/see:

The top trends in tech — from mckinsey.com
Which technologies have the most momentum in an accelerating world? We identified the trends that matter most.

Marketing in the metaverse: An opportunity for innovation and experimentation — from mckinsey.com
Although widespread adoption of the metaverse may take some time, leading brands are already rewriting the rules of marketing.

Marketers would be remiss if they didn’t start exploring what the metaverse can offer. Now is the right time to adopt a test-and-learn mindset, to be open to experiments, and to move on quickly from failure and capitalize on success.

From DSC:
And not just marketers. How about teachers, professors, trainers, and instructional designers?

#Metaverse #learningfromthelivingclassroom #learningecosystems #learning #training #education #K12 #highereducation #vocations #careers #corporatetraining #learninganddevelopment

Google accelerates audiobook production exponentially — from provideocoalition.com by Allan Tépper

Excerpt:

In March 2022, I published Google’s Aloud auto-dubs your English video in Castilian or Portuguese, free. Now, Google is doing a similar quantum leap for audiobook production. In fact, I already converted and published one of my own books as an audiobook successfully using Google’s semi-automatic voices. Ahead, I’ll explain how Google’s process can convert the manuscript into a presentable audiobook in a few hours instead of over a month of work, using one of Google’s automated voices which are available for different languages and regions.

“Opportunities for Education in the Metaverse” [Downes] + “What Should Higher Ed in the Metaverse Look Like?” [Schaefer]

On 05/20/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, accessibility / UDL, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), Canada, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, cryptocurrencies, digital learning, distance education, education, education technology, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, interaction design, interactivity, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, Metaverse, Mixed Reality (MR), MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, presentations, professional development, remote teaching and learning, trends, United States, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, Web3, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

Opportunities for Education in the Metaverse — from downes.ca by Stephen Downes

Excerpt:

This short presentation introduces major elements of the metaverse, outlines some applications for education, discusses how it may be combined with other technologies for advanced applications, and outlines some issues and concerns.

Also relevant/see:

What Should Higher Ed in the Metaverse Look like? – from linkedin.com by Joe Schaefer

Excerpt:

The Metaverse is coming whether we like it or not, and it is time for educators to think critically about how it can benefit students. As higher education continues to evolve, I believe every learning product and platform working with or within the Metaverse should, at least, have these functionalities:

Addendum on 5/23/22:

Google Maps to add “immersive view” [futuretimeline.net]

On 05/20/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), Google, human-computer interaction (HCI), immersion, innovation, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

Google Maps to add “immersive view” — from futuretimeline.net
Google Maps, the world’s most-downloaded travel app, will soon become more immersive and intuitive thanks to a major upgrade.

Excerpts:

A new “immersive view” will generate far more detailed graphics than are available currently. This will provide sweeping views of cities in full 3D, complete with simulated cars, real-time weather, realistic day/night cycles, shadow effects, water reflections, and even animations like birds flying through the sky.
…
The company also announced an update for Live View. First launched in 2019, this provides augmented reality (AR) walking routes in the form of arrows, directions, and distance markers.

These improvements are possible thanks to advances in computer vision and AI that allow billions of aerial, street view, and other images to combine and create a rich, seamless, digital model of the world.

Addendums on 5/23/22:

Google Wants To Deliver World-Scale AR Using Google Maps — from vrscout.com by Bobby Carlton

Somewhat relevant/see:

Earth // Around The World From The Air 4K from Kien Lam on Vimeo.

You can practice for a job interview with Google AI — from engadget.com by J. Fingas
You’ll know how to answer key questions.

“It also plans to integrate each student’s AI-based virtual assistant ‘Genie’ into the metaverse as 3D virtual assistants” [Soulunii]

On 05/18/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, CMS/LMS, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, credentialing, digital learning, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, face-to-face, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, India, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, love of learning, Metaverse, multimedia, online learning, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, teaching & learning, tools, training / L&D, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, Web3, by Daniel Christian

Entrepreneur Education Platform GeniusU Raises $1.5M Seed Funding at $250M Valuation — from edtechreview.in ed by Stephen Soulunii

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Genius Group has recently announced that its EdTech arm, GeniusU Ltd, has raised $1.5 million in a seed round to support the development of its Genius Metaversity virtual learning plans.
…
With the fresh funding, GeniusU plans to extend its courses and programs to interactive learning environments in the metaverse, with students and faculty connecting and learning in global classrooms and virtual 3D environments. It also plans to integrate each student’s AI-based virtual assistant ‘Genie’ into the metaverse as 3D virtual assistants that accompany each student on their personalized journey and integrate its GEMs (Genius Education Merits) student credits into the metaverse. GEMs are earned by students as they learn and can be spent on products and services within GeniusU and counting towards their certifications.

Wow…I hadn’t heard of voice banking before [Christian]

On 05/18/2022, in accessibility / UDL, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assistive technologies, emerging technologies, health, Natural Language Processing (NLP), parents/guardians, productivity / tips and tricks, society, tools, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Wow…I hadn’t heard of voice banking before. This was an interesting item from multiple perspectives.

Providing a creative way for people with Motor Neurone Disease to bank their voices, I Will Always Be Me is a dynamic and heartfelt publication — from itsnicethat.com by Olivia Hingley
Speaking to the project’s illustrator and creative director, we discover how the book aims to be a tool for family and loved ones to discuss and come to terms with the diagnosis.

Excerpt:

Whilst voice banking technology is widely available to those suffering from MND, Tal says that the primary problem is “that not enough people are banking their voice because the process is long, boring and solitary. People with MND don’t want to sit in a lonely room to record random phrases and sentences; they already have a lot to deal with.” Therefore, many people only realise or interact with the importance of voice banking when their voice has already deteriorated. “So,” Tal expands, “the brief we got was: turn voice banking into something that people will want to do as soon as they’re diagnosed.”

The Great Resignation: The toll taken on the legal field and what comes next [MacDonald]

On 05/18/2022, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), career development, change, changing business models, generational differences, health, Legal operations, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, new business models, tools, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The Great Resignation: The toll taken on the legal field and what comes next — from abajournal.com by Thomas MacDonald

Excerpt:

The pandemic has reshaped thinking around the value of work. The Thomson Reuters Stellar Performance: Skills and Progression Mid-Year Survey uncovered three specific priorities legal professionals are factoring into their career decisions.

Balance: Young professionals are more in tune with work-life balance and place a higher value on mental well-being, leisure and other activities outside of work than previous generations.
Family: A higher percentage of the professional workforce are mothers. Likewise, men are taking a more active role in child-rearing than previous generations, as younger professionals juggle more domestic responsibilities across the board.
The Long Game: Many Generation X and millennial employees have long since conceded that their retirement will likely come much later in life than their elder counterparts. The prospect of working for an extra decade—or more—has tempered the enthusiasm for grinding away during their formative years.

Also relevant/see the following articles:

8 Legal Experts on the Future of the Billable Hour — from artificiallawyer.com

Excerpt:

Are you still billing by the hour? The reality is that most lawyers are and plenty will still be using it in the year 2032. However, many legal experts agree: the billable hour is under pressure, forcing lawyers to investigate other billing methods as well.

Laura Rosseel, Senior Associate at Cambrian, explains clearly why the billable hour is a topic for discussion: ‘There are countless arguments against working with billable hours. Invoicing based on billable hours puts the risk of both unpredictability in the scope of work as well as potential inefficiency on the client, instead of the law firm that is providing the service.

‘It does not differentiate based on the value of the task at hand, the urgency, or the time of day (or night), with which the task is carried out. Additionally, it is a performance metric for lawyers that favours working more over working better, and the relentless pressure is causing junior and mid-level lawyers to leave their firms.’

Digital exhaustion: Redefining work-life balance — from enterprisersproject.com by Irvin Bishop Jr.
Is your team suffering from the digital exhaustion that so often comes with remote and hybrid work? Consider these strategies to ease the stress

As workers continue to create and collaborate in digital spaces, one of the best things we can do as leaders is to let go. Let go of preconceived schedules, of always knowing what someone is working on, of dictating when and how a project should be accomplished – in effect, let go of micromanagement. Instead, focus on hiring productive, competent workers and trust them to do their jobs. Don’t manage tasks – gauge results. Use benchmarks and deadlines to assess effectiveness and success.

What did we learn at the CLOC Conference? — from zachabramowitz.substack.com by Zach Abramowitz
QR Codes, Outside Counsel Startups Make Great Shirts and Standing Out in a Sea of CLM

Some of the tools/products/vendors Zach mentioned were:

outside counsel management tools Persuit and JusticeBid
Justicebid.com
Legalmation.com

Ransomware is already out of control. AI-powered ransomware could be ‘terrifying.’ [Alspach]

On 05/16/2022, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, computer science, emerging technologies, future, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), the downsides of how people use tech, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, by Daniel Christian

Ransomware is already out of control. AI-powered ransomware could be ‘terrifying.’ — from protocol.com by Kyle Alspach
Hiring AI experts to automate ransomware could be the next step for well-endowed ransomware groups that are seeking to scale up their attacks.

Excerpt:

In the perpetual battle between cybercriminals and defenders, the latter have always had one largely unchallenged advantage: The use of AI and machine learning allows them to automate a lot of what they do, especially around detecting and responding to attacks. This leg-up hasn’t been nearly enough to keep ransomware at bay, but it has still been far more than what cybercriminals have ever been able to muster in terms of AI and automation.

That’s because deploying AI-powered ransomware would require AI expertise. And the ransomware gangs don’t have it. At least not yet.

But given the wealth accumulated by a number of ransomware gangs in recent years, it may not be long before attackers do bring aboard AI experts of their own, prominent cybersecurity authority Mikko Hyppönen said.

Also re: AI, see:

Nuance partners with The Academy to launch The AI Collaborative — from artificialintelligence-news.com by Ryan Daws

Excerpt:

Nuance has partnered with The Health Management Academy (The Academy) to launch The AI Collaborative, an industry group focused on advancing healthcare using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Nuance became a household name for creating the speech engine recognition engine behind Siri. In recent years, the company has put a strong focus on AI solutions for healthcare and is now a full-service partner of 77 percent of US hospitals and is trusted by over 500,000 physicians daily.

Inflection AI, led by LinkedIn and DeepMind co-founders, raises $225M to transform computer-human interactions — from techcrunch.com by Kyle Wiggers

Excerpts:

Inflection AI, the machine learning startup headed by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and founding DeepMind member Mustafa Suleyman, has secured $225 million in equity financing, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
…
“[Programming languages, mice, and other interfaces] are ways we simplify our ideas and reduce their complexity and in some ways their creativity and their uniqueness in order to get a machine to do something,” Suleyman told the publication. “It feels like we’re on the cusp of being able to generate language to pretty much human-level performance. It opens up a whole new suite of things that we can do in the product space.”

The Future of Work and the Jobs we might have in 2040 [Badminton & Powers]

On 05/16/2022, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, change, entrepreneurship, ethics, future, Metaverse, platforms, Web3, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

The Future of Work and the Jobs we might have in 2040 — from futurist.com by Nikolas Badminton & Marianne Powers

Excerpt:

So, let’s set our sights on a future horizon of 2040 and we can wonder what the future of work and the future of jobs for our children may be. The world may feel and look the same but underneath we’ll need people to transition to new careers to support the hyper-fast, data-obsessed world. Let’s take a look at the Future of Work and Jobs in 2040

Human-centred Designers and Ethicists
Artificial Intelligence Psychologists
Metaverse Architects
…

AI research is a dumpster fire and Google’s holding the matches — from thenextweb.com by Tristan Greene
Scientific endeavor is no match for corporate greed

Excerpts:

The world of AI research is in shambles. From the academics prioritizing easy-to-monetize schemes over breaking novel ground, to the Silicon Valley elite using the threat of job loss to encourage corporate-friendly hypotheses, the system is a broken mess.

And Google deserves a lion’s share of the blame.
…
Google, more than any other company, bears responsibility for the modern AI paradigm. That means we need to give big G full marks for bringing natural language processing and image recognition to the masses.

It also means we can credit Google with creating the researcher-eat-researcher environment that has some college students and their big-tech-partnered professors treating research papers as little more than bait for venture capitalists and corporate headhunters.

But the system’s set up to encourage the monetization of algorithms first, and to further the field second. In order for this to change, big tech and academia both need to commit to wholesale reform in how research is presented and reviewed.

Also relevant/see:

Every month Essentials publish an Industry Trend Report on AI in general and the following related topics:

AI Research
AI Applied Use Cases
AI Ethics
AI Robotics
AI Marketing
AI Cybersecurity
AI Healthcare

It’s never too early to get your AI ethics right — from protocol.com by Veronica Irwin
The Ethical AI Governance Group wants to give startups a framework for avoiding scandals and blunders while deploying new technology.

Excerpt:

To solve this problem, a group of consultants, venture capitalists and executives in AI created the Ethical AI Governance Group last September. In March, it went public, and published a survey-style “continuum” for investors to use in advising the startups in their portfolio.

The continuum conveys clear guidance for startups at various growth stages, recommending that startups have people in charge of AI governance and data privacy strategy, for example. EAIGG leadership argues that using the continuum will protect VC portfolios from value-destroying scandals.

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