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12+ resources regarding what’s happening in the world of AI (in general)

On 08/13/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assistive technologies, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), content development, aggregation, repositories, digital learning, digital photography, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, Google, graphics, human-computer interaction (HCI), internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, Microsoft, neurodivergent/special needs, NVIDIA, Open AI, platforms, tools, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
The above item is simply excellent!!! I love it!

Also relevant/see:

3 new Chrome AI features for even more helpful browsing — from blog.google from Parisa Tabriz
See how Chrome’s new AI features, including Google Lens for desktop and Tab compare, can help you get things done more easily on the web.

On speaking to AI — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
Voice changes a lot of things

So, let’s talk about ChatGPT’s new Advanced Voice mode and the new AI-powered Siri. They are not just different approaches to talking to AI. In many ways, they represent the divide between two philosophies of AI – Copilots versus Agents, small models versus large ones, specialists versus generalists.

Your guide to AI – August 2024 — from nathanbenaich.substack.com by Nathan Benaich and Alex Chalmers

Microsoft says OpenAI is now a competitor in AI and search — from cnbc.com by Jordan Novet

Key Points

  • Microsoft’s annually updated list of competitors now includes OpenAI, a long-term strategic partner.
  • The change comes days after OpenAI announced a prototype of a search engine.
  • Microsoft has reportedly invested $13 billion into OpenAI.

Excerpt from by Graham Clay

1. Flux, an open-source text-to-image creator that is comparable to industry leaders like Midjourney, was released by Black Forest Labs (the “original team” behind Stable Diffusion). It is capable of generating high quality text in images (there are tons of educational use cases). You can play with it on their demo page, on Poe, or by running it on your own computer (tutorial here).

Other items re: Flux:

How to FLUX  — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper
Where to use FLUX online & full tutorial to create a sleek ad in minutes

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Also from Heather Cooper:

Introducing FLUX: Open-Source text to image model

FLUX… has been EVERYWHERE this week, as I’m sure you have seen. Developed by Black Forest Labs, is an open-source image generation model that’s gaining attention for its ability to rival leading models like Midjourney, DALL·E 3, and SDXL.

What sets FLUX apart is its blend of creative freedom, precision, and accessibility—it’s available across multiple platforms and can be run locally.

Why FLUX Matters
FLUX’s open-source nature makes it accessible to a broad audience, from hobbyists to professionals.

It offers advanced multimodal and parallel diffusion transformer technology, delivering high visual quality, strong prompt adherence, and diverse outputs.

It’s available in 3 models:
FLUX.1 [pro]: A high-performance, commercial image synthesis model.
FLUX.1 [dev]: An open-weight, non-commercial variant of FLUX.1 [pro]
FLUX.1 [schnell]: A faster, distilled version of FLUX.1, operating up to 10x quicker.

Daily Digest: Huge (in)Flux of AI videos. — from bensbites.beehiiv.com
PLUS: Review of ChatGPT’s advanced voice mode.

  1. During the weekend, image models made a comeback. Recently released Flux models can create realistic images with near-perfect text—straight from the model, without much patchwork. To get the party going, people are putting these images into video generation models to create pretty–trippy–videos. I can’t identify half of them as AI, and they’ll only get better. See this tutorial on how to create a video ad for your product..

 

7 not only cool but handy use cases of new Claude — from techthatmatters.beehiiv.com by Harsh Makadia

  1. Data visualization
  2. Infographic
  3. Copy the UI of a website
  4. …and more

Achieving Human Level Competitive Robot Table Tennis — from sites.google.com

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DSC: Think about the impacts/ramifications of global, virtual, real-time language translations!

On 08/12/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assistive technologies, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, education technology, emerging technologies, Europe, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, languages and translation, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Open AI, society, technologies for your home, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

ChatGPT Voice Mode Is Here: Will It Revolutionize AI Communication?

Advanced Voice Mode – FAQ — from help.openai.com
Learn more about our Advanced Voice capabilities.

Advanced Voice Mode on ChatGPT features more natural, real-time conversations that pick up on and respond with emotion and non-verbal cues.

Advanced Voice Mode on ChatGPT is currently in a limited alpha. Please note that it may make mistakes, and access and rate limits are subject to change.

From DSC:
Think about the impacts/ramifications of global, virtual, real-time language translations!!! This type of technology will create very powerful, new affordances in our learning ecosystems — as well as in business communications, with the various governments across the globe, and more!

 

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Colleges Race to Ready Students for the AI Workplace [Surjadi]

On 08/12/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, change, colleges, community colleges, curriculum, higher education, skills, student-related, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Colleges Race to Ready Students for the AI Workplace — from wsj.com by Milla Surjadi (behind a paywall)
Non-techie students are learning basic generative-AI skills as schools revamp their course offerings to be more job-friendly

College students are desperate to add a new skill to their résumés: artificial intelligence.

The rise of generative AI in the workplace and students’ demands for more hirable talents are driving schools to revamp courses and add specialized degrees at speeds rarely seen in higher education. Schools are even going so far as to emphasize that all undergraduates get a taste of the tech, teaching them how to use AI in a given field—as well as its failings and unethical applications.

Speaking of AI, also see Educause’s Artificial Intelligence (AI)-related resources, which includes the following excerpt:

The Basics of AI in Higher Education

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The Digital Writing Lab: Supporting teachers to develop and empower digitally literate citizens. [McKnight, Furze, Zomer]

On 08/12/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Australia, blogs / blogging / vlogging, collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, ethics, experimentation, ideas, instructional design, intelligent systems, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, multimedia, new media literacies, parents/guardians, pedagogy, professional development, research, teachers, teaching & learning, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

Welcome to the Digital Writing Lab -- Supporting teachers to develop and empower digitally literate citizens.

Digital Writing Lab

About this Project

The Digital Writing Lab is a key component of the Australian national Teaching Digital Writing project, which runs from 2022-2025.

This stage of the broader project involves academic and secondary English teacher collaboration to explore how teachers are conceptualising the teaching of digital writing and what further supports they may need.

Previous stages of the project included archival research reviewing materials related to digital writing in Australia’s National Textbook Collection, and a national survey of secondary English teachers. You can find out more about the whole project via the project blog.

Who runs the project?

Project Lead Lucinda McKnight is an Associate Professor and Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA Fellow researching how English teachers can connect the teaching of writing to contemporary media and students’ lifeworlds.

She is working with Leon Furze, who holds the doctoral scholarship attached to this project, and Chris Zomer, the project Research Fellow. The project is located in the Research for Educational Impact (REDI) centre at Deakin University, Melbourne.

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Teaching Digital Writing is a research project about English today.

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Using Class Discussions as AI-Proof Assessments [McPhillips]

On 08/05/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, collaboration, communications, education, education technology, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, participation, pedagogy, teachers, youth, by Daniel Christian

Using Class Discussions as AI-Proof Assessments — from edutopia.org by Kara McPhillips
Classroom discussions are one way to ensure that students are doing their own work in the age of artificial intelligence. 

I admit it: Grading essays has never topped my list of teaching joys. Sure, the moments when a student finally nails a skill after months of hard work make me shout for joy, startling my nearby colleagues (sorry, Ms. Evans), but by and large, it’s hard work. Yet lately, as generative artificial intelligence (AI) headlines swirl in my mind, a new anxiety has crept into my grading life. I increasingly wonder, am I looking at their hard work?

Do you know when I don’t feel this way? During discussions. A ninth grader wiggling the worn corner of her text, leaning forward with excitement over what she’s cleverly noticed about Kambili, rarely makes me wonder, “Are these her ideas?”

While I’ve always thought discussion is important, AI is elevating that importance. This year, I wonder, how can I best leverage discussion in my classroom?

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“For college students—and for higher ed itself—AI is a required course” [Merisotis] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 08/03/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, apprenticeships, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), bots, career development, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, education, education technology, emerging technologies, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, real-world assignments, reinvent, skills, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

For college students—and for higher ed itself—AI is a required course — from forbes.com by Jamie Merisotis

Some of the nation’s biggest tech companies have announced efforts to reskill people to avoid job losses caused by artificial intelligence, even as they work to perfect the technology that could eliminate millions of those jobs.

It’s fair to ask, however: What should college students and prospective students, weighing their choices and possible time and financial expenses, think of this?

The news this spring was encouraging for people seeking to reinvent their careers to grab middle-class jobs and a shot at economic security.

 

Addressing Special Education Needs With Custom AI Solutions — from teachthought.com
AI can offer many opportunities to create more inclusive and effective learning experiences for students with diverse learning profiles.

For too long, students with learning disabilities have struggled to navigate a traditional education system that often fails to meet their unique needs. But what if technology could help bridge the gap, offering personalized support and unlocking the full potential of every learner?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a powerful ally in special education, offering many opportunities to create more inclusive and effective learning experiences for students with diverse learning profiles.

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11 Summer AI Developments Important to Educators — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
Equity demands that we help students prepare to thrive in an AI-World

*SearchGPT
*Smaller & on-device (phones, glasses) AI models
*AI TAs
*Access barriers decline, equity barriers grow
*Claude Artifacts and Projects
*Agents, and Agent Teams of a million+
*Humanoid robots & self-driving cars
*AI Curricular integration
*Huge video and video-segmentation gains
*Writing Detectors — The final blow
*AI Unemployment, Student AI anxiety, and forward-thinking approaches
*Alternative assessments

Academic Fracking: When Publishers Sell Scholars Work to AI — from aiedusimplified.substack.com by Lance Eaton
Further discussion of publisher practices selling scholars’ work to AI companies

Last week, I explored AI and academic publishing in response to an article that came out a few weeks ago about a deal Taylor & Francis made to sell their books to Microsoft and one other AI company (unnamed) for a boatload of money.

Since then, two more pieces have been widely shared including this piece from Inside Higher Ed by Kathryn Palmer (and to which I was interviewed and mentioned in) and this piece from Chronicle of Higher Ed by Christa Dutton. Both pieces try to cover the different sides talking to authors, scanning the commentary online, finding some experts to consult and talking to the publishers. It’s one of those things that can feel like really important and also probably only to a very small amount of folks that find themselves thinking about academic publishing, scholarly communication, and generative AI.

At the Crossroads of Innovation: Embracing AI to Foster Deep Learning in the College Classroom — from er.educause.edu by Dan Sarofian-Butin
AI is here to stay. How can we, as educators, accept this change and use it to help our students learn?

The Way Forward
So now what?

In one respect, we already have a partial answer. Over the last thirty years, there has been a dramatic shift from a teaching-centered to a learning-centered education model. High-impact practices, such as service learning, undergraduate research, and living-learning communities, are common and embraced because they help students see the real-world connections of what they are learning and make learning personal.11

Therefore, I believe we must double down on a learning-centered model in the age of AI.

The first step is to fully and enthusiastically embrace AI.
…
The second step is to find the “jagged technological frontier” of using AI in the college classroom.

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Futures Thinking in Education — from gettingsmart.com by Getting Smart Staff

Key Points

  • Educators should leverage these tools to prepare for rapid changes driven by technology, climate, and social dynamics.
  • Cultivating empathy for future generations can help educators design more impactful and forward-thinking educational practices.
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“Every single restaurant, every single website will probably, in the future, have these AIs …” Huang said. Plus numerous other items re: AI in general.

On 07/31/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, bots, business, change, computer science, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, Facebook / Meta Platforms, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, marketing/social marketing, NVIDIA, Open AI, platforms, privacy, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, skills, society, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, trends, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

Per the Rundown AI:

Why it matters: AI is slowly shifting from a tool we text/prompt with, to an intelligence that we collaborate, learn, and grow with. Advanced Voice Mode’s ability to understand and respond to emotions in real-time convos could also have huge use cases in everything from customer service to mental health support.

Also relevant/see:

Creators to Have Personalized AI Assistants, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Tells NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang — from blogs.nvidia.com by Brian Caulfield
Zuckerberg and Huang explore the transformative potential of open source AI, the launch of AI Studio, and exchange leather jackets at SIGGRAPH 2024.

“Every single restaurant, every single website will probably, in the future, have these AIs …” Huang said.

“…just like every business has an email address and a website and a social media account, I think, in the future, every business is going to have an AI,” Zuckerberg responded.
…
More broadly, the advancement of AI across a broad ecosystem promises to supercharge human productivity, for example, by giving every human on earth a digital assistant — or assistants — allowing people to live richer lives that they can interact with quickly and fluidly.

Also related/see:

From DSC:
Today was a MUCH better day for Nvidia however (up 12.81%). But it’s been very volatile in the last several weeks — as people and institutions ask where the ROI’s are going to come from.

9 compelling reasons to learn how to use AI Chatbots — from interestingengineering.com by Atharva Gosavi
AI Chatbots are conversational agents that can act on your behalf and converse with humans – a futuristic novelty that is already getting people excited about its usage in improving efficiency.

7. Accessibility and inclusivity
Chatbots can be designed to support multiple languages and accessibility needs, making services more inclusive. They can cater to users with disabilities by providing voice interaction capabilities and simplifying access to information. Understanding how to develop inclusive chatbots can help you contribute to making technology more accessible to everyone, a crucial aspect in today’s diverse society.

8. Future-proofing your skills
AI and automation are the future of work. Having the skills of building AI chatbots is a great way to future-proof your skills, and given the rising trajectory of AI, it’ll be a demanding skill in the market in the years to come. Staying ahead of technological trends is a great way to ensure you remain relevant and competitive in the job market.

Top 7 generative AI use cases for business — from cio.com by Grant Gross
Advanced chatbots, digital assistants, and coding helpers seem to be some of the sweet spots for gen AI use so far in business.

Many AI experts say the current use cases for generative AI are just the tip of the iceberg. More uses cases will present themselves as gen AIs get more powerful and users get more creative with their experiments.

However, a handful of gen AI use cases are already bubbling up. Here’s a look at the most popular and promising.

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The resistance to AI in education isn’t really about learning [Shea]

On 07/26/2024, in adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, colleges, community colleges, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), IT in HE, learning ecosystem, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, writing, by Daniel Christian

The resistance to AI in education isn’t really about learning — from medium.com by Peter Shea

A quick comment first from DSC:
Peter Shea gives us some interesting perspectives here. His thoughts should give many of us fodder for our own further reflection.

This reaction underscores a deeper issue: the resistance to AI in education is not truly about learning. It reflects a reluctance to re-evaluate the traditional roles of educators and to embrace the opportunities AI offers to enhance the learning experience.
…
In order to thrive in the learning ecosystem that will evolve in the Age of AI, the teaching profession needs to do some difficult but essential re-evaluation of their role, in order to better understand where they can provide the best value to learners. This requires confronting some comforting myths and uncomfortable truths.

Problem #2: The Closed World of Academic Culture
In addition, many teachers have spent little time working in non-academic professions. This is especially true for college instructors, who must devote five to seven years to graduate education before obtaining their first full-time position, and thus have little time to explore careers outside academia. This common lack of non-academic work experience heightens the anxiety that educators feel when contemplating the potential impact of generative AI on their work lives.

Also see this related posting:

Majority of Grads Wish They’d Been Taught AI in College — from insidehighered.com by Lauren Coffey
A new survey shows 70 percent of graduates think generative AI should be incorporated into courses. More than half said they felt unprepared for the workforce.

A majority of college graduates believe generative artificial intelligence tools should be incorporated into college classrooms, with more than half saying they felt unprepared for the workforce, according to a new survey from Cengage Group, an education-technology company.

The survey, released today, found that 70 percent of graduates believe basic generative AI training should be integrated into courses; 55 percent said their degree programs did not prepare them to use the new technology tools in the workforce.

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OpenAI introduces SearchGPT + other items re: AI in general

On 07/26/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Adobe, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, corporate / business world, emerging technologies, Facebook / Meta Platforms, game-changing environment, Google, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, NVIDIA, Open AI, technology (general), tools, trends, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

“Who to follow in AI” in 2024? [Part I] — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer [some of posting is behind a paywall]
#1-20 [of 150] – I combed the internet, I found the best sources of AI insights, education and articles. LinkedIn | Newsletters | X | YouTube | Substack | Threads | Podcasts

Also see:

Along these lines, also see:

AI In Medicine: 3 Future Scenarios From Utopia To Dystopia — from medicalfuturist.com by Andrea Koncz
There’s a vast difference between baseless fantasizing and realistic forward planning. Structured methodologies help us learn how to “dream well”.

Key Takeaways

  • We’re often told that daydreaming and envisioning the future is a waste of time. But this notion is misguided.
  • We all instinctively plan for the future in small ways, like organizing a trip or preparing for a dinner party. This same principle can be applied to larger-scale issues, and smart planning does bring better results.
  • We show you a method that allows us to think “well” about the future on a larger scale so that it better meets our needs.

Adobe Unveils Powerful New Innovations in Illustrator and Photoshop Unlocking New Design Possibilities for Creative Pros — from news.adobe.com

  • Latest Illustrator and Photoshop releases accelerate creative workflows, save pros time and empower designers to realize their visions faster
  • New Firefly-enabled features like Generative Shape Fill in Illustrator along with the Dimension Tool, Mockup, Text to Pattern, the Contextual Taskbar and performance enhancement tools accelerate productivity and free up time so creative pros can dive deeper into the parts of their work they love
  • Photoshop introduces all-new Selection Brush Tool and the general availability of Generate Image, Adjustment Brush Tool and other workflow enhancements empowering creators to make complex edits and unique designs
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Nike is using AI to turn athletes’ dreams into shoes — from axios.com by Ina Fried

Zoom in: Nike used genAI for ideation, including using a variety of prompts to produce images with different textures, materials and color to kick off the design process.

What they’re saying: “It’s a new way for us to work,” Nike lead footwear designer Juliana Sagat told Axios during a media tour of the showcase on Tuesday.
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AI meets ‘Do no harm’: Healthcare grapples with tech promises — from finance.yahoo.com by Maya Benjamin

Major companies are moving at high speed to capture the promises of artificial intelligence in healthcare while doctors and experts attempt to integrate the technology safely into patient care.

“Healthcare is probably the most impactful utility of generative AI that there will be,” Kimberly Powell, vice president of healthcare at AI hardware giant Nvidia (NVDA), which has partnered with Roche’s Genentech (RHHBY) to enhance drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry, among other investments in healthcare companies, declared at the company’s AI Summit in June.

Mistral reignites this week’s LLM rivalry with Large 2 (source) — from superhuman.ai

Today, we are announcing Mistral Large 2, the new generation of our flagship model. Compared to its predecessor, Mistral Large 2 is significantly more capable in code generation, mathematics, and reasoning. It also provides a much stronger multilingual support, and advanced function calling capabilities.

Meta releases the biggest and best open-source AI model yet — from theverge.com by Alex Heath
Llama 3.1 outperforms OpenAI and other rivals on certain benchmarks. Now, Mark Zuckerberg expects Meta’s AI assistant to surpass ChatGPT’s usage in the coming months.

Back in April, Meta teased that it was working on a first for the AI industry: an open-source model with performance that matched the best private models from companies like OpenAI.

Today, that model has arrived. Meta is releasing Llama 3.1, the largest-ever open-source AI model, which the company claims outperforms GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet on several benchmarks. It’s also making the Llama-based Meta AI assistant available in more countries and languages while adding a feature that can generate images based on someone’s specific likeness. CEO Mark Zuckerberg now predicts that Meta AI will be the most widely used assistant by the end of this year, surpassing ChatGPT.

4 ways to boost ChatGPT — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan & The PyCoach
Simple tactics for getting useful responses

To help you make the most of ChatGPT, I’ve invited & edited today’s guest post from the author of a smart AI newsletter called The Artificial Corner. I appreciate how Frank Andrade pushes ChatGPT to produce better results with four simple, clever tactics. He offers practical examples to help us all use AI more effectively.
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Frank Andrade: Most of us fail to make the most of ChatGPT.

  1. We omit examples in our prompts.
  2. We fail to assign roles to ChatGPT to guide its behavior.
  3. We let ChatGPT guess instead of providing it with clear guidance.

If you rely on vague prompts, learning how to create high-quality instructions will get you better results. It’s a skill often referred to as prompt engineering. Here are several techniques to get you to the next level.

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“Scholarly authors are not going to be happy…” [Eaton] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 07/23/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, colleges, community colleges, copyright/ownership/NFTs, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, languages and translation, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, legislatures / government / legal, Microsoft, Natural Language Processing (NLP), tools, Uncategorized, United States, universities, vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

The Three Wave Strategy of AI Implementation — from aiczar.blogspot.com by Alexander “Sasha” Sidorkin

The First Wave: Low-Hanging Fruit
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These are just examples:

  • Student services
  • Resume and Cover Letter Review (Career Services)Offering individual resume critiques
  • Academic Policy Development and Enforcement (Academic Affairs)…
  • Health Education and Outreach (Health and Wellness Services) …
  • Sustainability Education and Outreach (Sustainability and Environmental Initiatives) …
  • Digital Marketing and Social Media Management (University Communications and Marketing) …
  • Grant Proposal Development and Submission (Research and Innovation) …
  • Financial Aid Counseling (Financial Aid and Scholarships) …
  • Alumni Communications (Alumni Relations and Development) …
  • Scholarly Communications (Library Services) …
  • International Student and Scholar Services (International Programs and Global Engagement)

Duolingo Max: A Paid Subscription to Learn a Language Using ChatGPT AI (Worth It?) — from theaigirl.substack.com by Diana Dovgopol (behind paywall for the most part)
The integration of AI in language learning apps could be game-changing.

Research Insights #12: Copyrights and Academia — from aiedusimplified.substack.com by Lance Eaton
Scholarly authors are not going to be happy…

A while back, I wrote about some of my thoughts on generative AI around the copyright issues. Not much has changed since then, but a new article (Academic authors ‘shocked’ after Taylor & Francis sells access to their research to Microsoft AI) is definitely stirring up all sorts of concerns by academic authors. The basics of that article are that Taylor & Francis sold access to authors’ research to Microsoft for AI development without informing the authors, sparking significant concern among academics and the Society of Authors about transparency, consent, and the implications for authors’ rights and future earnings.

The stir can be seen as both valid and redundant. Two folks’ points stick out to me in this regard.

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AI Tools for Legal Work: Claude, Gemini, Copilot, and More [americanbar.org]

On 07/23/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, ideas, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, by Daniel Christian

AI Tools for Legal Work: Claude, Gemini, Copilot, and More — from americanbar.org

Summary

  • Uncover four AI tools that can aid legal professionals, including Claude, Gemini, Copilot and ChatGPT.
  • Discover the capabilities of these tools and how their functionality can streamline law firm’s workflow, improving efficiency.
  • Learn how much these AI tools cost to incorporate into your tech stack, and determine if there are any security risks to be aware

Also relevant, see:

 

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The “World’s Most Powerful AI Training Cluster” now online + other items re: AI in general

On 07/23/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, human-computer interaction (HCI), IT in HE, NVIDIA, Open AI, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, society, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, trends, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

How to use Perplexity in your daily workflow — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer and Alex McFarland
“I barely use Google anymore (for anything)” says today’s guest author.

Make Perplexity your go-to research companion with these strategies:

  • Morning briefings: Start your day by asking Perplexity for the latest news in your field. (I personally like to use Perplexity to curate the top AI news of the day to consider writing about for Unite AI and Techopedia.)
  • Fact-checking: Use it to quickly verify information before including it in your work.
  • Brainstorming: Generate ideas for projects or content by asking open-ended questions.
  • Learning new concepts: When you encounter an unfamiliar term or idea, turn to Perplexity for a quick, comprehensive explanation.
  • Writing assistance: Use it to find relevant statistics, examples, or counterarguments for your content.

From DSC:
So I used it to ask “What is Elon Musk’s Memphis Supercluster?” (which went online yesterday I believe) — which resulted in this reply:

Elon Musk’s Memphis Supercluster is a newly activated AI training cluster that is claimed to be the most powerful in the world. Here are the key details about this supercomputer:

1. Location: The supercluster is located in Memphis, Tennessee[1][2].

2. Hardware: It consists of 100,000 liquid-cooled Nvidia H100 GPUs connected through a single RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) fabric[1][3].

3. Purpose: The supercluster is designed for training large language models (LLMs) and other advanced AI technologies for Musk’s xAI company[1][2].

4. Activation: The Memphis Supercluster began training at approximately 4:20 AM local time on July 22, 2024[1][3].

5. Collaboration: The project is a result of collaboration between xAI, X (formerly Twitter), Nvidia, and other supporting companies[1][2].

6. Investment: With each H100 GPU estimated to cost between $30,000 to $40,000, the total investment in GPUs alone is estimated to be between $3 billion to $4 billion[5].

7. Goals: Musk claims that this supercluster will be used to develop “the world’s most powerful AI by every measure” by December 2024[1].

8. Comparison: The Memphis Supercluster’s 100,000 H100 GPUs significantly outclass other supercomputers in terms of GPU horsepower, such as Frontier (37,888 AMD GPUs) and Microsoft Eagle (14,400 Nvidia H100 GPUs)[3].

9. Infrastructure: The project required significant infrastructure development, including fiber optic networking[5].

While Musk’s claims about the supercluster’s capabilities are ambitious, it remains to be seen how it will perform in practice and whether it will meet the stated goals within the given timeframe[1].

Citations:
[1] https://venturebeat.com/ai/elon-musk-announces-most-powerful-ai-training-cluster-in-the-world/
[2] https://www.tuaw.com/2024/07/22/elon-musks-xai-unveils-worlds-most-powerful-ai-training-cluster/
[3] https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/elon-musk-fires-up-the-most-powerful-ai-training-cluster-in-the-world-uses-100000-nvidia-h100-gpus-on-a-single-fabric
[4] https://www.thestack.technology/xai-elon-musk-ai-supercomputer/
[5] https://www.benzinga.com/news/24/07/39881748/elon-musks-xai-flips-the-switch-on-100k-nvidia-h100-gpus-worth-up-to-4b-in-memphis-supercluster-most
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JhtJa05C2Y

—–
Elon’s AI empire expands — from theneurondaily.com by Grant Harvey
Elon Musk’s team at xAI just powered on the “World’s Most Powerful AI Training Cluster.”
If you don’t know what a supercluster is, it’s basically a massive network of Nvidia GPUs (computer chips) working together as a single unit to solve “super” complex calculations at unprecedented speeds.

And this Memphis Supercluster is the most “super” supercluster we’ve ever seen. The new facility, dubbed the “Gigafactory of Compute”, is a beast:

  • 100,000 liquid-cooled Nvidia H100 GPUs on a single RDMA fabric (for context, Google snagged only 50,000 H100 GPUs last year).
  • Up to 150 megawatts of electricity usage per hour—enough for 100K homes.
  • At least one million gallons of water per day to keep cool!

What to expect: Better models, more frequently. That’s been the trend, at least—look at how the last few model releases have become more squished together. 

OpenAI to make GPT-4o Advanced Voice available by the end of the month to select group of users — from tomsguide.com by Ryan Morrison

GPT-4o Advanced Voice is an entirely new type of voice assistant, similar to but larger than the recently unveiled French model Moshi, which argued with me over a story.

In demos of the model, we’ve seen GPT-4o Advanced Voice create custom character voices, generate sound effects while telling a story and even act as a live translator.

This native speech ability is a significant step in creating more natural AI assistants. In the future, it will also come with live vision abilities, allowing the AI to see what you see.

Could AGI break the world? — from theneurondaily.com by Noah Edelman

“Biggest IT outage in history” proves we’re not ready for AGI.
…
Here’s the TL;DR—a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike made this happen:

  • Grounded 5,000+ flights around the world.
  • Slowed healthcare across the UK.
  • Forced retailers to revert to cash-only transactions in Australia (what is this, the stone ages?!).

…
Here’s where AI comes in: Imagine today’s AI as a new operating system. In 5-10 years, it’ll likely be as integrated into our economy as Microsoft’s cloud servers are now. This isn’t that far-fetched—Microsoft is already planning to embed AI into all its programs.

So what if a Crowdstrike-like incident happens with a more powerful AI system? Some experts predict an AI-powered IT outage could be 10x worse than Friday’s fiasco.

The Crowdstrike outage and global software’s single-point failure problem — from cnbc.com by Kaya Ginsky

KEY POINTS

  • The CrowdStrike software bug that took down global IT infrastructure exposed a single-point-of-failure risk unrelated to malicious cyberattack.
  • National and cybersecurity experts say the risk of this kind of technical outage is increasing alongside the risk of hacks, and the market will need to adopt better competitive practices.
  • Government is also likely to look at new regulations related to software updates and patches.

The “largest IT outage in history,” briefly explained — from vox.com by Li Zhou
Airlines, banks, and hospitals saw computer systems go down because of a CrowdStrike software glitch.

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The race to deploy GenAI in the legal sector [Nicol-Schwarz]

On 07/19/2024, in Access to Justice (A2J), Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, changing business models, corporate / business world, emerging technologies, Europe, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, Open AI, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, UK, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

The race to deploy GenAI in the legal sector — from sifted.eu by Kai Nicol-Schwarz
LegalFly’s €15m Series A is the latest in a string of raises for European GenAI legaltech startups

Speak to any lawyer and you’ll soon discover that the job is a far cry from the fevered excitement of a courtroom drama. Behind the scenes, there’s an endless amount of laborious and typically manual tasks like drafting, reviewing and negotiating contracts and other legal documents that have to be done manually daily.

It was this realisation that led four product managers at dating app giant Tinder, frustrated by what they saw as a lack of AI adoption at the company, to jump ship and found Belgium-based LegalFly last year. The startup is building a generative AI copilot for lawyers which eventually, it says, will be able to automate entire workflows in the legal profession.

“We were looking at what GenAI was good at, which is synthesising data and generating content,” says founder and CEO Ruben Miessen. “What industry works like that? Law, and it does it all in a very manual way.”

“The legal industry is a global behemoth that’s seen minimal innovation since the advent of Microsoft Word in the 90s,” says Carina Namih, partner at Plural. “GenAI — especially with a human in the loop to keep accuracy high — is ideally suited to drafting, editing and negotiating legal documents.”

Legal Technology Company Relativity Announces OpenAI ChatGPT Integration — from lawfuel.com

CHICAGO– July 18 – Relativity, a global legal technology company, today announced it is integrating with OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise Compliance API. The integration adds ChatGPT Enterprise as a Collect in RelativityOne data source, allowing users to seamlessly collect and process human-to-AI conversational data.

“The future around human and AI interaction is changing rapidly, calling for innovative legal data management solutions to include novel data sources, such as conversations with AI agents,” said Chris Brown, Chief Product Officer at Relativity. “In answering that call, we are committed to equipping our community with the tools they need to traverse the evolving future of human-to-AI conversational data and putting users in control of this new data landscape.”

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AI-assisted job fraud is spiking [Krietzberg] + other items re: AI in general

On 07/19/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, communications, creativity, digital audio, digital video, ethics, morals/values, multimedia, NVIDIA, online media, Open AI, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, robotics, society, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

AI-assisted job fraud is spiking — from thedeepview.co by Ian Krietzberg

A recent report published by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) found that data from 2023 shows “an environment where bad actors are more effective, efficient and successful in launching attacks. The result is fewer victims (or at least fewer victim reports), but the impact on individuals and businesses is arguably more damaging.”

One of these attacks involves fake job postings.

The details: The ITRC said that victim reports of job and employment scams spiked some 118% in 2023. These scams were primarily carried out through LinkedIn and other job search platforms.

    • The bad actors here would either create fake (but professional-looking) job postings, profiles and websites or impersonate legitimate companies, all with the hopes of landing victims to move onto the interview process.
    • These actors would then move the conversation onto a third-party messaging platform, and ask for identity verification information (driver’s licenses, social security numbers, direct deposit information, etc.).

Hypernatural — AI videos you can actually use. — via Jeremy Caplan’s Wonder Tools

Hypernatural is an AI video platform that makes it easy to create beautiful, ready-to share videos from anything. Stop settling for glitchy 3s generated videos and boring stock footage. Turn your ideas, scripts, podcasts and more into incredible short-form videos in minutes.

GPT-4o mini: advancing cost-efficient intelligence — from openai.com
Introducing our most cost-efficient small model

OpenAI is committed to making intelligence as broadly accessible as possible. Today, we’re announcing GPT-4o mini, our most cost-efficient small model. We expect GPT-4o mini will significantly expand the range of applications built with AI by making intelligence much more affordable. GPT-4o mini scores 82% on MMLU and currently outperforms GPT-41 on chat preferences in LMSYS leaderboard(opens in a new window). It is priced at 15 cents per million input tokens and 60 cents per million output tokens, an order of magnitude more affordable than previous frontier models and more than 60% cheaper than GPT-3.5 Turbo.

GPT-4o mini enables a broad range of tasks with its low cost and latency, such as applications that chain or parallelize multiple model calls (e.g., calling multiple APIs), pass a large volume of context to the model (e.g., full code base or conversation history), or interact with customers through fast, real-time text responses (e.g., customer support chatbots).

Also see what this means from Ben’s Bites, The Neuron, and as The Rundown AI asserts:

Why it matters: While it’s not GPT-5, the price and capabilities of this mini-release significantly lower the barrier to entry for AI integrations — and marks a massive leap over GPT 3.5 Turbo. With models getting cheaper, faster, and more intelligent with each release, the perfect storm for AI acceleration is forming.

Nvidia: More AI Waves Are Taking Shape — from seekingalpha.com by Eric Sprague

Summary

  • Nvidia Corporation is transitioning from a GPU designer to an AI factory builder.
  • AI spending will continue to grow in healthcare, government, and robotics.
  • CEO Jensen Huang says the AI robot industry could be bigger than the auto and consumer electronics industries combined.

Byte-Sized Courses: NVIDIA Offers Self-Paced Career Development in AI and Data Science — from blogs.nvidia.com by Andy Bui
Industry experts gather to share advice on starting a career in AI, highlighting technical training and certifications for career growth.

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“Deep Learning: Five New Superpowers of Higher Education” [Klitgaard] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 07/19/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, change, changing business models, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, credentialing, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, interactivity, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, liberal arts, Natural Language Processing (NLP), personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

What aspects of teaching should remain human? — from hechingerreport.org by Chris Berdik
Even techno optimists hesitate to say teaching is best left to the bots, but there’s a debate about where to draw the line

ATLANTA — Science teacher Daniel Thompson circulated among his sixth graders at Ron Clark Academy on a recent spring morning, spot checking their work and leading them into discussions about the day’s lessons on weather and water. He had a helper: As Thompson paced around the class, peppering them with questions, he frequently turned to a voice-activated AI to summon apps and educational videos onto large-screen smartboards.

When a student asked, “Are there any animals that don’t need water?” Thompson put the question to the AI. Within seconds, an illustrated blurb about kangaroo rats appeared before the class.

Nitta said there’s something “deeply profound” about human communication that allows flesh-and-blood teachers to quickly spot and address things like confusion and flagging interest in real time.

Deep Learning: Five New Superpowers of Higher Education — from jeppestricker.substack.com by Jeppe Klitgaard Stricker
How Deep Learning is Transforming Higher Education

While the traditional model of education is entrenched, emerging technologies like deep learning promise to shake its foundations and usher in an age of personalized, adaptive, and egalitarian education. It is expected to have a significant impact across higher education in several key ways.
…
…deep learning introduces adaptivity into the learning process. Unlike a typical lecture, deep learning systems can observe student performance in real-time. Confusion over a concept triggers instant changes to instructional tactics. Misconceptions are identified early and remediated quickly. Students stay in their zone of proximal development, constantly challenged but never overwhelmed. This adaptivity prevents frustration and stagnation.

InstructureCon 24 Conference Notes — from onedtech.philhillaa.com by Glenda Morgan
Another solid conference from the market leader, even with unclear roadmap

The new stuff: AI
Instructure rolled out multiple updates and improvements – more than last year. These included many AI-based or focused tools and services as well as some functional improvements. I’ll describe the AI features first.

Sal Khan was a surprise visitor to the keynote stage to announce the September availability of the full suite of AI-enabled Khanmigo Teacher Tools for Canvas users. The suite includes 20 tools, such as tools to generate lesson plans and quiz questions and write letters of recommendation. Next year, they plan to roll out tools for students themselves to use.
…
Other AI-based features include.

    • Discussion tool summaries and AI-generated responses…
    • Translation of inbox messages and discussions…
    • Smart search …
    • Intelligent Insights…

 

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