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“This is the future of Media.” [Ekenstam] + other items re: AI in general

On 09/29/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, Adobe, Apple, art, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, digital audio, digital textbooks, digital video, emerging technologies, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, Metaverse, multimedia, platforms, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, tools, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, wearables, web-based collaboration, Web3, by Daniel Christian

Adobe video-AI announcements for IBC — from provideocoalition.com by Rich Young

For the IBC 2023 conference, Adobe announced new AI and 3D features to Creative Cloud video tools, including Premiere Pro Enhance Speech for faster dialog cleanup, and filler word detection and removal in Text-Based Editing. There’s also new AI-based rotoscoping and a true 3D workspace in the After Effects beta, as well as new camera-to-cloud integrations and advanced storage options in Frame.io.

Though not really about AI, you might also be interested in this posting:

Airt AI Art Generator (Review) — from hongkiat.com
Turn your creative ideas into masterpieces using Airt’s AI iPad app.

The Airt AI Generator app makes it easy to create art on your iPad. You can pick an art style and a model to make your artwork. It’s simple enough for anyone to use, but it doesn’t have many options for customizing your art.

Even with these limitations, it’s a good starting point for people who want to try making art with AI. Here are the good and bad points we found.

Pros:

  • User-Friendly: The app is simple and easy to use, making it accessible for users of all skill levels.

Cons:

  • Limited Advanced Features: The app lacks options for customization, such as altering image ratios, seeds, and other settings.

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Google is shutting down Jamboard

On 09/29/2023, in A/V -- audio/visual, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, education technology, Google, higher education, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

The next phase of digital whiteboarding for Google Workspace— from workspaceupdates.googleblog.com

What’s changing

In late 2024, we will wind down the Jamboard whiteboarding app as well as continue with the previously planned end of support for Google Jamboard devices. For those who are impacted by this change, we are committed to help you transition:

    • We are integrating whiteboard tools such as FigJam, Lucidspark, and Miro across Google Workspace so you can include them when collaborating in Meet, sharing content in Drive, or scheduling in Calendar.
    • …

The Teacher’s Guide for Transitioning from Jamboard to FigJam — from tommullaney.com by Tom Mullaney

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“ChatGPT can now see, hear, and speak. Speak with ChatGPT and have it talk back.” [OpenAI] + other items re: AI in general

On 09/27/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Australia, bots, business, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, drama/theater, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, Microsoft, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), platforms, tools, trends, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

ChatGPT can now see, hear, and speak — from openai.com
We are beginning to roll out new voice and image capabilities in ChatGPT. They offer a new, more intuitive type of interface by allowing you to have a voice conversation or show ChatGPT what you’re talking about.

Voice and image give you more ways to use ChatGPT in your life. Snap a picture of a landmark while traveling and have a live conversation about what’s interesting about it. When you’re home, snap pictures of your fridge and pantry to figure out what’s for dinner (and ask follow up questions for a step by step recipe). After dinner, help your child with a math problem by taking a photo, circling the problem set, and having it share hints with both of you.

We’re rolling out voice and images in ChatGPT to Plus and Enterprise users over the next two weeks. Voice is coming on iOS and Android (opt-in in your settings) and images will be available on all platforms.

OpenAI Seeks New Valuation of Up to $90 Billion in Sale of Existing Shares — from wsj.com (behind paywall)
Potential sale would value startup at roughly triple where it was set earlier this year

The World’s First AI Cinema Experience Starring YOU Is Open In NZ And Buzzy Doesn’t Cover It — from theedge.co.nz by Seth Gupwell
Allow me to manage your expectations.

Because it’s the first-ever on Earth, it’s hard to label what kind of entertainment Hypercinema is. While it’s marketed as a “live AI experience” that blends “theatre, film and digital technology”, Dr. Gregory made it clear that it’s not here to make movies and TV extinct.

Your face and personality are how HyperCinema sets itself apart from the art forms of old. You get 15 photos of your face taken from different angles, then answer a questionnaire – mine started by asking what my fave vegetable was and ended by demanding to know what I thought the biggest threat to humanity was. Deep stuff, but the questions are always changing, cos that’s how AI rolls.

All of this information is stored on your cube – a green, glowing accessory that you carry around for the whole experience and insert into different sockets to transfer your info onto whatever screen is in front of you. Upon inserting your cube, the “live AI experience” starts.

The AI has taken your photos and superimposed your face on a variety of made-up characters in different situations.

Announcing Microsoft Copilot, your everyday AI companion — from blogs.microsoft.com by Yusuf Mehdi

We are entering a new era of AI, one that is fundamentally changing how we relate to and benefit from technology. With the convergence of chat interfaces and large language models you can now ask for what you want in natural language and the technology is smart enough to answer, create it or take action. At Microsoft, we think about this as having a copilot to help navigate any task. We have been building AI-powered copilots into our most used and loved products – making coding more efficient with GitHub, transforming productivity at work with Microsoft 365, redefining search with Bing and Edge and delivering contextual value that works across your apps and PC with Windows.

Today we take the next step to unify these capabilities into a single experience we call Microsoft Copilot, your everyday AI companion. Copilot will uniquely incorporate the context and intelligence of the web, your work data and what you are doing in the moment on your PC to provide better assistance – with your privacy and security at the forefront.

DALL·E 3 understands significantly more nuance and detail than our previous systems, allowing you to easily translate your ideas into exceptionally accurate images.
DALL·E 3 is now in research preview, and will be available to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise customers in October, via the API and in Labs later this fall.

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School Guide to Student Financial Literacy: What to Teach and When [Phillips]

On 09/19/2023, in business, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, curriculum, economics, education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, instructional design, K-12 related, marketplaces, workplace, by Daniel Christian

School Guide to Student Financial Literacy: What to Teach and When — from couponchief.com by Linda Phillips; with thanks to Karen Bell for this resource

It’s crucial – for individuals and the larger community – that students and young adults develop a solid foundation of personal finance knowledge, skills and habits in order to thrive. Practicing good money habits means the difference between long-term financial security and serious financial straits.

Financial literacy education is the responsibility of everyone, but most particularly parents and teachers. This guide focuses primarily on teaching financial literacy in elementary, middle and high schools. However, the concepts discussed below – and many of the resources listed – are also helpful for parents and others interested in promoting sound personal finance practices by kids and teens alike. Below you’ll find our suggestions for what concepts should be taught to kids from pre-k through grade 12, and the best times to introduce those concepts. You’ll also find an extensive list of some of the best resources – books, lesson plans, activities, videos, games and more – to supplement financial literacy education in the classroom.

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Reflections on “Next, The Future of Work is… Intersections” [Bolles]

On 09/18/2023, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future, future of higher education, higher education, ideas, innovation, liberal arts, motivation, passions, productivity / tips and tricks, real-world assignments, society, student-related, universities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Next, The Future of Work is… Intersections — from linkedin.com by Gary A. Bolles; via Roberto Ferraro

So much of the way that we think about education and work is organized into silos. Sure, that’s one way to ensure a depth of knowledge in a field and to encourage learners to develop mastery. But it also leads to domains with strict boundaries. Colleges are typically organized into school sub-domains, managed like fiefdoms, with strict rules for professors who can teach in different schools.

Yet it’s at the intersections of seemingly-disparate domains where breakthrough innovation can occur.

Maybe intersections bring a greater chance of future work opportunity, because that young person can increase their focus in one arena or another as they discover new options for work — and because this is what meaningful work in the future is going to look like.

From DSC:
This posting strikes me as an endorsement for interdisciplinary degrees. I agree with much of this. It’s just hard to find the right combination of disciplines. But I supposed that depends upon the individual student and what he/she is passionate or curious about.

Speaking of the future of work, also see:

Centaurs and Cyborgs on the Jagged Frontier — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
I think we have an answer on whether AIs will reshape work…

A lot of people have been asking if AI is really a big deal for the future of work. We have a new paper that strongly suggests the answer is YES.
.

Consultants using AI finished 12.2% more tasks on average, completed tasks 25.1% more quickly, and produced 40% higher quality results than those without. Those are some very big impacts. Now, let’s add in the nuance.

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Solid idea from Brandon Busteed: “Create externship programs for faculty.”

On 09/12/2023, in adjunct faculty, business, career development, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, experimentation, faculty, higher education, professional development, training / L&D, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

An excerpt from ‘The Magnificent Seven’ posting from Brandon Busteed on LinkedIn:

6. Create externship programs for faculty. Many college and university faculty have never worked outside of academia. Given a chance to be exposed to modern workplaces and work challenges, faculty will find innovative and creative ways to weave more work-integrated learning into their curriculum.

From DSC:
This is a great idea — thanks Brandon!

I might add another couple of thoughts here as well:

  • And/or treat your Adjunct Faculty Members much better as well!
  • And/or work with more L&D Departments at local companies (i.e., to develop closer, more beneficial/WIN-WIN collaborations).
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Are your students prepared for active learning? You can help them! [Mihai]

On 09/12/2023, in active learning, adjunct faculty, business, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, Europe, faculty, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, instructional design, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, liberal arts, pedagogy, project-based learning, teaching & learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

Are your students prepared for active learning? You can help them! — from The Educationalist at educationalist.substack.com by Alexandra Mihai

What does active learning require from students?
There is no secret that PBL and all other active learning approaches are much more demanding from students compared to traditional methods, mainly in terms of skills and attitudes towards learning. Here are some of the aspects where students, especially when first faced to active learning, seem to struggle:

  • Formulating own learning goals and following through with independent study. While in traditional teaching the learning goals are given to students, in PBL (or at least in some of its purest variants), they need to come up with their own, for each problem they are solving. This requires understanding the problem well but also a certain frame of mind where one can assess what is necessary to solve it and make a plan of how to go about it (independently and as a group). All these seemingly easy steps are often new to students and something they intrinsically expect from us as educators.

From DSC:
The above excerpt re: formulating one’s own learning goals reminded me of project management and learning how to be a project manager.

It reminded me of a project that I was assigned back at Kraft (actually Kraft General Foods at the time).  It was an online-based directory of everyone in the company at the time. When it was given to me, several questions arose in my mind:
  • Where do I start?
  • How do I even organize this project?
  • What is the list of to-do’s?
  • Who will I need to work with?

Luckily I had a mentor/guide who helped me get going and an excellent contact with the vendor who educated me and helped me get the ball rolling. 

I’ll end with another quote and a brief comment:

Not being afraid of mistakes and learning from them.
The education system, at all stages, still penalises mistakes, often with long term consequences. So it’s no wonder students are afraid of making mistakes…
From DSC:
How true.
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“A.I.’s un-learning problem” [Pastis] + numerous other items re: AI

On 09/06/2023, in 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, corporate / business world, education technology, emerging technologies, future, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, psychology, the downsides of how people use tech, training / L&D, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The Prompt #14: Your Guide to Custom Instructions — from noisemedia.ai by Alex Banks

Whilst we typically cover a single ‘prompt’ to use with ChatGPT, today we’re exploring a new feature now available to everyone: custom instructions.

You provide specific directions for ChatGPT leading to greater control of the output. It’s all about guiding the AI to get the responses you really want.

To get started:
Log into ChatGPT ? Click on your name/email bottom left corner ? select ‘Custom instructions’

Meet Zoom AI Companion, your new AI assistant! Unlock the benefits with a paid Zoom account — from blog.zoom.us by Smita Hashim

We’re excited to introduce you to AI Companion (formerly Zoom IQ), your new generative AI assistant across the Zoom platform. AI Companion empowers individuals by helping them be more productive, connect and collaborate with teammates, and improve their skills.
…
Envision being able to interact with AI Companion through a conversational interface and ask for help on a whole range of tasks, similarly to how you would with a real assistant. You’ll be able to ask it to help prepare for your upcoming meeting, get a consolidated summary of prior Zoom meetings and relevant chat threads, and even find relevant documents and tickets from connected third-party applications with your permission.

From DSC:
“You can ask AI Companion to catch you up on what you missed during a meeting in progress.”

And what if some key details were missed? Should you rely on this? I’d treat this with care/caution myself.

A.I.’s un-learning problem: Researchers say it’s virtually impossible to make an A.I. model ‘forget’ the things it learns from private user data — from fortune.com by Stephen Pastis (behind paywall)

That’s because, as it turns out, it’s nearly impossible to remove a user’s data from a trained A.I. model without resetting the model and forfeiting the extensive money and effort put into training it. To use a human analogy, once an A.I. has “seen” something, there is no easy way to tell the model to “forget” what it saw. And deleting the model entirely is also surprisingly difficult.

This represents one of the thorniest, unresolved, challenges of our incipient artificial intelligence era, alongside issues like A.I. “hallucinations” and the difficulties of explaining certain A.I. outputs. 

More companies see ChatGPT training as a hot job perk for office workers — from cnbc.com by Mikaela Cohen

Key points:

  • Workplaces filled with artificial intelligence are closer to becoming a reality, making it essential that workers know how to use generative AI.
  • Offering specific AI chatbot training to current employees could be your next best talent retention tactic.
  • 90% of business leaders see ChatGPT as a beneficial skill in job applicants, according to a report from career site Resume Builder.

OpenAI Plugs ChatGPT Into Canva to Sharpen Its Competitive Edge in AI — from decrypt.co by Jose Antonio Lanz
Now ChatGPT Plus users can “talk” to Canva directly from OpenAI’s bot, making their workflow easier.

This strategic move aims to make the process of creating visuals such as logos, banners, and more, even more simple for businesses and entrepreneurs.

This latest integration could improve the way users generate visuals by offering a streamlined and user-friendly approach to digital design.

From DSC:
This Tweet addresses a likely component of our future learning ecosystems:

Large language models aren’t people. Let’s stop testing them as if they were. — from technologyreview.com by Will Douglas Heaven
With hopes and fears about this technology running wild, it’s time to agree on what it can and can’t do.

That’s why a growing number of researchers—computer scientists, cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, linguists—want to overhaul the way they are assessed, calling for more rigorous and exhaustive evaluation. Some think that the practice of scoring machines on human tests is wrongheaded, period, and should be ditched.

“There’s a lot of anthropomorphizing going on,” she says. “And that’s kind of coloring the way that we think about these systems and how we test them.”

“There is a long history of developing methods to test the human mind,” says Laura Weidinger, a senior research scientist at Google DeepMind. “With large language models producing text that seems so human-like, it is tempting to assume that human psychology tests will be useful for evaluating them. But that’s not true: human psychology tests rely on many assumptions that may not hold for large language models.”

We Analyzed Millions of ChatGPT User Sessions: Visits are Down 29% since May, Programming Assistance is 30% of Use — from sparktoro.com by Rand Fishkin

In concert with the fine folks at Datos, whose opt-in, anonymized panel of 20M devices (desktop and mobile, covering 200+ countries) provides outstanding insight into what real people are doing on the web, we undertook a challenging project to answer at least some of the mystery surrounding ChatGPT.

Crypto in ‘arms race’ against AI-powered scams — Quantstamp co-founder — from cointelegraph.com by Tom Mitchelhill
Quantstamp’s Richard Ma explained that the coming surge in sophisticated AI phishing scams could pose an existential threat to crypto organizations.

With the field of artificial intelligence evolving at near breakneck speed, scammers now have access to tools that can help them execute highly sophisticated attacks en masse, warns the co-founder of Web3 security firm Quantstamp.

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Why Christians need to support diversity professionals, not demonize them [Loyd-Paige]

On 09/06/2023, in Access to Justice (A2J), Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), business, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, hearts -- matters of the heart, higher education, morals/values, relationships, religion, society, sociology, trends, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Why Christians need to support diversity professionals, not demonize them — from religionnews.com by Michelle Loyd-Paige
Even among Christians, DEI leaders find themselves isolated and unsupported.

For nearly 39 years, I have taught about and advocated for diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-racism and social justice in Christian contexts. I have been sustained by the knowledge that diversity is a part of God’s good creation and is celebrated in the Bible. 

And not just diversity, but love for our neighbors, care for the immigrant, and justice for the marginalized and oppressed. In fact, the Hebrew and Greek words for justice appear in Scripture more than 1,000 times. 

It could be argued that Jesus’ ministry on earth exemplified the value of diversity, the importance of inclusion and the obligation of justice and restoration. Our ministry — in schools, churches, business, wherever we find ourselves — should reflect the same.

From DSC:
I was at Calvin (then College) when Michelle was there. I am very grateful for her work over my 10+ years there. I learned many things from her and had my “lenses” refined several times due to her presentations, questions, and the media that she showed. Thank you Michelle for all of your work and up-hill efforts! It’s made a difference! It impacted the culture at Calvin. It impacted me.

The other thing that hepled me in my background was when my family moved to a much more diverse area. And I’ve tried to continue that perspective in my own family. I don’t know half of the languages that are spoken in our neighborhood, but I love the diversity there! I believe our kids (now mostly grown) have benefited from it and are better prepared for what they will encounter in the real world.

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Future of Work Report AI at Work [LinkedIn]

On 09/02/2023, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, change, corporate / business world, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Future of Work Report AI at Work — from economicgraph.linkedin.com; via Superhuman

The intersection of AI and the world of work: Not only are job postings increasing, but we’re seeing more LinkedIn members around the globe adding AI skills to their profiles than ever before. We’ve seen a 21x increase in the share of global English-language job postings that mention new AI technologies such as GPT or ChatGPT since November 2022. In June 2023, the number of AI-skilled members was 9x larger than in January 2016, globally.

The state of play of Generative AI (GAI) in the workforce: GAI technologies, including ChatGPT, are poised to start to change the way we work. In fact, 47% of US executives believe that using generative AI will increase productivity, and 92% agree that people skills are more important than ever. This means jobs won’t necessarily go away but they will change as will the skills necessary to do them.

Also relevant/see:

The Working Future: More Human, Not Less — from bain.com
It’s time to change how we think about work

Contents

  • Introduction
  • Motivations for Work Are Changing.
  • Beliefs about What Makes a “Good Job” Are Diverging
  • Automation Is Helping to Rehumanize Work
  • Technological Change Is Blurring the Boundaries of the Firm
  • Young Workers Are Increasingly Overwhelmed
  • Rehumanizing Work: The Journey Ahead
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“Introducing ChatGPT Enterprise” [OpenAI] + other items re: AI in general

On 09/02/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, bots, business, communications, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, intelligent systems, NVIDIA, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, trends, United States, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Introductory comments from DSC:

Sometimes people and vendors write about AI’s capabilities in such a glowingly positive way. It seems like AI can do everything in the world. And while I appreciate the growing capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) and the like, there are some things I don’t want AI-driven apps to do.

For example, I get why AI can be helpful in correcting my misspellings, my grammatical errors, and the like. That said, I don’t want AI to write my emails for me. I want to write my own emails. I want to communicate what I want to communicate. I don’t want to outsource my communication. 

And what if an AI tool summarizes an email series in a way that I miss some key pieces of information? Hmmm…not good.

Ok, enough soapboxing. I’ll continue with some resources.

ChatGPT Enterprise

Introducing ChatGPT Enterprise — from openai.com
Get enterprise-grade security & privacy and the most powerful version of ChatGPT yet.

We’re launching ChatGPT Enterprise, which offers enterprise-grade security and privacy, unlimited higher-speed GPT-4 access, longer context windows for processing longer inputs, advanced data analysis capabilities, customization options, and much more. We believe AI can assist and elevate every aspect of our working lives and make teams more creative and productive. Today marks another step towards an AI assistant for work that helps with any task, is customized for your organization, and that protects your company data.

Enterprise-grade security & privacy and the most powerful version of ChatGPT yet. — from openai.com

NVIDIA

Nvidia’s Q2 earnings prove it’s the big winner in the generative AI boom — from techcrunch.com by Kirsten Korosec

Nvidia Quarterly Earnings Report Q2 Smashes Expectations At $13.5B — from techbusinessnews.com.au
Nvidia’s quarterly earnings report (Q2) smashed expectations coming in at $13.5B more than doubling prior earnings of $6.7B. The chipmaker also projected October’s total revenue would peak at $16B

MISC

OpenAI Passes $1 Billion Revenue Pace as Big Companies Boost AI Spending — from theinformation.com by Amir Efrati and Aaron Holmes

OpenAI is currently on pace to generate more than $1 billion in revenue over the next 12 months from the sale of artificial intelligence software and the computing capacity that powers it. That’s far ahead of revenue projections the company previously shared with its shareholders, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation.

OpenAI’s GPTBot blocked by major websites and publishers — from the-decoder.com by Matthias Bastian
An emerging chatbot ecosystem builds on existing web content and could displace traditional websites. At the same time, licensing and financing are largely unresolved.

OpenAI offers publishers and website operators an opt-out if they prefer not to make their content available to chatbots and AI models for free. This can be done by blocking OpenAI’s web crawler “GPTBot” via the robots.txt file. The bot collects content to improve future AI models, according to OpenAI.

Major media companies including the New York Times, CNN, Reuters, Chicago Tribune, ABC, and Australian Community Media (ACM) are now blocking GPTBot. Other web-based content providers such as Amazon, Wikihow, and Quora are also blocking the OpenAI crawler.

Introducing Code Llama, a state-of-the-art large language model for coding  — from ai.meta.com

Takeaways re: Code Llama:

  • Is a state-of-the-art LLM capable of generating code, and natural language about code, from both code and natural language prompts.
  • Is free for research and commercial use.
  • Is built on top of Llama 2 and is available in three models…
  • In our own benchmark testing, Code Llama outperformed state-of-the-art publicly available LLMs on code tasks

Key Highlights of Google Cloud Next ‘23— from analyticsindiamag.com by Shritama Saha
Meta’s Llama 2, Anthropic’s Claude 2, and TII’s Falcon join Model Garden, expanding model variety.

AI finally beats humans at a real-life sport— drone racing — from nature.com by Dan Fox
The new system combines simulation with onboard sensing and computation.

From DSC:
This is scary — not at all comforting to me. Militaries around the world continue their jockeying to be the most dominant, powerful, and effective killers of humankind. That definitely includes the United States and China. But certainly others as well. And below is another alarming item, also pointing out the downsides of how we use technologies.

The Next Wave of Scams Will Be Deepfake Video Calls From Your Boss — from bloomberg.com by Margi Murphy; behind paywall

Cybercriminals are constantly searching for new ways to trick people. One of the more recent additions to their arsenal was voice simulation software.

10 Great Colleges For Studying Artificial Intelligence — from forbes.com by Sim Tumay

The debut of ChatGPT in November created angst for college admission officers and professors worried they would be flooded by student essays written with the undisclosed assistance of artificial intelligence. But the explosion of interest in AI has benefits for higher education, including a new generation of students interested in studying and working in the field. In response, universities are revising their curriculums to educate AI engineers.

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Don’t Be Fooled: How You Can Master Media Literacy in the Digital Age [Professor Sue Ellen Christian]

On 08/30/2023, in Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), communications, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, ethics, ideas, internet, liberal arts, library / librarians, media/film, Michigan, multimedia, online media, parents/guardians, platforms, play, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, psychology, publishing, quality, research, social media, society, sociology, storytelling, strategy, technologies for your home, television, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Don’t Be Fooled: How You Can Master Media Literacy in the Digital Age — from youtube.com by Professor Sue Ellen Christian

During this special keynote presentation, Western Michigan University (WMU) professor Sue Ellen Christian speaks about the importance of media literacy for all ages and how we can help educate our friends and families about media literacy principles. Hosted by the Grand Rapids Public Library and GRTV, a program of the Grand Rapids Community Media Center. Special thanks to the Grand Rapids Public Library Foundation for their support of this program.

Excerpts:

Media Literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media in a variety of forms. Center for Media Literacy

5 things to do when confronted with concerns about content.

Also relevant/see:

Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s newest exhibit teaches community about media literacy — from mlive.com by Gabi Broekema

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What if the presenter/teacher/professor/ trainer/preacher provided a set of notes for the AI to compare to the readers’ notes? [Christian]

On 08/29/2023, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, communications, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, lifelong learning, presentations, religion, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Yesterday, I posted the item about Google’s NotebookLM research tool. Excerpt:

What if you could have a conversation with your notes? That question has consumed a corner of the internet recently, as companies like Dropbox, Box, Notion, and others have built generative AI tools that let you interact with and create new things from the data you already have in their systems.

Google’s version of this is called NotebookLM. It’s an AI-powered research tool that is meant to help you organize and interact with your own notes.

That got me to thinking…

What if the presenter/teacher/professor/trainer/preacher provided a set of notes for the AI to compare to the readers’ notes? 

That way, the AI could see the discrepancies between what the presenter wanted their audience to learn/hear and what was actually being learned/heard. In a sort of digital Socratic Method, the AI could then generate some leading questions to get the audience member to check their thinking/understanding of the topic.

The end result would be that the main points were properly communicated/learned/received.

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What if you could have a conversation with your notes? [Pierce]

On 08/28/2023, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Design Thinking, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty, future, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, productivity / tips and tricks, research, student-related, teachers, tools, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Google’s AI-powered note-taking app is the messy beginning of something great — from theverge.com by David Pierce; via AI Insider
NotebookLM is a neat research tool with some big ideas. It’s still rough and new, but it feels like Google is onto something.

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

What if you could have a conversation with your notes? That question has consumed a corner of the internet recently, as companies like Dropbox, Box, Notion, and others have built generative AI tools that let you interact with and create new things from the data you already have in their systems.

Google’s version of this is called NotebookLM. It’s an AI-powered research tool that is meant to help you organize and interact with your own notes. 
…
Right now, it’s really just a prototype, but a small team inside the company has been trying to figure out what an AI notebook might look like.

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Fake Your Voice in 30 Languages + several more items re: the good and the bad of AI

On 08/25/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, communications, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, digital audio, digital video, engineering, Facebook / Meta Platforms, Google, music, Natural Language Processing (NLP), NVIDIA, platforms, political science, productivity / tips and tricks, society, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, workplace, by Daniel Christian

ElevenLabs’ AI Voice Generator Can Now Fake Your Voice in 30 Languages — from gizmodo.com by Kyle Barr
ElevenLabs said its AI voice generator is out of beta, saying it would support video game and audiobook creators with cheap audio.

According to ElevenLabs, the new Multilingual v2 model promises it can produce “emotionally rich” audio in a total of 30 languages. The company offers two AI voice tools, one is a text-to-speech model and the other is the “VoiceLab” that lets paying users clone a voice by inputting fragments of theirs (or others) speech into the model to create a kind of voice cone. With the v2 model, users can get these generated voices to start speaking in Greek, Malay, or Turkish.
…
Since then, ElevenLabs claims its integrated new measures to ensure users can only clone their own voice. Users need to verify their speech with a text captcha prompt which is then compared to the original voice sample.

From DSC:
I don’t care what they say regarding safeguards/proof of identity/etc. This technology has been abused and will be abused in the future. We can count on it. The question now is, how do we deal with it?

Google, Amazon, Nvidia and other tech giants invest in AI startup Hugging Face, sending its valuation to $4.5 billion — from cnbc.com by Kif Leswing

But Hugging Face produces a platform where AI developers can share code, models, data sets, and use the company’s developer tools to get open-source artificial intelligence models running more easily. In particular, Hugging Face often hosts weights, or large files with lists of numbers, which are the heart of most modern AI models.

While Hugging Face has developed some models, like BLOOM, its primary product is its website platform, where users can upload models and their weights. It also develops a series of software tools called libraries that allow users to get models working quickly, to clean up large datasets, or to evaluate their performance. It also hosts some AI models in a web interface so end users can experiment with them.

The global semiconductor talent shortage — from www2.deloitte.com
How to solve semiconductor workforce challenges

Numerous skills are required to grow the semiconductor ecosystem over the next decade. Globally, we will need tens of thousands of skilled tradespeople to build new plants to increase and localize manufacturing capacity: electricians, pipefitters, welders; thousands more graduate electrical engineers to design chips and the tools that make the chips; more engineers of various kinds in the fabs themselves, but also operators and technicians. And if we grow the back end in Europe and the Americas, that equates to even more jobs.

Each of these job groups has distinct training and educational needs; however, the number of students in semiconductor-focused programs (for example, undergraduates in semiconductor design and fabrication) has dwindled. Skills are also evolving within these job groups, in part due to automation and increased digitization. Digital skills, such as cloud, AI, and analytics, are needed in design and manufacturing more than ever.

The chip industry has long partnered with universities and engineering schools. Going forward, they also need to work more with local tech schools, vocational schools, and community colleges; and other organizations, such as the National Science Foundation in the United States.

Our principles for partnering with the music industry on AI technology — from blog.youtube (Google) by Neal Mohan, CEO, YouTube
AI is here, and we will embrace it responsibly together with our music partners.

  • Principle #1: AI is here, and we will embrace it responsibly together with our music partners.
  • Principle #2: AI is ushering in a new age of creative expression, but it must include appropriate protections and unlock opportunities for music partners who decide to participate.
  • Principle #3: We’ve built an industry-leading trust and safety organization and content policies. We will scale those to meet the challenges of AI.

Developers are now using AI for text-to-music apps — from techcrunch.com by Ivan Mehta

Brett Bauman, the developer of PlayListAI (previously LinupSupply), launched a new app called Songburst on the App Store this week. The app doesn’t have a steep learning curve. You just have to type in a prompt like “Calming piano music to listen to while studying” or “Funky beats for a podcast intro” to let the app generate a music clip.

If you can’t think of a prompt the app has prompts in different categories, including video, lo-fi, podcast, gaming, meditation and sample.

A Generative AI Primer — from er.educause.edu by Brian Basgen
Understanding the current state of technology requires understanding its origins. This reading list provides sources relevant to the form of generative AI that led to natural language processing (NLP) models such as ChatGPT.

Three big questions about AI and the future of work and learning — from workshift.opencampusmedia.org by Alex Swartsel
AI is set to transform education and work today and well into the future. We need to start asking tough questions right now, writes Alex Swartsel of JFF.

  1. How will AI reshape jobs, and how can we prepare all workers and learners with the skills they’ll need?
  2. How can education and workforce leaders equitably adopt AI platforms to accelerate their impact?
  3. How might we catalyze sustainable policy, practice, and investments in solutions that drive economic opportunity?

“As AI reshapes both the economy and society, we must collectively call for better data, increased accountability, and more flexible support for workers,” Swartsel writes.

The Current State of AI for Educators (August, 2023) — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
A podcast interview with the University of Toronto on where we’re at & where we’re going.

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