experimentation

a big deal: @elonmusk, Y. Bengio, S. Russell, ??@tegmark?, V. Kraknova, P. Maes, ?@Grady_Booch, ?@AndrewYang?, ?@tristanharris? & over 1,000 others, including me, have called for a temporary pause on training systems exceeding GPT-4 https://t.co/PJ5YFu0xm9

— Gary Marcus (@GaryMarcus) March 29, 2023

The above Tweet links to:

P ause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter — from futureoflife.org
We call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.

Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and dozens of top scientists concerned about the technology moving too fast have signed an open letter asking companies to pull back on artificial intelligence. @trevorlault reports on the new A.I. plea. pic.twitter.com/Vu9QlKfV8C

— Good Morning America (@GMA) March 30, 2023

However, the letter has since received heavy backlash, as there seems to be no verification in signing it. Yann LeCun from Meta denied signing the letter and completely disagreed with the premise. (source)

Nope.
I did not sign this letter.
I disagree with its premise. https://t.co/DoXwIZDcOx

— Yann LeCun (@ylecun) March 29, 2023

In Sudden Alarm, Tech Doyens Call for a Pause on ChatGPT — from wired.com by Will Knight (behind paywall)
Tech luminaries, renowned scientists, and Elon Musk warn of an “out-of-control race” to develop and deploy ever-more-powerful AI systems.

1/The call for a 6 month moratorium on making AI progress beyond GPT-4 is a terrible idea.

I'm seeing many new applications in education, healthcare, food, … that'll help many people. Improving GPT-4 will help. Lets balance the huge value AI is creating vs. realistic risks.

— Andrew Ng (@AndrewYNg) March 29, 2023

ChatGPT: Student insights are necessary to help universities plan for the future — from theconversation.com by Alpha Abebe and Fenella Amarasinghe

Excerpt:

In the race to get ahead of new technologies, are we forgetting about the perspectives of the most important stakeholders within our post-secondary institutions: the students?

Leaving students out of early discussions and decision-making processes is almost always a recipe for ill-fitting, ineffective and/or damaging approaches. The mantra “nothing for us without us” comes to mind here.

GPT-4 is already disrupting the legal sector but what does it mean for your legal practice? [Sobowale]

On 03/28/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Canada, change, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, disruption, emerging technologies, experimentation, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, by Daniel Christian

GPT-4 is already disrupting the legal sector but what does it mean for your legal practice? I spoke a few ChatGPT experts. Thanks @scottastevenson @computational @DanLinna @lawdroid @tweetatpablo @colinlachance #legaltech #lawtwitter https://t.co/7Ecq71cRwa

— Julie Sobowale (@JulieSobowale) March 27, 2023

Also from Julie Sobowale, see:

Law’s AI revolution is here — from nationalmagazine.ca
At least this much we know. Firms need to develop a strategy around language models.

Also re: legaltech, see:

Pioneers and Pathfinders: Richard Susskind — from seyfarth.com by J. Stephen Poor
In our conversation, Richard discusses the ways we should all be thinking about legal innovation, the challenges of training lawyers for the future, and the qualifications of those likely to develop breakthrough technologies in law, as well as his own journey and how he became interested in AI as an undergraduate student.

Also re: legaltech, see:

AI and the Law: What You Need To Know — from medium.com by Paul DelSignore
The AI Topic Nobody Is Talking About

To help new students adapt, some colleges are eliminating grades [Marcus]

On 03/28/2023, in assessment, change, colleges, credentialing, experimentation, higher education, ideas, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, student-related, teaching & learning, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

To help new students adapt, some colleges are eliminating grades — from npr.org by Jon Marcus

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Experiences like these are among the reasons behind a growing movement to stop assigning conventional A through F letter grades to first-year college students and, sometimes, upperclassmen.

Called “un-grading,” the idea is meant to ease the transition to higher education — especially for freshmen who are the first in their families to go to college or who weren’t well prepared for college-level work in high school and need more time to master it.

But advocates say the most important reason to adopt un-grading is that students have become so preoccupied with grades, they aren’t actually learning.

Also relevant/see:

“Godfather of artificial intelligence” weighs in on the past and potential of AI — from cbsnews.com
Sketching the Field of AI Tools for Local Newsrooms — from medium.com by Dalia Hashim
Adobe Firefly, Bing Image Creator, Canva’s AI, ChatGPT Plugins, Google Workspace AI, Microsoft Loop, Runway Gen2 – Volume 03 — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper
Another week of everything, everywhere, all at once in AI news – and get my free AI Visual toolkit!
It takes a few dollars and 8 minutes to create a deepfake. And that’s only the start — from npr.org by Shannon Bond; with thanks to Mr. Robert Gibson on LinkedIn for this resource
We’ve just gone from a simple teacher-learner model to a new world of AI teachers – a new pedAIgogy — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark

ChatGPT is about to revolutionize the economy. We need to decide what that looks like. — from technologyreview.com by David Rotman
New large language models will transform many jobs. Whether they will lead to widespread prosperity or not is up to us.
Is GPT-4 Worth the Subscription? Here’s What You Should Know — from wired.com Reece Rogers
The new algorithm is exclusive to ChatGPT Plus, OpenAI’s subscriber-only service. We signed up and put it to the test.
Superhuman: What can AI do in 30 minutes? — from oneusefulthing.substack.com Ethan Mollick
AI multiplies your efforts. I found out by how much…

A Spotify model of personalised higher education — from timeshighereducation.com by Michael Rosemann and Martin Betts
With technology offering greater potential for a personalised approach to higher education, Michael Rosemann and Martin Betts look at what universities can learn from the ubiquitous music platform Spotify

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Selection, or the P(upil)-route as educationalist Dan Buckley calls it, means personalisation driven by the learner. This is the fastest-moving form of personalised learning. Not only do students benefit from true omnichannel education – choosing between face to face and online – they also independently navigate the internet’s resources and online databases in search of the knowledge that will help them to achieve their learning targets.
…
Automation, or the A-route, is the new enabler of personalised learning. As with personalised medicine, finance or entertainment, education is starting to use digital technologies to unlock new models of tailored engagement. While for most universities, AI-driven, personalised education is not an option as the required capabilities are missing and significant investments would be necessary, there is a range of alternative forms of automated personalised learning. For this, we look to providers outside the sector for inspiration.

Here are Spotify-inspired ideas that universities ambitious enough to provide personalised learning could explore.

From DSC:
Rosemann & Betts use the term “omnichannel education” — I like that term. Very nice.

Using AI to Help Organize Lesson Plans [Valenzuela] + several other items from edutopia.org

On 03/22/2023, in education, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, Learning Experience Design, participation, pedagogy, productivity / tips and tricks, teachers, United States, by Daniel Christian

Using AI to Help Organize Lesson Plans — from edutopia.org by Jorge Valenzuela
Artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT can help educators find activities that are set up to teach designated skills.

Excerpt:

My middle school students have to write a personal narrative about their experience with leadership and service. Which two or three specific Common Core State Standards are relevant to this task?
Now rewrite those standards into three to four “I can” statements. Although the chatbot can give you a great starting point, you may need to reword these into learning goals better suited for your students.
What formative assessments (formal and informal) can I use to check my students’ understanding of these standards?
Given your “I can” statements, what lessons can I teach to help my students write their best personal narratives?
Which high-yielding strategies can I use to teach these lessons? I aim to engage all my learners in tandem with increasing academic achievement.
You mentioned using “differentiated instruction.” What methods can I use to support my English language learners to improve their narratives?
Please provide the sources you used for your responses with websites.

10 Powerful Ways to End Your Lessons — from edutopia.org by Andrew Boryga
Instead of cleaning up or going over homework assignments, try these creative activities that can help students make sense of new material—and have fun in the process.

Excerpts:

4. Create News “Headlines” or “Six-word Summaries”: Pair students off and tell them to imagine they’re writing news headlines that summarize what they’ve learned. Challenge each pair to write at least two headlines, then come back together to review the headlines. Alternatively, you can do this as an entire class activity, writing the headlines suggested by students on your whiteboard.
…
5. Traffic Light: …Before students leave the room, they take sticky notes and write one thing they learned in the lesson and place it on the green light, one thing they’re still mulling over and place it on yellow light, and one thing they’re struggling to understand and place it on the red light.

2 Ways to Encourage Better Note-Taking — from edutopia.org by Marianna Ruggerio
Do your high school students think that taking notes during class means writing down everything you say? You can teach them effective note-taking skills that increase their engagement.

Distance Learning Strategies to Bring Back to the Classroom — from edutopia.org by Sarah Cooper
When schools closed, teachers were forced to get creative—and they’ve learned things they can use when they’re back at school.

Houses of worship to move streaming from social media to dedicated platforms [inavateonthenet.net]

On 03/22/2023, in 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, change, communications, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, digital audio, digital video, experimentation, faith, society, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Houses of worship to move streaming from social media to dedicated platforms — from inavateonthenet.net

Excerpt:

A report by Pushpay, with data from over 1,700 organisations has found that while 91% of churches currently livestream worship services on social media, only 47% plan to do the same in the upcoming year.

The report, entitled ‘State of Church Tech 2023 is available to download here.

The reason cited for this shift is organisations’ lack of control on social media platforms to maintain engagement, as users are bombarded with pop-up windows, notifications, status updates, and more.

This is driving a rise in custom video players, website embeds, mobile app streaming, and other platforms that are better suited to maintain engagement.

Generative AI from Adobe | Meet Adobe Firefly!

On 03/21/2023, in 3D, Adobe, animation, art, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, creativity, design, digital audio, digital photography, digital video, experimentation, graphics, media/film, multimedia, photography, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Meet Adobe Firefly. — from adobe.com
Experiment, imagine, and make an infinite range of creations with Firefly, a family of creative generative AI models coming to Adobe products.

Generative AI made for creators.
With the beta version of the first Firefly model, you can use everyday language to generate extraordinary new content. Looking forward, Firefly has the potential to do much, much more.

Also relevant/see:

Gen-2: The Next Step Forward for Generative AI — from research.runwayml.com
A multi-modal AI system that can generate novel videos with text, images, or video clips.

No lights. No camera. All action.Realistically and consistently synthesize new videos. Either by applying the composition and style of an image or text prompt to the structure of a source video (Video to Video). Or, using nothing but words (Text to Video). It’s like filming something new, without filming anything at all.

On the K-12 side of things:

6 Ways to Use ChatGPT to Save Time — from edutopia.org by Todd Finley
Teachers can use the artificial intelligence tool to effectively automate some routine tasks.

Excerpt:

In the paragraphs that follow, I’ve divided these tasks into the following categories: planning instruction, handouts and materials, differentiation, correspondence, assessment, and writing instruction and feedback. Welcome to the revolution.

Lesson plans: Ask ChatGPT to write a lesson plan on, say, Westward Expansion. The tool composes assessments, activities, scaffolding, and objectives. Want that in the form of problem-based learning or revised for a flipped classroom? ChatGPT can adjust the lesson plan according to your instructions.

I’m a high school math and science teacher who uses ChatGPT, and it’s made my job much easier — from businessinsider-com.cdn.ampproject.org by Aaron Mok; with thanks to Robert Gibson on LinkedIn for this resource

Excerpt:

Shannon Ahern, a high school math and science teacher, was afraid that ChatGPT would take her job.
But her mind changed after she started using the AI for class prep, which saved her hours of time.
Here’s how Ahern is using ChatGPT to make her job easier, as told to Insider’s Aaron Mok.

On the higher education side of things:

Using AI to make teaching easier & more impactful — from oneusefulthing.substack.com by Ethan Mollick
Here are five strategies and prompts that work for GPT-3.5 & GPT-4

Excerpt:

But one thing that is not changing is the best way for people to learn. We have made large advances in recent years in understanding pedagogy – the science of learning. We know some of the most effective techniques for making sure material sticks and that it can be retrieved and used when needed most.

Unfortunately, many of these advanced pedagogical techniques are time-consuming to prepare, and many instructors are often overworked and do not have the resources and time to add them to their teaching repertoire. But AI can help. In the rush to deliver AI benefits directly to students, the role of teachers is often overlooked.

Teaching: What You Need to Know About ChatGPT — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie

Excerpt:

Digital literacy is more important than ever. Artificial-intelligence tools, and generative AI in particular, raise a host of ethical, political, economic, and social questions. Plus, this tech is soon going to be everywhere, including students’ future professions. (The technology behind ChatGPT, in fact, just got an upgrade this week.) Colleges need to figure out how to graduate digitally savvy students in all disciplines.

“The integration of technology into our lives is so pervasive that the restriction of education about AI to the computer scientists and the computer engineers makes no more sense than the restriction of taking English classes by English majors,” said Weber.

Infographic: Gamify your eLearning with these 7 techniques [thelearningrooms.com]

On 03/18/2023, in corporate universities / corporate training, educational games / serious games, elearning, experimentation, ideas, instructional design, Learning Experience Design, training / L&D, by Daniel Christian

Infographic: Gamify your eLearning with these 7 techniques — from thelearningrooms.com

Excerpt:

Gamification refers to the application of gaming elements into the instructional design of a course. Here are 7 ways to incorporate gamification into your eLearning.

“Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot” + “A new era for AI and Google Workspace”

On 03/18/2023, in 24x7x365 access, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, content development, aggregation, repositories, emerging technologies, experimentation, Google, Microsoft, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, writing, by Daniel Christian

Copilot — A whole new way to work — from news.microsoft.com

Copilot in Word writes, edits, summarizes and creates right alongside people as they work.
Copilot in PowerPoint enables the creation process by turning ideas into a designed presentation through natural language commands.
Copilot in Excel helps unlock insights, identify trends or create professional-looking data visualizations in a fraction of the time.
Copilot in Outlook can help synthesize and manage the inbox to allow more time to be spent on actually communicating.
Copilot in Teams makes meetings more productive with real-time summaries and action items directly in the context of the conversation.
Copilot in Power Platform will help developers of all skill levels accelerate and streamline development with low-code tools with the introduction of two new capabilities within Power Apps and Power Virtual Agents.
Business Chat brings together data from across documents, presentations, email, calendar, notes and contacts to help summarize chats, write emails, find key dates or even write a plan based on other project files.

Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot – your copilot for work — from blogs.microsoft.com by Jared Spataro

“Today marks the next major step in the evolution of how we interact with computing, which will fundamentally change the way we work and unlock a new wave of productivity growth,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “With our new copilot for work, we’re giving people more agency and making technology more accessible through the most universal interface — natural language.”

Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot — A whole new way to work — from microsoft.com by Colette Stallbaumer

Excerpt:

Copilot is integrated into Microsoft 365 in two ways. It works alongside you, embedded in the Microsoft 365 apps you use every day—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more—to unleash creativity, unlock productivity, and uplevel skills. Today, we’re also announcing an entirely new experience: Business Chat. Business Chat works across the LLM, the Microsoft 365 apps, and your data—your calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings, and contacts—to do things you’ve never been able to do before. You can give it natural language prompts like “tell my team how we updated the product strategy” and it will generate a status update based on the morning’s meetings, emails, and chat threads.

A new era for AI and Google Workspace — from workspace.google.com by Johanna Voolich Wright

Excerpt:

As we embark on this next journey, we will be bringing these new generative-AI experiences to trusted testers on a rolling basis throughout the year, before making them available publicly.

With these features, you’ll be able to:

draft, reply, summarize, and prioritize your Gmail
brainstorm, proofread, write, and rewrite in Docs
bring your creative vision to life with auto-generated images, audio, and video in Slides
go from raw data to insights and analysis via auto-completion, formula generation, and
contextual categorization in Sheets
generate new backgrounds and capture notes in Meet
enable workflows for getting things done in Chat

Here’s a look at the first set of AI-powered features, which make writing even easier.

HOW DUOLINGO’S AI LEARNS WHAT YOU NEED TO LEARN — from spectrum.ieee.org by Klinton Bicknell, Claire Brust, and Burr Settles
The AI that powers the language-learning app today could disrupt education tomorrow

Excerpt:

It’s lunchtime when your phone pings you with a green owl who cheerily reminds you to “Keep Duo Happy!” It’s a nudge from Duolingo, the popular language-learning app, whose algorithms know you’re most likely to do your 5 minutes of Spanish practice at this time of day. The app chooses its notification words based on what has worked for you in the past and the specifics of your recent achievements, adding a dash of attention-catching novelty. When you open the app, the lesson that’s queued up is calibrated for your skill level, and it includes a review of some words and concepts you flubbed during your last session.

The AI systems we continue to refine are necessary to scale the learning experience beyond the more than 50 million active learners who currently complete about 1 billion exercises per day on the platform.

Although Duolingo is known as a language-learning app, the company’s ambitions go further. We recently launched apps covering childhood literacy and third-grade mathematics, and these expansions are just the beginning. We hope that anyone who wants help with academic learning will one day be able to turn to the friendly green owl in their pocket who hoots at them, “Ready for your daily lesson?”

Also relevant/see:

Duolingo turned to OpenAI’s GPT-4 to advance the product with two new features: Role Play, an AI conversation partner, and Explain my Answer, which breaks down the rules when you make a mistake, in a new subscription tier called Duolingo Max.

“We wanted AI-powered features that were deeply integrated into the app and leveraged the gamified aspect of Duolingo that our learners love,” says Bodge.

Also relevant/see:

The following is a quote from Donald Clark’s posting on LinkedIn.com today:

The whole idea of AI as a useful teacher is here. Honestly it’s astounding. They have provided a Socratic approach to an algebra problem that is totally on point. Most people learn in the absence of a teacher or lecturer. They need constant scaffolding, someone to help them move forward, with feedback. This changes our whole relationship with what we need to know, and how we get to know it. Its reasoning ability is also off the scale.

We now have human teachers, human learners but also AI teachers and AI that learns. It used to be a diad, it is now a tetrad – that is the basis of the new pedAIgogy.

Personalised, tutor-led learning, in any subject, anywhere, at any time for anyone. That has suddenly become real.

Also relevant/see:

Introducing Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4 — from blog.duolingo.com

Excerpts:

We believe that AI and education make a great duo, and we’ve leveraged AI to help us deliver highly-personalized language lessons, affordable and accessible English proficiency testing, and more. Our mission to make high-quality education available to everyone in the world is made possible by advanced AI technology.

Explain My Answer offers learners the chance to learn more about their response in a lesson (whether their answer was correct or incorrect!)
…
Roleplay allows learners to practice real-world conversation skills with world characters in the app.

Six Important Disciplines for Using AI in Learning & Development [Cavalier]

On 03/16/2023, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, experimentation, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, multimedia, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Six Important Disciplines for Using AI in Learning & Development — from linkedin.com by Josh Cavalier

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

In practice, L&D professionals must responsibly use AI-based tools. AI outputs that introduce bias or falsehoods may adversely affect the learning process of individual associates as well as the company’s overall efficiency. A human must review all content before being implemented in a learning solution.
…
AI will revolutionize corporate learning and development because of the ability to analyze and process large amounts of data. These capabilities will enable learners to acquire knowledge and skills more efficiently while providing personalized learning pathways customized to their current skill levels and goals.

For example, AI-powered chatbots can provide immediate feedback to front-line sales looking for specific client solutions or trying to learn about new products. By fine-tuning models, AI can ingest vendor opportunities and dynamically priced products at scale, allowing a sales team to focus on data-driven solutions for their customers.

The creation of educational media will be automated through generative AI, including training videos, podcasts, and, eventually, eLearning courses. This new reality will level the playing field for instructional designers needing more media creation skills, ultimately allowing Learning & Development to create personalized, immersive learning experiences representing the entire learning journey.

Also relevant/see:

How artificial intelligence can support knowledge management in organizations — from realkm.com by Bruce Boyes

Examples of use cases:

Forecast sales probabilities
Discover organization inefficiencies by analyzing CRM records
Organize and summarize legal precedents relevant to a new case
Retrieve dispersed nuggets of information related to a troubleshooting situation
Facilitate feedback and peer review on communication systems (e.g., Slack)
Facilitate real-time smart sharing between marketing channels and sales pipelines
Find and apply question-answer pairs in online manuals to manage service knowledge
Provide more human-centered and accessible applications of knowledge through chatbots

Learning Ecosystems

Bruff: “Did you know that the entire collection of teaching guides written by the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching has been shared?”

A Spotify model of personalised higher education [Rosemann & Betts]

Houses of worship to move streaming from social media to dedicated platforms [inavateonthenet.net]

Infographic: Gamify your eLearning with these 7 techniques [thelearningrooms.com]

“Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot” + “A new era for AI and Google Workspace”

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