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Nvidia Announces Major Deals With Healthcare Companies [cheddar.com]

On 03/26/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, collaboration, computer science, corporate / business world, emerging technologies, future, health, NVIDIA, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Nvidia’s AI boom is only getting started. Just ask CEO Jensen Huang — from fastcompany.com by Harry McCracken
Nvidia’s chips sparked the AI revolution. Now it’s in the business of putting the technology to work in an array of industries.

Nvidia is No. 1 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2024. Explore the full list of companies that are reshaping industries and culture.

Nvidia isn’t just in the business of providing ever-more-powerful computing hardware and letting everybody else figure out what to do with it. Across an array of industries, the company’s technologies, platforms, and partnerships are doing much of the heavy lifting of putting AI to work. In a single week in January 2024, for instance, Nvidia reported that it had begun beta testing its drug discovery platform, demoed software that lets video game characters speak unscripted dialogue, announced deals with four Chinese EV manufacturers that will incorporate Nvidia technology in their vehicles, and unveiled a retail-industry partnership aimed at foiling organized shoplifting.

Johnson & Johnson MedTech Works With NVIDIA to Broaden AI’s Reach in Surgery — from blogs.nvidia.com by David Niewolny

AI — already used to connect, analyze and offer predictions based on operating room data — will be critical to the future of surgery, boosting operating room efficiency and clinical decision-making.

That’s why NVIDIA is working with Johnson & Johnson MedTech to test new AI capabilities for the company’s connected digital ecosystem for surgery. It aims to enable open innovation and accelerate the delivery of real-time insights at scale to support medical professionals before, during and after procedures.

J&J MedTech is in 80% of the world’s operating rooms and trains more than 140,000 healthcare professionals each year through its education programs.

GE and NVIDIA Join Forces to Accelerate Artificial Intelligence Adoption in Healthcare — from nvidianews.nvidia.com

  • New generation of intelligent medical devices will use world’s most advanced AI platform with the goal of improving patient care
  • GE Healthcare is the first medical device company to use the NVIDIA GPU Cloud
  • New Revolution Frontier CT, powered by NVIDIA, is two times faster for image processing, proving performance acceleration has begun

Nvidia Announces Major Deals With Healthcare Companies — from cheddar.com

At the GTC A.I. conference last week, Nvidia launched nearly two dozen new A.I. powered, health care focused tools and deals with companies Johnson & Johnson and GE Healthcare for surgery and medical imaging. The move into health care space for the A.I. company is an effort that’s been under development for a decade.

Nvidia is now powering AI nurses — from byMaxwell Zeff / Gizmodo;; via Claire Zau
The cheap AI agents offer medical advice to patients over video calls in real-time

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Reflections on “How to Make the Dream of Education Equity (or Most of It) a Reality [Wexler]

On 03/20/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, blended learning, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, education technology, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning theories, pedagogy, platforms, research, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, youth, by Daniel Christian

How to Make the Dream of Education Equity (or Most of It) a Reality — from nataliewexler.substack.com by Natalie Wexler
Studies on the effects of tutoring–by humans or computers–point to ways to improve regular classroom instruction.

One problem, of course, is that it’s prohibitively expensive to hire a tutor for every average or struggling student, or even one for every two or three of them. This was the two-sigma “problem” that Bloom alluded to in the title of his essay: how can the massive benefits of tutoring possibly be scaled up? Both Khan and Zuckerberg have argued that the answer is to have computers, maybe powered by artificial intelligence, serve as tutors instead of humans.

From DSC:
I’m hoping that AI-backed learning platforms WILL help many people of all ages and backgrounds. But I realize — and appreciate what Natalie is saying here as well — that human beings are needed in the learning process (especially at younger ages). 

But without the human element, that’s unlikely to be enough. Students are more likely to work hard to please a teacher than to please a computer.

Natalie goes on to talk about training all teachers in cognitive science — a solid idea for sure. That’s what I was trying to get at with this graphic:
.

We need to take more of the research from learning science and apply it in our learning spaces.

.
But I’m not as hopeful in all teachers getting trained in cognitive science…as it should have happened (in the Schools of Education and in the K12 learning ecosystem at large) by now. Perhaps it will happen, given enough time.

And with more homeschooling and blended programs of education occurring, that idea gets stretched even further. 

K-12 Hybrid Schooling Is in High Demand — from realcleareducation.com by Keri D. Ingraham (emphasis below from DSC); via GSV

Parents are looking for a different kind of education for their children. A 2024 poll of parents reveals that 72% are considering, 63% are searching for, and 44% have selected a new K-12 school option for their children over the past few years. So, what type of education are they seeking?

Additional polling data reveals that 49% of parents would prefer their child learn from home at least one day a week. While 10% want full-time homeschooling, the remaining 39% of parents desire their child to learn at home one to four days a week, with the remaining days attending school on-campus. Another parent poll released this month indicates that an astonishing 64% of parents indicated that if they were looking for a new school for their child, they would enroll him or her in a hybrid school.

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Some huge announcements from NVIDIA that will likely impact our futures

On 03/19/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, bots, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, creativity, digital audio, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, internet, IT in HE, learning ecosystem, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Near Field Communication (NFC), new business models, new media literacies, NVIDIA, online media, physics, research, robotics, science, skills, society, STEAM-related, technology (general), tools, United States, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, wearables, by Daniel Christian

GTC March 2024 Keynote with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang

Also relevant/see:

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Robotics and AI moves forward, majorly. European Lawmakers Pass AI Act + other AI-related items

On 03/16/2024, in Africa, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Australia, biology, bots, Canada, corporate / business world, emerging technologies, Europe, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), India, innovation, intelligent systems, learning ecosystem, legislatures / government / legal, Natural Language Processing (NLP), NVIDIA, Open AI, open courseware and systems, platforms, policy, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, research, robotics, society, STEAM-related, tools, trends, UK, Uncategorized, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

[Report] Generative AI Top 150: The World’s Most Used AI Tools (Feb 2024) — from flexos.work by Daan van Rossum
FlexOS.work surveyed Generative AI platforms to reveal which get used most. While ChatGPT reigns supreme, countless AI platforms are used by millions.

As the FlexOS research study “Generative AI at Work” concluded based on a survey amongst knowledge workers, ChatGPT reigns supreme.
…
2. AI Tool Usage is Way Higher Than People Expect – Beating Netflix, Pinterest, Twitch.
As measured by data analysis platform Similarweb based on global web traffic tracking, the AI tools in this list generate over 3 billion monthly visits.

With 1.67 billion visits, ChatGPT represents over half of this traffic and is already bigger than Netflix, Microsoft, Pinterest, Twitch, and The New York Times.

.

Artificial Intelligence Act: MEPs adopt landmark law — from europarl.europa.eu

  • Safeguards on general purpose artificial intelligence
  • Limits on the use of biometric identification systems by law enforcement
  • Bans on social scoring and AI used to manipulate or exploit user vulnerabilities
  • Right of consumers to launch complaints and receive meaningful explanations


The untargeted scraping of facial images from CCTV footage to create facial recognition databases will be banned © Alexander / Adobe Stock

A New Surge in Power Use Is Threatening U.S. Climate Goals — from nytimes.com by Brad Plumer and Nadja Popovich
A boom in data centers and factories is straining electric grids and propping up fossil fuels.

Something unusual is happening in America. Demand for electricity, which has stayed largely flat for two decades, has begun to surge.

Over the past year, electric utilities have nearly doubled their forecasts of how much additional power they’ll need by 2028 as they confront an unexpected explosion in the number of data centers, an abrupt resurgence in manufacturing driven by new federal laws, and millions of electric vehicles being plugged in.

OpenAI and the Fierce AI Industry Debate Over Open Source — from bloomberg.com by Rachel Metz

The tumult could seem like a distraction from the startup’s seemingly unending march toward AI advancement. But the tension, and the latest debate with Musk, illuminates a central question for OpenAI, along with the tech world at large as it’s increasingly consumed by artificial intelligence: Just how open should an AI company be?
…
The meaning of the word “open” in “OpenAI” seems to be a particular sticking point for both sides — something that you might think sounds, on the surface, pretty clear. But actual definitions are both complex and controversial.

Researchers develop AI-driven tool for near real-time cancer surveillance — from medicalxpress.com by Mark Alewine; via The Rundown AI
Artificial intelligence has delivered a major win for pathologists and researchers in the fight for improved cancer treatments and diagnoses.

In partnership with the National Cancer Institute, or NCI, researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Louisiana State University developed a long-sequenced AI transformer capable of processing millions of pathology reports to provide experts researching cancer diagnoses and management with exponentially more accurate information on cancer reporting.

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DSC: I don’t trust humankind with the power of these technologies. And I’m not alone in this perspective.

On 03/13/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, computer science, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, legislatures / government / legal, machine-to-machine communications, platforms, programming, United States, by Daniel Christian

Also see:

Cognition Labs Blob

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“A View into the Generative AI Legal Landscape 2024 [Ma, Sinha, Tandon, & Richards] + other legaltech-related items

On 03/12/2024, in emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, podcasting, by Daniel Christian

A View into the Generative AI Legal Landscape 2024 — from law.stanford.edu by Megan Ma, Aparna Sinha,  Ankit Tandon, & Jennifer Richards

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Some key observations and highlights:

  1. Emerging technical solutions are addressing the main challenges of using Generative AI in legal applications, such as lack of consistency and accuracy, limited explainability, privacy concerns, and difficulty in obtaining and training models on legal domain data.
  2. Structural impediments in the legal industry, such as the billable hour, lack of standardization, vendor dependence, and incumbent control, moderate the success of generative AI startups.
  3. Our defined “client-facing” LegalTech market is segmented into three broad lines of work: Research and Analysis, Document Review and Drafting, and Litigation. We view the total LegalTech market in the United States to be estimated at ~$13B in 2023, with litigation being the largest category.
  4. LegalTech incumbents play a significant role in the adoption of generative AI technologies, often opting for market consolidation through partnerships or acquisitions rather than building solutions organically.
  5. Future evolution in LegalTech may involve specialization in areas such as patent and IP, immigration, insurance, and regulatory compliance. There is also potential for productivity tools and access to legal services, although the latter faces structural challenges related to the Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL).

Fresh Voices on Legal Tech with Tessa Manuello — from legaltalknetwork.com by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell

EPISODE NOTES
Creative thinking and design elements can help you elevate your legal practice and develop more meaningful solutions for clients. Dennis and Tom welcome Tessa Manuello to discuss her insights on legal technology with a particular focus on creative design adaptations for lawyers. Tessa discusses the tech learning process for attorneys and explains how a more creative approach for both learning and implementing tech can help lawyers make better use of current tools, AI included.

International Women’s Day: Kriti Sharma Calls for More Women Working in AI, LegalTech — from legalcurrent.com

In honor of International Women’s Day, Sharma discusses on LinkedIn the need for more female role models in the tech sector as AI opens up traditional career pathways and creates opportunities to welcome more women to the space.

Sharma invited Thomson Reuters female leaders working in legal technology to share their perspectives, including Rawia Ashraf, Emily Colbert, and Anu Dodda.

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This week in 5 numbers: Another faith-based college plans to close [Schwartz]

On 03/12/2024, in A/V -- audio/visual, business side of he, change, colleges, community colleges, culture, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty, future, higher education, IT in HE, learning spaces, Michigan, surviving, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

This week in 5 numbers: Another faith-based college plans to close — from by Natalie Schwartz
We’re rounding up some of our top recent stories, from Notre Dame College’s planned closure to Valparaiso’s potential academic cuts.

BY THE NUMBERS

  • 1,444
    The number of students who were enrolled at Notre Dame College in fall 2022, down 37% from 2014. The Roman Catholic college recently said it would close after the spring term, citing declining enrollment, along with rising costs and significant debt.
  • 28
    The number of academic programs that Valparaiso University may eliminate. Eric Johnson, the Indiana institution’s provost, said it offers too many majors, minors and graduate degrees in relation to its enrollment.
    …

A couple of other items re: higher education that caught my eye were:

Universities Expect to Use More Tech in Future Classrooms—but Don’t Know How — from insidehighered.com by Lauren Coffey

University administrators see the need to implement education technology in their classrooms but are at a loss regarding how to do so, according to a new report.

The College Innovation Network released its first CIN Administrator EdTech survey today, which revealed that more than half (53 percent) of the 214 administrators surveyed do not feel extremely confident in choosing effective ed-tech products for their institutions.

“While administrators are excited about offering new ed-tech tools, they are lacking knowledge and data to help them make informed decisions that benefit students and faculty,” Omid Fotuhi, director of learning and innovation at WGU Labs, which funds the network, said in a statement.

From DSC:
I always appreciated our cross-disciplinary team at Calvin (then College). As we looked at enhancing our learning spaces, we had input from the Teaching & Learning Group, IT, A/V, the academic side of the house, and facilities. It was definitely a team-based approach. (As I think about it, it would have been helpful to have more channels for student feedback as well.)

Per Jeff Selingo:

Optionality. In my keynote, I pointed out that the academic calendar and credit hour in higher ed are like “shelf space” on the old television schedule that has been upended by streaming. In much the same way, we need similar optionality to meet the challenges of higher ed right now: in how students access learning (in-person, hybrid, online) to credentials (certificates, degrees) to how those experiences stack together for lifelong learning.

Culture in institutions. The common thread throughout the conference was how the culture of institutions (both universities and governments) need to change so our structures and practices can evolve. Too many people in higher ed right now are employing a scarcity mindset and seeing every change as a zero-sum game. If you’re not happy about the present, as many attendees suggested you’re not going to be excited about the future.

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For storytellers and filmakers: How a Hollywood Director Uses AI to Make Movies [Shipper]

On 02/28/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, art, communications, content development, aggregation, repositories, digital audio, digital storytelling, digital video, drama/theater, emerging technologies, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future, media/film, multimedia, music, Natural Language Processing (NLP), new media literacies, participation, platforms, play, productivity / tips and tricks, story, storytelling, tools, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

How a Hollywood Director Uses AI to Make Movies — from every.to by Dan Shipper
Dave Clarke shows us the future of AI filmmaking

Dave told me that he couldn’t have made Borrowing Time without AI—it’s an expensive project that traditional Hollywood studios would never bankroll. But after Dave’s short went viral, major production houses approached him to make it a full-length movie. I think this is an excellent example of how AI is changing the art of filmmaking, and I came out of this interview convinced that we are on the brink of a new creative age.

We dive deep into the world of AI tools for image and video generation, discussing how aspiring filmmakers can use them to validate their ideas, and potentially even secure funding if they get traction. Dave walks me through how he has integrated AI into his movie-making process, and as we talk, we make a short film featuring Nicolas Cage using a haunted roulette ball to resurrect his dead movie career, live on the show.

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Ecosystems for the future of learning [Education Reimagined and the History Co:Lab]

On 02/28/2024, in 21st century, collaboration, education, education reform, future, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, reinvent, society, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, teachers, United States, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

Ecosystems for the future of learning — from thebigidea.education-reimagined.org by Education Reimagined and the History Co:Lab

The intent of this report is to help communities build their capacity for transformation of education, advancing toward what our society needs most—a system that works for young people. It draws on the experiences and insights of innovators across the United States who are already answering this challenge—creating learner-centered, community-based ecosystems.
…
This report includes:

  • a landscape analysis of select communities creating learning ecosystems;
  • a framework that emerged from the analysis and can be used by communities to consider their readiness and appetite for this transformation;
  • an invitation to communities to explore and discover their own path for reimagining education; and
  • a call for national and regional institutions to listen, learn from, and create the conditions for communities to pursue their visions.

From DSC:
The above items was accessed via the article below:

Where Does Work to Imagine a Learner-Centered Ecosystem Begin? — from gettingsmart.com by Alin Bennett

Key Points

  • The Norris School District in Wisconsin exemplifies how learner profiles and community connections can enhance authentic learning experiences for young people, fostering a culture of belonging and responsibility.
  • Purdue Polytechnic High School demonstrates the importance of enabling conditions, such as creating microschools with access to shared services, to support a learner-centered approach while ensuring scalability and access to a variety of resources.
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“Using Generative AI throughout the Institution” [Eaton] + other items re: AI in our Learning Ecosystems

On 02/27/2024, in adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, colleges, community colleges, education technology, emerging technologies, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, platforms, policy, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Using Generative AI throughout the Institution — from aiedusimplified.substack.com by Lance Eaton
8 lightning talk on generative AI and how to use it through higher education

The magic of AI to help educators with saving time. — from magicschool.ai; via Mrs. Kendall Sajdak

Getting Better Results out of Generative AI — from aiedusimplified.substack.com by Lance Eaton
The prompt to use before you prompt generative AI

Last month, I discussed a GPT that I had created around enhancing prompts. Since then, I have been actively using my Prompt Enhancer GPT to much more effective outputs. Last week, I did a series of mini-talks on generative AI in different parts of higher education (faculty development, human resources, grants, executive leadership, etc) and structured it as “5 tips”. I included a final bonus tip in all of them—a tip that I heard from many afterwards was probably the most useful tip—especially because you can only access the Prompt Enhancer GPT if you are paying for ChatGPT.

Exploring the Opportunities and Challenges with Generative AI — from er.educause.edu by Veronica Diaz

Effectively integrating generative AI into higher education requires policy development, cross-functional engagement, ethical principles, risk assessments, collaboration with other institutions, and an exploration of diverse use cases.

Creating Guidelines for the Use of Gen AI Across Campus — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly
The University of Kentucky has taken a transdisciplinary approach to developing guidelines and recommendations around generative AI, incorporating input from stakeholders across all areas of the institution. Here, the director of UK’s Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching breaks down the structure and thinking behind that process.

That resulted in a set of instructional guidelines that we released in August of 2023 and updated in December of 2023. We’re also looking at guidelines for researchers at UK, and we’re currently in the process of working with our colleagues in the healthcare enterprise, UK Healthcare, to comb through the additional complexities of this technology in clinical care and to offer guidance and recommendations around those issues.

From Mean Drafts to Keen Emails — from automatedteach.com by Graham Clay

My experiences match with the results of the above studies. The second study cited above found that 83% of those students who haven’t used AI tools are “not interested in using them,” so it is no surprise that many students have little awareness of their nature. The third study cited above found that, “apart from 12% of students identifying as daily users,” most students’ use cases were “relatively unsophisticated” like summarizing or paraphrasing text.

For those of us in the AI-curious bubble, we need to continually work to stay current, but we also need to recognize that what we take to be “common knowledge” is far from common outside of the bubble.

What do superintendents need to know about artificial intelligence? — from k12dive.com by Roger Riddell
District leaders shared strategies and advice on ethics, responsible use, and the technology’s limitations at the National Conference on Education.

Despite general familiarity, however, technical knowledge shouldn’t be assumed for district leaders or others in the school community. For instance, it’s critical that any materials related to AI not be written in “techy talk” so they can be clearly understood, said Ann McMullan, project director for the Consortium for School Networking’s EmpowerED Superintendents Initiative.

To that end, CoSN, a nonprofit that promotes technological innovation in K-12, has released an array of AI resources to help superintendents stay ahead of the curve, including a one-page explainer that details definitions and guidelines to keep in mind as schools work with the emerging technology.

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Despite what we may see or hear, life is precious. [Christian]

On 02/15/2024, in Daniel S. Christian, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, faith, future, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, ideas, lifelong learning, morals/values, parents/guardians, relationships, religion, society, student-related, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
After reading the book entitled “Love & Hate” by Bill Halamandaris — a book about Henri Landwirth, the founder of the Give Kids the World Village — and “On Purpose” by Pamela Landwirth, I was struck with several thoughts. Below are just some of them:

  • There is enormous power in a vision.
  • People want purpose and meaning in their lives. They want their lives to count. To matter.
  • People want to work for an organization that is concretely making the world a better place in which to live.
  • People want to buy from businesses that are making a positive contribution to the world.
  • Both love and hate are powerful. But let’s choose to go forward with love.
  • Parents, grandparents, and/or other guardians of critically-ill children carry enormous, hidden burdens. Let’s try to notice those burdens and help them out.
  • Life is precious.

Let's remember this -- Despite what we may hear and see, life is precious.

From DSC:
Recently, a group from our church went to serve down at the Give Kids the World Village, in Kissimee, Florida. I wanted to relay the specialness of this place and say a few words about the Founder of the Give Kids the World Village: a man by the name of Henri Landwirth. Over the last few weeks in the Orlando area, the Holy Spirit helped me to think about the power of a vision, as both Walt Disney and Henri Landwirth were visionaries.

But first, it’s important to note that Henri survived FIVE concentration camps during WWII. He had no name there. He was known only as B4343.

Henri:

  • Was in concentration camps from ages 13-18
  • He lost both of his parents to acts of mass murder
  • Henri survived FIVE YEARS of hunger, torture, and horrendous conditions
  • He faced what looked like certain death several times

Yet as I was reading the book entitled “Love & Hate”, I kept wondering if I was seeing the fingerprints of God on Henri’s life.

After the war, Henri went in search of former Nazis, for whom he was filled with hatred. And while I don’t have time to relay the fateful day that changed Henri’s perspective and his life, the bottom line was that he didn’t want to become like his former captors the Nazis. Surprisingly and amazingly, he chose love, not hate.

Fast forward to Henri’s coming to America, working very hard, and climbing up the ladder of the Holiday Inn organization.

Then fast forward even further to the time Henri was looking for a location to build his vision. Quoting from page 139:

Henri took his checkbook and began looking for a location for Give Kids the World Village. He found it almost immediately in Kissimmee. When Henry looked at the lot, he could already see the Village there. Where others might have seen rows of burned orange trees and wetlands, Henri saw villages, a place for kids to fish, and a castle. “I could see it all,” Henri says, “as if my dream had already come to life.”

A few last notable things about the Give Kids the World Village:

  • According to the book by Bill Halamandaris, the Village was built with ZERO CONTRACTS and NO ADVERTISEMENTS from those who helped create the village! This is underheard of for $60+ million worth of facilities and the millions of dollars’ worth of donated services.
  • The Village has thousands of volunteers and it takes 160 volunteers per day to keep it running
  • Since 1986, Give Kids The World Village has welcomed more than 188,000 families from all 50 states and 77 countries.

So I want to leave you with the idea that we were witnesses of – and participants in – the tremendous power of a vision.

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6 work and workplace trends to watch in 2024 [Whiting at weforum.org]

On 02/14/2024, in business, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, economics, future, lifelong learning, organizational change, pace of change, participation, reinvent, skills, society, sociology, staying relevant, surviving, training / L&D, trends, workplace, by Daniel Christian

6 work and workplace trends to watch in 2024 — from weforum.org by Kate Whiting; via Melanie Booth on LinkedIn

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

The world of work is changing fast.

By 2027, businesses predict that almost half (44%) of workers’ core skills will be disrupted.

Technology is moving faster than companies can design and scale up their training programmes, found the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report.
…
The Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024 found that “lack of economic opportunity” ranked as one of the top 10 biggest risks among risk experts over the next two years.

5. Skills will become even more important
With 23% of jobs expected to change in the next five years, according to the Future of Jobs Report, millions of people will need to move between declining and growing jobs.

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Scammers us AI to steal $25 million! + other items re: AI in general

On 02/09/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, bots, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communications, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, digital audio, digital video, drama/theater, experimentation, future, Google, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, media/film, multimedia, platforms, privacy, productivity / tips and tricks, society, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, by Daniel Christian

Scammers trick company employee using video call filled with deepfakes of execs, steal $25 million — from techspot.com by Rob Thubron; via AI Valley
The victim was the only real person on the video conference call

The scammers used digitally recreated versions of an international company’s Chief Financial Officer and other employees to order $25 million in money transfers during a video conference call containing just one real person.

The victim, an employee at the Hong Kong branch of an unnamed multinational firm, was duped into taking part in a video conference call in which they were the only real person – the rest of the group were fake representations of real people, writes SCMP.

As we’ve seen in previous incidents where deepfakes were used to recreate someone without their permission, the scammers utilized publicly available video and audio footage to create these digital versions.

Letter from the YouTube CEO: 4 Big bets for 2024 — from blog.youtube by Neal Mohan, CEO, YouTube; via Ben’s Bites

.

#1: AI will empower human creativity.

#2: Creators should be recognized as next-generation studios.

#3: YouTube’s next frontier is the living room and subscriptions.

#4: Protecting the creator economy is foundational.

Viewers globally now watch more than 1 billion hours on average of YouTube content on their TVs every day.

Bard becomes Gemini: Try Ultra 1.0 and a new mobile app today — from blog.google by Sissie Hsiao; via Rundown AI
Bard is now known as Gemini, and we’re rolling out a mobile app and Gemini Advanced with Ultra 1.0.

Since we launched Bard last year, people all over the world have used it to collaborate with AI in a completely new way — to prepare for job interviews, debug code, brainstorm new business ideas or, as we announced last week, create captivating images.

Our mission with Bard has always been to give you direct access to our AI models, and Gemini represents our most capable family of models. To reflect this, Bard will now simply be known as Gemini.

A new way to discover places with generative AI in Maps — from blog.google by Miriam Daniel; via AI Valley
Here’s a look at how we’re bringing generative AI to Maps — rolling out this week to select Local Guides in the U.S.

Today, we’re introducing a new way to discover places with generative AI to help you do just that — no matter how specific, niche or broad your needs might be. Simply say what you’re looking for and our large-language models (LLMs) will analyze Maps’ detailed information about more than 250 million places and trusted insights from our community of over 300 million contributors to quickly make suggestions for where to go.

Starting in the U.S., this early access experiment launches this week to select Local Guides, who are some of the most active and passionate members of the Maps community. Their insights and valuable feedback will help us shape this feature so we can bring it to everyone over time.

Google Prepares for a Future Where Search Isn’t King — from wired.com by Lauren Goode
CEO Sundar Pichai tells WIRED that Google’s new, more powerful Gemini chatbot is an experiment in offering users a way to get things done without a search engine. It’s also a direct shot at ChatGPT.

 

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Integrating AI into your teaching + numerous other items re: AI in our Learning Ecosystems

On 02/05/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, lifelong learning, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, writing, by Daniel Christian

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

Emphasis (emphasis DSC):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Hologram lecturers thrill students at trailblazing UK university [Hall]

On 02/05/2024, in A/V -- audio/visual, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, education technology, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, Holographic comms, ideas, innovation, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, platforms, UK, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Hologram lecturers thrill students at trailblazing UK university — from theguardian.com by Rachel Hall

Prof Vikki Locke and Prof Gary Burnett try out the hologram technology. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Any university lecturer will tell you that luring students to a morning lecture is an uphill struggle. But even the most hungover fresher would surely be enticed by a physics lesson from Albert Einstein or a design masterclass from Coco Chanel.

This could soon be the reality for British students, as some universities start to beam in guest lecturers from around the globe using the same holographic technology that is used to bring dead or retired singers back to the stage.

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