How to Use AI to Do Stuff: An Opinionated Guide — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
Covering the state of play as of Summer, 2023
On 07/13/2023,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, change, colleges, community colleges, computer science, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, journalism, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, programming, research, science, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
YouTube tests AI-generated quizzes on educational videos — from techcrunch.com by Lauren Forristal
YouTube is experimenting with AI-generated quizzes on its mobile app for iOS and Android devices, which are designed to help viewers learn more about a subject featured in an educational video. The feature will also help the video-sharing platform get a better understanding of how well each video covers a certain topic.
Incorporating AI in Teaching: Practical Examples for Busy Instructors — from danielstanford.substack.com by Daniel Stanford; with thanks to Derek Bruff on LinkedIn for the resource
Since January 2023, I’ve talked with hundreds of instructors at dozens of institutions about how they might incorporate AI into their teaching. Through these conversations, I’ve noticed a few common issues:
- Faculty and staff are overwhelmed and burned out. Even those on the cutting edge often feel they’re behind the curve.
- It’s hard to know where to begin.
- It can be difficult to find practical examples of AI use that are applicable across a variety of disciplines.
To help address these challenges, I’ve been working on a list of AI-infused learning activities that encourage experimentation in (relatively) small, manageable ways.
September 2023: The Secret Intelligent Beings on Campus — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
Many of your students this fall will be enhanced by artificial intelligence, even if they don’t look like actual cyborgs. Do you want all of them to be enhanced, or just the highest SES students?
How to report better on artificial intelligence — from cjr.org (Columbia Journalism Review) by Syash Kapoor, Hilke Schellmann, and Ari Sen
In the past few months we have been deluged with headlines about new AI tools and how much they are going to change society.
Some reporters have done amazing work holding the companies developing AI accountable, but many struggle to report on this new technology in a fair and accurate way.
We—an investigative reporter, a data journalist, and a computer scientist—have firsthand experience investigating AI. We’ve seen the tremendous potential these tools can have—but also their tremendous risks.
As their adoption grows, we believe that, soon enough, many reporters will encounter AI tools on their beat, so we wanted to put together a short guide to what we have learned.
.
DSC:
Something I created via Adobe Firefly (Beta version)
The 5 reasons L&D is going to embrace ChatGPT — from chieflearningoffice.com by Josh Bersin
Does this mean it will do away with the L&D job? Not at all — these tools give you superhuman powers to find content faster, put it in front of employees in a more useful way and more creatively craft character simulations, assessments, learning in the flow of work and more.
And it’s about time. We really haven’t had a massive innovation in L&D since the early days of the learning experience platform market, so we may be entering the most exciting era in a long time.
Let me give you the five most significant use cases I see. And more will come.
AI and Tech with Scenarios: ID Links 7/11/23 — from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker
As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links periodically here on my blog. This post includes links on using tech with scenarios: AI, xAPI, and VR. I’ll also share some other AI tools and links on usability, resume tips for teachers, visual language, and a scenario sample.
It’s only a matter of time before A.I. chatbots are teaching in primary schools — from cnbc.com by Mikaela Cohen
Key Points
- Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates saying generative AI chatbots can teach kids to read in 18 months rather than years.
- Artificial intelligence is beginning to prove that it can accelerate the impact teachers have on students and help solve a stubborn teacher shortage.
- Chatbots backed by large language models can help students, from primary education to certification programs, self-guide through voluminous materials and tailor their education to specific learning styles [preferences].
The Rise of AI: New Rules for Super T Professionals and Next Steps for EdLeaders — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark
Key Points
- The rise of artificial intelligence, especially generative AI, boosts productivity in content creation–text, code, images and increasingly video.
- Here are six preliminary conclusions about the nature of work and learning.
The Future Of Education: Embracing AI For Student Success — from forbes.com by Dr. Michael Horowitz
Unfortunately, too often attention is focused on the problems of AI—that it allows students to cheat and can undermine the value of what teachers bring to the learning equation. This viewpoint ignores the immense possibilities that AI can bring to education and across every industry.
The fact is that students have already embraced this new technology, which is neither a new story nor a surprising one in education. Leaders should accept this and understand that people, not robots, must ultimately create the path forward. It is only by deploying resources, training and policies at every level of our institutions that we can begin to realize the vast potential of what AI can offer.
AI Tools in Education: Doing Less While Learning More — from campustechnology.com by Mary Grush
A Q&A with Mark Frydenberg
Why Students & Teachers Should Get Excited about ChatGPT — from ivypanda.com with thanks to Ruth Kinloch for this resource
Excerpt re: Uses of ChatGPT for Teachers
- Diverse assignments.
- Individualized approach.
- Interesting classes.
- Debates.
- Critical thinking.
- Grammar and vocabulary.
- Homework review.
SAIL: State of Research: AI & Education — from buttondown.email by George Siemens
Information re: current AI and Learning Labs, education updates, and technology
Why ethical AI requires a future-ready and inclusive education system — from weforum.org
A specter is haunting higher education — from aiandacademia.substack.com by Bryan Alexander
Fall semester after the generative AI revolution
In this post I’d like to explore that apocalyptic model. For reasons of space, I’ll leave off analyzing student cheating motivations or questioning the entire edifice of grade-based assessment. I’ll save potential solutions for another post.
Let’s dive into the practical aspects of teaching to see why Mollick and Bogost foresee such a dire semester ahead.
Items re: Code Interpreter
Code Interpreter becoming available for all ChatGPT Plus users over the next week. Really amazing for any data science use case: https://t.co/hpel8xKyEg pic.twitter.com/Fd3SnPvVmT
— Greg Brockman (@gdb) July 6, 2023
I put together an initial prompt to set up Code Interpreter to create useful data visualizations. It gives it some basic principles of good chart design & also reminds it that it can output many kinds of files.
It is a first draft, feel free to improve: https://t.co/m4yAdKROiJ pic.twitter.com/r5A7PznqSC
— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) July 10, 2023
- What AI can do with a toolbox… Getting started with Code Interpreter — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
Democratizing data analysis with AI
Code Interpreter continues OpenAI’s long tradition of giving terrible names to things, because it might be most useful for those who do not code at all. It essentially allows the most advanced AI available, GPT-4, to upload and download information, and to write and execute programs for you in a persistent workspace. That allows the AI to do all sorts of things it couldn’t do before, and be useful in ways that were impossible with ChatGPT.
.
BREAKING: Code Interpreter is FINALLY rolling out to all ChatGPT Plus users.
It’s the most powerful feature OpenAI has released since GPT-4. It makes everyone a data analyst.
Here are 15 mind-blowing use cases of Code Interpreter: pic.twitter.com/qX0txynENS
— Aakash Gupta ? Product Growth Guy (@aakashg0) July 7, 2023
Legal items
- 2 authors say OpenAI ‘ingested’ their books to train ChatGPT. Now they’re suing, and a ‘wave’ of similar court cases may follow. — from businessinsider.com by Gabriel Rivera
- Authors Are Suing OpenAI & Meta For Copyright Infringement — from theneurondaily.com by Noah Edelman
MISC items
- America’s first law regulating AI bias in hiring takes effect this week — from downes.ca by Stephen Downes
- Eric Schmidt: This is how AI will transform the way science gets done — from technologyreview.com by Eric Schmidt
Science is about to become much more exciting—and that will affect us all, argues Google’s former CEO. - Microsoft unveils first professional certificate for generative AI skills — from zdnet.com/ by Lance Whitney
With the new AI Skills Initiative, people can take free online training via LinkedIn to learn concepts of AI good toward a Career Essentials certificate. - What is Claude 2? How to access this ChatGPT competitor. — from mashable.com by Cecily Mauran
It’s a decent alternative, and it’s easy to use. - Claude 2 — from anthropic.com
On 06/16/2023,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Adobe, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, corporate / business world, economics, education, education technology, Europe, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, Microsoft, open courseware and systems, pace of change, pedagogy, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, strategy, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, United States, universities, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
Accenture announces jaw-dropping $3 billion investment in AI — from venturebeat.com by Carl Franzen; via Superhuman
Excerpt:
The generative AI announcements are coming fast and furious these days, but among the biggest in terms of sheer dollar commitments just landed: Accenture, the global professional services and consulting giant, today announced it will invest $3 billion (with a “b”!) in AI over the next three years in building out its team of AI professionals and AI-focused solutions for its clients.
“There is unprecedented interest in all areas of AI, and the substantial investment we are making in our Data & AI practice will help our clients move from interest to action to value, and in a responsible way with clear business cases,” said Julie Sweet, Accenture’s chairwoman and CEO.
Also related/see:
Artificial intelligence creates 40,000 new roles at Accenture — from computerweekly.com by Karl Flinders
Accenture is planning to add thousands of AI experts to its workforce as part of a $3bn investment in its data and artificial intelligence practice
Why leaders need to evolve alongside generative AI — from fastcompany.com by Kelsey Behringer
Even if you’re not an educator, you should not be sitting on the sidelines watching the generative AI conversation being had around you—hop in.
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
Leaders should be careful to watch and support education right now. At the end of the day, the students sitting in K-12 and college classrooms are going to be future CPAs, lawyers, writers, and teachers. If you are parenting a child, you have skin in the game. If you use professional services, you have skin in the game. When it comes to education, we all have skin in the game.
…
Students need to master fundamental skills like editing, questioning, researching, and verifying claims before they can use generative AI exceptionally well.
GenAI & Education: Enhancement, not Replacement — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philipa Hardman
How to co-exist in the age of automation
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
[On 6/15/23, I joined] colleagues from OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Stanford, Harvard and other others at the first meeting of the GenAI Summit. Our shared goal [was] to help to educate universities & schools in Europe about the impact of Generative AI on their work.
…how can we effectively communicate to education professionals that generative AI will enhance their work rather than replace them?
A recent controlled study found that ChatGPT can help professionals increase their efficiency in routine tasks by ~35%. If we keep in mind that the productivity gains brought by the steam engine in the nineteenth century was ~25%, this is huge.
As educators, we should embrace the power of ChatGPT to automate the repetitive tasks which we’ve been distracted by for decades. Lesson planning, content creation, assessment design, grading and feedback – generative AI can help us to do all of these things faster than ever before, freeing us up to focus on where we bring most value for our students.
Google, one of AI’s biggest backers, warns own staff about chatbots — from reuters.com by Jeffrey Dastin and Anna Tong
Excerpt:
SAN FRANCISCO, June 15 (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) is cautioning employees about how they use chatbots, including its own Bard, at the same time as it markets the program around the world, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The Google parent has advised employees not to enter its confidential materials into AI chatbots, the people said and the company confirmed, citing long-standing policy on safeguarding information.
The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier — from mckinsey.com
Generative AI’s impact on productivity could add trillions of dollars in value to the global economy—and the era is just beginning.
Preparing for the Classrooms and Workplaces of the Future: Generative AI in edX — from campustechnology.com by Mary Grush
A Q&A with Anant Agarwal
Adobe Firefly for the Enterprise — Dream Bigger with Adobe Firefly.
Dream it, type it, see it with Firefly, our creative generative AI engine. Now in Photoshop (beta), Illustrator, Adobe Express, and on the web.
Apple Vision Pro, Higher Education and the Next 10 Years — from insidehighered.com by Joshua Kim
How this technology will play out in our world over the next decade.
Zoom can now give you AI summaries of the meetings you’ve missed — from theverge.com by Emma Roth
Mercedes-Benz Is Adding ChatGPT to Cars for AI Voice Commands — from decrypt.co by Jason Nelson; via Superhuman
The luxury automaker is set to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot into its Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) feature in the U.S.
On 05/09/2023,
in 21st century, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, computer science, corporate / business world, disruption, emerging technologies, engineering, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, legislatures / government / legal, Microsoft, NVIDIA, United States, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
As Rob Toews points out in his recent article out at Forbes.com, we had better hope that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) builds out the capacity to make chips in various countries. Why? Because:
The following statement is utterly ludicrous. It is also true. The world’s most important advanced technology is nearly all produced in a single facility.
What’s more, that facility is located in one of the most geopolitically fraught areas on earth—an area in which many analysts believe that war is inevitable within the decade.
The future of artificial intelligence hangs in the balance.
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) makes ***all of the world’s advanced AI chips.*** Most importantly, this means Nvidia’s GPUs; it also includes the AI chips from Google, AMD, Amazon, Microsoft, Cerebras, SambaNova, Untether and every other credible competitor.
— from The Geopolitics Of AI Chips Will Define The Future Of AI
out at Forbes.com by Rob Toews
Little surprise, then, that Time Magazine described TSMC
as “the world’s most important company that you’ve
probably never heard of.”
From DSC:
If that facility was actually the only one and something happened to it, look at how many things would be impacted as of early May 2023!
On 03/31/2023,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, creativity, digital learning, experimentation, Google, ideas, innovation, Microsoft, productivity / tips and tricks, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
How to use AI to do practical stuff: A new guide — from oneusefulthing.substack.com by Ethan Mollick
People often ask me how to use AI. Here’s an overview with lots of links.
Excerpts:
We live in an era of practical AI, but many people haven’t yet experienced it, or, if they have, they might have wondered what the big deal is. Thus, this guide. It is a modified version of one I put out for my students earlier in the year, but a lot has changed. It is an overview of ways to get AI to do practical things.
…
I want to try to show you some of why AI is powerful, in ways both exciting and anxiety-producing.
Also see Ethan’s posting:
Power and Weirdness: How to Use Bing AI
Bing AI is a huge leap over ChatGPT, but you have to learn its quirks
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.
On 03/13/2023,
in 21st century, Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, change, collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, culture, curriculum, education, education technology, Europe, formal learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, higher education, ideas, informal learning, instructional design, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, platforms, policy, society, strategy, technology (general), tools, training / L&D, UK, United States, vision/possibilities, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Fostering sustainable learning ecosystems — from linkedin.com by Patrick Blessinger
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Learning ecosystems
As today’s global knowledge society becomes increasingly interconnected and begins to morph into a global learning society, it is likely that formal, nonformal, and informal learning will become increasingly interconnected. For instance, there has been an explosion of new self-directed e-learning platforms such as Khan Academy, Open Courseware, and YouTube, among others, that help educate billions of people around the world.
A learning ecosystem includes all the elements that contribute to a learner’s overall learning experience. The components of a learning ecosystem are numerous, including people, technology platforms, knowledge bases, culture, governance, strategy, and other internal and external elements that have an impact on learning. Therefore, moving forward, it is crucial to integrate learning across formal, nonformal, and informal learning processes and activities in a more strategic way.
On 02/23/2023,
in accessibility / UDL, assistive technologies, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), Google, neurodivergent/special needs,
by Daniel Christian
Google Enhances Accessibility Information — from disabilityscoop.com by Shaun Heasley
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Google is making it easier to find out if places in the community are accessible to people with disabilities, all with the touch of a button.
The company said recently that it is expanding a feature called “Accessible Places,” which allows Google Maps users to see if businesses are wheelchair accessible and free of stairs.
Google originally rolled out Accessible Places in 2020 in the U.S., Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom, but now says the option is available globally and includes details on more than 40 million locations.
Along the lines of accessibility-related items, see:
Over 11 Million Jobs in the U.S. May Exclude Color-Blind Persons — from billfischer.substack.com by Bill Fischer
Employing design solutions that involve text, pattern, and other types of visual differentiation besides color as well as developing color-identifying smart-glasses technology can start to break down occupational barriers for color-blind persons.
Excerpt:
Below is a list of occupations that require testing for color-blindness, divided into two categories: those in which design choices create challenges and those in which the issues are rooted in the natural environment.