Explore Breakthroughs in AI, Accelerated Computing, and Beyond at GTC — from nvidia.com
The Conference for the Era of AI and the Metaverse
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 — 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:
ChatGPT as a teaching tool, not a cheating tool — from timeshighereducation.com by Jennifer Rose
How to use ChatGPT as a tool to spur students’ inner feedback and thus aid their learning and skills development
Excerpt:
Use ChatGPT to spur student’s inner feedback
One way that ChatGPT answers can be used in class is by asking students to compare what they have written with a ChatGPT answer. This draws on David Nicol’s work on making inner feedback explicit and using comparative judgement. His work demonstrates that in writing down answers to comparative questions students can produce high-quality feedback for themselves which is instant and actionable. Applying this to a ChatGPT answer, the following questions could be used:
Exploring generative AI and the implications for universities — from universityworldnews.com
Excerpt:
This is part of a weekly University World News special report series on ‘AI and higher education’. The focus is on how universities are engaging with ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools. The articles from academics and our journalists around the world are exploring developments and university work in AI that have implications for higher education institutions and systems, students and staff, and teaching, learning and research.
DC: Perhaps we’ll get to a point where AI can help here. (Perhaps we’re already there…?) https://t.co/kRguHmXw42
— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) March 1, 2023
Speaking of AI-related items, also see:
OpenAI just released both Whisper and ChatGPT as APIs!
Among the 3 infinity stones to make voice assistants great again, we’ve got 2 on the cloud now.https://t.co/boAP0yOK9p https://t.co/rkWGu5wGbP
— Jim Fan (@DrJimFan) March 1, 2023
OpenAI debuts Whisper API for speech-to-text transcription and translation — from techcrunch.com by Kyle Wiggers
Excerpt:
To coincide with the rollout of the ChatGPT API, OpenAI today launched the Whisper API, a hosted version of the open source Whisper speech-to-text model that the company released in September.
Priced at $0.006 per minute, Whisper is an automatic speech recognition system that OpenAI claims enables “robust” transcription in multiple languages as well as translation from those languages into English. It takes files in a variety of formats, including M4A, MP3, MP4, MPEG, MPGA, WAV and WEBM.
Introducing ChatGPT and Whisper APIs — from openai.com
Developers can now integrate ChatGPT and Whisper models into their apps and products through our API.
Excerpt:
ChatGPT and Whisper models are now available on our API, giving developers access to cutting-edge language (not just chat!) and speech-to-text capabilities.
Love this! Assigning collaborative annotation can help students engage with texts and the writing process and help prevent ChatGPT misuse. We can also invite students to critically annotate ChatGPT outputs. #ChatGPTedu #AItextedu #AIED #socialannotation https://t.co/wh2OkrAvL7
— Anna Mills, amills@mastodon.oeru.org, she/her (@EnglishOER) February 28, 2023
Everything you wanted to know about AI – but were afraid to ask — from theguardian.com by Dan Milmo and Alex Hern
From chatbots to deepfakes, here is the lowdown on the current state of artificial intelligence
Excerpt:
Barely a day goes by without some new story about AI, or artificial intelligence. The excitement about it is palpable – the possibilities, some say, are endless. Fears about it are spreading fast, too.
There can be much assumed knowledge and understanding about AI, which can be bewildering for people who have not followed every twist and turn of the debate.
So, the Guardian’s technology editors, Dan Milmo and Alex Hern, are going back to basics – answering the questions that millions of readers may have been too afraid to ask.
Nvidia CEO: “We’re going to accelerate AI by another million times” — from
In a recent earnings call, the boss of Nvidia Corporation, Jensen Huang, outlined his company’s achievements over the last 10 years and predicted what might be possible in the next decade.
Excerpt:
Fast forward to today, and CEO Jensen Huang is optimistic that the recent momentum in AI can be sustained into at least the next decade. During the company’s latest earnings call, he explained that Nvidia’s GPUs had boosted AI processing by a factor of one million in the last 10 years.
“Moore’s Law, in its best days, would have delivered 100x in a decade. By coming up with new processors, new systems, new interconnects, new frameworks and algorithms and working with data scientists, AI researchers on new models – across that entire span – we’ve made large language model processing a million times faster,” Huang said.
From DSC:
NVIDA is the inventor of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), which creates interactive graphics on laptops, workstations, mobile devices, notebooks, PCs, and more. They are a dominant supplier of artificial intelligence hardware and software.
ChatGPT sets record for fastest-growing user base – analyst note — from reuters.com by Krystal Hu
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Feb 1 (Reuters) – ChatGPT, the popular chatbot from OpenAI, is estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users in January, just two months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, according to a UBS study on Wednesday.
The report, citing data from analytics firm Similarweb, said an average of about 13 million unique visitors had used ChatGPT per day in January, more than double the levels of December.
“In 20 years following the internet space, we cannot recall a faster ramp in a consumer internet app,” UBS analysts wrote in the note.
From DSC:
This reminds me of the current exponential pace of change that we are experiencing…
..and how we struggle with that kind of pace.
ChatGPT can’t be credited as an author, says world’s largest academic publisher — from theverge.com by James Vincent; with thanks to Robert Gibson on LinkedIn for the resource
But Springer Nature, which publishes thousands of scientific journals, says it has no problem with AI being used to help write research — as long as its use is properly disclosed.
Excerpt:
Springer Nature, the world’s largest academic publisher, has clarified its policies on the use of AI writing tools in scientific papers. The company announced this week that software like ChatGPT can’t be credited as an author in papers published in its thousands of journals. However, Springer says it has no problem with scientists using AI to help write or generate ideas for research, as long as this contribution is properly disclosed by the authors.
On somewhat-related notes:
Uplevel your prompt craft in ChatGPT with the CREATE framework — from edte.ch by Tom Barrett
Excerpt:
The acronym “CREATE” is a helpful guide for crafting high-quality prompts for AI tools. Each letter represents an important step in the process.
The first four CREA are all part of prompt writing, where TE, the final two are a cycle of reviewing and editing your prompts.
Let’s look at each in more detail, with some examples from ChatGPT to help.
BuzzFeed to Use ChatGPT Creator OpenAI to Help Create Quizzes and Other Content — from wsj.com by Alexandra Bruell (behind paywall)
CEO Jonah Peretti intends for artificial intelligence to play a larger role in the company this year