Top 6 Use Cases of Generative AI in Education in 2024 — from research.aimultiple.com by Cem Dilmegani

Use cases included:

  1. Personalized Lessons
  2. Course Design
  3. Content Creation for Courses
  4. Data Privacy Protection for Analytical Models
  5. Restoring Old Learning Materials
  6. Tutoring

The Next Phase of AI in Education at the U.S. Department of Education — from medium.com by Office of Ed Tech

Why are we doing this work?
Over the past two years, the U.S. Department of Education has been committed to maintaining an ongoing conversation with educators, students, researchers, developers — and the educational community at large — related to the continuous progress of Artificial Intelligence (AI) development and its implications for teaching and learning.

Many educators are seeking resources clarifying what AI is and how it will impact their work and their students. Similarly, developers of educational technology (“edtech”) products seek guidance on what guardrails exist that can support their efforts. After the release of our May 2023 report Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learningwe heard the desire for more.


2024 EDUCAUSE AI Landscape Study — from library.educause.edu by Jenay Robert

Moving from reaction to action, higher education stakeholders are currently exploring the opportunities afforded by AI for teaching, learning, and work while maintaining a sense of caution for the vast array of risks AI-powered technologies pose. To aid in these efforts, we present this inaugural EDUCAUSE AI Landscape Study, in which we summarize the higher education community’s current sentiments and experiences related to strategic planning and readiness, policies and procedures, workforce, and the future of AI in higher education.


AI Update for K-16 Administrators: More People Need to Step-Up and Take the AI Bull By the Horns — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
AI capabilities are way beyond what most schools are aware of, and they will transform education and society over the next few years.

Educational administrators should not worry about every AI development, but should, instead focus on the big picture, as those big picture changes will change the entire world and the educational system.

AI and related technologies (robotics, synthetic biology, and brain-computer interfaces) will continue to impact society and the entire educational system over the next 10 years. This impact on the system will be greater than anything that has happened over the last 100 years, including COVID-19, as COVID-19 eventually ended and the disruptive force of these technologies will only continue to develop.

AI is the bull in the China Shop, redefining the world and the educational system. Students writing a paper with AI is barely a poke in the educational world relative to what is starting to happen (active AI teachers and tutors; AI assessment; AI glasses; immersive learning environments; young students able to start their own business with AI tools; AIs replacing and changing jobs; deep voice and video fakes; intelligence leveling; individualized instruction; interactive and highly intelligent computers; computers that can act autonomously; and more).


 

 

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.

 

Unlocking productivity and personalizing learning with AI — from educationblog.microsoft.com by Microsoft Education Team

Today, we’re announcing the next wave of AI innovations from Microsoft Education that will help unlock productivity and personalize learning. This includes expanded Copilot for Microsoft 365 availability and Loop coming to education. We’re also sharing news about AI built for education such as Reading Coach and features designed to free up time for educators and personalize learning. As part of our continued work to build AI literacy, we’ve launched our latest course for educators and a new learning path on Microsoft Learn. And earlier this week we outlined Microsoft’s position and themes for policymakers to consider around advancing youth online safety and wellness.

With the latest AI technology, we have an opportunity to provide learners with personalized, engaging, and transformative reading experiences. Reading Coach, a Learning Accelerator now powered by generative AI, does just that. You can sign up for a preview of Reading Coach today and try it for yourself at coach.microsoft.com.


Recap: Winter AI Institute for Teachers — from umcetl.substack.com

Last week, CETL partnered with the Department of Writing and Rhetoric to offer a second iteration of the AI Institute for Teachers to an audience of UM instructors from across disciplines. Nearly 60 faculty from 26 different departments and schools attended the three-day event. In a wide variety of interactive sessions designed by Institute leader Marc Watkins, participants examined the impact of generative AI on teaching and learning, working in small groups to consider how to approach AI in their own disciplines.

If you’re not a UM faculty member or couldn’t attend the sessions, we have good news! All the materials from the Institute are publicly available at the following links:

And we’ve written a short recap of the Institute here.


Learn with AI from U Maine

Learn with AI — from the University of Maine

Rather than try to ban this technology from classrooms outright, the Learning With AI project asks if this moment offers an opportunity to introduce students to the ethical and economic questions wreaked by these new tools, as well as to experiment with progressive forms of pedagogy that can exploit them.

 

OpenAI announces first partnership with a university — from cnbc.com by Hayden Field

Key Points:

  • OpenAI on Thursday announced its first partnership with a higher education institution.
  • Starting in February, Arizona State University will have full access to ChatGPT Enterprise and plans to use it for coursework, tutoring, research and more.
  • The partnership has been in the works for at least six months.
  • ASU plans to build a personalized AI tutor for students, allow students to create AI avatars for study help and broaden the university’s prompt engineering course.

A new collaboration with OpenAI charts the future of AI in higher education — from news.asu.edu

The collaboration between ASU and OpenAI brings the advanced capabilities of ChatGPT Enterprise into higher education, setting a new precedent for how universities enhance learning, creativity and student outcomes.

“ASU recognizes that augmented and artificial intelligence systems are here to stay, and we are optimistic about their ability to become incredible tools that help students to learn, learn more quickly and understand subjects more thoroughly,” ASU President Michael M. Crow said. “Our collaboration with OpenAI reflects our philosophy and our commitment to participating directly to the responsible evolution of AI learning technologies.”


AI <> Academia — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
What might emerge from ASU’s pioneering partnership with OpenAI?

Phil’s Wish List #2: Smart Curriculum Development
ChatGPT assists in creating and updating course curricula, based on both student data and emerging domain and pedagogical research on the topic.

Output: using AI it will be possible to review course content and make data-informed automate recommendations based on latest pedagogical and domain-specific research

Potential Impact: increased dynamism and relevance in course content and reduced administrative lift for academics.


A full list of AI ideas from AI for Education dot org

A full list of AI ideas from AI-for-Education.org

You can filter by category, by ‘What does it do?’, by AI tool or search for keywords.


Navigating the new normal: Adapting in the age of AI and hybrid work models — from chieflearningofficer.com by Dr. Kylie Ensrud

Unlike traditional leadership, adaptable leadership is not bound by rigid rules and protocols. Instead, it thrives on flexibility. Adaptable leaders are willing to experiment, make course corrections, and pivot when necessary. Adaptable leadership is about flexibility, resilience and a willingness to embrace change. It embodies several key principles that redefine the role of leaders in organizations:

  1. Embracing uncertainty

Adaptable leaders understand that uncertainty is the new norm. They do not shy away from ambiguity but instead, see it as an opportunity for growth and innovation. They encourage a culture of experimentation and learning from failure.

  1. Empowering teams

Instead of dictating every move, adaptable leaders empower their teams to take ownership of their work. They foster an environment of trust and collaboration, enabling individuals to contribute their unique perspectives and skills.

  1. Continuous learning

Adaptable leaders are lifelong learners. They are constantly seeking new knowledge, stay informed about industry trends and encourage their teams to do the same. They understand that knowledge is a dynamic asset that must be constantly updated.


Major AI in Education Related Developments this week — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
ASU integrates with ChatGPT, K-12 AI integrations, Agents & the Rabbit, Uruguay, Meta and AGI, Rethinking curriculum

“The greatest risk is leaving school curriculum unchanged when the entire world is changing.”
Hadi Partovi, founder Code.org, Angel investor in Facebook, DropBox, AirBnb, Uber

Tutorbots in college. On a more limited scale, Georgia State University, Morgan State University, and the University of Central Florida are piloting a project using chatbots to support students in foundational math and English courses.


Pioneering AI-Driven Instructional Design in Small College Settings — from campustechnology.com by Gopu Kiron
For institutions that lack the budget or staff expertise to utilize instructional design principles in online course development, generative AI may offer a way forward.

Unfortunately, smaller colleges — arguably the institutions whose students are likely to benefit the most from ID enhancements — frequently find themselves excluded from authentically engaging in the ID arena due to tight budgets, limited faculty online course design expertise, and the lack of ID-specific staff roles. Despite this, recent developments in generative AI may offer these institutions a low-cost, tactical avenue to compete with more established players.


Google’s new AI solves math olympiad problems — from bensbites.beehiiv.com

There’s a new AI from Google DeepMind called AlphaGeometry that totally nails solving super hard geometry problems. We’re talking problems so tough only math geniuses who compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad can figure them out.


 

The future of learning — from moodle.com by Sonya Trivedi

Self-directed and continuous learning
The concept of self-directed and continuous learning is becoming increasingly popular, reshaping our approach to knowledge and skill acquisition in both formal education and workplace settings. This evolving landscape reflects a world where traditional career paths are being replaced by more dynamic and flexible models, compelling learners to adapt and grow continuously.

The Future of Learning Report 2022 highlights this shift, noting the diminishing concept of a ‘career for life.’ With regular job switching and the expansion of the gig economy, there is an increasing need for a workforce equipped with a broad range of skills and the ability to gain qualifications throughout their careers. This shift is underlined by learners increasingly seeking control over their educational journeys, understanding that the ongoing acquisition of knowledge and skills is essential for staying relevant in the rapidly changing world of work. Reflecting this trend, a significant portion of learners, 33%, are choosing online platforms for their flexibility and ability to cater to individual needs and schedules.

From DSC:
The next paragraph after the above excerpt says:

Much like how companies such as Uber and Airbnb have reshaped their respective industries without owning traditional assets, the future of education might see universities functioning as the ‘Netflix of learning.’ In this model, learners comfortably source their educational experiences from various platforms, assembling their qualifications to create a personalised and continuously evolving portfolio of skills??.

But I don’t think it will be universities that function as the “Netflix of learning” as I don’t think the cultures of most institutions of traditional higher education can deal with that kind of innovation. I hope I’m wrong.

I think it will be a new, global, lifelong learning platform that originates outside of higher education. It will be bigger than higher education, K12, corporate training, or vocational training — as such a 21st-century, AI-based platform will offer all of the above and more.

Learning from the living AI-based class room


Slow Shift to Skills — from the-job.beehiiv.com by Paul Fain

Real progress in efforts to increase mobility for nondegree workers is unlikely during the next couple years, Joseph Fuller, a professor at Harvard University’s business school who co-leads its Managing the Future of Work initiative, recently told me.

Yet Fuller is bullish on skills-based hiring becoming a real thing in five to 10 years. That’s because he predicts that AI will create the data to solve the skills taxonomy problem Kolko describes. And if skills-based hiring allows for serious movement for workers without bachelor’s degrees, Fuller says the future will look like where Texas is headed.


Report: Microcredentials Not a Strategic Priority for Many Colleges — from insidehighered.com by Kathryn Palmer
A new report finds that while most colleges surveyed embrace alternative credentials, many have a decentralized approach for creating and managing them.

While the majority of colleges focused on online, professional and continuing education have embraced alternative credentials, a significant number of those institutions haven’t made them a strategic priority.

That’s one of the key takeaways from a new study released Monday by UPCEA, the organization previously known as the University Professional and Continuing Education Association. University Professional and Continuing Education Association.

“While a lot of institutions want this, they don’t necessarily all know how” to deliver alternative credentials, said Bruce Etter, UPCEA’s senior director of research and consulting. “Embracing it is great, but now it needs to be part of the strategic plan.”


The Higher Learning Commission’s Credential Lab — from hlcommission.org

HLC’s Credential Lab


10 higher ed trends to watch in 2024 — from insidetrack.org by

Trend 1.
Linking education to career paths

Trend 2.
Making sense of the AI explosion

Trend 3.
Prioritizing mental health on campus

…plus 7 other trends


North Carolina’s Community Colleges Make a Big Bid to Stay Relevant — from workshift.opencampusmedia.org by Margaret Moffett
The system is poised to ask state legislators to overhaul its funding formula to focus on how well colleges prepare students for high-demand, well-paying jobs.

The new formula would pay a premium to each college based on labor-market outcomes: the more students enrolled in courses in high-demand, high-paying workforce sectors, the more money the college receives.

Importantly, the proposed formula makes no distinction between curricular courses that count toward degree programs and noncredit continuing education classes, which historically offer fewer slots for students because of their lower FTE reimbursement rates.



Supporting Career and Technical Education — from bloomberg.org via Paul Fain

The American job market is changing. A high school diploma is no longer a ticket to a good job now, an increasing number of employers are offering “middle-skill jobs” that require more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree. Industries like health care, IT, advanced manufacturing, and financial services continue to see sustained growth at all levels, and they need workers with the experience and the credentials to fill new positions. Bloomberg Philanthropies is investing in programs that help young people get the specialized training they need through internships, apprenticeships, academics, and work-based learning.

 

AI University for UK? — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark

Tertiary Education in the UK needs a fresh idea. What we need is an initiative on the same scale as The Open University, kicked off over 50 years ago.

It is clear that an educational vision is needed and I think the best starting point is that outlined and executed by Paul LeBlanc at SNHU. It is substantial, well articulated and has worked in what has become the largest University in the US.

It would be based on the competence model, with a focus on skills shortages. Here’s a starter with 25 ideas, a manifesto of sorts, based on lessons learnt from other successful models:

  1. Non-traditional students in terms of age and background
  2. Quick and easy application process
  3. Personalised learning using AI
  4. Multimodal from the start
  5. Full range of summarisation, create self-assessment, dialogue tools
  6. Focus on generative learning using AI
  7. …and Donald lists many more (ending at #25)
 

Learners’ Edition: AI-powered Coaching, Professional Certifications + Inspiring conversations about mastering your learning & speaking skills

Learners’ Edition: AI-powered Coaching, Professional Certifications + Inspiring conversations about mastering your learning & speaking skills — from linkedin.com by Tomer Cohen

Excerpts:

1. Your own AI-powered coaching
Learners can go into LinkedIn Learning and ask a question or explain a challenge they are currently facing at work (we’re focusing on areas within Leadership and Management to start). AI-powered coaching will pull from the collective knowledge of our expansive LinkedIn Learning library and, instantaneously, offer advice, examples, or feedback that is personalized to the learner’s skills, job, and career goals.

What makes us so excited about this launch is we can now take everything we as LinkedIn know about people’s careers and how they navigate them and help accelerate them with AI.

3. Learn exactly what you need to know for your next job
When looking for a new job, it’s often the time we think about refreshing our LinkedIn profiles. It’s also a time we can refresh our skills. And with skill sets for jobs having changed by 25% since 2015 – with the number expected to increase by 65% by 2030– keeping our skills a step ahead is one of the most important things we can do to stand out.

There are a couple of ways we’re making it easier to learn exactly what you need to know for your next job:

When you set a job alert, in addition to being notified about open jobs, we’ll recommend learning courses and Professional Certificate offerings to help you build the skills needed for that role.

When you view a job, we recommend specific courses to help you build the required skills. If you have LinkedIn Learning access through your company or as part of a Premium subscription, you can follow the skills for the job, that way we can let you know when we launch new courses for those skills and recommend you content on LinkedIn that better aligns to your career goals.


2024 Edtech Predictions from Edtech Insiders — from edtechinsiders.substack.com by Alex Sarlin, Ben Kornell, and Sarah Morin
Omni-modal AI, edtech funding prospects, higher ed wake up calls, focus on career training, and more!

Alex: I talked to the 360 Learning folks at one point and they had this really interesting epiphany, which is basically that it’s been almost impossible for every individual company in the past to create a hierarchy of skills and a hierarchy of positions and actually organize what it looks like for people to move around and upskill within the company and get to new paths.

Until now. AI actually can do this very well. It can take not only job description data, but it can take actual performance data. It can actually look at what people do on a daily basis and back fit that to training, create automatic training based on it.

From DSC:
I appreciated how they addressed K-12, higher ed, and the workforce all in one posting. Nice work. We don’t need siloes. We need more overall design thinking re: our learning ecosystems — as well as more collaborations. We need more on-ramps and pathways in a person’s learning/career journey.

 

Google hopes that this personalized AI -- called Notebook LM -- will help people with their note-taking, thinking, brainstorming, learning, and creating.

Google NotebookLM (experiment)

From DSC:
Google hopes that this personalized AI/app will help people with their note-taking, thinking, brainstorming, learning, and creating.

It reminds me of what Derek Bruff was just saying in regards to Top Hat’s Ace product being able to work with a much narrower set of information — i.e., a course — and to be almost like a personal learning assistant for the course you are taking. (As Derek mentions, this depends upon how extensively one uses the CMS/LMS in the first place.)

 

Where a developing, new kind of learning ecosystem is likely headed [Christian]

From DSC:
As I’ve long stated on the Learning from the Living [Class]Room vision, we are heading toward a new AI-empowered learning platform — where humans play a critically important role in making this new learning ecosystem work.

Along these lines, I ran into this site out on X/Twitter. We’ll see how this unfolds, but it will be an interesting space to watch.

Project Chiron's vision: Our vision for education Every child will soon have a super-intelligent AI teacher by their side. We want to make sure they instill a love of learning in children.


From DSC:
This future learning platform will also focus on developing skills and competencies. Along those lines, see:

Scale for Skills-First — from the-job.beehiiv.com by Paul Fain
An ed-tech giant’s ambitious moves into digital credentialing and learner records.

A Digital Canvas for Skills
Instructure was a player in the skills and credentials space before its recent acquisition of Parchment, a digital transcript company. But that $800M move made many observers wonder if Instructure can develop digital records of skills that learners, colleges, and employers might actually use broadly.

Ultimately, he says, the CLR approach will allow students to bring these various learning types into a coherent format for employers.

Instructure seeks a leadership role in working with other organizations to establish common standards for credentials and learner records, to help create consistency. The company collaborates closely with 1EdTech. And last month it helped launch the 1EdTech TrustEd Microcredential Coalition, which aims to increase quality and trust in digital credentials.

Paul also links to 1EDTECH’s page regarding the Comprehensive Learning Record

 

How ChatGPT changed my approach to learning — from wondertools.substack.com Jeremy Caplan and Frank Andrade
A guest contributor tutored himself with AI

Excerpt:

Frank: ChatGPT has changed how I learn and practice new things every day.

  • I use ChatGPT not only to fix my mistakes, but also to learn from them.
  • I use ChatGPT Voice to explore new topics, simulate job interviews, and practice foreign languages.
  • You can even use ChatGPT Vision to learn from images!

Here’s how to use AI to enhance your learning.

 

60+ Ideas for ChatGPT Assignments — from stars.library.ucf.edu by Kevin Yee, Kirby Whittington, Erin Doggette, and Laurie Uttich

60+ ideas for using ChatGPT in your assignments today


Artificial intelligence is disrupting higher education — from itweb.co.za by Rennie Naidoo; via GSV
Traditional contact universities need to adapt faster and find creative ways of exploring and exploiting AI, or lose their dominant position.

Higher education professionals have a responsibility to shape AI as a force for good.


Introducing Canva’s biggest education launch — from canva.com
We’re thrilled to unveil our biggest education product launch ever. Today, we’re introducing a whole new suite of products that turn Canva into the all-in-one classroom tool educators have been waiting for.

Also see Canva for Education.
Create and personalize lesson plans, infographics,
posters, video, and more. 
100% free for
teachers and students at eligible schools.


ChatGPT and generative AI: 25 applications to support student engagement — from timeshighereducation.com by Seb Dianati and Suman Laudari
In the fourth part of their series looking at 100 ways to use ChatGPT in higher education, Seb Dianati and Suman Laudari share 25 prompts for the AI tool to boost student engagement


There are two ways to use ChatGPT — from theneurondaily.com

  1. Type to it.
  2. Talk to it (new).


Since then, we’ve looked to it for a variety of real-world business advice. For example, Prof Ethan Mollick posted a great guide using ChatGPT-4 with voice as a negotiation instructor.

In a similar fashion, you can consult ChatGPT with voice for feedback on:

  • Job interviews.
  • Team meetings.
  • Business presentations.



Via The Rundown: Google is using AI to analyze the company’s Maps data and suggest adjustments to traffic light timing — aiming to cut driver waits, stops, and emissions.


Google Pixel’s face-altering photo tool sparks AI manipulation debate — from bbc.com by Darren Waters

The camera never lies. Except, of course, it does – and seemingly more often with each passing day.
In the age of the smartphone, digital edits on the fly to improve photos have become commonplace, from boosting colours to tweaking light levels.

Now, a new breed of smartphone tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI) are adding to the debate about what it means to photograph reality.

Google’s latest smartphones released last week, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, go a step further than devices from other companies. They are using AI to help alter people’s expressions in photographs.



From Digital Native to AI-Empowered: Learning in the Age of Artificial Intelligence — from campustechnology.com by Kim Round
The upcoming generation of learners will enter higher education empowered by AI. How can institutions best serve these learners and prepare them for the workplace of the future?

Dr. Chris Dede, of Harvard University and Co-PI of the National AI Institute for Adult Learning and Online Education, spoke about the differences between knowledge and wisdom in AI-human interactions in a keynote address at the 2022 Empowering Learners for the Age of AI conference. He drew a parallel between Star Trek: The Next Generation characters Data and Picard during complex problem-solving: While Data offers the knowledge and information, Captain Picard offers the wisdom and context from on a leadership mantle, and determines its relevance, timing, and application.


The Near-term Impact of Generative AI on Education, in One Sentence — from opencontent.org by David Wiley

This “decreasing obstacles” framing turned out to be helpful in thinking about generative AI. When the time came, my answer to the panel question, “how would you summarize the impact generative AI is going to have on education?” was this:

“Generative AI greatly reduces the degree to which access to expertise is an obstacle to education.”

We haven’t even started to unpack the implications of this notion yet, but hopefully just naming it will give the conversation focus, give people something to disagree with, and help the conversation progress more quickly.


How to Make an AI-Generated Film — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper
Plus, Midjourney finally has a new upscale tool!


Eureka! NVIDIA Research Breakthrough Puts New Spin on Robot Learning — from blogs.nvidia.com by Angie Lee
AI agent uses LLMs to automatically generate reward algorithms to train robots to accomplish complex tasks.

From DSC:
I’m not excited about this, as I can’t help but wonder…how long before the militaries of the world introduce this into their warfare schemes and strategies?


The 93 Questions Schools Should Ask About AI — from edweek.org by Alyson Klein

The toolkit recommends schools consider:

  • Purpose: How can AI help achieve educational goals?
  • Compliance: How does AI fit with existing policies?
  • Knowledge: How can schools advance AI Literacy?
  • Balance: What are the benefits and risks of AI?
  • Integrity: How does AI fit into policies on things like cheating?
  • Agency: How can humans stay in the loop on AI?
  • Evaluation: How can schools regularly assess the impact of AI?
 
 

As AI Chatbots Rise, More Educators Look to Oral Exams — With High-Tech Twist — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young

To use Sherpa, an instructor first uploads the reading they’ve assigned, or they can have the student upload a paper they’ve written. Then the tool asks a series of questions about the text (either questions input by the instructor or generated by the AI) to test the student’s grasp of key concepts. The software gives the instructor the choice of whether they want the tool to record audio and video of the conversation, or just audio.

The tool then uses AI to transcribe the audio from each student’s recording and flags areas where the student answer seemed off point. Teachers can review the recording or transcript of the conversation and look at what Sherpa flagged as trouble to evaluate the student’s response.

 

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

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

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





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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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


 

How new AI chatbots could help teachers with their toughest problems — from fastcompany.com by Greg Toppo
At least two groups are working on bots that would make peer-reviewed research, buried in expensive academic journals, accessible for everyday use.

But this fall, a few educators are quietly charting a different course they believe could change everything: At least two groups are pushing to create new AI chatbots that would offer teachers unlimited access to sometimes confusing and often paywalled peer-reviewed research on the topics that most bedevil them.

Their aspiration is to offer new tools that are more focused and helpful than wide-ranging ones like ChatGPT, which tends to stumble over research questions with competing findings. Like many juveniles faced with questions they can’t answer, it has a frustrating tendency to make things up.

Using ChatGPT Custom Instructions for Fun and Profit — from every.to by Dan Shipper
How to 10x ChatGPT with personalized answers 

Then, I turned Custom Instructions on and gave it the same starting prompt. Here are a few of the responses (emphases are mine):

Purpose: What’s the primary goal of the course? Is it to augment your existing offerings at Every, serve as a standalone product, or something else?”

Content Depth: Given your love for detailed, intellectual writing, how in-depth will you go on each topic?”

Guest Contributions: Do you plan to involve guest experts, perhaps even some of your writing heroes or team members like Kate Lee and Evan Armstrong?”

Time Investment: Given that you’re already grappling with being too opportunistic and dutiful, how will you allocate time for this without sidelining your creative work or burdening yourself?”

AI for comics — from aiandacademia.substack.com by Bryan Alexander
Exploring an entertaining new Hugging Face application

As generative AI grows, more uses appear. Beyond text and images, other domains for creation pop up as companies, groups, and individuals try out new functions.

Today’s case in point is AI Comic Factory from Hugging Face.* This service will generate a couple of comic book pages based on your text input. It gives you choices of comic style and page layout as well.

Items from Tom Barrett’ Promptcraft: AI for a better learning ecosystem

This new AI video tool clones your voice in 7 languages — and it’s blowing up  — from sg.news.yahoo.com by Christoph Schwaiger

How many languages do you speak? Thanks to AI, that number could be as many as seven. Los Angeles-based AI video platform HeyGen has launched a new tool that clones your voice from a video and translates what you’re saying into seven different languages. If that wasn’t enough, it also syncs your lips to your new voice so the final clip looks (and sounds) as realistic as possible.

Microsoft and Project Gutenberg release over 5,000 free audiobooks — from the-decoder.com by Matthias Bastian

Microsoft and Project Gutenberg have used AI technologies to create more than 5,000 free audiobooks with high-quality synthetic voices.

For the project, the researchers combined advances in machine learning, automatic text selection (which texts are read aloud, which are not), and natural-sounding speech synthesis systems.

 

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian