platforms

How AI Is Already Transforming the News Business — from politico.com by Jack Shafer
An expert explains the promise and peril of artificial intelligence.

The early vibrations of AI have already been shaking the newsroom. One downside of the new technology surfaced at CNET and Sports Illustrated, where editors let AI run amok with disastrous results. Elsewhere in news media, AI is already writing headlines, managing paywalls to increase subscriptions, performing transcriptions, turning stories in audio feeds, discovering emerging stories, fact checking, copy editing and more.

Felix M. Simon, a doctoral candidate at Oxford, recently published a white paper about AI’s journalistic future that eclipses many early studies. Swinging a bat from a crouch that is neither doomer nor Utopian, Simon heralds both the downsides and promise of AI’s introduction into the newsroom and the publisher’s suite.

Unlike earlier technological revolutions, AI is poised to change the business at every level. It will become — if it already isn’t — the beginning of most story assignments and will become, for some, the new assignment editor. Used effectively, it promises to make news more accurate and timely. Used frivolously, it will spawn an ocean of spam. Wherever the production and distribution of news can be automated or made “smarter,” AI will surely step up. But the future has not yet been written, Simon counsels. AI in the newsroom will be only as bad or good as its developers and users make it.

Also see:

Artificial Intelligence in the News: How AI Retools, Rationalizes, and Reshapes Journalism and the Public Arena — from cjr.org by Felix Simon

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Nvidia just launched Chat with RTX

It leaves ChatGPT in the dust.

Here are 7 incredible things RTX can do: pic.twitter.com/H6K4oJtNcH

— Poonam Soni (@CodeByPoonam) March 2, 2024

EMO: Emote Portrait Alive – Generating Expressive Portrait Videos with Audio2Video Diffusion Model under Weak Conditions — from humanaigc.github.io Linrui Tian, Qi Wang, Bang Zhang, and Liefeng Bo

We proposed EMO, an expressive audio-driven portrait-video generation framework. Input a single reference image and the vocal audio, e.g. talking and singing, our method can generate vocal avatar videos with expressive facial expressions, and various head poses, meanwhile, we can generate videos with any duration depending on the length of input video.

Adobe previews new cutting-edge generative AI tools for crafting and editing custom audio — from blog.adobe.com by the Adobe Research Team

New experimental work from Adobe Research is set to change how people create and edit custom audio and music. An early-stage generative AI music generation and editing tool, Project Music GenAI Control allows creators to generate music from text prompts, and then have fine-grained control to edit that audio for their precise needs.

“With Project Music GenAI Control, generative AI becomes your co-creator. It helps people craft music for their projects, whether they’re broadcasters, or podcasters, or anyone else who needs audio that’s just the right mood, tone, and length,” says Nicholas Bryan, Senior Research Scientist at Adobe Research and one of the creators of the technologies.

How AI copyright lawsuits could make the whole industry go extinct — from theverge.com by Nilay Patel
The New York Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI is part of a broader, industry-shaking copyright challenge that could define the future of AI.

There’s a lot going on in the world of generative AI, but maybe the biggest is the increasing number of copyright lawsuits being filed against AI companies like OpenAI and Stability AI. So for this episode, we brought on Verge features editor Sarah Jeong, who’s a former lawyer just like me, and we’re going to talk about those cases and the main defense the AI companies are relying on in those copyright cases: an idea called fair use.

FCC officially declares AI-voiced robocalls illegal — from techcrunch.com by Devom Coldewey

The FCC’s war on robocalls has gained a new weapon in its arsenal with the declaration of AI-generated voices as “artificial” and therefore definitely against the law when used in automated calling scams. It may not stop the flood of fake Joe Bidens that will almost certainly trouble our phones this election season, but it won’t hurt, either.

The new rule, contemplated for months and telegraphed last week, isn’t actually a new rule — the FCC can’t just invent them with no due process. Robocalls are just a new term for something largely already prohibited under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act: artificial and pre-recorded messages being sent out willy-nilly to every number in the phone book (something that still existed when they drafted the law).

EIEIO…Chips Ahoy! — from dashmedia.co by Michael Moe, Brent Peus, and Owen Ritz

Here Come the AI Worms — from wired.com by Matt Burgess
Security researchers created an AI worm in a test environment that can automatically spread between generative AI agents—potentially stealing data and sending spam emails along the way.

Now, in a demonstration of the risks of connected, autonomous AI ecosystems, a group of researchers have created one of what they claim are the first generative AI worms—which can spread from one system to another, potentially stealing data or deploying malware in the process. “It basically means that now you have the ability to conduct or to perform a new kind of cyberattack that hasn’t been seen before,” says Ben Nassi, a Cornell Tech researcher behind the research.

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.

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.

“Generative AI’s environmental costs are soaring — and mostly secret” [Crawford] + other items re: AI in general

On 02/27/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, emerging technologies, Google, history, legislatures / government / legal, NVIDIA, Open AI, platforms, podcasting, robotics, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Generative AI’s environmental costs are soaring — and mostly secret — from nature.com by Kate Crawfold
First-of-its-kind US bill would address the environmental costs of the technology, but there’s a long way to go.

Last month, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman finally admitted what researchers have been saying for years — that the artificial intelligence (AI) industry is heading for an energy crisis. It’s an unusual admission. At the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Altman warned that the next wave of generative AI systems will consume vastly more power than expected, and that energy systems will struggle to cope. “There’s no way to get there without a breakthrough,” he said.

I’m glad he said it. I’ve seen consistent downplaying and denial about the AI industry’s environmental costs since I started publishing about them in 2018. Altman’s admission has got researchers, regulators and industry titans talking about the environmental impact of generative AI.

Get ready for the age of sovereign AI | Jensen Huang interview— from venturebeat.com by Dean Takahashi

Yesterday, Nvidia reported $22.1 billion in revenue for its fourth fiscal quarter of fiscal 2024 (ending January 31, 2024), easily topping Wall Street’s expectations. The revenues grew 265% from a year ago, thanks to the explosive growth of generative AI.
…
He also repeated a notion about “sovereign AI.” This means that countries are protecting the data of their users and companies are protecting data of employees through “sovereign AI,” where the large-language models are contained within the borders of the country or the company for safety purposes.

??BREAKING: Adobe has created a new 50-person AI research org called CAVA (Co-Creation for Audio, Video, & Animation).

I can’t help but wonder if OpenAI’s Sora has been a wake up call for Adobe to formalize and accelerate their video and multimodal creation efforts?

While… pic.twitter.com/wI3pBlfTtq

— Bilawal Sidhu (@bilawalsidhu) February 20, 2024

Yikes, Google — from theneurondaily.com by Noah Edelman
PLUS: racially diverse nazis…WTF?!

Google shoots itself in the foot.
Last week was the best AND worst week for Google re AI.

The good news is that its upcoming Gemini 1.5 Pro model showcases remarkable capabilities with its expansive context window (details forthcoming).

The bad news is Google’s AI chatbot “Gemini” is getting A LOT of heat after generating some outrageous responses. Take a look:

Also from the Daily:

Perplexity just dropped this new podcast, Discover Daily, that recaps the news in 3-4 minutes.
It already broke into the top #200 news pods within a week.
AND it’s all *100% AI-generated*.

Daily Digest: It’s Nvidia’s world…and we’re just living in it. — from bensbites.beehiiv.com

Nvidia is building a new type of data centre called AI factory. Every company—biotech, self-driving, manufacturing, etc will need an AI factory.
Jensen is looking forward to foundational robotics and state space models. According to him, foundational robotics could have a breakthrough next year.
The crunch for Nvidia GPUs is here to stay. It won’t be able to catch up on supply this year. Probably not next year too.
A new generation of GPUs called Blackwell is coming out, and the performance of Blackwell is off the charts.
Nvidia’s business is now roughly 70% inference and 30% training, meaning AI is getting into users’ hands.

Gemma: Introducing new state-of-the-art open models — from blog.google

Adobe Acrobat gets an AI assistant and how might Sora change the creator economy

On 02/21/2024, in 24x7x365 access, Adobe, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, collaboration, communications, creativity, digital storytelling, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, story, storytelling, tools, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Adobe Brings Conversational AI to Trillions of PDFs with the New AI Assistant in Reader and Acrobat — from news.adobe.com; via AI Secret

.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – [On 2/20/23], Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) introduced AI Assistant in beta, a new generative AI-powered conversational engine in Reader and Acrobat.
…
Simply open Reader or Acrobat and start working with the new capabilities, including:

AI Assistant: AI Assistant recommends questions based on a PDF’s content and answers questions about what’s in the document – all through an intuitive conversational interface.
Generative summary: Get a quick understanding of the content inside long documents with short overviews in easy-to-read formats.
Intelligent citations: Adobe’s custom attribution engine and proprietary AI generate citations so customers can easily verify the source of AI Assistant’s answers.
Easy navigation:
Formatted output:
Respect for customer data:
Beyond PDF: Customers can use AI Assistant with all kinds of document formats (Word, PowerPoint, meeting transcripts, etc.)

Along these lines, also see:

Adobe Acrobat gets an AI assistant. — from bensbites.beehiiv.com
Adobe Acrobat — from adobe.com

5 ways Sora AI will change the creator economy and how to take advantage of that — from techthatmatters.beehiiv.com by Harsh Makadia

Essential skills to thrive with Sora AI
The realm of video editing isn’t about cutting and splicing.

A Video Editor should learn a diverse set of skills to earn money, such as:

Prompt Writing
Software Mastery
Problem-solving skills
Collaboration and communication skills
Creative storytelling and visual aesthetics

Invest in those skills that give you a competitive edge.

The text file that runs the internet — from theverge.com by David Pierce
For decades, robots.txt governed the behavior of web crawlers. But as unscrupulous AI companies seek out more and more data, the basic social contract of the web is falling apart.

“Startup Alley Competition Proves It Continues To Be All About AI” [Patrice] + other legaltech related items

On 02/19/2024, in emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, ethics, experimentation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, platforms, privacy, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, tools, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, by Daniel Christian

AI-related tools and tips dominate ’60 in 60′ Techshow session — from abajournal.com by Danielle Braff

Four days of seminars, lectures and demonstrations at the 39th annual ABA Techshow boiled down to Saturday morning’s grand finale, where panelists rounded up their favorite tech tips and apps. The underlying theme: artificial intelligence.

“It’s an amazing tool, but it’s kind of scary, so watch out,” said Cynthia Thomas, the Techshow co-chair, and owner of PLMC & Associates, talking about the new tool from OpenAI, Sora, which takes text and turns it into video.

Other panelists during the traditional Techshow closer, “60 sites, 60 tips and gadgets and gizmos,” highlighted a wide of AI-enabled or augmented tools to help users perform a large range of tasks, including quickly sift through user reviews for products, generate content, or keep up-to-date on the latest AI tools. For those looking for a non-AI tips and tools, they also suggested several devices, websites, tips and apps that have helped them with their practice and with life in general.

ABA Techshow 2024: Ethics in the Age of Legal Technology — from bnnbreaking.com by Rafia Tasleem

ABA Techshow 2024 stressed the importance of ethics in legal technology adoption. Ethics lawyer Stuart I. Teicher warned of the potential data breaches and urged attorneys to be proactive in understanding and supervising new tools. Education and oversight are key to maintaining data protection and integrity.

Startup Alley Competition Proves It Continues To Be All About AI — from abovethelaw.com by Joe Patrice

Though it might be more accurate to call TECHSHOW an industry showcase because with each passing year it seems that more and more of the show involves other tech companies looking to scoop up enterprising new companies. A tone that’s set by the conference’s opening event: the annual Startup Alley pitch competition.

This year, 15 companies presented. If you were taking a shot every time someone mentioned “AI” then my condolences because you are now dead. If you included “machine learning” or “large language model” then you’ve died, come back as a zombie, and been killed again.

Here Are the Winners of ABA Techshow’s 8th Annual Startup Alley Pitch Competition — from lawnext.com by Bob Ambrogi

Here were the companies that won the top three spots:

AltFee, a product that helps law firms replace the billable hour with fixed-fee pricing.
Skribe.ai, an alternative to traditional court reporting that promises “a better way to take testimony.”
Paxton AI, an AI legal assistant.

Class action firms ask US federal courts to encourage virtual testimony — from reuters.com by Nate Raymond

Summary:

Lawyers at Hagens Berman are leading charge to change rules
Proposal asks judiciary to ‘effectuate a long overdue modernization’ of rules

Text to video via OpenAI’s Sora. (I had taken this screenshot on the 15th, but am posting it now.)

We’re teaching AI to understand and simulate the physical world in motion, with the goal of training models that help people solve problems that require real-world interaction.

Introducing Sora, our text-to-video model. Sora can generate videos up to a minute long while maintaining visual quality and adherence to the user’s prompt.

Along these lines, also see:

Pika; via Superhuman AI

? BREAKING: OpenAI just announced their new Text-To-Video model called Sora.

Look at these 10 insane examples:

1. Space movie trailer featuring a man wearing a red wool knitted motorcycle helmet pic.twitter.com/Z8ezF69Tar

— Alvaro Cintas (@dr_cintas) February 15, 2024

An Ivy League school just announced its first AI degree — from qz.com by Michelle Cheng; via Barbara Anna Zielonka on LinkedIn
It’s a sign of the times. At the same time, AI talent is scarce

At the University of Pennsylvania, undergraduate students in its school of engineering will soon be able to study for a bachelor of science degree in artificial intelligence.

What can one do with an AI degree? The University of Pennsylvania says students will be able to apply the skills they learn in school to build responsible AI tools, develop materials for emerging chips and hardware, and create AI-driven breakthroughs in healthcare through new antibiotics, among other things.

Google Pumps $27 Million Into AI Training After Microsoft Pledge—Here’s What To Know — from forbes.com by Robert Hart

Google on Monday announced plans to help train people in Europe with skills in artificial intelligence, the latest tech giant to invest in preparing workers and economies amid the disruption brought on by technologies they are racing to develop.

The Exhausting Pace of AI: Google’s Ultra Leap — from marcwatkins.substack.com by Marc Watkins

The acceleration of AI deployments has gotten so absurdly out of hand that a draft post I started a week ago about a new development is now out of date.
…
The Pace is Out of Control
A mere week since Ultra 1.0’s announcement, Google has now introduced us to Ultra 1.5, a model they are clearly positioning to be the leader in the field. Here is the full technical report for Gemini Ultra 1.5, and what it can do is stunning.

Maryville Announces $21 Million Investment in AI and New Technologies Amidst Record Growth — from maryville.edu; via Arthur “Art” Fredrich on LinkedIn

[St. Louis, MO, February 14, 2024] – In a bold move that counters the conventions of more traditional schools, Maryville University has unveiled a substantial $21 million multi-year investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and cutting-edge technologies. This groundbreaking initiative is set to transform the higher education experience to be powered by the latest technology to support student success and a five-star experience for thousands of students both on-campus and online.

GPT-4 Image Recognition: An Absolute Game Changer in Accessibility [American Foundation for the Blind]

On 02/19/2024, in accessibility / UDL, Apple, assistive technologies, experimentation, global / globalization, Google, human-computer interaction (HCI), platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, society, tools, United States, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, wearables, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I recently ran into the following item:

UK university opens VR classroom — from inavateonthenet.net

Students at the University of Nottingham will be learning through a dedicated VR classroom, enabling remote viewing and teaching for students and lecturers.

Based in the university’s Engineering Science and Learning Centre (ELSC), this classroom, believed to be the first in the UK to use a dedicated VR classroom, using 40 VR headsets, 35 of which are tethered overhead to individual PCs, with five available as traditional, desk-based systems with display screens.

I admit that I was excited to see this article and I congratulate the University of Nottingham on their vision here. I hope that they can introduce more use cases and applications to provide evidence of VR’s headway.

As I look at virtual reality…

On the plus side, I’ve spoken with people who love to use their VR-based headsets for fun workouts/exercises. I’ve witnessed the sweat, so I know that’s true. And I believe there is value in having the ability to walk through museums that one can’t afford to get to. And I’m sure that the gamers have found some incredibly entertaining competitions out there. The experience of being immersed can be highly engaging. So there are some niche use cases for sure.
But on the negative side, the technologies surrounding VR haven’t progressed as much as I thought they would have by now. For example, I’m disappointed Apple’s taken so long to put a product out there, and I don’t want to invest $3500 in their new product. From the reviews and items on social media that I’ve seen, the reception is lukewarm. At the most basic level, I’m not sure people want to wear a headset for more than a few minutes.

So overall, I’d like to see more use cases and less nausea.

Addendum on 2/27/24:

Leyard ‘wall of wonder’ wows visitors at Molecular Biology Lab — from inavateonthenet.net

OpenAI is testing ChatGPT’s ability to remember things + other items re: AI in general

On 02/14/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, education technology, emerging technologies, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, Open AI, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, youth, by Daniel Christian

We’re testing ChatGPT’s ability to remember things you discuss to make future chats more helpful.

This feature is being rolled out to a small portion of Free and Plus users, and it’s easy to turn on or off. https://t.co/1Tv355oa7V pic.twitter.com/BsFinBSTbs

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) February 13, 2024

From DSC:
This would be huge for all of our learning ecosystems, as the learning agents could remember where a particular student or employee is at in terms of their learning curve for a particular topic.

Say What? Chat With RTX Brings Custom Chatbot to NVIDIA RTX AI PCs — from blogs.nvidia.com
Tech demo gives anyone with an RTX GPU the power of a personalized GPT chatbot.

? BREAKING: Nvidia just released Chat with RTX, an AI chatbot that runs locally on your PC.

It can summarize or search documents across your PC's files and even YouTube videos and playlists.

The chatbot runs locally, meaning results are fast, you can use it without the… pic.twitter.com/je3gzOs45I

— Rowan Cheung (@rowancheung) February 13, 2024

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

Use cases included:

Personalized Lessons
Course Design
Content Creation for Courses
Data Privacy Protection for Analytical Models
Restoring Old Learning Materials
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 Learning, we 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).

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.

“Your guide to AI: February 2024” [Benaich & Chalmers] + other items re: AI in general

On 02/05/2024, in Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, digital video, emerging technologies, Google, Microsoft, multimedia, platforms, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Your guide to AI: February 2024 — from nathanbenaich.substack.com by Nathan Benaich & Alex Chalmers

Areas covered include:

Policy
The (geo)politics of AI
Hardware
Big tech start-ups
Research
Startups
Exits

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Text-to-Video with Google’s Lumiere

Introducing Lumiere ??

The new video diffusion model we’ve been working on @GoogleAI

* Text-to-Video
* Image-to-Video
* Stylized Generation
* Inpainting
* Cinemagraphs
and more ?

W/ amazing team incl. @hila_chefer @omer_tov @InbarMosseri @talidekel @DeqingSun @oliver_wang2 pic.twitter.com/jEQcFo26Gm

— Omer Bar Tal (@omerbartal) January 24, 2024

Amazon announces Rufus, a new generative AI-powered conversational shopping experience — from aboutamazon.com by Rajiv Mehta

Rufus is an expert shopping assistant trained on Amazon’s product catalog and information from across the web to answer customer questions on shopping needs, products, and comparisons, make recommendations based on this context, and facilitate product discovery in the same Amazon shopping experience customers use regularly.

Launching [2/1/24] in beta to a small subset of customers in Amazon’s mobile app, Rufus will progressively roll out to additional U.S. customers in the coming weeks.

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/staff, 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.

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

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.

Learning Ecosystems

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

“Startup Alley Competition Proves It Continues To Be All About AI” [Patrice] + other legaltech related items

GPT-4 Image Recognition: An Absolute Game Changer in Accessibility [American Foundation for the Blind]

VR is still worth pulse-checking, but use cases need to make headway. [Christian]

Hologram lecturers thrill students at trailblazing UK university [Hall]

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