the downsides of technology - Learning Ecosystems

How AI will change Education: Part I | Transcend Newsletter #59 [Arenaza]

On 11/05/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, algorithms, art, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, assessment, assistive technologies, bots, change, colleges, community colleges, content development, copyright/ownership/NFTs, creativity, education, education technology, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, platforms, reading, teachers, teaching & learning, the downsides of technology, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

How AI will change Education: Part I | Transcend Newsletter #59 — from transcend.substack.com by Alberto Arenaza; with thanks to GSV’s Big 10 for this resource

Excerpt:

You’ve likely been reading for the last few minutes my arguments for why AI is going to change education. You may agree with some points, disagree with others…

Only, those were not my words.

An AI has written every single word in this essay up until here.

The only thing I wrote myself was the first sentence: Artificial Intelligence is going to revolutionize education. The images too, everything was generated by AI.

7 Technologies that are Changing Healthcare — from digitalsalutem.com by João Bocas

In this article we are going to talk about the seven technologies that are changing healthcare:

Artificial Intelligence
Blockchain
Virtual Reality
Robots
Mapping technologies
Big Data
Neurotechnology

This startup 3D prints tiny homes from recyclable plastics — from interestingengineering.com by Nergis Firtina; with thanks to Laura Goodrich for this resource

Satellite Billboards Are a Dystopian Future We Don’t Need — from gizmodo.com by George Dvorsky; with thanks to Laura Goodrich for this resource
Brightly lit ads in orbit are technologically and economically viable, say Russian scientists. But can we not?

South Korea to Provide Blockchain-based Digital Identities to Citizens by 2024 — from blockchain.news by Annie Li; with thanks to Laura Goodrich for this resource

Excerpt:

South Korea plans to provide digital identities encrypted by blockchain with smartphones to citizens in 2024 to facilitate its economic development., Bloomberg reported Monday.

The South Korean government stated that with the expansion of the digital economy, the ID embedded in the smartphone is an indispensable emerging technology to support the development of data.

From DSC:
Interesting to see blockchain show up in the first item above on healthcare and also on this item coming out of South Korea for digital identities.

The Bruce Willis Deepfake Is Everyone’s Problem — from wired.com by Will Bedingfield; with thanks to Stephen Downes for this resource
There’s a fight brewing over how Hollywood stars can protect their identities. But it’s not just actors who should be paying attention.

Excerpts:

Yet the question of “who owns Bruce Willis,” as Levy put it, isn’t only a concern for the Hollywood star and his representatives. It concerns actors unions across the world, fighting against contracts that exploit their members’ naivety about AI. And, for some experts, it’s a question that implicates everyone, portending a wilder, dystopian future—one in which identities are bought, sold, and seized.

“This is relevant not just to AI contracts [for synthetic performances], but any contract involving rights to one’s likeness and voice,” says Danielle S. Van Lier, assistant general counsel, intellectual property and contracts at SAG-AFTRA. “We have been seeing contracts that now include ‘simulation rights’ to performers’ images, voices, and performances. These contract terms are buried deep in the boilerplate of performance agreements in traditional media.”

Addendum on 10/26/22:

Blockchain and the Future of Medical Technology: Trends in Medicine — from intelligenthq.com

This Uncensored AI Art Tool Can Generate Fantasies—and Nightmares [Knight]

On 09/23/2022, in art, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, emerging technologies, ethics, health, morals/values, the downsides of technology, vendors, by Daniel Christian

This Uncensored AI Art Tool Can Generate Fantasies—and Nightmares — from wired.com by Will Knight
Open source project Stable Diffusion allows anyone to conjure images with algorithms, but some fear it will be used to create unethical horrors.

Excerpt:

Image generators like Stable Diffusion can create what look like real photographs or hand-crafted illustrations depicting just about anything a person can imagine. This is possible thanks to algorithms that learn to associate the properties of a vast collection of images taken from the web and image databases with their associated text labels. Algorithms learn to render new images to match a text prompt in a process that involves adding and removing random noise to an image.

Also relevant/see:

There’s a text-to-image AI art app for Mac now—and it will change everything — from fastcompany.com by Jesus Diaz
Diffusion Bee harnesses the power of the open source text-to-image AI Stable Diffusion, turning it into a one-click Mac App. Brace yourself for a new creativity Big Bang.

Speaking of AI, also see:

14 Real-World Applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Healthcare Industry — from marktechpost.com by Amreen Bawa

Radar Trends to Watch: September 2022 Developments in AI, Privacy, Biology, and More — from oreilly.com by Mike Loukides

Excerpt:

It’s hardly news to talk about the AI developments of the last month. DALL-E is increasingly popular, and being used in production. Google has built a robot that incorporates a large language model so that it can respond to verbal requests. And we’ve seen a plausible argument that natural language models can be made to reflect human values, without raising the question of consciousness or sentience.

For the first time in a long time we’re talking about the Internet of Things. We’ve got a lot of robots, and Chicago is attempting to make a “smart city” that doesn’t facilitate surveillance. We’re also seeing a lot in biology. Can we make a real neural network from cultured neurons? The big question for biologists is how long it will take for any of their research to make it out of the lab.

Ouch. “You just hired a deepfake. Get ready for the rise of imposter employees.” [Elgan]

On 08/22/2022, in algorithms, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, career development, content development, corporate / business world, ethics, morals/values, the downsides of technology, by Daniel Christian

You just hired a deepfake. Get ready for the rise of imposter employees. — from protocol.com by Mike Elgan
New technology — plus the pandemic remote work trend — is helping fraudsters use someone else’s identity to get a job.

Excerpt:

Companies have been increasingly complaining to the FBI about prospective employees using real-time deepfake video and deepfake audio for remote interviews, along with personally identifiable information (PII), to land jobs at American companies.

One place they’re likely getting the PII is through posting fake job openings, which enables them to harvest job candidate information, resumes and more, according to the FBI.

The main drivers appear to be money, espionage, access to company systems and unearned career advancement.

Two items re: the future of transportation / emerging technologies

On 07/14/2022, in Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, society, the downsides of technology, Uncategorized, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Forget the Jetsons. Transportation of the future will look more like ‘Westworld’ — from fastcompany.com
Futuristic public transportation projects are already in the works.

Excerpt:

THE NEXT GENERATION
The way we commute has already started to change. With next generation transportation projects, public transportation is becoming more efficient by employing self-driving buses and trains and installing automatic card-ticketing systems.

From DSC:
But we need to look out here. As we’ve seen before, not everything is so rosy with emerging technologies. See this next item for example:

Cruise’s Robot Car Outages Are Jamming Up San Francisco— from wired.com by Aarian Marshall
In a series of incidents, the GM subsidiary lost contact with its autonomous vehicles, leaving them frozen in traffic and trapping human drivers.

“A letter sent anonymously by a Cruise employee to the California Public Utilities Commission that month alleged that the company loses contact with its driverless vehicles ‘with regularity,’ blocking traffic and potentially hindering emergency vehicles.”

The Metaverse in 2040 [Anderson & Rainie]

On 07/03/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, Augmented Reality (AR), business, collaboration, communications, content aggregration, content development, content repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cryptocurrencies, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, immersion, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, Metaverse, Mixed Reality (MR), the downsides of technology, tools, trends, vendors, Virtual courts, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, Web3, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

The Metaverse in 2040 — from pewresearch.org by Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie
Hype? Hope? Hell? Maybe all three. Experts are split about the likely evolution of a truly immersive ‘metaverse.’ They expect that augmented- and mixed-reality enhancements will become more useful in people’s daily lives. Many worry that current online problems may be magnified if Web3 development is led by those who built today’s dominant web platforms

The metaverse will, at its core, be a collection of new and extended technologies. It is easy to imagine that both the best and the worst aspects of our online lives will be extended by being able to tap into a more-complete immersive experience, by being inside a digital space instead of looking at one from the outside.

Laurence Lannom, vice president at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives

“Virtual, augmented and mixed reality are the gateway to phenomenal applications in medicine, education, manufacturing, retail, workforce training and more, and it is the gateway to deeply social and immersive interactions – the metaverse.

Elizabeth Hyman, CEO for the XR Association

AI: Where are we now? — from educause.edu by EDUCAUSE
Is the use of AI in higher education today invisible? dynamic? perilous? Maybe it’s all three.

Also see:

Also relevant/see:

MLTut.com: A Website that helps learner’s to get everything in one place.

U.S. issues charges in first criminal cryptocurrency sanctions case [Hsu]

On 05/23/2022, in cryptocurrencies, emerging technologies, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, society, the downsides of technology, United States, by Daniel Christian

U.S. issues charges in first criminal cryptocurrency sanctions case — from washingtonpost.com by Spencer S. Hsu
Federal judge finds U.S. sanctions laws apply to $10 million in Bitcoin sent by American citizen to a country blacklisted by Washington

Excerpt:

The Justice Department has launched its first criminal prosecution involving the alleged use of cryptocurrency to evade U.S. economic sanctions, a federal judge disclosed Friday.

Ransomware is already out of control. AI-powered ransomware could be ‘terrifying.’ [Alspach]

On 05/16/2022, in Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, computer science, emerging technologies, future, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), the downsides of technology, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, by Daniel Christian

Ransomware is already out of control. AI-powered ransomware could be ‘terrifying.’ — from protocol.com by Kyle Alspach
Hiring AI experts to automate ransomware could be the next step for well-endowed ransomware groups that are seeking to scale up their attacks.

Excerpt:

In the perpetual battle between cybercriminals and defenders, the latter have always had one largely unchallenged advantage: The use of AI and machine learning allows them to automate a lot of what they do, especially around detecting and responding to attacks. This leg-up hasn’t been nearly enough to keep ransomware at bay, but it has still been far more than what cybercriminals have ever been able to muster in terms of AI and automation.

That’s because deploying AI-powered ransomware would require AI expertise. And the ransomware gangs don’t have it. At least not yet.

But given the wealth accumulated by a number of ransomware gangs in recent years, it may not be long before attackers do bring aboard AI experts of their own, prominent cybersecurity authority Mikko Hyppönen said.

Also re: AI, see:

Nuance partners with The Academy to launch The AI Collaborative — from artificialintelligence-news.com by Ryan Daws

Excerpt:

Nuance has partnered with The Health Management Academy (The Academy) to launch The AI Collaborative, an industry group focused on advancing healthcare using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Nuance became a household name for creating the speech engine recognition engine behind Siri. In recent years, the company has put a strong focus on AI solutions for healthcare and is now a full-service partner of 77 percent of US hospitals and is trusted by over 500,000 physicians daily.

Inflection AI, led by LinkedIn and DeepMind co-founders, raises $225M to transform computer-human interactions — from techcrunch.com by Kyle Wiggers

Excerpts:

Inflection AI, the machine learning startup headed by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and founding DeepMind member Mustafa Suleyman, has secured $225 million in equity financing, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
…
“[Programming languages, mice, and other interfaces] are ways we simplify our ideas and reduce their complexity and in some ways their creativity and their uniqueness in order to get a machine to do something,” Suleyman told the publication. “It feels like we’re on the cusp of being able to generate language to pretty much human-level performance. It opens up a whole new suite of things that we can do in the product space.”

AI research is a dumpster fire and Google’s holding the matches — from thenextweb.com by Tristan Greene
Scientific endeavor is no match for corporate greed

Excerpts:

The world of AI research is in shambles. From the academics prioritizing easy-to-monetize schemes over breaking novel ground, to the Silicon Valley elite using the threat of job loss to encourage corporate-friendly hypotheses, the system is a broken mess.

And Google deserves a lion’s share of the blame.
…
Google, more than any other company, bears responsibility for the modern AI paradigm. That means we need to give big G full marks for bringing natural language processing and image recognition to the masses.

It also means we can credit Google with creating the researcher-eat-researcher environment that has some college students and their big-tech-partnered professors treating research papers as little more than bait for venture capitalists and corporate headhunters.

But the system’s set up to encourage the monetization of algorithms first, and to further the field second. In order for this to change, big tech and academia both need to commit to wholesale reform in how research is presented and reviewed.

Also relevant/see:

Every month Essentials publish an Industry Trend Report on AI in general and the following related topics:

AI Research
AI Applied Use Cases
AI Ethics
AI Robotics
AI Marketing
AI Cybersecurity
AI Healthcare

It’s never too early to get your AI ethics right — from protocol.com by Veronica Irwin
The Ethical AI Governance Group wants to give startups a framework for avoiding scandals and blunders while deploying new technology.

Excerpt:

To solve this problem, a group of consultants, venture capitalists and executives in AI created the Ethical AI Governance Group last September. In March, it went public, and published a survey-style “continuum” for investors to use in advising the startups in their portfolio.

The continuum conveys clear guidance for startups at various growth stages, recommending that startups have people in charge of AI governance and data privacy strategy, for example. EAIGG leadership argues that using the continuum will protect VC portfolios from value-destroying scandals.

12 examples of artificial intelligence in everyday life — from itproportal.com by Christopher Oldman

Excerpt:

4. Plagiarism
The college students’ (or is it professor’s?) nightmare. Whether you are a content manager or a teacher grading essays, you have the same problem – the internet makes plagiarism easier.

There is a nigh unlimited amount of information and data out there, and less-than-scrupulous students and employees will readily take advantage of that.

Indeed, no human could compare and contrast somebody’s essay with all the data out there. AIs are a whole different beast.

They can sift through an insane amount of information, compare it with the relevant text, and see if there is a match or not.

Furthermore, thanks to advancement and growth in this area, some tools can actually check sources in foreign languages, as well as images and audio.

Intel calls its AI that detects student emotions a teaching tool. Others call it ‘morally reprehensible.’ — from protocol.com by Kate Kaye
Virtual school software startup Classroom Technologies will test the controversial “emotion AI” technology.

Excerpts:

But Intel and Classroom Technologies, which sells virtual school software called Class, think there might be a better way. The companies have partnered to integrate an AI-based technology developed by Intel with Class, which runs on top of Zoom. Intel claims its system can detect whether students are bored, distracted or confused by assessing their facial expressions and how they’re interacting with educational content.
…
But critics argue that it is not possible to accurately determine whether someone is feeling bored, confused, happy or sad based on their facial expressions or other external signals.
…
The classroom is just one arena where controversial “emotion AI” is finding its way into everyday tech products and generating investor interest. It’s also seeping into delivery and passenger vehicles and virtual sales and customer service software.

MIT’s FutureMakers programs help kids get their minds around — and hands on — AI — from news.mit.edu by Kim Patch
The programs are designed to foster an understanding of how artificial intelligence technologies work, including their social implications.

Excerpt:

During one-week, themed FutureMakers Workshops organized around key topics related to AI, students learn how AI technologies work, including social implications, then build something that uses AI.

“AI is shaping our behaviors, it’s shaping the way we think, it’s shaping the way we learn, and a lot of people aren’t even aware of that,” says Breazeal. “People now need to be AI literate given how AI is rapidly changing digital literacy and digital citizenship.”

AI can now kill those annoying cookie pop-ups — from thenextweb.com by Thomas Macaulay
The notifications have been put on notice

Excerpt:

After years of suffering this digital torture, a new AI tool has finally offered hope of an escape.

Named CookieEnforcer, the system was created by researchers from Google and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The system was created to stop cookies from manipulating people into making website-friendly choices that put their privacy at risk. Yet it could also end the constant hassle of navigating the notices.

Using machine learning to improve student success in higher education — from mckinsey.com
Deploying machine learning and advanced analytics thoughtfully and to their full potential may support improvements in student access, success, and the overall student experience.

Excerpt:

Yet higher education is still in the early stages of data capability building. With universities facing many challenges (such as financial pressures, the demographic cliff, and an uptick in student mental-health issues) and a variety of opportunities (including reaching adult learners and scaling online learning), expanding use of advanced analytics and machine learning may prove beneficial.

Below, we share some of the most promising use cases for advanced analytics in higher education to show how universities are capitalizing on those opportunities to overcome current challenges, both enabling access for many more students and improving the student experience.

Artificial intelligence (AI): 7 roles to prioritize now — from enterprisersproject.com by Marc Lewis
Which artificial intelligence (AI) jobs are hottest now? Consider these seven AI/ML roles to prioritize in your organization

Excerpt:

Rather than a Great Resignation, this would suggest a Great Reallocation of the workforce. As a global search consultant, we are seeing this precipitous shift in positions, with great demand for skills in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML).

With that in mind, here are seven artificial intelligence (AI)-related roles to consider prioritizing right now as the workforce reallocates talent to new jobs that drive economic value for leading companies…

4 ways AI will be a great teaching assistant — from thetechedvocate.org by Matthew Lynch

Web3 Security: Attack Types and Lessons Learned [Faizullabhoy & Gleason]

On 04/26/2022, in IT in HE, the downsides of technology, Web3, by Daniel Christian

Web3 Security: Attack Types and Lessons Learned — from a16z.com by Riyaz Faizullabhoy and Matt Gleason

Excerpt:

A good deal of web3 security rests on blockchains’ special ability to make commitments and to be resilient to human intervention. But the related feature of finality – where transactions are generally irreversible – makes these software-controlled networks a tempting target for attackers. Indeed, as blockchains – the distributed computer networks that are the foundation of web3 – and their accompanying technologies and applications accrue value, they become increasingly coveted targets for attackers.

Despite web3’s differences from earlier iterations of the internet, we’ve observed commonalities with previous software security trends. In many cases, the biggest problems remain the same as ever. By studying these areas, defenders – whether builders, security teams, or everyday crypto users – can better guard themselves, their projects, and their wallets against would-be thieves. Below we present some common themes and projections based on our experience.

Reflections on “Do We Really Want Academic Permanent Records to Live Forever on Blockchain?” [Bohnke]

On 03/19/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Alternatives, analytics, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, Blockchain, business, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, content aggregration, content repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, elearning, formal learning, future, future of higher education, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, love of learning, microlearning, more voice more choice more control, online learning, open courseware and systems, participation, Personal Learning Networks (PLNs), professional development, project-based learning, publishing, real-world assignments, social learning / networks, society, student-related, technologies for your home, the downsides of technology, training / L&D, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Christin Bohnke raises a great and timely question out at edsurge.com in her article entitled:
Do We Really Want Academic Permanent Records to Live Forever on Blockchain?

Christin does a wonderful job of addressing the possibilities — but also the challenges — of using blockchain for educational/learning-related applications. She makes a great point that the time to look at this carefully is now:

Yet as much as unchangeable education records offer new chances, they also create new challenges. Setting personal and academic information in stone may actually counter the mission of education to help people evolve over time. The time to assess the benefits and drawbacks of blockchain technology is right now, before adoption in schools and universities is widespread.

As Christin mentions, blockchain technology can be used to store more than formal certification data. It could also store such informal certification data such as “research experience, individual projects and skills, mentoring or online learning.”

The keeping of extensive records via blockchain certainly raises numerous questions. Below are a few that come to my mind:

Will this type of record-keeping help or hurt in terms of career development and moving to a different job?
Will — or should — CMS/LMS vendors enable this type of feature/service in their products?
Should credentials from the following sources be considered relevant?
- Microlearning-based streams of content
- Data from open courseware/courses
- Learning that we do via our Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) and social networks
- Learning that we get from alternatives such as bootcamps, coding schools, etc.
Will the keeping of records impact the enjoyment of learning — or vice versa? Or will it depend upon the person?
Will there be more choice, more control — or less so?
To what (granular) level of competency-based education should we go? Or from project-based learning?
Could instructional designers access learners’ profiles to provide more personalized learning experiences?
…and I’m certain there are more questions than these.

All that said…

To me, the answers to these questions — and likely other questions as well — lie in:

Giving a person a chance to learn, practice, and then demonstrate the required skills (regardless of the data the potential employer has access to)
.
Giving each user the right to own their own data — and to release it as they see fit. Each person should have the capability of managing their own information/data without having to have the skills of a software engineer or a database administrator. When something is written to a blockchain, there would be a field for who owns — and can administer — the data.

In the case of finding a good fit/job, a person could use a standardized interface to generate a URL that is sent out to a potential employer. That URL would be good for X days. The URL gives the potential employer the right to access whatever data has been made available to them. It could be full access, in which case the employer is able to run their own queries/searches on the data. Or the learner could restrict the potential employer’s reach to a more limited subset of data.

Visually, speaking:

I still have a lot more thinking to do about this, but that’s where I’m at as of today. Have a good one all!

Learning Ecosystems

Five items re: emerging technologies

This Uncensored AI Art Tool Can Generate Fantasies—and Nightmares [Knight]

Radar Trends to Watch: September 2022 [Loukides]

Ouch. “You just hired a deepfake. Get ready for the rise of imposter employees.” [Elgan]

Two items re: the future of transportation / emerging technologies

The Metaverse in 2040 [Anderson & Rainie]

AI: Where are we now? [EDUCAUSE]

U.S. issues charges in first criminal cryptocurrency sanctions case [Hsu]

Ransomware is already out of control. AI-powered ransomware could be ‘terrifying.’ [Alspach]

“AI research is a dumpster fire and Google’s holding the matches” [Greene] + two other items re: AI

“12 examples of artificial intelligence in everyday life” [Oldman] + 6 other AI-related items

Web3 Security: Attack Types and Lessons Learned [Faizullabhoy & Gleason]

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