tools

Numerous items re: OpenAI o1, Microsoft Copilot, Google’s Notebook LM, and AI in general

On 09/17/2024, in Artificial Intelligence / Agents / LLMs / and Related, education technology, emerging technologies, Google, innovation, Microsoft, Open AI, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, tools, United States, by Daniel Christian

Today we rolled out OpenAI o1-preview and o1-mini to all ChatGPT Plus/Team users & Tier 5 developers in the API.

o1 marks the start of a new era in AI, where models are trained to “think” before answering through a private chain of thought. The more time they take to think, the…

— Mira Murati (@miramurati) September 13, 2024

This is @Google‘s wow moment in AI.
Notebook LM can generate engaging podcasts on your uploaded material for FREE.
I tested it with uploading the latest issue of the Tensor, it generated a podcast for me within 2 mins.

This is going to change things. Incredible work.… pic.twitter.com/WylBFfcXnH

— Dev Sharma (@devsharma_8) September 12, 2024

This list features both some of the best Newsletters on AI and people who make LinkedIn posts about AI papers, advances and breakthroughs. In today’s article we’ll be meeting the first 19-34, in a list of 180+.

Newsletter Writers
YouTubers
Engineers
Researchers who write
Technologists who are Creators
AI Educators
AI Evangelists of various kinds
Futurism writers and authors

I have been sharing the list in reverse chronological order on LinkedIn here.

Inside Google’s 7-Year Mission to Give AI a Robot Body — from wired.com by Hans Peter Brondmo
As the head of Alphabet’s AI-powered robotics moonshot, I came to believe many things. For one, robots can’t come soon enough. For another, they shouldn’t look like us.

Learning to Reason with LLMs — from openai.com
We are introducing OpenAI o1, a new large language model trained with reinforcement learning to perform complex reasoning. o1 thinks before it answers—it can produce a long internal chain of thought before responding to the user.

Items re: Microsoft Copilot:

Microsoft Copilot’s Wave 2 is here. Everything you need to know — from zdnet.com by Sabrina Ortiz
Microsoft has released several Copilot upgrades to compete with OpenAI’s models.
Unveiling Copilot agents built with Microsoft Copilot Studio to supercharge your business — from microsoft.com by Charles Lamanna
Presentation out on LinkedIn: Microsoft 365 Copilot: Wave 2 — by Satya Nadella and Jared Spataro

Also see this next video re: Copilot Pages:

Sal Khan on the critical human skills for an AI age — from time.com by Kevin J. Delaney

As a preview of the upcoming Summit interview, here are Khan’s views on two critical questions, edited for space and clarity:

What are the enduring human work skills in a world with ever-advancing AI? Some people say students should study liberal arts. Others say deep domain expertise is the key to remaining professionally relevant. Others say you need to have the skills of a manager to be able to delegate to AI. What do you think are the skills or competencies that ensure continued relevance professionally, employability, etc.?
A lot of organizations are thinking about skills-based approaches to their talent. It involves questions like, ‘Does someone know how to do this thing or not?’ And what are the ways in which they can learn it and have some accredited way to know they actually have done it? That is one of the ways in which people use Khan Academy. Do you have a view of skills-based approaches within workplaces, and any thoughts on how AI tutors and training fit within that context?

Today, I’m excited to share with you all the fruit of our effort at @OpenAI to create AI models capable of truly general reasoning: OpenAI’s new o1 model series! (aka ?) Let me explain ? 1/ pic.twitter.com/aVGAkb9kxV

— Noam Brown (@polynoamial) September 12, 2024

Introducing OpenAI o1 – from openai.com

We’ve developed a new series of AI models designed to spend more time thinking before they respond. Here is the latest news on o1 research, product and other updates.

The wait is over. OpenAI has just released GPT-5, now called OpenAI o1.

It brings advanced reasoning capabilities and can generate entire video games from a single prompt.

Think of it as ChatGPT evolving from fast, intuitive thinking (System-1) to deeper, more deliberate… pic.twitter.com/uAMihaUjol

— Lior? (@AlphaSignalAI) September 12, 2024

OpenAI Strawberry (o1) is out! We are finally seeing the paradigm of inference-time scaling popularized and deployed in production. As Sutton said in the Bitter Lesson, there’re only 2 techniques that scale indefinitely with compute: learning & search. It’s time to shift focus to… pic.twitter.com/jTViQucwxr

— Jim Fan (@DrJimFan) September 12, 2024

Something New: On OpenAI’s “Strawberry” and Reasoning — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
Solving hard problems in new ways

The new AI model, called o1-preview (why are the AI companies so bad at names?), lets the AI “think through” a problem before solving it. This lets it address very hard problems that require planning and iteration, like novel math or science questions. In fact, it can now beat human PhD experts in solving extremely hard physics problems.

To be clear, o1-preview doesn’t do everything better. It is not a better writer than GPT-4o, for example. But for tasks that require planning, the changes are quite large.

What is the point of Super Realistic AI? — from Heather Cooper who runs Visually AI on Substack

The arrival of super realistic AI image generation, powered by models like Midjourney, FLUX.1, and Ideogram, is transforming the way we create and use visual content.

Recently, many creators (myself included) have been exploring super realistic AI more and more.

But where can this actually be used?

Super realistic AI image generation will have far-reaching implications across various industries and creative fields. Its importance stems from its ability to bridge the gap between imagination and visual representation, offering multiple opportunities for innovation and efficiency.

Heather goes on to mention applications in:

Creative Industries
Entertainment and Media
Education and Training

NotebookLM now lets you listen to a conversation about your sources — from blog.google by Biao Wang
Our new Audio Overview feature can turn documents, slides, charts and more into engaging discussions with one click.

Today, we’re introducing Audio Overview, a new way to turn your documents into engaging audio discussions. With one click, two AI hosts start up a lively “deep dive” discussion based on your sources. They summarize your material, make connections between topics, and banter back and forth. You can even download the conversation and take it on the go.

Bringing generative AI to video with Adobe Firefly Video Model — from blog.adobe.com by Ashley Still

Over the past several months, we’ve worked closely with the video editing community to advance the Firefly Video Model. Guided by their feedback and built with creators’ rights in mind, we’re developing new workflows leveraging the model to help editors ideate and explore their creative vision, fill gaps in their timeline and add new elements to existing footage.

Just like our other Firefly generative AI models, editors can create with confidence knowing the Adobe Firefly Video Model is designed to be commercially safe and is only trained on content we have permission to use — never on Adobe users’ content.

We’re excited to share some of the incredible progress with you today — all of which is designed to be commercially safe and available in beta later this year. To be the first to hear the latest updates and get access, sign up for the waitlist here.

“Which AI tools do Instructional Designers use the most?” [Hardman] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 09/12/2024, in 21st century, accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence / Agents / LLMs / and Related, biology, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, media/film, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), neurodivergent/special needs, Open AI, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, writing, by Daniel Christian

The Most Popular AI Tools for Instructional Design (September, 2024) — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
The tools we use most, and how we use them

This week, as I kick off the 20th cohort of my AI-Learning Design bootcamp, I decided to do some analysis of the work habits of the hundreds of amazing AI-embracing instructional designers who I’ve worked with over the last year or so.

My goal was to answer the question: which AI tools do we use most in the instructional design process, and how do we use them?

Here’s where we are in September, 2024:
…

Developing Your Approach to Generative AI — from scholarlyteacher.com by Caitlin K. Kirby, Min Zhuang, Imari Cheyne Tetu, & Stephen Thomas (Michigan State University)

As generative AI becomes integrated into workplaces, scholarly work, and students’ workflows, we have the opportunity to take a broad view of the role of generative AI in higher education classrooms. Our guiding questions are meant to serve as a starting point to consider, from each educator’s initial reaction and preferences around generative AI, how their discipline, course design, and assessments may be impacted, and to have a broad view of the ethics of generative AI use.

The Impact of AI in Advancing Accessibility for Learners with Disabilities — from er.educause.edu by Rob Gibson

AI technology tools hold remarkable promise for providing more accessible, equitable, and inclusive learning experiences for students with disabilities.

Huawei’s new tri-fold phone costs more than a 16-inch MacBook Pro [Weatherbed]

On 09/12/2024, in Asia, innovation, mobile technologies, telecommunications, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Huawei’s new tri-fold phone costs more than a 16-inch MacBook Pro — from theverge.com by Jess Weatherbed

An interesting idea — “Using Video Projects to Reinforce Learning in Math” [King]

On 09/06/2024, in digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, Learning Experience Design, mathematics, online media, student-related, teachers, tools, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Using Video Projects to Reinforce Learning in Math — from edutopia.org by Alessandra King
A collaborative project can help students deeply explore math concepts, explain problem-solving strategies, and demonstrate their learning.

To this end, I assign video projects to my students. In groups of two or three, they solve a set of problems on a topic and then choose one to illustrate, solve, and explain their favorite problem-solving strategy in detail, along with the reasons they chose it. The student-created videos are collected and stored on a Padlet even after I have evaluated them—kept as a reference, keepsake, and support. I have a library of student-created videos that benefit current and future students when they have some difficulties with a topic and associated problems.

“A third of all generative AI projects will be abandoned, says Gartner” [Ray]

On 09/06/2024, in art, Artificial Intelligence / Agents / LLMs / and Related, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, graphics, multimedia, Open AI, platforms, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

A third of all generative AI projects will be abandoned, says Gartner — from zdnet.com by Tiernan Ray
The high upfront cost of deployment is one of the challenges that can doom generative AI projects

Companies are “struggling” to find value in the generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) projects they have undertaken and one-third of initiatives will end up getting abandoned, according to a recent report by analyst Gartner.
…
The report states at least 30% of Gen AI projects will be abandoned after the proof-of-concept stage by the end of 2025.

From DSC:
But I wouldn’t write off the other two thirds of projects that will make it. I wouldn’t write off the future of AI in our world. AI-based technologies are already massively impacting graphic design, film, media, and more creative outlets. See the tweet below for some examples of what I’m talking about.

Loopy: New Audio-to-Video Lipsyncing Model Looks Insane

It generates lifelike facial expressions and movements from audio alone. It captures subtle details like sighs, expressive eyebrows, and natural head gestures, making your videos incredibly realistic.

Sample videos

1/5… pic.twitter.com/hXclehIGc8

— el.cine (@EHuanglu) September 5, 2024

The Six AI Use Case Families of Instructional Design — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Phillipa Harman
Pushing AI beyond content creation

So what are the six families? Here’s the TLDR:

Creative Ideation, aka using AI to spark novel ideas and innovative design concepts.
Research & Analysis, aka using AI to rapidly gather and synthesise information from vast sources.
Data-Driven Insights, aka using AI to extract meaningful patterns and predictions from complex datasets.
…and more

Town Hall: Back to School with AI — from gettingsmart.com

Key Points

AI can help educators focus more on human interaction and critical thinking by automating tasks that consume time but don’t require human empathy or creativity.
Encouraging students to use AI as a tool for learning and creativity can significantly boost their engagement and self-confidence, as seen in examples from student experiences shared in the discussion.

The speakers discuss various aspects of AI, including its potential to augment human intelligence and the need to focus on uniquely human competencies in the face of technological advancements. They also emphasize the significance of student agency, with examples of student-led initiatives and feedback sessions that reveal how young learners are already engaging with AI in innovative ways. The episode underscores the necessity for educators and administrators to stay informed and actively participate in the ongoing dialogue about AI to ensure its effective and equitable implementation in schools.

The video below is from The Artifice of Twinning by Marc Watkins

How AI Knocks Down Classroom Barriers — from gettingsmart.com by Alyssa Faubion

Key Points

AI can be a powerful tool to break down language, interest, and accessibility barriers in the classroom, making learning more inclusive and engaging.
Incorporating AI tools in educational settings can help build essential skills that AI can’t replace, such as creativity and problem-solving, preparing students for future job markets.

From DSC:
Anyone who is involved in putting on conferences should at least be aware that this kind of thing is now possible!!! Check out the following posting from Adobe (with help from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

From impossible to POSSIBLE: Tata Consultancy Services uses Adobe Firefly generative AI and Acrobat AI Assistant to turn hours of work into minutes — from blog.adobe.com

This year, the organizers — innovative industry event company Beyond Ordinary Events — turned to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to make the impossible “possible.” Leveraging Adobe generative AI technology across products like Adobe Premiere Pro and Acrobat, they distilled hours of video content in minutes, delivering timely dispatches to thousands of attendees throughout the conference.
…
For POSSIBLE ’24, Muche had an idea for a daily dispatch summarizing each day’s sessions so attendees wouldn’t miss a single insight. But timing would be critical. The dispatch needed to reach attendees shortly after sessions ended to fuel discussions over dinner and carry the excitement over to the next day.

The workflow started in Adobe Premiere Pro, with the writer opening a recording of each session and using the Speech to Text feature to automatically generate a transcript. They saved the transcript as a PDF file and opened it in Adobe Acrobat Pro. Then, using Adobe Acrobat AI Assistant, the writer asked for a session summary.

It was that fast and easy. In less than four minutes, one person turned a 30-minute session into an accurate, useful summary ready for review and publication.

By taking advantage of templates, the designer then added each AI-enabled summary to the newsletter in minutes. With just two people and generative AI technology, TCS accomplished the impossible — for the first time delivering an informative, polished newsletter to all 3,500 conference attendees just hours after the last session of the day.

Join our linked in group, AI in the Classroom https://t.co/rmfw0SvcW1 #edtech #GenAI @isteofficial @cosn @ascd @neatoday @aftunion @oecd_edu @ccsso @fetc @tcea @cueinc pic.twitter.com/Cxl80WuDuS

— David Ross (@DavidPBLRoss) August 20, 2024

This AI App Can Solve Your Math Homework, Steps Included — from link.wired.com by Will Knight

Right now, high schoolers and college students around the country are experimenting with free smartphone apps that help complete their math homework using generative AI. One of the most popular options on campus right now is the Gauth app, with millions of downloads. It’s owned by ByteDance, which is also TikTok’s parent company.

The Gauth app first launched in 2019 with a primary focus on mathematics, but soon expanded to other subjects as well, like chemistry and physics. It’s grown in relevance, and neared the top of smartphone download lists earlier this year for the education category. Students seem to love it. With hundreds of thousands of primarily positive reviews, Gauth has a favorable 4.8 star rating in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

All students have to do after downloading the app is point their smartphone at a homework problem, printed or handwritten, and then make sure any relevant information is inside of the image crop. Then Gauth’s AI model generates a step-by-step guide, often with the correct answer.

From DSC:
I do hesitate to post this though, as I’ve seen numerous posting re: the dubious quality of AI as it relates to giving correct answers to math-related problems – or whether using AI-based tools help or hurt the learning process. The situation seems to be getting better, but as I understand it, we still have some progress to make in this area of mathematics.

Redefining Creativity in the Age of AI — from gettingsmart.com by David Ross

Key Points

Educational leaders must reconsider the definition of creativity, taking into account how generative AI tools can be used to produce novel and impactful creative work, similar to how film editors compile various elements into a cohesive, creative whole.
Generative AI democratizes innovation by allowing all students to become creators, expanding access to creative processes that were previously limited and fostering a broader inclusion of diverse talents and ideas in education.

AI-Powered Instructional Design at ASU — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
How ASU’s Collaboration with OpenAI is Reshaping the Role of Instructional Designers

The developments and experiments at ASU provide a fascinating window into two things:

1. How the world is reimagining learning in the age of AI;
2. How the role of the instructional designer is changing in the age of AI.

In this week’s blog post, I’ll provide a summary of how faculty, staff and students at ASU are starting to reimagine education in the age of AI, and explore what this means for the instructions designers who work there.

PhysicsWallah’s ‘Alakh AI’ is Making Education Accessible to Millions in India — from analyticsindiamag.com by Siddharth Jindal

India’s ed-tech unicorn PhysicsWallah is using OpenAI’s GPT-4o to make education accessible to millions of students in India. Recently, the company launched a suite of AI products to ensure that students in Tier 2 & 3 cities can access high-quality education without depending solely on their enrolled institutions, as 85% of their enrollment comes from these areas.

Last year, AIM broke the news of PhysicsWallah introducing ‘Alakh AI’, its suite of generative AI tools, which was eventually launched at the end of December 2023. It quickly gained traction, amassing over 1.5 million users within two months of its release.

Terrific Tools for Teachers [Caplan]

On 09/03/2024, in education, education technology, homeschooling/homeschoolers, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, teachers, tools, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Terrific Tools for Teachers — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan
Try these for your workshops or classes

As a new school year starts, I’m excited to be back teaching at the City University of New York’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. In my role as Director of Teaching & Learning, I love studying and sharing the skills, mindsets, tactics and tools that help teachers lead engaging, impactful classes. In this post I’m sharing resources you might find helpful whether you’re a teacher, leader, or anyone who brings people together.
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When A.I.’s Output Is a Threat to A.I. Itself — from nytimes.com by Aatish Bhatia
As A.I.-generated data becomes harder to detect, it’s increasingly likely to be ingested by future A.I., leading to worse results.

All this A.I.-generated information can make it harder for us to know what’s real. And it also poses a problem for A.I. companies. As they trawl the web for new data to train their next models on — an increasingly challenging task — they’re likely to ingest some of their own A.I.-generated content, creating an unintentional feedback loop in which what was once the output from one A.I. becomes the input for another.

In the long run, this cycle may pose a threat to A.I. itself. Research has shown that when generative A.I. is trained on a lot of its own output, it can get a lot worse.

This weekend, the @xAI team brought our Colossus 100k H100 training cluster online. From start to finish, it was done in 122 days.

Colossus is the most powerful AI training system in the world. Moreover, it will double in size to 200k (50k H200s) in a few months.

Excellent…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 2, 2024

Per The Rundown AI:

The Rundown: Elon Musk’s xAI just launched “Colossus“, the world’s most powerful AI cluster powered by a whopping 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, which was built in just 122 days and is planned to double in size soon.
…
Why it matters: xAI’s Grok 2 recently caught up to OpenAI’s GPT-4 in record time, and was trained on only around 15,000 GPUs. With now more than six times that amount in production, the xAI team and future versions of Grok are going to put a significant amount of pressure on OpenAI, Google, and others to deliver.

Google Meet’s automatic AI note-taking is here — from theverge.com by Joanna Nelius
Starting [on 8/28/24], some Google Workspace customers can have Google Meet be their personal note-taker.

Google Meet’s newest AI-powered feature, “take notes for me,” has started rolling out today to Google Workspace customers with the Gemini Enterprise, Gemini Education Premium, or AI Meetings & Messaging add-ons. It’s similar to Meet’s transcription tool, only instead of automatically transcribing what everyone says, it summarizes what everyone talked about. Google first announced this feature at its 2023 Cloud Next conference.

The World’s Call Center Capital Is Gripped by AI Fever — and Fear — from bloomberg.com by Saritha Rai [behind a paywall]
The experiences of staff in the Philippines’ outsourcing industry are a preview of the challenges and choices coming soon to white-collar workers around the globe.

[Claude] Artifacts are now generally available — from anthropic.com

[On 8/27/24], we’re making Artifacts available for all Claude.ai users across our Free, Pro, and Team plans. And now, you can create and view Artifacts on our iOS and Android apps.

Artifacts turn conversations with Claude into a more creative and collaborative experience. With Artifacts, you have a dedicated window to instantly see, iterate, and build on the work you create with Claude. Since launching as a feature preview in June, users have created tens of millions of Artifacts.

What are the risks from Artificial Intelligence?
A comprehensive living database of over 700 AI risks categorized by their cause and risk domain.

What is the AI Risk Repository?
The AI Risk Repository has three parts:

The AI Risk Database captures 700+ risks extracted from 43 existing frameworks, with quotes and page numbers.
The Causal Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies how, when, and why these risks occur.
The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies these risks into seven domains (e.g., “Misinformation”) and 23 subdomains (e.g., “False or misleading information”).

California lawmakers approve legislation to ban deepfakes, protect workers and regulate AI — from newsday.com by The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers approved a host of proposals this week aiming to regulate the artificial intelligence industry, combat deepfakes and protect workers from exploitation by the rapidly evolving technology.

Per Oncely:

The Details:

Combatting Deepfakes: New laws to restrict election-related deepfakes and deepfake pornography, especially of minors, requiring social media to remove such content promptly.
Setting Safety Guardrails: California is poised to set comprehensive safety standards for AI, including transparency in AI model training and pre-emptive safety protocols.
Protecting Workers: Legislation to prevent the replacement of workers, like voice actors and call center employees, with AI technologies.

Over the coming days, start creating and chatting with Gems: customizable versions of Gemini that act as topic experts. ?

We’re also launching premade Gems for different scenarios – including Learning coach to break down complex topics and Coding partner to level up your skills… pic.twitter.com/2Dk8NxtTCE

— Google DeepMind (@GoogleDeepMind) August 28, 2024

New in Gemini: Custom Gems and improved image generation with Imagen 3 — from blog.google
The ability to create custom Gems is coming to Gemini Advanced subscribers, and updated image generation capabilities with our latest Imagen 3 model are coming to everyone.

We have new features rolling out, [that started on 8/28/24], that we previewed at Google I/O. Gems, a new feature that lets you customize Gemini to create your own personal AI experts on any topic you want, are now available for Gemini Advanced, Business and Enterprise users. And our new image generation model, Imagen 3, will be rolling out across Gemini, Gemini Advanced, Business and Enterprise in the coming days.

Cut the Chatter, Here Comes Agentic AI — from trendmicro.com

Major AI players caught heat in August over big bills and weak returns on AI investments, but it would be premature to think AI has failed to deliver. The real question is what’s next, and if industry buzz and pop-sci pontification hold any clues, the answer isn’t “more chatbots”, it’s agentic AI.

Agentic AI transforms the user experience from application-oriented information synthesis to goal-oriented problem solving. It’s what people have always thought AI would do—and while it’s not here yet, its horizon is getting closer every day.

In this issue of AI Pulse, we take a deep dive into agentic AI, what’s required to make it a reality, and how to prevent ‘self-thinking’ AI agents from potentially going rogue.
…
Citing AWS guidance, ZDNET counts six different potential types of AI agents:

- Simple reflex agents for tasks like resetting passwords
- Model-based reflex agents for pro vs. con decision making
- Goal-/rule-based agents that compare options and select the most efficient pathways
- Utility-based agents that compare for value
- Learning agents
- Hierarchical agents that manage and assign subtasks to other agents

Ask Claude: Amazon turns to Anthropic’s AI for Alexa revamp — from reuters.com by Greg Bensinger

Summary:

Amazon developing new version of Alexa with generative AI
Retailer hopes to generate revenue by charging for its use
Concerns about in-house AI prompt Amazon to turn to Anthropic’s Claude, sources say
Amazon says it uses many different technologies to power Alexa

Alibaba releases new AI model Qwen2-VL that can analyze videos more than 20 minutes long — from venturebeat.com by Carl Franzen

Hobbyists discover how to insert custom fonts into AI-generated images — from arstechnica.com by Benj Edwards
Like adding custom art styles or characters, in-world typefaces come to Flux.

200 million people use ChatGPT every week – up from 100 million last fall, says OpenAI — from zdnet.com by Sabrina Ortiz
Nearly two years after launching, ChatGPT continues to draw new users. Here’s why.

“The top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps 3rd ed” [Andreessen Horowitz] + several other items re: AI in general

On 08/26/2024, in Adobe, adult learning, art, Artificial Intelligence / Agents / LLMs / and Related, business, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, culture, graphics, lifelong learning, platforms, tools, training / L&D, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Generative AI and the Time Management Revolution — from ai-mindset.ai by Conor Grennan

Here’s how we need to change our work lives:

RECLAIM: Use generative AI to speed up your daily tasks. Be ruthless. Anything that can be automated, should be.
PROTECT: This is the crucial step. That time you’ve saved? Protect it like it’s the last slice of pizza. Block it off in your calendar. Tell your team it’s sacred.
ELEVATE: Use this protected time for high-level thinking. Strategy. Innovation. The big, meaty problems you never have time for.
AMPLIFY: Here’s where it gets cool. Use generative AI to amp up your strategic thinking. Need to brainstorm solutions to a complex problem? Want to analyze market trends? Generative AI is your new thinking partner.

The top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps — 3rd edition — from a16z.com by Andreessen Horowitz

But amid the relentless onslaught of product launches, investment announcements, and hyped-up features, it’s worth asking: Which of these gen AI apps are people actually using? Which behaviors and categories are gaining traction among consumers? And which AI apps are people returning to, versus dabbling and dropping?

Welcome to the third installment of the Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps.
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Gen AI’s next inflection point: From employee experimentation to organizational transformation — from mckinsey.com by Charlotte Relyea, Dana Maor, and Sandra Durth with Jan Bouly
As many employees adopt generative AI at work, companies struggle to follow suit. To capture value from current momentum, businesses must transform their processes, structures, and approach to talent.

To harness employees’ enthusiasm and stay ahead, companies need a holistic approach to transforming how the whole organization works with gen AI; the technology alone won’t create value.

Our research shows that early adopters prioritize talent and the human side of gen AI more than other companies (Exhibit 3). Our survey shows that nearly two-thirds of them have a clear view of their talent gaps and a strategy to close them, compared with just 25 percent of the experimenters. Early adopters focus heavily on upskilling and reskilling as a critical part of their talent strategies, as hiring alone isn’t enough to close gaps and outsourcing can hinder strategic-skills development. Finally, 40 percent of early-adopter respondents say their organizations provide extensive support to encourage employee adoption, versus 9 percent of experimenter respondents.

Adobe drops ‘Magic Fixup’: An AI breakthrough in the world of photo editing — from venturebeat.com by Michael Nuñez

Adobe researchers have revealed an AI model that promises to transform photo editing by harnessing the power of video data. Dubbed “Magic Fixup,” this new technology automates complex image adjustments while preserving artistic intent, potentially reshaping workflows across multiple industries.

Magic Fixup’s core innovation lies in its unique approach to training data. Unlike previous models that relied solely on static images, Adobe’s system learns from millions of video frame pairs. This novel method allows the AI to understand the nuanced ways objects and scenes change under varying conditions of light, perspective, and motion.

Top AI tools people actually use — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper
How generative AI tools are changing the creative landscape

The shift toward creative tools
Creative tools made up 52% of the top generative AI apps on the list. This seems to reflect a growing consumer demand for accessible creativity through AI with tools for image, music, speech, video, and editing.

Creative categories include:

Image: Civitai, Leonardo, Midjourney, Yodayo, Ideogram, SeaArt
Music: Suno, Udio, VocalRemover
Speech: ElevenLabs, Speechify
Video: Luma AI, Viggle, Invideo AI, Vidnoz, ClipChamp
Editing: Cutout Pro, Veed, Photoroom, Pixlr, PicWish

Why it matters:
Creative apps are gaining traction because they empower digital artists and content creators with AI-driven tools that simplify and enhance the creative process, making professional-level work more accessible than ever.

College Writing Centers Worry AI Could Replace Them [Hicks]

On 08/16/2024, in Artificial Intelligence / Agents / LLMs / and Related, colleges, communications, community colleges, education technology, emerging technologies, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, platforms, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, writing, by Daniel Christian

College Writing Centers Worry AI Could Replace Them — from edsurge.com by Maggie Hicks
Those who run the centers argue that they could be a hub for teaching AI literacy.

But as generative AI tools like ChatGPT sweep into mainstream business tools, promising to draft properly-formatted text from simple prompts and the click of a button, new questions are rising about what role writing centers should play — or whether they will be needed in the future.
…
Writing centers need to find a balance between introducing AI into the writing process and keeping the human support that every writer needs, argues Anna Mills, an English instructor at the College of Marin.

AI can serve as a supplement to a human tutor, Mills says. She encourages her students to use MyEssayFeedback, an AI tool that critiques the organization of an essay, the quality of evidence a student has included to support their thesis or the tone of the writing. Such tools can also evaluate research questions or review a student’s writing based on the rubric for the assignment, she says.

Augmented Course Design: Using AI to Boost Efficiency and Expand Capacity [Fang & Broussard] + other items re: AI’s impact on ID

On 08/15/2024, in accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence / Agents / LLMs / and Related, assistive technologies, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), business side of he, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, faculty, graphics, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, IT in HE, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, lifelong learning, multimedia, online learning, online media, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, strategy, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Augmented Course Design: Using AI to Boost Efficiency and Expand Capacity — from er.educause.edu by Berlin Fang and Kim Broussard
The emerging class of generative AI tools has the potential to significantly alter the landscape of course development.

Using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, or CoPilot as intelligent assistants in instructional design can significantly enhance the scalability of course development. GenAI can significantly improve the efficiency with which institutions develop content that is closely aligned with the curriculum and course objectives. As a result, institutions can more effectively meet the rising demand for flexible and high-quality education, preparing a new generation of future professionals equipped with the knowledge and skills to excel in their chosen fields.¹ In this article, we illustrate the uses of AI in instructional design in terms of content creation, media development, and faculty support. We also provide some suggestions on the effective and ethical uses of AI in course design and development. Our perspectives are rooted in medical education, but the principles can be applied to any learning context.
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Table 1 summarizes a few low-hanging fruits in AI usage in course development.
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**Table 1. Types of Use of GenAI in Course Development**
Practical Use of AI	Use Scenarios and Examples
Inspiration	Exploring ideas for instructional strategies Exploring ideas for assessment Course mapping Lesson or unit content planning
Supplementation	Text to audio Transcription for audio Alt text auto-generation Design optimization (e.g., using Microsoft PPT Design)
Improvement	Improving learning objectives Improving instructional materials Improving course content writing (grammar, spelling, etc.)
Generation	Creating a PowerPoint draft using learning objectives Creating peripheral content materials (introductions, conclusions) Creating decorative images for content
Expansion	Creating a scenario based on learning objectives Creating a draft of a case study Creating a draft of a rubric

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Also see:

10 Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Instructional Design — from er.educause.edu by Rob Gibson
Artificial intelligence (AI) is providing instructors and course designers with an incredible array of new tools and techniques to improve the course design and development process. However, the intersection of AI and content creation is not new.

I have been telling my graduate instructional design students that AI technology is not likely to replace them any time soon because learning and instruction are still highly personalized and humanistic experiences. However, as these students embark on their careers, they will need to understand how to appropriately identify, select, and utilize AI when developing course content. Examples abound of how instructional designers are experimenting with AI to generate and align student learning outcomes with highly individualized course activities and assessments. Instructional designers are also using AI technology to create and continuously adapt the custom code and power scripts embedded into the learning management system to execute specific learning activities.Footnote1 Other useful examples include scripting and editing videos and podcasts.

Here are a few interesting examples of how AI is shaping and influencing instructional design. Some of the tools and resources can be used to satisfy a variety of course design activities, while others are very specific.

Taking the Lead: Why Instructional Designers Should Be at the Forefront of Learning in the Age of AI — from medium.com by Rob Gibson
Education is at a critical juncture and needs to draw leaders from a broader pool, including instructional designers

The world of a medieval stone cutter and a modern instructional designer (ID) may seem separated by a great distance, but I wager any ID who upon hearing the story I just shared would experience an uneasy sense of déjà vu. Take away the outward details, and the ID would recognize many elements of the situation: the days spent in projects that fail to realize the full potential of their craft, the painful awareness that greater things can be built, but are unlikely to occur due to a poverty of imagination and lack of vision among those empowered to make decisions.

Finally, there is the issue of resources. No stone cutter could ever hope to undertake a large-scale enterprise without a multitude of skilled collaborators and abundant materials. Similarly, instructional designers are often departments of one, working in scarcity environments, with limited ability to acquire resources for ambitious projects and — just as importantly — lacking the authority or political capital needed to launch significant initiatives. For these reasons, instructional design has long been a profession caught in an uncomfortable stasis, unable to grow, evolve and achieve its full potential.

That is until generative AI appeared on the scene. While the discourse around AI in education has been almost entirely about its impact on teaching and assessment, there has been a dearth of critical analysis regarding AI’s potential for impacting instructional design.

We are at a critical juncture for AI-augmented learning. We can either stagnate, missing opportunities to support learners while educators continue to debate whether the use of generative AI tools is a good thing, or we can move forward, building a transformative model for learning akin to the industrial revolution’s impact.

Too many professional educators remain bound by traditional methods. The past two years suggest that leaders of this new learning paradigm will not emerge from conventional educational circles. This vacuum of leadership can be filled, in part, by instructional designers, who are prepared by training and experience to begin building in this new learning space.

Learning Ecosystems

Huawei’s new tri-fold phone costs more than a 16-inch MacBook Pro [Weatherbed]

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