tools

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.
…
Table 1 summarizes a few low-hanging fruits in AI usage in course development.
.

**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

.

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.

“As we enter the Age of Accessible Law” [Furlong] + other legaltech-related items

On 08/15/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Canada, emerging technologies, future, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

How Generative AI will change what lawyers do — from jordanfurlong.substack.com by Jordan Furlong
As we enter the Age of Accessible Law, a wave of new demand is coming our way — but AI will meet most of the surge. What will be left for lawyers? Just the most valuable and irreplaceable role in law.

AI can already provide actionable professional advice; within the next ten years, if it takes that long, I believe it will offer acceptable legal advice. No one really wants “AI courts,” but soon enough, we’ll have AI-enabled mediation and arbitration, which will have a much greater impact on everyday dispute resolution.

I think it’s dangerous to assume that AI will never be able to do something that lawyers now do. “Never” is a very long time. And AI doesn’t need to replicate the complete arsenal of the most gifted lawyer out there. If a Legal AI can replicate 80% of what a middling lawyer can do, for 10% of the cost, in 1% of the time, that’s all the revolution you’ll need.

From DSC:
It is my sincere hope that AI will open up the floodgates to FAR great Access to Justice (A2J) in the future.

It’s the Battle of the AI Legal Assistants, As LexisNexis Unveils Its New Protégé and Thomson Reuters Rolls Out CoCounsel 2.0 — from lawnext.com by Bob Ambrogi

It’s not quite BattleBots, but competitors LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters both made significant announcements today involving the development of generative AI legal assistants within their products.

Thomson Reuters, which last year acquired the CoCounsel legal assistant originally developed by Casetext, and which later announced plans to deploy it throughout its product lines, today unveiled what it says is the “supercharged” CoCounsel 2.0.

Meanwhile, LexisNexis said today it is rolling out the commercial preview version of its Protégé Legal AI Assistant, which it describes as a “substantial leap forward in personalized generative AI that will transform legal work.” It is part of the launch of the third generation of Lexis+ AI, the AI-driven legal research platform the company launched last year.

Thomson Reuters Launches CoCounsel 2.0 — from abovethelaw.com by Joe Patrice
New release promises results three times faster than the last version.

It seems like just last year we were talking about CoCounsel 1.0, the generative AI product launched by Casetext and then swiftly acquired by Thomson Reuters. That’s because it was just last year. Since then, Thomson Reuters has worked to marry Casetext’s tool with TR’s treasure trove of data.

It’s not an easy task. A lot of the legal AI conversation glosses over how constructing these tools requires a radical confrontation with the lawyers’ mind. Why do attorneys do what they do every day? Are there seemingly “inefficient” steps that actually serve a purpose? Does an AI “answer” advance the workflow or hinder the research alchemy? As recently as April, Thomson Reuters was busy hyping the fruits of its efforts to get ahead of these challenges.

Though this next item is not necessarily related to legaltech, it’s still relevant to the legal realm:

A Law Degree Is No Sure Thing— from cew.georgetown.edu
Some Law School Graduates Earn Top Dollar, but Many Do Not

Summary
Is law school worth it? A Juris Doctor (JD) offers high median earnings and a substantial earnings boost relative to a bachelor’s degree in the humanities or social sciences—two of the more common fields of study that lawyers pursue as undergraduate students. However, graduates of most law schools carry substantial student loan debt, which dims the financial returns associated with a JD.

A Law Degree Is No Sure Thing: Some Law School Graduates Earn Top Dollar, but Many Do Not finds that the return on investment (ROI) in earnings and career outcomes varies widely across law schools. The median earnings net of debt payments are $72,000 four years after graduation for all law school graduates, but exceed $200,000 at seven law schools. By comparison, graduates of 33 law schools earn less than $55,000 net of debt payments four years after graduation.

From DSC:
A former boss’ husband was starting up a local public defender’s office in Michigan and needed to hire over two dozen people. The salaries were in the $40K’s she said. This surprised me greatly, as I thought all lawyers were bringing in the big bucks. This is not the case, clearly. Many lawyers do not make the big bucks, as this report shows:

…graduates of 33 law schools earn less than $55,000 net of debt payments four years after graduation.

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Also relevant/see:

Explore Our ROI Rankings — from cew.georgetown.edu

From DSC: You NEED this extension! Clear away the clutter from all of your web-based articles. Instantly.

On 08/14/2024, in Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, Google, learning theories, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, reading, tools, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
[For those folks who use Google Chrome]

When you keep getting distracted from all of the extraneous items — such as those annoying videos and advertisements — that appear when you launch a web page, there is a solution to quickly hiding all of those items. It’s called Postlight Reader. I’ve been using it for years and wanted to put this information out there for folks who might not have heard about it.

I highly recommend it if you are having trouble reading an article and processing the information that it contains. Instructional Designers will know all about Extraneous Load (one of the types of Cognitive Load) and how it negatively impacts one’s learning and processing of the information that really counts (i.e., the Germane Cognitive Load).

Note the differences when I used Postlight Reader on an article out at cbsnews.com:

The page appears with all kinds of ads and videos going on…I can hardly
process the information on the article due to these items:

Then, after I enabled this extension in Chrome and click on
the icon for Postlight Reader, it strips away all of those items
and leaves me with the article that I wanted to read:

If you aren’t using it, I highly recommend that you give it a try.

Postlight Reader – Clear away the clutter from all of your articles. Instantly.

The Postlight Reader extension for Chrome removes ads and distractions, leaving only text and images for a clean and consistent reading view on every site. Features:

Disable surrounding webpage noise and clutter with one click
Send To Kindle functionality
Adjust typeface and text size, and toggle between light or dark themes
Quick keyboard shortcut (Cmd + Esc for Mac users, Alt + ` for Windows users) to switch to Reader on any article page
Printing optimization
Sharing through Facebook, Twitter and Email

This is what AI is for. Just this use case alone is worth every dollar invested in it. pic.twitter.com/vaOm3dpyxK

— Andriy Burkov (@burkov) August 10, 2024

From DSC:
The above item is simply excellent!!! I love it!

We’re going to see a lot more of the Square, Stripe, Shopify-type startups pop up for agentic AI.

This one is like an AI-human broker.

1) Prompt an AI with a need
2) Give the AI a budget (real money)
3) AI turns need into plan with tasks
4) AI finds humans to complete the… https://t.co/UXf1bNZ4AK

— Allie K. Miller (@alliekmiller) August 11, 2024

Google just announced their massive AI update in Chrome.

Google Lens is now inside Chrome

Here’s everything you need to know: pic.twitter.com/aXdqvi5wMP

— Poonam Soni (@CodeByPoonam) August 4, 2024

Also relevant/see:

3 new Chrome AI features for even more helpful browsing — from blog.google from Parisa Tabriz
See how Chrome’s new AI features, including Google Lens for desktop and Tab compare, can help you get things done more easily on the web.

On speaking to AI — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
Voice changes a lot of things

So, let’s talk about ChatGPT’s new Advanced Voice mode and the new AI-powered Siri. They are not just different approaches to talking to AI. In many ways, they represent the divide between two philosophies of AI – Copilots versus Agents, small models versus large ones, specialists versus generalists.

Your guide to AI – August 2024 — from nathanbenaich.substack.com by Nathan Benaich and Alex Chalmers

Microsoft says OpenAI is now a competitor in AI and search — from cnbc.com by Jordan Novet

Key Points

Microsoft’s annually updated list of competitors now includes OpenAI, a long-term strategic partner.
The change comes days after OpenAI announced a prototype of a search engine.
Microsoft has reportedly invested $13 billion into OpenAI.

ChatGPT Cheat Sheet? pic.twitter.com/ETsPvJQfVA

— Nelly R Q (@nrqa__) August 5, 2024

Excerpt from by Graham Clay

1. Flux, an open-source text-to-image creator that is comparable to industry leaders like Midjourney, was released by Black Forest Labs (the “original team” behind Stable Diffusion). It is capable of generating high quality text in images (there are tons of educational use cases). You can play with it on their demo page, on Poe, or by running it on your own computer (tutorial here).

Other items re: Flux:

How to FLUX — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper
Where to use FLUX online & full tutorial to create a sleek ad in minutes

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Also from Heather Cooper:

Introducing FLUX: Open-Source text to image model

FLUX… has been EVERYWHERE this week, as I’m sure you have seen. Developed by Black Forest Labs, is an open-source image generation model that’s gaining attention for its ability to rival leading models like Midjourney, DALL·E 3, and SDXL.

What sets FLUX apart is its blend of creative freedom, precision, and accessibility—it’s available across multiple platforms and can be run locally.

Why FLUX Matters
FLUX’s open-source nature makes it accessible to a broad audience, from hobbyists to professionals.

It offers advanced multimodal and parallel diffusion transformer technology, delivering high visual quality, strong prompt adherence, and diverse outputs.

It’s available in 3 models:
FLUX.1 [pro]: A high-performance, commercial image synthesis model.
FLUX.1 [dev]: An open-weight, non-commercial variant of FLUX.1 [pro]
FLUX.1 [schnell]: A faster, distilled version of FLUX.1, operating up to 10x quicker.

Daily Digest: Huge (in)Flux of AI videos. — from bensbites.beehiiv.com
PLUS: Review of ChatGPT’s advanced voice mode.

During the weekend, image models made a comeback. Recently released Flux models can create realistic images with near-perfect text—straight from the model, without much patchwork. To get the party going, people are putting these images into video generation models to create pretty–trippy–videos. I can’t identify half of them as AI, and they’ll only get better. See this tutorial on how to create a video ad for your product..

7 not only cool but handy use cases of new Claude — from techthatmatters.beehiiv.com by Harsh Makadia

Data visualization
Infographic
Copy the UI of a website
…and more

Achieving Human Level Competitive Robot Table Tennis — from sites.google.com

14+ resources regarding AI in our learning ecosystems

On 08/13/2024, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, Australia, CMS/LMS, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty, Google, heutagogy, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, instructional design, intelligent systems, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning theories, lifelong learning, Microsoft, multimedia, Open AI, platforms, policy, productivity / tips and tricks, religion, strategy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

What Students Want When It Comes To AI — from onedtech.philhillaa.com by Glenda Morgan
The Digital Education Council Global AI Student Survey 2024

The Digital Education Council (DEC) this week released the results of a global survey of student opinions on AI. It’s a large survey with nearly 4,000 respondents conducted across 16 countries, but more importantly, it asks some interesting questions. There are many surveys about AI out there right now, but this one stands out. I’m going to go into some depth here, as the entire survey report is worth reading.

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AI is forcing a teaching and learning evolution — from eschoolnews.com by Laura Ascione
AI and technology tools are leading to innovative student learning–along with classroom, school, and district efficiency

Key findings from the 2024 K-12 Educator + AI Survey, which was conducted by Hanover Research, include:

Teachers are using AI to personalize and improve student learning, not just run classrooms more efficiently, but challenges remain
While post-pandemic challenges persist, the increased use of technology is viewed positively by most teachers and administrators
…and more

From DSC:
I wonder…how will the use of AI in education square with the issues of using smartphones/laptops within the classrooms? See:

Why Schools Are Racing to Ban Student Phones — from nytimes.com by Natasha Singer; via GSV
As the new school year starts, a wave of new laws that aim to curb distracted learning is taking effect in Indiana, Louisiana and other states.

A three-part series from Dr. Phillippa Hardman:

Part 1: Writing Learning Objectives
The Results Part 1: Writing Learning Objectives

In this week’s post I will dive into the results from task 1: writing learning objectives. Stay tuned over the next two weeks to see all of the the results.

Part 2: Selecting Instructional Strategies.
The Results Part 2: Selecting an Instructional Strategy

Welcome back to our three-part series exploring the impact of AI on instructional design.
…
This week, we’re tackling a second task and a crucial aspect of instructional design: selecting instructional strategies. The ability to select appropriate instructional strategies to achieve intended objectives is a mission-critical skill for any instructional designer. So, can AI help us do a good job of it? Let’s find out!

Part 3: How Close is AI to Replacing Instructional Designers?
The Results Part 3: Creating a Course Outline

Today, we’re diving into what many consider to be the role-defining task of the instructional designer: creating a course design outline.

ChatGPT Cheat Sheet for Instructional Designers! — from Alexandra Choy Youatt EdD

Instructional Designers!
Whether you’re new to the field or a seasoned expert, this comprehensive guide will help you leverage AI to create more engaging and effective learning experiences.

What’s Inside?
Roles and Tasks: Tailored prompts for various instructional design roles and tasks.
Formats: Different formats to present your work, from training plans to rubrics.
Learning Models: Guidance on using the ADDIE model and various pedagogical strategies.
Engagement Tips: Techniques for online engagement and collaboration.
Specific Tips: Industry certifications, work-based learning, safety protocols, and more.

Who Can Benefit?
Corporate Trainers
Curriculum Developers
E-Learning Specialists
Instructional Technologists
Learning Experience Designers
And many more!
…

ChatGPT Cheat Sheet | Instructional Designer

5 AI Tools I Use Every Day (as a Busy Student) — from theaigirl.substack.com by Diana Dovgopol
AI tools that I use every day to boost my productivity.
#1 Gamma
#2 Perplexity
#3 Cockatoo

I use this AI tool almost every day as well. Since I’m still a master’s student at university, I have to attend lectures and seminars, which are always in English or German, neither of which is my native language. With the help of Cockatoo, I create scripts of the lectures and/or translations into my language. This means I don’t have to take notes in class and then manually translate them afterward. All I need to do is record the lecture audio on any device or directly in Cockatoo, upload it, and then you’ll have the audio and text ready for you.

…and more

Students Worry Overemphasis on AI Could Devalue Education — from insidehighered.com by Juliette Rowsell
Report stresses that AI is “new standard” and universities need to better communicate policies to learners.

Rising use of AI in higher education could cause students to question the quality and value of education they receive, a report warns.

This year’s Digital Education Council Global AI Student Survey, of more than 3,800 students from 16 countries, found that more than half (55 percent) believed overuse of AI within teaching devalued education, and 52 percent said it negatively impacted their academic performance.

Despite this, significant numbers of students admitted to using such technology. Some 86 percent said they “regularly” used programs such as ChatGPT in their studies, 54 percent said they used it on a weekly basis, and 24 percent said they used it to write a first draft of a submission.

Higher Ed Leadership Is Excited About AI – But Investment Is Lacking — from forbes.com by Vinay Bhaskara

As corporate America races to integrate AI into its core operations, higher education finds itself in a precarious position. I conducted a survey of 63 university leaders revealing that while higher ed leaders recognize AI’s transformative potential, they’re struggling to turn that recognition into action.

This struggle is familiar for higher education — gifted with the mission of educating America’s youth but plagued with a myriad of operational and financial struggles, higher ed institutions often lag behind their corporate peers in technology adoption. In recent years, this gap has become threateningly large. In an era of declining enrollments and shifting demographics, closing this gap could be key to institutional survival and success.

The survey results paint a clear picture of inconsistency: 86% of higher ed leaders see AI as a “massive opportunity,” yet only 21% believe their institutions are prepared for it. This disconnect isn’t just a minor inconsistency – it’s a strategic vulnerability in an era of declining enrollments and shifting demographics.

(Generative) AI Isn’t Going Anywhere but Up — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
“Hype” claims are nonsense.

There has been a lot of talk recently about an “AI Bubble.” Supposedly, the industry, or at least the generative AI subset of it, will collapse. This is known as the “Generative AI Bubble.” A bubble — a broad one or a generative one — is nonsense. These are the reasons we will continue to see massive growth in AI.

AI Readiness: Prepare Your Workforce to Embrace the Future — from learningguild.com by Danielle Wallace

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing industries, enhancing efficiency, and unlocking new opportunities. To thrive in this landscape, organizations need to be ready to embrace AI not just technologically but also culturally.

Learning leaders play a crucial role in preparing employees to adapt and excel in an AI-driven workplace. Transforming into an AI-empowered organization requires more than just technological adoption; it demands a shift in organizational mindset. This guide delves into how learning leaders can support this transition by fostering the right mindset attributes in employees.

Claude AI for eLearning Developers — from learningguild.com by Bill Brandon

Claude is fast, produces grammatically correct text, and outputs easy-to-read articles, emails, blog posts, summaries, and analyses. Take some time to try it out. If you worry about plagiarism and text scraping, put the results through Grammarly’s plagiarism checker (I did not use Claude for this article, but I did send the text through Grammarly).

Survey: Top Teacher Uses of AI in the Classroom — from thejournal.com by Rhea Kelly

A new report from Cambium Learning Group outlines the top ways educators are using artificial intelligence to manage their classrooms and support student learning. Conducted by Hanover Research, the 2024 K-12 Educator + AI Survey polled 482 teachers and administrators at schools and districts that are actively using AI in the classroom.

More than half of survey respondents (56%) reported that they are leveraging AI to create personalized learning experiences for students. Other uses included providing real-time performance tracking and feedback (cited by 52% of respondents), helping students with critical thinking skills (50%), proofreading writing (47%), and lesson planning (44%).

On the administrator side, top uses of AI included interpreting/analyzing student data (61%), managing student records (56%), and managing professional development (56%).

Addendum on 8/14/24:

DSC: Think about the impacts/ramifications of global, virtual, real-time language translations!

On 08/12/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assistive technologies, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, education technology, emerging technologies, Europe, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, languages and translation, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Open AI, society, technologies for your home, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Here’s the first group call with @ChatGPTapp Advanced Voice Mode.

Watch ChatGPT act like a native interpreter speaking to @skirano in Italian, and to me in Urdu.

Bonus, look out for the Mario impression near the end ? pic.twitter.com/TaVhJ6Q75J

— Ammaar Reshi (@ammaar) August 4, 2024

ChatGPT Voice Mode Is Here: Will It Revolutionize AI Communication?

Advanced Voice Mode – FAQ — from help.openai.com
Learn more about our Advanced Voice capabilities.

Advanced Voice Mode on ChatGPT features more natural, real-time conversations that pick up on and respond with emotion and non-verbal cues.

Advanced Voice Mode on ChatGPT is currently in a limited alpha. Please note that it may make mistakes, and access and rate limits are subject to change.

From DSC:
Think about the impacts/ramifications of global, virtual, real-time language translations!!! This type of technology will create very powerful, new affordances in our learning ecosystems — as well as in business communications, with the various governments across the globe, and more!

“For college students—and for higher ed itself—AI is a required course” [Merisotis] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 08/03/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, apprenticeships, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), bots, career development, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, education, education technology, emerging technologies, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, real-world assignments, reinvent, skills, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

For college students—and for higher ed itself—AI is a required course — from forbes.com by Jamie Merisotis

Some of the nation’s biggest tech companies have announced efforts to reskill people to avoid job losses caused by artificial intelligence, even as they work to perfect the technology that could eliminate millions of those jobs.

It’s fair to ask, however: What should college students and prospective students, weighing their choices and possible time and financial expenses, think of this?

The news this spring was encouraging for people seeking to reinvent their careers to grab middle-class jobs and a shot at economic security.

Addressing Special Education Needs With Custom AI Solutions — from teachthought.com
AI can offer many opportunities to create more inclusive and effective learning experiences for students with diverse learning profiles.

For too long, students with learning disabilities have struggled to navigate a traditional education system that often fails to meet their unique needs. But what if technology could help bridge the gap, offering personalized support and unlocking the full potential of every learner?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a powerful ally in special education, offering many opportunities to create more inclusive and effective learning experiences for students with diverse learning profiles.

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11 Summer AI Developments Important to Educators — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
Equity demands that we help students prepare to thrive in an AI-World

*SearchGPT
*Smaller & on-device (phones, glasses) AI models
*AI TAs
*Access barriers decline, equity barriers grow
*Claude Artifacts and Projects
*Agents, and Agent Teams of a million+
*Humanoid robots & self-driving cars
*AI Curricular integration
*Huge video and video-segmentation gains
*Writing Detectors — The final blow
*AI Unemployment, Student AI anxiety, and forward-thinking approaches
*Alternative assessments

Academic Fracking: When Publishers Sell Scholars Work to AI — from aiedusimplified.substack.com by Lance Eaton
Further discussion of publisher practices selling scholars’ work to AI companies

Last week, I explored AI and academic publishing in response to an article that came out a few weeks ago about a deal Taylor & Francis made to sell their books to Microsoft and one other AI company (unnamed) for a boatload of money.

Since then, two more pieces have been widely shared including this piece from Inside Higher Ed by Kathryn Palmer (and to which I was interviewed and mentioned in) and this piece from Chronicle of Higher Ed by Christa Dutton. Both pieces try to cover the different sides talking to authors, scanning the commentary online, finding some experts to consult and talking to the publishers. It’s one of those things that can feel like really important and also probably only to a very small amount of folks that find themselves thinking about academic publishing, scholarly communication, and generative AI.

At the Crossroads of Innovation: Embracing AI to Foster Deep Learning in the College Classroom — from er.educause.edu by Dan Sarofian-Butin
AI is here to stay. How can we, as educators, accept this change and use it to help our students learn?

The Way Forward
So now what?

In one respect, we already have a partial answer. Over the last thirty years, there has been a dramatic shift from a teaching-centered to a learning-centered education model. High-impact practices, such as service learning, undergraduate research, and living-learning communities, are common and embraced because they help students see the real-world connections of what they are learning and make learning personal.11

Therefore, I believe we must double down on a learning-centered model in the age of AI.

The first step is to fully and enthusiastically embrace AI.
…
The second step is to find the “jagged technological frontier” of using AI in the college classroom.

.

Futures Thinking in Education — from gettingsmart.com by Getting Smart Staff

Key Points

Educators should leverage these tools to prepare for rapid changes driven by technology, climate, and social dynamics.
Cultivating empathy for future generations can help educators design more impactful and forward-thinking educational practices.

“Every single restaurant, every single website will probably, in the future, have these AIs …” Huang said. Plus numerous other items re: AI in general.

On 07/31/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, bots, business, change, computer science, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, Facebook / Meta Platforms, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, marketing/social marketing, NVIDIA, Open AI, platforms, privacy, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, skills, society, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, trends, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

We’re starting to roll out advanced Voice Mode to a small group of ChatGPT Plus users. Advanced Voice Mode offers more natural, real-time conversations, allows you to interrupt anytime, and senses and responds to your emotions. pic.twitter.com/64O94EhhXK

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) July 30, 2024

Per the Rundown AI:

Why it matters: AI is slowly shifting from a tool we text/prompt with, to an intelligence that we collaborate, learn, and grow with. Advanced Voice Mode’s ability to understand and respond to emotions in real-time convos could also have huge use cases in everything from customer service to mental health support.

Also relevant/see:

OpenAI’s SearchGPT: Google’s knockout punch or just a Perplexity copycat? — from aidisruptor.ai by Alex McFarland
The days of traditional SEO are numbered.

Creators to Have Personalized AI Assistants, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Tells NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang — from blogs.nvidia.com by Brian Caulfield
Zuckerberg and Huang explore the transformative potential of open source AI, the launch of AI Studio, and exchange leather jackets at SIGGRAPH 2024.

“Every single restaurant, every single website will probably, in the future, have these AIs …” Huang said.

“…just like every business has an email address and a website and a social media account, I think, in the future, every business is going to have an AI,” Zuckerberg responded.
…
More broadly, the advancement of AI across a broad ecosystem promises to supercharge human productivity, for example, by giving every human on earth a digital assistant — or assistants — allowing people to live richer lives that they can interact with quickly and fluidly.

Also related/see:

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Calls Mark Zuckerberg’s Vision for the Future of AI a ‘Home Run Idea’ — from entrepreneur.com by Sherin Shibu, edited by Melissa Malamut
Here’s how Zuckerberg sees AI affecting Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta products.

DC: Nvidia continues 2get rocked as I think people are taking their gains & getting nervous about AI’s ability 2deliver healthy ROI’s. But I think co’s will let many people go as a result of various AI’s impacts. They WILL get their ROI. But it may be at a great cost to some pple

— Daniel S. Christian (@dchristian5) July 30, 2024

From DSC:
Today was a MUCH better day for Nvidia however (up 12.81%). But it’s been very volatile in the last several weeks — as people and institutions ask where the ROI’s are going to come from.

DC: What do you think about this? What about if this occurred at *your* place of employment? https://t.co/CWc09Cm7n1

— Daniel S. Christian (@dchristian5) July 30, 2024

This last wave of AI releases is truly making us more capable than ever.

Here are 10 amazing examples of my favorite new tool ?

This is Claude 3.5 Sonnet with Artifacts, a new feature that allows people to go from a super simple prompt to immediate previews of games, code… pic.twitter.com/w4kkT25fch

— Allie K. Miller (@alliekmiller) July 15, 2024

It’s been a huge week for AI, and it’s only Tuesday.

Major developments from OpenAI’s Advanced Voice, Friend, Meta SAM 2, Speechmatics, Perplexity, Midjourney, Runway, Leonardo, and NVIDIA.

Here’s everything you need to know:

— Rowan Cheung (@rowancheung) July 31, 2024

For images, use @midjourney
For real time, use @krea_ai
For upscaling, use @topazlabs
For voice, use @elevenlabsio
For music, use @suno_ai_
For NeRFs, use @LumaLabsAI
For 3D, use @splinetool
For editing, use @DescriptApp
For mocap, use @MoveAI_
For video, use prayers

— Nick St. Pierre (@nickfloats) July 27, 2024

9 compelling reasons to learn how to use AI Chatbots — from interestingengineering.com by Atharva Gosavi
AI Chatbots are conversational agents that can act on your behalf and converse with humans – a futuristic novelty that is already getting people excited about its usage in improving efficiency.

7. Accessibility and inclusivity
Chatbots can be designed to support multiple languages and accessibility needs, making services more inclusive. They can cater to users with disabilities by providing voice interaction capabilities and simplifying access to information. Understanding how to develop inclusive chatbots can help you contribute to making technology more accessible to everyone, a crucial aspect in today’s diverse society.

8. Future-proofing your skills
AI and automation are the future of work. Having the skills of building AI chatbots is a great way to future-proof your skills, and given the rising trajectory of AI, it’ll be a demanding skill in the market in the years to come. Staying ahead of technological trends is a great way to ensure you remain relevant and competitive in the job market.

Top 7 generative AI use cases for business — from cio.com by Grant Gross
Advanced chatbots, digital assistants, and coding helpers seem to be some of the sweet spots for gen AI use so far in business.

Many AI experts say the current use cases for generative AI are just the tip of the iceberg. More uses cases will present themselves as gen AIs get more powerful and users get more creative with their experiments.

However, a handful of gen AI use cases are already bubbling up. Here’s a look at the most popular and promising.

The resistance to AI in education isn’t really about learning — from medium.com by Peter Shea

A quick comment first from DSC:
Peter Shea gives us some interesting perspectives here. His thoughts should give many of us fodder for our own further reflection.

This reaction underscores a deeper issue: the resistance to AI in education is not truly about learning. It reflects a reluctance to re-evaluate the traditional roles of educators and to embrace the opportunities AI offers to enhance the learning experience.
…
In order to thrive in the learning ecosystem that will evolve in the Age of AI, the teaching profession needs to do some difficult but essential re-evaluation of their role, in order to better understand where they can provide the best value to learners. This requires confronting some comforting myths and uncomfortable truths.

Problem #2: The Closed World of Academic Culture
In addition, many teachers have spent little time working in non-academic professions. This is especially true for college instructors, who must devote five to seven years to graduate education before obtaining their first full-time position, and thus have little time to explore careers outside academia. This common lack of non-academic work experience heightens the anxiety that educators feel when contemplating the potential impact of generative AI on their work lives.

Also see this related posting:

Majority of Grads Wish They’d Been Taught AI in College — from insidehighered.com by Lauren Coffey
A new survey shows 70 percent of graduates think generative AI should be incorporated into courses. More than half said they felt unprepared for the workforce.

A majority of college graduates believe generative artificial intelligence tools should be incorporated into college classrooms, with more than half saying they felt unprepared for the workforce, according to a new survey from Cengage Group, an education-technology company.

The survey, released today, found that 70 percent of graduates believe basic generative AI training should be integrated into courses; 55 percent said their degree programs did not prepare them to use the new technology tools in the workforce.

Researchers develop VR training to tackle racial disparity — from inavateonthenet.net

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a VR training system for physicians, aimed at tackling racial and class health disparities.
…
“Ultimately, this virtual reality training system could become a viable tool for practicing communication with diverse patients across different types of health care professions. “There’s no reason why nurses couldn’t also use this across different health care contexts — not just for Black maternal health, but chronic pain, diabetes or some of these other health issues in which we know that there are disparities based on markers of difference such as race or class”.

Two additional VR training modules are under development, aimed at promoting self-reflection by helping medical students to identify their own biases and learn how to mitigate them. The third module will focus on students practicing intercultural communication skills through interactions with a virtual patient, an approach that is seen by the researchers as more cost-effective than recruiting people for role playing with medical students.

From DSC:
I’ve often thought that VR could be used to help us walk in someone else’s shoes….to experience things as THEY experience things.

we think there is room to make search much better than it is today.

we are launching a new prototype called SearchGPT: https://t.co/A28Y03X1So

we will learn from the prototype, make it better, and then integrate the tech into ChatGPT to make it real-time and maximally helpful.

— Sam Altman (@sama) July 25, 2024

Also see:

“Who to follow in AI” in 2024? [Part II] — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer [some of posting is behind a paywall]
Part II – #19-34
“Who to follow in AI” in 2024? [Part III] — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer [some of posting is behind a paywall]
Part III – #35-55

Along these lines, also see:

Lots of folks talk about AI influencer content, but these AI influencers are also just damn good humans ?@rowancheung @nonmayorpete @decisionleader @rachel_l_woods @emollick @conorgrennan @sineadbovell @DonAllenIII @ManuVision @karenxcheng

*non-exhaustive, too many to include

— Allie K. Miller (@alliekmiller) July 13, 2024

AI In Medicine: 3 Future Scenarios From Utopia To Dystopia — from medicalfuturist.com by Andrea Koncz
There’s a vast difference between baseless fantasizing and realistic forward planning. Structured methodologies help us learn how to “dream well”.

Key Takeaways

We’re often told that daydreaming and envisioning the future is a waste of time. But this notion is misguided.
We all instinctively plan for the future in small ways, like organizing a trip or preparing for a dinner party. This same principle can be applied to larger-scale issues, and smart planning does bring better results.
We show you a method that allows us to think “well” about the future on a larger scale so that it better meets our needs.

Adobe Unveils Powerful New Innovations in Illustrator and Photoshop Unlocking New Design Possibilities for Creative Pros — from news.adobe.com

Latest Illustrator and Photoshop releases accelerate creative workflows, save pros time and empower designers to realize their visions faster
New Firefly-enabled features like Generative Shape Fill in Illustrator along with the Dimension Tool, Mockup, Text to Pattern, the Contextual Taskbar and performance enhancement tools accelerate productivity and free up time so creative pros can dive deeper into the parts of their work they love
Photoshop introduces all-new Selection Brush Tool and the general availability of Generate Image, Adjustment Brush Tool and other workflow enhancements empowering creators to make complex edits and unique designs
.

Nike is using AI to turn athletes’ dreams into shoes — from axios.com by Ina Fried

Zoom in: Nike used genAI for ideation, including using a variety of prompts to produce images with different textures, materials and color to kick off the design process.

What they’re saying: “It’s a new way for us to work,” Nike lead footwear designer Juliana Sagat told Axios during a media tour of the showcase on Tuesday.
.

AI meets ‘Do no harm’: Healthcare grapples with tech promises — from finance.yahoo.com by Maya Benjamin

Major companies are moving at high speed to capture the promises of artificial intelligence in healthcare while doctors and experts attempt to integrate the technology safely into patient care.

“Healthcare is probably the most impactful utility of generative AI that there will be,” Kimberly Powell, vice president of healthcare at AI hardware giant Nvidia (NVDA), which has partnered with Roche’s Genentech (RHHBY) to enhance drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry, among other investments in healthcare companies, declared at the company’s AI Summit in June.

Mistral reignites this week’s LLM rivalry with Large 2 (source) — from superhuman.ai

Today, we are announcing Mistral Large 2, the new generation of our flagship model. Compared to its predecessor, Mistral Large 2 is significantly more capable in code generation, mathematics, and reasoning. It also provides a much stronger multilingual support, and advanced function calling capabilities.

Meta releases the biggest and best open-source AI model yet — from theverge.com by Alex Heath
Llama 3.1 outperforms OpenAI and other rivals on certain benchmarks. Now, Mark Zuckerberg expects Meta’s AI assistant to surpass ChatGPT’s usage in the coming months.

Back in April, Meta teased that it was working on a first for the AI industry: an open-source model with performance that matched the best private models from companies like OpenAI.

Today, that model has arrived. Meta is releasing Llama 3.1, the largest-ever open-source AI model, which the company claims outperforms GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet on several benchmarks. It’s also making the Llama-based Meta AI assistant available in more countries and languages while adding a feature that can generate images based on someone’s specific likeness. CEO Mark Zuckerberg now predicts that Meta AI will be the most widely used assistant by the end of this year, surpassing ChatGPT.

4 ways to boost ChatGPT — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan & The PyCoach
Simple tactics for getting useful responses

To help you make the most of ChatGPT, I’ve invited & edited today’s guest post from the author of a smart AI newsletter called The Artificial Corner. I appreciate how Frank Andrade pushes ChatGPT to produce better results with four simple, clever tactics. He offers practical examples to help us all use AI more effectively.
…
Frank Andrade: Most of us fail to make the most of ChatGPT.

We omit examples in our prompts.
We fail to assign roles to ChatGPT to guide its behavior.
We let ChatGPT guess instead of providing it with clear guidance.

If you rely on vague prompts, learning how to create high-quality instructions will get you better results. It’s a skill often referred to as prompt engineering. Here are several techniques to get you to the next level.

The Three Wave Strategy of AI Implementation — from aiczar.blogspot.com by Alexander “Sasha” Sidorkin

The First Wave: Low-Hanging Fruit
…
These are just examples:

Student services
Resume and Cover Letter Review (Career Services)Offering individual resume critiques
Academic Policy Development and Enforcement (Academic Affairs)…
Health Education and Outreach (Health and Wellness Services) …
Sustainability Education and Outreach (Sustainability and Environmental Initiatives) …
Digital Marketing and Social Media Management (University Communications and Marketing) …
Grant Proposal Development and Submission (Research and Innovation) …
Financial Aid Counseling (Financial Aid and Scholarships) …
Alumni Communications (Alumni Relations and Development) …
Scholarly Communications (Library Services) …
International Student and Scholar Services (International Programs and Global Engagement)

Duolingo Max: A Paid Subscription to Learn a Language Using ChatGPT AI (Worth It?) — from theaigirl.substack.com by Diana Dovgopol (behind paywall for the most part)
The integration of AI in language learning apps could be game-changing.

Research Insights #12: Copyrights and Academia — from aiedusimplified.substack.com by Lance Eaton
Scholarly authors are not going to be happy…

A while back, I wrote about some of my thoughts on generative AI around the copyright issues. Not much has changed since then, but a new article (Academic authors ‘shocked’ after Taylor & Francis sells access to their research to Microsoft AI) is definitely stirring up all sorts of concerns by academic authors. The basics of that article are that Taylor & Francis sold access to authors’ research to Microsoft for AI development without informing the authors, sparking significant concern among academics and the Society of Authors about transparency, consent, and the implications for authors’ rights and future earnings.

The stir can be seen as both valid and redundant. Two folks’ points stick out to me in this regard.

How to use Perplexity in your daily workflow — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer and Alex McFarland
“I barely use Google anymore (for anything)” says today’s guest author.

Make Perplexity your go-to research companion with these strategies:

Morning briefings: Start your day by asking Perplexity for the latest news in your field. (I personally like to use Perplexity to curate the top AI news of the day to consider writing about for Unite AI and Techopedia.)
Fact-checking: Use it to quickly verify information before including it in your work.
Brainstorming: Generate ideas for projects or content by asking open-ended questions.
Learning new concepts: When you encounter an unfamiliar term or idea, turn to Perplexity for a quick, comprehensive explanation.
Writing assistance: Use it to find relevant statistics, examples, or counterarguments for your content.

From DSC:
So I used it to ask “What is Elon Musk’s Memphis Supercluster?” (which went online yesterday I believe) — which resulted in this reply:

Elon Musk’s Memphis Supercluster is a newly activated AI training cluster that is claimed to be the most powerful in the world. Here are the key details about this supercomputer:

1. Location: The supercluster is located in Memphis, Tennessee[1][2].

2. Hardware: It consists of 100,000 liquid-cooled Nvidia H100 GPUs connected through a single RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) fabric[1][3].

3. Purpose: The supercluster is designed for training large language models (LLMs) and other advanced AI technologies for Musk’s xAI company[1][2].

4. Activation: The Memphis Supercluster began training at approximately 4:20 AM local time on July 22, 2024[1][3].

5. Collaboration: The project is a result of collaboration between xAI, X (formerly Twitter), Nvidia, and other supporting companies[1][2].

6. Investment: With each H100 GPU estimated to cost between $30,000 to $40,000, the total investment in GPUs alone is estimated to be between $3 billion to $4 billion[5].

7. Goals: Musk claims that this supercluster will be used to develop “the world’s most powerful AI by every measure” by December 2024[1].

8. Comparison: The Memphis Supercluster’s 100,000 H100 GPUs significantly outclass other supercomputers in terms of GPU horsepower, such as Frontier (37,888 AMD GPUs) and Microsoft Eagle (14,400 Nvidia H100 GPUs)[3].

9. Infrastructure: The project required significant infrastructure development, including fiber optic networking[5].

While Musk’s claims about the supercluster’s capabilities are ambitious, it remains to be seen how it will perform in practice and whether it will meet the stated goals within the given timeframe[1].

Citations:
[1] https://venturebeat.com/ai/elon-musk-announces-most-powerful-ai-training-cluster-in-the-world/
[2] https://www.tuaw.com/2024/07/22/elon-musks-xai-unveils-worlds-most-powerful-ai-training-cluster/
[3] https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/elon-musk-fires-up-the-most-powerful-ai-training-cluster-in-the-world-uses-100000-nvidia-h100-gpus-on-a-single-fabric
[4] https://www.thestack.technology/xai-elon-musk-ai-supercomputer/
[5] https://www.benzinga.com/news/24/07/39881748/elon-musks-xai-flips-the-switch-on-100k-nvidia-h100-gpus-worth-up-to-4b-in-memphis-supercluster-most
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JhtJa05C2Y

—–

Elon’s AI empire expands — from theneurondaily.com by Grant Harvey
Elon Musk’s team at xAI just powered on the “World’s Most Powerful AI Training Cluster.”

If you don’t know what a supercluster is, it’s basically a massive network of Nvidia GPUs (computer chips) working together as a single unit to solve “super” complex calculations at unprecedented speeds.

And this Memphis Supercluster is the most “super” supercluster we’ve ever seen. The new facility, dubbed the “Gigafactory of Compute”, is a beast:

100,000 liquid-cooled Nvidia H100 GPUs on a single RDMA fabric (for context, Google snagged only 50,000 H100 GPUs last year).
Up to 150 megawatts of electricity usage per hour—enough for 100K homes.
At least one million gallons of water per day to keep cool!

What to expect: Better models, more frequently. That’s been the trend, at least—look at how the last few model releases have become more squished together.

OpenAI to make GPT-4o Advanced Voice available by the end of the month to select group of users — from tomsguide.com by Ryan Morrison

GPT-4o Advanced Voice is an entirely new type of voice assistant, similar to but larger than the recently unveiled French model Moshi, which argued with me over a story.

In demos of the model, we’ve seen GPT-4o Advanced Voice create custom character voices, generate sound effects while telling a story and even act as a live translator.

This native speech ability is a significant step in creating more natural AI assistants. In the future, it will also come with live vision abilities, allowing the AI to see what you see.

Could AGI break the world? — from theneurondaily.com by Noah Edelman

“Biggest IT outage in history” proves we’re not ready for AGI.
…
Here’s the TL;DR—a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike made this happen:

Grounded 5,000+ flights around the world.
Slowed healthcare across the UK.
Forced retailers to revert to cash-only transactions in Australia (what is this, the stone ages?!).

…
Here’s where AI comes in: Imagine today’s AI as a new operating system. In 5-10 years, it’ll likely be as integrated into our economy as Microsoft’s cloud servers are now. This isn’t that far-fetched—Microsoft is already planning to embed AI into all its programs.

So what if a Crowdstrike-like incident happens with a more powerful AI system? Some experts predict an AI-powered IT outage could be 10x worse than Friday’s fiasco.

The Crowdstrike outage and global software’s single-point failure problem — from cnbc.com by Kaya Ginsky

KEY POINTS

The CrowdStrike software bug that took down global IT infrastructure exposed a single-point-of-failure risk unrelated to malicious cyberattack.
National and cybersecurity experts say the risk of this kind of technical outage is increasing alongside the risk of hacks, and the market will need to adopt better competitive practices.
Government is also likely to look at new regulations related to software updates and patches.

The “largest IT outage in history,” briefly explained — from vox.com by Li Zhou
Airlines, banks, and hospitals saw computer systems go down because of a CrowdStrike software glitch.

AI-assisted job fraud is spiking — from thedeepview.co by Ian Krietzberg

A recent report published by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) found that data from 2023 shows “an environment where bad actors are more effective, efficient and successful in launching attacks. The result is fewer victims (or at least fewer victim reports), but the impact on individuals and businesses is arguably more damaging.”

One of these attacks involves fake job postings.

The details: The ITRC said that victim reports of job and employment scams spiked some 118% in 2023. These scams were primarily carried out through LinkedIn and other job search platforms.

- The bad actors here would either create fake (but professional-looking) job postings, profiles and websites or impersonate legitimate companies, all with the hopes of landing victims to move onto the interview process.
- These actors would then move the conversation onto a third-party messaging platform, and ask for identity verification information (driver’s licenses, social security numbers, direct deposit information, etc.).

Hypernatural — AI videos you can actually use. — via Jeremy Caplan’s Wonder Tools

Hypernatural is an AI video platform that makes it easy to create beautiful, ready-to share videos from anything. Stop settling for glitchy 3s generated videos and boring stock footage. Turn your ideas, scripts, podcasts and more into incredible short-form videos in minutes.

GPT-4o mini: advancing cost-efficient intelligence — from openai.com
Introducing our most cost-efficient small model

OpenAI is committed to making intelligence as broadly accessible as possible. Today, we’re announcing GPT-4o mini, our most cost-efficient small model. We expect GPT-4o mini will significantly expand the range of applications built with AI by making intelligence much more affordable. GPT-4o mini scores 82% on MMLU and currently outperforms GPT-4¹ on chat preferences in LMSYS leaderboard(opens in a new window). It is priced at 15 cents per million input tokens and 60 cents per million output tokens, an order of magnitude more affordable than previous frontier models and more than 60% cheaper than GPT-3.5 Turbo.

GPT-4o mini enables a broad range of tasks with its low cost and latency, such as applications that chain or parallelize multiple model calls (e.g., calling multiple APIs), pass a large volume of context to the model (e.g., full code base or conversation history), or interact with customers through fast, real-time text responses (e.g., customer support chatbots).

Also see what this means from Ben’s Bites, The Neuron, and as The Rundown AI asserts:

Why it matters: While it’s not GPT-5, the price and capabilities of this mini-release significantly lower the barrier to entry for AI integrations — and marks a massive leap over GPT 3.5 Turbo. With models getting cheaper, faster, and more intelligent with each release, the perfect storm for AI acceleration is forming.

Nvidia: More AI Waves Are Taking Shape — from seekingalpha.com by Eric Sprague

Summary

Nvidia Corporation is transitioning from a GPU designer to an AI factory builder.
AI spending will continue to grow in healthcare, government, and robotics.
CEO Jensen Huang says the AI robot industry could be bigger than the auto and consumer electronics industries combined.

Byte-Sized Courses: NVIDIA Offers Self-Paced Career Development in AI and Data Science — from blogs.nvidia.com by Andy Bui
Industry experts gather to share advice on starting a career in AI, highlighting technical training and certifications for career growth.

Learning Ecosystems

From DSC: You NEED this extension! Clear away the clutter from all of your web-based articles. Instantly.

Using VR to put oneself into another’s shoes/reality

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