tools

Getting smart about the future of AI [MIT Technology Review Insights]

On 02/21/2019, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, corporate / business world, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, history, society, tools, United States, universities, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Getting smart about the future of AI — from technologyreview.com by MIT Technology Review Insights
Artificial intelligence is a primary driver of possibilities and promise as the Fourth Industrial Revolution unfolds.

Excerpts:

The Industrial Revolution conjures up images of steam engines, textile mills, and iron workers. This was a defining period during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, as society shifted from primarily agrarian to factory-based work. A second phase of rapid industrialization occurred just before World War I, driven by growth in steel and oil production, and the emergence of electricity.

Fast-forward to the 1980s, when digital electronics started having a deep impact on society—the dawning Digital Revolution. Building on that era is what’s called the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Like its predecessors, it is centered on technological advancements—this time it’s artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous machines, and the internet of things—but now the focus is on how technology will affect society and humanity’s ability to communicate and remain connected.

That’s what AI technologies represent in the current period of technological change. It is now critical to carefully consider the future of AI, what it will look like, the effect it will have on human life, and what challenges and opportunities will arise as it evolves.

See the full report here >>

Also see:

Where Next for AI In Business? An overview for C-level executives — from techrevolution.asia by Bernard Marr
Excerpt:
The AI revolution is now well underway. In finance, marketing, medicine and manufacturing, machines are learning to monitor and adapt to real-world inputs in order to operate more efficiently, without human intervention. In our everyday lives, AI kicks in whenever we search the internet, shop online or settle down on the sofa to watch Netflix or listen to Spotify. At this point, it’s safe to say that AI is no longer the preserve of science fiction, but has already changed our world in a huge number of different ways.So: what next? Well, the revolution is showing no signs of slowing down. Research indicates that businesses, encouraged by the initial results they have seen, are now planning on stepping up investment and deployment of AI.One of the most noticeable advances will be the ongoing “democratization” of AI. What this means, put simply, is that AI-enabled business tools will increasingly become available to all of us, no matter what jobs we do.

You’ll no longer need to be an expert in computer science to use AI to do your job efficiently – this is the “democratization” of AI and it’s a trend which will impact more and more businesses going forward.

Is Blockchain Ready for Prime Time in Education? — from er.educause.edu by Wayne Skipper

Excerpt:

This is not to say that using blockchains to store educational records is in itself a poor use of the technology. Instead, what is needed is an open technology ecosystem that combines public blockchains, private blockchains, and off-chain storage, combining the strengths of each technology to create a decentralized storage mechanism whose verification incentives are not tied to currency markets. This approach offers all the benefits of blockchain-powered record verification without the worry that external economic factors or new technologies might render education records corruptible—and without the need to trust in the continued existence of any single technology company.

In early 2018, Concentric Sky and partners BrightHive and the DXtera Institute proposed such a blockchain ecosystem, called EdRec. EdRec is a learner-centric, open standards approach to learning record storage “on the blockchain,” with self-sovereignty of learner data as its key design principle. The project’s goal is to create a privacy-focused open technology standard that any company can implement in their products.

The proposal was a winner of the US Department of Education’s Reimagining the Higher Education Ecosystem Challenge, and since then, the project has begun to attract numerous institutions and large employers that see the value of a vendor-independent, machine-readable lifelong learning profile based on open technology standards.

Our elevator pitch: Your “permanent” educational record has never been truly yours. Wouldn’t you want to control it, control access as you progress from one transition to the next, and optimize it for your desired success? We’re rewriting the rules of the game for personal education data by empowering learners with control of their own permanent education record across institutions, applications, and platforms.

From concentricsky.com

Also see:

Blockchain: What’s Not to Like? [podcast] — from er.educause.edu by David Rosenthal

From DSC:
I’ve been hoping for this for a while now…

Reflections on two articles involving the downsides of/warnings re: AI

On 02/16/2019, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, bots, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, ethics, Google, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, Microsoft, morals/values, society, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, tools, by Daniel Christian

Google and Microsoft warn that AI may do dumb things — from wired.com by Tom Simonite

Excerpt:

Alphabet likes to position itself as a leader in AI research, but it was six months behind rival Microsoft in warning investors about the technology’s ethical risks. The AI disclosure in Google’s latest filing reads like a trimmed down version of much fuller language Microsoft put in its most recent annual SEC report, filed last August:

“AI algorithms may be flawed. Datasets may be insufficient or contain biased information. Inappropriate or controversial data practices by Microsoft or others could impair the acceptance of AI solutions. These deficiencies could undermine the decisions, predictions, or analysis AI applications produce, subjecting us to competitive harm, legal liability, and brand or reputational harm.”

Chinese company leaves Muslim-tracking facial recognition database exposed online — from by Catalin Cimpanu
Researcher finds one of the databases used to track Uyghur Muslim population in Xinjiang.

Excerpt:

One of the facial recognition databases that the Chinese government is using to track the Uyghur Muslim population in the Xinjiang region has been left open on the internet for months, a Dutch security researcher told ZDNet.

The database belongs to a Chinese company named SenseNets, which according to its website provides video-based crowd analysis and facial recognition technology.
…
The user data wasn’t just benign usernames, but highly detailed and highly sensitive information that someone would usually find on an ID card, Gevers said. The researcher saw user profiles with information such as names, ID card numbers, ID card issue date, ID card expiration date, sex, nationality, home addresses, dates of birth, photos, and employer.
…
Some of the descriptive names associated with the “trackers” contained terms such as “mosque,” “hotel,” “police station,” “internet cafe,” “restaurant,” and other places where public cameras would normally be found.

From DSC:
Readers of this blog will know that I’m generally pro-technology. But especially focusing in on that last article, to me, privacy is key here. For which group of people from which nation is next? Will Country A next be tracking Christians? Will Country B be tracking people of a given sexual orientation? Will Country C be tracking people with some other characteristic?

Where does it end? Who gets to decide? What will be the costs of being tracked or being a person with whatever certain characteristic one’s government is tracking? What forums are there for combating technologies or features of technologies that we don’t like or want?

We need forums/channels for raising awareness and voting on these emerging technologies. We need informed legislators, senators, lawyers, citizens…we need new laws here…asap.

Wearable, instant language translation on the go

On 02/15/2019, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, global / globalization, human-computer interaction (HCI), intelligent systems, languages and translation, Natural Language Processing (NLP), society, tools, vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, wearables, by Daniel Christian

Instant translation on the go #AI #MachineLearning #voice
RT @helene_wpli @BrianRoemmele @jblefevre60 @akwyz @DimitriHommel @alvinfoo @floriansemle @dinisguarda @YuHelenYu @kashthefuturist @MarshaCollier @CurtisSChin @Xbond49 @guzmand @kalydeoo @Ym78200 @ArnaultChatel pic.twitter.com/XcUiX9oNdz

— Olivier Laborde ????? (@labordeolivier) February 13, 2019

The real reason tech struggles with algorithmic bias [Eisenstat]

On 02/13/2019, in 21st century, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, computer science, emerging technologies, ethics, Facebook / Meta Platforms, Google, morals/values, professional development, programming, society, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

The real reason tech struggles with algorithmic bias — from wired.com by Yael Eisenstat

Excerpts:

ARE MACHINES RACIST? Are algorithms and artificial intelligence inherently prejudiced? Do Facebook, Google, and Twitter have political biases? Those answers are complicated.

But if the question is whether the tech industry doing enough to address these biases, the straightforward response is no.
…
Humans cannot wholly avoid bias, as countless studies and publications have shown. Insisting otherwise is an intellectually dishonest and lazy response to a very real problem.
…
In my six months at Facebook, where I was hired to be the head of global elections integrity ops in the company’s business integrity division, I participated in numerous discussions about the topic. I did not know anyone who intentionally wanted to incorporate bias into their work. But I also did not find anyone who actually knew what it meant to counter bias in any true and methodical way.

But the company has created its own sort of insular bubble in which its employees’ perception of the world is the product of a number of biases that are engrained within the Silicon Valley tech and innovation scene.

C-Level View | Feature: Technology Change: Closing the Knowledge Gap — A Q&A with Mary Grush & Daniel Christian

On 02/12/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, pace of change, society, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, tools, trends, by Daniel Christian

C-Level View | Feature:
Technology Change: Closing the Knowledge Gap — A Q&A with Mary Grush & Daniel Christian

Excerpts:

Technology changes quickly. People change slowly. The rate of technology change often outpaces our ability to understand it.
…
It has caused a gap between what’s possible and what’s legal. For example, facial recognition seems to be starting to show up all around us — that’s what’s possible. But what’s legal?
…
The overarching questions are: What do we really want from these technologies? What kind of future do we want to live in?
…
Those law schools that expand their understanding of emerging technologies and lead the field in the exploration of related legal issues will achieve greater national prominence.

Daniel Christian

For a next gen learning platform: A Netflix-like interface to check out potential functionalities / educationally-related “apps” [Christian]

On 02/12/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, consortiums, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, library / librarians, lifelong learning, love of learning, MBA, media/film, microlearning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, society, staying relevant, streams of content, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), television, tools, training / L&D, TVs, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
In a next generation learning system, it would be sharp/beneficial to have a Netflix-like interface to check out potential functionalities that you could turn on and off (at will) — as one component of your learning ecosystem that could feature a setup located in your living room or office.

For example, put a Netflix-like interface to the apps out at eduappcenter.com (i.e., using a rolling interface at first, then going to a static page/listing of apps…again…similar to Netflix).

Especially for students: This is how you’ll look for a job in 2019 [Dishman] + 2 items re: in-demand skills

On 02/11/2019, in 21st century, career development, collaboration, communications, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, higher education, marketplaces, Microsoft, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, strategy, student-related, tools, training / L&D, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

This is how you’ll look for a job in 2019 — from linkedin.com by Lydia Dishman

Some brand new strategies and time-tested traditions dictate the way job seekers will conduct the hunt in 2019.

Excerpt:

In addition to making sure you list at least five skills, Guo suggests adding the field you work in since more than 300,000 people search by industry on LinkedIn each week. And don’t forget to update the city you work in since this can make you up to 23 times more likely to be found in search, according to LinkedIn’s data.

From DSC:
This next article is likely somewhat of an ad to take courses out at Lynda.com, but it’s still helpful I think:

The Skills Companies Need Most in 2019 – And How to Learn Them— from linkedin.com by Paul Petrone

Also see (emphasis DSC):

These are the 10 most in-demand skills of 2019, according to LinkedIn — from weforum.org by Emma Charlton
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
According to analysis from networking site LinkedIn, 2019’s employers are looking for a combination of both hard and soft skills, with creativity topping the list of desired attributes. The findings chime with the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report, which concluded that “human” skills like originality, initiative and critical thinking are likely to increase in value as technology and automation advances. “Strengthening a soft skill is one of the best investments you can make in your career, as they never go out of style,” LinkedIn Learning Editor, Paul Petrone wrote in a blog. “Plus, the rise of AI is only making soft skills increasingly important, as they are precisely the type of skills robots can’t automate.”

State of Higher Ed LMS Market for US & Canada: 2018 Year-End Edition [Hill]

On 02/09/2019, in Canada, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, education technology, higher education, IT in HE, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

State of Higher Ed LMS Market for US and Canada: 2018 Year-End Edition — from mfeldstein.com by Phill Hill

Excerpts:

The market continues to consolidate around the Big Four – Blackboard, Canvas, D2L Brightspace, and Moodle.
The Homegrown option for LMS usage is going away, at least in a statistical sense. Only a handful of schools even consider this option.

Emerging technology trends can seem both elusive and ephemeral, but some become integral to business and IT strategies—and form the backbone of tomorrow’s technology innovation. The eight chapters of Tech Trends 2019 look to guide CIOs through today’s most promising trends, with an eye toward innovation and growth and a spotlight on emerging trends that may well offer new avenues for pursuing strategic ambitions.

Amazon is pushing facial technology that a study says could be biased [Singer]

On 01/29/2019, in Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, data related items, emerging technologies, ethics, IBM, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, platforms, society, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, tools, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Amazon is pushing facial technology that a study says could be biased — from nytimes.com by Natasha Singer
In new tests, Amazon’s system had more difficulty identifying the gender of female and darker-skinned faces than similar services from IBM and Microsoft.

Excerpt:

Over the last two years, Amazon has aggressively marketed its facial recognition technology to police departments and federal agencies as a service to help law enforcement identify suspects more quickly. It has done so as another tech giant, Microsoft, has called on Congress to regulate the technology, arguing that it is too risky for companies to oversee on their own.

Now a new study from researchers at the M.I.T. Media Lab has found that Amazon’s system, Rekognition, had much more difficulty in telling the gender of female faces and of darker-skinned faces in photos than similar services from IBM and Microsoft. The results raise questions about potential bias that could hamper Amazon’s drive to popularize the technology.

UIX: When the future comes to West Michigan, will we be ready? [Russell]

On 01/28/2019, in 21st century, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, change, colleges, community colleges, computer science, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, ideas, intelligent systems, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, Michigan, pace of change, platforms, reinvent, society, staying relevant, streams of content, student-related, surviving, technologies for your home, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

UIX: When the future comes to West Michigan, will we be ready? — from rapidgrowthmedia.com by Matthew Russell

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

“Here in the United States, if we were to personify things a bit, it’s almost like society is anxiously calling out to an older sibling (i.e., emerging technologies), ‘Heh! Wait up!!!'” Christian says. “This trend has numerous ramifications.”

Out of those ramifications, Christian names three main points that society will have to address to fully understand, make use of, and make practical, future technologies.

The need for the legal/legislative side of the world to close the gap between what’s possible and what’s legal
The need for lifelong learning and to reinvent oneself
The need to make pulse-checking/futurism an essential tool in the toolbox of every member of the workforce today and in the future

Photos by Adam Bird

From DSC:
The key thing that I was trying to relay in my contribution towards Matthew’s helpful article was that we are now on an exponential trajectory of technological change. This trend has ramifications for numerous societies around the globe, and it involves the legal realm as well. Hopefully, all of us in the workforce are coming to realize our need to be constantly pulse-checking the relevant landscapes around us. To help make that happen, each of us needs to be tapping into the appropriate “streams of content” that are relevant to our careers so that our knowledgebases are as up-to-date as possible. We’re all into lifelong learning now, right?

Along these lines, increasingly there is a need for futurism to hit the mainstream. That is, when the world is moving at 120+mph, the skills and methods that futurists follow must be better taught and understood, or many people will be broadsided by the changes brought about by emerging technologies. We need to better pulse-check the relevant landscapes, anticipate the oncoming changes, develop potential scenarios, and then design the strategies to respond to those potential scenarios.

6 key trends to 21st century teaching — from edsurge.com

Excerpt:

It’s popular these days to complain that college teaching hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. And sure, it’s possible to find some professors on any campus holding yellowed lecture notes, or clinging to dusty chalk. But the reality is that the internet and digital technologies have already brought profound changes to instructional styles and tools in higher education.

So what are the new teaching approaches catching on at today’s campuses? And what are the broader cultural changes around college teaching?

We set out to answer those questions over the past year, with a series of articles and interviews exploring what teaching in the 21st century looks like. Some show the nuances of the challenges of teaching with technology by telling stories of innovative professors, including how a water agency official who teaches an online community college course got started in creating open educational resources when her class was incorporated into a zero-cost textbook degree program. Others dive into research on the culture of teaching, like a talk with an anthropologist studying how professors react to (and sometimes resist) research on teaching practices.

Amazon has 10,000 employees dedicated to Alexa — here are some of the areas they’re working on [Hartmans]

On 01/23/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, computer science, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, lifelong learning, microlearning, mobile learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Near Field Communication (NFC), personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, smart classrooms, society, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, trends, TVs, United States, using teams, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Amazon has 10,000 employees dedicated to Alexa — here are some of the areas they’re working on — from businessinsider.com by Avery Hartmans

Summary (emphasis DSC):

Amazon’s vice president of Alexa, Steve Rabuchin, has confirmed that yes, there really are 10,000 Amazon employees working on Alexa and the Echo.
Those employees are focused on things like machine learning and making Alexa more knowledgeable.
Some employees are working on giving Alexa a personality, too.

From DSC:
How might this trend impact learning spaces? For example, I am interested in using voice to intuitively “drive” smart classroom control systems:

“Alexa, turn on the projector”
“Alexa, dim the lights by 50%”
“Alexa, open Canvas and launch my Constitutional Law I class”

EdGuards News: A helpful news resource about education & technology with a shift towards cybersecurity

On 01/23/2019, in colleges, community colleges, education, education technology, higher education, IT in HE, K-12 related, student-related, tools, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

EdGuards News: A helpful news resource about education and technology with a shift towards cybersecurity; with thanks to Amy Lynn for this resource and the item below as well

NOTE:

EdGuards provides security scanning solutions and services for PeopleSoft, Ellucian, and other systems.

Also see:

Higher Education Cyber Attacks History — from edguards.com (from June 15, 2018)
This article covers the most notorious cyber attacks performed on educational institutions from 2002 to 2018.

Learning Ecosystems

C-Level View | Feature: Technology Change: Closing the Knowledge Gap — A Q&A with Mary Grush & Daniel Christian

State of Higher Ed LMS Market for US & Canada: 2018 Year-End Edition [Hill]

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