What new grads can expect as they enter the working world — from mckinsey.com by Patrick Guggenberger, Dana Maor, Michael Park, and Patrick Simon

Excerpt:

May 21, 2023 It’s officially the season of caps, gowns, and stoles—and new grads are gearing up for entry into the world of work at a time when organizations are undergoing massive shifts. “The shifts include complex questions about how to organize for speed to shore up resilience, find the right balance between in-person and remote work models, address employees’ declining mental health, and build new institutional capabilities at a time of rapid technological change, among others,” write Patrick Guggenberger, Dana Maor, Michael Park, and Patrick Simon in a new report. These changes have significant implications for structures, processes, and people. How can new grads set themselves up for success in a quickly evolving environment? If you’re a soon-to-be new grad or know one, check out our newly refreshed special collection for insights and interviews on topics including productivity, hybrid work models, worker preferences, tech trends, and much more.


On a somewhat relevant posting (it has to do with career development as well), also see:

From Basic to Brand: How to Build and Use a Purposeful LinkedIn Profile — from er.educause.edu by Ryan MacTaggart and Laurie Burruss
Developing a professional brand helps higher education professionals establish meaningful work-related connections and build credibility in their area of expertise.


 



Introducing the ChatGPT app for iOS — from openai.com
The ChatGPT app syncs your conversations, supports voice input, and brings our latest model improvements to your fingertips.

Excerpt:

Since the release of ChatGPT, we’ve heard from users that they love using ChatGPT on the go. Today, we’re launching the ChatGPT app for iOS.

The ChatGPT app is free to use and syncs your history across devices. It also integrates Whisper, our open-source speech-recognition system, enabling voice input. ChatGPT Plus subscribers get exclusive access to GPT-4’s capabilities, early access to features and faster response times, all on iOS.


Spotlight: AI Myths and MisconceptionsYour Undivided Attention — from your-undivided-attention.simplecast.com

A few episodes back, we presented Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin’s talk The AI Dilemma. People inside the companies that are building generative artificial intelligence came to us with their concerns about the rapid pace of deployment and the problems that are emerging as a result. We felt called to lay out the catastrophic risks that AI poses to society and sound the alarm on the need to upgrade our institutions for a post-AI world.

The talk resonated – over 1.6 million people have viewed it on YouTube as of this episode’s release date. The positive reception gives us hope that leaders will be willing to come to the table for a difficult but necessary conversation about AI.

However, now that so many people have watched or listened to the talk, we’ve found that there are some AI myths getting in the way of making progress. On this episode of Your Undivided Attention, we debunk five of those misconceptions.



The State of Voice Technology in 2023 — from deepgram.com; with thanks to The Rundown for this resource
Explore the latest insights on speech AI applications and automatic speech recognition (ASR) across a dozen industries, as seen by 400 business leaders surveyed for this report by Opus Research.

Report -- State Of Voice Technology in 2023 -from Deepgram

Also relevant here, see:


Your guide to AI: May 2023 — from nathanbenaich.substack.com by Nathan Benaich and Othmane Sebbouh
Welcome to the latest issue of your guide to AI, an editorialized newsletter covering key developments in AI research (particularly for this issue!), industry, geopolitics and startups during April 2023. 


NYC Public Schools Drop Ban on AI Tool ChatGPT — from bloomberg.com


 

 

‘It’s a New Era for Legal Tech’ – Generative AI + The Law — from artificiallawyer.com by Artificial Lawyer (UK)  and Dan Katz

Law professor and legal AI expert, Dan Katz, talks to Artificial Lawyer about generative AI and the legal sector.

A New Dawn of Legal Technology — from globalbankingandfinance.com
Is the legal function finally ready to embrace legal tech and unlock tangible business value?

Excerpt:

In the mid-1980s, a bright red computer terminal that provided lawyers with online access to case law was an iconic status symbol. The UBIQ terminal hooked lawyers up to the Lexis service, at the time one of the first legal technology systems, using full-text search capabilities to provide rapid access to information.

It is extraordinary to consider what the legal industry could have achieved if the early adoption of legal tech had not stalled. Sadly, rather than being innovative and embracing the potential of digital records, the industry has underinvested in both legal technology and good data management for the past three decades. Generation after generation of lawyers have failed to take advantage of the power of legal tech to improve client services, reduce risk and enhance efficiency.

Also relevant/see:

 

Sam Altman: CEO of OpenAI calls for US to regulate artificial intelligence — from bbc.com by  James Clayton

Excerpt:

The creator of advanced chatbot ChatGPT has called on US lawmakers to regulate artificial intelligence (AI). Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, testified before a US Senate committee on Tuesday about the possibilities – and pitfalls – of the new technology. In a matter of months, several AI models have entered the market. Mr Altman said a new agency should be formed to license AI companies.

Also related to that item, see:
Why artificial intelligence developers say regulation is needed to keep AI in check — from pbs.org

Excerpt:

Artificial intelligence was a focus on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Many believe AI could revolutionize, and perhaps upend, considerable aspects of our lives. At a Senate hearing, some said AI could be as momentous as the industrial revolution and others warned it’s akin to developing the atomic bomb. William Brangham discussed that with Gary Marcus, who was one of those who testified before the Senate.



Are you ready for the Age of Intelligence? — from linusekenstam.substack.com Linus Ekenstam
Let me walk you through my current thoughts on where we are, and where we are going.

From DSC:
I post this one to relay the exponential pace of change that Linus also thinks we’ve entered, and to present a knowledgeable person’s perspectives on the future.


Catastrophe / Eucatastrophe — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
We have more agency over the future of AI than we think.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Every organizational leader and manager has agency over what they decide to do with AI, just as every teacher and school administrator has agency over how AI will be used in their classrooms. So we need to be having very pragmatic discussions about AI, and we need to have them right now: What do we want our world to look like?



Also relevant/see:


That wasn’t Google I/O — it was Google AI — from technologyreview.com by Mat Honan
If you thought generative AI was a big deal last year, wait until you see what it looks like in products already used by billions.



What Higher Ed Gets Wrong About AI Chatbots — From the Student Perspective — from edsurge.com by Mary Jo Madda (Columnist)

 

I’m a Student. You Have No Idea How Much We’re Using ChatGPT. — from chronicle.com by

Excerpt:

There’s a remarkable disconnect between how professors and administrators think students use generative AI on written work and how we actually use it. Many assume that if an essay is written with the help of ChatGPT, there will be some sort of evidence — it will have a distinctive “voice,” it won’t make very complex arguments, or it will be written in a way that AI-detection programs will pick up on. Those are dangerous misconceptions. In reality, it’s very easy to use AI to do the lion’s share of the thinking while still submitting work that looks like your own.

The common fear among teachers is that AI is actually writing our essays for us, but that isn’t what happens. You can hand ChatGPT a prompt and ask it for a finished product, but you’ll probably get an essay with a very general claim, middle-school-level sentence structure, and half as many words as you wanted. The more effective, and increasingly popular, strategy is to have the AI walk you through the writing process step by step.

.


From DSC:
The idea of personalized storytelling is highly intriguing to me. If you write a story for someone with their name and character in it, they will likely be even more engaged with the story/content. Our daughter recently did this with a substitute teacher, who she really wanted to thank before she left (for another assignment at another school). I thought it was very creative of her.


 

 


How Your Students are Using AI — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman

Excerpts:

Here’s are the five biggest lessons we’ve learned:

    1. Many students are already embracing AI in their day to day study
    2. Students need AI education, and fast.
    3. Students have a preference for free or low-cost alternatives to often expensive, paid-for services
    4. Students find value in personalised, dialogue-based learning experiences
    5. Ed Tech companies will need to evolve in order to survive.
      .

Curricular Resources about AI for Teaching (CRAFT) — from craft.stanford.edu
A project from the Stanford Graduate School of Education

Excerpt:

We’re building resources to teach AI literacies for high school and college instructors and assembling them into a full curriculum that will be deployed in a course with the National Educational Equity Lab offered in Fall 2023.
.





Why I’m Excited About ChatGPT — from insidehighered.com by Jennie Young
Here are 10 ways ChatGPT will be a boon to first-year writing instruction, Jennie Young writes.

Excerpt:

But from my perspective as a first-year writing program director, I’m excited about how this emerging technology will help students from all kinds of educational backgrounds learn and focus on higher-order thinking skills faster. Here are 10 reasons I’m excited about ChatGPT.



edX Debuts Two AI-Powered Learning Assistants Built on ChatGPT — from press.edx.org; with thanks to Matthew Tower for this resource
edX plugin launches in ChatGPT plugin store to give users access to content and course discovery
edX Xpert delivers AI-powered learning and customer support within the edX platform

Excerpt:

LANHAM, Md. – May 12, 2023 – edX, a leading global online learning platform from 2U, Inc. (Nasdaq: TWOU), today announced the debut of two AI-powered innovations: the new edX plugin for ChatGPT and edX Xpert, an AI-powered learning assistant on the edX platform. Both tools leverage the technology of AI research and deployment company OpenAI to deliver real-time academic support and course discovery to help learners achieve their goals.

 

Google I/O 2023: Making AI more helpful for everyone — from by; with thanks to Barsee out at The AI Valley 
Editor’s Note: Here is a summary of what we announced at Google I/O 2023. See all the announcements in our collection.

Keynote here:

100 things we announced at I/O 2023 — from blog.google by Molly McHugh-Johnson
A lot happened yesterday — here’s a recap.


Google partners with Adobe to bring art generation to Bard — from techcrunch.com by Kyle Wiggers

Excerpt:

Bard, Google’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, is getting new generative AI capabilities courtesy of Adobe.

Adobe announced today that Firefly, its recently introduced collection of AI models for generating media content, is coming to Bard alongside Adobe’s free graphic design tool, Adobe Express. Firefly — currently in public beta — will become the “premier generative AI partner” for Bard, Adobe says, powering text-to-image capabilities.

Also relevant/see:

 



 

AI In Education -from Getting Smart -- May 2023

AI in Education — from gettingsmart.com

Some core takeaways for school leaders are:

  • AI has the potential to personalize learning experiences for students, improve student outcomes, and reduce the administrative burden on educators.
  • Addressing issues of data privacy, bias, and equity is crucial for responsible AI integration in education.
  • Collaboration between educators and AI developers is important to ensure that AI tools align with educational goals and values.
  • Professional development for educators is essential to effectively integrate AI tools in the classroom.
 

Brainyacts #57: Education Tech— from thebrainyacts.beehiiv.com by Josh Kubicki

Excerpts:

Let’s look at some ideas of how law schools could use AI tools like Khanmigo or ChatGPT to support lectures, assignments, and discussions, or use plagiarism detection software to maintain academic integrity.

  1. Personalized learning
  2. Virtual tutors and coaches
  3. Interactive simulations
  4. Enhanced course materials
  5. Collaborative learning
  6. Automated assessment and feedback
  7. Continuous improvement
  8. Accessibility and inclusivity

AI Will Democratize Learning — from td.org by Julia Stiglitz and Sourabh Bajaj

Excerpts:

In particular, we’re betting on four trends for AI and L&D.

  1. Rapid content production
  2. Personalized content
  3. Detailed, continuous feedback
  4. Learner-driven exploration

In a world where only 7 percent of the global population has a college degree, and as many as three quarters of workers don’t feel equipped to learn the digital skills their employers will need in the future, this is the conversation people need to have.

Taken together, these trends will change the cost structure of education and give learning practitioners new superpowers. Learners of all backgrounds will be able to access quality content on any topic and receive the ongoing support they need to master new skills. Even small L&D teams will be able to create programs that have both deep and broad impact across their organizations.

The Next Evolution in Educational Technologies and Assisted Learning Enablement — from educationoneducation.substack.com by Jeannine Proctor

Excerpt:

Generative AI is set to play a pivotal role in the transformation of educational technologies and assisted learning. Its ability to personalize learning experiences, power intelligent tutoring systems, generate engaging content, facilitate collaboration, and assist in assessment and grading will significantly benefit both students and educators.

How Generative AI Will Enable Personalized Learning Experiences — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

Excerpt:

With today’s advancements in generative AI, that vision of personalized learning may not be far off from reality. We spoke with Dr. Kim Round, associate dean of the Western Governors University School of Education, about the potential of technologies like ChatGPT for learning, the need for AI literacy skills, why learning experience designers have a leg up on AI prompt engineering, and more. And get ready for more Star Trek references, because the parallels between AI and Sci Fi are futile to resist.

The Promise of Personalized Learning Never Delivered. Today’s AI Is Different — from the74million.org by John Bailey; with thanks to GSV for this resource

Excerpts:

There are four reasons why this generation of AI tools is likely to succeed where other technologies have failed:

    1. Smarter capabilities
    2. Reasoning engines
    3. Language is the interface
    4. Unprecedented scale

Latest NVIDIA Graphics Research Advances Generative AI’s Next Frontier — from blogs.nvidia.com by Aaron Lefohn
NVIDIA will present around 20 research papers at SIGGRAPH, the year’s most important computer graphics conference.

Excerpt:

NVIDIA today introduced a wave of cutting-edge AI research that will enable developers and artists to bring their ideas to life — whether still or moving, in 2D or 3D, hyperrealistic or fantastical.

Around 20 NVIDIA Research papers advancing generative AI and neural graphics — including collaborations with over a dozen universities in the U.S., Europe and Israel — are headed to SIGGRAPH 2023, the premier computer graphics conference, taking place Aug. 6-10 in Los Angeles.

The papers include generative AI models that turn text into personalized images; inverse rendering tools that transform still images into 3D objects; neural physics models that use AI to simulate complex 3D elements with stunning realism; and neural rendering models that unlock new capabilities for generating real-time, AI-powered visual details.

 

Also relevant to the item from Nvidia (above), see:

Unreal Engine’s Metahuman Creator — with thanks to Mr. Steven Chevalia for this resource

Excerpt:

MetaHuman is a complete framework that gives any creator the power to use highly realistic human characters in any way imaginable.

It includes MetaHuman Creator, a free cloud-based app that enables you to create fully rigged photorealistic digital humans in minutes.

From Unreal Engine -- Dozens of ready-made MetaHumans are at your fingertips.

 

From DSC:
As Rob Toews points out in his recent article out at Forbes.com, we had better hope that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) builds out the capacity to make chips in various countries. Why? Because:

The following statement is utterly ludicrous. It is also true. The world’s most important advanced technology is nearly all produced in a single facility.

What’s more, that facility is located in one of the most geopolitically fraught areas on earth—an area in which many analysts believe that war is inevitable within the decade.

The future of artificial intelligence hangs in the balance.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) makes ***all of the world’s advanced AI chips.*** Most importantly, this means Nvidia’s GPUs; it also includes the AI chips from Google, AMD, Amazon, Microsoft, Cerebras, SambaNova, Untether and every other credible competitor.

— from The Geopolitics Of AI Chips Will Define The Future Of AI
out at Forbes.com by Rob Toews

Little surprise, then, that Time Magazine described TSMC
as “the world’s most important company that you’ve
probably never heard of.”

 


From DSC:
If that facility was actually the only one and something happened to it, look at how many things would be impacted as of early May 2023!


 

Examples of generative AI models

 

Lore Issue #29: AI Video and The Future of Hollywood — from lore.com

Key Insights:

  • Writers’ strike could hasten AI adoption in film.
  • AI video soon viable for games, film B-roll, and marketing.
  • Long-term: anyone could create their own movies; film budgets will drop.
  • Actionable Takeaway: Consider exploring AI-generated video in your industry. Educate yourself about what is currently possible.

Relevant Companies:

 

This company adopted AI. Here’s what happened to its human workers — from npr.org by Greg Rosalsky|

Excerpt:

What the economists found offers potentially great news for the economy, at least in one dimension that is crucial to improving our living standards: AI caused a group of workers to become much more productive. Backed by AI, these workers were able to accomplish much more in less time, with greater customer satisfaction to boot. At the same time, however, the study also shines a spotlight on just how powerful AI is, how disruptive it might be, and suggests that this new, astonishing technology could have economic effects that change the shape of income inequality going forward.

The article links to:
Generative AI at Work — from nber.org by Erik Brynjolfsson, Danielle Li & Lindsey R. Raymond

We study the staggered introduction of a generative AI-based conversational assistant using data from 5,179 customer support agents. Access to the tool increases productivity, as measured by issues resolved per hour, by 14 percent on average, with the greatest impact on novice and low-skilled workers, and minimal impact on experienced and highly skilled workers. We provide suggestive evidence that the AI model disseminates the potentially tacit knowledge of more able workers and helps newer workers move down the experience curve. In addition, we show that AI assistance improves customer sentiment, reduces requests for managerial intervention, and improves employee retention.

 

Introducing Teach AI — Empowering educators to teach w/ AI & about AI [ISTE & many others]


Teach AI -- Empowering educators to teach with AI and about AI


Also relevant/see:

 

2023 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Teaching and Learning Edition

2023 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Teaching and Learning Edition — from library.educause.edu

Excerpt:

The Future of Teaching and Learning
Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm, with new AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT opening up new opportunities in higher education for content creation, communication, and learning, while also raising new concerns about the misuses and overreach of technology. Our shared humanity has also become a key focal point within higher education, as faculty and leaders continue to wrestle with understanding and meeting the diverse needs of students and to find ways of cultivating institutional communities that support student well-being and belonging.

For this year’s teaching and learning Horizon Report, then, our panelists’ discussions oscillated between these seemingly polar ideas: the supplanting of human activity with powerful new technological capabilities, and the need for more humanity at the center of everything we do. This report summarizes the results of those discussions and serves as one vantage point on where our future may be headed.

 

Accessibility Do’s and Don’ts for Website Navigation — from boia.org

Excerpt:

If people can’t navigate your website, they can’t use it — and you miss an opportunity to connect with your audience.

Navigation controls can present a significant barrier to people with disabilities, making it difficult for them to find and interact with the content they need.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) includes a list of success criteria to ensure that navigation controls are operable (they don’t require interactions that a user can’t perform). These criteria are put in place to assist users with a wide variety of abilities, including individuals who use assistive technologies (AT).

If you’re new to web accessibility, WCAG’s requirements may seem overwhelming. Fortunately, they’re based on simple principles — and by understanding a few basic concepts, you can avoid common mistakes.

Also relevant/see:

Assistive Technology: What’s an “Alternative Input Device?” — from boia.org

Examples:

  • Eye-Tracking Systems
  • Sip-and-Puff Systems
  • Head Mouse
  • Modified Keyboards
  • Joysticks
 

Radar Trends to Watch: May 2023 Developments in Programming, Security, Web, and More — from oreilly.com by Mike Loukides

Excerpt:

Large language models continue to colonize the technology landscape. They’ve broken out of the AI category, and now are showing up in security, programming, and even the web. That’s a natural progression, and not something we should be afraid of: they’re not coming for our jobs. But they are remaking the technology industry.

One part of this remaking is the proliferation of “small” large language models. We’ve noted the appearance of llama.cpp, Alpaca, Vicuna, Dolly 2.0, Koala, and a few others. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Small LLMs are appearing every day, and some will even run in a web browser. This trend promises to be even more important than the rise of the “large” LLMs, like GPT-4. Only a few organizations can build, train, and run the large LLMs. But almost anyone can train a small LLM that will run on a well-equipped laptop or desktop.

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian