1-800-CHAT-GPT—12 Days of OpenAI: Day 10

Per The Rundown: OpenAI just launched a surprising new way to access ChatGPT — through an old-school 1-800 number & also rolled out a new WhatsApp integration for global users during Day 10 of the company’s livestream event.


How Agentic AI is Revolutionizing Customer Service — from customerthink.com by Devashish Mamgain

Agentic AI represents a significant evolution in artificial intelligence, offering enhanced autonomy and decision-making capabilities beyond traditional AI systems. Unlike conventional AI, which requires human instructions, agentic AI can independently perform complex tasks, adapt to changing environments, and pursue goals with minimal human intervention.

This makes it a powerful tool across various industries, especially in the customer service function. To understand it better, let’s compare AI Agents with non-AI agents.

Characteristics of Agentic AI

    • Autonomy: Achieves complex objectives without requiring human collaboration.
    • Language Comprehension: Understands nuanced human speech and text effectively.
    • Rationality: Makes informed, contextual decisions using advanced reasoning engines.
    • Adaptation: Adjusts plans and goals in dynamic situations.
    • Workflow Optimization: Streamlines and organizes business workflows with minimal oversight.

Clio: A system for privacy-preserving insights into real-world AI use — from anthropic.com

How, then, can we research and observe how our systems are used while rigorously maintaining user privacy?

Claude insights and observations, or “Clio,” is our attempt to answer this question. Clio is an automated analysis tool that enables privacy-preserving analysis of real-world language model use. It gives us insights into the day-to-day uses of claude.ai in a way that’s analogous to tools like Google Trends. It’s also already helping us improve our safety measures. In this post—which accompanies a full research paper—we describe Clio and some of its initial results.


Evolving tools redefine AI video — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper
Google’s Veo 2, Kling 1.6, Pika 2.0 & more

AI video continues to surpass expectations
The AI video generation space has evolved dramatically in recent weeks, with several major players introducing groundbreaking tools.

Here’s a comprehensive look at the current landscape:

  • Veo 2…
  • Pika 2.0…
  • Runway’s Gen-3…
  • Luma AI Dream Machine…
  • Hailuo’s MiniMax…
  • OpenAI’s Sora…
  • Hunyuan Video by Tencent…

There are several other video models and platforms, including …

 

Three items re: accessibility from boia.org


How Important Are Fonts for Digital Accessibility?

With that said, simple sans-serif fonts are generally easier to read and understand. That includes popular fonts like:

    • Times New Roman
    • Arial
    • Tahoma
    • Helvetica
    • Calibri
    • Verdana

If you decide to use serif fonts, use them sparingly. For most body text, you should use a sans serif font with appropriate spacing and weight.

Follow these tips:


Why Web Accessibility Frustrates Developers (And How to Fix It) 

When developers view accessibility as an integral part of their work, the process of building inclusive websites becomes less of a chore and more of a rewarding challenge. By embracing tools like semantic HTML and incorporating user feedback from people with disabilities, developers can create solutions that enhance real user experiences while conforming with WCAG.

Starting with accessibility in mind from day one streamlines workflows, reduces the need for extensive remediation later on, and ultimately leads to more robust and inclusive digital products. To learn more, download our free eBook: Developing the Accessibility Mindset.


How to Respond to an ADA Web Accessibility Demand Letter

An excerpt from the “Learn the basics of digital accessibility” section:

We realize that we just threw a bunch of information at you — but we promise, the principles of WCAG aren’t too complicated. Here are some resources to help you learn the basics:

As you learn about digital accessibility, you’ll feel more comfortable reviewing your own content for potential barriers. The W3C’s Understanding WCAG 2.2 documents are an extremely useful resource for learning about specific barriers (and techniques for fixing them).

 

Opening Keynote – GS1

Bringing generative AI to video with Adobe Firefly Video Model

Adobe Launches Firefly Video Model and Enhances Image, Vector and Design Models

  • The Adobe Firefly Video Model (beta) expands Adobe’s family of creative generative AI models and is the first publicly available video model designed to be safe for commercial use
  • Enhancements to Firefly models include 4x faster image generation and new capabilities integrated into Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Express and now Premiere Pro
  • Firefly has been used to generate 13 billion images since March 2023 and is seeing rapid adoption by leading brands and enterprises

Photoshop delivers powerful innovation for image editing, ideation, 3D design, and more

Even more speed, precision, and power: Get started with the latest Illustrator and InDesign features for creative professionals

Adobe Introduces New Global Initiative Aimed at Helping 30 Million Next-Generation Learners Develop AI Literacy, Content Creation and Digital Marketing Skills by 2030

Add sound to your video via text — Project Super Sonic:



New Dream Weaver — from aisecret.us
Explore Adobe’s New Firefly Video Generative Model

Cybercriminals exploit voice cloning to impersonate individuals, including celebrities and authority figures, to commit fraud. They create urgency and trust to solicit money through deceptive means, often utilizing social media platforms for audio samples.

 

How can schools prepare for ADA digital accessibility requirements? — from k12dive.com by Kara Arundel
A new U.S. Department of Justice rule aims to ensure that state and local government web content and mobile apps are accessible for people with disabilities.

A newly issued federal rule to ensure web content and mobile apps are accessible for people with disabilities will require public K-12 and higher education institutions to do a thorough inventory of their digital materials to make sure they are in compliance, accessibility experts said.

The update to regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, published April 24 by the U.S. Department of Justice, calls for all state and local governments to verify that their web content — including mobile apps and social media postings — is accessible for those with vision, hearing, cognitive and manual dexterity disabilities.

 

Anthropic Introduces Claude 3.5 Sonnet — from anthropic.com

Anthropic Introduces Claude 3.5 Sonnet

What’s new? 
  • Frontier intelligence
    Claude 3.5 Sonnet sets new industry benchmarks for graduate-level reasoning (GPQA), undergraduate-level knowledge (MMLU), and coding proficiency (HumanEval). It shows marked improvement in grasping nuance, humor, and complex instructions and is exceptional at writing high-quality content with a natural, relatable tone.
  • 2x speed
  • State-of-the-art vision
  • Introducing Artifacts—a new way to use Claude
    We’re also introducing Artifacts on claude.ai, a new feature that expands how you can interact with Claude. When you ask Claude to generate content like code snippets, text documents, or website designs, these Artifacts appear in a dedicated window alongside your conversation. This creates a dynamic workspace where you can see, edit, and build upon Claude’s creations in real-time, seamlessly integrating AI-generated content into your projects and workflows.

Train Students on AI with Claude 3.5 — from automatedteach.com by Graham Clay
I show how and compare it to GPT-4o.

  • If you teach computer science, user interface design, or anything involving web development, you can have students prompt Claude to produce web pages’ source code, see this code produced on the right side, preview it after it has compiled, and iterate through code+preview combinations.
  • If you teach economics, financial analysis, or accounting, you can have students prompt Claude to create analyses of markets or businesses, including interactive infographics, charts, or reports via React. Since it shows its work with Artifacts, your students can see how different prompts result in different statistical analyses, different representations of this information, and more.
  • If you teach subjects that produce purely textual outputs without a code intermediary, like philosophy, creative writing, or journalism, your students can compare prompting techniques, easily review their work, note common issues, and iterate drafts by comparing versions.

I see this as the first serious step towards improving the otherwise terrible user interfaces of LLMs for broad use. It may turn out to be a small change in the grand scheme of things, but it sure feels like a big improvement — especially in the pedagogical context.


And speaking of training students on AI, also see:

AI Literacy Needs to Include Preparing Students for an Unknown World — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
Preparing students for it is easier than educators think

Schools could enhance their curricula by incorporating debate, Model UN and mock government programs, business plan competitions, internships and apprenticeships, interdisciplinary and project-based learning initiatives, makerspaces and innovation labs, community service-learning projects, student-run businesses or non-profits, interdisciplinary problem-solving challenges, public speaking, and presentation skills courses, and design thinking workshop.

These programs foster essential skills such as recognizing and addressing complex challenges, collaboration, sound judgment, and decision-making. They also enhance students’ ability to communicate with clarity and precision, while nurturing creativity and critical thinking. By providing hands-on, real-world experiences, these initiatives bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application, preparing students more effectively for the multifaceted challenges they will face in their future academic and professional lives.

 



Addendum on 6/28/24:

Collaborate with Claude on Projects — from anthropic.com

Our vision for Claude has always been to create AI systems that work alongside people and meaningfully enhance their workflows. As a step in this direction, Claude.ai Pro and Team users can now organize their chats into Projects, bringing together curated sets of knowledge and chat activity in one place—with the ability to make their best chats with Claude viewable by teammates. With this new functionality, Claude can enable idea generation, more strategic decision-making, and exceptional results.

Projects are available on Claude.ai for all Pro and Team customers, and can be powered by Claude 3.5 Sonnet, our latest release which outperforms its peers on a wide variety of benchmarks. Each project includes a 200K context window, the equivalent of a 500-page book, so users can add all of the relevant documents, code, and insights to enhance Claude’s effectiveness.

 

Video, Images and Sounds – Good Tools #14 — from goodtools.substack.com by Robin Good

Specifically in this issue:

  • Free Image Libraries
  • Image Search Engines
  • Free Illustrations
  • Free Icons
  • Free Stock Video Footage
  • Free Music for Video and Podcasts
 

New models and developer products announced at DevDay — from openai.com
GPT-4 Turbo with 128K context and lower prices, the new Assistants API, GPT-4 Turbo with Vision, DALL·E 3 API, and more.

Today, we shared dozens of new additions and improvements, and reduced pricing across many parts of our platform. These include:

  • New GPT-4 Turbo model that is more capable, cheaper and supports a 128K context window
  • New Assistants API that makes it easier for developers to build their own assistive AI apps that have goals and can call models and tools
  • New multimodal capabilities in the platform, including vision, image creation (DALL·E 3), and text-to-speech (TTS)


Introducing GPTs — from openai.com
You can now create custom versions of ChatGPT that combine instructions, extra knowledge, and any combination of skills.




OpenAI’s New Groundbreaking Update — from newsletter.thedailybite.co
Everything you need to know about OpenAI’s update, what people are building, and a prompt to skim long YouTube videos…

But among all this exciting news, the announcement of user-created “GPTs” took the cake.

That’s right, your very own personalized version of ChatGPT is coming, and it’s as groundbreaking as it sounds.

OpenAI’s groundbreaking announcement isn’t just a new feature – it’s a personal AI revolution. 

The upcoming customizable “GPTs” transform ChatGPT from a one-size-fits-all to a one-of-a-kind digital sidekick that is attuned to your life’s rhythm. 


Lore Issue #56: Biggest Week in AI This Year — from news.lore.com by Nathan Lands

First, Elon Musk announced “Grok,” a ChatGPT competitor inspired by “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Surprisingly, in just a few months, xAI has managed to surpass the capabilities of GPT-3.5, signaling their impressive speed of execution and establishing them as a formidable long-term contender.

Then, OpenAI hosted their inaugural Dev Day, unveiling “GPT-4 Turbo,” which boasts a 128k context window, API costs slashed by threefold, text-to-speech capabilities, auto-model switching, agents, and even their version of an app store slated for launch next month.


The Day That Changed Everything — from joinsuperhuman.ai by Zain Kahn
ALSO: Everything you need to know about yesterday’s OpenAI announcements

  • OpenAI DevDay Part I: Custom ChatGPTs and the App Store of AI
  • OpenAI DevDay Part II: GPT-4 Turbo, Assistants, APIs, and more

OpenAI’s Big Reveal: Custom GPTs, GPT Store & More — from  news.theaiexchange.com
What you should know about the new announcements; how to get started with building custom GPTs


Incredible pace of OpenAI — from theaivalley.com by Barsee
PLUS: Elon’s Gork


 

 

Canva’s new AI tools automate boring, labor-intensive design tasks — from theverge.com by Jess Weatherbed
Magic Studio features like Magic Switch automatically convert your designs into blogs, social media posts, emails, and more to save time on manually editing documents.


Canva launches Magic Studio, partners with Runway ML for video — from bensbites.beehiiv.com by Ben Tossell

Here are the highlights of launched features under the new Magic Studio:

  • Magic Design – Turn ideas into designs instantly with AI-generated templates.
  • Magic Switch – Transform content into different formats and languages with one click.
  • Magic Grab – Make images editable like Canva templates for easy editing.
  • Magic Expand – Use AI to expand images beyond the original frame.
  • Magic Morph – Transform text and shapes with creative effects and prompts.
  • Magic Edit – Make complex image edits using simple text prompts.
  • Magic Media – Generate professional photos, videos and artworks from text prompts.
  • Magic Animate – Add animated transitions and motion to designs instantly.
  • Magic Write – Generate draft text and summaries powered by AI.



Adobe Firefly

Meet Adobe Firefly -- Adobe is going hard with the use of AI. This is a key product along those lines.


Addendums on 10/11/23:


Adobe Releases New AI Models Aimed at Improved Graphic Design — from bloomberg.com
New version of Firefly is bigger than initial tool, Adobe says Illustrator, Express programs each get own generative tools


 

Will Generative AI Improve Digital Accessibility? — from boia.org

Generative A.I. could reduce the busywork of accessibility
Most digital accessibility issues can be addressed easily with clean code and thoughtful content creation. However, many “easy” fixes still take time to implement, particularly when humans need to be involved.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) function as the international standards of digital accessibility. WCAG includes a number of requirements that require a subjective approach, which can create busywork for developers, designers, and writers.

For example:

  • WCAG requires text alternatives (alt text) for images and other non-text content. Writing alt text takes a few seconds, but if you’re operating a large eCommerce site with thousands of images, you may need to spend days or weeks adding alt text.
  • WCAG requires captions and transcripts for video content. If you don’t plan for those features when drafting your videos, you’ll need to write them after-the-fact — and on a lengthy video, that’s a time-consuming process.
  • WCAG requires content to maintain an appropriate color contrast ratio. Adjusting your website’s CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) isn’t especially difficult, but on a complex website, designers may need to spend hours adjusting each element.

Generative A.I. may be able to address these challenges.


Also relevant/see:

 

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.

 

Mixed media online project serves as inspiration for student journalists — from jeadigitalmedia.org by Michelle Balmeo

Excerpt:

If you’re on the hunt for inspiration, go check out Facing Life: Eight stories of life after life in California’s prisons.

This project, created by Pendarvis Harshaw and Brandon Tauszik, has so many wonderful and original storytelling components, it’s the perfect model for student journalists looking for ways to tell important stories online.

Facing Life -- eight stories of life after life in California's prisons

 

“Click Here” Isn’t Enough Context for Hyperlinks — from boia.org

Excerpt:

If a link reads “click here,” “learn more,” or “read more,” you’re not telling users anything about the link’s purpose — you’re simply telling them that they can click on the link (and most users understand that hyperlinks can be activated).

That can be frustrating for many people. Unfortunately, it’s a common user experience (UX) issue, but it’s easy to correct.

4 Things People with Disabilities Look For On Your Website — from boia.org

Excerpts:

To that end, it’s useful to consider what individuals with disabilities experience when visiting a new website — the features that tell them whether or not your website is accessible.

1. An Accessibility Statement
2. Consistent Web Design

4 Simple Ways That Content Writers Can Promote Accessibility — from boia.org

Excerpts:

1. Look for inclusive stock photos
2. Avoid making assumptions about your readers

 

6 Free Tools for Evaluating Web Accessibility — from boia.org

Excerpt:

Can you evaluate your website’s accessibility on your own?

Not necessarily. To ensure conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), you’ll need to test your content regularly by using both manual and automated tools. Ideally, manual tests should be performed by human testers who have disabilities.

However, as you learn about the concepts of WCAG, you can use free tools to test your website for common barriers. If you’re a web designer or developer, online tools can be a vital resource as you incorporate the best practices of inclusive design.

Below, we’ll discuss six free tools that can help you make better design decisions.

 

Understanding the Overlap Between UDL and Digital Accessibility — from boia.org

Excerpt:

Implementing UDL with a Focus on Accessibility
UDL is a proven methodology that benefits all students, but when instructors embrace universal design, they need to consider how their decisions will affect students with disabilities.

Some key considerations to keep in mind:

  • Instructional materials should not require a certain type of sensory perception.
  • A presentation that includes images should have accurate alternative text (also called alt text) for those images.
  • Transcripts and captions should be provided for all audio content.
  • Color alone should not be used to convey information, since some students may not perceive color (or have different cultural understandings of colors).
  • Student presentations should also follow accessibility guidelines. This increases the student’s workload, but it’s an excellent opportunity to teach the importance of accessibility.
 

Why Businesses Struggle with Web Accessibility (And How to Fix It) — from boia.org

Excerpt:

An accessible website means more traffic, better search engine optimization (SEO), reduced exposure to lawsuits, and better brand perception — but despite the benefits, most businesses fail to adopt the principles of accessible design.

In their 2022 report on the state of digital accessibility, WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind) found that 96.8% of the internet’s top 1 million homepages had detectable accessibility errors. That number was actually a slight improvement from previous years: WebAIM’s 2021 analysis found that 97.4% of websites had potential barriers for users with disabilities.

For businesses, those numbers should be a wakeup call. But despite growing awareness of digital accessibility, many organizations struggle to make concrete changes.

Below, we’ll explain the key factors that prevent businesses from taking the right approach — and provide some tips for overcoming those challenges.

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian