communications

Think about this with online-based learning: “Photo-realistic avatars show future of Metaverse communication”

On 10/09/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, collaboration, communications, communities of practice, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, Metaverse, online learning, platforms, society, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, United States, universities, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, wearables, web-based collaboration, Web3, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

Mark Zuckerberg: First Interview in the Metaverse | Lex Fridman Podcast #398

Photo-realistic avatars show future of Metaverse communication — from inavateonthenet.net

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta, took part in the first-ever Metaverse interview using photo-realistic virtual avatars, demonstrating the Metaverse’s capability for virtual communication.

Zuckerberg appeared on the Lex Fridman podcast, using scans of both Fridman and Zuckerberg to create realistic avatars instead of using a live video feed. A computer model of the avatar’s faces and bodies are put into a Codec, using a headset to send an encoded version of the avatar.

The interview explored the future of AI in the metaverse, as well as the Quest 3 headset and the future of humanity.

Everyday Media Literacy: An Analog Guide for Your Digital Life — from routledge.com by Sue Ellen Christian

In this second edition, award-winning educator Sue Ellen Christian offers students an accessible and informed guide to how they can consume and create media intentionally and critically.

The textbook applies media literacy principles and critical thinking to the key issues facing young adults today, from analyzing and creating media messages to verifying information and understanding online privacy. Through discussion prompts, writing exercises, key terms, and links, readers are provided with a framework from which to critically consume and create media in their everyday lives. This new edition includes updates covering privacy aspects of AI, VR and the metaverse, and a new chapter on digital audiences, gaming, and the creative and often unpaid labor of social media and influencers. Chapters examine news literacy, online activism, digital inequality, social media and identity, and global media corporations, giving readers a nuanced understanding of the key concepts at the core of media literacy. Concise, creative, and curated, this book highlights the cultural, political, and economic dynamics of media in contemporary society, and how consumers can mindfully navigate their daily media use.

This textbook is perfect for students and educators of media literacy, journalism, and education looking to build their understanding in an engaging way.

Canva and Adobe are going hard with it re: the use of AI

On 10/09/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, colleges, communications, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, design, digital photography, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty, graphics, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, IT in HE, K-12 related, liberal arts, maker movement, multimedia, online media, photography, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, vendors, visualizing information, web design and production, by Daniel Christian

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

Addendums on 10/11/23:

We released a new model ?

!!! Firefly Image 2 !!!!

As a scientist I am in disbelief that such model is possible with a small dataset as we had.

We compensated artists for training it.

We worked very hard on it. Please, enjoy! #AdobeMax https://t.co/j2TUiiyjN7 pic.twitter.com/gqABThSBWZ

— Kris Kashtanova (@icreatelife) October 10, 2023

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

A few hours ago, Adobe released Firefly 2, their new AI image generator.

But how good is it?

I compared it to Midjourney & DALL-E 3 across 10 very different image categories so you don’t have to.

Here are the results:

— Chase Lean (@chaseleantj) October 11, 2023

Introducing Magic Studio: the power of AI, all in one place [Canva.com]

On 10/06/2023, in art, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, communications, creativity, design, digital storytelling, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, graphics, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Introducing Magic Studio: the power of AI, all in one place — from canva.com

Also relevant/see:

Canva’s new AI features make everyone a designer — from joinsuperhuman.ai by Zain Kahn

…here are all the cool new ways you can use Canva to create pro-grade designs for your work:

Magic Media: Generate photos and videos with text prompts.
Magic Design: Turn ideas into designs with AI-generated templates.
Magic Switch: Translate content into different languages and formats.
Magic Expand: Make images bigger with AI.
Magic Edit: Edit images with simple text prompts.
Magic Morph: Transform text and shapes with visual effects.
Magic Write: Generate texts and summaries with AI.

Canva also announced that they’re creating a $200 million fund to compensate creators who opt-in to train their AI models.

15+ YouTube Shorts Ideas For Your Next Video [Oladipo]; perhaps there are some ideas for your students in here!

On 09/29/2023, in communications, creativity, digital storytelling, ideas, media/film, story, storytelling, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

15+ YouTube Shorts Ideas For Your Next Video — from buffer.com by Tamilore Oladipo
If you’re looking for inspiration for your next short video, here are 18 YouTube Shorts ideas to help your content stand out and engage viewers in bite-sized bursts.

With more than 50 billion daily views, YouTube Shorts offers a unique opportunity for content creators to reach a wider audience, promote longer videos, and even increase subscribers.

For content creators and small businesses, Shorts can be a game-changer. Whether you’re repurposing old content, sharing clips from live streams, promoting exclusive content, or hopping on the latest trend, Shorts provide a versatile medium to engage viewers and potentially go viral.

From DSC:
Perhaps there are a few ideas in here for your students — as they continue to develop their skills in creating multimedia-based communications and presentations.

Also relevant/see:

11 YouTube Shorts Creators to Inspire Your Next Viral Video — from buffer.com by Kirsti Lang
A curated list of YouTube Shorts creators worth watching — both at the top of their game and on the rise — and how their content helps them stand out.

Short-form video is still thoroughly enjoying its heyday, due in no small part to YouTube Shorts.

The introduction of vertical, short-form videos to YouTube was a bold move for the Google-owned platform, and it’s paying off for both them and creators — 50 billion daily views is really nothing to be sneezed at.

It’s also ushered in a new wave of short-form video stars, many of whom are prioritizing Shorts over the likes of Facebook and Instagram Reels, and TikTok, with subscriber counts quickly dwarfing what it took years to amass on other platforms.

Start these 3 classroom habits ASAP! — from etrievalpractice.org by Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D.

Habit #2: Engage students in a brain dump or two things as an entry ticket or exit ticket. Spend one minute or less having students write down everything (or just two things) they remember from class. The key: Don’t grade it! Keep retrieval practice no-stakes to emphasize it’s a learning strategy, not an assessment strategy.

Teaching from the heart in 13 steps — from timeshighereducation.com by Beiting He
Engaging your students through empathy requires teachers to share their own stories and vulnerabilities and foster a safe space for learning. Here, Beiting He offers 13 ways to create a caring classroom

Move student communication from passive to active using ‘I like, I wish, I wonder’ — from timeshighereducation.com by Rebeca Elizabeth Alvarado Ramírez
Rebeca Elizabeth Alvarado Ramírez introduces a methodology that encourages effective communication in digital learning processes

In summary, “I wish” is about proposing positive changes and improvements, while “I wonder” is about asking thoughtful questions to gain insight and foster meaningful conversations within the team.

Introductory comments from DSC:

Sometimes people and vendors write about AI’s capabilities in such a glowingly positive way. It seems like AI can do everything in the world. And while I appreciate the growing capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) and the like, there are some things I don’t want AI-driven apps to do.

For example, I get why AI can be helpful in correcting my misspellings, my grammatical errors, and the like. That said, I don’t want AI to write my emails for me. I want to write my own emails. I want to communicate what I want to communicate. I don’t want to outsource my communication.

And what if an AI tool summarizes an email series in a way that I miss some key pieces of information? Hmmm…not good.

Ok, enough soapboxing. I’ll continue with some resources.

ChatGPT Enterprise

Introducing ChatGPT Enterprise — from openai.com
Get enterprise-grade security & privacy and the most powerful version of ChatGPT yet.

We’re launching ChatGPT Enterprise, which offers enterprise-grade security and privacy, unlimited higher-speed GPT-4 access, longer context windows for processing longer inputs, advanced data analysis capabilities, customization options, and much more. We believe AI can assist and elevate every aspect of our working lives and make teams more creative and productive. Today marks another step towards an AI assistant for work that helps with any task, is customized for your organization, and that protects your company data.

Enterprise-grade security & privacy and the most powerful version of ChatGPT yet. — from openai.com

NVIDIA

Nvidia’s Q2 earnings prove it’s the big winner in the generative AI boom — from techcrunch.com by Kirsten Korosec

Nvidia Quarterly Earnings Report Q2 Smashes Expectations At $13.5B — from techbusinessnews.com.au
Nvidia’s quarterly earnings report (Q2) smashed expectations coming in at $13.5B more than doubling prior earnings of $6.7B. The chipmaker also projected October’s total revenue would peak at $16B

MISC

DC: And many business people in the early/mid-90’s thought electronic mail was only good for arranging a business lunch but it was never going to take off.

ChatGPT: Few Americans think it will impact their job in a major way| Pew Research Center https://t.co/dsUfoNOeVO

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) August 30, 2023

OpenAI Passes $1 Billion Revenue Pace as Big Companies Boost AI Spending — from theinformation.com by Amir Efrati and Aaron Holmes

OpenAI is currently on pace to generate more than $1 billion in revenue over the next 12 months from the sale of artificial intelligence software and the computing capacity that powers it. That’s far ahead of revenue projections the company previously shared with its shareholders, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation.

OpenAI’s GPTBot blocked by major websites and publishers — from the-decoder.com by Matthias Bastian
An emerging chatbot ecosystem builds on existing web content and could displace traditional websites. At the same time, licensing and financing are largely unresolved.

OpenAI offers publishers and website operators an opt-out if they prefer not to make their content available to chatbots and AI models for free. This can be done by blocking OpenAI’s web crawler “GPTBot” via the robots.txt file. The bot collects content to improve future AI models, according to OpenAI.

Major media companies including the New York Times, CNN, Reuters, Chicago Tribune, ABC, and Australian Community Media (ACM) are now blocking GPTBot. Other web-based content providers such as Amazon, Wikihow, and Quora are also blocking the OpenAI crawler.

Introducing Code Llama, a state-of-the-art large language model for coding — from ai.meta.com

Takeaways re: Code Llama:

Is a state-of-the-art LLM capable of generating code, and natural language about code, from both code and natural language prompts.
Is free for research and commercial use.
Is built on top of Llama 2 and is available in three models…
In our own benchmark testing, Code Llama outperformed state-of-the-art publicly available LLMs on code tasks

Key Highlights of Google Cloud Next ‘23— from analyticsindiamag.com by Shritama Saha
Meta’s Llama 2, Anthropic’s Claude 2, and TII’s Falcon join Model Garden, expanding model variety.

AI finally beats humans at a real-life sport— drone racing — from nature.com by Dan Fox
The new system combines simulation with onboard sensing and computation.

From DSC:
This is scary — not at all comforting to me. Militaries around the world continue their jockeying to be the most dominant, powerful, and effective killers of humankind. That definitely includes the United States and China. But certainly others as well. And below is another alarming item, also pointing out the downsides of how we use technologies.

The Next Wave of Scams Will Be Deepfake Video Calls From Your Boss — from bloomberg.com by Margi Murphy; behind paywall

Cybercriminals are constantly searching for new ways to trick people. One of the more recent additions to their arsenal was voice simulation software.

10 Great Colleges For Studying Artificial Intelligence — from forbes.com by Sim Tumay

The debut of ChatGPT in November created angst for college admission officers and professors worried they would be flooded by student essays written with the undisclosed assistance of artificial intelligence. But the explosion of interest in AI has benefits for higher education, including a new generation of students interested in studying and working in the field. In response, universities are revising their curriculums to educate AI engineers.

Don’t Be Fooled: How You Can Master Media Literacy in the Digital Age — from youtube.com by Professor Sue Ellen Christian

During this special keynote presentation, Western Michigan University (WMU) professor Sue Ellen Christian speaks about the importance of media literacy for all ages and how we can help educate our friends and families about media literacy principles. Hosted by the Grand Rapids Public Library and GRTV, a program of the Grand Rapids Community Media Center. Special thanks to the Grand Rapids Public Library Foundation for their support of this program.

Excerpts:

Also relevant/see:

Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s newest exhibit teaches community about media literacy — from mlive.com by Gabi Broekema

What if the presenter/teacher/professor/ trainer/preacher provided a set of notes for the AI to compare to the readers’ notes? [Christian]

On 08/29/2023, in Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, bots, communications, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, lifelong learning, presentations, religion, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Yesterday, I posted the item about Google’s NotebookLM research tool. Excerpt:

What if you could have a conversation with your notes? That question has consumed a corner of the internet recently, as companies like Dropbox, Box, Notion, and others have built generative AI tools that let you interact with and create new things from the data you already have in their systems.

Google’s version of this is called NotebookLM. It’s an AI-powered research tool that is meant to help you organize and interact with your own notes.

That got me to thinking…

What if the presenter/teacher/professor/trainer/preacher provided a set of notes for the AI to compare to the readers’ notes?

That way, the AI could see the discrepancies between what the presenter wanted their audience to learn/hear and what was actually being learned/heard. In a sort of digital Socratic Method, the AI could then generate some leading questions to get the audience member to check their thinking/understanding of the topic.

The end result would be that the main points were properly communicated/learned/received.

ElevenLabs’ AI Voice Generator Can Now Fake Your Voice in 30 Languages — from gizmodo.com by Kyle Barr
ElevenLabs said its AI voice generator is out of beta, saying it would support video game and audiobook creators with cheap audio.

According to ElevenLabs, the new Multilingual v2 model promises it can produce “emotionally rich” audio in a total of 30 languages. The company offers two AI voice tools, one is a text-to-speech model and the other is the “VoiceLab” that lets paying users clone a voice by inputting fragments of theirs (or others) speech into the model to create a kind of voice cone. With the v2 model, users can get these generated voices to start speaking in Greek, Malay, or Turkish.
…
Since then, ElevenLabs claims its integrated new measures to ensure users can only clone their own voice. Users need to verify their speech with a text captcha prompt which is then compared to the original voice sample.

From DSC:
I don’t care what they say regarding safeguards/proof of identity/etc. This technology has been abused and will be abused in the future. We can count on it. The question now is, how do we deal with it?

Introducing SeamlessM4T, the first all-in-one, multilingual multimodal translation model.

This single model can perform tasks across speech-to-text, speech-to-speech, text-to-text translation & speech recognition for up to 100 languages depending on the task.

Details ??

— Meta AI (@MetaAI) August 22, 2023

Google, Amazon, Nvidia and other tech giants invest in AI startup Hugging Face, sending its valuation to $4.5 billion — from cnbc.com by Kif Leswing

But Hugging Face produces a platform where AI developers can share code, models, data sets, and use the company’s developer tools to get open-source artificial intelligence models running more easily. In particular, Hugging Face often hosts weights, or large files with lists of numbers, which are the heart of most modern AI models.

While Hugging Face has developed some models, like BLOOM, its primary product is its website platform, where users can upload models and their weights. It also develops a series of software tools called libraries that allow users to get models working quickly, to clean up large datasets, or to evaluate their performance. It also hosts some AI models in a web interface so end users can experiment with them.

The global semiconductor talent shortage — from www2.deloitte.com
How to solve semiconductor workforce challenges

Numerous skills are required to grow the semiconductor ecosystem over the next decade. Globally, we will need tens of thousands of skilled tradespeople to build new plants to increase and localize manufacturing capacity: electricians, pipefitters, welders; thousands more graduate electrical engineers to design chips and the tools that make the chips; more engineers of various kinds in the fabs themselves, but also operators and technicians. And if we grow the back end in Europe and the Americas, that equates to even more jobs.

Each of these job groups has distinct training and educational needs; however, the number of students in semiconductor-focused programs (for example, undergraduates in semiconductor design and fabrication) has dwindled. Skills are also evolving within these job groups, in part due to automation and increased digitization. Digital skills, such as cloud, AI, and analytics, are needed in design and manufacturing more than ever.

The chip industry has long partnered with universities and engineering schools. Going forward, they also need to work more with local tech schools, vocational schools, and community colleges; and other organizations, such as the National Science Foundation in the United States.

Our principles for partnering with the music industry on AI technology — from blog.youtube (Google) by Neal Mohan, CEO, YouTube
AI is here, and we will embrace it responsibly together with our music partners.

Principle #1: AI is here, and we will embrace it responsibly together with our music partners.
Principle #2: AI is ushering in a new age of creative expression, but it must include appropriate protections and unlock opportunities for music partners who decide to participate.
Principle #3: We’ve built an industry-leading trust and safety organization and content policies. We will scale those to meet the challenges of AI.

Developers are now using AI for text-to-music apps — from techcrunch.com by Ivan Mehta

Brett Bauman, the developer of PlayListAI (previously LinupSupply), launched a new app called Songburst on the App Store this week. The app doesn’t have a steep learning curve. You just have to type in a prompt like “Calming piano music to listen to while studying” or “Funky beats for a podcast intro” to let the app generate a music clip.

If you can’t think of a prompt the app has prompts in different categories, including video, lo-fi, podcast, gaming, meditation and sample.

A Generative AI Primer — from er.educause.edu by Brian Basgen
Understanding the current state of technology requires understanding its origins. This reading list provides sources relevant to the form of generative AI that led to natural language processing (NLP) models such as ChatGPT.

Three big questions about AI and the future of work and learning — from workshift.opencampusmedia.org by Alex Swartsel
AI is set to transform education and work today and well into the future. We need to start asking tough questions right now, writes Alex Swartsel of JFF.

How will AI reshape jobs, and how can we prepare all workers and learners with the skills they’ll need?
How can education and workforce leaders equitably adopt AI platforms to accelerate their impact?
How might we catalyze sustainable policy, practice, and investments in solutions that drive economic opportunity?

“As AI reshapes both the economy and society, we must collectively call for better data, increased accountability, and more flexible support for workers,” Swartsel writes.

The Current State of AI for Educators (August, 2023) — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
A podcast interview with the University of Toronto on where we’re at & where we’re going.

Will one of our future learning ecosystems look like a Discord server type of service? [Christian]

On 08/17/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Alternatives, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communications, communities of practice, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, love of learning, microlearning, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, simulations, skills, social learning / networks, society, streams of content, student-related, technologies for your home, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

DC: Is the future of one of our powerful learning ecosystems more like adding your own desired groups/cohorts, topics, items, etc. to your server? Like a learning-focused type of Discord service? (https://t.co/Vq4dZamBf2)#future #learningecosystems #personalizedlearning pic.twitter.com/wVMWYBN3R1

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) August 17, 2023

? Trailer: Genesis (Midjourney + Runway)

We gave them everything.
Trusted them with our world.
To become enslaved – become hunted.

We have no choice.
Humanity must rise again to reclaim.

Images: Midjourney
Videos: #Runway
Music: Pixabay / Stringer_Bell
Edited in: CapCut pic.twitter.com/zjeU7YPFh9

— Nicolas Neubert (@iamneubert) July 26, 2023

How to spot deepfakes created by AI image generators — Can you trust your eyes | The deepfake election — from axios.com by various; via Tom Barrett

As the 2024 campaign season begins, AI image generators have advanced from novelties to powerful tools able to generate photorealistic images, while comprehensive regulation lags behind.

Why it matters: As more fake images appear in political ads, the onus will be on the public to spot phony content.

Go deeper: Can you tell the difference between real and AI-generated images? Take our quiz:

4 Charts That Show Why AI Progress Is Unlikely to Slow Down — from time.com; with thanks to Donald Clark out on LinkedIn for this resource

The state of AI in 2023: Generative AI’s breakout year — from McKinsey.com

Table of Contents

Top 10 Chief AI Officers — from aimagazine.com

The Chief AI Officer is a relatively new job role, yet becoming increasingly more important as businesses invest further into AI.

Now more than ever, the workplace must prepare for AI and the immense opportunities, as well as challenges, that this type of evolving technology can provide. This job position sees the employee responsible for guiding companies through complex AI tools, algorithms and development. All of this works to ensure that the company stays ahead of the curve and capitalises on digital growth and transformation.

NVIDIA-related items

SIGGRAPH Special Address: NVIDIA CEO Brings Generative AI to LA Show — from blogs.nvidia.com by Brian Caulfield
Speaking to thousands of developers and graphics pros, Jensen Huang announces updated GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip, NVIDIA AI Workbench, updates NVIDIA Omniverse with generative AI.

The hottest commodity in AI right now isn’t ChatGPT — it’s the $40,000 chip that has sparked a frenzied spending spree — from businessinsider.com by Hasan Chowdhury

NVIDIA Releases Major Omniverse Upgrade with Generative AI and OpenUSD — from enterpriseai.news

Nvidia teams up with Hugging Face to offer cloud-based AI training — from techcrunch.com by Kyle Wiggers

Nvidia reveals new A.I. chip, says costs of running LLMs will ‘drop significantly’ — from cnbc.com by Kif Leswing

KEY POINTS

Nvidia announced a new chip designed to run artificial intelligence models on Tuesday .
Nvidia’s GH200 has the same GPU as the H100, Nvidia’s current highest-end AI chip, but pairs it with 141 gigabytes of cutting-edge memory, as well as a 72-core ARM central processor.
“This processor is designed for the scale-out of the world’s data centers,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Tuesday.

Nvidia Has A Monopoly On AI Chips … And It’s Only Growing — from theneurondaily.com by The Neuron

In layman’s terms: Nvidia is on fire, and they’re only turning up the heat.

AI-Powered War Machines: The Future of Warfare Is Here — from readwrite.com by Deanna Ritchie

The advancement of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) has paved the way for a new era in warfare. Gone are the days of manned ships and traditional naval operations. Instead, the US Navy’s Task Force 59 is at the forefront of integrating AI and robotics into naval operations. With a fleet of autonomous robot ships, the Navy aims to revolutionize the way wars are fought at sea.

From DSC:
Crap. Ouch. Some things don’t seem to ever change. Few are surprised by this development…but still, this is a mess.

Sam Altman is already nervous about what AI might do in elections — from qz.com by Faustine Ngila; via Sam DeBrule
The OpenAI chief warned about the power of AI-generated media to potentially influence the vote

Altman, who has become the face of the recent hype cycle in AI development, feels that humans could be persuaded politically through conversations with chatbots or fooled by AI-generated media.

Your guide to AI: August 2023 — from nathanbenaich.substack.com by Nathan Benaich

Welcome to the latest issue of your guide to AI, an editorialized newsletter covering key developments in AI policy, research, industry, and startups. This special summer edition (while we’re producing the State of AI Report 2023!) covers our 7th annual Research and Applied AI Summit that we held in London on 23 June.
…
Below are some of our key takeaways from the event and all the talk videos can be found on the RAAIS YouTube channel here. If this piques your interest to join next year’s event, drop your details here.

Why generative AI is a game-changer for customer service workflows — from venturebeat.com via Superhuman

Gen AI, however, eliminates the lengthy search. It can parse a natural language query, synthesize the necessary information and serve up the answers the agent is looking for in a neatly summarized response, slashing call times dramatically.

BUT ALSO

Sam Altman: “AI Will Replace Customer Service Jobs First” — from theneurondaily.com

Excerpt:

Not only do its AI voices sound exactly like a human, but they can sound exactly like YOU. All it takes is 6 (six!) seconds of your voice, and voila: it can replicate you saying any sentence in any tone, be it happy, sad, or angry.

The use cases are endless, but here are two immediate ones:

Hyperpersonalized content.
Imagine your favorite Netflix show but with every person hearing a slightly different script.
Customer support agents.
We’re talking about ones that are actually helpful, a far cry from the norm!

[NEW] – Joshua Avatar 2.0 ??. Both of these video clips were 100% AI-generated, featuring my own avatar and voice clone. ???

We’ve made massive enhancements to our life-style avatar’s video quality and fine-tuned our voice technology to mimic my unique accent and speech… pic.twitter.com/9EgxRA69dg

— Joshua Xu (@joshua_xu_) August 8, 2023

AI has a Usability Problem — from news.theaiexchange.com
Why ChatGPT usage may actually be declining; using AI to become a spreadsheet pro

If you’re reading this and are using ChatGPT on a daily basis, congrats – you’re likely in the top couple of %.

For everyone else – AI still has a major usability problem.

From DSC:
Agreed.

There is a story spreading about OpenAI going bankrupt by 2024. It started with a report from Business Standard in India.

The story gets so many things incredibly wrong.

There’s absolutely no way OpenAI is going bankrupt anytime soon.

Here’s why:

— Nathan Lands (@NathanLands) August 14, 2023

From the ‘godfathers of AI’ to newer people in the field: Here are 16 people you should know — and what they say about the possibilities and dangers of the technology. — from businessinsider.com by Lakshmi Varanasi

A cam/mic/light/teleprompter remote kit for non-tech-savvy guests, including Shure MV7 [Tépper]

On 08/05/2023, in A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, Australia, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education technology, experimentation, faculty, higher education, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, media/film, mobile technologies, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, podcasting, productivity / tips and tricks, remote teaching and learning, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, tools, training / L&D, UK, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, virtual tutoring, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

A cam/mic/light/teleprompter remote kit for non-tech-savvy guests, including Shure MV7 — from provideocoalition.com by Allan Tépper

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Inspired by my recent Review: Shure MV7 dynamic hybrid studio microphone – near, far and beyond, Beaker Films of Fairfield, Connecticut, US has developed and deployed a first batch of 10 kits to capture remote conversations from different locations worldwide. Beaker Films is frequently contracted to record remote interviews or testimonials from medical professionals. For this project, Beaker Films’ clients wanted consistent, high quality audio and video, but with 3 additional challenges: they preferred to have no visible microphone in the shot, they needed a teleprompter function and the whole kit needed to be as simple as possible for non-technical guests.

…

Speaking of A/V-related items, also see:

Seven worlds one planet at the BBC Earth Experience — from inavateonthenet.net by Paul Milligan

‘Holographic’ animal-free zoo opens in Australia — from inavateonthenet.net

XR Lab opens in UK college — from inavateonthenet.net

West Suffolk College in the UK has opened its Extended Reality Lab (XR Lab), the facilities comprise of four distinct areas: an Immersion Lab, a Collaboration Theatre, a Green Room, and a Conference Room. The project was designed by architects WindsorPatania for Eastern Colleges Group.

CJP to create virtual studio for Solent University — from inavateonthenet.net

Systems integrator CJP Broadcast Service Solutions, has won a tender to build a virtual production environment for Solent University in the UK.

The new facilities, converted from an existing studio space, will provide students on the film production courses with outstanding opportunities to develop their creative output.

Learning Experience — from inavateemea.com by Tim Kridel

“Some of the stuff we’re doing is creating templates and workflows that capture multiple feeds: not just the teacher, [but also] the white board, an overhead camera,” Risby says.

“The student can then go in and pick what they look at, so it’s more interactive. You might be watching it the first time to listen to the lecturer, but you might watch the second time to concentrate on the experiment. It makes the stream more valuable.”

Cool idea from Dan Pontefract: “Why Experienced Employees Should Write Letters to New Team Members”

On 07/17/2023, in business, Canada, career development, collaboration, communications, corporate / business world, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, using teams, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I thought this was a really good idea from Dan Pontefact: “Why Experienced Employees Should Write Letters to New Team Members”

Excerpt:

Regardless of their age, an individual who is fresh to the team is given between five and ten pieces of advice from a more seasoned employee in the form of an email or letter. These tidbits of knowledge are what these seasoned professionals wish they had known when they first joined.

This is more than just a welcome; it’s a guide, a primer, offering an insider’s view of the organization and fostering a sense of camaraderie from the very beginning.

Learning Ecosystems

Think about this with online-based learning: “Photo-realistic avatars show future of Metaverse communication”

Introducing Magic Studio: the power of AI, all in one place [Canva.com]

“Introducing ChatGPT Enterprise” [OpenAI] + other items re: AI in general

Fake Your Voice in 30 Languages + several more items re: the good and the bad of AI

Top 10 Chief AI Officers [aimagazine.com]; The state of AI in 2023: Generative AI’s breakout year [McKinsey.com] + 19 other AI in general items

Universities are rethinking their streaming strategies. [Kridel]

Cool idea from Dan Pontefract: “Why Experienced Employees Should Write Letters to New Team Members”

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