.
Grasp is the world’s first generative AI platform for finance professionals.
We build domain-specific AI systems that address the complex needs of investment bankers and management consultants.
By automating finance workflows, Grasp dramatically increases employee productivity and satisfaction.
A Guide to the GPT-4o ‘Omni’ Model — from aieducation.substack.com by Claire Zau
The closest thing we have to “Her” and what it means for education / workforce
Today, OpenAI introduced its new flagship model, GPT-4o, that delivers more powerful capabilities and real-time voice interactions to its users. The letter “o” in GPT-4o stands for “Omni”, referring to its enhanced multimodal capabilities. While ChatGPT has long offered a voice mode, GPT-4o is a step change in allowing users to interact with an AI assistant that can reason across voice, text, and vision in real-time.
Facilitating interaction between humans and machines (with reduced latency) represents a “small step for machine, giant leap for machine-kind” moment.
Everyone gets access to GPT-4: “the special thing about GPT-4o is it brings GPT-4 level intelligence to everyone, including our free users”, said CTO Mira Murati. Free users will also get access to custom GPTs in the GPT store, Vision and Code Interpreter. ChatGPT Plus and Team users will be able to start using GPT-4o’s text and image capabilities now
ChatGPT launched a desktop macOS app: it’s designed to integrate seamlessly into anything a user is doing on their keyboard. A PC Windows version is also in the works (notable that a Mac version is being released first given the $10B Microsoft relationship)
Also relevant, see:
OpenAI Drops GPT-4 Omni, New ChatGPT Free Plan, New ChatGPT Desktop App — from theneuron.ai [podcast]
In a surprise launch, OpenAI dropped GPT-4 Omni, their new leading model. They also made a bunch of paid features in ChatGPT free and announced a new desktop app. Pete breaks down what you should know and what this says about AI.
What really matters — from theneurondaily.com
Information Age vs Generation Age Technologies for Learning — from opencontent.org by David Wiley
Remember (emphasis DSC)
Just as instructional designs had to be updated to account for all the changes in affordances of online learning, they will need to be dramatically updated again to account for the new affordances of generative AI.
The Curious Educator’s Guide to AI | Strategies and Exercises for Meaningful Use in Higher Ed — from ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub by Kyle Mackie and Erin Aspenlieder; via Stephen Downes
This guide is designed to help educators and researchers better understand the evolving role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in higher education. This openly-licensed resource contains strategies and exercises to help foster an understanding of AI’s potential benefits and challenges. We start with a foundational approach, providing you with prompts on aligning AI with your curiosities and goals.
The middle section of this guide encourages you to explore AI tools and offers some insights into potential applications in teaching and research. Along with exposure to the tools, we’ll discuss when and how to effectively build AI into your practice.
The final section of this guide includes strategies for evaluating and reflecting on your use of AI. Throughout, we aim to promote use that is effective, responsible, and aligned with your educational objectives. We hope this resource will be a helpful guide in making informed and strategic decisions about using AI-powered tools to enhance teaching and learning and research.
Annual Provosts’ Survey Shows Need for AI Policies, Worries Over Campus Speech — from insidehighered.com by Ryan Quinn
Many institutions are not yet prepared to help their faculty members and students navigate artificial intelligence. That’s just one of multiple findings from Inside Higher Ed’s annual survey of chief academic officers.
Only about one in seven provosts said their colleges or universities had reviewed the curriculum to ensure it will prepare students for AI in their careers. Thuswaldner said that number needs to rise. “AI is here to stay, and we cannot put our heads in the sand,” he said. “Our world will be completely dominated by AI and, at this point, we ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Is GenAI in education more of a Blackberry or iPhone? — from futureofbeinghuman.com by Andrew Maynard
There’s been a rush to incorporate generative AI into every aspect of education, from K-12 to university courses. But is the technology mature enough to support the tools that rely on it?
In other words, it’s going to mean investing in concepts, not products.
This, to me, is at the heart of an “iPhone mindset” as opposed to a “Blackberry mindset” when it comes to AI in education — an approach that avoids hard wiring in constantly changing technologies, and that builds experimentation and innovation into the very DNA of learning.
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For all my concerns here though, maybe there is something to being inspired by the Blackberry/iPhone analogy — not as a playbook for developing and using AI in education, but as a mindset that embraces innovation while avoiding becoming locked in to apps that are detrimentally unreliable and that ultimately lead to dead ends.
Do teachers spot AI? Evaluating the detectability of AI-generated texts among student essays — from sciencedirect.com by Johanna Fleckenstein, Jennifer Meyer, Thorben Jansen, Stefan D. Keller, Olaf Köller, and Jens Möller
Highlights
Can Using a Grammar Checker Set Off AI-Detection Software? — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young
A college student says she was falsely accused of cheating, and her story has gone viral. Where is the line between acceptable help and cheating with AI?
Use artificial intelligence to get your students thinking critically — from timeshighereducation.com by Urbi Ghosh
When crafting online courses, teaching critical thinking skills is crucial. Urbi Ghosh shows how generative AI can shape how educators can approach this
ChatGPT shaming is a thing – and it shouldn’t be — from futureofbeinghuman.com by Andrew Maynard
There’s a growing tension between early and creative adopters of text based generative AI and those who equate its use with cheating. And when this leads to shaming, it’s a problem.
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
This will sound familiar to anyone who’s incorporating generative AI into their professional workflows. But there are still many people who haven’t used apps like ChatGPT, are largely unaware of what they do, and are suspicious of them. And yet they’ve nevertheless developed strong opinions around how they should and should not be used.
From DSC:
Yes…that sounds like how many faculty members viewed online learning, even though they had never taught online before.
ChatGPT remembers who you are — from thebrainyacts.beehiiv.com |Brainyacts #191
OpenAI rolls out Memory feature for ChatGPT
OpenAI has introduced a cool update for ChatGPT (rolling out to paid and free users – but not in the EU or Korea), enabling the AI to remember user-specific details across sessions. This memory feature enhances personalization and efficiency, making your interactions with ChatGPT more relevant and engaging.
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Key Features
Memory is now available to all ChatGPT Plus users. Using Memory is easy: just start a new chat and tell ChatGPT anything you’d like it to remember.
Memory can be turned on or off in settings and is not currently available in Europe or Korea. Team, Enterprise, and GPTs to come. pic.twitter.com/mlt9vyYeMK
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) April 29, 2024
From DSC:
The ability of AI-based applications to remember things about us will have major and positive ramifications for us when we think about learning-related applications of AI.
The Verge | What’s Next With AI | February 2024 | Consumer Survey
DC: Just because we can doesn’t mean we should.
It brings to mind #AI and #robotics and the #military — hmmmm…. https://t.co/1J4XKiHRUl
— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) April 25, 2024
Microsoft AI creates talking deepfakes from single photo — from inavateonthenet.net
The Great Hall – where now with AI? It is not ‘Human Connection V Innovative Technology’ but ‘Human Connection + Innovative Technology’ — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark
The theme of the day was Human Connection V Innovative Technology. I see this a lot at conferences, setting up the human connection (social) against the machine (AI). I think this is ALL wrong. It is, and has always been a dialectic, human connection (social) PLUS the machine. Everyone had a smartphone, most use it for work, comms and social media. The binary between human and tech has long disappeared.
Techno-Social Engineering: Why the Future May Not Be Human, TikTok’s Powerful ForYou Algorithm, & More — from by Misha Da Vinci
Things to consider as you dive into this edition:
It’s been an insane week for AI (part 2)
Here are 14 most impressive reveals from this week:
1/ China just released OpenAI’s Sora rival “Vidu” which can create realistic clips in seconds.pic.twitter.com/MnTv9Wxpef
— Barsee ? (@heyBarsee) April 27, 2024
AI RESOURCES AND TEACHING (Kent State University) — from aiadvisoryboards.wordpress.com
AI Resources and Teaching | Kent State University offers valuable resources for educators interested in incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into their teaching practices. The university recognizes that the rapid emergence of AI tools presents both challenges and opportunities in higher education.
The AI Resources and Teaching page provides educators with information and guidance on various AI tools and their responsible use within and beyond the classroom. The page covers different areas of AI application, including language generation, visuals, videos, music, information extraction, quantitative analysis, and AI syllabus language examples.
A Cautionary AI Tale: Why IBM’s Dazzling Watson Supercomputer Made a Lousy Tutor — from the74million.org by Greg Toppo
With a new race underway to create the next teaching chatbot, IBM’s abandoned 5-year, $100M ed push offers lessons about AI’s promise and its limits.
For all its jaw-dropping power, Watson the computer overlord was a weak teacher. It couldn’t engage or motivate kids, inspire them to reach new heights or even keep them focused on the material — all qualities of the best mentors.
It’s a finding with some resonance to our current moment of AI-inspired doomscrolling about the future of humanity in a world of ascendant machines. “There are some things AI is actually very good for,” Nitta said, “but it’s not great as a replacement for humans.”
His five-year journey to essentially a dead-end could also prove instructive as ChatGPT and other programs like it fuel a renewed, multimillion-dollar experiment to, in essence, prove him wrong.
…
To be sure, AI can do sophisticated things such as generating quizzes from a class reading and editing student writing. But the idea that a machine or a chatbot can actually teach as a human can, he said, represents “a profound misunderstanding of what AI is actually capable of.”
Nitta, who still holds deep respect for the Watson lab, admits, “We missed something important. At the heart of education, at the heart of any learning, is engagement. And that’s kind of the Holy Grail.”
From DSC:
This is why the vision that I’ve been tracking and working on has always said that HUMAN BEINGS will be necessary — they are key to realizing this vision. Along these lines, here’s a relevant quote:
Another crucial component of a new learning theory for the age of AI would be the cultivation of “blended intelligence.” This concept recognizes that the future of learning and work will involve the seamless integration of human and machine capabilities, and that learners must develop the skills and strategies needed to effectively collaborate with AI systems. Rather than viewing AI as a threat to human intelligence, a blended intelligence approach seeks to harness the complementary strengths of humans and machines, creating a symbiotic relationship that enhances the potential of both.
Per Alexander “Sasha” Sidorkin, Head of the National Institute on AI in Society at California State University Sacramento.
The University Student’s Guide To Ethical AI Use — from studocu.com; with thanks to Jervise Penton at 6XD Media Group for this resource
This comprehensive guide offers:
Some of the key facts you might find interesting are:
What Are AI Agents—And Who Profits From Them? — from every.to by Evan Armstrong
The newest wave of AI research is changing everything
I’ve spent months talking with founders, investors, and scientists, trying to understand what this technology is and who the players are. Today, I’m going to share my findings. I’ll cover:
Agentic workflows are loops—they can run many times in a row without needing a human involved for each step in the task. A language model will make a plan based on your prompt, utilize tools like a web browser to execute on that plan, ask itself if that answer is right, and close the loop by getting back to you with that answer.
But agentic workflows are an architecture, not a product. It gets even more complicated when you incorporate agents into products that customers will buy.
…
Early reports of GPT-5 are that it is “materially better” and is being explicitly prepared for the use case of AI agents.
10 Things You Can Definitely Expect From The Future Of Healthcare AI — from medicalfuturist.com by Andrea Koncz
Artificial Intelligence promises material changes on both sides of the stethoscope, but this revolution won’t unfold on its own.
Key Takeaways
Nvidia’s AI boom is only getting started. Just ask CEO Jensen Huang — from fastcompany.com by Harry McCracken
Nvidia’s chips sparked the AI revolution. Now it’s in the business of putting the technology to work in an array of industries.
Nvidia is No. 1 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2024. Explore the full list of companies that are reshaping industries and culture.
Nvidia isn’t just in the business of providing ever-more-powerful computing hardware and letting everybody else figure out what to do with it. Across an array of industries, the company’s technologies, platforms, and partnerships are doing much of the heavy lifting of putting AI to work. In a single week in January 2024, for instance, Nvidia reported that it had begun beta testing its drug discovery platform, demoed software that lets video game characters speak unscripted dialogue, announced deals with four Chinese EV manufacturers that will incorporate Nvidia technology in their vehicles, and unveiled a retail-industry partnership aimed at foiling organized shoplifting.
Johnson & Johnson MedTech Works With NVIDIA to Broaden AI’s Reach in Surgery — from blogs.nvidia.com by David Niewolny
AI — already used to connect, analyze and offer predictions based on operating room data — will be critical to the future of surgery, boosting operating room efficiency and clinical decision-making.
That’s why NVIDIA is working with Johnson & Johnson MedTech to test new AI capabilities for the company’s connected digital ecosystem for surgery. It aims to enable open innovation and accelerate the delivery of real-time insights at scale to support medical professionals before, during and after procedures.
J&J MedTech is in 80% of the world’s operating rooms and trains more than 140,000 healthcare professionals each year through its education programs.
GE and NVIDIA Join Forces to Accelerate Artificial Intelligence Adoption in Healthcare — from nvidianews.nvidia.com
Nvidia Announces Major Deals With Healthcare Companies — from cheddar.com
At the GTC A.I. conference last week, Nvidia launched nearly two dozen new A.I. powered, health care focused tools and deals with companies Johnson & Johnson and GE Healthcare for surgery and medical imaging. The move into health care space for the A.I. company is an effort that’s been under development for a decade.
Nvidia is now powering AI nurses — from byMaxwell Zeff / Gizmodo;; via Claire Zau
The cheap AI agents offer medical advice to patients over video calls in real-time
How to Make the Dream of Education Equity (or Most of It) a Reality — from nataliewexler.substack.com by Natalie Wexler
Studies on the effects of tutoring–by humans or computers–point to ways to improve regular classroom instruction.
One problem, of course, is that it’s prohibitively expensive to hire a tutor for every average or struggling student, or even one for every two or three of them. This was the two-sigma “problem” that Bloom alluded to in the title of his essay: how can the massive benefits of tutoring possibly be scaled up? Both Khan and Zuckerberg have argued that the answer is to have computers, maybe powered by artificial intelligence, serve as tutors instead of humans.
From DSC:
I’m hoping that AI-backed learning platforms WILL help many people of all ages and backgrounds. But I realize — and appreciate what Natalie is saying here as well — that human beings are needed in the learning process (especially at younger ages).
But without the human element, that’s unlikely to be enough. Students are more likely to work hard to please a teacher than to please a computer.
Natalie goes on to talk about training all teachers in cognitive science — a solid idea for sure. That’s what I was trying to get at with this graphic:
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But I’m not as hopeful in all teachers getting trained in cognitive science…as it should have happened (in the Schools of Education and in the K12 learning ecosystem at large) by now. Perhaps it will happen, given enough time.
And with more homeschooling and blended programs of education occurring, that idea gets stretched even further.
K-12 Hybrid Schooling Is in High Demand — from realcleareducation.com by Keri D. Ingraham (emphasis below from DSC); via GSV
Parents are looking for a different kind of education for their children. A 2024 poll of parents reveals that 72% are considering, 63% are searching for, and 44% have selected a new K-12 school option for their children over the past few years. So, what type of education are they seeking?
Additional polling data reveals that 49% of parents would prefer their child learn from home at least one day a week. While 10% want full-time homeschooling, the remaining 39% of parents desire their child to learn at home one to four days a week, with the remaining days attending school on-campus. Another parent poll released this month indicates that an astonishing 64% of parents indicated that if they were looking for a new school for their child, they would enroll him or her in a hybrid school.
GTC March 2024 Keynote with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang
Also relevant/see:
Today is the beginning of our moonshot to solve embodied AGI in the physical world. I’m so excited to announce Project GR00T, our new initiative to create a general-purpose foundation model for humanoid robot learning.
The GR00T model will enable a robot to understand multimodal… pic.twitter.com/EqN19Z3cXH
— Jim Fan (@DrJimFan) March 18, 2024
NVIDIA just announced GR00T.
It will enable a robot to understand multimodal instructions like language, video, and motion.
Very soon we will see them cooking, preparing coffee, in supermarkets, changing tires, etc.pic.twitter.com/3PptgNS1Yi
— Barsee ? (@heyBarsee) March 19, 2024
