productivity / tips and tricks

Google Workspace enables the future of AI-powered work for every business — from workspace.google.com

The following AI capabilities will start rolling out to Google Workspace Business customers today and to Enterprise customers later this month:

Get AI assistance in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Meet, Chat, Vids, and more: Do your best work faster with AI embedded in the tools you use every day. Gemini streamlines your communications by helping you summarize, draft, and find information in your emails, chats, and files. It can be a thought partner and source of inspiration, helping you create professional documents, slides, spreadsheets, and videos from scratch. Gemini can even improve your meetings by taking notes, enhancing your audio and video, and catching you up on the conversation if you join late.

Chat with Gemini Advanced, Google’s next-gen AI: Kickstart learning, brainstorming, and planning with the Gemini app on your laptop or mobile device. Gemini Advanced can help you tackle complex projects including coding, research, and data analysis and lets you build Gems, your team of AI experts to help with repeatable or specialized tasks.

Unlock the power of NotebookLM Plus: We’re bringing the revolutionary AI research assistant to every employee, to help them make sense of complex topics. Upload sources to get instant insights and Audio Overviews, then share customized notebooks with the team to accelerate their learning and onboarding.

And per Evelyn from the Stay Ahead newsletter (at FlexOS)

Google’s Gemini AI is stepping up its game in Google Workspace, bringing powerful new capabilities to your favorite tools like Gmail, Docs, and Sheets:

AI-Powered Summaries: Get concise, AI-generated summaries of long emails and documents so you can focus on what matters most.
Smart Reply: Gemini now offers context-aware email replies that feel more natural and tailored to your style.
Slides and images generation: Gemini in Slides can help you generate new images, summarize your slides, write and rewrite content, and refer to existing Drive files and/or emails.
Automated Data Insights: In Google Sheets, Gemini helps create a task tracker, conference agenda, spot trends, suggest formulas, and even build charts with simple prompts.
Intelligent Drafting: Google Docs now gets a creativity boost, helping you draft reports, proposals, or blog posts with AI suggestions and outlines.
Meeting Assistance: Say goodbye to the awkward AI attendees to help you take notes, now Gemini can natively do that for you – no interruption, no avatar, and no extra attendee. Meet can now also automatically generate captions to lower the language barrier.

Eveyln (from FlexOS) also mentions that CoPilot is getting enhancements too:

Copilot is now included in Microsoft 365 Personal and Family — from microsoft.com

Per Evelyn:

It’s exactly what we predicted: stand-alone AI apps like note-takers and image generators have had their moment, but as the tech giants step in, they’re bringing these features directly into their ecosystems, making them harder to ignore.

Announcing The Stargate Project — from openai.com

The Stargate Project is a new company which intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States. We will begin deploying $100 billion immediately. This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world. This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.

The initial equity funders in Stargate are SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners for Stargate, with SoftBank having financial responsibility and OpenAI having operational responsibility. Masayoshi Son will be the chairman.

Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI are the key initial technology partners. The buildout is currently underway, starting in Texas, and we are evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as we finalize definitive agreements.

Your AI Writing Partner: The 30-Day Book Framework — from aidisruptor.ai by Alex McFarland and Kamil Banc
How to Turn Your “Someday” Manuscript into a “Shipped” Project Using AI-Powered Prompts

With that out of the way, I prefer Claude.ai for writing. For larger projects like a book, create a Claude Project to keep all context in one place.

Copy [the following] prompts into a document
Use them in sequence as you write
Adjust the word counts and specifics as needed
Keep your responses for reference
Use the same prompt template for similar sections to maintain consistency

Each prompt builds on the previous one, creating a systematic approach to helping you write your book.

Adobe’s new AI tool can edit 10,000 images in one click — from theverge.com by Jess Weatherbed
Firefly Bulk Create can automatically remove, replace, or extend image backgrounds in huge batches.

Adobe is launching new generative AI tools that can automate labor-intensive production tasks like editing large batches of images and translating video presentations. The most notable is “Firefly Bulk Create,” an app that allows users to quickly resize up to 10,000 images or replace all of their backgrounds in a single click instead of tediously editing each picture individually.

“Leadership & Generative AI: Hard-Earned Lessons That Matter” [Klitgaard Stricker] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 01/22/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, library / librarians, lifelong learning, Michigan, microlearning, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, reading, research, strategy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, writing, by Daniel Christian

Your AI Writing Partner: The 30-Day Book Framework — from aidisruptor.ai by Alex McFarland and Kamil Banc
How to Turn Your “Someday” Manuscript into a “Shipped” Project Using AI-Powered Prompts

With that out of the way, I prefer Claude.ai for writing. For larger projects like a book, create a Claude Project to keep all context in one place.

Copy [the following] prompts into a document
Use them in sequence as you write
Adjust the word counts and specifics as needed
Keep your responses for reference
Use the same prompt template for similar sections to maintain consistency

Each prompt builds on the previous one, creating a systematic approach to helping you write your book.

Using NotebookLM to Boost College Reading Comprehension — from michellekassorla.substack.com by Michelle Kassorla and Eugenia Novokshanova
This semester, we are using NotebookLM to help our students comprehend and engage with scholarly texts

We were looking hard for a new tool when Google released NotebookLM. Not only does Google allow unfettered use of this amazing tool, it is also a much better tool for the work we require in our courses. So, this semester, we have scrapped our “old” tools and added NotebookLM as the primary tool for our English Composition II courses (and we hope, fervently, that Google won’t decide to severely limit its free tier before this semester ends!)

If you know next-to-nothing about NotebookLM, that’s OK. What follows is the specific lesson we present to our students. We hope this will help you understand all you need to know about NotebookLM, and how to successfully integrate the tool into your own teaching this semester.

Leadership & Generative AI: Hard-Earned Lessons That Matter — from jeppestricker.substack.com by Jeppe Klitgaard Stricker
Actionable Advice for Higher Education Leaders in 2025

AFTER two years of working closely with leadership in multiple institutions, and delivering countless workshops, I’ve seen one thing repeatedly: the biggest challenge isn’t the technology itself, but how we lead through it. Here is some of my best advice to help you navigate generative AI with clarity and confidence:

Break your own AI policies before you implement them. …
Fund your failures. …
Resist the pilot program. …
Host Anti-Tech Tech Talks …
…+ several more tips

While generative AI in higher education obviously involves new technology, it’s much more about adopting a curious and human-centric approach in your institution and communities. It’s about empowering learners in new, human-oriented and innovative ways. It is, in a nutshell, about people adapting to new ways of doing things.

Maria Anderson responded to Clay’s posting with this idea:

Here’s an idea: […] the teacher can use the [most advanced] AI tool to generate a complete solution to “the problem” — whatever that is — and demonstrate how to do that in class. Give all the students access to the document with the results.

And then grade the students on a comprehensive followup activity / presentation of executing that solution (no notes, no more than 10 words on a slide). So the students all have access to the same deep AI result, but have to show they comprehend and can iterate on that result.

Grammarly just made it easier to prove the sources of your text in Google Docs — from zdnet.com by Jack Wallen
If you want to be diligent about proving your sources within Google Documents, Grammarly has a new feature you’ll want to use.

In this age of distrust, misinformation, and skepticism, you may wonder how to demonstrate your sources within a Google Document. Did you type it yourself, copy and paste it from a browser-based source, copy and paste it from an unknown source, or did it come from generative AI?

You may not think this is an important clarification, but if writing is a critical part of your livelihood or life, you will definitely want to demonstrate your sources.

That’s where the new Grammarly feature comes in.

The new feature is called Authorship, and according to Grammarly, “Grammarly Authorship is a set of features that helps users demonstrate their sources of text in a Google doc. When you activate Authorship within Google Docs, it proactively tracks the writing process as you write.”

AI Agents Are Coming to Higher Education — from govtech.com
AI agents are customizable tools with more decision-making power than chatbots. They have the potential to automate more tasks, and some schools have implemented them for administrative and educational purposes.

Custom GPTs are on the rise in education. Google’s version, Gemini Gems, includes a premade version called Learning Coach, and Microsoft announced last week a new agent addition to Copilot featuring use cases at educational institutions.

Generative Artificial Intelligence and Education: A Brief Ethical Reflection on Autonomy — from er.educause.edu by Vicki Strunk and James Willis
Given the widespread impacts of generative AI, looking at this technology through the lens of autonomy can help equip students for the workplaces of the present and of the future, while ensuring academic integrity for both students and instructors.

The principle of autonomy stresses that we should be free agents who can govern ourselves and who are able to make our own choices. This principle applies to AI in higher education because it raises serious questions about how, when, and whether AI should be used in varying contexts. Although we have only begun asking questions related to autonomy and many more remain to be asked, we hope that this serves as a starting place to consider the uses of AI in higher education.

A Practical Framework for Microlearning Success: A Guide for Learning Leaders [Defelice]

On 01/22/2025, in adult learning, business, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, instructional design, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, microlearning, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, training / L&D, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

A Practical Framework for Microlearning Success: A Guide for Learning Leaders — from learningguild.com by Robyn A. Defelice

Gaining insight from the framework

Goals or Measurable Outcomes

Key question: What business results do you expect from your microlearning strategy?
Why it’s valuable: Clear, measurable outcomes create a foundation for alignment and accountability.

Purpose

Key question: Why does this microlearning initiative exist?
Why it’s valuable: L&D needs to know if they are solving a specific problem, supporting a broader strategy, or providing foundational knowledge.

Potential

Key question: What opportunities exist if the purpose is actualized?
Why it’s valuable: This helps to put into focus the measurable outcomes or if it is a true need for L&D to address.

Evaluation

Key question: How will you measure success?
Why it’s valuable: Defining metrics that track learner progress and link to business impact ensures that the design of these pieces is part of the overall solution and implementation plan.

…and more

By focusing on short-term wins, auditing for gaps, and planning strategically, L&D leaders can create initiatives that deliver meaningful, sustained results.

Advice for students: Be adaptable. Be agile. Be lifelong learners. [Christian]

On 01/22/2025, in business, career development, change, changing business models, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, ideas, lifelong learning, productivity / tips and tricks, reinvent, skills, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, training / L&D, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The Best of AI 2024: Top Winners Across 9 Categories — from aiwithallie.beehiiv.com by Allie Miller
2025 will be our weirdest year in AI yet. Read this so you’re more prepared.

Top AI Tools of 2024 — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer (behind a paywall)
Which AI tools stood out for me in 2024? My list.

Memorable AI Tools of 2024
Catergories included:

Useful
Popular
Captures the zeighest of AI product innovation
Fun to try
Personally satisfying

NotebookLM
Perplexity
Claude
…

New “best” AI tool? Really? — from theneurondaily.com by Noah and Grant
PLUS: A free workaround to the “best” new AI…

What is Google’s Deep Research tool, and is it really “the best” AI research tool out there?
…
Here’s how it works: Think of Deep Research as a research team that can simultaneously analyze 50+ websites, compile findings, and create comprehensive reports—complete with citations.

Unlike asking ChatGPT to research for you, Deep Research shows you its research plan before executing, letting you edit the approach to get exactly what you need.
…
It’s currently free for the first month (though it’ll eventually be $20/month) when bundled with Gemini Advanced. Then again, Perplexity is always free…just saying.

We couldn’t just take J-Cal’s word for it, so we rounded up some other takes:

Income Stream Surfers compared it to Perplexity …
Teacher’s Tech demo’d how prompt detail drastically affects results…
Olivio Sarikas used it to analyze tweet performance …

Our take: We then compared Perplexity, ChatGPT Search, and Deep Research (which we’re calling DR, or “The Docta” for short) on robot capabilities from CES revealed:

An excerpt from today’s Morning Edition from Bloomberg

Global banks will cut as many as 200,000 jobs in the next three to five years—a net 3% of the workforce—as AI takes on more tasks, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence survey. Back, middle office and operations are most at risk. A reminder that Citi said last year that AI is likely to replace more jobs in banking than in any other sector. JPMorgan had a more optimistic view (from an employee perspective, at any rate), saying its AI rollout has augmented, not replaced, jobs so far.

NVIDIA’s Apple moment?! — from theneurondaily.com by Noah Edelman and Grant Harvey
PLUS: How to level up your AI workflows for 2025…

NVIDIA wants to put an AI supercomputer on your desk (and it only costs $3,000).
…
And last night at CES 2025, Jensen Huang announced phase two of this plan: Project DIGITS, a $3K personal AI supercomputer that runs 200B parameter models from your desk. Guess we now know why Apple recently developed an NVIDIA allergy…
…
But NVIDIA doesn’t just want its “Apple PC moment”… it also wants its OpenAI moment. NVIDIA also announced Cosmos, a platform for building physical AI (think: robots and self-driving cars)—which Jensen Huang calls “the ChatGPT moment for robotics.”

Jensen Huang’s latest CES speech: AI Agents are expected to become the next robotics industry, with a scale reaching trillions of dollars — from chaincatcher.com

NVIDIA is bringing AI from the cloud to personal devices and enterprises, covering all computing needs from developers to ordinary users.

At CES 2025, which opened this morning, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang delivered a milestone keynote speech, revealing the future of AI and computing. From the core token concept of generative AI to the launch of the new Blackwell architecture GPU, and the AI-driven digital future, this speech will profoundly impact the entire industry from a cross-disciplinary perspective.

Also see:

NVIDIA Project DIGITS: The World’s Smallest AI Supercomputer. — from nvidia.com
A Grace Blackwell AI Supercomputer on your desk.

From DSC:
I’m posting this next item (involving Samsung) as it relates to how TVs continue to change within our living rooms. AI is finding its way into our TVs…the ramifications of this remain to be seen.

OpenAI ‘now knows how to build AGI’ — from therundown.ai by Rowan Cheung
PLUS: AI phishing achieves alarming success rates

The Rundown: Samsung revealed its new “AI for All” tagline at CES 2025, introducing a comprehensive suite of new AI features and products across its entire ecosystem — including new AI-powered TVs, appliances, PCs, and more.

The details:

Vision AI brings features like real-time translation, the ability to adapt to user preferences, AI upscaling, and instant content summaries to Samsung TVs.
Several of Samsung’s new Smart TVs will also have Microsoft Copilot built in, while also teasing a potential AI partnership with Google.
Samsung also announced the new line of Galaxy Book5 AI PCs, with new capabilities like AI-powered search and photo editing.
AI is also being infused into Samsung’s laundry appliances, art frames, home security equipment, and other devices within its SmartThings ecosystem.

Why it matters: Samsung’s web of products are getting the AI treatment — and we’re about to be surrounded by AI-infused appliances in every aspect of our lives. The edge will be the ability to sync it all together under one central hub, which could position Samsung as the go-to for the inevitable transition from smart to AI-powered homes.

***

“Samsung sees TVs not as one-directional devices for passive consumption but as interactive, intelligent partners that adapt to your needs,” said SW Yong, President and Head of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “With Samsung Vision AI, we’re reimagining what screens can do, connecting entertainment, personalization, and lifestyle solutions into one seamless experience to simplify your life.” — from Samsung

Understanding And Preparing For The 7 Levels Of AI Agents — from forbes.com by Douglas B. Laney

The following framework I offer for defining, understanding, and preparing for agentic AI blends foundational work in computer science with insights from cognitive psychology and speculative philosophy. Each of the seven levels represents a step-change in technology, capability, and autonomy. The framework expresses increasing opportunities to innovate, thrive, and transform in a data-fueled and AI-driven digital economy.

The Rise of AI Agents and Data-Driven Decisions — from devprojournal.com by Mike Monocello
Fueled by generative AI and machine learning advancements, we’re witnessing a paradigm shift in how businesses operate and make decisions.

AI Agents Enhance Generative AI’s Impact
Burley Kawasaki, Global VP of Product Marketing and Strategy at Creatio, predicts a significant leap forward in generative AI. “In 2025, AI agents will take generative AI to the next level by moving beyond content creation to active participation in daily business operations,” he says. “These agents, capable of partial or full autonomy, will handle tasks like scheduling, lead qualification, and customer follow-ups, seamlessly integrating into workflows. Rather than replacing generative AI, they will enhance its utility by transforming insights into immediate, actionable outcomes.”

Here’s what nobody is telling you about AI agents in 2025 — from aidisruptor.ai by Alex McFarland
What’s really coming (and how to prepare).

Everyone’s talking about the potential of AI agents in 2025 (and don’t get me wrong, it’s really significant), but there’s a crucial detail that keeps getting overlooked: the gap between current capabilities and practical reliability.

Here’s the reality check that most predictions miss: AI agents currently operate at about 80% accuracy (according to Microsoft’s AI CEO). Sounds impressive, right? But here’s the thing – for businesses and users to actually trust these systems with meaningful tasks, we need 99% reliability. That’s not just a 19% gap – it’s the difference between an interesting tech demo and a business-critical tool.

This matters because it completely changes how we should think about AI agents in 2025. While major players like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are pouring billions into development, they’re all facing the same fundamental challenge – making them work reliably enough that you can actually trust them with your business processes.

Think about it this way: Would you trust an assistant who gets things wrong 20% of the time? Probably not. But would you trust one who makes a mistake only 1% of the time, especially if they could handle repetitive tasks across your entire workflow? That’s a completely different conversation.

Why 2025 will be the year of AI orchestration — from venturebeat.com by Emilia David|

In the tech world, we like to label periods as the year of (insert milestone here). This past year (2024) was a year of broader experimentation in AI and, of course, agentic use cases.

As 2025 opens, VentureBeat spoke to industry analysts and IT decision-makers to see what the year might bring. For many, 2025 will be the year of agents, when all the pilot programs, experiments and new AI use cases converge into something resembling a return on investment.

In addition, the experts VentureBeat spoke to see 2025 as the year AI orchestration will play a bigger role in the enterprise. Organizations plan to make management of AI applications and agents much more straightforward.

Here are some themes we expect to see more in 2025.

Predictions For AI In 2025: Entrepreneurs Look Ahead — from forbes.com by Jodie Cook

AI agents take charge
Jérémy Grandillon, CEO of TC9 – AI Allbound Agency, said “Today, AI can do a lot, but we don’t trust it to take actions on our behalf. This will change in 2025. Be ready to ask your AI assistant to book a Uber ride for you.” Start small with one agent handling one task. Build up to an army.

“If 2024 was agents everywhere, then 2025 will be about bringing those agents together in networks and systems,” said Nicholas Holland, vice president of AI at Hubspot. “Micro agents working together to accomplish larger bodies of work, and marketplaces where humans can ‘hire’ agents to work alongside them in hybrid teams. Before long, we’ll be saying, ‘there’s an agent for that.'”
…
Voice becomes default
Stop typing and start talking. Adam Biddlecombe, head of brand at Mindstream, predicts a shift in how we interact with AI. “2025 will be the year that people start talking with AI,” he said. “The majority of people interact with ChatGPT and other tools in the text format, and a lot of emphasis is put on prompting skills.

Biddlecombe believes, “With Apple’s ChatGPT integration for Siri, millions of people will start talking to ChatGPT. This will make AI so much more accessible and people will start to use it for very simple queries.”

Get ready for the next wave of advancements in AI. AGI arrives early, AI agents take charge, and voice becomes the norm. Video creation gets easy, AI embeds everywhere, and one-person billion-dollar companies emerge.

These 4 graphs show where AI is already impacting jobs — from fastcompany.com by Brandon Tucker
With a 200% increase in two years, the data paints a vivid picture of how AI technology is reshaping the workforce.

To better understand the types of roles that AI is impacting, ZoomInfo’s research team looked to its proprietary database of professional contacts for answers. The platform, which detects more than 1.5 million personnel changes per day, revealed a dramatic increase in AI-related job titles since 2022. With a 200% increase in two years, the data paints a vivid picture of how AI technology is reshaping the workforce.

Why does this shift in AI titles matter for every industry?

“5 Ways Teachers Can Use NotebookLM Today” [Burns} + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 12/29/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Australia, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, library / librarians, lifelong learning, Open AI, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

How AI Is Changing Education: The Year’s Top 5 Stories — from edweek.org by Alyson Klein

Ever since a new revolutionary version of chat ChatGPT became operable in late 2022, educators have faced several complex challenges as they learn how to navigate artificial intelligence systems.
…
Education Week produced a significant amount of coverage in 2024 exploring these and other critical questions involving the understanding and use of AI.

Here are the five most popular stories that Education Week published in 2024 about AI in schools.

What’s next with AI in higher education? — from msn.com by Science X Staff

Dr. Lodge said there are five key areas the higher education sector needs to address to adapt to the use of AI:

1. Teach ‘people’ skills as well as tech skills
2. Help all students use new tech
3. Prepare students for the jobs of the future
4. Learn to make sense of complex information
5. Universities to lead the tech change

5 Ways Teachers Can Use NotebookLM Today — from classtechtips.com by Dr. Monica Burns

This is wild.

Hume AI just announced a new AI voice model.

It’s like ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode, Elevenlabs Voice Design, and Google NotebookLM in one.

t can create a voice with a whole personality from a description or 5 second clip. And more.

8 wild examples: pic.twitter.com/XOA779jSiE

— Min Choi (@minchoi) December 23, 2024

AI in 2024: Insights From our 5 Million Readers — from linkedin.com by Generative AI

Checking the Pulse: The Impact of AI on Everyday Lives
So, what exactly did our users have to say about how AI transformed their lives this year?
.

Top 2024 Developments in AI

Video Generation…
AI Employees…
Open Source Advancements…

Getting ready for 2025: your AI team members (Gift lesson 3/3) — from flexos.com by Daan van Rossum

And that’s why today, I’ll tell you exactly which AI tools I’ve recommended for the top 5 use cases to almost 200 business leaders who took the Lead with AI course.

1. Email Management: Simplifying Communication with AI

Microsoft Copilot for Outlook. …
Gemini AI for Gmail. …
Grammarly. …

2. Meeting Management: Maximize Your Time

Otter.ai. …
Copilot for Microsoft Teams. …
Other AI Meeting Assistants. Zoom AI Companion, Granola, and Fathom

3. Research: Streamlining Information Gathering

ChatGPT. …
Perplexity. …
Consensus. …

…plus several more items and tools that were mentioned by Daan.

Christina Blacklaws: “We’re on the cusp of meaningful A2J change” — from legaltechnology.com by Caroline Hill

As 2024 draws to a close, we took a look at the past year and the year ahead with Christina Blacklaws, the former president of the Law Society of England and Wales who, after leaving office, has developed a career supporting businesses as a non-executive director, consultant and strategic advisor. One of those advisory roles is chair of LawtechUK, an initiative to “turbocharge” the UK’s lawtech sector, delivered by CodeBase and LegalGeek and funded by the Ministry of Justice.

For Blacklaws, one of the huge areas of potential for GenAI technology is in helping to solve the access to justice crisis and she talks through some of the exciting work being done in this space and why we’re on the cusp of meaningful change.

2024 In Legal Ops: AI, Adaptation, And What’s Next — from abovethelaw.com by The Uplevel Ops Advisory Team
Reflections on the wild ride that was 2024 and bold predictions for the new year.

The Legal Operations landscape is evolving faster than ever, and UpLevel Ops is at the forefront of this transformation. With advancements like generative AI subscriptions, custom GPT services, and value-based pricing shaking up traditional approaches, legal departments are navigating uncharted territory.
…
From revolutionary uses of AI to new strategies in outside counsel management, their insights provide a roadmap for legal teams ready to embrace the next wave of innovation.

Judges Are Using Virtual Reality Headsets in the Courtroom — from vice.com by Luis Prada

A judge in Florida has just set a precedent that might forever change the US legal system—and maybe even the global legal system—forever.
…
But now the technology has advanced to the point where the judge and jury can be almost literally in his client’s shoes.

This allows the judge to not just understand the words of his testimony, but the physical conditions of it in a much more tactile way. Whether or not this will make his case more convincing is up to the jury.

The Evolution of a Virtual Court System — from law.com by Sondra Mendelson-Toscano (behind a paywall)
“It is my prediction that the future of the court system includes a hybrid employment model for the bench.”

Shortly thereafter, the New York Office of Court Administration designed and executed a plan whereby judges were able to handle their assigned matters electronically. Such seemed like a natural progression under the circumstances, given that prior to the advent of the Coronavirus, electronic testimony was successfully utilized in many different types of proceedings in various ways (e.g. vulnerable child witnesses, interstate custody and child support, elderly material witnesses, medically disabled defendants, and incarcerated individuals).

A virtual court online resource center was created for judges, staff, and the public for information related to remote operations. Despite some initial resistance by attorneys (who argued violations of the right to confrontation, that virtual is less effective and not as persuasive, computer illiteracy, and so forth), the Unified Court System pushed forward.

OCA’s course of action proved to be effective and, eventually, attorneys and litigants enjoyed the option of appearing virtually. Lawyers could handle multiple matters from their home offices in less time than it would have taken them to drive back and forth between courthouses, thus maximizing their work day.

Parties appreciated the flexibility of appearing from home and those who were essential workers valued joining proceedings on breaks while at work. Being in court remotely alleviated the stress of having to ask for, and take off, time from work, or making arrangements to address child care issues, elder care issues, and the like. Litigants with physical disabilities and other hardships, such as lack of transportation, received an automatic accommodation without having to request one.

Microsoft partners with ABA on new pilot project to help asylum-seekers — from abajournal.com by Amanda Robert

“In an ideal world, we would get everyone an in-person attorney to represent them for the full length of their case,” says Baez, the Commission on Immigration’s director of pro bono. “But in the reality we live in, where that’s really not possible, we are trying to be thoughtful and innovative on how we engage the most volunteers to help the most people who would otherwise not be able to access any legal assistance.”

In June, the Commission on Immigration partnered with Microsoft to launch a new virtual clinic to help pro se asylum-seekers complete their asylum applications. During this clinic, which included four sessions, nearly 30 volunteers from Microsoft worked with asylum-seekers to gather necessary information and prepare their applications for submission.

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 …

Jeremy Caplan: 12 of my favorite tools this year

On 12/21/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, creativity, design, digital audio, digital video, experimentation, graphics, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, tools, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Best of 2024 — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan
12 of my favorites this year

I tested hundreds of new tools this year. Many were duplicative. A few stuck with me because they’re so useful. The dozen noted below are helping me mine insights from notes, summarize meetings, design visuals— even code a little, without being a developer. You can start using any of these in minutes — no big budget or prompt engineering PhD required.

Incorporating Financial Literacy into Your Classroom Curriculum [edcircuit.com]

On 12/21/2024, in content development, aggregation, repositories, curriculum, education, education technology, productivity / tips and tricks, real-world assignments, student-related, surviving, teachers, youth, by Daniel Christian

Incorporating Financial Literacy into Your Classroom Curriculum — from edcircuit.com by EdCircuit Staff
Teaching Beyond the Textbook

Table of Contents

The Importance of Teaching Financial Literacy
Incorporating Financial Literacy into Your CurriculumUse Real-Life Examples
Integrate it into Other Subjects
Use Technology
Make it Interactive
Start Early
Conclusion

“Your Map To The Future lays out tools and techniques futurists have been using for decades” [Dr. Bertalan Mesko, PhD]

On 12/17/2024, in Daniel S. Christian, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, health, productivity / tips and tricks, by Daniel Christian

Your Map to the Future: New Book! — from medicalfuturist.com by Dr. Bertalan Mesko, PhD
Your Map To The Future lays out tools and techniques futurists have been using for decades so you can start using them immediately to shape your personal and professional futures.

Futures thinking shouldn’t be reserved for experts. Whether you’re a leader, a professional, or simply someone striving to make sense of a complex world, this book is for you.
…
The futures methods I’ve used as The Medical Futurist for decades in analyzing the future of medicine and healthcare have, for some reason, not become widely accessible.

However, everyone can obtain these methods to approach the future with confidence, clarity, and control.

While the future is believed to be a fixed, singular path, in fact, multiple futures exist, and Your Map To The Future gives you the science-based tools to explore and prepare for them. With fresh perspectives, I illustrate why looking forward is crucial in addressing today’s most pressing issues, from climate change to artificial intelligence.

From DSC:
I haven’t read this book and I hesitate to post this…as it leans heavily into an advertisement for this particular book. But I DO post it because I also believe that future thinking shouldn’t be reserved for experts. In fact, I assert that all K-12 students — and college/vocational students as well — should have some exposure to futures thinking. We need to be looking up and around and pulse-checking the trends. We need to posit future scenarios and our plans to address those potential scenarios.

Also, I have read Dr. Mesko’s postings for years and he’s solid.

Three recent items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 12/12/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, change, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, Emotion, ethics, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, morals/values, pedagogy, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, writing, by Daniel Christian

Episode 302: A Practical Roadmap for AI in K-12 Education with Mike Kentz & Nick Potkalitsky, PhD

In this episode of My EdTech Life, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike Kentz and Nick Potkalitsky, PhD, to discuss their new book, AI in Education: The K-12 Roadmap to Teacher-Led Transformation. We dive into the transformative power of AI in education, exploring its potential for personalization, its impact on traditional teaching practices, and the critical need for teacher-driven experimentation.

Striking a Balance: Navigating the Ethical Dilemmas of AI in Higher Education — from er.educause.edu by Katalin Wargo and Brier Anderson
Navigating the complexities of artificial intelligence (AI) while upholding ethical standards requires a balanced approach that considers the benefits and risks of AI adoption.

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to transform the world—including higher education—the need for responsible use has never been more critical. While AI holds immense potential to enhance teaching and learning, ethical considerations around social inequity, environmental concerns, and dehumanization continue to emerge. College and university centers for teaching and learning (CTLs), tasked with supporting faculty in best instructional practices, face growing pressure to take a balanced approach to adopting new technologies. This challenge is compounded by an unpredictable and rapidly evolving landscape. New AI tools surface almost daily. With each new tool, the educational possibilities and challenges increase exponentially. Keeping up is virtually impossible for CTLs, which historically have been institutional hubs for innovation. In fact, as of this writing, the There’s an AI for That website indicates that there are 23,208 AIs for 15,636 tasks for 4,875 jobs—with all three numbers increasing daily.

To support college and university faculty and, by extension, learners in navigating the complexities of AI integration while upholding ethical standards, CTLs must prioritize a balanced approach that considers the benefits and risks of AI adoption. Teaching and learning professionals need to expand their resources and support pathways beyond those solely targeting how to leverage AI or mitigate academic integrity violations. They need to make a concerted effort to promote critical AI literacy, grapple with issues of social inequity, examine the environmental impact of AI technologies, and promote human-centered design principles.1

5 Free AI Tools For Learning & Exploration — from whytryai.com by Daniel Nest
Have fun exploring new topics with these interactive sites.

We’re truly spoiled for choice when it comes to AI learning tools.

In principle, any free LLM can become an endlessly patient tutor or an interactive course-maker.

If that’s not enough, tools like NotebookLM’s “Audio Overviews” and ElevenLabs’ GenFM can turn practically any material into a breezy podcast.

But what if you’re looking to explore new topics in a way that’s more interactive than vanilla chatbots and more open-ended than source-grounded NotebookLM?

Well, then you might want to give one of these free-to-try learning tools a go.

Introducing Gemini 2.0: our new AI model for the agentic era — from blog.google by Sundar Pichai, Demis Hassabis, and Koray Kavukcuoglu

Today we’re excited to launch our next era of models built for this new agentic era: introducing Gemini 2.0, our most capable model yet. With new advances in multimodality — like native image and audio output — and native tool use, it will enable us to build new AI agents that bring us closer to our vision of a universal assistant.

We’re getting 2.0 into the hands of developers and trusted testers today. And we’re working quickly to get it into our products, leading with Gemini and Search. Starting today our Gemini 2.0 Flash experimental model will be available to all Gemini users. We’re also launching a new feature called Deep Research, which uses advanced reasoning and long context capabilities to act as a research assistant, exploring complex topics and compiling reports on your behalf. It’s available in Gemini Advanced today.

Over the last year, we have been investing in developing more agentic models, meaning they can understand more about the world around you, think multiple steps ahead, and take action on your behalf, with your supervision.

.

Try Deep Research and our new experimental model in Gemini, your AI assistant — from blog.google by Dave Citron
Deep Research rolls out to Gemini Advanced subscribers today, saving you hours of time. Plus, you can now try out a chat optimized version of 2.0 Flash Experimental in Gemini on the web.

Today, we’re sharing the latest updates to Gemini, your AI assistant, including Deep Research — our new agentic feature in Gemini Advanced — and access to try Gemini 2.0 Flash, our latest experimental model.

Deep Research uses AI to explore complex topics on your behalf and provide you with findings in a comprehensive, easy-to-read report, and is a first look at how Gemini is getting even better at tackling complex tasks to save you time.1

Google Unveils A.I. Agent That Can Use Websites on Its Own — from nytimes.com by Cade Metz and Nico Grant (NOTE: This is a GIFTED article for/to you.)
The experimental tool can browse spreadsheets, shopping sites and other services, before taking action on behalf of the computer user.

Google on Wednesday unveiled a prototype of this technology, which artificial intelligence researchers call an A.I. agent.
…
Google’s new prototype, called Mariner, is based on Gemini 2.0, which the company also unveiled on Wednesday. Gemini is the core technology that underpins many of the company’s A.I. products and research experiments. Versions of the system will power the company’s chatbot of the same name and A.I. Overviews, a Google search tool that directly answers user questions.

Gemini 2.0 is the next chapter for Google AI — from axios.com by Ina Fried

Google Gemini 2.0 — a major upgrade to the core workings of Google’s AI that the company launched Wednesday — is designed to help generative AI move from answering users’ questions to taking action on its own…
…
The big picture: Hassabis said building AI systems that can take action on their own has been DeepMind’s focus since its early days teaching computers to play games such as chess and Go.

“We were always working towards agent-based systems,” Hassabis said. “From the beginning, they were able to plan and then carry out actions and achieve objectives.”
Hassabis said AI systems that can act as semi-autonomous agents also represent an important intermediate step on the path toward artificial general intelligence (AGI) — AI that can match or surpass human capabilities.
“If we think about the path to AGI, then obviously you need a system that can reason, break down problems and carry out actions in the world,” he said.

AI Agents vs. AI Assistants: Know the Key Differences — from aithority.com by Rishika Patel

The same paradigm applies to AI systems. AI assistants function as reactive tools, completing tasks like answering queries or managing workflows upon request. Think of chatbots or scheduling tools. AI agents, however, work autonomously to achieve set objectives, making decisions and executing tasks dynamically, adapting as new information becomes available.

Together, AI assistants and agents can enhance productivity and innovation in business environments. While assistants handle routine tasks, agents can drive strategic initiatives and problem-solving. This powerful combination has the potential to elevate organizations, making processes more efficient and professionals more effective.

Discover how to accelerate AI transformation with NVIDIA and Microsoft — from ignite.microsoft.com

Meet NVIDIA – The Engine of AI. From gaming to data science, self-driving cars to climate change, we’re tackling the world’s greatest challenges and transforming everyday life. The Microsoft and NVIDIA partnership enables Startups, ISVs, and Partners global access to the latest NVIDIA GPUs on-demand and comprehensive developer solutions to build, deploy and scale AI-enabled products and services.

Google + Meta + Apple New AI — from theneurondaily.com by Grant Harve

What else Google announced:

Deep Research: New feature that can explore topics and compile reports.
Project Astra: AI agent that can use Google Search, Lens, and Maps, understands multiple languages, and has 10-minute conversation memory.
Project Mariner: A browser control agent that can complete web tasks (83.5% success rate on WebVoyager benchmark). Read more about Mariner here.
Agents to help you play (or test) video games.

AI Agents: Easier To Build, Harder To Get Right — from forbes.com by Andres Zunino

The swift progress of artificial intelligence (AI) has simplified the creation and deployment of AI agents with the help of new tools and platforms. However, deploying these systems beneath the surface comes with hidden challenges, particularly concerning ethics, fairness and the potential for bias.

The history of AI agents highlights the growing need for expertise to fully realize their benefits while effectively minimizing risks.

Learning Ecosystems

A Practical Framework for Microlearning Success: A Guide for Learning Leaders [Defelice]

“Your Map To The Future lays out tools and techniques futurists have been using for decades” [Dr. Bertalan Mesko, PhD]

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