tools

“Adobe Firefly: The next evolution of creative AI is here” + some other items re: AI in general

On 04/25/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Adobe, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, ethics, morals/values, productivity / tips and tricks, society, tools, UK, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Values in the wild: Discovering and analyzing values in real-world language model interactions — from anthropic.com

In the latest research paper from Anthropic’s Societal Impacts team, we describe a practical way we’ve developed to observe Claude’s values—and provide the first large-scale results on how Claude expresses those values during real-world conversations. We also provide an open dataset for researchers to run further analysis of the values and how often they arise in conversations.

Per the Rundown AI

Why it matters: AI is increasingly shaping real-world decisions and relationships, making understanding their actual values more crucial than ever. This study also moves the alignment discussion toward more concrete observations, revealing that AI’s morals and values may be more contextual and situational than a static point of view.

Also from Anthropic, see:

Anthropic Education Report: How University Students Use Claude

Adobe Firefly: The next evolution of creative AI is here — from blog.adobe.com

In just under two years, Adobe Firefly has revolutionized the creative industry and generated more than 22 billion assets worldwide. Today at Adobe MAX London, we’re unveiling the latest release of Firefly, which unifies AI-powered tools for image, video, audio, and vector generation into a single, cohesive platform and introduces many new capabilities.

The new Firefly features enhanced models, improved ideation capabilities, expanded creative options, and unprecedented control. This update builds on earlier momentum when we introduced the Firefly web app and expanded into video and audio with Generate Video, Translate Video, and Translate Audio features.

Per The Rundown AI (here):

Why it matters: OpenAI’s recent image generator and other rivals have shaken up creative workflows, but Adobe’s IP-safe focus and the addition of competing models into Firefly allow professionals to remain in their established suite of tools — keeping users in the ecosystem while still having flexibility for other model strengths.

How to Use AI and Universal Design to Empower Diverse Thinkers with Susan Tanner — from legaltalknetwork.com by Zack Glaser, Stephanie Everett, and Susan Tanner

What if the key to better legal work isn’t just smarter tools but more inclusive ones? Susan Tanner, Associate Professor at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, joins Zack Glaser to explore how AI and universal design can improve legal education and law firm operations. Susan shares how tools like generative AI can support neurodiverse thinkers, enhance client communication, and reduce anxiety for students and professionals alike. They also discuss the importance of inclusive design in legal tech and how law firms can better support their teams by embracing different ways of thinking to build a more accessible, future-ready practice. The conversation emphasizes the need for educators and legal professionals to adapt to the evolving landscape of AI, ensuring that they leverage its capabilities to better serve their clients and students.

Maximizing Microsoft Copilot in Your Legal Practice — from legaltalknetwork.com by Tom Mighell, Dennis Kennedy, and Ben Schorr

Copilot is a powerful tool for lawyers, but are you making the most of it within your Microsoft apps? Tom Mighell is flying solo at ABA TECHSHOW 2025 and welcomes Microsoft’s own Ben Schorr to the podcast. Ben shares expert insights into how lawyers can implement Copilot’s AI-assistance to work smarter, not harder. From drafting documents to analyzing spreadsheets to streamlining communication, Copilot can handle the tedious tasks so you can focus on what really matters. Ben shares numerous use-cases and capabilities for attorneys and later gives a sneak peek at Copilot’s coming enhancements.

Reflections on “Are You Ready for the AI University? Everything is about to change.” [Latham]

On 04/10/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accreditation, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, Blockchain, bots, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, culture, curriculum, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, Design Thinking, digital learning, disruption, education technology, emerging technologies, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, expectations, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, MBA, Michigan, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, organizational change, pace of change, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, reinvent, skills, society, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, trends, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

.
Are You Ready for the AI University? Everything is about to change. — from chronicle.com by Scott Latham

Over the course of the next 10 years, AI-powered institutions will rise in the rankings. US News & World Report will factor a college’s AI capabilities into its calculations. Accrediting agencies will assess the degree of AI integration into pedagogy, research, and student life. Corporations will want to partner with universities that have demonstrated AI prowess. In short, we will see the emergence of the AI haves and have-nots.
…
What’s happening in higher education today has a name: creative destruction. The economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the term in 1942 to describe how innovation can transform industries. That typically happens when an industry has both a dysfunctional cost structure and a declining value proposition. Both are true of higher education.
…
Out of the gate, professors will work with technologists to get AI up to speed on specific disciplines and pedagogy. For example, AI could be “fed” course material on Greek history or finance and then, guided by human professors as they sort through the material, help AI understand the structure of the discipline, and then develop lectures, videos, supporting documentation, and assessments.
…
In the near future, if a student misses class, they will be able watch a recording that an AI bot captured. Or the AI bot will find a similar lecture from another professor at another accredited university. If you need tutoring, an AI bot will be ready to help any time, day or night. Similarly, if you are going on a trip and wish to take an exam on the plane, a student will be able to log on and complete the AI-designed and administered exam. Students will no longer be bound by a rigid class schedule. Instead, they will set the schedule that works for them.

Early and mid-career professors who hope to survive will need to adapt and learn how to work with AI. They will need to immerse themselves in research on AI and pedagogy and understand its effect on the classroom.

From DSC:
I had a very difficult time deciding which excerpts to include. There were so many more excerpts for us to think about with this solid article. While I don’t agree with several things in it, EVERY professor, president, dean, and administrator working within higher education today needs to read this article and seriously consider what Scott Latham is saying.

Change is already here, but according to Scott, we haven’t seen anything yet. I agree with him and, as a futurist, one has to consider the potential scenarios that Scott lays out for AI’s creative destruction of what higher education may look like. Scott asserts that some significant and upcoming impacts will be experienced by faculty members, doctoral students, and graduate/teaching assistants (and Teaching & Learning Centers and IT Departments, I would add). But he doesn’t stop there. He brings in presidents, deans, and other members of the leadership teams out there.

There are a few places where Scott and I differ.

The foremost one is the importance of the human element — i.e., the human faculty member and students’ learning preferences. I think many (most?) students and lifelong learners will want to learn from a human being. IBM abandoned their 5-year, $100M ed push last year and one of the key conclusions was that people want to learn from — and with — other people:

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.”

— Satya Nitta, a longtime computer researcher at
IBM’s Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY
.

By the way, it isn’t easy for me to write this. As I wanted AI and other related technologies to be able to do just what IBM was hoping that it would be able to do.

Also, I would use the term learning preferences where Scott uses the term learning styles.

Scott also mentions:

“In addition, faculty members will need to become technologists as much as scholars. They will need to train AI in how to help them build lectures, assessments, and fine-tune their classroom materials. Further training will be needed when AI first delivers a course.”

It has been my experience from working with faculty members for over 20 years that not all faculty members want to become technologists. They may not have the time, interest, and/or aptitude to become one (and vice versa for technologists who likely won’t become faculty members).

That all said, Scott relays many things that I have reflected upon and relayed for years now via this Learning Ecosystems blog and also via The Learning from the Living [AI-Based Class] Room vision — the use of AI to offer personalized and job-relevant learning, the rising costs of higher education, the development of new learning-related offerings and credentials at far less expensive prices, the need to provide new business models and emerging technologies that are devoted more to lifelong learning, plus several other things.

So this article is definitely worth your time to read, especially if you are working in higher education or are considering a career therein!

Addendum later on 4/10/25:

U-M’s Ross School of Business, Google Public Sector launch virtual teaching assistant pilot program — from news.umich.edu by Jeff Karoub; via Paul Fain

Google Public Sector and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business have launched an advanced Virtual Teaching Assistant pilot program aimed at improving personalized learning and enlightening educators on artificial intelligence in the classroom.

The AI technology, aided by Google’s Gemini chatbot, provides students with all-hours access to support and self-directed learning. The Virtual TA represents the next generation of educational chatbots, serving as a sophisticated AI learning assistant that instructors can use to modify their specific lessons and teaching styles.

The Virtual TA facilitates self-paced learning for students, provides on-demand explanations of complex course concepts, guides them through problem-solving, and acts as a practice partner. It’s designed to foster critical thinking by never giving away answers, ensuring students actively work toward solutions.

The 2025 ABA Techshow Startup Alley Pitch Competition Ended In A Tie – Here Are The Winners — from lawnext.com by Bob Ambrogi

This year, two startups ended up with an equal number of votes for the top spot:

Case Crafter, a company from Norway that helps legal professionals build compelling visual timelines based on case files and evidence.
Querious, a product that provides attorneys with real-time insights during client conversations into legal issues, relevant content, and suggested questions and follow-ups.
.

DC: If https://t.co/c3Io6EqFds can do this with legal-related conversations, what about with lectures & learning-related applications of this?

Querious transforms client conversations with real-time legal insights while reducing non-billable administrative tasks.#legaltech #AI pic.twitter.com/s0r9o4N89q

— Daniel S. Christian (@dchristian5) April 9, 2025

AI academy gives law students a head start on legal tech, says OBA innovator — from canadianlawyermag.com by Branislav Urosevic

The Ontario Bar Association has recently launched a hands-on AI learning platform tailored for lawyers. Called the AI Academy, the initiative is designed to help legal professionals explore, experiment with, and adopt AI tools relevant to their practice.

Colin Lachance, OBA’s innovator-in-residence and the lead designer of the platform, says that although the AI Academy was built for practising lawyers, it is also well-suited for law students.

“AI agents that can train thousands of employees simultaneously” [Nuñez], “Introducing Claude for Education” [Anthropic], + other items re: AI in our LEs

On 04/03/2025, in adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, chemistry, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, design, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, graphics, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, lifelong learning, mathematics, multimedia, Open AI, pedagogy, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Uplimit raises stakes in corporate learning with suite of AI agents that can train thousands of employees simultaneously — from venturebeat.com by Michael Nuñez|

Uplimit unveiled a suite of AI-powered learning agents today designed to help companies rapidly upskill employees while dramatically reducing administrative burdens traditionally associated with corporate training.

The San Francisco-based company announced three sets of purpose-built AI agents that promise to change how enterprises approach learning and development: skill-building agents, program management agents, and teaching assistant agents. The technology aims to address the growing skills gap as AI advances faster than most workforces can adapt.

“There is an unprecedented need for continuous learning—at a scale and speed traditional systems were never built to handle,” said Julia Stiglitz, CEO and co-founder of Uplimit, in an interview with VentureBeat. “The companies best positioned to thrive aren’t choosing between AI and their people—they’re investing in both.”

Introducing Claude for Education — from anthropic.com

Today we’re launching Claude for Education, a specialized version of Claude tailored for higher education institutions. This initiative equips universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration—ensuring educators and students play a key role in actively shaping AI’s role in society.

As part of announcing Claude for Education, we’re introducing:

Learning mode: A new Claude experience that guides students’ reasoning process rather than providing answers, helping develop critical thinking skills
University-wide Claude availability: Full campus access agreements with Northeastern University, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and Champlain College, making Claude available to all students
Academic partnerships: Joining Internet2 and working with Instructure to embed AI into teaching & learning with Canvas LMS
Student programs: A new Claude Campus Ambassadors program along with an initiative offering API credits for student projects

A comment on this from The Rundown AI:

Why it matters: Education continues to grapple with AI, but Anthropic is flipping the script by making the tech a partner in developing critical thinking rather than an answer engine. While the controversy over its use likely isn’t going away, this generation of students will have access to the most personalized, high-quality learning tools ever.

Should College Graduates Be AI Literate? — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie (behind a paywall)
More institutions are saying yes. Persuading professors is only the first barrier they face.

Last fall one of Jacqueline Fajardo’s students came to her office, eager to tell her about an AI tool that was helping him learn general chemistry. Had she heard of Google NotebookLM? He had been using it for half a semester in her honors course. He confidently showed her how he could type in the learning outcomes she posted for each class and the tool would produce explanations and study guides. It even created a podcast based on an academic paper he had uploaded. He did not feel it was important to take detailed notes in class because the AI tool was able to summarize the key points of her lectures.

Showing Up for the Future: Why Educators Can’t Sit Out the AI Conversation — from marcwatkins.substack.com with a guest post from Lew Ludwig

The Risk of Disengagement
Let’s be honest: most of us aren’t jumping headfirst into AI. At many of our institutions, it’s not a gold rush—it’s a quiet standoff. But the group I worry most about isn’t the early adopters. It’s the faculty who’ve decided to opt out altogether.

That choice often comes from a place of care. Concerns about data privacy, climate impact, exploitative labor, and the ethics of using large language models are real—and important. But choosing not to engage at all, even on ethical grounds, doesn’t remove us from the system. It just removes our voices from the conversation.

And without those voices, we risk letting others—those with very different priorities—make the decisions that shape what AI looks like in our classrooms, on our campuses, and in our broader culture of learning.

Turbocharge Your Professional Development with AI — from learningguild.com by Dr. RK Prasad

You’ve just mastered a few new eLearning authoring tools, and now AI is knocking on the door, offering to do your job faster, smarter, and without needing coffee breaks. Should you be worried? Or excited?

If you’re a Learning and Development (L&D) professional today, AI is more than just a buzzword—it’s transforming the way we design, deliver, and measure corporate training. But here’s the good news: AI isn’t here to replace you. It’s here to make you better at what you do.

The challenge is to harness its potential to build digital-ready talent, not just within your organization but within yourself.

Let’s explore how AI is reshaping L&D strategies and how you can leverage it for professional development.

5 Recent AI Notables — from automatedteach.com by Graham Clay

1. OpenAI’s New Image Generator
What Happened: OpenAI integrated a much more powerful image generator directly into GPT-4o, making it the default image creator in ChatGPT. Unlike previous image models, this one excels at accurately rendering text in images, precise visualization of diagrams/charts, and multi-turn image refinement through conversation.

Why It’s Big: For educators, this represents a significant advancement in creating educational visuals, infographics, diagrams, and other instructional materials with unprecedented accuracy and control. It’s not perfect, but you can now quickly generate custom illustrations that accurately display mathematical equations, chemical formulas, or process workflows — previously a significant hurdle in digital content creation — without requiring graphic design expertise or expensive software. This capability dramatically reduces the time between conceptualizing a visual aid and implementing it in course materials.
.

The 4 AI modes that will supercharge your workflow — from aiwithallie.beehiiv.com by Allie K. Miller
The framework most people and companies won’t discover until 2026

Outsourcing Thought: The Hidden Cost of Letting AI Think for You — from linkedin.com by Robert Atkinson

I’ve watched it unfold in real time. A student submits a flawless coding assignment or a beautifully written essay—clean syntax, sharp logic, polished prose. But when I ask them to explain their thinking, they hesitate. They can’t trace their reasoning or walk me through the process. The output is strong, but the understanding is shallow. As a professor, I’ve seen this pattern grow more common: AI-assisted work that looks impressive on the surface but reveals a troubling absence of cognitive depth underneath.

This article is written with my students in mind—but it’s meant for anyone navigating learning, teaching, or thinking in the age of artificial intelligence. Whether you’re a student, educator, or professional, the question is the same: What happens to the brain when we stop doing our own thinking?

We are standing at a pivotal moment. With just a few prompts, generative AI can produce essays, solve complex coding problems, and summarize ideas in seconds. It feels efficient. It feels like progress. But from a cognitive neuroscience perspective, that convenience comes at a hidden cost: the gradual erosion of the neural processes that support reasoning, creativity, and long-term learning.

7 ways to use ChatGPT’s new image AI — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan
Transform your ideas into strong visuals

7 ways to use ChatGPT’s new image AI

Cartoons
Infographics
Posters
…plus several more

AI in Education Survey: What UK and US Educators Think in 2025 — from twinkl.com
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to shape the world around us, Twinkl conducted a large-scale survey between January 15th and January 22nd to explore its impact on the education sector, as well as the work lives of teachers across the UK and the USA.

Teachers’ use of AI for work continues to rise
Twinkl’s survey asked teachers whether they were currently using AI for work purposes. Comparing these findings to similar surveys over recent years shows the use of AI tools by teachers has seen a significant increase across both the UK and USA.

According to two UK surveys by the National Literacy Trust – 30% of teachers used generative AI in 2023 and nearly half (47.7%) in 2024. Twinkl’s survey indicates that AI adoption continues to rise rapidly, with 60% of UK educators currently integrating it into their work lives in 2025.
Similarly, with 62% of US teachers currently using AI for work, uptake appears to have risen greatly in the past 12 months, with just 25% saying they were leveraging the new technology in the 2023-24 school year according to a RAND report.
Teachers are using AI more for work than in their personal lives: In the UK, personal usage drops to 43% (from 60% at school). In the US, 52% are using AI for non-work purposes (versus 62% in education settings).

60% of UK teachers and 62% of US teachers use AI in their work life in 2025.

OpenAI opens OpenAI Academy — A free, online platform to help people gain AI literacy

On 03/28/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, curriculum, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, economics, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), informal learning, intelligent systems, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning ecosystem, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, Open AI, open courseware and systems, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, skills, social learning / networks, society, staying relevant, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, trends, United States, universities, vendors, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Students and folks looking for work may want to check out:

AI Career Prep: Resumes and Interviews

Also relevant/see:

OpenAI Launches OpenAI Academy: Free Guide To Understanding AI — from voi.id
OpenAI Launches OpenAI Academy to Drive AI Innovation in Low- and Middle-Income Countries — from startupsvibes.com by Emmaunel Daniji

Essential AI tools for better work — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan
My favorite tactics for making the most of AI — a podcast conversation

AI tools I consistently rely on (areas covered mentioned below)

Research and analysis
Communication efficiency
Multimedia creation

AI tactics that work surprisingly well

1. Reverse interviews
Instead of just querying AI, have it interview you. Get the AI to interview you, rather than interviewing it. Give it a little context and what you’re focusing on and what you’re interested in, and then you ask it to interview you to elicit your own insights.”

This approach helps extract knowledge from yourself, not just from the AI. Sometimes we need that guide to pull ideas out of ourselves.

OpenAI’s Deep Research Agent Is Coming for White-Collar Work — from wired.com by Will Knight
The research-focused agent shows how a new generation of more capable AI models could automate some office tasks.

Isla Fulford, a researcher at OpenAI, had a hunch that Deep Research would be a hit even before it was released.

Fulford had helped build the artificial intelligence agent, which autonomously explores the web, deciding for itself what links to click, what to read, and what to collate into an in-depth report. OpenAI first made Deep Research available internally; whenever it went down, Fulford says, she was inundated with queries from colleagues eager to have it back. “The number of people who were DMing me made us pretty excited,” says Fulford.

Since going live to the public on February 2, Deep Research has proven to be a hit with many users outside the company too.

Nvidia to open quantum computing research center in Boston — from seekingalpha.com by Ravikash Bakolia

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) will open a quantum computing research lab in Boston which is expected to start operations later this year.

The Nvidia Accelerated Quantum Research Center, or NVAQC, will integrate leading quantum hardware with AI supercomputers, enabling what is known as accelerated quantum supercomputing, said the company in a March 18 press release.

Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang also made this announcement on Thursday at the company’s first-ever Quantum Day at its annual GTC event.

French quantum computer firm Pasqal links up with NVIDIA — from reuters.com

PARIS, March 21 (Reuters) – Pasqal, a fast-growing French quantum computer start-up company, announced on Friday a partnership with chip giant Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab whereby Pasqal’s customers would gain access to more tools to develop quantum applications.

Pasqal said it would connect its quantum computing units and cloud platform onto NVIDIA’s open-source platform called CUDA-Q.

Introducing next-generation audio models in the API — from openai.com
A new suite of audio models to power voice agents, now available to developers worldwide.

Today, we’re launching new speech-to-text and text-to-speech audio models in the API—making it possible to build more powerful, customizable, and intelligent voice agents that offer real value. Our latest speech-to-text models set a new state-of-the-art benchmark, outperforming existing solutions in accuracy and reliability—especially in challenging scenarios involving accents, noisy environments, and varying speech speeds. These improvements increase transcription reliability, making the models especially well-suited for use cases like customer call centers, meeting note transcription, and more.

AI Can’t Fix Bad Learning — from nafez.substack.com by Nafez Dakkak
Why pedagogy and good learning design still come first, and why faster isn’t always better.

I’ve followed Dr. Philippa Hardman’s work for years, and every time I engage with her work, I find it both refreshing and deeply grounded.

As one of the leading voices in learning design, Philippa has been able to cut through the noise and focus on what truly matters: designing learning experiences that actually work.

In an era where AI promises speed and scale, Philippa is making a different argument: faster isn’t always better. As the creator of Epiphany AI—figma for learning designers—Philippa is focused on closing the gap between what great learning design should look like and what’s actually being delivered.

While many AI tools optimize for the average, she believes the future belongs to those who can leverage AI without compromising on expertise or quality. Philippa wants learning designers to be more ambitious using AI to achieve what wasn’t possible before.

In this conversation, we explore why pedagogy must lead technology, how the return on expertise is only increasing in an AI-driven world, and why building faster doesn’t always mean building better.

An excerpted graphic:

Pearson, AWS Collaborate to Enhance AI-Powered Learning Functionality — from cloudwars.com

Pearson, the global educational publisher, and AWS have expanded their existing partnership to enhance AI-driven learning. AWS will help Pearson to deliver AI-powered lesson generation and more for educators, support workforce skilling initiatives, and continue an ongoing collaboration with Pearson VUE for AWS certification.

Announcements from Nvidia and their GTC Conference this week

On 03/19/2025, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, corporate / business world, creativity, data related items, design, digital audio, digital video, disruption, emerging technologies, Facebook / Meta Platforms, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, graphics, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, Microsoft, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), new business models, NVIDIA, pace of change, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, society, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, trends, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Look out Google, Amazon, and others! Nvidia is putting the pedal to the metal in terms of being innovative and visionary! They are leaving the likes of Apple in the dust.

The top talent out there is likely to go to Nvidia for a while. Engineers, programmers/software architects, network architects, product designers, data specialists, AI researchers, developers of robotics and autonomous vehicles, R&D specialists, computer vision specialists, natural language processing experts, and many more types of positions will be flocking to Nvidia to work for a company that has already changed the world and will likely continue to do so for years to come.

NVIDIA just shook the AI and Robotic world at NVIDIA GTC 2025.

CEO Jensen Huang announced jaw-dropping breakthroughs.

Here are the top 11 key highlights you can’t afford to miss: (wait till you see no 3) pic.twitter.com/domejuVdw5

— The AI Colony (@TheAIColony) March 19, 2025

NVIDIA’s AI Superbowl — from theneurondaily.com by Noah and Grant
PLUS: Prompt tips to make AI writing more natural

That’s despite a flood of new announcements (here’s a 16 min video recap), which included:

A new architecture for massive AI data centers (now called “AI factories”).
A physics engine for robot training built with Disney and DeepMind.
A partnership with GM to develop next-gen vehicles, factories and robots.
A new Blackwell chip with “Dynamo” software that makes AI reasoning 40x faster than previous generations.
A new “Rubin” chip slated for 2026 and a “Feynman” chip set for 2028.

For enterprises, NVIDIA unveiled DGX Spark and DGX Station—Jensen’s vision of AI-era computing, bringing NVIDIA’s powerful Blackwell chip directly to your desk.

Nvidia Bets Big on Synthetic Data — from wired.com by Lauren Goode
Nvidia has acquired synthetic data startup Gretel to bolster the AI training data used by the chip maker’s customers and developers.

Nvidia, xAI to Join BlackRock and Microsoft’s $30 Billion AI Infrastructure Fund — from investopedia.com by Aaron McDade
Nvidia and xAI are joining BlackRock and Microsoft in an AI infrastructure group seeking $30 billion in funding. The group was first announced in September as BlackRock and Microsoft sought to fund new data centers to power AI products.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says we’ll soon see 1 million GPU data centers visible from space — from finance.yahoo.com by Daniel Howley
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the company is preparing for 1 million GPU data centers.

Nvidia stock stems losses as GTC leaves Wall Street analysts ‘comfortable with long term AI demand’ — from finance.yahoo.com by Laura Bratton
Nvidia stock reversed direction after a two-day slide that saw shares lose 5% as the AI chipmaker’s annual GTC event failed to excite investors amid a broader market downturn.

Microsoft, Google, and Oracle Deepen Nvidia Partnerships. This Stock Got the Biggest GTC Boost. — from barrons.com by Adam Clark and Elsa Ohlen

The 4 Big Surprises from Nvidia’s ‘Super Bowl of AI’ GTC Keynote — from barrons.com by Tae Kim; behind a paywall

AI Super Bowl. Hi everyone. This week, 20,000 engineers, scientists, industry executives, and yours truly descended upon San Jose, Calif. for Nvidia’s annual GTC developers’ conference, which has been dubbed the “Super Bowl of AI.”

20 AI Agent Examples in 2025 — from autogpt.net

AI Agents are now deeply embedded in everyday life and?quickly transforming industry after industry. The global AI market is expected to explode up to $1.59 trillion by 2030! That is a?ton of intelligent agents operating behind the curtains.

That’s why in this article, we explore?20 real-life AI Agents that are causing a stir today.

Top 100 Gen AI apps, new AI video & 3D — from eatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper
Plus Runway Restyle, Luma Ray2 img2vid keyframes & extend

?In the latest edition of Andreessen Horowitz’s “Top 100 Gen AI Consumer Apps,” the generative AI landscape has undergone significant shifts.

Notably, DeepSeek has emerged as a leading competitor to ChatGPT, while AI video models have advanced from experimental stages to more reliable tools for short clips. Additionally, the rise of “vibecoding” is broadening the scope of AI creators.

The report also introduces the “Brink List,” highlighting ten companies poised to enter the top 100 rankings.?

AI is Evolving Fast – The Latest LLMs, Video Models & Breakthrough Tools — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper
Breakthroughs in multimodal search, next-gen coding assistants, and stunning text-to-video tech. Here’s what’s new:

I do these comparisons frequently to measure the improvements in different models for text or image to video prompts. I hope it is helpful for you, as well!

I included 6 models for an image to video comparison:

Pika 2.1 (I will do one with Pika’s new 2.2 model soon)
Adobe Firefly Video
Runway Gen-3
Kling 1.6
Luma Ray2
Hailuo I2V-01

?Video Model Comparison: Image to video

6 Models included:

• Pika 2.1
• Adobe Firefly
• Runway Gen-3
• Kling 1.6
• Luma Ray2
• Hailuo T2V-01

This time I used an image generated with Magnific’s new Fluid model ( Google DeepMind’s Imagen + Mystic 2.5 ), and the same… pic.twitter.com/rH1gRbhynB

— Heather Cooper (@HBCoop_) February 19, 2025

Why Smart Companies Are Granting AI Immunity to Their Employees — from builtin.com by Matt Almassian
Employees are using AI tools whether they’re authorized or not. Instead of cracking down on AI usage, consider developing an AI amnesty program. Learn more.

But the smartest companies aren’t cracking down. They’re flipping the script. Instead of playing AI police, they’re launching AI amnesty programs, offering employees a safe way to disclose their AI usage without fear of punishment. In doing so, they’re turning a security risk into an innovation powerhouse.
…
Before I dive into solutions, let’s talk about what keeps your CISO or CTO up at night. Shadow AI isn’t just about unauthorized tool usage — it’s a potential dirty bomb of security, compliance and operational risks that could explode at any moment.
…
6 Steps to an AI Amnesty Program

Build your AI governance foundation.
Transform your IT department from gatekeeper to innovation partner.
Make AI education easily accessible.
Deploy your technical safety net.
Create an AI-positive culture.
Monitor, adapt and evolve.

A first-ever study on prompts… — from theneurondaily.com
PLUS: OpenAI wants to charge $20K a month to replace you?!

What they discovered might change how you interact with AI:

Consistency is a major problem. The researchers asked the same questions 100 times and found models often give different answers to the same question.
Formatting matters a ton. Telling the AI exactly how to structure its response consistently improved performance.
Politeness is… complicated. Saying “please” helped the AI answer some questions but made it worse at others. Same for being commanding (“I order you to…”).
Standards matter. If you need an AI to be right 100% of the time, you’re in trouble.

That’s also why we think you, an actual human, should always place yourself as a final check between whatever your AI creates and whatever goes out into the world.

Leave it to Manus
“Manus is a general AI agent that bridges minds and actions: it doesn’t just think, it delivers results. Manus excels at various tasks in work and life, getting everything done while you rest.”

From DSC:
What could possibly go wrong?!

AI Search Has A Citation Problem — from cjr.org (Columbia Journalism Review) by Klaudia Ja?wi?ska and Aisvarya Chandrasekar
We Compared Eight AI Search Engines. They’re All Bad at Citing News.

We found that…

Chatbots were generally bad at declining to answer questions they couldn’t answer accurately, offering incorrect or speculative answers instead.

Premium chatbots provided more confidently incorrect answers than their free counterparts.
Multiple chatbots seemed to bypass Robot Exclusion Protocol preferences.
Generative search tools fabricated links and cited syndicated and copied versions of articles.
Content licensing deals with news sources provided no guarantee of accurate citation in chatbot responses.

Our findings were consistent with our previous study, proving that our observations are not just a ChatGPT problem, but rather recur across all the prominent generative search tools that we tested.

5 new AI tools you’ll actually want to try — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Kaplan
Chat with lifelike AI, clean up audio instantly, and reimagine your career

Hundreds of AI tools emerge every week. I’ve picked five new ones worth exploring. They’re free to try, easy to use, and signal new directions for useful AI.

Example:

Career Dreamer
A playful way to explore career possibilities with AI

Drive Continuous Learning: AI Integrates Work & Training — from learningguild.com by George Hanshaw

Imagine with me for a moment: Training is no longer confined to scheduled sessions in a classroom, an online module or even a microlearning you click to activate during your workflow. Imagine training being delivered because the system senses what you are doing and provides instructions and job aids without you having to take an action.

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and wearable technology has made it easier than ever to seamlessly integrate learning directly into the workflow. Smart glasses, earpieces, and other advanced devices are redefining how employees gain knowledge and skills by delivering microlearning moments precisely when and where they are needed.

AI plays a crucial role in this transformation by sensing the optimal moment to deliver the training through augmented reality (AR).

These Schools Are Banding Together to Make Better Use of AI in Education — from edsurge.com by Emily Tate Sullivan

Kennelly and Geraffo are part of a small team at their school in Denver, DSST: College View High School, that is participating in the School Teams AI Collaborative, a year-long pilot initiative in which more than 80 educators from 19 traditional public and charter schools across the country are experimenting with and evaluating AI-enabled instruction to improve teaching and learning.

The goal is for some of AI’s earliest adopters in education to band together, share ideas and eventually help lead the way on what they and their colleagues around the U.S. could do with the emerging technology.

“Pretty early on we thought it was going to be a massive failure,” says Kennelly of last semester’s project. “But it became a huge hit. Students loved it. They were like, ‘I ran to second period to build this thing.’”

Transactional vs. Conversational Visions of Generative AI in Teaching — from elmartinsen.substack.com by Eric Lars Martinsen
AI as a Printer, or AI as a Thought Partner

As writing instructors, we have a choice in how we frame AI for our students. I invite you to:

Experiment with AI as a conversation partner yourself before introducing it to students
Design assignments that leverage AI’s strengths as a thought partner rather than trying to “AI-proof” your existing assignments
Explicitly teach students how to engage in productive dialogue with AI—how to ask good questions, challenge AI’s assumptions, and use it to refine rather than replace their thinking
Share your experiences, both positive and negative, with colleagues to build our collective understanding of effective AI integration

3 items re: AI in general

On 02/26/2025, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, collaboration, Google, health, ideas, innovation, Open AI, organizational change, pace of change, platforms, research, science, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

You can now use Deep Research without $200 — from flexos.work

Accelerating scientific breakthroughs with an AI co-scientist — from research.google by Juraj Gottweis and Vivek Natarajan

We introduce AI co-scientist, a multi-agent AI system built with Gemini 2.0 as a virtual scientific collaborator to help scientists generate novel hypotheses and research proposals, and to accelerate the clock speed of scientific and biomedical discoveries.

Now decides next: Generating a new future — from Deloitte.com
Deloitte’s State of Generative AI in the Enterprise Quarter four report

There is a speed limit. GenAI technology continues to advance at incredible speed. However, most organizations are moving at the speed of organizations, not at the speed of technology. No matter how quickly the technology advances—or how hard the companies producing GenAI technology push—organizational change in an enterprise can only happen so fast.

Barriers are evolving. Significant barriers to scaling and value creation are still widespread across key areas. And, over the past year regulatory uncertainty and risk management have risen in organizations’ lists of concerns to address. Also, levels of trust in GenAI are still moderate for the majority of organizations. Even so, with increased customization and accuracy of models—combined with a focus on better governance— adoption of GenAI is becoming more established.

Some uses are outpacing others. Application of GenAI is further along in some business areas than in others in terms of integration, return on investment (ROI) and expectations. The IT function is most mature; cybersecurity, operations, marketing and customer service are also showing strong adoption and results. Organizations reporting higher ROI for their most scaled initiatives are broadly further along in their GenAI journeys.

Learning Ecosystems

Categories

Tags