OpenAI’s app store for GPTs will launch next week — from techcrunch.com by Kyle Wiggers

OpenAI plans to launch a store for GPTs, custom apps based on its text-generating AI models (e.g. GPT-4), sometime in the coming week.

The GPT Store was announced last year during OpenAI’s first annual developer conference, DevDay, but delayed in December — almost certainly due to the leadership shakeup that occurred in November, just after the initial announcement.

 

AI University for UK? — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark

Tertiary Education in the UK needs a fresh idea. What we need is an initiative on the same scale as The Open University, kicked off over 50 years ago.

It is clear that an educational vision is needed and I think the best starting point is that outlined and executed by Paul LeBlanc at SNHU. It is substantial, well articulated and has worked in what has become the largest University in the US.

It would be based on the competence model, with a focus on skills shortages. Here’s a starter with 25 ideas, a manifesto of sorts, based on lessons learnt from other successful models:

  1. Non-traditional students in terms of age and background
  2. Quick and easy application process
  3. Personalised learning using AI
  4. Multimodal from the start
  5. Full range of summarisation, create self-assessment, dialogue tools
  6. Focus on generative learning using AI
  7. …and Donald lists many more (ending at #25)
 

Learners’ Edition: AI-powered Coaching, Professional Certifications + Inspiring conversations about mastering your learning & speaking skills

Learners’ Edition: AI-powered Coaching, Professional Certifications + Inspiring conversations about mastering your learning & speaking skills — from linkedin.com by Tomer Cohen

Excerpts:

1. Your own AI-powered coaching
Learners can go into LinkedIn Learning and ask a question or explain a challenge they are currently facing at work (we’re focusing on areas within Leadership and Management to start). AI-powered coaching will pull from the collective knowledge of our expansive LinkedIn Learning library and, instantaneously, offer advice, examples, or feedback that is personalized to the learner’s skills, job, and career goals.

What makes us so excited about this launch is we can now take everything we as LinkedIn know about people’s careers and how they navigate them and help accelerate them with AI.

3. Learn exactly what you need to know for your next job
When looking for a new job, it’s often the time we think about refreshing our LinkedIn profiles. It’s also a time we can refresh our skills. And with skill sets for jobs having changed by 25% since 2015 – with the number expected to increase by 65% by 2030– keeping our skills a step ahead is one of the most important things we can do to stand out.

There are a couple of ways we’re making it easier to learn exactly what you need to know for your next job:

When you set a job alert, in addition to being notified about open jobs, we’ll recommend learning courses and Professional Certificate offerings to help you build the skills needed for that role.

When you view a job, we recommend specific courses to help you build the required skills. If you have LinkedIn Learning access through your company or as part of a Premium subscription, you can follow the skills for the job, that way we can let you know when we launch new courses for those skills and recommend you content on LinkedIn that better aligns to your career goals.


2024 Edtech Predictions from Edtech Insiders — from edtechinsiders.substack.com by Alex Sarlin, Ben Kornell, and Sarah Morin
Omni-modal AI, edtech funding prospects, higher ed wake up calls, focus on career training, and more!

Alex: I talked to the 360 Learning folks at one point and they had this really interesting epiphany, which is basically that it’s been almost impossible for every individual company in the past to create a hierarchy of skills and a hierarchy of positions and actually organize what it looks like for people to move around and upskill within the company and get to new paths.

Until now. AI actually can do this very well. It can take not only job description data, but it can take actual performance data. It can actually look at what people do on a daily basis and back fit that to training, create automatic training based on it.

From DSC:
I appreciated how they addressed K-12, higher ed, and the workforce all in one posting. Nice work. We don’t need siloes. We need more overall design thinking re: our learning ecosystems — as well as more collaborations. We need more on-ramps and pathways in a person’s learning/career journey.

 

K12 District-Level Perspectives on AI — from aiforeducation.io by Amanda Bickerstaff, Dr. Patrick Gittisriboongul, Samantha Armstrong, & Brett Roer

Want to know how K12 schools are navigating the adoption of AI and what district-level leaders really think about GenAI EdTech tools?

Join us for this free webinar where we discussed AI technology, literacy, training, and the responsible adoption of GenAI tools in K12. Our panel explored what is working well – and not so well – across their districts from a school leader and practitioner’s perspective.


ChatGPT Has Changed Teaching. Our Readers Tell Us How. — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie and Beckie Supiano

Those vastly different approaches to college writing pretty much sum up the responses to generative AI: They’re all over the map.

One year after its release, ChatGPT has pushed higher education into a liminal place. Colleges are still hammering out large-scale plans and policies governing how generative AI will be dealt with in operations, research, and academic programming. But professors have been forced more immediately to adapt their classrooms to its presence. Those adaptations vary significantly, depending on whether they see the technology as a tool that can aid learning or as a threat that inhibits it.

Nearly 100 faculty members shared their stories. While not a representative sample, they teach at a wide range of institutions: 15 community colleges, 32 public and 24 private four-year colleges or universities, seven international institutions, and one for-profit college. They teach a variety of subjects, including animal science, statistics, computer science, history, accounting, and composition. Many spent hours learning about AI: enrolling in workshops and webinars, experimenting with the tools, and reading articles, so that they could enter the fall semester informed and prepared.


The Disruption of AI in CTE Is Real — from techlearning.com by Annie Galvin Teich
An ACTE expert panel urges CTE educators to jump on the AI train as it’s already left the station

10 Best Practices for AI and CTE 

  1. Embrace AI and use it first for simple tasks to create efficiencies. Then use it to individualize instruction and for formative assessment tools aligned to standards.
  2. Be creative and conscious of internal bias and ethics. Focus on DEI and access.
  3. Encourage students to use apps and tools to start moving toward an integrated curriculum using AI.
  4. Prepare students for jobs of the future by partnering with industry to solve real problems.
  5. …and others

How are universities responding to generative AI? — from medium.com by Nic Newman
What’s next for higher education as we enter a new wave of edtech innovation: AI-powered learning

Where will AI make a big difference?
At Emerge, we have identified eight high-level trends — what we’re calling “engines of opportunity”. These eight “engines of opportunity” capture our ideas about how AI is being used to drive better practice and outcomes in HE, now and into the future.

They fall into two main categories:

  • Making learning more engaging: solutions that scale high quality pedagogy at low cost.
  • Making teaching more efficient: solutions that save educators and organisations time and money.

 

The Rise of Learning Societies — from educationnext.org by Alan Gottlieb
A small experiment in rural Idaho holds big promise for student success 

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The basic idea is this: Some parents who, for a variety of reasons, hesitate to send their children to a traditional brick-and-mortar school have neither the time, inclination, or temperament to homeschool or to monitor a full-time online program. Learning Societies provide an intimate environment where kids, supervised by professional educators, learn online and in small, in-person groups for six hours a day. Gem Prep leaders describe it as a sweet spot between traditional schooling and at-home online learning. It is particularly well suited to rural areas.

Learning Societies have the potential to achieve a happy medium that combines the strengths of both homeschooling (or online learning from home) and a traditional brick-and-mortar school.

A typical school day at a Gem Prep Learning Society sees some students engaged in online lessons on laptops while others receive instruction from a teacher in a small group, all within the same classroom. Both modalities use Gem Prep Online’s well-regarded curriculum.

 

Regarding this Tweet on X/Twitter:


To Unleash Legal Tech, Lawyers And Engineers Need To Talk — from forbes.com by Tanguy Chau

Here, I’ll explore some ways that engineers and lawyers see the world differently based on their strengths and experiences, and I’ll explain how they can better communicate to build better software products, especially in AI, for attorneys. Ideally, this will lead to happier lawyers and more satisfied clients.


Zuputo: Africa’s first women-led legal tech startup launches — from myjoyonline.com

A groundbreaking legal tech startup, Zuputo, is set to reshape the legal landscape across Africa by making legal services more accessible, affordable, and user-friendly.

Founded by Jessie Abugre and Nana Adwoa Amponsah-Mensah, this women-led venture has become synonymous with simplicity and efficiency in legal solutions.


 

AI Is Transforming Corporate Learning Even Faster Than I Expected — from joshbersin.com by Josh Bersin

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Of all the domains to be impacted by AI, perhaps the biggest transformation is taking place in corporate learning. After a year of experimentation, it’s now clear that AI will revolutionize this space.

Here’s a simple example. I asked Galileo™, which is powered by 25 years of research and case studies, “How do I deal with an employee who’s always late? And please give me a narrative to help?” Rather than take me to a course on management or show me a bunch of videos, it simply answered the question. This type of interaction is where much of corporate learning is going.

In all my years as an analyst, I’ve never seen a technology with so much potential. AI will revolutionize the L&D landscape, reinventing how we do our work so L&D professionals can spend time consulting with the business.

 

Google hopes that this personalized AI -- called Notebook LM -- will help people with their note-taking, thinking, brainstorming, learning, and creating.

Google NotebookLM (experiment)

From DSC:
Google hopes that this personalized AI/app will help people with their note-taking, thinking, brainstorming, learning, and creating.

It reminds me of what Derek Bruff was just saying in regards to Top Hat’s Ace product being able to work with a much narrower set of information — i.e., a course — and to be almost like a personal learning assistant for the course you are taking. (As Derek mentions, this depends upon how extensively one uses the CMS/LMS in the first place.)

 

Can new AI help to level up the scales of justice?


From DSC:
As you can see from the above items, Mr. David Goodrich, a great human being and a fellow Instructional Designer, had a great comment and question regarding the source of my hope that AI — and other forms of legaltech — could significantly provide more access to justice here in America. Our civil justice system has some serious problems — involving such areas as housing, employment, healthcare, education, families, and more.

I’d like to respond to that question here.

First of all, I completely get what David is saying. I, too, have serious doubts that our horrible access to justice (#A2J) situation will get better. Why? Because:

  • Many people working within the legal field like it this way, as they are all but assured victory in most of the civil lawsuits out there.
  • The Bar Associations of most of the states do not support changes that would threaten their incomes/livelihoods. This is especially true in California and Florida.
  • The legal field in general is not composed, for the most part, of highly innovative people who make things happen for the benefit of others. For example, the American Bar Association is 20+ years behind in terms of providing the level of online-based learning opportunities that they should be offering. They very tightly control how legal education is delivered in the U.S.

Here are several areas that provide me with hope for our future


There are innovative individuals out there fighting for change.
And though some of these individuals don’t reside in the United States, their work still impacts many here in America. For examples, see:

There are innovative new companies, firms, and other types of organizations out there fighting for change. For examples:

There are innovative new tools and technologies out there such as:

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) 
    • AI and machine learning remain pivotal in legaltech, especially for in-house lawyers who deal with vast quantities of contracts and complex legal matters. In 2024, these technologies will be integral for legal research, contract review, and the drafting of legal documents. Statistics from the Tech & the Law 2023 Report state more than three in five corporate legal departments (61%) have adopted generative AI in some capacity, with 7% actively using generative AI in their day-to-day work. With constant improvements to LLM (Large Language Models) by the big players, i.e. OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft (via OpenAI), 2024 will see more opportunities open and efficiencies gained for legal teams. (Source)
    • From drafting contracts to answering legal questions and summarising legal issues, AI is revolutionising the legal profession and although viewed with a sceptical eye by some law firms, is generally perceived to be capable of bringing huge benefits. (Source)
    • Legal bots like Harvey will assist lawyers with discovery.
  • Technology-assisted review (TAR) in e-discovery
  • Due to COVID 19, there were virtual courtrooms set up and just like with virtual/online-based learning within higher education, many judges, litigants, lawyers, and staff appreciated the time savings and productivity gains. Along these lines, see Richard Susskind’s work. [Richard] predicts a world of online courts, AI-based global legal businesses, disruptive legal technologies, liberalized markets, commoditization, alternative sourcing, simulated practice on the metaverse, and many new legal jobs. (Source)

There are innovative states out there fighting for change. For examples:

  • Utah in 2020 launched a pilot program that suspended ethics rules to allow for non-lawyer ownership of legal services providers and let non-lawyers apply for a waiver to offer certain legal services. (Source)
  • Arizona in 2021 changed its regulatory rules to allow for non-lawyer ownership. (Source)
  • Alaska with their Alaska Legal Services Corporation
  • …and others

And the last one — but certainly not the least one — is where my faith comes into play. I believe that the Triune God exists — The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit — and that the LORD is very active in our lives and throughout the globe. And one of the things the LORD values highly is JUSTICE. For examples:

  • Many seek an audience with a ruler, but it is from the Lord that one gets justice. Proverbs 29:26 NIV
  • These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; Zechariah 8:16 NIV
  • …and many others as can be seen below

The LORD values JUSTICE greatly!


So I believe that the LORD will actively help us provide greater access to justice in America.


Well…there you have it David. Thanks for your question/comment! I appreciate it!

 

From DSC:
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to gift someone an article or access to a particular learning module? This would be the case whether you are a subscriber to that vendor/service or not. I thought about this after seeing the following email from MLive.com.
.

MLive.com's gift an article promotion from December 2023; one must be a subscriber though to gift an article

.

Not only is this a brilliant marketing move — as recipients can get an idea of the services/value offered — but it can provide concrete information to someone.

Perhaps colleges and universities should take this idea and run with it. They could gift courses and/or individual lectures! Doing so could open up some new revenue streams, aid adult learners in their lifelong learning pathways, and help people build new skills — all while helping market the colleges and universities. Involved faculty/staff members could get a percentage of the sales. Sounds like a WIN-WIN to me.

 

Learning and employment record use cases -- from the National Governors Association

LERs Are Hot. What Are States Going To Do With Them?

Governors and state leaders are concerned about the current labor shortage, occurring during a time when many skilled workers are underemployed or even unemployed. Skills-based approaches to hiring and recruiting can shift that dynamic—making pathways to good careers accessible to a wider segment of the workforce and opening up new pools of talent for employers. They do so by focusing on what workers know and can do, not on the degrees or credentials they’ve earned.

That’s the theory. But a lot hinges on how things actually play out on the ground.

Technology will play a key role, and many states have zeroed in on learning and employment records—essentially digital resumes with verified records of people’s skills, educational experiences, and work histories—as an essential tool. A lot of important work is going into the technical design and specifications.

This project, on the other hand, aims to take a step back and look at the current state of play when it comes to the use cases for LERs. Just a few of the key questions:

  • How might employers, education providers, government agencies, and workers themselves actually use them? Will they?
  • In what areas do state policymakers have the most influence over key stakeholders and the most responsibility to invest?
  • What actions are needed now to ensure that LERs, and skills-based hiring more broadly, actually widen access to good jobs—rather than setting up a parallel system that perpetuates many of today’s inequities?
 

34 Big Ideas that will change our world in 2024 — from linkedin.com

34 Big Ideas that will change our world in 2024 -- from linkedin.com 

Excerpts:

6. ChatGPT’s hype will fade, as a new generation of tailor-made bots rises up
11. We’ll finally turn the corner on teacher pay in 2024
21. Employers will combat job applicants’ use of AI with…more AI
31. Universities will view the creator economy as a viable career path

 

3 Questions for Deborah Dougherty on Higher Ed’s Past and Future — from insidehighered.com by Joshua Kim
A conversation with the director of the Andison Center for Teaching Excellence at Alma College about higher ed in 2060.

From DSC:
I was hoping to see a bit more from Deborah’s answer to where she sees higher education (including Alma College) might end up 35 years from now. Her answer seemed like business as usual —  the status quo. Nothing will change (hopefully, in her perspective). If that’s the case, many will be shut out of higher education. We can do better. I don’t mean to bash a residential, liberal arts, collegiate experience. I worked for such an institution for 10 years! But it needs to be augmented. New business models. More access. 


Butler University launches two-year college with degrees free to most students — from chalkbeat.org by MJ Slaby

Students can earn an associate degree from Butler University at no cost to them, and continue on to earn a bachelor’s degree for $10,000, thanks to a new program.

On Friday, Butler announced it is opening a new two-year college on campus that will offer  associate degrees in business and allied health. The program will start enrolling students in fall 2025.

The program is focused on Indianapolis-area students from low-income backgrounds, including students who are undocumented. The university said in its Friday announcement that it wants to make college more accessible and affordable for previously underserved students, and help them navigate the college-going process.

 

 

Can new AI help to level up the scales of justice? — from gtlaw.com.au by Peter Waters, Jason Oliver, and David Baddeley

So asks a recent study by two academics from Stanford Law School, David Freeman Engstrom and Nora Freeman Engstrom, on the potential impact of AI on the civil litigation landscape in the US.

It is against this landscape, the study observes, that champions of legal tech have suggested that there is an opportunity for legal tech to “democratise” litigation and put litigation’s “haves” and “have nots” on a more equal footing, by arming smaller firms and sole practitioners with the tools necessary to do battle against their better resourced opponents, and cutting the cost of legal services, putting lawyers within reach of a wider swathe of people.

But is this a real opportunity, and will AI be key to its realisation?

However, while AI may reduce the justice gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” of litigation, it could also exacerbate existing inequalities.

From DSC:
While this article approaches things from the lawyer’s viewpoint, I’d like to see this question and the use of AI from the common man’s/woman’s viewpoint. Why? In order to provide FAR GREATER access to justice (#A2J) for those who can’t afford a lawyer as they head into the civil law courtrooms.

  • Should I take my case to court? Do I have a chance to win this case? If so, how?
  • What forms do I need to complete if I’m going to go to court?
  • When and how do I address the judge?
  • What does my landlord have to do?
  • How do I prevent myself from falling into a debt-collection mess and/or what options do I have to get out of this mess?
  • Are there any lawyers in my area who would take my case on a pro bono basis?
  • …and judges and lawyers — as well as former litigants — could add many more questions (and answers) to this list

Bottom line:
It is my hope that technology can help increase access to justice.


Also relevant/see:

Virtual Justice? Exploring AI’s impact on legal accessibility — from nortonrosefulbright.com by Chris Owen and Mary-Frances Murphy

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

A number of products are already under development, or have been launched. One example is a project that Norton Rose Fulbright is working on, together with not-for-profit legal service Justice Connect. The scope is to develop an automated natural language processing AI model that seeks to interpret the ‘everyday’ language used by clients in order to identify the client’s legal issues and correctly diagnose their legal problem. This tool is aimed at addressing the struggles that individuals often face in deciphering legal jargon and understanding the nature of their legal issue and the type of lawyer, or legal support, they need to resolve that problem.

 

From DSC:
The recent drama over at OpenAI reminds me of how important a few individuals are in influencing the lives of millions of people.

The C-Suites (i.e., the Chief Executive Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Operating Officers, and the like) of companies like OpenAI, Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, Netflix, NVIDIA, Amazon, Apple, and a handful of others have enormous power. Why? Because of the enormous power and reach of the technologies that they create, market, and provide.

We need to be praying for the hearts of those in the C-Suites of these powerful vendors — as well as for their Boards.

LORD, grant them wisdom and help mold their hearts and perspectives so that they truly care about others. May their decisions not be based on making money alone…or doing something just because they can.

What happens in their hearts and minds DOES and WILL continue to impact the rest of us. And we’re talking about real ramifications here. This isn’t pie-in-the-sky thinking or ideas. This is for real. With real consequences. If you doubt that, go ask the families of those whose sons and daughters took their own lives due to what happened out on social media platforms. Disclosure: I use LinkedIn and Twitter quite a bit. I’m not bashing these platforms per se. But my point is that there are real impacts due to a variety of technologies. What goes on in the hearts and minds of the leaders of these tech companies matters.


Some relevant items:

Navigating Attention-Driving Algorithms, Capturing the Premium of Proximity for Virtual Teams, & New AI Devices — from implactions.com by Scott Belsky

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

No doubt, technology influences us in many ways we don’t fully understand. But one area where valid concerns run rampant is the attention-seeking algorithms powering the news and media we consume on modern platforms that efficiently polarize people. Perhaps we’ll call it The Law of Anger Expansion: When people are angry in the age of algorithms, they become MORE angry and LESS discriminate about who and what they are angry at.

Algorithms that optimize for grabbing attention, thanks to AI, ultimately drive polarization.

The AI learns quickly that a rational or “both sides” view is less likely to sustain your attention (so you won’t get many of those, which drives the sensation that more of the world agrees with you). But the rage-inducing stuff keeps us swiping.

Our feeds are being sourced in ways that dramatically change the content we’re exposed to.

And then these algorithms expand on these ultimately destructive emotions – “If you’re afraid of this, maybe you should also be afraid of this” or “If you hate those people, maybe you should also hate these people.”

How do we know when we’ve been polarized? This is the most important question of the day.

Whatever is inflaming you is likely an algorithm-driven expansion of anger and an imbalance of context.


 

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian