Higher education is facing an existential crisis. With one small college closing every week and tuition costs having risen 141% at public institutions over the last two decades, American universities may be heading toward a bleak future. But a new wave of artificial intelligence technology may offer a path forward. AI agents — sophisticated software that can handle complex interactions and workflows — are emerging as a potential solution to higher education's operational challenges. Unlike generic chatbots or simple automation tools, these purpose-built AI agents can manage intricate processes, engage in natural conversations, and seamlessly integrate with existing university systems.
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Monday, November 18, 2024
AI That Can Invent AI Is Coming. Buckle Up. - Forbes
Leopold Aschenbrenner’s “Situational Awareness” manifesto made waves when it was published this summer. In this provocative essay, Aschenbrenner—a 22-year-old wunderkind and former OpenAI researcher—argues that artificial general intelligence will be here by 2027, that artificial intelligence will consume 20% of all U.S. electricity by 2029, and that AI will unleash untold powers of destruction that within years will reshape the world geopolitical order. Aschenbrenner’s startling thesis about exponentially accelerating AI progress rests on one core premise: that AI will soon become powerful enough to carry out AI research itself, leading to recursive self-improvement and runaway superintelligence.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robtoews/2024/11/03/ai-that-can-invent-ai-is-coming-buckle-up/
How To Build The Future: Sam Altman Predicts AGI in 2025 - Y Combinator
Altman just predicted that artificial general intelligence will be achieved in 2025, coming alongside conflicting reports of slowing progress in LLM development and scaling across the industry. It’s fair to say that few people in tech are positioned to have a bigger impact on the future than Sam Altman. As the CEO of OpenAI, Altman and his team have overseen monumental leaps forward in machine learning, generative AI and most recently LLMs that can reason at PhD levels. And this is just the beginning. In his latest essay Altman predicted that ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) is just a few thousand days away. So how did we get to this point? In this episode of our rebooted series "How To Build The Future," YC President and CEO Garry Tan sits down with Altman to talk about the origins of OpenAI, what’s next for the company, and what advice he has for founders navigating this massive platform shift.
Sunday, November 17, 2024
Microsoft joins multi-AI agent fray with Magentic-One - Anirban Ghoshal, CIO
Magentic-One is a rival to multi-agent frameworks such as Salesforce’s Agentforce or IBM’s Bee Agent Framework for enterprises wanting to let AI complete complex tasks that are currently handled by humans. Microsoft wants enterprises to believe that its Magentic-One multi-AI agent system will enable them to automate complex tasks that previously required human intervention. One of a number of Agentic AI offerings to arrive on the market in recent months, Magentic-One is built on Microsoft’s previously released AutoGen open-source agent development framework.
Your Next Job Interview Might Be With an AI Recruiter - Martina Bretous, HubSpot
You’re tweaking your resume a hundred times. You’ve told people “a little about yourself” more times than you’d like to. And you’ve probably gotten a few “We’ve decided to move forward to another candidate” emails. It’s the name of the game. But here’s another curveball you probably weren’t expecting: Going through an interview process with an AI-generated recruiter on the other end. Tools like Apriora and Micro1 are making it happen, with the promise of better candidates and a streamlined recruiting process.
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Magentic-One: A Generalist Multi-Agent System for Solving Complex Tasks - Adam Fourney, et al; Microsoft
The future of AI is agentic. AI systems are evolving from having conversations to getting things done—this is where we expect much of AI’s value to shine. It’s the difference between generative AI recommending dinner options to agentic assistants that can autonomously place your order and arrange delivery. It’s the shift from summarizing research papers to actively searching for and organizing relevant studies in a comprehensive literature review. Modern AI agents, capable of perceiving, reasoning, and acting on our behalf, are demonstrating remarkable performance in areas such as software engineering, data analysis, scientific research, and web navigation.
5 Bold Predictions for AI in 2025 and how we think AI will continue to transform industries - Cypher Learning
The pace of innovation is rapidly accelerating, and AI is poised to redefine how we work, learn, and connect with technology in surprising ways. From empowering new roles and fostering inclusivity, AI is on the brink of reshaping entire industries. Last year, we shared our predictions for AI in 2024 and saw them come to fruition. As the year comes to a close, we wanted to turn the page and once again share our predictions for how AI will continue to evolve in 2025. Among the predictions is #5. Personalized workplace development displaces old-school training.
Friday, November 15, 2024
The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier - McKinsey
AI has permeated our lives incrementally, through everything from the tech powering our smartphones to autonomous-driving features on cars to the tools retailers use to surprise and delight consumers. The latest generative AI applications can perform a range of routine tasks, such as the reorganization and classification of data. But it is their ability to write text, compose music, and create digital art that has garnered headlines and persuaded consumers and households to experiment on their own. As a result, a broader set of stakeholders are grappling with generative AI’s impact on business and society but without much context to help them make sense of it.
Navigating the challenges of AI in education - Higher Education Press
The advent of advanced AI models like ChatGPT has precipitated a transformative shift in knowledge acquisition and exploration, posing significant challenges to traditional educational concepts and methodologies. An article in Frontiers of Digital Education explores the multifaceted impact of AI on education and proposes strategies to navigate these challenges effectively. The work is titled "Educational Concepts and Methodologies in the AI Era: Challenges and Responses." The traditional emphasis on exam scores and knowledge dissemination is increasingly at odds with the demands of the AI era. The ability of AI to automate routine tasks and generate vast amounts of information necessitates a shift in focus towards the cultivation of skills that are uniquely human, such as critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving. Failure to adapt to this changing landscape risks rendering our educational systems obsolete, failing to equip students with the tools they need to thrive in a rapidly evolving world.
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Why AI could eat quantum computing’s lunch - Ed Gent, MIT Technology Review
Rapid advances in applying artificial intelligence to simulations in physics and chemistry have some people questioning whether we will even need quantum computers at all. Tech companies have been funneling billions of dollars into quantum computers for years. The hope is that they’ll be a game changer for fields as diverse as finance, drug discovery, and logistics. But while the field struggles with the realities of tricky quantum hardware, another challenger is making headway in some of these most promising use cases. AI is now being applied to fundamental physics, chemistry, and materials science in a way that suggests quantum computing’s purported home turf might not be so safe after all.
#BuildwithAI Hackathon 2024 - GenAI.works
BuildwithAI 2024 invites innovators, developers, and AI enthusiasts from all backgrounds to unleash their creativity using cutting-edge technologies! Don't miss this opportunity to turn your ideas into reality and make your mark in the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting your AI journey, this is your chance to showcase your skills, collaborate with like-minded individuals, and build the future of AI. Register now and let's build the future together!
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Claude 3.5 Sonnet now supports PDF input and understands both text and visual content within documents - Anthropic
Claude works with any standard PDF. You can ask Claude about any text, pictures, charts, and tables in the PDFs you provide. Some sample use cases:
Analyzing financial reports and understanding charts/tables
Extracting key information from legal documents
Translation assistance for documents
Converting document information into structured formats
First pro vice-chancellor for artificial intelligence appointed - Juliet Roswell, Times Higher Ed
The UK’s first senior university leader dedicated solely to artificial intelligence is looking at embedding the technology into the curriculum and exploring options that could see students assessed on their capabilities in this area. As part of efforts to create “AI literate graduates”, Shushma Patel, pro vice-chancellor for artificial intelligence at De Montfort University, said one of her key priorities for the role – thought to be the first of its kind in the sector – was to “consider how we could embed a learning objective or a learning outcome within the curriculum where we recommend students use AI technologies”. The computer scientist said universities needed to encourage students to use AI in their studies, or risk graduates falling behind, adding that she was interested in looking at introducing assessments that would test students’ AI capabilities.
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Quantum Computer Launched for Generative AI - Bernice Baker, AI Business
Orca Computing has released its latest photonic quantum computer, PT-2, designed to tackle practical applications such as pharmaceutical development and biological imaging by integrating with generative AI models. PT-2 uses Nvidia’s CUDA-Q open-source platform for integrating and programming quantum processing units (QPUs), GPUs and CPUs in one system, offering quantum-enhanced machine learning capabilities. This means organizations could effectively embed quantum computing into generative AI and optimization workflows offering a potential route toward industrial-scale quantum AI.
AI Tops List of Most Important Technologies of 2025 - Heidi Vella, AI Business
The study by IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization, surveyed 355 technology leaders, including CIOs, CTOs, and IT directors, in Brazil, China, India, the U.K. and U.S. When asked to select the top three areas of technology that will be most important in 2025 from more than a dozen areas, respondents overwhelmingly ranked AI first (58%) marking the second consecutive year they have done so. Cloud computing (26%) and robotics (24%) ranked second and third, respectively.
Monday, November 11, 2024
Study finds LLMs can identify their own mistakes - Ben Dickson, Venture Beat
A well-known problem of large language models (LLMs) is their tendency to generate incorrect or nonsensical outputs, often called “hallucinations.” While much research has focused on analyzing these errors from a user’s perspective, a new study by researchers at Technion, Google Research and Apple investigates the inner workings of LLMs, revealing that these models possess a much deeper understanding of truthfulness than previously thought. This finding suggests that current evaluation methods, which solely rely on the final output of LLMs, may not accurately reflect their true capabilities. It raises the possibility that by better understanding and leveraging the internal knowledge of LLMs, we might be able to unlock hidden potential and significantly reduce errors.
Educause ’24: University of Michigan's Journey With Generative AI - Abby Sourwine, GovTech
One major AI integration came in the form of U-M GPT, a chatbot that provides free access to the latest versions of large language models like GPT 4.0 and DALL-E 3. It has all the capabilities of these chatbots with a few customizations to best serve UM users. Pendse said the team also created a more focused AI tool, U-M Maizey, with which users can upload their own data sets to serve a customized GPT experience. In an academic setting, Maizey can be integrated with Canvas, the learning management system from the education software company Instructure, and used for things like generating practice exam questions and offering personalized tutoring. Pendse said the Canvas integration was designed to be simple — instructors can integrate in six minutes even without any coding experience.
Sunday, November 10, 2024
What Can AI Chatbots Teach Us About How Humans Learn? - Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge
Do new AI tools like ChatGPT actually understand language the same way that humans do? It turns out that even the inventors of these new large language models are debating that very question — and the answer will have huge implications for education and for all aspects of society if this technology can get to a point where it achieves what is known as Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI.A new book by one of those AI pioneers digs into the origins of ChatGPT and the intersection of research on how the brain works and building new large language models for AI. It’s called “ChatGPT and the Future of AI,” and the author is Terrence Sejnowski, a professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego, where he co-directs the Institute for Neural Computation and the NSF Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center. He is also the Francis Crick Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
ChatGPT 5: What We Know About OpenAI's Upcoming Model Orion - Shubham Arora, Times Now News
OpenAI is rumoured to be developing its next large language model (LLM), internally dubbed Orion or simply GPT-5. Following the largely successful run of earlier models like GPT-4, expectations of what Orion might offer are phenomenal. There were whispers of a potential December 2024 release, but information disclosed more recently from OpenAI indicates that this timeframe may not prevail anymore, especially following the exit of some key executive figures, including Mira Murati, the former CTO. Though the OpenAI Orion launch is a little far away, let's take a peek at what we expect from this new AI model.
Saturday, November 09, 2024
Satya Nadella on the Future of AI - Douglas, AI Newsroom
In Nadella’s view, AI is transforming how we learn and work, with implications for every industry. He envisions a world where AI tutors are accessible to everyone, enabling a deeper, more personalized learning experience. “The big novelty is that every student can now have access to a personalized AI tutor throughout their life.” This unprecedented access to knowledge, combined with the flexibility of tools like GitHub Copilot, opens doors for students, professionals, and lifelong learners. On the future of work, Nadella emphasizes that AI’s purpose isn’t to eliminate jobs but to improve the quality of work. By automating tedious tasks, AI allows professionals to focus on higher-value activities.
AI is going to eliminate way more jobs than anyone realizes - Business Insider
The rise of artificial intelligence has captured our imagination for decades, in whimsical movies and sober academic texts. A March Goldman Sachs report found over 300 million jobs around the world could be disrupted by AI, and the global consulting firm McKinsey estimated at least 12 million Americans would change to another field of work by 2030. A "gale of creative destruction," as economist Joseph Schumpeter once described it, will blow away countless firms and breathe life into new industries. It won't be all bleak: Over the coming decades, nongenerative and generative AI are estimated to add between $17 trillion and $26 trillion to the global economy. And crucially, many of the jobs that will be lost will be replaced by new ones.
Friday, November 08, 2024
Leveraging AI Agents to Transform the University Exam Experience - Talview
Artificial Intelligence has been transforming various sectors, and education is no exception. AI agents are revolutionizing how universities operate, offering new efficiencies and enhanced learning experiences. This blog explores the role of AI agents in universities, their current applications, benefits, challenges, and future trends. The adoption of AI agents in universities brings numerous benefits. They enhance efficiency and productivity by automating repetitive tasks, allowing staff to focus on more critical activities. AI agents provide personalized and adaptive learning experiences, improving student outcomes. They also support better resource management by optimizing schedules and facilities usage. In research, AI agents facilitate advanced data analysis and predictive modeling, driving innovation. Moreover, they offer support to faculty and staff, reducing administrative burdens.
How AI Is Reshaping Higher Education - AACSB
Because artificial intelligence will likely become the primary way humans access information, professors must prepare students to use the technology effectively in their lives and careers. Students will especially need to learn skills related to effective prompt engineering, which refers to the ability to craft questions that elicit the most useful answers from AI platforms. The more comfortable that faculty become with using AI, the better they will be at teaching students how to use this skill ethically and effectively in the years to come.
Thursday, November 07, 2024
AI as a Service (AIaaS): What Higher Education Needs to Know - Tom Mangan, EdTech
Artificial intelligence in the cloud could be a helpful part of your IT tech stack, but just because something says AI doesn’t mean it’s necessary. AI as a Service lets colleges and universities consume advanced learning automation applications in bite-sized servings without having to develop AI solutions on their own. Because AIaaS is hosted in the cloud, services can scale up or down as needed. These benefits give higher education leaders vast opportunities to improve student services and optimize campus operations. At the same time, campus IT teams must wade through a muddle of AIaaS uncertainties related to data, security and the responsible use of AI. Read on to find out how to navigate this new environment and learn best practices for AIaaS success in higher education.
https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/ai-as-a-service-aiaas-perfcon
EDUCAUSE 2024: The Risks and Rewards of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education - EdTech
The world took notice when OpenAI released the high-powered large language model ChatGPT in November 2022. Nearly two years later, at EDUCAUSE 2024 in San Antonio, artificial intelligence was still a hot topic of conversation among higher education’s leading technologists. They mostly agree that AI is a tool that could be beneficial to colleges and universities in a number of ways, but acknowledge that just because an AI solution exists, that doesn’t mean it’s the right solution. Working backward from a problem to identify if AI is the best path forward is a good way to avoid making AI mistakes, and ensuring good data governance before implementing AI is vital to producing accurate outcomes.
Wednesday, November 06, 2024
Amazon-backed Anthropic debuts AI agents that can do complex tasks, racing against OpenAI, Microsoft and Google - Hayden Field, CNBC
Anthropic, the Amazon-backed AI startup founded by former OpenAI research executives, announced artificial intelligence agents that can use a computer to complete complex tasks like a human would.
AI agents are built for productivity and to complete multistep, complex tasks on a user’s behalf. Anthropic’s new Computer Use capability, part of its two newest AI models, allows its tech to interpret what’s on a computer screen, select buttons, enter text, navigate websites and execute tasks through any software and real-time internet browsing. The tool can “use computers in basically the same way that we do,” Jared Kaplan, Anthropic’s chief science officer, told CNBC in an interview, adding it can do tasks with “tens or even hundreds of steps.”
Education for all: An interview with Dr. Sven Schütt - McKinsey
Dr. Sven Schütt, CEO of the European university group IU Group (IUG), believes in lifelong learning and universally accessible education. IUG offers courses and degree programs in a variety of formats so that high school graduates and working adults can learn at their own pace and convenience. Founded in 2000, IUG, which currently has about 140,000 students enrolled worldwide, provides training, upskilling, and job certification across more than 250 degree programs and offers over 600 additional training programs.1 Schütt recently sat down with McKinsey partner Axel Domeyer to discuss how AI is transforming education—and his organization.
Tuesday, November 05, 2024
Leveraging AI to Improve Learner Outcomes and Learner Records - UPCEA
The implementation of AI-driven tools in higher education is still in its early phases. It's clear that institutional staff either are still learning how to incorporate the tools into the learning process or are encountering obstacles in optimizing their use. This study revealed that interest in the potential of these technologies is far outpacing adoption. Most respondents are heavily involved in developing learner experiences and tracking outcomes, though nearly half report their institutions have yet to adopt AI-driven tools for these purposes. The research also found that only three percent of institutions have implemented Comprehensive Learner Records (CLRs), which provide a complete overview of an individual’s lifelong learning experiences. Download your copy of UPCEA and Instructure's latest research study today.
Here Come the AI Agents! - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
Anthropic offers the new function that enables its Sonnet version to control your computer: “Claude 3.5 Sonnet is the first frontier AI model to offer computer use in public beta.” This is just the beginning of the next phase of generative AI. Over the coming weeks and months, we will see many platforms offer this capability to users. So, what’s the big deal? It is the equivalent of moving from an automobile to a self-driving autonomous vehicle. We have primarily worked with chat bot versions of generative AI in which we enter a prompt, the program does some research and responds via text, image, video or audio. That has been effective for single-instance transactional engagement. Yet, we have not been able to automatically create and complete a complex list of tasks on the computer that are dependent upon reasoning and prior actions.
Monday, November 04, 2024
OpenAI reportedly plans to release its Orion AI model by December - Maxwell Zeff, Tech Crunch
OpenAI is reportedly planning to release its next frontier AI model, codenamed Orion inside the company, by December of this year, The Verge reported on Thursday. Unlike previous releases, the company reportedly plans to release the model gradually to trusted partners before a broader rollout through ChatGPT. The Verge writes that Microsoft engineers expect to receive access to Orion as early as November, although it’s unclear what OpenAI will ultimately call the model. The o1 series of models was codenamed “strawberry” inside OpenAI for months before it was released.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/
The AI Paradox: Why Automation Will Fuel a Creative Revolution - Alina Okun, Future Skill
AI isn't replacing human workers. It's opening up a new frontier for them. As routine tasks get automated, we have more freedom to focus on the uniquely human skills that machines can’t replicate: Creativity, Critical thinking, and Innovation. This is what I call the AI Paradox: the more tasks AI takes over, the more space we have to lean into the things that machines simply can’t do. Let’s explore how this shift is evolving and why creativity is quickly becoming the most valuable skill in the workplace.
https://www.futureskillpro.com/p/the-ai-paradox-why-automation-will
Sunday, November 03, 2024
Memorandum on Advancing the United States’ Leadership in Artificial Intelligence; Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Fulfill National Security Objectives; and Fostering the Safety, Security, and Trustworthiness of Artificial Intelligence - the White House
This memorandum fulfills the directive set forth in subsection 4.8 of Executive Order 14110 of October 30, 2023 (Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence). This memorandum provides further direction on appropriately harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) models and AI-enabled technologies in the United States Government, especially in the context of national security systems (NSS), while protecting human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, privacy, and safety in AI-enabled national security activities. A classified annex to this memorandum addresses additional sensitive national security issues, including countering adversary use of AI that poses risks to United States national security.
Anthropic’s agentic Computer Use is giving people ‘superpowers’ - Taryn Plumb, Venture Beat
Still in beta, Computer Use allows Claude to work autonomously and use a computer essentially as a human does. The groundbreaking capability has broad implications for the future of work, as it can work essentially on its own, perform repetitive tasks and quickly gather up data from numerous disparate sources. “Anthropic just released the most amazing AI technology I’ve ever used. I’m not kidding,” startup founder Alex Finn posted to X (formerly Twitter). “It’s legit changing day to day.”AI agents are here and you can now build your own personal army of AI's that will do work for you. Here is your demo and complete beginner's guide:
Saturday, November 02, 2024
SynthID: Identifying AI-generated content with SynthID - Google Deep Mind
Being able to identify AI-generated content is critical to promoting trust in information. While not a silver bullet for addressing problems such as misinformation or misattribution, SynthID is a suite of promising technical solutions to this pressing AI safety issue. This toolkit is currently launched in beta and continues to evolve. It’s now being integrated into a growing range of products, helping empower people and organizations to responsibly work with AI-generated content. SynthID uses a variety of deep learning models and algorithms for watermarking and identifying AI-generated content.
Intelligent Agents in AI Really Can Work Alone. Here’s How. - Tom Coshow, Gartner
Today’s AI models perform tasks such as generating text, but these are “prompted” — the AI isn’t acting by itself. That is about to change with agentic AI, or AI with agency. By 2028, 33% of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI, up from less than 1% in 2024, enabling 15% of day-to-day work decisions to be made autonomously. Intelligent agents in AI are goal-driven software entities that use AI techniques to complete tasks and achieve goals. They don’t require explicit inputs and don’t produce predetermined outputs. Instead, they can receive instructions, create a plan and use tooling to complete tasks, and produce dynamic outputs. Examples include AI agents, machine customers and multiagent systems.
Friday, November 01, 2024
Can Anthropic’s Claude control your PC? - Martin Crowley, AI Tool Report
Anthropic unveiled an updated Claude 3.5 Sonnet (which is available in public beta) with a new feature, called ‘Computer Use,’ which completes tasks on a computer like a human does. ‘Computer Use’ can understand and interact with any PC desktop app, and can control a PC—by moving the cursor, clicking buttons, and typing text—based on human prompts. For example, when Claude was asked to plan an outing with two friends, to see the Golden Gate Bridge, it opened Chrome, searched for the ideal viewing spot and times, and then used the calendar app to create and send invites out. All by itself. Claude can now see what’s on the PC screen (something it couldn't do, previously) and break the prompt down into a list of computer commands, like move the cursor, click here, or type this, to complete the task.
Ellucian's AI Survey of Higher Education Professionals Reveals Surge in AI Adoption Despite Concerns Around Privacy and Bias - Ellucian
Ellucian, the leading higher education technology solutions provider, released its second annual AI survey report. This report shows that AI adoption by higher education professionals for work and personal use has more than doubled over the past year. In a survey of 445 faculty and administrators from more than 330 institutions across the U.S. and Canada, 93% expect to expand their AI use for work purposes over the next two years. While the use of AI is growing, the survey also shows increasing concerns. The percentage of respondents worried about bias in AI models rose from 36% in 2023 to 49% in 2024. Similarly, data privacy and security concerns increased from 50% in 2023 to 59% in 2024. These findings reflect a complex mix of enthusiasm and caution across the industry.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Geoffrey Hinton Reveals the SCARY Future of Employment - Technomics, YouTube
This episode of the Technomics podcast focuses on the impact of AI on the job market, featuring insights from Geoffrey Hinton, a renowned computer scientist and AI expert. Hinton predicts a significant shift in the workforce, with AI potentially replacing 50% of jobs within the next decade. The podcast explores the vulnerability of various job sectors to AI, including creative, physical, and analytical roles. The discussion also touches upon the potential solutions to mitigate the negative impacts of AI on employment, such as universal basic income and the importance of fostering uniquely human skills. The episode concludes by highlighting the emergence of new job categories in the AI era and the need for adaptability in the evolving job market. (GenAI assisted in summarizing this podcast)
Claude 3.5's New AI Agents Are GAME CHANGING (Claude 3.5 Agents + New Models) - Andrew Black, The AIGrid YouTube
The YouTube video discusses the release of Anthropic's upgraded Claude 3.5 AI models, focusing on the significant advancements and new features. The speaker highlights the following key points:
- Improved performance: Claude 3.5 Sonet shows substantial improvements in various benchmarks, particularly in coding where it surpasses all other models, including specialized ones. It also shows marked improvement in graduate reasoning, general QA, and high school math competitions.
- Agentic capabilities: The new models, particularly Claude 3.5 Hau, demonstrate strong performance in agentic coding and tool use, setting a new standard for AI models and indicating the future direction of AI development.
- Computer use: A groundbreaking feature in public beta allows Claude to interact with computers like humans, using a cursor, clicking buttons, and typing text. This opens up possibilities for automating tasks, building and testing software, and conducting open-ended research. (summary assisted by GenAI)
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Unlocking autonomous agent capabilities with Microsoft Copilot Studio - Charles Lamanna, Microsoft
Copilot Studio provides an all-in-one platform for building agents, with managed software as a service (SaaS) infrastructure, AI models, a low-code design interface, and thousands of prebuilt connectors. It integrates personal, business, and analytical data, and enables publishing to Copilot, web, and your apps. These new capabilities allow agents to act independently, initiate events, and automate complex business tasks. Let’s explore how this works.
Microsoft's upgraded Copilot Studio is like a LEGO set for building AI agents - David Gewirtz, ZDnet
Microsoft is conducting "AI tours" in 60 cities. These one-day events are designed to connect AI-curious business folk with Microsoft engineers and sales teams to help explore what Microsoft is calling the "AI-first company" and its enabling technology, Copilot. At Microsoft's London stop today, the tech firm announced new features for Copilot Studio (formerly Power Virtual Agents) designed to help companies build and deploy AI agents.
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
AI has potential to revolutionize education - Khmer Times
The fourth United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4) is to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. In this context, organizations such as UNESCO are exploring ways to use AI to realize the SDG4. AI can be used to meet individual learners’ needs and provide one-to-one tutoring for students, as well as to facilitate lifelong learning. Also, teachers can use AI to prepare study materials for students and help them complete a certain course. AI can help teachers, too, to customize resources for learners so they can perform better.
Transforming Pedagogy For Generative AI Era: A Vision For The Future - Beata M. Jones, Forbes
Education is at a pivotal crossroads. As generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and NotebookLM continue to advance, their potential impact on education is undeniable. Experts forecast that by 2025 universities are projected to invest up to $20 million over the next five years in AI-driven curricula, a clear sign of the growing commitment to integrating AI into higher education. They also predict that AI could boost graduation rates by 43%.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Career Prep Tip: Teaching Entrepreneurship Students to Self-Teach With AI - Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed
Increasingly, employers are indicating that there’s a need for students to be trained in generative artificial intelligence tools as more businesses integrate the tech’s capabilities into the workplace. Some instructors have implemented AI into their classes to demonstrate prompt engineering and showcase AI’s research and writing abilities. Entrepreneurship professor Mark Lacker at Miami University in Ohio encourages students to use generative AI tools to complete projects, inspiring creative and critical thinking skills that can prepare them for careers.
Meta’s unbelievable AI breakthrough - Martin Crowley, AI Tool Report
Meta’s Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team has released an AI tool called the ‘Self-Taught Evaluator’ that can check the accuracy of other AI models, without the need for human intervention, possibly paving the way for less human involvement in the AI development process. The tool generates different responses from AI models and uses another AI system to assess the accuracy and improve the responses to complex questions in areas like Math, science, and coding. But the incredible bit is that Meta trained the model on AI-generated data only, removing the need for human intervention, and reported that it performed better than models that rely on human-labelled data (like GPT-4 does, for example).
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Keeping artificial intelligence real - Navrina Singh, McKinsey Digital
Generative AI represents a sociotechnical revolution with massive implications for every aspect of our lives. Keeping humans in the loop is critical for its responsible development. Companies are entering a new phase with generative AI (gen AI), as they realistically ponder how to deploy the potent technology responsibly and profitably. The answer, says Navrina Singh, founder and CEO of Credo AI and today’s guest on this episode of the At the Edge podcast, is proper governance in the form of continuous human oversight. Singh speaks with McKinsey senior partner Lareina Yee about the importance of monitoring, measuring, and managing AI risk for the good of humanity, as well as for gaining a competitive advantage.
Harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence in New Jersey: The time is now - written by ChatGPT, edited by Andrew Zwicker, NJ.com
By investing in AI education for all students, from K-12 through higher education, the state will cultivate a workforce prepared to engage with and build on these new technologies. By fostering AI research and development in our four-year universities, New Jersey will create a talent pipeline with the skills and creativity to invent the next generation of problem-solving AI tools and fill high-demand roles across the industry spectrum. Similarly, we must invest in our community colleges, ensuring equitable access to the AI education and training that will be needed to fill jobs that don’t require an advanced degree. Community colleges will also be vital to quickly and nimbly providing opportunities for all workers to obtain new AI skills as they emerge, and to retrain workers whose jobs do disappear.
Saturday, October 26, 2024
NotebookLM - Google Blog
NotebookLM is a tool for understanding, built with Gemini 1.5. When you upload your sources, it instantly becomes an expert, grounding its responses in your material and giving you powerful ways to transform information. And since it’s your notebook, your personal data is never used to train NotebookLM. Millions of people are already using NotebookLM to understand and engage with complex information, and today we’re removing the product’s “Experimental” label and releasing another round of features.
Embodied AI - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed
We may be just months away from an influx of embodied AI robots (EAI). Those are, in many cases, humanoid bots powered by autonomous AI. Shaoshan Liu and Shuang Wu write in the Communications of the ACM, “Embodied Artificial Intelligence (EAI) integrates artificial intelligence into physical entities like robots, endowing them with the ability to perceive, learn from, and dynamically interact with their environment.” Liu and Wu go on to describe that the “foundational studies highlight three principles for developing EAI systems. First, EAI systems must not rely on predefined, complex logic to manage specific scenarios. Second, it is essential that EAI systems incorporate evolutionary learning mechanisms, enabling them to adapt continuously to their operational environments. Lastly, the environment plays a pivotal role in shaping not just physical behaviors, but also cognitive structures.”
Friday, October 25, 2024
Not using AI is “disservice” to students - Polly Nash, the PIE
Failing to use AI in the classroom is a “disservice” to students, said EdTech experts at a conference about the future of online learning. Rather than be deterred by fears surrounding data privacy and cheating, universities must actively embrace generative AI to prepare students for the future of work and to enhance personalised learning and the accessibility of education, conference delegates heard. “Students will go on to get jobs where they use AI… if you’re not preparing them because of fears of AI then you’re doing them a disservice,” Ryan Lufkin, vice president of global academic strategy at Instructure told delegates of CanvasCon 2024 in Barcelona. “We need to move beyond the focus on cheating and teach students to use AI in pursuit of learning not instead of learning,” added Lufkin at last week’s event.
OpenAI unveils experimental ‘Swarm’ framework, igniting debate on AI-driven automation - Michael Nuñez, Venture Beat
OpenAI has unveiled “Swarm,” an experimental framework designed to orchestrate networks of AI agents. This unexpected release has ignited intense discussions among industry leaders and AI ethicists about the future of enterprise automation, despite the company’s emphasis that Swarm is not an official product. Swarm provides developers with a blueprint for creating interconnected AI networks capable of communicating, collaborating, and tackling complex tasks autonomously. While the concept of multi-agent systems isn’t new, Swarm represents a significant step in making these systems more accessible to a broader range of developers.
Thursday, October 24, 2024
Adobe aims to teach AI, online content skills to 30 million - Steven Melendez, Fast Company
Courses will include material on using AI to create content from video thumbnails to visual effects around text—and doing so ethically, including paying attention to issues around intellectual property. They’ll also cover skills around creating content for social media, digital marketing, and image creation and editing. The course material, which will include video instruction and follow-up work, will generally emphasize Adobe Express, a creativity app that offers some features for free, and will be accessible through a phone, tablet, or computer with a web browser.
Scientists design new 'AGI benchmark' that indicates whether any future AI model could cause 'catastrophic harm' - Keumars Afifi-Sabet, Live Science
OpenAI scientists have designed MLE-bench — a compilation of 75 extremely difficult tests that can assess whether a future advanced AI agent is capable of modifying its own code and improving itself. Scientists have designed a new set of tests that measure whether artificial intelligence (AI) agents can modify their own code and improve its capabilities without human instruction. The benchmark, dubbed "MLE-bench," is a compilation of 75 Kaggle tests, each one a challenge that tests machine learning engineering. This work involves training AI models, preparing datasets, and running scientific experiments, and the Kaggle tests measure how well the machine learning algorithms perform at specific tasks.
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
The AI Revolution Is Coming for Your Non-Union Job - Molly Kinder, Mark Muro, & Xavier de Souza Briggs, Time
During this election cycle, we’ve heard a lot from the presidential candidates about the struggles of America’s workers and their families. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump each want to claim the mantle as the country’s pro-worker candidate. Accordingly, union leaders took the stage not only at the Democratic National Convention, as usual, but at the Republican convention too. At the VP debate, J.D. Vance and Tim Walz offered competing views on how best to support workers. Surprisingly, one economic issue the candidates have yet to address is one in which millions of voters have a great deal at stake: the looming impact of new generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technologies on work and livelihoods. The candidates’ silence belies a stark reality: the next president will take office in a world already changed by GenAI—and heading for much greater disruption.
OpenAI’s Swarm AI agent framework: Routines and handoffs - Bryson Masse, Venture Beat
The newly launched Swarm framework from developers at OpenAI is an experimental tool designed to orchestrate networks of AI agents, and it’s been making waves in the tech community. Unlike other multi-agent frameworks, Swarm aims to provide a blend of simplicity, flexibility and control that sets it apart. Although still in its early stages, Swarm offers a fresh take on agent collaboration, with core concepts like “routines” and “handoffs” to guide agents through collaborative tasks.
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Reimagining the future of AI in the education ecosystem - Fareed Kaviani, Monash University
Our research project explores what different insights emerge when young people are asked to imagine what the AI school of the future might look like. These “School of the Future” scenarios help spark discussions and better prepare for technological, economic, societal and environmental changes in education. They’ve become increasingly popular among policymakers anticipating the impacts of emerging technologies. In more recent years, the scenarios have become particularly important for all stakeholders navigating the revolutionising potential of artificial intelligence on the education sector.
Google's Sycamore quantum computer chip can now outperform the fastest supercomputers, new study suggests - Keumars Afifi-Sabet, Live Science
Quantum computers can outpace our fastest classical computers in very specific areas, a groundbreaking experiment suggests. Google Quantum AI researchers have discovered a "stable computationally complex phase" that can be achieved with existing quantum processing units (QPUs), also known as quantum processors. This means that when quantum computers enter this specific "weak noise phase," they can perform computationally complex calculations that outpace the performance of the fastest supercomputers. The research — which was led by Alexis Morvan, a quantum computing researcher at Google — was published Oct. 9 in the journal Nature.
Monday, October 21, 2024
OpenAI Releases Swarm: An Experimental AI Framework for Building, Orchestrating, and Deploying Multi-Agent Systems - Asif Razzaq, MarktechPost
OpenAI introduces the Swarm Framework as a solution to simplify the complexities inherent in multi-agent orchestration. Swarm is an experimental framework that focuses on making agent coordination, execution, and testing both lightweight and highly controllable. The goal is to empower developers to manage interactions between multiple AI agents in a straightforward and efficient manner. Swarm’s strength lies in its two primitive abstractions: agents and handoffs. An agent in Swarm is a combination of specific instructions and tools that it can use to accomplish a task. At any point during its process, an agent has the ability to “hand off” a conversation or task to another agent, which makes the orchestration seamless and modular. This abstraction not only enables complex interactions among different agents but also ensures that the overall coordination remains under tight control.
'The way of the future:' MU professors are integrating AI tools in law classrooms - Evan Holden, Columbia Missourian
As the demand for efficiency in the workforce increases, law professors at the University of Missouri are finding creative ways to integrate artificial intelligence into their classrooms. With the support of AI tools, Renee Henson and Dennis Crouch are exposing their students to a new level of integrative technology for their future work in the field. AI for training and practical use. In a course she designed, Lawyering: Problem Solving and Dispute Resolution, Henson trained a chatbot to stand in for the opposing party in legal negotiations.
Sunday, October 20, 2024
Penn's Graduate School of Education joins global consortium on artificial intelligence in education - Finn Ryan, Daily Pennsylvanian
Penn’s Graduate School of Education is one of seven international institutions participating in a new research consortium on the use of artificial intelligence in education. The project launched on Sept. 17 at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Institutions in Ghana, Spain, India, Kazakhstan, Colombia, and Qatar will contribute to the consortium in addition to Penn. Penn’s specific objective is to investigate the social repercussions of AI in education, namely its potential to improve educational inequities and stimulate positive outcomes. Researchers will compare the influence of AI between “a medallion university and an opportunity institution,” according to Penn GSE News.
Machines of Loving Grace - Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic
In fact I think it is critical to have a genuinely inspiring vision of the future, and not just a plan to fight fires. Many of the implications of powerful AI are adversarial or dangerous, but at the end of it all, there has to be something we’re fighting for, some positive-sum outcome where everyone is better off, something to rally people to rise above their squabbles and confront the challenges ahead. Fear is one kind of motivator, but it’s not enough: we need hope as well. The list of positive applications of powerful AI is extremely long (and includes robotics, manufacturing, energy, and much more), but I’m going to focus on a small number of areas that seem to me to have the greatest potential to directly improve the quality of human life. The five categories I am most excited about are:
Biology and physical health
Neuroscience and mental health
Economic development and poverty
Peace and governance
Work and meaning
AI Just Reached Human-Level Reasoning – Should We Be Worried - AI Revolution, YouTube
AI has just reached human-level reasoning with OpenAI’s 01 model, marking a major breakthrough in artificial intelligence. This advancement is transforming industries like quantum physics and military operations, showcasing the ability of AI to outperform humans in complex tasks. As AI continues to evolve, it brings both incredible potential and significant risks, reshaping our understanding of technology and its role in society. This video explores the profound advancements in AI that are reshaping industries and pushing the limits of what technology can achieve. As AI models reach human-level reasoning, they bring incredible opportunities and challenges that could redefine the way we live, work, and think.
Saturday, October 19, 2024
ChatGPT disrupting global elections? - Martin Crowley, AI Tool Report
OpenAI has disrupted over 20 foreign-influence groups, that have been using their AI to influence opinion ahead of elections. In its latest 54-page quarterly threat report, OpenAI disclosed that, since the beginning of the year, it had discovered and managed to disrupt over 20 campaigns, run by foreign actors, that were using its AI technology—namely, ChatGPT and Dall-E—to influence public opinion ahead of global elections. These groups—which mainly came from countries like China, Russia, Iran, Rwanda, and Vietnam—were using ChatGPT and Dall-E to generate websites, articles, and social media profiles, respond to messages, and other similar tasks to support their efforts to sway public opinion. But while OpenAI acknowledged that these bad actors were able to “experiment” with its AI technology, they were unable to successfully spread their influence.
https://www.aitoolreport.com/articles/chatgpt-disrupting-global-elections
Generative AI, the American worker, and the future of work - Molly Kinder, Xavier de Souza Briggs, Mark Muro, and Sifan Liu, Brookings
Existing generative AI technology already has the potential to significantly disrupt a wide range of jobs. We find that more than 30% of all workers could see at least 50% of their occupation’s tasks disrupted by generative AI. Unlike previous automation technologies that primarily affected routine, blue collar work, generative AI is likely to disrupt a different array of “cognitive” and “nonroutine” tasks, especially in middle- to higher-paid professions.
Friday, October 18, 2024
CMU to build AI research center with $6 million from federal agency - Evan Robinson-Johnson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Carnegie Mellon University will play a key role in establishing standards for artificial intelligence as the Biden administration looks to develop the technology more safely. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, awarded the school $6 million last week to establish a research lab for AI. The funding will “support a new generation of scientists and engineers that will help advance American innovation globally,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. “Artificial intelligence is the defining technology of our generation, and at the Commerce Department we are committed to working with America’s world-class higher education institutions, like Carnegie Mellon University, to advance safe, secure and trustworthy development of AI,” she said.
Can an AI Chatbot Be Your Friend? - Stefano Puntoni, Knowledge at Wharton
A new study co-authored by Wharton marketing professor Stefano Puntoni finds that when people interact with chatbots programmed to respond with empathy, their feelings of loneliness are significantly abated — at least for a short time. Puntoni said the buzz about what generative artificial intelligence can do for business and productivity has been so big since the release of ChatGPT two years ago that he wanted to explore whether software could also benefit well-being. If chatbots can be programmed to have in-depth conversations on everything from customer service to medical diagnoses, there’s no reason why they can’t keep people company.
Thursday, October 17, 2024
Unraveling the dynamics of ChatGPT adoption and utilization through Structural Equation Modeling - Khalida Parveen, et al; Nature Scientific Reports
ChatGPT, an advanced Artificial Intelligence tool, is getting considerable attention in higher education. ChatGPT significantly changes the student learning experience through its AI-aided support, personalized study assistance and effective educational experiences, and it has become an object of particular interest in this context. This research aimed to build a technology acceptance and usage model that encapsulates the elements influencing students’ adoption and utilization of ChatGPT, drawing on constructs from the ‘Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology’ and ‘Flow Theory’.
WPI Researcher Receives National Science Foundation Grant to Study How Humans Interact With Artificial Intelligence - WPI
Roee Shraga, assistant professor of computer science and data science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), has received $175,000 from the National Science Foundation to scrutinize the human aspects of data discovery and integration. The research project aims to explore the critical role of human involvement in data preparation processes to identify and address biases that automated systems may fail to detect. “We’ll be able to create the future framework that will be better for users,” Shraga said. “It will lead to better data, better data sets, and a better user interface for people searching for the data.”
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Altera uses GPT-4o to build a new area of human collaboration - OpenAI
The early success of Altera’s vision has generated widespread interest, particularly for their first product—a digital human that can play and interact in virtual environments like Minecraft. It’s also laying the foundation for future, and more complex, multi-agent simulations. Altera plans to scale its efforts to create entire societies of digital humans capable of nuanced, long-term interactions, with applications ranging from gaming to productivity and many others. Their collaboration with OpenAI has positioned Altera to lead the charge in creating a world where digital and human lives intersect in thought-provoking ways.
The Sound of Progress: How AI is Revolutionizing Audio in E-Learning - Zenyai Zenyai, Medium
The integration of AI in e-learning audio is not just a technological advancement; it’s a paradigm shift in how we approach online education. By enhancing audio quality, personalizing content delivery, and improving accessibility, AI is creating more engaging, effective, and inclusive learning experiences. As this technology continues to evolve, we can expect e-learning platforms to become even more sophisticated, adaptive, and learner-centric, ultimately leading to better educational outcomes for students worldwide.The future of e-learning sounds bright, and AI is the conductor orchestrating this symphony of progress in online education.
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Huge ChatGPT Upgrade - Introducing “Canvas” - Matthew Berman, YouTube
This podcast is about a new feature released by OpenAI for ChatGPT called Canvas. Canvas allows users to collaborate with ChatGPT in new ways for writing and coding tasks. The host, Matthew Berman, explains how Canvas allows users to give ChatGPT instructions to edit specific parts of text or code, and to iterate on those edits in real-time. He demonstrates how to use Canvas to write a story, making changes to the length, reading level, and even adding emojis. He also shows how to use Canvas to generate code for a game, change the programming language, add comments, and fix bugs. (summary of description completed with Gen AI assistance)
OpenAI New AI Operating System LAUNCHED | Is "Canvas" the New God-Tier Coder? - Wes Roth, YouTube
This video is about OpenAI's new AI Operating System called Canvas. Canvas is a new way of working with ChatGPT to write and code. It is similar to Anthropic's Artifacts but in some ways better. ChatGPT will do this in real time, and you can then copy the code and paste it into your notepad, save it as an HTML file, and open it in your browser. The game will now have the new functionality. You can continue to add more and more functionality to the game, and ChatGPT will continue to update the code in real time. This is a very powerful tool that has the potential to revolutionize the way we write and code. (summarizing the podcast provided in part by Gen AI)
Monday, October 14, 2024
AI in higher education: bridging students’ and educators’ views - Business World
“There are mixed reactions from educators with regards to AI in the classroom,” Bruce Dahlgren, CEO of Anthology, said in an exclusive statement shared with BusinessWorld. “We recently conducted a survey of university leaders and students in the Philippines about their perceptions of AI. It revealed that university leaders have certain reservations around allowing AI in higher education, perceiving it as being unethical. Students, on the other hand, were optimistic about the role AI could play in increasing engagement and improving teaching and learning methods.” “Regardless of one’s perception of AI in higher education, the reality is that it’s here to stay. As with every new and powerful technology, there are risks and opportunities. Our goal is to help institutions use AI ethically and responsibly to benefit students and institutional operations,” Mr. Dahlgren said.
71% of Australian uni staff are using AI. What are they using it for? What about those who aren’t? - Stephen Hay, et al; the Conversation
Some studies have focused on students’ use of AI. There has also been research on what it means for teaching and assessment. But there has been no large-scale research on how university staff in Australia are using AI in their work. Our new study surveyed more than 3,000 academic and professional staff at Australian universities about how they are using generative AI. Overall, 71% of respondents said they had used generative AI for their university work. Academic staff were more likely to use AI (75%) than professional staff (69%) or sessional staff (62%). Senior staff were the most likely to use AI (81%).
Sunday, October 13, 2024
Employers Say Students Need AI Skills. What If Students Don’t Want Them? - Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed
Colleges and universities are considering new ways to incorporate generative AI into teaching and learning, but not every student is on board with the tech yet.“The big picture is that it’s not going to slow down and it’s not going to go away, so we need to work quickly to ensure that the future workforce is prepared,” says Shawn VanDerziel, president and CEO of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). “That’s what employers want. They want a prepared workforce, and they want to know that higher education is equipped to fill those needs of industry.”
New funding to scale the benefits of AI - OpenAI
We are making progress on our mission to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. Every week, over 250 million people around the world use ChatGPT to enhance their work, creativity, and learning. Across industries, businesses are improving productivity and operations, and developers are leveraging our platform to create a new generation of applications. And we’re only getting started. We’ve raised $6.6B in new funding at a $157B post-money valuation to accelerate progress on our mission. The new funding will allow us to double down on our leadership in frontier AI research, increase compute capacity, and continue building tools that help people solve hard problems.
Saturday, October 12, 2024
OpenAI introduces new tools to fast-track building of AI voice assistants - Reuters
OpenAI unveiled a host of new tools on Tuesday that would make it easier for developers to build applications based on its artificial intelligence technology, as the ChatGPT maker wrestles with tech giants to keep up in the generative AI race. The Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O), opens new tab startup said a new real-time tool, rolling out immediately for testing, would allow developers to create AI voice applications using a single set of instructions. A large chunk of OpenAI's revenue comes from businesses that use its services to build their own AI applications, making the rollout of advanced capabilities a key selling point. Competition has also been heating up as technology giants, including Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, integrate AI models capable of crunching different forms of information such as video, audio and text across their businesses.
France appoints first AI minister - Jack Aldane, Global Government Forum
Clara Chappaz has been made France’s first AI minister and will assume the role in prime minister Michel Barnier’s new cabinet. The decision to appoint a dedicated AI official came amid political unrest following France’s legislative elections in June and July. Subsequently, leadership positions in the French government have undergone significant change. Chappaz is the former director of the French Tech Mission, France’s public administration set up to support French tech start-up programmes. Responding to the news of her appointment, Chappaz took to LinkedIn to say she was pleased to further her “commitment to public action on these major subjects of digital and artificial intelligence”.
Friday, October 11, 2024
The Future Of Learning: How AI Is Revolutionizing Education - Khushi Bhanushali, Youth Incorporated
We have heard about AI in fashion, Gaming, Chatting, Robotics, Agriculture, and Finance but did you know AI has already entered into education world with a rapidly evolving technological landscape, the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and education is not just a future possibility; it is imminent. Imagine a classroom where each student has a personal tutor—an AI-driven guide that knows their strengths, weaknesses, and learning pace. This tutor adapts lessons in real-time, provides instant feedback, and even offers engaging challenges tailored to individual curiosity, receives personalized, builds stronger connections with teachers for enhanced guidance and receives apt recognition and evaluation of their achievements.
New AI models are more likely to give a wrong answer than admit they don't know - Anna Desmarais, Yahoo! News
Newer large language models (LLMs) are less likely to admit they don’t know an answer to a user’s question making them less reliable, according to a new study. Artificial intelligence (AI) researchers from the Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain tested the latest versions of BigScience’s BLOOM, Meta’s Llama, and OpenAI's GPT for accuracy by asking each model thousands of questions on maths, science, and geography. Researchers compared the quality of the answers of each model and classified them into correct, incorrect, or avoidant answers.
Thursday, October 10, 2024
ChatGPT-4o Shows ‘Friendly’ Behavior - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Education
The app initiates personalized conversations and offers responses without a prompt. This signals a shift toward agentic AI, where models act more like colleagues. In any case, this capability is a startling advancement with GPT moving into a “coworker” or “friend” mode. Here’s what happened: Some users of 4o noticed last month that without a prompt, the multimodal app spoke first—or wrote first. It recalled a prior conversation with the person using the log-on and asked a relevant question.
Bowdoin Secures Major Grant for AI Teaching and Learning Initiative - Tom Porter, Bowdoin
Professor of Physics Dale Syphers recalls the epiphanic moment last year when he realized the extent, and the imminence, of the AI (artificial intelligence) revolution. The moment came around the time of President Safa Zaki’s inauguration last fall, when he got into deep conversation with an old friend, computer scientist Peter Norvig. A renowned expert on AI, Norvig came to campus to take part in a panel discussion on how society might embrace this new technology.
Wednesday, October 09, 2024
EverCo launches 2,000 AI agents for universities
EverCo announces the launch of EverAgent for higher education, transforming how universities and colleges engage with students, staff, and prospective families. Over 2,000 conversational AI chatbots have been auto-created and customized for universities across the U.S., allowing institutions to test the capabilities of EverAgent in real-time. University employees can visit the EverCo website to find their institution's chatbot for testing and discover how EverAgent will shift the paradigm of higher education engagement.
Does AI Have a Place in Higher Education? Academics Say Yes, with a But - Patrick Harbin, Kennesaw State
Now that artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft’s Copilot allow students to create essays, complex calculations, and discussion posts in seconds, how can colleges and universities guarantee students are learning rather than simply learning to use AI? According to Kai Larsen, a renowned AI researcher and the keynote speaker at Kennesaw State University’s recent “AI in Higher Education” symposium, educators shouldn’t be afraid of AI. Instead, faculty should teach students to use the tools confidently while continuing to measure their ability to perform the same tasks on their own.
Tuesday, October 08, 2024
Students as co-creators in online learning - Dean Fido & Gary F. Fisher, Times Higher Ed
Giving students paid opportunities to co-design online learning content offers multiple benefits for both learners and institutions, including enhancing learning experiences, reducing academic workload for staff and addressing the awarding gap. An initiative at the University of Derby offered paid employment to current students as learning design assistants during which they contributed to the development and enhancement of online course materials. This approach not only offers students academically relevant employment, it also aims to make online learning environments more inclusive and effective for a diverse student population.
Future You is an interactive experience for cultivating self-reflection and long-term thinking - MIT
Inspired by studies showing how increased “future self-continuity”—the degree of continuity an individual feels with their future self—can positively influence saving behavior, academic performance, mental health, and subjective quality of life, our interactive, web-based chat platform seeks to similarly help users develop more long-term thinking and behavior by strengthening their relationship with a relatable yet virtual version of their future selves. The conversation with the future self is generated in real-time via a large language model that has been personalized based on a pre-intervention survey assessing user future goals and personal qualities. Have a chat with your future self!
Monday, October 07, 2024
AI in Education: Student Usage in Online Learning - Nikolas McGehee, Michigan Virtual
The integration of AI in education has the potential to revolutionize the learning experience for students. AI-powered tools and platforms can provide personalized learning experiences tailored to individual students' needs, learning styles, and abilities. Most other current research on the effectiveness of AI in education is focused on adult learners and generally leans towards the positive when concerned with achievement and perceptions (Kumar & Raman, 2022; Zheng et al., 2023).These studies also show that adult students believe AI is best served for usage by students and teachers in assistance of assignment creation or completion, as well as tutoring systems or research assistants as opposed to automated assessment use cases.
https://michiganvirtual.org/research/publications/ai-in-education-student-usage-in-online-learning/
How AI is Transforming the eLearning Industry [A Comprehensive Overview] - DDI
As the world continues to go digital, the eLearning industry is also undergoing significant changes. One of these changes is the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) into eLearning. According to research, the e-learning market is projected to reach $848.12 billion by 2030. At the same time, the AI market in education is expected to exceed USD 30 billion by 2032. Big things are coming. Business owners in the education sector need to be aware of the impact of AI on eLearning to stay ahead of the competition and provide their learners/employees with the best learning experience. In this case, AI software development for eLearning needs may be required. It can be AI in an LMS or AI integrated into another employee management system. In this article, we'll discuss how AI is transforming the eLearning industry, what benefits it can offer businesses, and how to use AI to stay one step ahead.
Sunday, October 06, 2024
How AI Impacts Online Learning - Chris Haroun, Forbes
Consider Udemy (disclaimer: I sell some of my courses on this platform). In its November 2023 earnings call, the company’s president and CEO, Greg Brown, noted: “We will continue to invest in innovation that leverages generative AI to provide more personalized skills-development experiences, help enterprise customers achieve business outcomes and supercharge instructors’ ability to create highly effective content.” In my view, Brown was pointing to a key way AI stands to impact education, especially online education: greater personalization. The students of the future, I believe, will have more power to shape their learning how they see fit. And personalized learning is just one key way AI stands to impact education.
https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/12/12/how-ai-impacts-online-learning/
The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Online Learning - Rebecca Burylo, Faukner University
Artificial intelligence (AI) is growing rapidly, with generative AI forecasted to become a $1.3 trillion market by 2032. Many sectors have been leveraging this technology to innovate processes, including higher education. For colleges and universities, the impact of AI is particularly felt with online learning (eLearning). Faulkner University in Alabama offers numerous online degree programs. Here, we examine the role of AI in online learning to regularly enhance programs and better meet students’ needs. Discover some areas where AI is changing online learning.
Saturday, October 05, 2024
120 IQ AI: Threat or Opportunity? - Peter H. Diamandis, Diamandis.com
Most people you meet are probably average, and a few are extraordinarily smart. Just 2.2 percent have an IQ of 130 or greater. "The classic finding — I would say it is the most replicated finding in psychology — is that people who are good at one type of mental task tend to be good at them all," says Stuart Ritchie, an intelligence researcher at the University of Edinburgh. This is why OpenAI's model o1 achieving an IQ score of 120 is so significant. It's not just outperforming the average human—it's surpassing 91% of the population in a test designed to measure general intelligence.
Generative AI adoption surpasses early PC and internet usage, study finds - Michael Nuñez, Venture Beat
The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic in tech circles. But new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Vanderbilt University, and Harvard Kennedy School reveals the true extent of generative AI’s infiltration into everyday work life—and the results are eye-opening. According to the paper, The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI, the technology has taken hold faster than previous transformative technologies like the personal computer (PC) or the internet. Here are five surprising takeaways from the study, which surveyed thousands of U.S. workers to gauge the adoption of generative AI at work and at home.
Friday, October 04, 2024
Quantum sensing’s untapped potential: Insights for leaders - Henning Soller and Niko Mohr, McKinsey Digital
Quantum sensing, which allows sensors to collect data at the atomic level, is a tested technology. It has broad applications in commercial products (such as medical devices), in services (such as navigation), and as an enabler of internal processes (such as quality control)—and the technology is already usable. It enables many types of measurements that are currently too difficult to achieve, not precise enough, or simply unfeasible otherwise. Depending on the underlying technology, the size, weight, and power of the sensors enable a variety of use cases in different industries, making further deployment of quantum-computing sensors outside the lab possible.
OpenAI CEO: “SuperIntelligence within 1000’s of Days” - Matthew Berman, YouTube
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has posted about the potential impact of artificial superintelligence (ASI) on society. Altman argues that AI is on the verge of a major breakthrough, and that we could see superintelligence within a few thousand days. He believes that AI will transform everything we know, and that it will ultimately lead to a new era of prosperity for humanity. Altman outlines a number of ways that AI will improve our lives. For example, he believes that AI will soon be able to serve as personal assistants who can carry out specific tasks on our behalf, such as coordinating our medical care or summarizing our emails. Altman acknowledges that there are also some risks associated with AI, such as job displacement. (assistance with summary of the podcast was provided by GenAI)
Thursday, October 03, 2024
AI + Blue Collar Work: Will Automation Take Over Skilled Trades? - Julia McCoy, YouTube
The video discusses the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics on blue-collar jobs, also known as skilled trades and service-based work. Examples are given of how AI and robotics are already being used in blue-collar industries. For instance, robots are laying bricks, tractors are plowing fields autonomously, and there is an entirely automated restaurant called Cali Express in Pasadena California. The video concludes that humans will likely be in the loop in blue-collar work for quite some time. Even if robots are implemented, humans will still be needed for complex tasks, customer rapport, and overseeing the robots. (summary assisted by GenAI)
Announcing the OpenAI Academy
New initiative will fuel innovation by investing in developers and organizations leveraging AI, starting in low- and middle-income countries. OpenAI is launching the OpenAI Academy, which will invest in developers and organizations leveraging AI to help solve hard problems and catalyze economic growth in their communities. The Academy will ensure that the transformative potential of artificial intelligence is accessible and beneficial to diverse communities worldwide, starting in low- and middle-income countries. Developers and mission-driven organizations tackle critical challenges in their communities, driving economic opportunity. Having access to cutting-edge technology like AI can help enhance efforts to drive sustainable development.
Wednesday, October 02, 2024
AI Pioneer Shows The Power of AI AGENTS - "The Future Is Agentic" - Matthew Berman, Youtube
The video introduces the concept of compound AI systems. AI agents are a type of compound AI system that uses a large language model (LLM) as the central component. Andrew Ng explains Agentic AI. He explains the string of reasoning that can be accomplished by agents. AI agents are able to reason through problems and come up with plans to solve them. They can also access memory and learn from past interactions. This makes them much more useful, adaptable and human thought-like than traditional AI models. (GenAI assisted with the summary of the video)
The Rise of GPT-5: What to Expect from AI in 2024 - Sumedha Sen, Analytics Insight
The advancements in artificial intelligence continue to reshape various industries and aspects of daily life, transforming everything from customer service to complex problem-solving. One of the most highly anticipated developments in AI is the release of GPT-5, the next iteration in OpenAI's Generative Pre-trained Transformer series. As the world prepares for this major milestone in 2024, many are eager to explore what new features and enhancements GPT-5 will bring. In this article, we’ll delve into the evolution of GPT models and what we can expect from GPT-5 and the broader AI landscape.
Tuesday, October 01, 2024
The Future of AI in Higher Education - EDUCAUSE
The higher education community is still looking for common ground on how AI should and should not be used for learning and work. Respondents were asked to describe both appropriate and inappropriate uses of AI in higher education. In general, respondents emphasized the ethical and transparent use of AI, no matter the specific application. One respondent summarized, "AI should be embraced as an emerging technology and should have a place in coursework with focus on implementation, adoption, research, utilization, and ethical and legal considerations."
Artificial intelligence and the Futures of Learning - UNESCO
The Artificial Intelligence and the Futures of Learning project builds on the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence adopted at the 41st session of the UNESCO General Conference in 2019 and follows up on the recommendations of the UNESCO global report Reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education, launched in November 2021. It is implemented within the framework of the Beijing Consensus on Artificial Intelligence and Education and against the backdrop of the UNESCO Strategy on technological innovation in education (2021-2025). The project will address both the human and technological dimensions related to AI and the futures of learning.
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