AI in the News
Current Events in AI
YOU CAN HELP SHAPE THE FUTURE OF AI IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Today, May 16, 2023The University of Central Florida's Division of Digital Learning is getting deeply involved in learning about and working with AI by hosting an Artificial Intelligence conference.
The conference is scheduled for September 24-25, 2023, in Orlando Florida.
UCF is asking us to "Be a part of the conversation as we discuss the impact that artificial intelligence will have on teaching and learning in colleges and universities." - UCF
If you're looking for learning about ways you can use AI to help you design effective learning experiences, improve your course design to better promote student equity, or to realign your assessments to work even with the use of AI, this conference may be for you.
Sal Khan’s 2023 TED Talk: AI in the classroom can transform education
Today, May 15, 2023
The "Godfather of AI" Resigns from Google
Today, May 2, 2023Geoffrey Hinton, known as the "Godfather of AI," recently resigned from his position at Google, where he had worked for over a decade and became one of the most respected voices in the field 1234. Hinton has expressed concerns about the potential risks and harms of AI, especially as the technology continues to advance rapidly. In particular, he has warned about the dangers of large language models like GPT-4 falling into the wrong hands2. Hinton's resignation has sparked discussions about the ethical implications of AI and the need for greater public awareness of its potential risks24. As one of the pioneers in the field of AI, Hinton's departure from Google is a significant event that highlights the growing concerns about the ethical implications of AI and the need for greater transparency and accountability in its development and deployment.
1 NYTimes, 2 Fortune, 3 onmsft, 4 Venturebeat
Snapchat's AI...the First AI Blunder?
Today, April 26, 2023Not all AI launches are met with approval. Snapchat's new AI chatbot, powered by ChatGPT, has received criticism from users after its wider rollout to all global users. According to app store reviews and social media responses, users are frustrated with the inability to remove or move the 'My AI' assistant, unless they are Snapchat Plus subscribers. Additionally, some users are uneasy with the chatbot's access to their location information. While Snapchat has confirmed that 'My AI' only has access to a user's location if they have granted permissions to Snapchat, some users feel that the chatbot should be opt-in rather than a default option. The controversy highlights the importance of companies considering user preferences and implementing AI-powered features with caution.
Privacy is going to be a major concern and business opportunity with AI tools. We are already beginning to see AI being used to protect users from all sorts of threats. In fact, I believe that the spam email may become a thing of the past. AI will be able to spot fraudulent emails, sort out spam, and summarize only the important emails you need to review. I can't wait for this and you know I'll highlight it in our AI Resources page when that becomes a reality!
Source: Techradar
The Emergence of AI Personal Assistants: Revolutionizing Productivity and Daily Life
Today, April 24, 2023Artificial intelligence (AI) has discreetly infiltrated various technology platforms, and we might not even have realized it. Today, a plethora of AI tools are at our disposal, designed to simplify our lives and enhance productivity. Numerous start-ups, including Milo, have emerged to help us stay organized and on track.
Milo is a unique personal assistant app specifically designed for parents and children. It effortlessly manages your hectic schedule, encompassing school events, sports, parties, playdates, family calendars, and much more. By streamlining your daily agenda, Milo ensures that you remain organized and stress-free.
Microsoft has also ventured into the AI personal assistant space with their Co-Pilot tool, integrated within Microsoft 365, including Teams. According to the blog linked above, this remarkable tool not only summarizes your emails and tasks for the day but also schedules meetings and drafts preliminary versions of your work. With AI-driven technology like Co-Pilot, you can focus on what matters most while your virtual assistant takes care of the rest.
The future promises an influx of personal assistant apps, with hundreds set to become available to support you in your daily life and tasks. But the question remains: are you prepared to grant AI access to your life?
Stay tuned as we explore and review AI personal assistant tools in the coming weeks. For a comprehensive list of AI productivity tools, visit our AI Productivity Tools page.
A new company has launched a digital human service. D-ID allows one "Create and interact with talking avatars at the touch of a button, to increase engagement and reduce costs." I created this video under their free trial. You can play around with it with a word limit of 20 words. The platform has some pre-generated digital humans or you can upload your own. They demonstrated a video using a cartoonish version of Elon Musk describing Transhuman Coin, a not-so-deep fake. It's a little reminiscent of Max Headroom, for my fellow 80s kids. But the technology is likely to evolve really fast. Soon, imagine ChatGPT being a digital human and talking with you instead of giving you text. It's coming.
April 2023
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A Tax Assistant?
Today, April 19, 2023A few days ago, we learned about AutoGPT. It's the ability of chatbots to connect to other chatbots. Those connections allow it to do a series of tasks for you, such as book a vacation based on your input parameters. For example, book a Hawaii trip. I want to stay at a resort for 4 days and a condo for 4 days. I’ll need a car and book it starting June 8th. The chatbot can then respond with several options for you and also suggestions, such as needing a flight, booking restaurants or outings, etc.
Now we’re learning that a company is using a chatbot to tackle taxes! If you think about it, the more you let AI into your life the more it can help you. It can help you manage all of your expenses, income, and other personal data that can be used to audit tax code and give you advice for maximizing your deductions. Plus, it can also fill out the forms for you. TurboTax is officially on notice and AI is moving so quickly. Since tax day has come and gone, will we be using ChatGPT to do our taxes next year?
Additional ReadingIs ChatGPT on a Diet?
Today, April 18, 2023When ChatGPT moved from version 3.5 to the currently publicly available 4, they expanded their data set, or model size, significantly. The actual size of the data model OpenAi is using is not publicly available. But when Sam Altman was being interviewed at MIT, he said that he thinks we are at the end of an era using these giant data models. So what does that mean? Well, we’ll see how all of this shakes out. But I think it is safe to assume that the brakes are being applied on full Internet AI. And OpenAi is probably focused more on using ChatGPT for very focused interventions or uses. For example, if you feed the Chatbot everything on the Internet, it is slower and has a lot of room for error. But if you focus the data just on peer reviewed medical journals and textbooks, that ChatBot becomes a valuable resource that could help doctors in difficult or complex diagnoses.
Source: Chat GPT Podcast with Jaeden SchaferAutoGPT
Today, April 17, 2023The headline of the day is AutoGPT. Most of the concerns with AI have been about letting AI get out into 'the wild.' ChatGPT, for example, is in a self-contained data pond. It cannot reach out to the Internet and cannot ask questions by itself.
AutoGPT is an open source application of a Chatbot that can reach out to the Internet and can ask its own questions. A typical application for a tool like this is as a personal assistant. For example, one could tell your AutoGPT to look for a vacation in Napa, CA. Tell it to find you a car, hotel that is kid friendly, tell it your budget, and identify wineries you wish to visit. The GPT will then seek out and create an itinerary for you, including booking all of your travel, if you wish. It can accomplish this in seconds, where it would take you, potentially, days.
AutoGPT has become so popular on GitHub, an open source coding collaborative website. Look to see a lot of talk about this technology in the near future.
SourceA Free, Open Source, Language Model Launches
Today, April 13, 2023A Language Model named Dolly 2.0, by Databricks, has just hit the stage. This open source free AI was trained on 100% human-generated and open source data. The impact of this is that ChatGPT is primarily a Microsoft company and Microsoft is firmly in the drivers seat of this new and powerful technology. This Open Source and free Language Model is an important competitor in a business that has seen over 11 billion dollars invested in ChatGPT. Keep an eye on this one. If it is successful that could be a really interesting development in ensuring that the common business or individual could afford their own custom Language Model.
SourceAre you good at finding Bugs?
Today, April 12, 2023 ChatGPT is offering you a job! According to Bloomberg, you can now be a bug hunter. If you do find a bug in ChatGPT, you will be paid between $200 to $20,000 per bug, depending on the uniqueness and severity of the bug you've discovered. It's a digital gold rush! Have at it!
Turnitin AI Detector
Today, April 11, 2023Turnitin has created an AI detector. It is actually pretty good and is built in to their normal similarity report. Check out this video on how to use it in Canvas.
Sorry it's not available for discussion boards yet. And, I have been able to fool it. I asked ChatGPT to author an essay (on a particular topic) in the style of Perez Hilton. For some reason that worked and it was flagged as 100% human. The detector can also make false positive reports. I have heard of a few where the teacher knew that the student authored authentic work and it was still flagged as AI. Please use these detectors with caution and as an information point, rather than as fact.
Please keep in mind that students are curious and will want to use this technology. It's exciting! And, if it helps them to produce better work quicker, that will be very tempting. Let's all give ourselves some time and grace to figure this out together.