Monday, March 18, 2024

The Future of Work: Insights for 2024 and Beyond - Kellie Hanna, Build My Resume

Between October 18–19, 2023, MyPerfectResume surveyed nearly 1,900 U.S.-based workers and asked them to share their forecasts and trends for 2024. The study provided valuable insights into job opening trends, job burnout, and the future of remote work.... More than returning to offices, people fear AI and new technologies. 8 in 10 respondents (78%) fear losing their jobs due to the growth of AI in 2024. Are these concerns justified? At this point, most technologies need humans to operate effectively, so expect close cooperation. We recommend checking out the best AI resume builders if you plan to update your resume in the new year and are interested in seeing how AI can benefit your job search. 

Three ways libraries are championing the open access movement - Karen Glover, Times Higher Education

The open access movement has progressed very slowly over the past few decades. Recent changes to US federal guidelines for grant funding have rejuvenated the conversation around a sustainable open access publishing model. Although the perfect publishing model has yet to present itself, libraries have worked diligently to support this initiative over the years and have a vested interest in free access to information. One of the core missions of libraries is to provide equitable access to information in perpetuity. The open access movement fits nicely with that mission, so it makes sense that libraries would support and advocate for open access.

AMAZON AGI TEAM SAY THEIR AI IS SHOWING "EMERGENT ABILITIES" WHOA. - NOOR AL-SIBAI, the Byte

A new Amazon AI model, according to the researchers who built it, is exhibiting language abilities that it wasn't trained on. In a not-yet-peer-reviewed academic paper, the team at Amazon AGI — which stands for "artificial general intelligence," or human-level AI — say their large language model (LLM) is exhibiting "state-of-the-art naturalness" at conversational text. Per the examples shared in the paper, the model does seem sophisticated.In the paper, whose international team of authors includes 18 AI experts, the Amazon AGI consortium pointed out that BASE TTS was never "explicitly" told to come up with its more surprising outputs.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Artificial Superintelligence Could Arrive by 2027, Scientist Predicts: It's a bold prediction. - NOOR AL-SIBAI, Futurism

We may not have reached artificial general intelligence (AGI) yet, but as one of the leading experts in the theoretical field claims, it may get here sooner rather than later. During his closing remarks at this year's Beneficial AGI Summit in Panama, computer scientist and haberdashery enthusiast Ben Goertzel said that although people most likely won't build human-level or superhuman AI until 2029 or 2030, there's a chance it could happen as soon as 2027. After that, the SingularityNET founder said, AGI could then evolve rapidly into artificial superintelligence (ASI), which he defines as an AI with all the combined knowledge of human civilization.

Inflection AI launches new model for Pi chatbot, nearly matches GPT-4 - Shubham Sharma, Venture Beat

Today, Inflection AI, the Palo Alto-based startup founded by DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, announced a new foundation model called Inflection-2.5.  Built on the work done so far, Inflection-2.5 outperforms the company’s original Inflection-1 significantly and nearly matches OpenAI’s GPT-4 model, especially across STEM subjects. It now powers the company’s Pi assistant, designed to take on ChatGPT and Gemini, and can be tested via mobile and web. The move marks the latest effort in the rapidly evolving AI space to take on the dominance of OpenAI, which continues to clarify its approach to developing AI for humanity. Just recently, Anthropic released Claude 3 Opus, which became the first model to beat GPT-4. 

Generative AI fuels creative physical product design but is no magic wand - Bryce Booth, Jack Donohew, Chris Wlezien, and Winnie Wu, McKinsey

From product packaging to car components and retail displays, gen AI enables industrial designers to explore more ideas and product experiences, including previously unimagined ones, and develop initial design concepts significantly faster than with traditional methods. Additionally, with the ability to visualize concepts in high fidelity much earlier in the design process, companies can elicit more precise feedback from consumers as they work to fine-tune every element of the user experience (see images below). In product research and design alone, McKinsey estimates gen AI could unlock $60 billion in productivity.1

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/generative-ai-fuels-creative-physical-product-design-but-is-no-magic-wand

Saturday, March 16, 2024

How to Fix the Crisis of Trust in Higher Education - Jessica Grose, NY Times

A few long-term trends have combined to create this growing crisis. One is the declining birthrate since the Great Recession, which is causing an “enrollment cliff” based on the numbers of potential students turning 18 over the next decade. The other is the decline in Americans’ confidence in higher education. According to Gallup, in terms of party identification, that decline is sharpest among Republicans. Still, all of the demographic groups that Gallup assessed registered a significant decline in confidence since 2015.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/opinion/college-enrollment.html

OpenAI says Elon Musk wanted ‘absolute control’ of the company - Alex Heath and Elizabeth Lopatto, the Verge

In a blog post published on Tuesday, OpenAI said it will move to dismiss “all of Elon’s claims” and offered its own counter-narrative to his account of the company abandoning its original mission as a nonprofit. “As we discussed a for-profit structure in order to further the mission, Elon wanted us to merge with Tesla or he wanted full control,” including “majority equity, initial board control, and to be CEO,” according to the post, which is authored by OpenAI co-founders Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, John Schulman, Sam Altman, and Wojciech Zaremba. “We couldn’t agree to terms on a for-profit with Elon because we felt it was against the mission for any individual to have absolute control over OpenAI.”

These Companies Have a Plan to Kill Apps - Julian Chokkattu, Wired

Everyone wants to kill the app. There’s a wave of companies building so-called app-less phones and gadgets, leveraging artificial intelligence advancements to create smarter virtual assistants that can handle all kinds of tasks through one portal, bypassing the need for specific apps for a particular function. We might be witnessing the early stages of the first major smartphone evolution since the introduction of the iPhone—or an AI-hype-fueled gimmick.

Friday, March 15, 2024

Intelligent.com Survey Finds 4 in 10 College Students Use ChatGPT For Assignments - Intelligent.com

Based on the survey, 37 percent of college students currently use ChatGPT, and 36 percent say they have previously used it but do not do so currently. Conversely, 22 percent say they have never used the AI tool and 5 percent say they do not know what it is. Among students who currently use ChatGPT, 96 percent have used it for at least one school-related purpose during the current academic year. The most common school-related uses include writing assignments, research, emails, and multiple-choice quizzes and tests

University launches compulsory artificial intelligence module - Jing Liu, Times Higher Ed

A Chinese university has become the first institution in the country to make artificial intelligence a compulsory module for students in all departments. Nanjing University, in Jiangsu province, announced its plan for an “artificial intelligence general core module system” at the end of February. From September onwards, undergraduate students will take an AI module as a compulsory part of their degree, in a bid to nurture “master-level strategic scientists” with an AI-literate, innovative and interdisciplinary approach.

Warren Buffett Says Integrity Is the No. 1 Trait to Hire For. Ask These 4 Questions to Screen Out the Impostors - Marcel Schwantes, Inc.

Warren Buffett is a firm believer in hiring the right people. He famously stated, "Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don't have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it, it's true. If you hire somebody without [integrity], you really want them to be dumb and lazy." That's a great quote worth dissecting further. The Oracle of Omaha places the highest value on integrity because he believes that without it, intelligence and energy can be misguided and even harmful.

https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/warren-buffett-interview-for-integrity-to-screen-out-impostors.html

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Many Gen Z employees say ChatGPT is giving better career advice than their bosses - CNBC

Nearly half of Gen Z workers say they get better career advice from ChatGPT than their managers. Employee satisfaction and loyalty is tied to the support and investment that companies offer to their employees, and even a competitive salary can't overcome that hurdle. When it comes to career guidance and development, many employees feel that their managers have dropped the ball. Gen Z employees are feeling especially frustrated: 47% say they get better career advice from ChatGPT than from their human bosses, and 44% expect to quit within six months, according to a recent survey from INTOO and the Workplace Intelligence research firm.

U.S. Wants to Let States Enforce Their Own Regulations for Online Education - Katherine Knott, Inside Higher Ed

The administration wants to allow states to enforce all their applicable laws and regulations on online colleges, regardless of whether the institution is part of a state authorization reciprocity agreement to provide distance education. Currently, reciprocity agreements allow colleges to enroll out-of-state students online while bypassing some laws in the states where the students are located. For example, an institution headquartered in Colorado has to adhere to Colorado laws—but it can enroll students in New York without having to get that state’s permission or follow most of its regulations. Online educators say the current reciprocity agreements, which cover more than 2,200 institutions and more than 1.5 million students, would become unworkable if the administration’s proposals become policy.

Captain's log: the irreducible weirdness of prompting AIs - Ethan Mollick, One Useful Thing

I have spent a lot of time with GPT-4, and I had a good intuition for its “personality.” I get how it “thinks.” You can learn this sort of intuition by putting in the time to experiment yourself. People who use AI a lot are often able to glance at a prompt and tell you why it might succeed or fail. Like all forms of expertise, this comes with experience - usually at least 10 hours of work with a model. And while most advanced models work in similar ways, if I want to get really good at a new model, like Google Advanced, that takes another 10 hours to learn its quirks. Plus, models evolve over time, so the way you use GPT-4 now is different than a few months ago, requiring even more time.


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Uncharted Territory: Artificial General Intelligence and Higher Ed - Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

Imagine a time in the not-too-distant future in which AGI is firmly established in society and higher education faces the pressing need to reconfigure and reinvent itself. It is becoming increasingly clear that the advent of artificial general intelligence (AGI) is upon us. OpenAI includes in its mission that it “aims to maximize the positive impact of AGI while minimizing harm.” The research organization recognizes that AGI won’t create a utopia, but they strive to ensure that its benefits are widespread and that it doesn’t exacerbate existing inequalities. Some say that elements of AGI will be seen in GPT-5 that OpenAI says is currently in prerelease testing. GPT-5 is anticipated to be available by the end of this year or in 2025. Others suggest that Magic AI, the expanding artificial intelligence (AI) developer and coding assistant, may have already developed a version of AGI. 

https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/blogs/online-trending-now/2024/03/13/artificial-general-intelligence-and-higher-education

AI is much more of an opportunity than a threat to universities - Max Lu, Times Higher Ed

That said, it is the US that is currently leading the way – particularly Arizona State University, whose creative use of digital, online and AI tools has demonstrated how on-campus and online education, both at scale, can be combined in a top research university, all while access is increased and costs decreased. In addition, many US universities have adopted data-driven strategies to improve student retention and success. They have started to integrate AI to personalise learning experiences and use analytics to align academic offerings with both employer demands and student interests.

The truth about women’s ambition - McKinsey

The notion that work and life are incompatible, and that one comes at the expense of the other, is an outdated one. In fact, most women are taking more steps to prioritize their personal lives, but they remain just as committed to their careers and just as interested in advancing as women who aren’t taking more steps, say McKinsey’s Emily Field, Alexis Krivkovich, Lareina Yee, and coauthors in the latest Women in the Workplace report, developed in partnership with LeanIn.Org. Flexibility is fueling that ambition: a majority of women report having more focused time to get their work done when they work remotely. As Women’s History Month kicks off, check out these insights to bust more myths about the state of women at work and learn how companies, and society at large, can help support and advance women.

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/themes/the-truth-about-womens-ambition

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

NVIDIA CEO says the future of coding as a career might already be dead in the water with the imminent prevalence of AI - Kevin Okemwa, Yahoo! News

While at the World Government Summit in Dubai, NVIDIA's CEO stated that coding is no longer a viable career for the young generation who might want to venture into tech with the rapid growth and adoption of AI across every sector. He recommended that they should lean more toward biology, education, manufacturing, or farming instead. The CEO added that upskilling might help some professionals in the coding landscape retain their relevance as they'll have vast knowledge regarding AI programming.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/nvidia-ceo-says-future-coding-124534339.html

GPT to Command Humanoid Robots - PR Newswire

Figure, an AI robotics company developing general purpose humanoid robots, today announced that it has raised $675M in Series B funding at a $2.6B valuation with investments from Microsoft, OpenAI Startup Fund, NVIDIA, Jeff Bezos (through Bezos Expeditions), Parkway Venture Capital, Intel Capital, Align Ventures, and ARK Invest. This investment will accelerate Figure's timeline for humanoid commercial deployment. In conjunction with this investment, Figure and OpenAI have entered into a collaboration agreement to develop next generation AI models for humanoid robots, combining OpenAI's research with Figure's deep understanding of robotics hardware and software. The collaboration aims to help accelerate Figure's commercial timeline by enhancing the capabilities of humanoid robots to process and reason from language. "We've always planned to come back to robotics and we see a path with Figure to explore what humanoid robots can achieve when powered by highly capable multimodal models.

Gemini vs. ChatGPT: What's the difference? - Dave Raffo, Tech Target

ChatGPT took early lead among AI-generated chatbots before Google answered with Gemini, formerly Bard. While ChatGPT and Gemini perform similar tasks, there are differences. ChatGPT and Gemini are largely responsible for the considerable buzz around GenAI, which uses data from machine learning models to answer questions and create images, text and videos. OpenAI and Google are continuously improving the large language models (LLMs) behind ChatGPT and Gemini to give them a greater ability to generate human-like text.