Saturday, November 2, 2024

How the humanities play a crucial role in current conversations - Megan Neely, ASU

This question is often asked, particularly about degrees that fall under the humanities. English, history and language are subjects that come with the curiosity of what career path the degree can lead to. Many current issues require the ability to problem-solve, think critically and analyze the past. Consider questions such as: Why is it important to establish protections for student athletes? What are different ways to decrease environmental impact and improve working conditions in the fashion industry? How will scientists ethically research planets within and outside our solar system? In honor of Humanities Week at ASU, we explore how all of these questions can find answers in the humanities.

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:

Friday, November 1, 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.


1 in 6 Companies Are Hesitant To Hire Recent College Graduates - Intelligent

In August, Intelligent.com surveyed 966 business leaders involved in hiring decisions at their company to explore attitudes toward hiring recent Gen Z college graduates. What we found:

75% of companies report that some or all of the recent college graduates they hired this year were unsatisfactory
6 in 10 companies fired a recent college graduate they hired this year
1 in 6 hiring managers say they are hesitant to hire from this cohort
Hiring managers say recent college grads are unprepared for the workforce, can’t handle the workload, and are unprofessional
1 in 7 companies may refrain from hiring recent college graduates next year
9 in 10 hiring managers say recent college graduates should undergo etiquette training


The art of 21st-century leadership: From succession planning to building a leadership factory - Bob Sternfels, et al; McKinsey

In this article, we explore what it will take to be a leader for this century and how organizations can build a leadership factory that shapes, develops, and mentors the next generation of managers. The organizations that treat leadership development as a core capability and proactively address the needs of both existing and aspiring leaders can raise their overall resilience and substantially improve the odds that they will be able to withstand disruption—whatever it is, and whenever it appears next.

Thursday, October 31, 2024

Another Advance for the 3-Year Degree - Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed

Johnson & Wales University has become the latest institution to gain approval to offer bachelor’s degrees that require significantly fewer than 120 credits—and the first to win that approval from the New England Commission of Higher Education. Johnson & Wales said the four degrees it would begin offering next fall —computer science, criminal justice, graphic design and hospitality management—would each require 90 to 96 credits, and that students would take the same general education courses and the same courses in their major as those seeking its standard degrees. The big difference is that learners in the accelerated programs “will count workplace experiences gained during the academic year and summers toward degree requirements and will take fewer or no elective classes.”

Free online anatomy textbook wins WOW award - University of Hawaii News

A textbook that could save University of Hawaiʻi students more than $400,000 a year has earned a WOW award from the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technology (WCET). UH is a member of WICHE (Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education), which works to improve access to higher education and ensure student success. The WOW (WCET Outstanding Work) award, recognizes outstanding efforts to apply innovative solutions to a challenging educational need. Annually, more than 4,000 UH students across 10 campuses can benefit from the anatomy textbook project since they take human anatomy and physiology courses, paying around $200 for just one of their many textbooks.

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. 

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

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.

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)

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Are colleges really facing an enrollment cliff? - Dick Startz, Brookings

A large number of colleges have very low student enrollment and few or no endowment resources, and these are the institutions most at risk now and in the coming years. Additionally, college enrollments in some states are likely to drop drastically over the next few years, putting some colleges in those states at risk. The real story is likely to be program elimination within colleges rather than full college closures. There is significant anecdotal evidence pointing in this direction, but little comprehensive data.

Tracking college closures - Marina Villeneuve and Olivia Sanchez, Hechinger Report

College enrollment has been declining for more than a decade, and that means that many institutions are struggling to pay their bills. A growing number of them are making the difficult decision to close. This story also appeared in Mind/Shift. In the first nine months of 2024, 28 degree-granting institutions closed, compared with 15 in all of 2023, according to an analysis of federal data provided to The Hechinger Report by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association or SHEEO.


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.

Monday, October 28, 2024

Black women on the academic tightrope: four scholars weigh in - Malika Jeffries-EL, Monica R. McLemore, Ruby Zelzer & Tiara Moore, Nature

Black women have long flagged an insidious issue they have to contend with: misogynoir, a combination of sexism and anti-Black racism that often manifests as a lack of respect and impedes their prospects. The data are clear, the problem is pervasive, including in academia. Here, four scholars discuss their anti-racism work. 

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.

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.

Sunday, October 27, 2024

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.

https://www.nj.com/opinion/2024/10/harnessing-the-potential-of-artificial-intelligence-in-new-jersey-the-time-is-now-opinion.html

St. Louis University To Freeze 130 Positions And Lay Off 23 Staff - Michael T. Nietzel, Forbes

Faced with mounting budget challenges, St. Louis University announced on Friday that it will terminate 23 staff positions and freeze another 130 current vacancies.The news came in a letter from St. Louis University President Fred Pestello that was reported by the student newspaper, the University News. Of the 130 unfilled lines that will be frozen, 30 involve teaching positions across several departments, according to the paper.The news was not unexpected. University officials have warned the campus throughout the year that its expenses were outpacing revenues and that it would be necessary to reduce spending to get the budget back into alignment. To do so, they indicated they would increase distributions from the university’s $1.8 billion endowment and reduce current year expenses by about 4%.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2024/10/20/st-louis-university-to-freeze-130-positions-lay-off-23-staff/

Report: Employers Still Don’t Understand Or Trust Education Badges - Derek Newton, Forbes

Because there were so many, because there was no regulation or oversight to assure quality or competency, because there was no standardization or segmentation of badges, people had no idea what they meant. One badge could represent watching a four-minute video, while another could represent a hundred hours of expert-led, one-on-one instruction and fieldwork. An observer could never tell – and that made digital learning badges confusing at best, useless at worst. Based on a new report from UpSkill America, a project of The Aspen Institute, digital badges are still highly confusing and of very limited value.