Category: AI
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Gemini Pro is now powering Google’s Bard chatbot in the UK
in AIhttps://bard.google.com/updates “What: Starting today, you can try out Bard with Gemini Pro for text-based prompts in the UK. We’ve specifically tuned Gemini Pro in Bard to be far more capable at things like understanding and summarising, reasoning, coding, and planning.” “Why: Earlier this month, Google introduced Gemini, the most capable AI model in the world.…
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On the ethics concerns around requiring students to use AI
Note: I wrote this over the course of a busy day full of meetings. At the end of the day I just wanted to get it out there. I’m not sure that I’m fully on board with the arguments, but the thing that I love about blogs is that it doesn’t matter. So these are…
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Hallucinations aren’t a problem to be fixed
A few months ago I wrote a post explaining that language models don’t sometimes hallucinate; they always hallucinate. “…every single response is a creative endeavour. It just happens to be the case that most of the responses we get map onto our expectations; we compare the response against our (human) models of reality.” So I…
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Should I be using GPT-4 instead of Claude?
in AIhttps://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/an-opinionated-guide-to-which-ai “GPT-4 is the most full-featured model. It has access to web browsing (so it is no longer stuck with just the knowledge it had at training), it is multimodal (which means it can “see” and listen to speech), it can create images, it can code and do data analysis, and it can talk back…
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My biased enthusiasm for generative AI, clearly articulated
I understand the serious ethical concerns many have raised about generative AI. These are important issues that deserve thoughtful debate. I believe that I know something about these concerns and I know the critical position I’m meant to take as an academic working at the intersection of education and technology. I’ve spent 15 years in…
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Follow-up prompts to generative AI responses
If your initial prompt isn’t specific enough, generative AI / Large Language Models can sometimes make assumptions about your level of understanding of the problem. In these cases, it can sometimes feel like you’ve hit a barrier because the response to your original question or instruction may not be helpful. In these cases you need…
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Workshopping AI in higher education with students
I’m thinking about contributing to a workshop activity that involves students working on practical issues related to the implementation of AI-based services in higher education. Here are some ideas that I think might be worth exploring.
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Institutional AI policy or classroom AI policy?
I’ve been thinking about the challenges of developing an institution AI policy for staff use in the classroom, and the longer I reflect on it, the more I think that it can’t work. An institutional policy is a set of guidelines, rules, or principles govern operations, activities, procedures, etc. They are often legally binding and…
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Generative AI is useful
in AIGenerative AI is useful, in the same way that electricity is useful. I use Claude for a wide range of tasks, every day. And today is the worst that Claude will ever be. Claude – and other generative AI services – will never ever again be as crap as it is today. Make no mistake,…
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AI reduces the value of synthesis as a skill
If AI reduces the value of synthesis as a skill, what does it do to the rest of Bloom’s taxonomy?
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Claude, help me convert a process into a narrative
Recently I needed to provide a description of a process that we’re going to implement for an upcoming conference, but the process we’d developed in our meetings was written as a list i.e. short, incomplete sentences in bullet point format. We wanted to submit a narrative description so I took that outline and gave it…
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Taylor and Francis clarifies their position on the use of AI for academic content creation
https://newsroom.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/taylor-francis-clarifies-the-responsible-use-of-ai-tools-in-academic-content-creation/ “Taylor & Francis recognizes the increased use of AI tools in academic research. As the world’s leading publisher of human-centered science, we consider that such tools, where used appropriately and responsibly, have the potential to augment research outputs and thus foster progress through knowledge.” They go on to say: “…AI tools must not be…
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Scaling output with no additional input
One of the ideas that makes generative AI so powerful is that it takes me exactly the same amount of time to create a 250-word summary, or a 1000-word summary of a document. For example, if I want to share an overview of a report I’ve written, or a lecture or presentation I’ve given, the…
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Compress a PhD+experience into 3-6 months
https://www.quantumleap.education/joinus/founding_learning_engineer.html “Quantum Leap is building the world’s best system for rapidly acquiring expertise. Our first courses will be on large language models and AI safety, for which we’re aiming to compress a PhD and several years’ experience into 3-6 months using accelerated learning methods developed by the US military.” Whether you agree that it’s possible…
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Assessment reform is fine. Education reform is better.
I’m seeing plenty of calls for institutions to reform their assessments in the face of generative AI (see here, for example). Which is fine, I suppose. Nothing wrong with assessment reform. But changing assessment practices without reforming the system in which it operates is just painting over the cracks. Or to put it more crudely,…
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Focus on what you can do with AI
“ChatGPT can write a funny poem about a peanut butter sandwich, but it doesn’t know how to write an effective email to the Dean’s office at my university with a subtle question about our hiring policies.” – Cal Newport
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AI and expertise in professional education – ADAPT conference
At the 2023 ADAPT physiotherapy conference, I discussed the impact of generative AI on physiotherapy education, emphasising how it challenges the traditional role of universities in professional training by offering accessible and personalised expertise. The presentation highlighted AI’s potential to democratise learning, enhance project-based education, and create affordable learning alternatives outside formal degree programs. I…