We need to address the generative AI literacy gap in higher education - Kyle Jensen, Times Higher Education

Developing generative AI literacy can be a challenge because humans have difficulty conceptualising large numbers. Such numbers expose the limits of our knowledge and our ability to solve problems at scale becomes strained. When I teach students and colleagues about generative AI, they are genuinely shocked to learn that the applications are built on hundreds of billions of texts. Understanding the scale of generative AI operations is important, I explain, because the algorithms that run them need large quantities of text to create reliable output.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/we-need-address-generative-ai-literacy-gap-higher-education

Navigating the digital classroom; exploring Gen-Z’s shift towards online education - Rohit Gupta, Financial Express

Online education has become an integral part of the contemporary educational landscape, experiencing a significant surge in popularity (particularly among Generation Z individuals). The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed this trend, exposing Gen-Zs to the efficacy and convenience of online learning platforms. This article explores the multifaceted reasons behind the growing preference for online education among Gen-Zs and its transformative impact on their learning journey. One of the primary reasons for the popularity of online education among Gen-Zs is its unparalleled convenience and flexibility. With the fast-paced lifestyle characteristic of this generation, traditional brick-and-mortar learning often falls short of meeting their needs and catering to . Online education, on the other hand, offers the flexibility to learn at one’s own pace and convenience, irrespective of geographical boundaries. 

https://www.financialexpress.com/jobs-career/education-navigating-the-digital-classroom-exploring-gen-zs-shift-towards-online-education-3428747/

Embracing Flexibility in Higher Education Through Online Learning - WROK

As we navigate through the digital age, the landscape of education continues to evolve, seamlessly integrating technology to cater to the diverse needs of students. Traditional classroom settings are no longer the only option for pursuing higher education, with online learning platforms gaining significant traction for their unparalleled flexibility and accessibility. This transition rings especially true for specialized fields such as nursing, where balancing rigorous academic requirements with real-life responsibilities can be quite challenging. 

https://1440wrok.com/embracing-flexibility-in-higher-education-through-online-learning/

Why AI Systems Still Confound Researchers - BEN BRUBAKER, Quantum

An open secret about artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT is that they all have an unsettling quirk: Not even the researchers who build them fully understand how they work. These large language models, or LLMs, are special computer programs based on mathematical structures called neural networks. Although neural networks are now ubiquitous in scientific research and daily life, and researchers have studied them for over half a century, their inner workings remain mysterious. How is that possible?

https://mailchi.mp/simonsfoundation/why-classical-computers-can-still-win-quantum-contests-2492221

How Are Higher Ed Instructors Using GenAI Today? - Brandon Paykamian, GovTech

While ChatGPT remains king in terms of GenAI tools used by college professors to create content and guide lessons, other tools are emerging for specific purposes such as transcription, coding and making presentations. According to a recent survey of educators from over 1,200 institutions conducted by the ed-tech company Cengage, about 75 percent of higher-ed faculty believe that generative AI will radically change higher education. And while most faculty remain cautious and apprehensive about what that change entails — only 16 percent report feeling prepared — more and more educators are growing comfortable with using generative AI tools to guide lessons and create course content.

https://www.govtech.com/education/higher-ed/how-are-higher-ed-instructors-using-genai-today

Report: The Advantages that AI Brings to Higher Ed - Arrman Kyaw, Diverse Education

“In the case of South Carolina State University, I think they gained 400 staff hours by using customer service chatbots,” she said. “The cultural responsiveness of staff at HBCUs and really the beauty of community of HBCUs, is the people.” South Carolina State has used AI in its admissions efforts. The school’s incoming classes have grown because of these efforts, with 53% more enrollees for the first year, said Dr. Manicia J. Finch, vice president for enrollment management at the institution. “Next, we are building the infrastructure to enable even more seamless student supports – which may include more AI tools,” Finch said. AI also presents schools an additional way to accommodate students with disabilities, with digital tools that can record and summarize lectures and information, the report noted.

https://www.diverseeducation.com/reports-data/article/15666100/report-the-advantages-that-ai-brings-to-higher-ed

Forget Chatbots. AI Agents Are the Future - Will Knight, Wired

Startups and tech giants are trying to move from chatbots that offer help via text, to AI agents that can get stuff done. Recent demos include an AI coder called Devin and agents that play videogames. Devin’s creators brand it as an “AI software developer.” When asked to test how Meta’s open source language model Llama 2 performed when accessed via different companies hosting it, Devin generated a step-by-step plan for the project, generated code needed to access the APIs and run benchmarking tests, and created a website summarizing the results. It’s always hard to judge staged demos, but Cognition has shown Devin handling a wide range of impressive tasks. It wowed investors and engineers on X, receiving plenty of endorsements, and even inspired a few memes—including some predicting Devin will soon be responsible for a wave of tech industry layoffs.

https://www.wired.com/story/fast-forward-forget-chatbots-ai-agents-are-the-future/

Cognition emerges from stealth to launch AI software engineer Devin - Shubham Sharmar, Venture Beat

The human user simply types a natural language prompt into Devin’s chatbot style interface, and the AI software engineer takes it from there, developing a detailed, step-by-step plan to tackle the problem. It then begins the project using its developer tools, just like how a human would use them, writing its own code, fixing issues, testing and reporting on its progress in real-time, allowing the user to keep an eye on everything as it works. If something doesn’t look right to the human observer, the user can also jump into the chat interface and give the AI a command to fix it. This, Cognition says, enables engineering teams to delegate some of their projects to the AI and focus on more creative tasks that require human intelligence.

https://venturebeat.com/ai/cognition-emerges-from-stealth-to-launch-ai-software-engineer-devin/

Michigan Hybrid Program Aims to Reach 50,000 Adult Students - Lauren Coffey, Inside Higher Ed

 Now the two have teamed up to launch what they call a first-of-its-kind hybrid program within Grand Valley State University—with an ambitious mission of reaching 50,000 students in the first five years. “It’s a bold goal. It’s a high impact goal,” Mantella said. “But we’re committed to it and not afraid to say it.” The program is the latest in a growing number of state initiatives to help adult learners. Half of Michigan’s adult population—those 25 years old and older—do not have a post-secondary degree, and another 2 million have some college but no degree. For many years, institutions have zeroed in on adult learners by offering online degrees, which are seen as more flexible for those working and often parenting.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/teaching-learning/2024/03/12/michigan-hybrid-program-aims-reach-50000-adult

The impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Higher Education - Swansea.AC.UK

 Generative Artificial Intelligence is a branch of artificial intelligence that uses deep learning algorithms, trained on large datasets, to generate content such as text, images, videos, and music. Open AI’s ChatGPT – a type of generative AI, has disrupted many aspects of industry in a very short space of time, leading many decision and policy makers to question existing processes and traditional job roles. Generative AI has numerous applications in various sectors, including marketing, legal profession, creative industries, software development, manufacturing, healthcare, and gaming. Generative AI can create new works that challenge traditional notions of creativity and authorship. In music, it can generate new melodies and even entire songs.

https://www.swansea.ac.uk/research/research-highlights/digital-futures/generative-artificial-intelligence/

A.I. Is Learning What It Means to Be Alive - Carl Zimmer, NY Times

Still, the performance of foundation models has already led their creators to wonder about the role of human biologists in a world where computers make important insights on their own. Traditionally, biologists have been rewarded for creative and time-consuming experiments that uncover some of the workings of life. But computers may be able to see those workings in a matter of weeks, days or even hours by scanning billions of cells for patterns we can’t see. “It’s going to force a complete rethink of what we consider creativity,” Dr. Quake said. “Professors should be very, very nervous.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/10/science/ai-learning-biology.html

UTEP to use faculty survey results to enhance campus’ AI strategy - Daniel Perez, El Paso Matters!

A University of Texas at El Paso team plans to conduct a survey this spring and act on the data to offer UTEP instructors the necessary help to address the growing capabilities and complexities of artificial intelligence, including ChatGPT. Jeff Olimpo, director of the campus’ Institute for Scholarship, Pedagogy, Innovation and Research Excellence, said the goal of this study will be to determine how much instructors know about AI and how comfortable they would be to incorporate the technology into their courses.

https://elpasomatters.org/2024/03/08/utep-utsa-ai-chatgpt-openai/

Developing next generation women leaders for—and beyond—your organization - Emily McNabb and Marie Christine Padberg, McKinsey

In honor of International Women’s Day, we are pleased to share some of the work our talent attraction team is doing to support McKinsey’s deep and long-standing commitment to advancing women in the workplace and in society. As a firm, we have invested in years of research, such as our annual Women in the Workplace report, and have innovated our own talent practices, including facilitating support networks and creating sponsorship and professional development opportunities for women. One program at the intersection of our efforts to innovate for ourselves and to support women’s leadership more broadly is our Next Generation Women Leaders program. Launched in 2012, NGWL serves two purposes at once: it is an important source of outstanding women candidates for the firm and an effective leadership development program for all participants, regardless of whether they apply.  

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/people-in-progress/developing-next-generation-women-leaders-for-and-beyond-your-organization

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.

https://futurism.com/artificial-superintelligence-agi-2027-goertzel

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.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/three-ways-libraries-are-championing-open-access-movement

Developing next generation women leaders for—and beyond—your organization - Emily McNabb and Marie Christine Padberg, McKinsey

In honor of International Women’s Day, we are pleased to share some of the work our talent attraction team is doing to support McKinsey’s deep and long-standing commitment to advancing women in the workplace and in society. As a firm, we have invested in years of research, such as our annual Women in the Workplace report, and have innovated our own talent practices, including facilitating support networks and creating sponsorship and professional development opportunities for women. One program at the intersection of our efforts to innovate for ourselves and to support women’s leadership more broadly is our Next Generation Women Leaders program. Launched in 2012, NGWL serves two purposes at once: it is an important source of outstanding women candidates for the firm and an effective leadership development program for all participants, regardless of whether they apply.  

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/people-in-progress/developing-next-generation-women-leaders-for-and-beyond-your-organization

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.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/university-launches-compulsory-artificial-intelligence-module

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.

https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/captains-log-the-irreducible-weirdness

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.

https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/tip/Gemini-vs-ChatGPT-Whats-the-difference

It’s cool to be kind: The value of empathy at work - McKinsey

Empathy: We all aspire to it, but does it really make a performance difference in the workplace? Definitely, according to Jamil Zaki, a research psychologist at Stanford University and author of The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World (Crown, June 2019). In this episode of McKinsey Talks Talent, Jamil joins McKinsey talent leaders Bryan Hancock and Brooke Weddle, with global editorial director Lucia Rahilly, to make the case for investing in empathic behavior—for reasons including higher productivity, a stronger workplace culture, and better organizational health—as well as to discuss how to go about cultivating kindness at work.

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/its-cool-to-be-kind-the-value-of-empathy-at-work

Late bloomers: Older adult college enrollment trends and benefits - Zsófia L. Bárány, Pauline Corblet, and Moshe Buchinsky - Brookings

About 70% of the increase in overall college completion between 1990 and 2010 can be explained by an increasing share of individuals earning degrees after their mid-twenties. Black and female college graduates are more likely to be “late bloomers”; the rise in later-in-life college completion explains a substantial share of the reduction in college completion gaps between genders and races. When individuals graduate from college later in life, they have smaller wage returns; ignoring the existence of late graduates when estimating the returns to college education underestimates the value of graduating from college early by 27%.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/late-bloomers-older-adult-college-enrollment-trends-and-benefits/

More Than Half of Recent 4-Year College Grads Underemployed - Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Ed

More than half of recent four-year college graduates, 52 percent, are underemployed a year after they graduate, according to a new report from Strada Institute for the Future of Work and the Burning Glass Institute. A decade after graduation, 45 percent of them still don’t hold a job that requires a four-year degree. Those stark data points were highlighted in a report released today called “Talent Disrupted.” The report outlines employment outcomes for recent bachelor’s degree earners and explores the factors that contribute to their short- and long-term underemployment. It drew on federal data sources, job ads and online résumé and career profiles for more than 60 million workers.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/academics/2024/02/22/more-half-recent-four-year-college-grads-underemployed

Generative AI upskilling can help future-proof your company - Clint Boulton, CIO

More certain is that genAI’s transformative function—automating content creation—will alter how people work.  The implications to changes for knowledge workflows are staggering. Enterprises will use personalized technology skills development to drive $1 trillion in productivity gains by 2026, according to IDC research.1 This productivity bump won’t come courtesy of magic pixie dust. Organizations must educate staff on how to incorporate genAI into their daily workflows. Education starts with prompt engineering, the art and science of framing prompts that steer Large Language Models (LLMs) towards desired outputs. Eighty-seven percent of IT leaders Dell surveyed2 said they would like prompt engineering training for themselves, their teams, or both. 

https://www.cio.com/article/1309753/generative-ai-upskilling-can-help-future-proof-your-company.html

Employees said they’d work harder if recognized. These are the types of recognition they want - Fast Company

Forget bonuses or traditional perks—leaders have discovered a thriving workforce comes from one simple act: appreciation. A Harvard Business Review report shows that 40% of team members would up their game once directors recognize their efforts. However, most businesses see an abundance of “thank you’s” and “good jobs” every day. So, what is the secret that creates this effect?

https://www.fastcompany.com/91033372/employees-work-harder-recognition-they-want

Online Teaching Is Improving In-Person Instruction on Campus - Robert Ubell, EdSurge

Now is the time to fully embrace how physical classrooms can be improved by online techniques. Students, in particular, seem sold on the upsides of techniques they encountered during online learning. A recent Titan Partners survey found that students are eager to participate in on-campus courses with digitally embedded exercises. Students greatly favored hybrid options, and they preferred digital course materials over print textbooks.“The online experience has changed student expectations, especially of time spent in class,” says Whitney Kilgore, chief academic officer at iDesign, a higher education service provider specializing in instructional design. “Many are busy adults who don’t want their time wasted.”

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-02-22-online-teaching-is-improving-in-person-instruction-on-campus

The Future of AI: A 2024 Vision for Cstomer Service and Beyond - Phillipp Heltewig, Aithority

The next major generation of AI, which may be kicked off by GPT5 or Google’s next iteration of Gemini, may be interactive AI which is ultimately fulfilling the long-standing promise of Star Trek-like conversational interfaces. This means a real assistant right out of Sci-Fi that can understand you, generate answers but critically, break down more complex requests that require research, reasoning, and intuition into logical steps, action them, and deliver the results required. Moreover, as AI Agents become more adept at processing and understanding large volumes of data, they can provide insights that were previously unattainable.

https://aithority.com/machine-learning/the-future-of-ai-a-2024-vision-for-customer-service-and-beyond/

Listen: Supporting Adult Learners in Higher Education - Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed

One of the looming concerns of higher education is the demographic cliff: the number of traditional college-aged students is set to peak in 2025 and then decline dramatically over the next several years. Beyond this, fewer 18- to 24-year-olds are choosing to enroll in college, leading institutions to consider an older audience to boost enrollment. Two higher education professionals share the challenges and opportunities in serving adult learners and how institutions can better help them persist and graduate. 

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/college-experience/2024/02/21/podcast-colleges-role-adult-learner-student

How to AI-Proof Your Career As a Knowledge Worker - Henley Wing, Bloomberry

This technology is so powerful that there’s a good chance it will completely disrupt the job market for knowledge workers in 5-10 years. Yes, that includes everyone from marketers to software engineers. OK, relax, I know that sounds scary, but here’s the inconvenient truth: AI is already good at low-level tasks. It’s literally destroying barriers to entry for things like writing software. And it’ll eventually become good enough at solving large scale problems like maintaining legacy codebases.Here are 5 suggestions I have for any knowledge worker right now:

https://bloomberry.com/how-to-ai-proof-your-career/

Licensing AI is not the answer—but it contains the answers - Tom Wheeler, Brookings

As AI has continued to capture the public imagination, prominent developers, such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, have called for the creation of a regulatory regime in the form of a new AI licensing agency. Licensing AI promises to be impractical and anti-competitive, and it is not the answer for AI regulation. However, the licensing proposal does suggest some related answers: There must be technical and behavioral standards for the development and operation of AI tools, and there must be a dedicated regulator to develop and enforce those standards.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/licensing-ai-is-not-the-answer-but-it-contains-the-answers

The Biggest AI Trends In The Next 10 Years - Bernard Marr, Forbes

I believe that in 10 years’ time, the AI that’s a part of everyday life will be as far evolved from today’s AI as today’s internet is from the internet of the early days. In his excellent book The Coming Wave, Mustafa Suleyman notes that every wave of technology-driven change – from the combustion engine to the internet – has revolutionized society in a shorter time span than the previous wave. So, I don’t think we’ll have to wait 30 or even 20 years until AI is utterly engrained in all aspects of life.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2024/02/19/the-biggest-ai-trends-in-the-10-years/

Google Research Says What Separates the Best Managers From the Rest Boils Down to 8 Traits - Marcel Schwantes, Inc.

The Project Oxygen team in Google's People Innovation Lab conducted a comprehensive study on managers for a year. They collected over 10,000 observations across more than 100 variables using data-mining techniques. Additionally, they interviewed managers to gather more data and support their findings. After conducting numerous interviews and gathering data, researchers analyzed more than 400 pages of notes. The results were then shared with the employees, and several training programs based on these findings were developed for managers. By November 2012, the program had been implemented for several years, and the company demonstrated significant improvements in managerial effectiveness and performance thanks to the program.

https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/google-research-says-what-separates-best-managers-from-rest-boils-down-to-8-traits.html