Small robotics team with big dreams qualifies for international competition – News 12 Long Island

A rag-tag Lego robotics team from Islip has qualified for one of the world's top competitions.

The Islip Brickaneers are a self-funded team that practice once a week in a basement.

Made up of three eighth-grade boys and three fifth-grade girls, the team defied all odds by coming in second place in the Long Island Championship.

Their next competition is in Long Beach, California. The team is raising money to pay for the trip.

If you'd like to contribute, click here for the GoFundMe page.

Follow this link:

Small robotics team with big dreams qualifies for international competition - News 12 Long Island

A Once-in-a-Generation Investment Opportunity: Nvidia Believes Humanoid Robotics Is the Next Big Thing for Artificial … – The Motley Fool

In today's video, I discuss recent updates affecting Nvidia (NVDA 2.45%). Check out the short video to learn more, consider subscribing, and click the special offer link below.

*Stock prices used were the after-market prices of April 2, 2024. The video was published on April 2, 2024.

Jose Najarro has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Jose Najarro is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through their link they will earn some extra money that supports their channel. Their opinions remain their own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.

Link:

A Once-in-a-Generation Investment Opportunity: Nvidia Believes Humanoid Robotics Is the Next Big Thing for Artificial ... - The Motley Fool

Gurman: Apple working on personal robotics as next skunkworks project – 9to5Mac

Apple turned Jetsons-style video calling into reality with FaceTime. Now the company sees personal robotics as an area worth exploration, reports Mark Gurman for Bloomberg. Is Rosey the Robot the next Jetsonian technology to become a reality?

Its way too early to know if Apple will popularize the robot house maid, but Mark Gurman has some very interesting details about a private skunk-works project going on at the company.

Engineers at Apple have been exploring a mobile robot that can follow users around their homes, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the skunk-works project is private. The iPhone maker also has developed an advanced table-top home device that uses robotics to move a display around, they said.

Gurman adds that the robotic display is further along than an Apple mobile bot for the home. However, the robo monitor has been added and removed from the companys product road map over the years, he reports.

Given the history of that product, Gurman has regularly reported on details of the iPad-like product with a robotic arm for the home over the years.

Whats different now? For starters, Apple cleared the runway for its next product category when the firm canceled its electric car project this year. AI and a continued interest in smart home technology also fuel Apples interest in home robotics. Much like the car project, though, Tesla already has shown its work on its own robotics project.

Gurman further describes the table-top robotics hardware as something that will have the display mimic the head movements such as nodding of a person on a FaceTime session. It would also have features to precisely lock on to a single person among a crowd during a video call.

Obstacles include creating something with a reasonable price and gaining executive sign-off on the project before it progresses. Gurman highlights that a job listing from Apple openly discusses next-gen Apple products that use robotics and AI, however, so there are already external signs of life for the department.

Read the full report from Bloomberg here.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

View post:

Gurman: Apple working on personal robotics as next skunkworks project - 9to5Mac

TMHS Robotics wins regional competition | Sports | homenewshere.com – Woburn Daily Times

The Tewksbury High Titans Robotics team competed in the New England North Shore District event on Saturday and Sunday, a regional robotics competition hosted by FIRST Robotics at Reading High School.

Thirty-six teams from around New England participated.

The Titans moved through the qualifying 3 v 3 rounds, and then were chosen to compete in the finals alongside Littleton (MA) High School and Windham (NH) High School thanks to their robots ability to execute a specific challenge in the arena. The three-team alliance proved strategic, taking the first 2 rounds quickly for the win.

The victory was significant for the team. The TMHS robotics team started competing in 2004, winning in 2008, and placing second 2-3 times over the years. The team will travel to another regional competition at the University of New Hampshire.

Teams compete on a pre-defined field with a driver, bot operator, and a drive coach who calls plays.

Teams range in size, skill and age at the tournament and compete six at a time (two alliances of three teams). The theme for this years competition was CRESCENDO, with challenges based around shooting notes into amps and speakers.

The team is supported by volunteer mentors, many of whom are professionals from a host of industries, including engineering, computer science, business, and more. While mentors support the design and development of the robot, they also help students hone soft skills for future college and professional success.

Scott Morris leads the team with Victor Impink, Abiche Dewilde, Berk Akinci, Chris Mullins, Randy August, Chris White and Josh Nichols. TMHS alums David Penney and Eric Impink have been mentoring the team as well.

Competitors for Tewksbury included Donovan Conway, Liam Mullins, Maya Sachdev, Renuka Late, Corvid Dewilde, Jared Woodman, Alex Grove, Christine Buskey, Jordan Troughton, Joanna Green, Becca Matte and Dylan Warren. Additional team members include Amelia Lombardi, Luc Jodoin, and Caden White.

This years challenge had the robots intaking foam rings and shooting at high and low goals, each at different angles.A climbing element was also included where robots pulled themselves off the ground and hung by a chain. The team was not without game-time challenges including overcoming a crumpled arm support, two bent shooter axles, wiring issues, and loose bolts. According to the mentors, the team kept solving problems and never missed a match.

The students have worked on the robot in the evenings and weekends since January. Team members build everything from scratch, gaining technical skills such as machining, 3D printing, laser cutting, wiring and coding, as well as learning project management, public relations and finance. The addition of a swerve drive this year, a component that allows the robot to spin and move quickly, was a gamechanger for the team.

Morris considers the team the premier STEM opportunity at TMHS and encourages community members interested in giving their time to get involved. In addition, the team is always seeking sponsors and is grateful to this years support from iRobot, Onco Filtration, Teradyne, PTC, Holt & Bugbee, Qualcomm, Tokyo Electron, BAE Systems, RTX, Routsis Training, and Tewksbury Public Schools.

Contact the team via email at frcteam1474@gmail.com for additional sponsorship opportunities or to get involved.

Go here to see the original:

TMHS Robotics wins regional competition | Sports | homenewshere.com - Woburn Daily Times

The 3 Most Undervalued Robotics Stocks to Buy in April 2024 – InvestorPlace

AI led the stock market to unprecedented heights last year, beckoning interest in complementary technologies such as robotics. Thanks to game-changing advancements in AI and automation technology, the robotics space is evolving swiftly. Consequently, these developments effectively pave the way for investors to scout for the most undervalued robotics stocks to buy in April.

To be fair, the development of Robotic AI hasnt been at the same pace at which generative AI or branches of the technology are growing. Nevertheless, the sector has been showing remarkable progress, and AI can potentially take things up a few notches. Improvements in robot durability and functionality are a testament to what lies ahead. That said, three stocks are leading the charge in robotics, offering strong long-term upside potential.

Source: Sundry Photography / Shutterstock.com

Intuitive Surgical(NASDAQ:ISRG) is a force to be reckoned with in the fast-growing robotic-assisted surgical solutions industry. Its primary offering, the da Vinci Surgical System, facilitates minimally invasive operations with greater accuracy and agility.

Moreover, the da Vinci Surgical System has been a major needle-mover for ISRG, facilitating upwards of 13 million surgical procedures. Its incredible impact on the company can be seen in the 234% jump in sales to $7.1 billion from 2014 to last year. Also, its steady income streams have had a similar impact on its eye-catching bottom-line numbers.

ISRG has been killing it by posting strong numbers late despite operating in an unconducive market. It comfortably beat analyst estimates in three out of the four past quarters across both lines by considerable margins. In its most recent quarterly report, revenues were up to $1.93 billion, a 16.51% increase on a year-over-year (YOY) basis. Likewise, net income came in at an impressive $606.2 million, beating expectations by more than 85%. Additionally, with an aging population, expect ISRG to continue posting similar numbers for the foreseeable future.

Source: Michael Vi / Shutterstock.com

Defense solutions providerKratos(NASDAQ:KTOS) is a critical cog in the wheel, driving innovation through its robust product portfolio. It specializes in the development of modern military operations and the deployment of unmanned systems.

These products are effectively designed for surveillance, reconnaissance, and combat operations. Over the years, it has been an excellent wealth compounder, delivering more than 136% gain in the past decade. The impressive uptick in its price is linked to its spectacular growth in top-and-bottom-line results, marked by double-digit gains across key metrics. Moreover, recent results have been a visual treat for its investors, with it outperforming estimates across both lines in the past seven consecutive quarters.

Furthermore, as a recent article from my fellow InvestorPlace colleague, Larry Ramer, explains, Kratos has recently inked some massive contracts from the U.S. government. Perhaps the most noteworthy is its $579 million deal with the U.S. Space Force. Additionally, in March alone, it received contracts exceeding $550 million in value from the Pentagon.

Source: Daniel J. Macy / Shutterstock.com

ABB(OTCMKTS:ABBNY) is a top pick in the burgeoning industrial automation, leveraging AI to push the envelope in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) industry. ABBNY stock got a strong AI-powered boost in the stock market last year,gaining over 34%.

According to ABB, roughly 20% of the data produced by industrial entities undergoes analysis and an even smaller fraction results in actionable insights. Hence, it is looking to pounce on this underserved market with its power Genix software, which harnesses AI for industrial analytics, aiming to unlock valuable insights for its customers.

Despite AIs disruptive impact, ABB doesnt solely rely on its software analytics business. It runs a diversified operation providing robotics, automation, electrification, and motion products globally. Moreover, given the diversity in its revenue base, it operates a highly consistent business thats been exceptionally profitable across key metrics. On top of that, it offers a growing dividend,yielding over 2.1%.

On the date of publication, Muslim Farooque did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Muslim Farooque is a keen investor and an optimist at heart. A life-long gamer and tech enthusiast, he has a particular affinity for analyzing technology stocks. Muslim holds a bachelors of science degree in applied accounting from Oxford Brookes University.

View post:

The 3 Most Undervalued Robotics Stocks to Buy in April 2024 - InvestorPlace

Code and paint show at Lincoln Elementary for students and community members interested in robotics – WNBJ 39

Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.

Read more from the original source:

Code and paint show at Lincoln Elementary for students and community members interested in robotics - WNBJ 39

This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through April 6) – Singularity Hub

To Build a Better AI Supercomputer, Let There Be Light Will Knight | Wired Lightmatter wants to directly connect hundreds of thousands or even millions of GPUsthose silicon chips that are crucial to AI trainingusing optical links. Reducing the conversion bottleneck should allow data to move between chips at much higher speeds than is possible today, potentially enabling distributed AI supercomputers of extraordinary scale.

Apple Has Been Secretly Building Home Robots That Could End up as a New Product Line, Report Says Aaron Mok | Business Insider Apple is in the early stages of looking into making home robots, a move that appears to be an effort to create its next big thing after it killed its self-driving car project earlier this year, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Engineers are looking into developing a robot that could follow users around their houses, Bloomberg reported. Theyre also exploring a tabletop at-home device that uses robotics to rotate the display, a more advanced project than the mobile robot.

A Tantalizing Hint That Astronomers Got Dark Energy All Wrong Dennis Overbye | The New York Times On Thursday, astronomers who are conducting what they describe as the biggest and most precise survey yet of the history of the universe announced that they might have discovered a major flaw in their understanding of dark energy, the mysterious force that is speeding up the expansion of the cosmos. Dark energy was assumed to be a constant force in the universe, both currently and throughout cosmic history. But the new data suggest that it may be more changeable, growing stronger or weaker over time, reversing or even fading away.

How ASML Took Over the Chipmaking Chessboard Mat Honan and James ODonnell | MIT Technology Review When asked what he thought might eventually cause Moores Law to finally stall out, van den Brink rejected the premise entirely. Theres no reason to believe this will stop. You wont get the answer from me where it will end, he said. It will end when were running out of ideas where the value we create with all this will not balance with the cost it will take. Then it will end. And not by the lack of ideas.'

The Very First Jet Suit Grand Prix Takes Off in Dubai Mike Hanlon | New Atlas A new sport kicked away this month when the first ever jet-suit race was held in Dubai. Each racer wore an array of seven 130-hp jet engines (two on each arm and three in the backpack for a total 1,050 hp) that are controlled by hand-throttles. After that, the pilots use the three thrust vectors to gain lift, move forward and try to stay above ground level while negotiating the coursefaster than anyone else.

Toyotas Bubble-ized Humanoid Grasps With Its Whole Body Evan Ackerman | IEEE Spectrum Many of those motions look very human-like, because this is how humans manipulate things. Not to throw too much shade at all those humanoid warehouse robots, but as is pointed out in the video above, using just our hands outstretched in front of us to lift things is not how humans do it, because using other parts of our bodies to provide extra support makes lifting easier.

A Brief History of the Future Offers a Hopeful Antidote to Cynical Tech Takes Devin Coldewey | TechCrunch The future, he said, isnt just what a Silicon Valley publicist tells you, or what Big Dystopia warns you of, or even what a TechCrunch writer predicts. In the six-episode series, he talks with dozens of individuals, companies and communities about how theyre working to improve and secure a future they may never see. From mushroom leather to ocean cleanup to death doulas, Wallach finds people who see the same scary future we do but are choosing to do something about it, even if that thing seems hopelessly small or nave.

This AI Startup Wants You to Talk to Houses, Cars, and Factories Steven Levy | Wired Weve all been astonished at how chatbots seem to understand the world. But what if they were truly connect to thereal world? What if the dataset behind the chat interface was physical reality itself, captured in real time by interpreting the input of billions of sensors sprinkled around the globe? Thats the idea behind Archetype AI, an ambitious startup launching today. As cofounder and CEO Ivan Poupyrev puts it, Think of ChatGPT, but for physical reality.'

How One Tech Skeptic Decided AI Might Benefit the Middle Class Steve Lohr | The New York Times David Autor seems an unlikely AI optimist. The labor economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is best known for his in-depth studies showing how much technology and trade have eroded the incomes of millions of American workers over the years. But Mr. Autor is now making the case that the new wave of technologygenerative artificial intelligence, which can produce hyper-realistic images and video and convincingly imitate humans voices and writingcould reverse that trend.

Image Credit:Harole Ethan / Unsplash

Read the original:

This Week's Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through April 6) - Singularity Hub

Palia studio Singularity 6 is the latest studio to suffer layoffs – PC Gamer

Singularity 6, the studio behind the cosy MMO Palia, is the latest developer to suffer layoffs. Just under 50 developers, around one third of the company, have been let go according to Polygon reporter Nicole Carpenter.

Environmental artist Daphne Fiato tweeted "Whelp, I've been laid off," following up with "49 people Thanos snapped". Other Singularity 6 folk joined to reveal they'd also been laid off, including Brian Ernst who tweeted they'd been with the developer for five years. One developer revealed via LinkedIn that they'd been given the news while on vacation, according to MMORPG.com.

Singularity 6 is yet to publicly address the layoffs, with its last Twitter post happening on April 3, one day before they occurred. It's the same situation for the official Palia account.

Palia only just arrived on Steam on March 25, following a stint as an Epic exclusive. The free-to-play MMO has generated some praise for its cosy vibes and its stress-free cycle of farming and building, but it's also been criticised for its slow progression, reliance on timers and limited multiplayer elements. Its development status has also led to some confusionit's not in early access, and the store page implies a feature-complete game, when in reality it is still in beta. On Steam, it's currently sitting at just over 3,700 user reviews with a "Mixed" rating.

The studio joins a painfully long line of developers to have nixed a portion of its staff this year. Despite only being four months into the year, the number of layoffs are close to reaching last year's count. It was estimated that around 10,500 developers lost their jobs last year, according to the Game Industry Layoffs tracker. The number is already up to around 8000 estimated job losses right now, with more undoubtedly on their way given the volatility of the industry.

We compiled our own layoff chart earlier this year, showing the trajectory of 16,000 layoffs from January 2023 to January 2024. Since the chart was published, companies like Relic, Certain Affinity, Sony and Blackbird Interactive have joined the list.

Sign up to get the best content of the week, and great gaming deals, as picked by the editors.

Continue reading here:

Palia studio Singularity 6 is the latest studio to suffer layoffs - PC Gamer

Americans’ use of ChatGPT is ticking up, but few trust its election information – Pew Research Center

Its been more than a year since ChatGPTs public debut set the tech world abuzz. And Americans use of the chatbot is ticking up: 23% of U.S. adults say they have ever used it, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in February, up from 18% in July 2023.

The February survey also asked Americans about several ways they might use ChatGPT, including for workplace tasks, for learning and for fun. While growing shares of Americans are using the chatbot for these purposes, the public is more wary than not of what the chatbot might tell them about the 2024 U.S. presidential election. About four-in-ten adults have not too much or no trust in the election information that comes from ChatGPT. By comparison, just 2% have a great deal or quite a bit of trust.

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Americans use of ChatGPT and their attitudes about the chatbot. For this analysis, we surveyed 10,133 U.S. adults from Feb. 7 to Feb. 11, 2024.

Everyone who took part in the survey is a member of the Centers American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way, nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATPs methodology.

Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and the survey methodology.

Below well look more closely at:

Most Americans still havent used the chatbot, despite the uptick since our July 2023 survey on this topic. But some groups remain far more likely to have used it than others.

Differences by age

Adults under 30 stand out: 43% of these young adults have used ChatGPT, up 10 percentage points since last summer. Use of the chatbot is also up slightly among those ages 30 to 49 and 50 to 64. Still, these groups remain less likely than their younger peers to have used the technology. Just 6% of Americans 65 and up have used ChatGPT.

Differences by education

Highly educated adults are most likely to have used ChatGPT: 37% of those with a postgraduate or other advanced degree have done so, up 8 points since July 2023. This group is more likely to have used ChatGPT than those with a bachelors degree only (29%), some college experience (23%) or a high school diploma or less (12%).

Since March 2023, weve also tracked three potential reasons Americans might use ChatGPT: for work, to learn something new or for entertainment.

The share of employed Americans who have used ChatGPT on the job increased from 8% in March 2023 to 20% in February 2024, including an 8-point increase since July.

Turning to U.S. adults overall, about one-in-five have used ChatGPT to learn something new (17%) or for entertainment (17%). These shares have increased from about one-in-ten in March 2023.

Differences by age

Use of ChatGPT for work, learning or entertainment has largely risen across age groups over the past year. Still, there are striking differences between these groups (those 18 to 29, 30 to 49, and 50 and older).

For example, about three-in-ten employed adults under 30 (31%) say they have used it for tasks at work up 19 points from a year ago, with much of that increase happening since July. These younger workers are more likely than their older peers to have used ChatGPT in this way.

Adults under 30 also stand out in using the chatbot for learning. And when it comes to entertainment, those under 50 are more likely than older adults to use ChatGPT for this purpose.

Differences by education

A third of employed Americans with a postgraduate degree have used ChatGPT for work, compared with smaller shares of workers who have a bachelors degree only (25%), some college (19%) or a high school diploma or less (8%).

Those shares have each roughly tripled since March 2023 for workers with a postgraduate degree, bachelors degree or some college. Among workers with a high school diploma or less, use is statistically unchanged from a year ago.

Using ChatGPT for other purposes also varies by education level, though the patterns are slightly different. For example, a quarter each of postgraduate and bachelors degree-holders have used ChatGPT for learning, compared with 16% of those with some college experience and 11% of those with a high school diploma or less education. Each of these shares is up from a year ago.

With more people using ChatGPT, we also wanted to understand whether Americans trust the information they get from it, particularly in the context of U.S. politics.

About four-in-ten Americans (38%) dont trust the information that comes from ChatGPT about the 2024 U.S. presidential election that is, they say they have not too much trust (18%) or no trust at all (20%).

A mere 2% have a great deal or quite a bit of trust, while 10% have some trust.

Another 15% arent sure, while 34% have not heard of ChatGPT.

Distrust far outweighs trust regardless of political party. About four-in-ten Republicans and Democrats alike (including those who lean toward each party) have not too much or no trust at all in ChatGPTs election information.

Notably, however, very few Americans have actually used the chatbot to find information about the presidential election: Just 2% of adults say they have done so, including 2% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents and 1% of Republicans and GOP leaners.

These survey findings come amid growing national attention on chatbots and misinformation. Several tech companies have recently pledged to prevent the misuse of artificial intelligence including chatbots in this years election. But recent reports suggest chatbots themselves may provide misleading answers to election-related questions.

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and the survey its methodology.

Continue reading here:

Americans' use of ChatGPT is ticking up, but few trust its election information - Pew Research Center

Nearly a third of employed Americans under 30 used ChatGPT for work: Poll – The Hill

More employed Americans have used the artificial intelligence (AI) tool ChatGPT for work since last year, with the biggest increase among the younger portion of the workforce, according to a Pew Research poll released Tuesday.  

The survey found that 31 percent of employed Americans between 18 and 29 surveyed in February said they have used ChatGPT for tasks at work, up from 12 percent who said the same last March.

The number of employed Americans who said they use ChatGPT for work decreased by age group. Twenty-one percent of employed adults aged 30 to 49 said they use it, up from 8 percent last year, and just 10 percent aged 50 and older said the same, up from only 4 percent last year.

Overall, the share of employed Americans who have used ChatGPT for work rose to double digits in the past year — reaching 20 percent based on the February survey, up from just 8 percent last March. But in general, most Americans still have not used ChatGPT, according to the survey.  

Twenty-three percent of Americans said they have used ChatGPT. That amount is on the rise from July, when 18 percent said the same.  

Use of ChatGPT has particularly spiked among younger adults. Forty-three percent of adults younger than 30 said they have used ChatGPT in the February survey, compared to 27 percent of adults 30 to 49, 17 percent of adults 50 to 64 and 6 percent of adults 65 and older.  

As the tool becomes more popular, OpenAI has also faced scrutiny about risks it presents about the spread of misinformation. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman faced questions about those risks and how it could impact the upcoming election when he testified before the Senate last year.  

Pew found that 38 percent of Americans said they do not trust the information from ChatGPT about the 2024 presidential election. Only 2 percent said they trust it a “great deal” or “quite a bit” and 10 percent said they have “some” trust in ChatGPT.  

The distrust of ChatGPT about information about the 2024 election was fairly evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.  

The survey also found that very few Americans, roughly 2 percent, said they have used the chatbot to find information about the presidential election.  

The survey is based on data from the American Trends Panel created by Pew Research Center and was conducted from Feb. 7-11. A total of 10,133 panelists responded out of 11,117 who were sampled. The margin of error for the full sample of 10,133 respondents is 1.5 percentage points.  

See original here:

Nearly a third of employed Americans under 30 used ChatGPT for work: Poll - The Hill

ChatGPT Use Linked to Memory Loss, Procrastination in Students – Futurism

You won't always have an AI chatbot in your pocket... right? Brain Drain

New research has found a worrying link to memory loss and tanking grades in students who relied on ChatGPT, in an early but fascinating exploration of the swift impact that large language models have had in education.

As detailed in a new studypublished in the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, the researchers surveyed hundreds of university students ranging from undergrads to doctoral candidates over two phases, using self-reported evaluations. They were spurred on by witnessing more and more of their own students turn to ChatGPT.

"My interest in this topic stemmed from the growing prevalence of generative artificial intelligence in academia and its potential impact on students," study co-author Muhammad Abhas at the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences in Pakistan told PsyPost. "For the last year, I observed an increasing, uncritical, reliance on generative AI tools among my students for various assignments and projects I assigned."

In the first phase, the researchers collected responses from 165 students who used an eight-item scale to report their degree of ChatGPT reliance. The items ranged from "I use ChatGPT for my course assignments" to "ChatGPT is part of my campus life."

To validate those results, they also conducted a more rigorous "time-lagged" second phase, in which they expanded their scope to nearly 500 students, who were surveyed three times at one to two week intervals.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the researchers found that students under a heavy academic workload and "time pressure" were much more likely to use ChatGPT. They observed that those who relied on ChatGPT reported more procrastination, more memory loss, and a drop in GPA. And the reason why is quite simple: the chatbot, however good or bad its responses are, is making schoolwork too easy.

"Since ChatGPT can quickly respond to any questions asked by a user," the researchers wrote in the study, "students who excessively use ChatGPT may reduce their cognitive efforts to complete their academic tasks, resulting in poor memory."

There were a few curveballs, however.

"Contrary to expectations, students who were more sensitive to rewards were less likely to use generative AI," Abbas told PsyPost, suggesting that those seeking good grades avoided using the chatbot out of fear of getting caught.

It's possible that the relationship between ChatGPT usage and its negative effects is bidirectional, notes PsyPost. A student may turn to the chatbot because they already have bad grades, and not the other way around. It's also worth considering that the data was self-reported, which comes with its own biases.

That's not to exonerate AI, though. Based on these findings, we should be wary about ChatGPT's role in education.

"The average person should recognize the dark side of excessive generative AI usage," Abbas told Psypost. "While these tools offer convenience, they can also lead to negative consequences such as procrastination, memory loss, and compromised academic performance."

More on AI: Google's AI Search Caught Pushing Users to Download Malware

Read the original:

ChatGPT Use Linked to Memory Loss, Procrastination in Students - Futurism

ChatGPT linked to declining academic performance and memory loss in new study – PsyPost

Students tend to turn to ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence tool, when faced with increased academic workload and time constraints, according to new research published in the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. The study also reveals a concerning trend: reliance on ChatGPT is linked to procrastination, memory loss, and a decline in academic performance. These findings shed light on the role of generative AI in education, suggesting both its widespread use and potential drawbacks.

The motivation behind this research stems from the explosive growth of generative AI technologies in educational settings. Despite their potential to assist in learning and research, theres a growing concern among educators about their misuse, especially in relation to academic integrity. Previous studies have largely focused on theoretical discussions without much empirical data to support the claims.

My interest in this topic stemmed from the growing prevalence of generative artificial intelligence in academia and its potential impact on students, explained study author Muhammad Abbas, an associate professor at the FAST School of Management at the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences in Pakistan. For the last year, I observed an increasing, uncritical, reliance on generative AI tools among my students for various assignments and projects I assigned. This prompted me to delve deeper into understanding the underlying causes and consequences of its usage among them.

To understand these dynamics, the study was conducted in two phases. Initially, the researchers developed and validated a scale to measure university students use of ChatGPT for academic purposes. They began by generating an initial set of 12 items, which was refined to 10 after expert evaluations for content validity. Further refinement through an exploratory factor analysis and reliability testing led to the final selection of eight items that effectively measured the extent of ChatGPTs academic use.

The scale included items such as: I use ChatGPT for my course assignments, I am addicted to ChatGPT when it comes to studies, and ChatGPT is part of my campus life.

In the second phase of the study, the researchers sought to validate the findings from the first phase while also testing specific hypotheses related to ChatGPTs impact. The sample consisted of 494 university students who were surveyed across three timepoints, each separated by a 1-2 week interval.

This time-lagged approach allowed the researchers to first gather data on predictor variables (academic workload, time pressure, sensitivity to rewards, and sensitivity to quality), followed by the measurement of ChatGPT usage, and finally, the assessment of outcomes (procrastination, memory loss, and academic performance).

Abbas and his colleagues found that high levels of academic workload and time pressure were significant predictors of increased ChatGPT usage, suggesting that students under significant academic stress are more likely to turn to generative AI tools for assistance.

Students who were more sensitive to rewards were less inclined to use ChatGPT, indicating a possible concern about the academic integrity and the potential negative consequences of relying on AI for academic tasks.

Moreover, the study uncovered significant adverse effects of ChatGPT usage on students personal and academic outcomes. Increased reliance on ChatGPT was associated with higher levels of procrastination and memory loss, and a negative impact on academic performance, as reflected in students grade point averages. These findings suggest that while ChatGPT can be a valuable resource under certain circumstances, its excessive use might lead to detrimental effects on learning behaviors and outcomes.

One surprising finding was the role of sensitivity to rewards, Abbas told PsyPost. Contrary to expectations, students who were more sensitive to rewards were less likely to use generative AI. Another surprising finding was the positive relationship of generative AI usage with procrastination and self-reported memory loss and negative relationship between generative AI usage and academic performance.

Interestingly, the study did not find a significant relationship between sensitivity to quality and ChatGPT usage, suggesting that concerns over the quality of academic work do not necessarily influence the decision to use AI tools.

The findings highlight the potential dual impact of ChatGPT in academia, serving both as a helpful tool under academic pressure and as a potential risk to academic integrity and student learning outcomes.

The average person should recognize the dark side of excessive generative AI usage, Abbas said. While these tools offer convenience, they can also lead to negative consequences such as procrastination, memory loss, and compromised academic performance. Also, factors like academic workload, sensitivity to rewards, and time pressure play significant roles in influencing students decision to use generative AI.

The study provides important details about ChatGPT usage among university students. But the study, like all research, includes limitations. For example, the time-lagged design, while more robust than cross-sectional designs, does not entirely eliminate the possibility of reciprocal relationships.

The study suggests a one-way impact of ChatGPT usage on students academic workload and personal outcomes, such as procrastination and memory loss. However, its conceivable that these relationships could be bidirectional. For instance, students who are prone to procrastination might be more inclined to use ChatGPT, rather than ChatGPT usage leading to increased procrastination.

The research opens the door to investigating the broader effects of ChatGPT usage on students learning outcomes and health. Future research could delve into how reliance on generative AI tools affects cognitive skills, mental health, and overall learning experiences.

My long-term goals involve expanding this line of research to further explore through other methods, such as experiments, how excessive use of generative AI affects students outcomes, Abbas said.

The study, Is it harmful or helpful? Examining the causes and consequences of generative AI usage among university students, was authored by Muhammad Abbas, Farooq Ahmed Jam, and Tariq Iqbal Khan.

Read this article:

ChatGPT linked to declining academic performance and memory loss in new study - PsyPost

Saving hours of work with AI: How ChatGPT became my virtual assistant for a data project – ZDNet

David Gewirtz/ZDNET

There's certainly been a lot of golly-wow, gee-whiz press about generative artificial intelligence (AI) over the past year or so. I'm certainly guilty of producing some of it myself. But tools like ChatGPT are also just that: tools. They can be used to help out with projects just like other productivity software.

Today, I'll walk you through a quick project where ChatGPT saved me a few hours of grunt work. While you're unlikely to need to do the same project, I'll share my thinking for the prompts, which may inspire you to use ChatGPT as a workhorse tool for some of your projects.

Also: 4 generative AI tools your enterprise can leverage to boost productivity

This is just the sort of project I would have assigned to a human assistant, back when I had human assistants. I'm telling you this fact because I structured the assignments for ChatGPT similarly to how I would have for someone working for me, back when I was sitting in a cubicle as a managerial cog of a giant corporation.

In a month or so, I'll post what I like to call a "stunt article." Stunt articles are projects I come up with that are fun and that I know readers will be interested in. The article I'm working on is a rundown of how much computer gear I can buy from Temu for under $100 total. I came in at $99.77.

Putting this article together involved looking on the Temu site for items to spotlight. For example, I found an iPad keyboard and mouse that cost about $6.

Also: Is Temu legit? What to know before you place an order

To stay under my $100 budget, I wanted to add all the Temu links to a spreadsheet, find each price, and then move things around until I got the exact total budget I wanted to spend.

The challenge was converting the Temu links into something useful. That's where ChatGPT came in.

The first thing I did was gather all my links. For each product, I copied the link from Temu and pasted it into a Notion page. When pasting a URL, Notion gives you the option to create bookmark blocks that not only contain links but also contain, crucially, product names. Here's a snapshot of that page:

As you can see, I've started selecting the blocks. Once you select all the blocks, you can copy them. I just pasted the entire set into a text editor, which looked like this:

The page looks ugly, but the result is useful.

Let's take a look at one of the data blocks. I switched my editor out of dark mode so it's easier for you to see the data elements in the block:

There are three key elements. The gold text shows the name of the product, surrounded by braces. The green text is the base URL of the product, surrounded by parenthesis. There's a question mark that separates the main page URL from all the random tracking data passed to the Temu page. I just wanted the main URL. The purple sections highlight the delimiters -- this is the data we're going to feed into ChatGPT.

I first fed ChatGPT this prompt:

Accept the following data and await further instructions.

Then I copied all the information from the text editor and pasted it into ChatGPT. At this point, ChatGPT knew to wait for more details.

The next step is where the meat of the project took place. I wanted ChatGPT to pull out the titles and the links, and leave the rest behind. Here's that prompt:

The data above consists of a series of blocks of data. At the beginning of each block is a section within [] brackets. For each block, designate this as TITLE.

Following the [] brackets is an open paren (followed by a web URL). For each block, extract that URL, but dispose of everything following the question mark, and also dispose of the question mark. Most URLs will then end in .html. We will designate this as URL.

For each block, display the TITLE followed by a carriage return, followed by the URL, followed by two newlines.

This process accomplished two things. It allowed me to name the data, so I could refer to it later. The process also allowed me to test whether ChatGPT understood the assignment.

Also: How to use ChatGPT

ChatGPT did the assignment correctly but stopped about two-thirds through when its buffer ran out. I told the bot to continue and got the rest of the data.

Doing this process by hand would have involved lots of annoying cutting and pasting. ChatGPT did the work in less than a minute.

For my project, Temu's titles are just too much. Instead of:

10 Inch LCD Writing Tablet, Electronis Memo With Leather Protective Case, Electronic Drawing Board For Digital Handwriting Pad Doodle Board, Gifts For

I wanted something more like:

LCD writing tablet with case

I gave this assignment to ChatGPT as well. I reminded the tool that it had previously parsed and identified the data. I find that reminding ChatGPT about a previous step helps it more reliably incorporate that step into subsequent steps. Then I told it to give me titles. Here's that prompt:

You just created a list with TITLE and URL. Do you remember? For the above items, please summarize the TITLE items in 4-6 words each. Only capitalize proper words and the first word. Give it back to me in a bullet list.

I got back a list like this, but for all 26 items:

My goal was to copy and paste this list of clickable links into Excel so I could use column math to play around with the items I planned to order, adding and removing items until I got to my $100 budget. I wanted the names clickable in the spreadsheet because it would be much easier to manage and jump back and forth between Temu and my project spreadsheet.

So, my final ChatGPT task was to turn the list above into a set of clickable links. Again, I started by reminding the tool of the work it had completed. Then I told it to create a list with links:

Do you see the bulleted list you just created? That is a list of summarized titles.

Okay, make the same list again, but turn each summarized title into a live web link with its corresponding URL.

And that was that. I got all the links I needed and ChatGPT did all the grunt work. I pasted the results into my spreadsheet, chose the products, and placed the order.

Also: 6 ways ChatGPT can make your everyday life easier

This is the final spreadsheet. There were more products when I started the process, but I added and removed them from the REMAINING column until I got the budget I was aiming for:

This was a project I could have done myself. But it would have required a ton of cutting and pasting, and a reasonable amount of extra thought to summarize all the product titles. It would have taken me two or three hours of grunt work and probably added to my wrist pain.

But by thinking this work through as an assignment that could be delegated, the entire ChatGPT experience took me less than 10 minutes. It probably took me less time to use ChatGPT to do all that grunt work and write this article than it would have taken me to do all that cutting, pasting, and summarizing.

Also:Thanks to my 5 favorite AI tools, I'm working smarter now

This sort of project isn't fancy and it isn't sexy. But it saved me a few hours of work I would have found tedious and unpleasant. Next time you have a data-parsing project, consider using ChatGPT.

Oh, and stay tuned. As soon as Temu sends me their haul, I'll post the detailed article about how much tech gear you can get for under $100. It'll be fun. See you there.

You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly update newsletter, and follow me on Twitter/X at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.

Excerpt from:

Saving hours of work with AI: How ChatGPT became my virtual assistant for a data project - ZDNet

Visualizing the statistical connections behind ChatGPT – FlowingData

To gain a better understanding of how ChatGPT works under the hood, Santiago Ortiz repeatedly passed the prompt Intelligence is to the chatbot. Then he visualized the statistical paths to get to a response using a 3-D network. If you squint, the network kind of looks like a computers brain.

Read more:

Visualizing the statistical connections behind ChatGPT - FlowingData

I tried using ChatGPT to help me move across the country – Mashable

When you hit your 20-somethings, nobody tells you how to adult. So now, four months away from the end of my lease, I need to figure out how to move across the country for the first time by myself. I could ask my parents, but where's the fun in that I am a big boy after all. This means obviously, as a reporter for an esteemed tech outlet, the solution is artificial intelligence.

I mean why not, right?

Big Tech has spent billions of dollars trying to find meaningful ways for us to incorporate generative AI into our lives. So, why not use generative AI as my personal assistant and financial planner during my cross-country move from Austin to Chicago?

In theory, moving to a new city is an ideal test of the tools OpenAI claims ChatGPT to be good at, especially now that it can access the internet, users can upload attachments and photos, and can be custom-built for specific needs. If ChatGPT can't ease some of my burdens when it comes to budgeting, searching for, financing, and driving to a new apartment that's more than 1,100 miles away, then perhaps it's not worth the GPUs it's built with.

Even before we look at apartments, I need ChatGPT to help me save money. On top of paying rent and utilities between now and June 1, I also started paying back my student loans in January, which runs me a cool $200 a month until the 2040s.

My goal is to paint a broad picture of what I need to do financially to have the money to make my move as stress-free as possible. ChatGPT and, thus, this experiment is inherently limited because the AI can't do all the financing for me. As much as I would love, in theory, for this AI to take care of my budgeting fully, it can't; nor do I feel comfortable allowing OpenAI to have access to my sensitive financial data.

Truly, this might be way above ChatGPT's pay grade considering it's a conversational AI with a hallucination problem (and not an arithmetic machine), but I gave both AIs the prompt specifying what I'm trying to achieve and asked it to calculate "how much I need to save from each paycheck to reasonably move to Chicago."

The AI was game to help.

You gotta be as specific as possible. The AI's don't appreciate having to do financial guesswork. Credit: OpenAI via screenshot

The big challenge was getting numbers that were realistic to my current situation especially when it came to dates. Between the time this was written and when my July 1 move-in date arrives, I'll receive 7 paychecks. During testing, if my prompt didn't specify July 1, 2024, ChatGPT would assume I meant July 1, 2025, and calculate for a year's worth of money. And even when I am specific about the dates, the AIs may still just hallucinate random numbers, like when ChatGPT randomly calculated for 10 pay periods instead of the 7 I'd specified.

The math was a little spotty, but with some tweaking to the prompts, ChatGPT gave me the ideal number that I should save based on my income and recurring payments. This matched up with the math I did by hand, which admittedly doesn't mean much that's why my degree is in journalism and not STEM.

Now that I know how much I need to save, I need to get a shortlist of places that fit within my budget. My range for rent for my next apartment is $1,000-$1,500. I'm not looking for anything fancy in the Windy City, but a studio/1 bed with an in-unit washer/dryer would be perfect.

Unfortunately, OpenAI has slowly wound down plugins so we're going to have to rely on CustomGPTs, an evolved version of plugins that allows users to create their own chatbots, to specify our real estate needs for this experiment. I used three different CustomGPTs: Apartment/House Rental Finder, Apartment Scout, and Apartment Finder.

So far, the running trend with these GPTs and this experiment, in general, is I need to be extremely specific which ruins the fun for me, because I'm trying to offload all my thinking to the robot. It's clearly a worse experience than just Googling. For instance, Apartment Scout gives a bulleted list of neighborhoods, and when I tell it which one I like, it goes:

It looks like I'm encountering some technical difficulties accessing the specific rental listings directly from the sources I usually rely on. However, you can find suitable studio or 1-bedroom apartments within your price range and criteria by checking out popular rental websites such as Zillow, Apartments.com, and Realtor.com.

What do you mean go somewhere else? Credit: OpenAI via screenshot

On another attempt, it provides a few links to actual apartment listings.

Now it wants to act right. Credit: OpenAI via screenshot

At least this GPT provides a link for me, unlike Apartment/House Rental Finder, which uses Craigslist to find apartments that specify my needs and then will tell me to go there myself if I ask for links to the apartments it listed.

Very helpful. Credit: OpenAI via screenshot

Ultimately, Apartment Finder was also not of much help and also told me to go somewhere else to find what I needed.

Credit: OpenAI via screenshot

The results (or lack thereof) are not surprising. ChatGPT was designed to tell the user whatever will make the user feel happy or smart, rather than be any sort of leader or authority, so if you are unsure about the broad strokes of where you want to live, then you're not gonna have much luck.

I'll guess I'll stick to late-night scrolling on Zillow.

The final step of this move is the packing and planning of the drive. One of the perks of ChatGPT is that you can upload pictures now, so I decided to see if showing ChatGPT my room would help it give me advice on how to pack up my belongings for the move.

Short answer: It didn't. Long answer: It didn't, and instead gave me generic advice on how to rip apart my room:

First, declutter the room, separating items to keep, donate, or discard. Gather moving supplies: boxes, bubble wrap, packing paper, tape, and markers. Pack items from least used to most used, labeling boxes with contents and destination room. Dismantle furniture, wrapping pieces in moving blankets or bubble wrap. Protect the electronics with bubble wrap and place them in boxes. Roll up the rug and secure with tape. Pack the artwork with bubble wrap and place in picture boxes. Use wardrobe boxes for hanging clothes and suitcases for others. Pack a box of essentials separately. Clean the room once emptied.

This advice, especially that neat tidbit about rolling up the rug in my room, wasn't all that useful (hint: my floor is carpeted).

Don't mind my room, it's a little dirty Credit: OpenAI via screenshot

Okay, well, that was a bust, so what about the drive? Unsurprisingly, this is where ChatGPT was the most helpful. I gave it two scenarios: one where I use a rented U-Haul to drive to Chicago, and another where I keep my car. According to the U-Haul website and the math done by ChatGPT, renting and driving a U-Haul costs around $700+.

The mover's dilemma: Sell all my stuff or spend $700 on a U-Haul? Credit: OpenAI via screenshot

If I drive my car, a 2012 Dodge Durango, the cost of just the gas is only around $240.

After calculating costs, ChatGPT gave me some routes to take. Of course, that information is superfluous since I can use Google Maps anyway, but it's nice to know now where my little adventure will take me. According to my friend from Illinois, the drive from Austin to Chicago is not great, so I'm glad ChatGPT told me to have some podcasts on deck to keep me entertained.

Here's the TL;DR: Don't use ChatGPT to plan a move across the country.

It's not that ChatGPT can't be helpful, cause it can. The chatbot helped me visualize a broad overview of my finances and gave me some useful tips and tricks for packing and route-planning. However, you need to be so hyper-specific with the prompts that all that time tinkering could be spent, you know, planning your move yourself.

Wanna use the CustomGPTs to help find apartments? Sorry, they'll just tell you to use Zillow. Wanna use ChatGPT to pin down how much to save out of your paychecks? Unless you're willing to get into the weeds about your financial security, good luck getting it to not just make shit up and even then it still might. Of course, these chatbots aren't designed to do life for you, but this exercise was somehow more frustrating than I thought it would be.

I guess I'll call my parents for help after all.

See original here:

I tried using ChatGPT to help me move across the country - Mashable

OpenAI outage reported as ChatGPT users face ‘internal server error’ message – The US Sun

Reports begin to drop

After a major spike in outages just after 9 pm EST, reports of issues began to drop.

Reports fell to under 500 before 10 pm EST, per Downdetector.

There are no official incidents reported on OpenAI's official status page.

Major cities including New York City, Los Angeles, and Phoenix are reporting the most outages with OpenAI.

Approximately 89% of users experiencing problems with OpenAI are reporting issues with the software's chatbot, ChatGPT.

ChatGPT stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer and is intended to generate responses based on various prompts.

Just 9% of users are reporting problems with OpenAI's website, while 3% are struggling to log in, according to Downdetector.

Visit link:

OpenAI outage reported as ChatGPT users face 'internal server error' message - The US Sun

Universities build their own ChatGPT-like AI tools – Inside Higher Ed

When ChatGPT debuted in November 2022, Ravi Pendse knew fast action was needed. While the University of Michigan formed an advisory group to explore ChatGPTs impact on teaching and learning, Pendse, UMichs chief information officer, took it further.

Months later, before the fall 2023 semester, the university launched U-M GPT, a homebuilt generative AI tool that now boasts between 14,000 to 16,000 daily users.

A report is great, but if we could provide tools, that would be even better, Pendse said, noting that Michigan is very concerned about equity. U-M GPT is all free; we wanted to even the playing field.

Most Popular

The University of Michigan is one of a small number of institutions that have created their own versions of ChatGPT for student and faculty use over the last year. Those include Harvard University, Washington University, the University of California, Irvine and UC San Diego. The effort goes beyond jumping on the artificial intelligence (AI) bandwagonfor the universities, its a way to overcome concerns about equity, privacy and intellectual property rights.

We need to talk about AI for good of course, but lets talk about not creating the next version of the digital divide.

Students can use OpenAIs ChatGPT and similar tools for everything from writing assistance to answering homework questions. The newest version of ChatGPT costs $20 per month, while older versions remain free. The newer models have more up-to-date information, which could give students who can afford it a leg up.

That fee, no matter how small, creates a gap unfair to students, said Tom Andriola, UC Irvines chief digital officer.

Do we think its right, in who we are as an organization, for some students to pay $20 a month to get access to the best [AI] models while others have access to lesser capabilities? Andriola said. Principally, it pushes us on an equity scale where AI has to be for all. We need to talk about AI for good of course, but lets talk about not creating the next version of the digital divide.

UC Irvine publicly announced their own AI chatbotdubbed ZotGPTon Monday. Deployed in various capacities since October 2023, it remains in testing and is only available to staff and faculty. The tool can help them with everything from creating class syllabi to writing code.

Offering their own version of ChatGPT allows faculty and staff to use the technology without the concerns that come with OpenAIs version, Andriola said.

When we saw generative AI, we said, We need to get people learning this as fast as possible, with as many people playing with this that we could, he said. [ZotGPT] lets people overcome privacy concerns, intellectual property concerns, and gives them an opportunity of, How can I use this to be a better version of myself tomorrow?

That issue of intellectual property has been a major concern and a driver behind universities creating their own AI tools. OpenAI has not been transparent in how it trains ChatGPT, leaving many worried about research and potential privacy violations.

Albert Lai, deputy faculty lead for digital transformation at Washington University, spearheaded the launch of WashU GPT last year.

WashUalong with UC Irvine and University of Michiganbuilt their tools using Microsofts Azure platform, which allows users to integrate the work into their institutions applications. The platform uses open source software available for free. In contrast, proprietary platforms like OpenAIs ChatGPT have an upfront fee.

A look at WashU GPT, a version of Washington Universitys own generative AI platform that promises more privacy and IP security than ChatGPT.

Provided/Washington University

There are some downsides when universities train their own models. Because a universitys GPT is based on the research, tests and lectures put in by an institution, it may not be as up-to-date as the commercial ChatGPT.

But thats a price we agreed to pay; we thought about privacy, versus what were willing to give up, Lai said. And we felt the value in maintaining privacy was higher in our community.

To ensure privacy is kept within a universitys GPT, Lai encouraged other institutions to ensure any Microsoft institutional agreements include data protection for IP. UC Irvine and UMichigan also have agreements with Microsoft that any information put into their GPT models will stay within the university and not be publicly available.

Weve developed a platform on top of [Microsofts] foundational models to provide faculty comfort that their IP is protected, Pendse said. Any faculty memberincluding myselfwould be very uncomfortable in putting a lecture and exams in an OpenAI model (such as ChatGPT) because then its out there for the world.

Once you figure out the secret sauce, its pretty straightforward.

It remains to be seen whether more universities will build their own generative AI chatbots.

Consulting firm Ithaka S+R formed a 19-university task force in September dubbed Making AI Generative for Higher Education to further study the use and rise of generative AI. The task force members include Princeton University, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Chicago.

Lai and others encourage university IT officials to continue experimenting with what is publicly available, which can eventually morph into their own versions of ChatGPT.

I think more places do want to do it and most places havent figured out how to do it yet, he said. But frankly, in my opinion, once you figure out the magic sauce its pretty straightforward.

Visit link:

Universities build their own ChatGPT-like AI tools - Inside Higher Ed

AI is More Than ChatGPT: It is a Ticking Time Bomb for Women – Torch – St. John’s University

Photo Courtesy / Unsplash Melanie Wasser

In recent months, image-based sexual abuse has been on the rise due to alternative intelligence (AI) mainly targeting high-profile women. It also imposes an increased risk to the LGBTQ+ community, sex workers and women everywhere. A 2023 UPenn article on the rise of deepfake porn says, Broadly speaking, minoritized women and femmes are more likely to experience image-based sexual abuse, as are single people and adolescents. LGBTQ populations are also at increased risk of harassment.

There are currently four states that created laws based on image-based sexual abuse. But with the growth of the internet, now more than anything what society needs is protection of the most vulnerable. When 14 year old Mia Janine takes her own life as a result of bullying and her face being placed onto the bodies of porn stars, it makes me fear what AI could do next.

What do we turn to when we see our own faces reflected back at us on the news and social media? When one girl dies or is faced with an inconceivable amount of tragedy, all girls watching stand as testaments to her pain.

We turn on the news and see our politicians arguing for more law enforcement and to lock people up in prisons overflowing with blue-collar criminals. But there is something about the politics of it all that makes my stomach turn and keep me from making eye contact with the girls face staring back at me, especially knowing that the politicians raising their voices only comes from a sense of inherent whiteness and lack of acknowledgement for women of color.

In order to stop these things from happening, the culture around womens existences must shift. Image-based sexual abuse is an example of the continual affects AI pornography can have on generations of people. If boys grow up believing that behavior like this is okay, what will stop them from using it to harm the women that they know? The cycle continues.

This is not a call for more policing or for longer prison sentences when tragedy does strike, this is a call for accountability. For resources available to victims and perpetrators, for laws to be created to catch crimes before they increase.

Resources can include community-led programs about sexual assault prevention and affordable therapy for people dealing with the effects of abuse and assault on their lives. More than anything, this is a call to see one less smiling girls eyes staring into mine, knowing that she died and nothing can be done to save her. Knowing that I cannot reach into my screen and pull her out.

These girls are suspended in time for me as the same age they were when they died. When the boys mugshot appears on the screen, I try to imagine what he was like as a child and what happened down the line for everything to go so wrong for him.

Social media, Deepfake images and an entire world of systemic, personal and institutional oppression fosters a world where the most heinous thoughts are validated. In order to be here for our women, we need to start with our boys.

Continue reading here:

AI is More Than ChatGPT: It is a Ticking Time Bomb for Women - Torch - St. John's University

There Might Be No ChatGPT-like Apple Chatbot in iOS 18 – The Mac Observer

The recent months in the tech scene have been all about artificial intelligence and its impact, but one company that has been late to the party is Apple. Apple first hinted about inhouse-AI development during a recent earnings call, which followed the earlier reports of the company reaching out to major publishers to use their data to train its AIs dataset, canceling the Apple Car project and shifting the team to AI. However, according to Bloombergs Mark Gurman, Apple might not debut a ChatGPT-like chatbot, at all. Instead, the company is exploring deals with established tech giants such as Chinas Baidu, OpenAI, and Google about potential partnerships.

That said, Apple might instead focus on licensing already-established chatbots like Googles Gemini (fka Bard) or OpenAIs ChatGPT. They might delay all plans to release an Apple chatbot, internally dubbed Ajax GPT.

Nevertheless, Mark Gurman believes AI will remain in the shows spotlight at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), slated for June 10-14, 2024 where we expect to see iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11, tvOS 18, macOS 15, and visionOS 2. Although he doesnt delve into details of the upcoming AI feature, he mentions the companys plans to unveil new AI features, which could serve as the backbone of the next iOS 18. This suggests that even if Apple doesnt intend to bring a native AI chatbot to the devices, we might see a popular chatbot pre-installed on the phones or supported natively by the device. For reference, a London-based consumer tech firm, Nothing, recently partnered with the Perplexity AI search engine to power up its latest release, Phone 2(a), and Apple might have similar plans, but with generative AI giants.

CEO Tim Cook recently spoke to investors that the company will disclose its AI plans to the public later this year. Despite Apples overall reticence on the topic, Cook has been notably vocal about the potential of AI, particularly generative AI.

More importantly, according to previous reports, he has indicated that generative AI will improve Siris ability to respond to more complex queries and enable the Messages app to complete sentences automatically. Furthermore, other Apple apps such as Apple Music, Shortcuts, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are expected to integrate generative AI functionality.

Source

Read the rest here:

There Might Be No ChatGPT-like Apple Chatbot in iOS 18 - The Mac Observer

VIDEO: Using ChatGPT and generative AI tools in journalism – Online Journalism Blog

A few months ago I delivered a webinar for the European Data Journalism Network and DataNinja about the range of ways that journalists can use ChatGPT and other generative AI tools from idea generation and mapping systems to help with spelling and coding and what issues they need to be aware of.

The video is now available online and you can watch it below.

More here:

VIDEO: Using ChatGPT and generative AI tools in journalism - Online Journalism Blog