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- Imagining New Realities: AI Drives Personalized Medicine, Ethical Debates, and Sci-Fi Visions
Imagining New Realities: AI Drives Personalized Medicine, Ethical Debates, and Sci-Fi Visions
Niel de Kock
May 23, 2024
Welcome to the latest newsletter, where we dive into AI's exciting world, emphasizing education and broader societal impacts.
Education AI News
Digital Twins Pave the Way for Personalized Medicine
The article discusses the potential of "digital twin" technology in medicine, highlighting its emergence as a vital tool for personalized medicine. Digital twins, which create simulations of physical systems or processes, are already enhancing medical treatments by allowing for tailored healthcare solutions. The piece suggests that substantial investment in research and infrastructure, alongside comprehensive data regulation, is crucial for integrating this technology into mainstream medical practices. It also emphasizes the need for ethical considerations regarding data privacy and ownership.
Reimagining AI: New Science Fiction for a Hopeful Future
The article discusses the need for new narratives about AI that highlight positive possibilities, emphasizing the role of fiction in shaping public perceptions and AI development. It highlights the Future of Life Institute's efforts to promote more optimistic visions of AI through various creative collaborations, aiming to replace the common dystopian themes with more hopeful and equitable scenarios. The article suggests that integrating the humanities with AI development can inspire beneficial uses of the technology, fostering a future where AI supports human welfare and equity.
Five Strategies for Integrating AI in K-12 Education
Here are five key recommendations for AI in education from Laura Ascione's article:
Develop AI Literacy Programs: Enhance AI understanding among educators to ensure effective teaching integration, focusing on capabilities and ethical considerations.
Create Collaborative Platforms: Establish spaces for educators to exchange strategies and experiences with AI, fostering a community of practice for continuous learning.
Ensure Equitable AI Access: Guarantee all students can access AI resources, addressing the digital divide to prevent widening achievement gaps.
Incorporate Ethical AI Usage in Curricula: Teach students about ethical AI use, covering privacy, bias, and digital citizenship to prepare them as responsible users and creators.
Facilitate Ongoing Professional Development: Provide continuous learning opportunities in generative AI to keep educators updated with the latest advancements and teaching methods.
(https://www.eschoolnews.com/digital-learning/2024/05/23/5-key-recommendations-for-ai-in-education/)
AI Pioneers in Journalism Education at Newmark J-School
The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism is enhancing its commitment to AI education by forming an AI Advisory Board. This board combines faculty with notable external AI experts to guide the school's integration of artificial intelligence into journalism education. The initiative reflects Newmark's focus on training journalists to use AI responsibly, emphasizing the technology's ethical implications and potential to reshape news production and consumption. This move builds on the school’s history of integrating AI into its curriculum, including unique courses and a new AI Journalism Lab developed with Microsoft.
AI News
Meta Revisits News: Using AI for Content Amid Legal Challenges
Despite the company's previous distancing from news content, Meta's new AI tool now utilizes news articles to provide content summaries within its platforms. This development, highlighted during Meta AI's rollout in Canada—where the company had blocked news links to sidestep paying publishers—could stir another conflict with the news industry. The AI tool summarizes news without leaving Meta's apps, potentially affecting how users access and publishers monetize content. Critics raise privacy and ethical concerns, suggesting this could alter content consumption dramatically, affecting the news industry's traffic and engagement.
UK Watchdog Scrutinizes Microsoft's AI Screenshot Feature
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is investigating Microsoft's new feature in Copilot+ that takes screenshots every few seconds for privacy concerns. This feature, named Recall, stores encrypted snapshots locally and is touted as optional, with user-controlled limits on data collection. However, privacy advocates warn it could be a "privacy nightmare" due to potential misuse and the chilling effect on user behavior. Microsoft insists that Recall incorporates strong privacy safeguards, emphasizing that data stays on the device unless accessed physically.
Scams Unheeded: Public Apathy in the Face of Rising AI-Facilitated Fraud
Clark Hoefnagels created an AI tool named Catch to identify scam emails after his grandmother was scammed. Despite its potential, the public showed little interest in such protective measures, believing scams wouldn't recur. Hoefnagels plans to discontinue Catch but hopes to integrate its technology into broader financial products. Meanwhile, banks recognize the threat of AI-enabled fraud and increasingly adopt AI to detect and prevent fraudulent activities.
Scarlett Johansson's Dispute with OpenAI Reflects Silicon Valley's Ethical Challenges
Scarlett Johansson's recent dispute with OpenAI highlights ongoing ethical concerns in Silicon Valley reminiscent of its early "move fast and break things" era. Johansson alleged that OpenAI used her voice likeness without consent for a ChatGPT product, which OpenAI denies. This incident underscores the creative industry's fears about AI potentially mimicking and replacing human roles. The scenario reflects broader issues of responsibility and regulation in the tech industry as AI advances rapidly.
AI tools
Empowering Business Narratives: The Introduction of STORYD for Dynamic Presentation Creation
STORYD is an AI tool that instantly generates high-quality, engaging business presentations and data-driven stories from brief text descriptions. It automates the creation of comprehensive presentation decks complete with slides, visuals, and coherent narratives. Key features include real-time collaboration, multimedia support, AI brainstorming, and customization options like themes and branding elements. It caters to business professionals, students, educators, and non-profits. STORYD offers free and premium plans starting at $19/month. It was founded by Zack Mazzoncini and Michael Grimm.
Empowering Video Creation with FlexClip: Simplified and Enhanced with AI Tools
FlexClip is an online video maker and editor that simplifies the creation of professional videos. It provides tools like AI Video Generator, AI Text to Speech, and AI Script Generator. Users can customize videos with text, music, and visuals using templates tailored to different industries. FlexClip supports collaboration, offers cloud storage, and integrates AI tools to enhance video content creation. It targets many users, from marketers to educators, emphasizing easy usability and quick video production without prior experience.
Considering the need to reshape public perceptions of AI towards more optimistic scenarios, as discussed in the article, if you could pick one fictional book about AI's future, which would it be and why?
Enjoy your week till next week.