Future Bites #8
How AI will positively impact education, why Dr. Hinton leaving Google is a good thing for AI, my magical experience with ChatGPT plugins, and free AI courses you can take
Hey friends 👋
Welcome back to Year 2049! I’m sending this edition of Future Bites a few days late because I was busy spending time with family to celebrate my cousin’s graduation (congrats, Jad!).
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Today’s Edition:
Cartoon: Goodbye, passwords
Stories:
Geoffrey Hinton leaving Google will benefit the future of AI
My magical experience with ChatGPT plugins
AI and the Future of Education
Resources:
AI for Everyone
ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers
My favourite (and free) AI resources
Bonus: Lessons from the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation
✏️ Cartoon: Goodbye, passwords
Google now lets you use passkeys instead of passwords to access your accounts (TechCrunch). I wrote about why this is a more secure alternative last year.
📰 Stories
Even the Godfather of AI is worried about AI
Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, aka the “Godfather” of AI, made headlines this week after resigning from Google. His reason? He wants to speak freely about the risks of AI. More specifically, he’s concerned about:
The ongoing AI race between Google and Microsoft, which is pressuring both companies to release premature products without prioritizing safety.
The proliferation of deepfake images and videos can spread misinformation at an unprecedented scale.
AI “upending” the job market
We’ve heard many people warn us about the dangers of AI, but it’s much more concerning when we hear it from the leading mind in the industry. After all, Dr. Hinton was the only one who believed in AI’s potential after the field’s underwhelming achievements 50 years ago. When AI research lacked funding (and believers), he persisted. Many of the top AI scientists at companies like OpenAI and Meta were his students.
Dr. Hinton’s worries should absolutely be taken seriously, and I think his departure from Google will benefit the future of AI. We need to have the Godfather of AI lead and advocate for the responsible development and use of AI development, without the shackles of a big (and public) tech company like Google. Instead of helping Google in its AI race with Microsoft, he can make the world more aware of AI’s risks and how we can mitigate them.
This freedom will even allow him to offer his expertise and collaborate with policymakers and regulators as they try to define the AI “rules of play”. The EU has been working on its AI Act for 3 years, and the vote is expected to happen later this year.
My magical experience with ChatGPT plugins
I finally got access to ChatGPT plugins and I was impressed. I tried to automate one of the tasks I hate doing each week: meal planning and grocery shopping. Instead of telling you what it did, I would much rather show you.
I made a short video about it a few days ago.
We’ve entered the Third Age of human-computer interaction.
Khan Academy shows us the future of education
We’re on the cusp of using AI for probably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen
– Sal Khan
Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy and the man who has single-handedly educated millions of us with his lessons and tutorials, talked about how his company is embracing AI to improve the student and teacher experience in his recent TED Talk.
Many have declared the “death” of education and learning when ChatGPT arrived, but Khan Academy’s approach will have you rethinking that argument. Some highlights:
Khan Academy is introducing “Khanmigo”, a ChatGPT-like chatbot that students can use within the platform
Khanmigo acts as a personal tutor that assists students, answers their questions, clarifies concepts, and helps them correct their mistakes (without actually giving the answers)
Students can use it as a guidance counsellor
Khanmigo can assume the personality of famous book characters, like Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby and answer the student’s questions
Students can collaborate with Khanmigo to write a story, step-by-step
Khanmigo can also assist teachers in creating engaging lesson plans, quizzes, and progress reports
Sal’s talk is a must-watch and it will get you excited about AI’s impact on education.
The “death of education” narrative completely ignores the students who seek knowledge and enjoy learning. There will always be those who use technology to cut corners and do less work, but let’s not forget those who want to use it to improve and become the best version of themselves.
🔎 Recommendations
AI for Everyone Course
DeepLearning.AI offers a free 6-hour course that teaches you the fundamentals of AI. This course will teach you important concepts, terminology, use cases, and risks of AI. And it’s free. 🔗 AI for Everyone on DeepLearning.AIChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers
Another new course from DeepLearning.AI made for developers. The course covers how to build new applications using LLMs. I haven’t started this course yet, but I plan on doing so soon for a project you’ll hear about soon (👀). 🔗 ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers
Side note: I’m gathering all the resources I send every week into one page in case you missed any from previous newsletters. Bookmark this page and share it with friends 👇
🎁 Bonus
I was in Detroit this weekend and I visited the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and this was on one of the displays.
The common behaviour across history’s greatest innovators is the continuous loop of implementation and learning from failure.
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