Month: August 2024
Your next professor at this college could be ChatGPT
OpenAI and Arizona State University deploy ChatGPT Edu to teaching, research, and more on campus.
Arizona State University (ASU) has made ChatGPT its busiest faculty member this year. The AI chatbot helps students write academic papers, simulates patients for healthcare students, and recruits participants for research studies, among hundreds of other roles.
ASU and OpenAI agreed to work together earlier this year, deploying an adapted version of ChatGPT designed to help with teaching, research, and other academic needs called ChatGPT Edu. ChatGPT Edu is now a key part of the campus experience, serving ASU’s plans to use AI for more personalized and accessible learning and research experiences.
“No two people learn in exactly the same way, and innovation has proven to be the most powerful asset that we have,” ASU President Michael Crow explained. “Essential to ASU’s success is that we use technology, and now AI, to deliver lifelong learning and to drive human potential.”
ASU created the AI Innovation Challenge when announcing the deal and asked faculty to suggest ways ChatGPT could assist in their work. More than 80% of ASU’s schools and colleges submitted proposals in only a few weeks, leading to a second round that was also open to student researchers. There are now more than 400 proposals under consideration, with over 200 projects employing ChatGPT Edu in some form already begun.
Academic AI
ChatGPT Edu’s highlights include the “AI as a Writing Companion” program. ChatGPT helps students write for academic settings with real-time feedback on their papers. Meanwhile, there’s a virtual patient named “Sam” at the College of Health Solutions, a simulated middle-aged smoker powered by ChatGPT gives students a chance to practice clinical care and interact with a patient. Then there’s “Research Plus Me,” which aids with research participation recruitment and helps make it both more effective and more ethical.
“We are convinced that training students to use AI is essential for their future workforce success,” says Anne Jones, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. “People are excited because they now have concrete examples to point to in which AI is improving their outcomes in the classroom.”
ASU’s success is likely to set a template for other universities working with OpenAI and other AI developers. With all due ethical considerations, AI may be a big boon to higher education. Attempts to ban ChatGPT and related tools outright are unlikely to really work, especially when it comes to discerning AI-written text from human compositions. It makes sense for schools to look for ways to embed AI in their campus to better control it rather than drive it underground.
You might also like…
Goodbye GPT-3.5, OpenAI’s new GPT-4o mini AI model is all about compact powerChatGPT just (accidentally) shared all of its secret rules – here’s what we learnedIf you think GPT-4o is something, wait until you see GPT-5 – a ‘significant leap forward’
Best Solar Panel Installation Companies in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is one of the sunniest areas in the country, making solar panels popular and effective.
Albuquerque is one of the sunniest areas in the country, making solar panels popular and effective.
Meta is ending support for custom face filters in its apps
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
Meta is shutting down all third-party face filters and AR effects on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, along with the tools used to create them, on January 14th, 2025. That includes any created by brands and other third parties, the company wrote in a blog post today. Meta’s own AR effects will continue to operate, however.
The Meta Spark platform is used to create face filters like those you’d see on Snapchat or TikTok that make you look old or reimagine you as a cartoon character, as well as AR games and ads. Any videos that have used Spark-based AR effects will stay up on Facebook, Instagram, and in messages sent over Messenger, the company says in its FAQ about the change.
Meta introduced its AR tools in 2017, giving it an answer to AR features Snapchat already had. It’s been a popular part of the platform, and the change hasn’t gone unnoticed by the platform’s creators, as TechCrunch notes, pointing to complaints on Facebook’s Meta Spark Community.
Meta writes that it’s still committed to AR, through its “long-term investments in new computing platforms that will bring us beyond today’s 2D experiences on mobile.” Part of that involves “shifting resources” to other experiences, such as glasses. (It’s expected to demonstrate its Orion AR glasses prototype at Meta Connect.)
Anyone who wants to save AR effects they’ve made with Meta Spark can do so using these instructions, copied from Meta’s FAQ:
To download an AR effect file:
Log in to Meta Spark Hub.
Click Effects.
Click the effect you want to download.
Click Files and download the file.
To download a demo video:
Log in to Meta Spark Hub.
Click Effects.
Click the effect you want to download.
Click Details.
Under Demo video, on the video, click the three dots (More options) and select Download.
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
Meta is shutting down all third-party face filters and AR effects on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, along with the tools used to create them, on January 14th, 2025. That includes any created by brands and other third parties, the company wrote in a blog post today. Meta’s own AR effects will continue to operate, however.
The Meta Spark platform is used to create face filters like those you’d see on Snapchat or TikTok that make you look old or reimagine you as a cartoon character, as well as AR games and ads. Any videos that have used Spark-based AR effects will stay up on Facebook, Instagram, and in messages sent over Messenger, the company says in its FAQ about the change.
Meta introduced its AR tools in 2017, giving it an answer to AR features Snapchat already had. It’s been a popular part of the platform, and the change hasn’t gone unnoticed by the platform’s creators, as TechCrunch notes, pointing to complaints on Facebook’s Meta Spark Community.
Meta writes that it’s still committed to AR, through its “long-term investments in new computing platforms that will bring us beyond today’s 2D experiences on mobile.” Part of that involves “shifting resources” to other experiences, such as glasses. (It’s expected to demonstrate its Orion AR glasses prototype at Meta Connect.)
Anyone who wants to save AR effects they’ve made with Meta Spark can do so using these instructions, copied from Meta’s FAQ:
To download an AR effect file:
Log in to Meta Spark Hub.
Click Effects.
Click the effect you want to download.
Click Files and download the file.
To download a demo video:
Log in to Meta Spark Hub.
Click Effects.
Click the effect you want to download.
Click Details.
Under Demo video, on the video, click the three dots (More options) and select Download.
Teenage Maurice Sendak illustrated his teacher’s 1947 pop-sci book
Drawings of Atomics for the Millions “reveal early postwar anxieties about nuclear war.”
Enlarge / A young Maurice Sendak’s illustration of two possible outcomes of atomic power for the 1947 pop-sci book Atomics for the Millions. (credit: McGraw Hill/Public domain)
Beloved American children’s author and illustrator Maurice Sendak probably needs no introduction. His 1963 book, Where the Wild Things Are, is an all-time classic in the picture genre that has delighted generations of kids. It has sold over 19 million copies worldwide, won countless awards, and inspired a children’s opera and a critically acclaimed 2009 feature film adaptation, as well as being spoofed on an episode of The Simpsons.
But one might be surprised to learn (as we were) that a teenage Sendak published his first professional illustrations in a 1947 popular science book about nuclear physics, co-authored by his high school physics teacher: Atomics for the Millions. Science historian Ryan Dahn came across a copy in the Niels Bohr Library & Archives at the American Institute of Physics in College Park, Maryland, and wrote a short online article about the book for Physics Today, complete with scans of Sendak’s most striking illustrations.
Born in Brooklyn to Polish-Jewish parents, Sendak acknowledged that his childhood had been a sad one, overshadowed by losing many extended family members during the Holocaust. That, combined with health issues that confined him to his bed, compelled the young Sendak to find solace in books. When Sendak was 12, he watched Walt Disney’s Fantasia, which inspired him to become an illustrator.
Watch out Windows — Linux market share could hit a major milestone soon
February 2025 could have a big moment in store for the Linux operating system, despite it typically being limited to business and enterprise.
After the Crowdstrike incident shone a light on Windows’ utter dominance across enterprise in late July 2024, users may be relieved to hear perennial up-and-comer Linux may be on course to hit 5% market share by 2025.
While new data from StatCounter, providing data for July 2024, shows that Windows is still the stalwart favourite with 72% market share, Linux was recorded as having reached 4.5% market share.
This could be welcome news for anyone not already in or looking to get out of the Apple ecosystem, or displeased with Microsoft’s interminable attempts to turn Windows into a service.
Linux and your small business
As our sister site Tom’s Hardware has addressed – Linux’s rise hasn’t been smooth sailing. Though it reached 4% in late February 2024, it then slipped back to a 3.9% share in April and May. This latest result, however, shows that progress is happening thick and fast, and if the alternative operating system’s current market share trajectory holds, it will hit 5% by February 2025.
Windows and MacOS are the ubiquitous household names in the OS space, and Crowdstrike has, in the case of the former, shown that many enterprises also reach for brand recognition and, more pertinently, interoperability with existing Windows client systems.
However, Linux does offer several advantages over either of these that are pertinent to a smaller business environment, should you be up to the task of convincing your sysadmin to acknowledge that it exists. The first and foremost one is price: an overwhelming majority of Linux distributions (popular ones including Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Zorin OS) are free, or offer modestly priced versions bundled with additional productivity tools (Zorin OS Pro, for $47.99/£47.99, is one example).
Meanwhile, legal use of MacOS requires purchasing premium hardware well into the hundreds if not thousands of dollars, and Windows 11 Pro, before you even get into being pushed into buying into the subscription-based Microsoft 365 collaboration tools, is $199.
That will help drive adoption in the future, but for now, a key factor in Linux’s immediate rise is the popular distributions that are leaning heavily into features and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that are not only intuitive, but pointedly resemble the ‘big two’.
Ubuntu – the operating system this writer is running – combines a Windows-like taskbar with MacOS’ ‘Launchpad’ for apps, as well as an ‘app store’ serving cross-distro apps (‘flatpaks’) from popular app distribution platform Flathub. The average user or employee can get by without ever touching the command line, and that’s been the case for a handful of years now.
In truth, even 5% market share won’t shatter any records or expectations, but it’s no wonder that Linux is having its day, when its competitors seem committed to ‘walled garden’ philosophy. If you’re not convinced, consider Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps, the increasing dependence on Microsoft accounts to set up Windows in the first place, and Apple since the beginning of recorded time, 2007 AD.
More from TechRadar Pro
Linux is cool now – but why?We’ve also listed the best Linux PCs right nowMicrosoft is holding a major Windows security event to reveal all on CrowdStrike outage — but we may still not find out everything
Election Deepfakes Are Getting Better (and Easier to Make)
The fake photos and videos look convincing, and it doesn’t help when former presidents post them on social media.
The fake photos and videos look convincing, and it doesn’t help when former presidents post them on social media.
Mark Zuckerberg responds to GOP pressure, says Biden pushed to ‘censor’ covid posts
Illustration by The Verge | Photo by Tom Williams via Getty Images
In a letter to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee on Monday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the Biden administration “repeatedly pressured” his teams to “censor” content related to covid in 2021. Zuckerberg told the committee chair, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), that the pressure was “wrong” and he regrets not being “more outspoken about it.” He also told Jordan he would avoid repeating a 2020 donation to support local election infrastructure, aiming to avoid the perception of playing a non-neutral role in politics.
The letter largely comes as a response to increasing scrutiny from Republicans, who have accused platforms like Facebook and Instagram of being biased against conservatives for years. More recently in May, Rep. Jordan led an investigation into Meta’s interaction with the Biden administration during the pandemic. Zuckerberg’s letter puts much of the blame on employees of Biden — who, incidentally, isn’t running for another term in office.
Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things:1. Biden-Harris Admin “pressured” Facebook to censor Americans. 2. Facebook censored Americans. 3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story. Big win for free speech. pic.twitter.com/ALlbZd9l6K— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) August 26, 2024
“We made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today,” Zuckerberg says. “Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction — and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.”
Facebook began removing posts containing misinformation at the start of the pandemic and later expanded its reach to posts with false claims about the covid vaccine. It also took action against public figures and groups for spreading false claims. At the same time, social platforms faced pushback from government officials, who claimed they weren’t doing enough to combat misinformation.
In July 2021, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy asked social platforms to rework their algorithms to “avoid amplifying misinformation,” while President Joe Biden said platforms like Facebook were “killing people” with false claims about the virus.
Republican state attorneys general from Missouri and Louisiana later sued the Biden administration in 2022 for allegedly violating the First Amendment by coercing social media companies into removing misinformation. However, the Supreme Court ruled in June of this year that their actions weren’t unconstitutional and that the government could continue communicating with social platforms. “Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions,” Zuckerberg writes.
Separately, Zuckerberg’s letter addresses Facebook’s demotion of a New York Post story about President Biden’s son, Hunter, in 2020. Zuckerberg says the platform temporarily reduced its reach after receiving a warning from the FBI that it could be Russian disinformation. However, Zuckerberg now says the platform “shouldn’t have demoted the story” and that it no longer demotes stories while waiting for someone to fact-check it.
Illustration by The Verge | Photo by Tom Williams via Getty Images
In a letter to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee on Monday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the Biden administration “repeatedly pressured” his teams to “censor” content related to covid in 2021. Zuckerberg told the committee chair, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), that the pressure was “wrong” and he regrets not being “more outspoken about it.” He also told Jordan he would avoid repeating a 2020 donation to support local election infrastructure, aiming to avoid the perception of playing a non-neutral role in politics.
The letter largely comes as a response to increasing scrutiny from Republicans, who have accused platforms like Facebook and Instagram of being biased against conservatives for years. More recently in May, Rep. Jordan led an investigation into Meta’s interaction with the Biden administration during the pandemic. Zuckerberg’s letter puts much of the blame on employees of Biden — who, incidentally, isn’t running for another term in office.
Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things:
1. Biden-Harris Admin “pressured” Facebook to censor Americans.
2. Facebook censored Americans.
3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Big win for free speech. pic.twitter.com/ALlbZd9l6K
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) August 26, 2024
“We made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today,” Zuckerberg says. “Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction — and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.”
Facebook began removing posts containing misinformation at the start of the pandemic and later expanded its reach to posts with false claims about the covid vaccine. It also took action against public figures and groups for spreading false claims. At the same time, social platforms faced pushback from government officials, who claimed they weren’t doing enough to combat misinformation.
In July 2021, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy asked social platforms to rework their algorithms to “avoid amplifying misinformation,” while President Joe Biden said platforms like Facebook were “killing people” with false claims about the virus.
Republican state attorneys general from Missouri and Louisiana later sued the Biden administration in 2022 for allegedly violating the First Amendment by coercing social media companies into removing misinformation. However, the Supreme Court ruled in June of this year that their actions weren’t unconstitutional and that the government could continue communicating with social platforms. “Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions,” Zuckerberg writes.
Separately, Zuckerberg’s letter addresses Facebook’s demotion of a New York Post story about President Biden’s son, Hunter, in 2020. Zuckerberg says the platform temporarily reduced its reach after receiving a warning from the FBI that it could be Russian disinformation. However, Zuckerberg now says the platform “shouldn’t have demoted the story” and that it no longer demotes stories while waiting for someone to fact-check it.