OLDaily

Welcome to Online Learning Daily, your best source for news and commentary about learning technology, new media, and related topics.

How AI Image Models Work
Nir Zicherman, Every, 2024/06/12

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This article describes how AIs are trained using 'the story plot game' whereby the systems are gradually trained to find missing words in a story pattern, leading to their ability to find a compelling story from nothing but pure static. "Just as the children in our game were asked to uncover the hidden plot, the model is instructed to remove the noisy pixels and return a coherent image." The effect of the prompt (or other context) pushes the generated story (or image) in certain directions, based on similarity with the input provided.

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Towards Federated Key Transparency
Soatok, Dhole Moments, 2024/06/12

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This article describes some of the issues hiding in the weeds slowing the development of a proper federated identity system. In a nutshell, you need public key transparency (that is, everyone's public key is known by everyone else) and this article describes a registry system that would make it possible.

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ORG publishes digital rights priorities for next government
Ben Werdmuller, Werd I/O, 2024/06/12

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"Open Rights Group has published its six priorities for digital rights that the next UK government should focus on," reports Ben Werdmuller. In this short post he highlights the third priority, which warns against the use of predictive policing. The other priorities include: secure messaging, digital sanctuary for refugees, freedom of expression online, data protection rights, and protection against tracking. It's interesting to me to compare the newfound interest in digital rights and ethics with what I produced in 1999 as the Cyberspace Carter of Rights (today as relevant as it ever was).

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Necessary FUD? – Bionic Teaching
Tom Woodward, Bionic Teaching, 2024/06/12

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Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) is the name given to marketing from commercial software companies in an effort to dissuade people from option for open source. In this post Tom Woodward argues that some FUD is "necessary" in an effort to convince people at the college where he works to use the official software rather than installing something on their own. "Choosing to use unvetted applications is a significant risk," he writes. Not only are there security concerns, questions may also be asked about whether the software preserves privacy, is accessible, and is even going to be around next year.

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Cargo cults for autocorrect
Ryan Broderick, Garbage Day, 2024/06/12

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This post describes "two competing groups of weird nerds in Silicon Valley have been locked in a cringe philosophical battle over what both sides believe is the inevitable rise of an artificial super intelligence." On the one hand are the Effective Altruists (EA) who believe that AI is the best route to a better society (provided it is in the right hands). On the other side are the effective accelerationists (e/acc) who also believe AI will change society, and aren't really worried about the consequences. Neither group matters, argues Ryan Broderick. "They both result in the same outcome — an entire world run by automations owned by the ultra-wealthy. Which is why the most important question right now is not, 'how safe is this AI model?' It's, 'do we need even need it?'"

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Navigating the Challenges of Micro-Credentials | Welcome to TeachOnline
Contact North, 2024/06/12

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This article reports on the gradual increase in the number of microcredentials available in Canada and recommends steps to make them more widely accessible and useful. This, though, remains the sticking point in any credential system: "The learner's capabilities are assessed by a qualified assessor who determines if they possess the capabilities or not." This creates costs, and undermines the economies of scale credentials might alternatively offer. AI-based assessment would change that, were it ever to be widely accepted and trusted.

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We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

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