OLDaily

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

Stop Trying to Make AGi Happen, It’s Not Going to Happen!
Matt Crosslin, EduGeek Journal, 2025/03/21

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Matt Crosslin responds to George Siemens. He first crtiticizes one of the core points: "a system made up of many individuals has more intellectual capacity than individuals? Well… duh. Hasn't it been that way since the beginning of human intellect? Adding more people gives you more capacity." I don't think this captures the nuance between simply stacking capacity (ie, adding volume) as opposed to combining capacity (ie, adding complexity). And when Siemens writes, "Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organizations and institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to individual. This cycle of knowledge development (personal to network to organization) allows learners to remain current in their field through the connections they have formed," Crosslin responds, "None of this is artificial." But I don't think we've seen a naturally occurring organization or institution through all of history. But Crosslin's main point is in the title: "I am pretty skeptical that AGi will ever happen – but people keep trying to see it where it doesn't exist." I'd defer to his deep knowledge here, but if he makes basic errors, I think it might just be an opinion based on an intuition, and nothing more.

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I've seen amazing mixed reality experiences, but a new update will unlock the next generation
Nicholas Sutrich, Android Central, 2025/03/21

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The gist: "this is one of the most convincing uses of mixed reality to date. Most people don't have access to an empty airplane cockpit in their garage, but being able to turn your favorite chair into a convincing airplane cockpit - complete with its texture accurately positioned inside the virtual cockpit - would make an incredibly convincing game of Flight Simulator." Maybe. But it's still a device that will only be used occasionally, and never in combination with other things (like, you won't be watching a movie while playing mixed reality games, though I do that a lot with regular video games).

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Equation Editor for online mathematics - create, integrate and download
CodeCogs, Zyba Ltd, 2025/03/21

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This is pretty interesting, a "LaTeX equation editor that creates lightweight graphical equations (gif, png, swf, pdf, emf) and produces code to quickly and directly embedding equations into HTML websites, forums or blogs." Via Alan Levine.

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What do we mean when we talk about ‘openness’ in (generative) AI?
Doug Belshaw, Open Thinkering, 2025/03/21

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The main value of this post is its introduction of the Open Weight Definition, which is more of a technical definition of openness than a cultural one (to paraphrase Belshaw's own phrasing). I think the article could use a third section, and could talk about open data - is it important? (I get the sense Belsaw thinks not) and what role does it play into open AI?

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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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