#43 - Ch ch ch changes!

So is the Bowie song running through your head now? :))

In the 3 days since I released the last issue of this newsletter, we've seen some pretty major announcements from some of the big AI players - and more to come next week and month from Microsoft and others. Here are the headlines from the past week - I'll look at each one in more detail below...

1. Anthropic announced that their Claude AI is finally released in Europe, and also as a phone app.
2. OpenAI announced (the day before the big Google I/O Conference) a significantly upgraded version of ChatGPT - version 4o known as Omni. It speaks far more fluently and with virtually no lag, generates responses MUCH faster than the previous versions, and can now conduct very realistic sounding conversations in real-time. And for Mac users (Windows coming soon) there's a ChatGPT app now that can be called up in any programme using Opt & O.
3. Google's I/O conference on Monday announced a whole slew of AI related tech, but almost none of it is immediately available and much of it will initially only roll out in the US - here in Europe we are somewhat at the mercy of the regulators keeping the brakes on AI advances

ChatGPT 4 Omni (4o)

Have a look at the new ChatGPT in action here:

Adding to the recent upgrade giving ChatGPT a memory that can learn about you over time, 4o brings in vastly updated capabilities in multimodal processing. Now text, sound, video, and images are all handled together, making responses much quicker and more cohesive. You can now converse with the bot, and it has far more tonal range, sounding more like a real person while speaking.

As always, Dr Philippa Hardman has an insightful LinkedIn post analysing the

ways that the new functionality of ChatGPT Omni might allow us to leverage it:

And this list of resources from a post by Donald H Taylor around the ChatGPT 4o announcement might give you some additional insights:

Here's an incomplete round-up of reviews, insights and opinions.

Start here. https://lnkd.in/grnXaAAX

Josh Cavalier: Summary of features Great summary from Josh on the features and see the comments for thoughts on the possible implications for L&D. https://lnkd.in/gXzcNqyV

Ethan Mollick: Lighting quick analysis - A 15-word post introduces a video of mind-bogglingly rapid, deep data analysis done with a simple, short, natural language prompt. Mind-blowing. https://lnkd.in/ggVGWm2v

Henry Coutinho-Mason What about the people? 'Reluctant futurist' Henry loves the speed and interface but reminds us, it's all about the people. https://lnkd.in/g6a8S-ee

WIRED: Is ChatGPT still worth it?With GPT4-o should you bother with your subscription to ChatGPT Plus? https://lnkd.in/gH2KmwDH

Claude

Anthropic was started by 2 developers who left OpenAI (creators of ChatGPT) to build a more ethical AI chatbot. Claude - now in version 3 - is the result, but until last week it wasn't available for access in the EU - now it is! If you haven't tried it I would recommend that you do. Claude responds in a different tone to ChatGPT - one I find more nuanced, and it also has a huge token window (short term memory) so you can upload pretty large documents and then interrogate them.

Create a free account at the link below or at https://claude.ai/:

Google

There were way too many things announced at the I/O Developers Conference on May 13th to show here, but there's a 10 minute summary of all the key things coming in the video below. Nothing available today - all coming over the next few months, and to the US first then Europe later on :((

Faster Gemini versions, a 1 million token window (that would let you upload a 1500 page PDF to analyse), Gmail and WorkSpace smarts, AI in your phone that can scan a scene you are pointing your camera at and have a real-time conversation with you about - life is going to get very different for the way we interact with our devices and access information over the next year! Even an AI Companion that is touted as almost a person who can be assigned a job - such as reporting on a project for instance. Changes to the workplace are coming...

Google AI Studio - free!

One thing Google have opened up today is their AI Studio. This post from Darren Coxon pointed it out to me earlier on:

As if by magic, UK and EU can now access Google AI Studio. Check it out here: aistudio.google.com

It allows you access to the 'Gemini Advanced' Pro and Flash 1.5 1 million token models. Has multimodal input - text, audio, and video. Allows for further fine tuning. And has hands down the best data analytics function of any AI I've used.All free of charge.

And lastly from Google via Donald Clark , a new paper on the use of Gen AI in Learning with 75 authors - https://lnkd.in/ewkbsp4d

EPALE - The European Adult Learning Network

Do you know about EPALE - the European Adult Learning Network? I'm one of the Irish Ambassadors for EPALE, and you can join over 100,000 educators across Europe in a free online community - it's a great way to get different points of view, participate in training from across the continent and stay up to date on educational thought. Create your free account at https://epale.ec.europa.eu/en/user/login

Affiliate Links (stuff I use and recommend)

Unriddle AI is a research site that lets you upload docs and then interrogate them.

https://www.unriddle.ai//?ref=JH

Check out Humata - it's another AI that let's you work on your own documents and interrogate them. https://www.humata.ai/?via=joe-houghton

My tool of choice for serious AI image creation is Leonardo. The user interface is easy and very powerful, enabling you to create just what you want in any style really quickly. https://app.leonardo.ai/?via=joe

Notion

This is my tool of choice now for collecting all the bits'n'pieces of information I squirrel away for talk, articles and presentations. I can then generate webpages in a snap and share them, and they update in real-time as I add new info to them! There's so much you can do in Notion - well worth a look:

OK, that's enough for today - see you next time!

Joe Houghton is an Assistant Professor at UCD Smurfit Graduate School of Business where he directs the MSc programmes in Project Management. After a career in IT in multinationals, Joe switched into a portfolio career of University teaching, management coaching and training.

He has authored 6 books to date including "Innovative teaching with AI: Creative approaches to enhancing learning in education", and "Project Management made easy...: the ECCSR approach". His latest book "Applying Artificial Intelligence to Close the Accessibility Gap: A practical handbook for educators & students!" is now available on Amazon! More on this in a future edition...

Contact Joe on email at [email protected] for any requests for training, seminars, workshops or keynote speaking.