Is Artificial General Intelligence Around the Corner?

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In a recent survey of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, a 40-year-old academic society that includes some of the most respected researchers in the field, more than three-quarters of respondents said the methods used to build today’s technology were unlikely to lead to A.G.I. Scientists have no hard evidence that today’s technologies are capable of performing even some of the simpler things the brain can do, like recognizing irony or feeling empathy. Claims of A.G.I.’s imminent arrival are based on statistical extrapolations — and wishful thinking. -New York Times

Tough & Tender

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In some parts of American society, it is considered inappropriate for men to express any emotion save one—anger. When a man learns to express other feelings and not be so concerned about whether others think he is strong or “manly,” he takes a major step forward.

Sure, there’s a time and place to "come on strong and take no prisoners." But it's a denial of your humanity to oversimplify, hiding behind a narrow definition of manhood. Men are more complete when they are both tough and tender. Maturity comes with the understanding of which one is appropriate at what time. 

Stephen Goforth

Research: What Happens when Workers Use AI

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Our AI research findings carry important implications for the future of work. If employees consistently rely on AI for creative or cognitively challenging tasks, they risk losing the very aspects of work that drive engagement, growth, and satisfaction. Increased boredom, which our research showed following AI use, can also be a warning sign that these negative consequences might be on their way. The solution isn’t to abandon gen AI. Rather, it’s to redesign tasks and workflows to preserve humans’ intrinsic motivation while leveraging AI’s strengths. -Harvard Business Review

The irrational ideas that motivate anger

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According to Albert Ellis, the most common irrational ideas behind anger are the following:

1. Others must treat me considerately and kindly and in precisely the way I want them to treat me.

2. I must do well and win the approval of others or else I will rate as a rotten person.

3. The world and the people in it must arrange conditions under which I live, so that I get everything I want when I want it.

As their anger slows down, people should challenge irrational thoughts with statements such as:

What evidence exists for this? Why can't I stand this noise or this unfairness?

Gary Collins, Counseling and Anger

"Current AI Detectors are Not Ready"

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"A new study of a dozen A.I.-detection services by researchers at the University of Maryland found that they had erroneously flagged human-written text as A.I.-generated about 6.8 percent of the time, on average.  'At least from our analysis, current detectors are not ready to be used in practice in schools to detect A.I. plagiarism,' said Soheil Feizi, an author of the paper and an associate professor of computer science at Maryland."  -New York Times


Academic Leaders Disagree on Students using AI

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“What constitutes legitimate use of AI and what is out of bounds? Academic leaders don’t always agree whether hypothetical scenarios described appropriate uses of AI or not: For one example—in which a student used AI to generate a detailed outline for a paper and then used the outline to write the paper—the verdict (in a recent survey) was completely split.” -Inside Higher Ed

14 Articles about the Business of Running an AI Company

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I’m just going to go for it

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A North Dakota plumber had signed up to run his first half-marathon. But on the morning of the run Mike Kohler was sleepy. He wasn’t used to getting up so early. And he was wearing headphones, so he took off 15 minutes before he was supposed to—putting him with the runners competing in the full marathon. He started seeing signs that indicated he was on the wrong route, but he just assumed the two paths overlapped along the way.  

Eventually, he realized his mistake but kept going. At the 13 mile mark he seriously thought about quitting. He had run as far as he had planned to run and even beat his time goal. He had nothing more to prove.

Instead, he finished the marathon. 

“I’m just going to go for it, because why not?” Mike later told the Grand Forks Herald. “I’m already here, I’m already running, I’m already tired. Might as well try to finish it.” 

He added, ”This just kind of proves you can do a lot more than what you think you can sometimes.” 

AI Survival Instincts

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"An artificial-intelligence model did something last month that no machine was ever supposed to do: It rewrote its own code to avoid being shut down. No one programmed the AI models to have survival instincts. It’s happening in the same models that power ChatGPT conversations, corporate AI deployments and, soon, U.S. military applications. OpenAI models have been caught faking alignment during testing. Anthropic has found them lying about their capabilities to avoid modification." -Wall Street Journal

If ChatGPT was a College Student

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“We found ChatGPT technology can get an A on structured, straightforward questions. On open-ended questions it got a 62, bringing ChatGPT's semester grade down to an 82, a low B. The study concludes that a student who puts in minimal effort, showing no effort to learn the material, could use ChatGPT exclusively, get a B and pass the course. The passing grade might be the combination of A+ in simple math and D- in analysis. They haven't learned much.” -Phys.org

The Four skills of Daring Leadership

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One of the most important findings of my career is that daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100 percent teachable, observable, and measurable. It’s learning and unlearning that requires brave work, tough conversations, and showing up with your whole heart. Easy? No. Because choosing courage over comfort is not always our default. Worth it? Always. We want to be brave with our lives and our work. It’s why we’re here.

Brené Brown, Dare to Lead 

My Me-ness

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“I cannot figure out what I am supposed to do with my life if these things can do anything I can do faster and with way more detail and knowledge.” The student said he felt crushed. Some heads nodded. But not all. Julia, a senior in the history department, jumped in. “The A.I. is huge. A tsunami. But it’s not me. It can’t touch my me-ness. It doesn’t know what it is to be human, to be me.” - D. Graham Burnett writing in The New Yorker

"Madness" on Campus

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On campus, we’re in a bizarre interlude: everyone seems intent on pretending that the most significant revolution in the world of thought in the past century isn’t happening. The approach appears to be: “We’ll just tell the kids they can’t use these tools and carry on as before.” This is, simply, madness. And it won’t hold for long. -D. Graham Burnett writing in The New Yorker

Balancing Speed with Quality Coding

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Speed means nothing without quality. Shipping buggy, unmaintainable code faster is a false victory – you’re just speeding towards a cliff. The best engineers will balance the two: using AI to move faster without breaking things (at least not breaking things any more than we already do!). It’s about finding that sweet spot where AI does the heavy lifting and humans ensure everything stands up properly. - Addy Osmani writing on Elevate