Category: imagery

AI in Teaching and Business

  By CSUDH, imagery, skills, teaching, tech writing, writing

I just finished the CSU series of webinars on Teaching and Thinking with AI, led by José Antonio Bowen. These included A.I. Literacy & Prompt Engineering, A.I. Grading, Detection, and Policies, and A.I. Assignments and Assessments. It was an amazing series on using AI in the classroom to help students think differently as well as great tips for usage in training in the real world. My big takeaway is that AI (generative AI) won’t be replacing us anytime soon, it has a ton of flaws returning incorrect information (fake references – so always check your references), and requires plenty of time to get prompts to return a modicum of usable results. One example I am experiencing is that I am getting contacted by recruiters on a popular job site for jobs I don’t do. The jobs are so far off of what I do that at first I assumed it was a mistake until I realized, after the webinar series, that whatever AI they are using isn’t providing reliable results. The prompts they are writing must be off.

However, it really got me to think differently about communication. Every bit of communication needs to be in a prompt that is submitted into AI if you want to be able to use or be inspired by your use of AI. If you want a specific tone, mood, specific time frame etc. – state it. So refine your prompt over and over until the results are better.

There are a variety of tools that will cost you per month for premium results and each has strong points and weak points. So, really getting to know your AI tool, like any other tool, and taking it’s results with a bit of skepticism can help. Don’t be afraid to keep tweaking your prompts until you get the desired results. AI is here to stay so keep practice learning how to use it. Learning it and being able to use it in business, training, and education will be a valuable future-skill.

AI in teaching and business

Some current existing AI tools (this is not a full list just some I found interesting but not necessarily had tried yet).

  • Claude.ai There is also a smaller Haiku and a larger Opus.
  • ChatGPT If you have only used the free version before May you have been using GPT 3.5
  • Gemini (formerly Google Bard).  Gemini Advanced – not free
  • Copilot Microsoft owns half of OpenAI so CoPilot (is really another version of ChatGPT as far as I can tell)
  • WolframAlpha combines the computational powers of Wolfram|Alpha with ChatGPT
  • Pi is focused on dialogue and role-playing and has a good voice interface
  • Poe and ChatHub provide access to multiple AI through one interface
  • There are additional open source models such as Meta AI, Huggingface, Llama 3, etc. Other resources include APIs, chatbots, study assistants, browser extensions, agents, voice, dialog, etc.

Imagery

Abobe Max Conference – 2021

  By CSUDH, illustration, imagery, skills, teaching, tech writing, what's happening

I recently attended this year’s Adobe Max Conference. I use Adobe products all the time and thoroughly enjoyed the conference. There were hundreds of sessions. There was also the usual smattering of the famous, the academics, and wonderful artists. My favorites were the practical tips in Illustrator, Photoshop, and After Effects and that’s where I spent most of my time.

My take on this is that there are some exciting new technologies coming out way in AR. I wasn’t that impressed with the 3D tools presented. Considering the additional cost beyond the creative suite (appears to be its own suite), not worth it with all the hype. I’ve recently taken to learning and using Z-Brush and Blender and will be sticking with those. My one big disappointment was the lack of updates and information on Acrobat and Audition. I would love to see more about what the future holds for those tools.

However, the improvements coming to their core software are amazing. The graphic design, illustration, digital painting, and After Effects sessions (as well as Premiere & InDesign) were worth it. I found myself jumping out of sessions on 3D to join other awesome sessions. The social media sessions were worth a note (even if you don’t do much social media) because they had excellent hosts and they were generous with information and tips. Finally, one impressive aspect of the conference is the demonstration of the speed of Apple’s new Computers. If you can view the materials (not sure if you need an account), I recommend taking the time to watch as many videos as you can if you use Adobe products.