This week's episode is an absolute bumper edition. We paused our Rapid Rundown of the news and research in AI for the Australian summer holidays - and to bring you more of the recent interviews. So this episode we've got two months to catch up with!

We also started mentioning Ray's AI Workshop in Sydney on 20th February. Three hours of exploring AI through the lens of organisational leaders, and a Design Thinking exercise to cap it off, to help you apply your new knowledge in company with a small group.

Details & tickets here: https://www.innovategpt.com.au/event

And now, all the links to every news article and research we discussed:

News stories

The Inside Story of Microsoft’s Partnership with OpenAI

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/11/the-inside-story-of-microsofts-partnership-with-openai

All about the dram that unfolded at OpenAI, and Microsoft, from 17th November, when the OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman suddenly got fired. And because it's 10,000 words, I got ChatGPT to write me the one-paragraph summary:
This article offers a gripping look at the unexpected drama that unfolded inside Microsoft, a real tech-world thriller that's as educational as it is enthralling. It's a tale of high-stakes decisions and the unexpected firing of a key figure that nearly upended a crucial partnership in the tech industry. It's an excellent read to understand how big tech companies handle crises and the complexities of partnerships in the fast-paced world of AI

 

MinterEllison sets up own AI Copilot to enhance productivity

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/minterellison-sets-up-own-ai-copilot-603200

This is interesting because it's a firm of highly skilled white collar professionals, and the Chief Digital Officer gave some statistics of the productivity changes they'd seen since starting to use Microsoft's co-pilots:

• "at least half the group suggests that from using Copilot, they save two to five hours per day,"
• “One-fifth suggest they’re saving at least five hours a day. Nine out of 10 would recommend Copilot to a colleague."
• “Finally, 89 percent suggest it's intuitive to use, which you never see with the technology, so it's been very easy to drive that level of adoption.”
• Greg Adler also said “Outside of Copilot, we've also started building our own Gen AI toolsets to improve the productivity of lawyers and consultants.”

 

Cheating Fears Over Chatbots Were Overblown, New Research Suggests
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/technology/chatbot-cheating-schools-students.html

Although this is US news, let's celebrate that the New York Times reports that Stanford education researchers have found that AI chatbots have not boosted overall cheating rates in schools. Hurrah!

Maybe the punch is that they said that in their survey, the cheating rate has stayed about the same - at 60-70%

Also interesting in the story is the datapoint that 32% of US teens hadn't heard of ChatGPT. And less than a quarter had heard a lot about it.

 

Game changing use of AI to test the Student Experience.

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2024/01/your-classmate-could-be-an-ai-student-at-this-michigan-university.html

Ferris State University is enrolling two 'AI students' into classes (Ann and Fry). They will sit (virtually) alongside the students to attend lectures, take part in discussions and write assignments. as more students take the non-traditional route into and through university. 
 

 "The goal of the AI student experiment is for Ferris State staff to learn what the student experience is like today"

"Researchers will set up computer systems and microphones in Ann and Fry’s classrooms so they can listen to their professor’s lectures and any classroom discussions, Thompson said. At first, Ann and Fry will only be able to observe the class, but the goal is for the AI students to soon be able to speak during classroom discussions and have two-way conversations with their classmates, Thompson said. The AI students won’t have a physical, robotic form that will be walking the hallways of Ferris State – for now, at least. Ferris State does have roving bots, but right now researchers want to focus on the classroom experience before they think about adding any mobility to Ann and Fry, Thompson said."

"Researchers plan to monitor Ann and Fry’s experience daily to learn what it’s like being a student today, from the admissions and registration process, to how it feels being a freshman in a new school. Faculty and staff will then use what they’ve learned to find ways to make higher education more accessible."

 

 

Research Papers

Towards Accurate Differential Diagnosis with Large Language Models

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2312.00164.pdf

There has been a lot of past work trying to use AI to help with medical decision-making, but they often used other forms of AI, not LLMs. Now Google has trained a LLM specifically for diagnoses and in a randomized trial with 20 clinicians and 302 real-world medical cases, AI correctly diagnosed 59% of hard cases. Doctors only got 33% right even when they had access to Search and medical references. (Interestingly, doctors & AI working together did well, but not as good as AI did alone)

The LLM’s assistance was especially beneficial in challenging cases, hinting at its potential for specialist-level support.

 

How to Build an AI Tutor that Can Adapt to Any Course and Provide Accurate Answers Using Large Language Model and Retrieval-Augmented Generation

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2311/2311.17696.pdf

The researcher from the Education University of Hong Kong, used Open AI's GPT-4, in November, to create the chatbot tutor that was fed with course guides and materials to be able to tutor a student in a natural conversation. He describes the strengths as the natural conversation and human-like responses, and the ability to cover any topic as long as domain knowledge documents were available. The downsides highlighted are the accuracy risks, and that the performance depends on the quality and clarity of the student's question, and the quality of the course materials. In fact, on accuracy they conclude "Therefore, the AI tutor’s answers should be verified and validated by the instructor or other reliable sources before being accepted as correct" which isn't really that helpful.

TBH This is more of a project description than a research paper, but a good read nonetheless, to give confidence i