ChatGPT sparks school AI debate

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Welcome back, Superhuman

OpenAI wants to bring its AI platforms into the classroom — and judging by one recent study, students might be more prepared for the change than teachers and parents. And: Alibaba unveils what might be the largest open-source release in history.

Today’s Insights

• Why schools are split on ChatGPT

• Frontier: Alibaba’s new suite of open-source models

• Tutorial: Turn data images into interactive charts

• Everything else you should know today

• 5 new AI tools to boost your productivity

• AI-Generated Images: Edible arrangements

NEXT IN AI

How ChatGPT plans to transform education

ChatGPT is so popular with students that OpenAI sees a jump in activity at the start of each school year. In fact, a new study reveals that 70% of teens have experimented with AI — even if just 37% of parents know about it. And among kids who’ve tried AI, over half say they’ve used it for homework help, the single biggest use case.

What’s a school district to do with those stats? Some have gone on an all-out AI offensive, issuing total bans. Others, especially those facing teacher shortages and budget cuts, think AI could be a force for good inside the classroom. OpenAI just jumped into the conversation by bringing on its first-ever general manager of education — Leah Belsky, who previously helped build the online learning platform Coursera. 

What’s OpenAI working on?

• In May, the startup launched a special version of ChatGPT geared toward students; Columbia and Oxford count themselves as early adopters

• Learners can use the tool to help break down confusing subjects, refine their writing, or get research help

• Teachers, meanwhile, can use it for grading assistance, lesson planning, and grant writing

Is it working? Whether schools like it or not, AI is a reality, and every student can access it from their phone and laptop. Just like the internet before it, the use of AI raises legitimate concerns about academic honesty. But despite the early bans, a growing number of academic institutions are coming around to embracing the challenge, and figuring out ways to integrate AI effectively into how students learn.

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FROM THE FRONTIER

Alibaba releases dozens of new open-source LLMs

Most AI companies are content to release two, maybe three LLMs at a time. But Alibaba just blew that trend out of the water. The Chinese tech giant unveiled Qwen 2.5, a family of more than 100 new open-source models, each geared toward different use cases. 

Why it has developers excited: With parameters ranging from 500M to 72B and support for 29 languages, there’s something here for everyone. Some of the new models are good at coding and math, while others are better for conducting scientific research, designing games, or generating videos with text. 

They’re powerful, too, beating open-source rivals like Llama 3.1 across several major benchmarks. All told, Alibaba claims it “might be the largest open-source release in history.”

THE AI ACADEMY

How to convert data images into interactive charts and slides

• Go to Claude’s website and sign up.

• Make sure you select Claude Sonnet 3.5 as your model and turn on the Artifact feature.

• Upload screenshots of data graphs to generate a JSON file.

Use the following prompt: [insert 2 images] Transcribe the data into a JSON file.

• Now ask Claude to combine data into one chart.

Use the following prompt: Combine the data from both charts into an interactive plotly.js chart.

Do not use react-plotly.js so that it can render in Artifact.

• Claude will generate an interactive chart that can be hovered over to see the details.

• Now you can turn this data into presentation slides.

Use the following prompt: Create a JS-based presentation deck on the [insert topic]. Include the chart you just generated in a slide.

• You can download the presentation and share it with others.

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AI & TECH NEWS

Everything else you need to know today

• Office Intel: LinkedIn is reportedly using users’ data to train its AI models, although you can opt-out via the platform’s account settings tab.

• Hiring Helper: Mercor, a startup that vets job candidates with AI interviews, raised $32M in a Series A funding round with backing from Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey, and Larry Summers.

• Listing Wizard: Amazon unveiled Amelia, an AI assistant that can help third-party sellers analyze data, write product listings, and create AI-generated video ads.

• Model Home: AI cloud platform Fal raised $23M to serve as a hub for models like the popular image generator Flux for around 500,000 developers.

📱One Fun Thing: Wall Street Journal reporter Joanna Stern has been reviewing the iPhone for over a decade. As an experiment, she recently decided to feed her reviews into an LLM, alongside previous years’ iPhone specs. The result: A chatbot called “Joannabot” that can give you tips about whether it’s time to upgrade your phone — or whether you’d be better off waiting for a future release.

📡 Old and New: Spanish researchers are applying AI models to Cold War-era satellite photos in order to spot ancient underground aqueducts across the Middle East and North Africa. The water sources, which are up to 3,000 years old, can help detect the sites of long-lost desert settlements.

PRODUCTIVITY

5 AI Tools to Supercharge Your Productivity

✅ ScriptFast: Turn messy ramblings into convincing YouTube scripts in minutes.

✅ Cubby: A private workspace to store files and links, annotate your content, and synthesize it with AI.

✅ Requestory: Effortlessly convert ideas into user stories and process maps with AI.

✅ Dicte: Create automatic reports and minutes based on recorded meetings or personal voice notes.

✅ Meco: Move your newsletters to an AI-powered space built for reading.

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PROMPT OF THE DAY

Friday Funday - Plan a walking tour

Prompt: Compose a [#]-point walking tour of [location]. Make a table. In the first column: Name of the point on the tour. Second column: Walking directions from the previous point on the tour. Third Column: distance from the previous point on the tour in [unit of distance]. Fourth column: Walking time from the previous point on the tour. Fifth Column: [#] words or fewer of interesting facts about the point on the tour. After the table, make a [#]-word description of the tour and indicate the total distance and walking time.

Replace the [#], [location], and [unit of distance] variables and ChatGPT will spit out a really handy walking tour of a location.

_{Source: hellodoorcounty}

AI-GENERATED IMAGES

Edible Arrangements

Midjourney Prompt: A close-up photo of an [insert edible flower here], showcasing its delicate petals and vibrant color against a clean white background. Photography isolator on white background
--style raw --v 6.1 --stylize 250

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Thanks for reading.

Until next time!

Zain & the Superhuman AI team