OLDaily

Welcome to Online Learning Daily, your best source for news and commentary about learning technology, new media, and related topics.

Generative AI exists because of the transformer: This is how it works
Madhumita Murgia, Financial Times, 2023/09/21

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This is an outstanding explainer that is (unusually for the Financial Times) open access so anyone can see it. It takes the reader step by step through a clear and logical explanation of how generative AI works, and in particular, the innovation that results in transformers (the T in GPT). It should (in my opinion) put to rest fears that such systems are 'copying' content. True, they learn from it, but what they learn amounts really to nothing more than how words are arranged in a sequence, and what sequences are most common. Don't miss this! Via Bryan Alexander.

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WordPress blogs can now be followed in the fediverse, including Mastodon
Haje Jan Kamps, TechCrunch, 2023/09/21

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As the title suggests. This includes my WordPress blog leftish.media. I installed the mplugin last May and already have 12 followers! To follow it, click on the Follow button on my blog, or search for downes@leftish.media in Mastodon and follow! Note that this is my political blog (as the title suggests) and has nothing to do with edtech, photography, or any of my usual interests. Also, I haven't added much to it recently - maybe this should change now that I might get (more) readers. Anyhow, here's the WordPress announcement with instructions, from Matthias Pfefferle & Automattic. This plugin provides 2 blocks: 'Follow me on the Fediverse' and 'Fediverse Followers', which will display your followers from the Fediverse on your website.

 

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Fixing Search
Robin Berjon, 2023/09/21

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This article makes a convincing case that search engines have not kept up their end of the bargain they originally struck with content providers. Originally, the exchange of content (from the provider) for traffic (from the search engine) was a fair one. But over time the search engine, which is itself an advertising vehicle, has provided less and less traffic, redirecting it instead to services it - and not the publishers - controls.The proposed solution is attractive: an API-based search that provides algorithmic choice, multi-sourcing, provacy, and much more. But how, then, would the search engine make money? This is where the article is much weaker. "One option is that the browser would itself show ads as part of its displaying the results." Ick. From where I sit, the answer is more obvious: the content providers provide the API search. This is what RSS was, originally, and what JSON feeds are today. The publishers have only themselves to blame for not pursuing this approach. Via Boris Mann.

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We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

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