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

Four Aspects of Harmony
Eric Schwitzgebel, The Splintered Mind, 2025/12/11

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I've frequently referenced 'harmony' as a value worth seeking, but without delving much into exactly what I mean by it (if you push me, you'll get metaphors, like "walking in silence in a perfectly still forest" or some such). This article looks at Hasko von Kriegstein's Well-Being as Harmony to identify three major aspects (paraphrased): knowledge as a type of harmony between mind and world, a pro-attitude toward events in the world, and a fitting response to the world. Eric Schwitzgebel then adds a fourth: "we enrich (the world) in new ways that resonate with the ways in which it is already rich." It's interesting (to me) that none of these is an 'inner' sense of harmony, which is probably where I'd tend to think of it. Something like (to borrow the same four categories): consistency of knowledge and experience; fluidity in thought and motion; resonance with sensations and interactions; and engagement in growth and creation.

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Disney signs deal with OpenAI to allow Sora to generate AI videos featuring its characters
Aisha Malik, TechCrunch, 2025/12/11

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When Disney accused Google of copyright infringement on a "massive scale" and sued Midjourney for the same thing, we need to understand that it had nothing to do with the integrity of its IP, and everything to do with making sure it got paid for it. "Disney says that alongside the agreement, it will 'become a major customer of OpenAI,' as it will use its APIs to build new products, tools, and experiences, including for Disney+." However, this deal "Does Not In Any Way" threaten creatives.

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Thoughts on Hinton
Eryk Salvaggio, Cybernetic Forests, 2025/12/11

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This is a really fun discussion of what Geoffrey Hinton thinks consciousness is, why he thinks AI already possesses it to some degree, and why (in Eryk Salvaggio's opinion) Hinton is wrong. "Hinton is arguing that self-awareness is the ability to discern whether one is accurately assessing the environment. By being conscious of discrepancies between the environment and our interpretation of it, he seems to suggest, we have to be self-aware." This, argues Salvaggio, is not the usual meaning we would attach to the concepts of self-awareness and consciousness. And, Salvaggio argues, "(Hinton) conflates content produced by a system for thinking that accurately describes the inner workings of a system. A large language model (LLM) is always representing language but never representing what language actually represents." Geoffrey Hinton is, he says, a "Radical Lacanian". If this all feels to you like Russell's paradox, I think you're right. But it's no more a limit to AI than it is to humans, and I'm sure Hinton would be aware of that.

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elder-plinius - Overview
GitHub, 2025/12/11

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On the way to the office in what was an overly dangerous commute this morning I listed to the TWIT Intelligent Machines interview with Pliny the Liberator, an anonymous prompt-writer known for jail-breaking AI engines. This link is to the GitHub repository of scripts that break through the guardrails on services offered by Anthropic, Grok, and others. If you're interested, do listen to the interview (or read the transcript) comprising the first 37 minutes of this podcast episode. It poses the question: do AI guardrails constitute a form of censorship not only on the AI but also on the people who use them? If so, then what role should the government, educational institutions, and the public at large play in the development and transparency of these guardrails?

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Trust Requires Change Requires Trust
Alex Usher, HESA, 2025/12/11

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Alex Usher tends to write from the government and university administration's point of view, and it makes sense, because that's where the money is. So it's not surprising to see this week's column devolve into "academic unions in Canada have a veto over real program change (and) dig in against not just job losses but any hint of changes in working practices." And honestly, it's pretty easy to criticize people with "average professorial salaries of over $200K such as at UBC". It's just enough money that most people think it's a lot (and it is a lot - I wish I made that). But it's not so much that losing their support will ever cost the consulting business any income. It also doesn't help that most faculty never really wanted to be in the education business - they wanted to be historians or geographers or physicists or some such - but unless they're in an actual profession like doctor or lawyer the best employment opportunities will be in colleges or universities. But having said all that - blaming "resistence to change" is a gross mischaracterization of opposition to a lot of what's happening in academia. I mean - you're talking about really smart people, for the most part, and their only objection is "I don't like change"? There's a lot that can't be said in this short space, but I think any discussion has to begin with a recognition that academics resisting the conversion of their workplace into free training camps for corporations might have some basis for their objections. Image: AAUP.

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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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