Artificial Intelligence is everywhere, and in this Future Short we learn more about AI through the great content already out there.

Links in the episode

AI Applications: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applications_of_artificial_intelligence

MuseNet: https://openai.com/blog/musenet/

Open Jukebox: https://openai.com/blog/jukebox/

Crash Course, AI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0_lo_GDcFw

Juergen Schmidhuber TedX talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y7PLaxXUrs

EU High-Level Expert Group on AI documents: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/policy-and-investment-recommendations-trustworthy-artificial-intelligence

Transcript

00:04 Jacob Pratt

Hey, and welcome to Future Shift, where we look at how jobs and industries are changing to learn more about our world.

I’m Jacob Pratt and today we have a Future Short episode, where we will summarise and signpost towards some great content out there in the internet. Today we’re getting started with Artificial Intelligence, or AI, broadly defined as a machine that can interpret data, sometimes learn from it, and use this data to achieve specific goals. One example is your Youtube recommendation algorithm, that takes your previous viewing and searching habits in as data, makes sense of this data, and provides you with videos you will want to watch, with the aim of keeping you watching Youtube videos for as long as possible. And AI’s reach extends much further than just this.

In this episode we look at some quick content to pique your curiosity on AI, some medium length videos to get a broader view on it, and some longer reports to look at how we can positively control its impact on society. All the links will be in the Show Notes and on jproduct.co.uk/futureshift.

Just think of this series as a competitor to Google, except you don’t control the search and the results take 10mins to get back to you.

01:16 Jacob Pratt

I searched for a long time to find a simple, easy to read list of all the current applications of AI, to show just how broad its impact is. What I kept coming back to was the teacher discredited but highly referenced Wikipedia.

Before you switch off immediately at that notion, Wikipedia is a treasure trove of information, especially when getting into a subject, and in popular topics has a high number of references to show it’s not just internet trolls making the edits.

And the applications of AI page shows just how broad the applications of so called “Narrow AI” are, or AI that is developed to tackle one, very specific problem, without attempting to imitate the mind and conduct logical reasoning. It’s used in agriculture to predict when tomatoes will ripen, in Education to personalise learning and provide instant feedback, in Finance to make millions of trading decisions a day, in Government to assist in policy decision making, in Medicine to diagnose patients more accurately, in Gaming to replace human players when needed, even in Wikipedia itself to detect vandalism. If you want to discover some applications you hadn’t thought of,

The skills we need for work are changing. So shouldn’t our training change with it? That’s what GameAcademy co-founder Irina Agafonova has bet on.

She joined the podcast to discuss whether robots really will take our jobs, which skills employers are looking for, the current stigma around gaming and how that is on the cusp of changing, and how gamers can capitalise on their in game talents in the real world.

show notes

GameAcademy Website https://www.gameacademy.co/

GameAcademy Discord https://discord.gg/kfFgCYg

UK Shortage Occupation list https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-k-shortage-occupation-list

No longer optional: digital skill shortages https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/807830/No_Longer_Optional_Employer_Demand_for_Digital_Skills.pdf

Nesta project information https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/the-future-of-skills-employment-in-2030/

Transcript (~98% accurate)

Jacob Pratt 0:06Hey, and welcome to future shift where we understand the world better by discussing changing and emerging industries. I’m Jacob Pratt, and today we’re talking about gaming, employability and lifelong education.

IntroductionYou’re staring at your screen, in your hastily cobbled together home office. Your shoulders ache from the table being slightly too low, and you forgot the coaster again, so there’s another watermark. You might as well go for gold and complete the fifth ring at this point. These thoughts are distracting you because you don’t want to concentrate on the videos you’re supposed to be watching. People in your team have been saying that systems thinking is what the company is looking for. So an online course followed by a couple of days of classroom teaching with overly eager colleagues should do the trick. 40 hours in total, you can pay attention for five of those and click your way through the rest, but it will still be draining and cost the company a lot of money. you’re frustrated.

Systems Thinking digital leadership and teamwork are important. The nature of work is changing and we need to grow and adapt with it. So should our training adapt with it as well? Couldn’t a SimCity Mayor, World of Warcraft raid leader or an Overwatch top 500 be demonstrating these skills already? That’s what game Academy co founder Irina Agafonova has bet on.

She believes that the skill shortages that developed in an ever changing workplace could be met by the millions of dedicated and skilled gamers out there. We just need some corporate and gaming language translation support She joined the podcast to discuss whether robots really will take our jobs, which skills employers are looking for the current stigma around gaming and how that is on the cusp of changing and how gamers can capitalise on their in game talents in the real world. We started by talking about how Irina co founded g...

When a family tragedy hits you, there’s a number of paths your life can take. However, not many people would choose the rebellious path that today’s guest took: leaving their home country, setting up in rural Paraguay and founding a charity to support education.

Margaret Hebblethwaite joins us to talk about what education is really about, Paraguayan doublethink, and why a rebellious nature is something to treasure.

show notes

Santa Maria Education Fund (SMEF) website: https://santamariadefe.org/

Donate to Santa Maria Education Fund: https://www.cafonline.org/system/charity-search-results

SMEF email: [email protected]

Bradt Guide to Paraguay: https://www.bradtguides.com/product/paraguay-2/

Transcript unavailable

In a world where the internet enables us to learn almost anything….what should we be learning? With VR, iPads and eye tracking technology, how is best for us to learn, and, without going into existential territory, why learn at all?

Two teachers join the podcast, one at the end of their career and another at the beginning, but both from the same family. Denis and Lewis Pratt join to discuss education.

Show Notes

Global evaluation of education systems (PISA by OECD)

https://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA%202018%20Insights%20and%20Interpretations%20FINAL%20PDF.pdf

10 reasons why Finland’s education system is the best

https://bigthink.com/mike-colagrossi/no-standardized-tests-no-private-schools-no-stress-10-reasons-why-finlands-education-system-in-the-best-in-the-world

Transcript (~95% accurate)

IntroductionJacob Pratt 0:10Hi, welcome to Future Shift. We understand the world better by discussing changing and emerging industries. I’m Jacob Pratt, and today we’re talking about education.

Education is broad. Learning is fundamental from birth, helping babies everywhere to realise that almost nothing should go up on those. And teaching adult men that low low v necks are not right for any occasion. And in a world where the internet enables us to learn almost anything, what should we be learning? With VR, iPads, eye tracking technology, how is best for us to learn Going into existential territory, why learn at all?

This is a big area and everyone will have their own very personal answers to these questions. Technology is helping us learn faster in some areas than ever before. But I wanted to start as broad as I possibly could. Our brains learn best in childhood. So I wanted to explore the views of two people who worked in this area. Two teachers, one having recently retired, and one just beginning that teaching journey.

So I picked up the phone to my dad and my brother.

Denis PrattDenis 1:49I grew up in New Zealand Born in 1950 and stayed in New Zealand until I was 30 years old. I left New Zealand in 1981 to travel with my brother through And arrived in the UK in 1981. Originally for one year, but I’m still here 40, almost 40 years later.

I’m not sure what went wrong.

Jacob Pratt 2:16That’s Denis Pratt, primary school teacher and my dad with a wealth of experience in the field having taught on the opposite sides of the globe. I asked him some questions about his experiences in New Zealand before coming to the UK.

So So, so what were you doing for those kind of 10 years after you started teaching college still in New Zealand?

Denis 2:43Well, when I was in New Zealand, I trained in teaching from 72 to 74. And you were We were one of the last intakes where we were paid a salary to be a student. So I was actually paid a wage for three years. But what it meant was that you had to then work for three years. So you know you and you were expected to go to places that lots of other people didn’t want to go to. So my first year I went to a place called Hokatika on the west coa...

In this episode, Charlie returns to Future Shift to briefly discuss Blockchain, the complex technology underpinning bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. We use this to examine the Hype Curve, and how its based much more on human psychology than we would be led to believe.

show notes

The Gartner Hype Cycle “Methodology”: https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/gartner-hype-cycle

8 Lessons from 20 Years of Hype Cycles: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/8-lessons-from-20-years-hype-cycles-michael-mullany/

Blockchain applications in the Hype Cycle: https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-10-08-gartner-2019-hype-cycle-shows-most-blockchain-technologies-are-still-five-to-10-years-away-from-transformational-impact

Charlie Grover joins the show to discuss why cybersecurity matters, how quantum computing will change encryption and the big leaps forward that have already been made.

Peter York joins the show to discuss how eSports became the global phenomenon it is, and what it tells us about changing consumers.

Show notes:

Peter York’s website: https://pete-york.github.io/

Nielsen’s eSports playbook: https://www.nielsen.com/eu/en/insights/report/2019/esports-playbook-for-brands/

Heen’s view on Data Statistics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrr4beIvSSU

Visualisation of Twitch communities

https://blog.twitch.tv/en/2015/02/04/visual-mapping-of-twitch-and-our-communities-cause-science-2f5ad212c3da/