1.22.1 🚂 Chat Bot Tutoring, Kids and Tech, Functions, Intelligent Baboons

I guess summer sadly is officially done finito kaput. :-( Time for school and back to less relaxed workplaces. Hopefully it's not too bad. Today's email has another back to school item. This time, about chat bot tutoring, AI, and technology impact on kids, in and out of the classroom. There's also an article about an AI-related problem, code functions, and an intelligent baboon named Jack.

Chat Bots, AI, and Tutoring

Now that the school year has started in earnest, I want to share a fourth topic that might be useful to think about. AI is everywhere, including classrooms. Is it a good idea to use chat bots for tutoring? How might you integrate AI and online tools to teach writing? Here are links that I found interesting about these topics. The After Babel newsletter, in particular, explores the emotional and intellectual impacts of technology on kids growing up.

Should Chatbots Tutor? Dissecting That Viral AI Demo With Sal Khan and His Son | EdSurge News
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-06-04-should-chatbots-tutor-dissecting-that-viral-ai-demo-with-sal-khan-and-his-son

Khan Academy’s founder on how AI can supercharge “mastery learning”
https://bigthink.com/the-present/khan-academy-ai/

AI Is Still a Delusion
https://mindmatters.ai/2024/06/ai-is-still-a-delusion/

After Babel
https://www.afterbabel.com/

The Frame Problem

When we walk into a room, we make decisions about what is relevant and not relevant. The door and door handle are useful. Any plants or other items by a door are likely not relevant to walking into a room. We make these decisions quickly and often without thinking.

Artificial intelligence isn’t that lucky. They’re programmed to perform specific tasks. Including all the possible irrelevant details humans ignore might be impossible to quantify.

This problem is called the Frame Problem. It was first described in the late 1960s by computer scientists. And also evolved into a philosophical discussion unrelated to technology. The Frame Problem matters because an AI could make a fatal decision that humans would know not to ignore.

The classic thought experiment has to do with a robot, a battery, a cart, and a bomb. The battery and bomb are on the cart. When programmed to retrieve the battery, the robot brings back the cart. The cart has both the battery and the bomb. A human would notice the bomb. Or would bring only the battery back. It's possible to program the robot to consider other factors like the bomb. But that might make the robot so slow that the bomb could explode as it's considering all the other possible factors.

Frame Problem
https://www.autoblocks.ai/glossary/frame-problem

Elements of Coding: Functions

This is the third in a series about common elements across programming languages. Once you learn one language, identifying these elements is a way to learn new languages quickly. Plus, you'll get a deeper understanding about the problems languages have to solve. And the trade offs languages make. Last week explored the types of data stored in variables. This week is about how code is organized into functions.

Every programming language lets you create blocks of code that, when called, perform tasks. Imagine a dog that does the same trick only when asked. Except you do not need dog treats to make your code perform. In programming, these code blocks are called functions.

All programming functions have input and output. The function contains instructions used to create the output from its input. It’s like a cow that eats grass (the input) which its body turns into milk which a dairy farmer then milks (the output).

It is possible to build entire software applications with only functions. Programming languages which primarily use functions are called functional programming languages. Haskell and a few other languages are primarily functional languages. You build software by building blocks of code that perform specific tasks.

Functions
https://kidscodecs.com/programming-functions/

Functions and Procedures
https://kidscodecs.com/functions-and-procedures/

Jack the Baboon

Wandering around online, I came across a too good to be true STEM story. Jack was a baboon who managed track switching for a South African railroad. This would be in the late 1800s. It turns out to be true.

James Wide was a railway guard who liked to jump from track to track, train to train, and truck to truck. As you might expect, one day he fell under a train and lost both legs. He lost his job. Then won it back after building himself a cart to move around and wooden peg legs. The railroad hired him to manage the signals for switching train traffic. In town, he happened to meet a man with a baboon who was pushing an oxcart. Apparently that was common at that time. The man gave him the baboon and Wide taught the baboon how to pull the train switches.

So, some things you read on the internet turn out to be true. Who knew?

Jack The Baboon Operated A Railway, Earned A Salary, And Never Made Mistakes
https://historydaily.org/jack-baboon-operated-railway-earned-salary-never-made-mistakes

Jack the Signalman
https://web.archive.org/web/20160125001616/http://www.earthfoot.org/lit_zone/signalmn.htm

This Week

Our Sunday email this week has fun often offbeat links, for example, what happens when you eat mold? Is it really that bad? Or is it more like the 5 second rule when you drop food on the floor? There's also an article about water from the 2022 Tonga eruption. It's still in Earth's atmosphere. And a haunted forest of butterflies, a 2500 year old telecom device, and NASA's Pillars of Creation photo. And bots set loose in a virtual town. Look for the email this Sunday!