Welcome AI Explorers.

Welcome to this week's AI literacy roundup, where we're diving into everything from budget-friendly research tools to mind-boggling infrastructure projects that cost more than sending humans to the moon.

This Week's Highlights:
🔍 Deep Research in Two Ways: Compare Google's fancy new research agent with a crafty DIY alternatives
🏗️ The $500 Billion AI Infrastructure Project: Like building the Interstate Highway System, but with more servers and fewer road trips
🎯 Canadian AI Pride: Toronto-based Cohere shows Microsoft how workplace AI is done
🤔 Think Cleaner, Write Better: A prompt to help you avoid those AI-writing clichés we've all grown to recognize
🎓 Learning Hub: Fresh AI resources from universities that won't put you to sleep
📅 Upcoming Events: From AI hallucinations to privacy concerns (and yes, they're mostly free!)
🌟 Bonus: A card game about pedagogy that has nothing to do with AI but might make your next faculty meeting more interesting

Prompt of the Week

Keep those pesky phrases that Gen AI likes to use out of your writing:

                
Rewrite this blog post and keep the same structure, information and length. Only change the language used.
                
                
Do not use complex or abstract terms such as 'meticulous,' 'navigating,' 'complexities,' 'realm,' 'bespoke,' 'tailored,' 'towards,' 'underpins,' 'ever-changing,' 'ever-evolving,' 'the world of,' 'not only,' 'seeking more than just,' 'designed to enhance,' 'it's not merely,' 'our suite,' 'it is advisable,' 'In the world of,'  'daunting,' 'in the heart of,' 'when it comes to,' 
'in the realm of,' 'amongst,' 'unlock the secrets,' 'unveil the secrets,' 'transforms' and 'robust.'
                
This approach aims to streamline content production for enhanced NLP algorithm comprehension, ensuring the output is direct, accessible, and easily interpretable.       
[PASTE YOUR BLOG POST HERE]
                
                

AI App Spotlight

This week, you get a three for one:

1. Google Deep Research

Google's Deep Research is a specialized research agent. It transforms how you tackle complex research tasks, potentially turning hours of work into minutes, just don't expect a lot of nuance.

How it works:

• You pose a question to Deep Research (accessible via Google Gemini with a paid account)

• The AI creates a research plan (which you can edit)

• It then searches, analyzes, and digs deeper based on what it learns (One of the main limitations here is that the agent can only access public websites that are not behind a pay wall)

• Finally, it spits out a detailed report with source links

Your Role:

• Direct the research focus

• Evaluate findings critically

• Make final decisions on content

• Use your judgment on sources

The bottom line: Use Deep Research as your assistant, not your replacement. You get a super-fast reading assistant that can scan thousands of pages while you focus on understanding and applying the findings.

2. Deep Research Lite

You could do effectively the same thing as Google Deep Research using a combination of Perplexity (or even just a web search) and Notebook LM. It will take a bit more work, but the tools are free for this method

How it works:

1. Use Perplexity for Discovery:

   • Ask Perplexity broad research questions.

   • It gives answers with sources.

   • Use "Related Questions" to refine your search.

   • "Crawl" cited pages in Perplexity if needed.

2. Use NotebookLM for Deep Dive:

   • Find key documents from Perplexity's results.

   • Upload or link to these from NotebookLM (PDFs, web pages, text).

   • Ask NotebookLM questions about the documents.

   • Use NotebookLM to summarize & find connections within your docs.

3. Iterate & Refine:

   • Use NotebookLM insights to ask Perplexity more targeted questions.

   • Use Perplexity to verify info from NotebookLM documents.

   • Cycle between Perplexity (broad search) & NotebookLM (deep analysis).

Bottom line: Perplexity + NotebookLM is a powerful, hands-on research tool. It's more effort than the fully automated Deep Research, but it's free and could lead to potentially deeper understanding and control of your sources.

3. Deepseek

Deepseek is a small Chinese company that has built several Large Language Models that match the best from Google and OpenAI - but they did so at one-tenth of the cost. The models are also open-source meaning that if you have a powerful enough cluster of computers, you can run them yourself.

Why it matters

• Cutting edge LLM at a fraction of the cost of the big three (Google, Anthropic, OpenAI)

• Proof that innovation can come from unexpected places (AI development is just a side-gig for this company)

• The DeepThink version shows it's "thought process" before giving an answer. At the risk of anthropomorphizing too much, the thought process seems very earnest and sweet.

How it Works:

• sign up at https://chat.deepseek.com/

• Use it just like ChatGPT

• Click on "DeepThink (R1)" to go into "thinking mode"

Yes, But:

• Consider the added privacy implications of using a Chatbot that needs to comply with Chinese government requirements

• Expect more blatant censoring when using the Deepseek chatbot. Just try asking it about Tiananmen Square

AI News of the Week

Go Canada! (Yes, our country does have competitors in this AI game). Cohere, an AI company headquartered in Toronto, recently launches a secure AI workspace copilot which reportedly outperforms Microsoft Copilot.

A mind-bogglingly large investment in AI infrastructure. A joint venture between Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI is looking to invest $500 Billion over the next 4 years to build server farms and power plants for AI infrastructure. To put this in perspective:

• The Apollo program cost $182 billion in 2023 USD (wikipedia)

• The interstate highway system in the US built in the 1950's and 60's cost about $650 billion in 2024 USD (Infrastructure Report Card)

If you are running a construction company in the US, now is the time to grab your piece of the $500bn pie.

This project will create 100,000 jobs and indicates that the AI boom will continue. Let's just hope that the project doesn't open a wormhole to the Goa'uld.

AI Powered Pedagogy 👩‍🏫

Some university AI websites:

• AI Fundamentals for Students

• AI and Information Literacy

• AI in Education Site Built by Students for Students

• GenAI in Teaching and Learning Toolkit

Not AI Related, but I thought this looks fun: Cards Against Pedagogy

Upcoming Events

(You may find these seminars interesting, but I don't have any insight into how good or informative they will be for you)

• Helping students Develop Evaluative Judgment Through Gen AI Hallucinations. Jan 29. 12-1. Presented by UBC. I'm an alumnus and was able to sign up despite having graduated several years ago. I don't know if it's open to everyone.

• Unlocking Human Superpowers with AI. Jan. 29. 11-12. From Section. they'll encourage you to join their paid classes, but I've found the free classes to be good quality

• AI and Personalization: Progress or Invasion of Privacy (Feb 5. 12-1pm) From Section, they'll encourage you to join their paid classes, but I've found the free classes to be good quality

• AI for Writers Summit. Virtual Event March 6, 2025. Targeted more for marketing, but even if you never want to use AI for writing, you can get a sense of what heavy users are doing with generative AI tools (e.g., things that your students might be doing)

The mAIn Event

Picking Your General Purpose AI Tool

If you are going to read anything about AI this week, read this newsletter - obviously 
but if you're going to read anything else, read this article from Ethan Mollick "Which AI to Use Now: An Updated Opinionated Guide"