Web 3.0 and AI…my MOOC platform dreams (II)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) software is used in so many ways today, such as in, image recognition, understanding and translating human speech, driver-less cars and so on. Also, most web pages, pictures, sound, videos, books, etc. on the internet are indexed, and we can search for them using keywords or patterns. I was wondering if we might do the same for meaning — thoughts, emotions, and connection making? Can we index the web for meaning?
I imagine that this would have to be a collaboration between AI and humans. Humans provide the meaning, for instance, the meaning of a picture, the emotions associated with a song, or the thoughts associated with a text. Then AI “learn” these human meanings and associations, which can be used to search the internet and find other similar meanings and make other connections for humans.
We already find this happening when we search for music similar to the ones we like, and movies or books. I was wondering, if we could make this meaning learning/association a part of routine internet activity such that we can gather this data, more intuitively.
This could happen if a MOOC platform as I describe here not only harvests the user/learner’s modifications, which improve the content but also includes redundant content that shows the same ideas but from multiple perspectives?
If a machine can learn those replication of ideas or meaning, and if this machine does not merely reside in one central place but is also distributed on each browser that assesses the MOOC platform? Then it might be possible that machine learning could occur on each device accessing the MOOC platform, and across the network formed of the devices accessing the network. Humankind has already achieved excellent AI systems and so maybe all there is to intelligence is just inputs, outputs, logic, and computations. There could be a couple of ways which we can try to incorporate AI into our MOOC platform so that it isn’t just a MOOC platform but an AI-MOOC platform.
If we imagine artificial intelligence assisted learning on this MOOC platform, I believe we are looking at what might likely be the next shift on the internet or Web 3.0 — “artificial and human intelligent” internet. And possibly Web 4.0 would be more than just assisted-intelligence but actual assisted-living or artificial-assisted existence. Where our life activities such as perception, location, thoughts, and emotions could exist and shared with other humans and machines located anywhere else.
Just as intelligence is merely inputs, outputs and computations likewise thoughts and emotions might also merely be inputs, outputs, and computations. So we might connect emotions together over the internet, modify them and even create them. For instance, now we use emoticons to communicate emotions in a rudimentary way over the internet, but I think we will develop much better and more naturally intuitive ways to share our emotions and even our thought processes over the internet.
It might be possible to interface not only human thoughts and emotions but also other living things. Such that rather than training a dog to signify a particular smell by barking or otherwise, we might read the actual brain outputs from the dog that signifies that smell, or interface with trees to read chemical signatures in the air. And I believe that these achievements are right around the corner. I sometimes wonder too what if a web 5.0, 6.0 … and so on might be like, and imagine that somehow we may continue to push past the physical limits of interactions that exist in our world today.
My Background
In 1993 or thereabouts, while in my mid-twenties and a university dropout, I read a textbook on AI I had bought in a used-book store. I was enthralled, and wrote my thoughts in a very long (and sometimes rambling) paper and mailed it off to a few AI labs in the world. I got a very kind reply from the MIT’s AI Lab encouraging me to apply for an undergraduate study in MIT.
Anyway, I knew I couldn’t afford it, so I didn’t bother. Neither did I bother to properly educate a rich uncle who on reading the letter, as did others around, wrongly assumed it was a scholarship offer from MIT and gave me a tidy sum of money to, in his understanding, help me with some of my needs as I prepared to go to the US. Part of that money paid for my first but very expensive email address in my local big city.
But what I wanted from MIT, was an opportunity to network and have conversations with people in the field, to learn and achieve, maybe not so much in the traditional educational method, of course, I am a dropout. So I continued sending out my article to a handful of labs. And I hardly got any response so I decided that starting conversations this way wasn’t working and stopped making any further attempts to network with anyone at that time.
MOOCs
Things kind of remained the same for me, actually it became worse and quite dismal because it appeared I had lucked out of opportunities. Until about 20 years later, when the first MOOC I experienced came out and from MIT no less. It was utterly magical, unbelievable, my dreams coming true over and over again.
Then I discovered Coursera with an even more active forum where tens and hundreds of thousands of people from all around the world could meet over a shared topic — the MOOC content/learning. It was incredible.
I fell so quickly, and I believe irretrievably in love with MOOCs, and I guess I still do, and I can’t ever get enough of them. I try to do anything in support of MOOCs. I was sometimes active on the forums as a Community Teaching Assistant or just another participant helping to keep the forums healthy and safe for people to share their thoughts and interact positively, combat flame wars, trolls, and other forms of negativity. I spent many hours binge-watching lecture videos, reading forum posts and occasionally posting. I shared emails with platform staff making suggestions for improvements.
Until I found my dreams through MOOCs was beginning to fall apart, access was becoming increasingly restricted, and monetized. The forums were dying lonely places. I spend hours thinking about and emailing anyone I could think of — founders, staff, and peers. I wrote forum posts to try to stem the tide of negative change as I thought of it but to no avail. I was steamrolled.
But I couldn’t let go.
I can’t let go.
I.am.not.letting.go.
It’s been a year and a half since I took my last MOOC and about two years since I thought about and shared my ideas of starting our learner-instructor-centered MOOC. A MOOC platform that isn’t just centered on the needs of somebody making profit, but on the needs of society — learning and improving our lives. As Thomas Jefferson famously wrote, “If the condition of man is to be progressively ameliorated, as we fondly hope and believe, education is to be the chief instrument in effecting it.”
I dream ..
I dream of a MOOC platform that is not in competition (for credits) with universities, so schools and organizations can feel free to share their knowledge, where instructors can interact with diverse and dedicated participants from all over the world, where the forum is free, open and accessible to all. Where people can find teams to participate in projects, research and learning. I dream of a MOOC platform based on voluntary contributions of anyone (a charity effort), where the ownership is public, and its primary goals are for the public good.
I need volunteers if we are going to achieve this — coders, instructors, designers, assistants, admins, and more, believers in this dream. I need people — a community built around this idea. If it resonates with you, and you want to be a part of it in any way, or you just want to say something tweet me @jimangei.
As I keep thinking of what learning and the internet in future would be like, I can’t help but imagine that future learning will be a collaboration between human and machines, and web 3.0 will be about communicating meaning among multiple intelligent beings — human/natural and artificial.
And I think we should continue taking these early steps exploring this path.
..(dreams)
I dream of a world where even the lowest classes are highly educated and have opportunities and access to a good life.
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world — Nelson Mandela.
