Google's Going Nuclear!

Author

Neil Almond
October 15, 2024

Good afternoon, human,

It is nearly the half-term break here in the UK, so this will be the last TeacherPrompt newsletter in this format until we are back. Over half term, I do intend to do some more in-depth writing around AI similar to what was done over the summer.

📚 Knowledge builders

  • Guardrails â†’ An AI chatbot may have guardrails built in to control the behaviour of the chatbot to a degree. For example, you would not want nefarious character using AI to support them in carrying out acts of terrorism.

  • Pattern-matching → The process an LLM may go through to appear that it is undertaking some complex reasoning task. In a recent paper, the authors argue that LLMs are not reasoning in the true sense of the word but merely becoming more sophisticated at matching patterns from a prompt with their data set.

🤖 Industry updates

  • Meta AI Expands to the UK â†’ Baked into WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, and a dedicated website, Meta AI is gradually being rolled out to users in the UK. Meta AI is built on their own in-house model called Llama, so expect it to act sightly differently to ChatGPT and Anthropic.

  •  Nuclear Reactors â†’ In a world’s first, Google has purchased several mini nuclear reactors that will be used to power their AI data centres. This likely comes as a result of Google loosing their carbon-neutral status due to the power demands of their AI data centres.

✨ Fresh prompts

  1. Improve your subject knowledge → If you find yourself having to teach a new subject/topic after half term, then this prompt could provide a starting point for getting your subject knowledge up to scratch. I have found this prompt to be effective when you are explicit in what year group, directly refer to the NC and provide resources for links. 

Act as an expert on music theory. Explain the most important concepts that I need to know to teach Y8 pupils in England, and provide real-world examples to illustrate each. Refer to the national curriculum for music for KS3. Then, give me a step-by-step guide to support me in learning this content over the next 14 days. Provide links to relevant resources to support my learning.

Here is an example of the output:

1. Understanding Notation and Reading Music

  • Curriculum Requirement: Pupils should be able to read and understand staff notation.

  • Key Topics:

    • Treble and bass clefs

    • Note durations (whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes)

    • Rests, time signatures (simple and compound), and accidentals (sharps, flats, naturals)

  • Real-World Example: Use the song "Ode to Joy" by Beethoven to teach how to read the melody in treble clef, identify the 4/4 time signature, and spot any accidentals.

6. Dynamics and Expression

  • Curriculum Requirement: Recognize and use dynamics to convey expression in music.

  • Key Topics:

    • Dynamic markings (piano, forte, crescendo, decrescendo)

    • Articulation (legato, staccato)

  • Real-World Example: Listen to "Für Elise" by Beethoven, marking out dynamic changes (from piano to forte) and pointing out where legato and staccato articulation is used.

Day 1-2: Notation Basics

  • Focus: Learn treble and bass clefs, note values, and time signatures.

  • Activity: Use an online notation tool like MuseScore to practice writing notes in different clefs and time signatures.

  • Resource: Reading Music - Notation 101

As ever, thanks for reading and keep on prompting! Mr A 🦾