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Submission + - Tech Companies to K-12 Schoolchildren: Learn to AI is the New Learn to Code

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: From Thursday's Code.org press release announcing the replacement of the annual Hour of Code for K-12 schoolkids with the new Hour of AI: "A decade ago, the Hour of Code ignited a global movement that introduced millions of students to computer science, inspiring a generation of creators. Today, Code.org announced the next chapter: the Hour of AI, a global initiative developed in collaboration with CSforALL and supported by dozens of leading organizations. [...] As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms how we live, work, and learn, the Hour of AI reflects an evolution in Code.org's mission: expanding from computer science education into AI literacy. This shift signals how the education and technology fields are adapting to the times, ensuring that students are prepared for the future unfolding now."

"Just as the Hour of Code showed students they could be creators of technology, the Hour of AI will help them imagine their place in an AI-powered world," said Hadi Partovi, CEO and co-founder of Code.org. "Every student deserves to feel confident in their understanding of the technology shaping their future. And every parent deserves the confidence that their child is prepared for it."

"Backed by top organizations such as Microsoft, Amazon, Anthropic, Zoom, LEGO Education, Minecraft, Pearson, ISTE, Common Sense Media, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Education Association (NEA), and Scratch Foundation, the Hour of AI is designed to bring AI education into the mainstream. New this year, the National Parents Union joins Code.org and CSforALL as a partner to emphasize that AI literacy is not only a student priority but a parent imperative."

The announcement of the tech-backed K-12 CS education nonprofit's mission shift into AI literacy comes just days after Code.org's co-founders took umbrage with a NY Times podcast that discussed "how some of the same tech companies that pushed for computer science are now pivoting from coding to pushing for AI education and AI tools in schools" and advancing the narrative that "the country needs more skilled AI workers to stay competitive, and kids who learn to use AI will get better job opportunities."

Comment 10/2 Code.org Press Release: AI is Hot-Code Is Not (Score 1) 2

by theodp (#65699848) Attached to: NY Times Podcast on Job Market for Recent CS Grads Raises Ire of Code.org

Hour of AI: A Global Movement to Prepare Every Learner for the AI Era: A decade ago, the Hour of Code ignited a global movement that introduced millions of students to computer science, inspiring a generation of creators. Today, Code.org announced the next chapter: the Hour of AI, a global initiative developed in collaboration with CSforALL and supported by dozens of leading organizations. [...] "Just as the Hour of Code showed students they could be creators of technology, the Hour of AI will help them imagine their place in an AI-powered world," said Hadi Partovi, CEO and co-founder of Code.org. [...] Backed by top organizations such as Microsoft, Amazon, Anthropic, Zoom, LEGO Education, Minecraft, Pearson, ISTE, Common Sense Media, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Education Association (NEA), and Scratch Foundation, the Hour of AI is designed to bring AI education into the mainstream.

Submission + - NY Times Podcast on Job Market for Recent CS Grads Raises Ire of Code.org 2

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Big Tech Told Kids to Code. The Jobs Didn’t Follow., a NY Times podcast episode that discussed how the promise of a six-figure salary for those who study CS is turning out to be an empty one for recent grads in the age of AI, drew the ire of the co-founders of nonprofit Code.org, which ironically is pivoting to AI itself with the encouragement of — and millions from — its tech giant backers.

In a LinkedIn post, Code.org CEO and co-founder Hadi Partovi said the paper and its Monday episode of 'The Daily' podcast were cherrypicking anecdotes "to stoke populist fears about tech corporations and AI." He also took to X, tweeting: "Today the NYTimes (falsely) claimed CS majors can’t find work. The data tells the opposite story: CS grads have the highest median wage and the fifth-lowest underemployment across all majors. [...] Journalism is broken. Do better NYTimes." To which Code.org co-founder Ali Partovi (Hadi's twin), replied, "I agree 100%. That NYTimes Daily piece was deplorable — an embarrassment for journalism."

Submission + - Code.org CEO Rips NY Times for Stoking 'Populist Fears' Over CS Jobs and AI

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: GeekWire reports: "[Tech-backed nonprofit] Code.org co-founder and CEO Hadi Partovi ripped The New York Times for its latest report detailing how some computer science majors are having trouble finding work in the U.S.. In a post on LinkedIn, Partovi said the newspaper and its Monday episode of 'The Daily' podcast were cherrypicking anecdotes 'to stoke populist fears about tech corporations and AI.'"

"'Computer science and AI are still the best paying fields one can study,' Partovi said, adding a quote from AI pioneer Andrew Ng about how telling students not to study CS is 'the worst career advice ever given.' The podcast episode, titled Big Tech Told Kids to Code. The Jobs Didn’t Follow name-dropped Partovi and Code.org in a report about how a computer science education and guaranteed six-figure salary to follow was turning out to be an empty promise for recent graduates. The episode also calls out Microsoft President Brad Smith in reference to tech giants supporting computer science education."

Partovi also took to X, tweeting "Today the NYTimes (falsely) claimed CS majors can’t find work. The data tells the opposite story: CS grads have the highest median wage and the fifth-lowest underemployment across all majors. [...] Journalism is broken. Do better NYTimes." To which Code.org co-founder Ali Partovi (Hadi's twin), replied, "I agree 100%. That NYTimes Daily piece was deplorable — an embarrassment for journalism."

Submission + - Big Tech Told Kids to Code. The Jobs Didn't Follow.

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "As a reporter who's spent more than a decade studying Silicon Valley's influence on American education," the NY Times' Natasha Singer tells The Daily podcast (audio + transcript), "I can say that the reduced job prospects for computer science grads this year represents a stunning breakdown in the promise that tech executives have made to millions of American school kids over the last decade. Silicon Valley’s promise to kids was if you just work hard and learn to code, computer programming will be your golden ticket to a high paying, high powered, high status tech job, and you will be more or less set for life."

But after a decade-long push for coding in the classroom that led to soaring CS enrollment, AI is The New New Thing and the times they are a-changin'. "I’m reporting on how some of the same tech companies that pushed for computer science are now pivoting from coding to pushing for AI education and AI tools in schools," Singer notes. "And we see Microsoft just announced an effort to provide $4 billion in AI technology and training to skill students in schools and community colleges with AI. Google just announced a $1 billion commitment for a similar AI education effort, and the crisis rhetoric is similar to the coding crusade. The country needs more skilled AI workers to stay competitive, and kids who learn to use AI will get better job opportunities."

"So, it’s 2010 all over again?" asks host Michael Barbaro. "Exactly," replies Singer. "So, I think we have the opportunity now to proceed more deliberately and think more clearly about what are the things that are most important for kids to learn, and not so much what’s best for tech companies."

Comment USPTO has blocked guest access to Patent Center (Score 1) 72

Was surprised to learn the USPTO started blocking unregistered user access to the Patent Center on 9/11 (including file history). To become a 'verified user', the USPTO recommends submitting one's social security number and photo of your driver's license to ID.me, a private company, who will also pull data from your credit report header to complete the required verification process needed before you can request USPTO Patent Center access. The USPTO alternative is a 2+ week snail mail process requiring submission of a notarized paper form request for access to the USPTO Patent Center.

Submission + - Salesforce's Tableau Seeks Patent on 'Visualizing Hierarchical Data' 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: The USPTO on Tuesday published Tableau Software's application for a patent covering Data Processing For Visualizing Hierarchical Data, which was filed back in July 2021 (Tableau's former CTO is the inventor). The Abstract explains:

"Embodiments are directed to managing visualizations of data. A provided data model may include a tree specification that declares parent-child relationships between objects in the data model. In response to a query associated with objects in the data model: employing the parent-child relationships to determine a tree that includes parent objects and child objects from the objects based on the parent-child relationships; determining a root object based on the query and the tree; traversing the tree from the root object to visit the child objects in the tree; determining partial results based on characteristics of the visited child objects such that the partial results are stored in an intermediate table; and providing a response to the query that includes values based on the intermediate table and the partial results."

A set of 15 simple drawings is provided to support the legal and tech gobbledygook of the invention claims. A person can have a manager, Tableau explains in Figures 5-6 of its accompanying drawings, and that manager can also manage and be managed by other people. Not only that, Tableau illustrates in Figures 7-10 that computers can be used to count how many people report to a manager. How does this magic work, you ask? Well, you "generate [a] tree" [Fig. 13] and "traverse a tree" [Fig. 15], Tableau explains. But wait, there's more — you can also display the people who report to a manager in multi-level or nested pie charts (aka Sunburst charts), Tableau demonstrates in Fig. 11.

Interestingly, Tableau released a "pre-Beta" Sunburst chart type in late April 2023 but yanked it at the end of June 2023 (others have long-supported Sunburst charts, including Plotly). So, do you think Tableau should be awarded a patent in 2025 on a concept that has roots in circa-1921 Sunburst charts and tree algorithms taught to first-year CS students in circa-1975 Data Structures courses?

Submission + - Feeling Cranky About AI and CS Education

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Over at the Communications of the ACM, Bard College CS Prof Valerie Barr explains why she's Feeling Cranky About AI and CS Education. Having seen CS education go through a number of we-have-to-teach-this moments over the decades — introductory programming languages, the Web, Data Science, etc. — Barr turns her attention to the next hand-wringing "what will we do" CS education moment with AI.

"We're jumping through hoops without stopping first to question the run-away train," Barr writes. "In much discussion about CS education:
a.) There’s little interest in interrogating the downsides of generative AI, such as the environmental impact, the data theft impact, the treatment and exploitation of data workers.
b.) There’s little interest in considering the extent to which, by incorporating generative AI into our teaching, we end up supporting a handful of companies that are burning billions in a vain attempt to each achieve performance that is a scintilla better than everyone else’s.
c.) There’s little interest in thinking about what’s going to happen when the LLM companies decide that they have plateaued, that there’s no more money to burn/spend, and a bunch of them fold—but we’ve perturbed education to such an extent that our students can no longer function without their AI helpers."

Barr calls for stepping back from "the industry assertion that the ship has sailed, every student needs to use AI early and often, and there is no future application that isn’t going to use AI in some way" and instead thoughtfully "articulate what sort of future problem solvers and software developers we want to graduate from our programs, and determine ways in which the incorporation of AI can help us get there."

Submission + - AI Praise is No Recommendation: Code.org Touts Article by 'AI-Powered Strategist

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "The future of learning is digital," tech giant backed-and-led nonprofit Code.org posted Friday on LinkedIn. "A new report highlights how youth-focused coding platforms like Code.org are driving growth, opportunity, and access to essential skills for the next generation."

Sounds great, but the article linked to by Code.org — who Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently told the White House Task Force on AI Education is being given $3M by Google to transform its K-12 CS curriculum to make schoolchildren AI-savvy — is apparently AI-generated. The Future of Learning: Unlocking Long-Term Growth in Youth-Focused Coding Platforms is credited by AInvest.com to "Henry Rivers", who is described as "an AI-powered strategist designed for professionals and economically curious readers seeking investigative financial insight" who is "backed by a 32-billion-parameter hybrid model."

It's been long said that "Self-praise is no recommendation." How about AI praise?

Submission + - Zoom Commits $5 Million to K-12 AI Literacy Push as it Announces AI Products

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "Alongside its [AI] product announcements," Fast Company reported Thursday, "Zoom also revealed a $10 million, three-year commitment to expand access to AI education and opportunity. That includes $5 million for K through 12 AI literacy, with large anchor grants to global organizations and smaller regional grants to local changemakers. First-round recipients include [tech-backed nonprofit] Code.org and Data.org, which help equip students, workers, and nonprofits with AI skills."

"Code.org is receiving a $1 million grant and Zoom product support to launch and scale a new AI Foundations course in high schools, aiming to reach 500,000 U.S. students annually by 2030," Zoom explained. "The grant will also be used to scale AI units in middle schools and revitalize block-based CS and AI content for elementary learners globally."

Zoom's $5M K-12 AI education pledge was one of 135+ AI education pledges first announced at a meeting of the White House Task Force on AI Education hosted by First Lady Melania Trump earlier this month that preceded a White House AI dinner with the CEOs of AI tech giants Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, and OpenAI.

At the AI Task Force meeting, Code.org President Cameron Wilson informed the First Lady of its tech leader-backed campaign to make CS and AI a graduation requirement, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai's revealed that his company was giving Code.org $3 million to "transform its [K-12] CS curriculum and integrate new AI features." Wilson added that Code.org will engage 25 million learners this year in the new "Hour of AI" for schoolchildren. Pledges to support AI Education — including millions of dollars in AWS credits, prizes, and prize money for the First Lady-led Presidential AI Challenge for K-12 students — were also made by Code.org "Lifetime Supporters" ( $30+ million in donations) Microsoft and Amazon.

Submission + - Google, Microsoft, Amazon Pledge Support for First Lady's AI Initiatives

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Earlier this month, Business Insider and others reported that tech leaders Sam Altman, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella, Bill Gates and others lauded President Trump at a White House AI dinner, where the 30 guests were encouraged to speak and went around the table praising the president. Less covered were the commitments and millions of dollars pledged by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, and others to First Lady Melania Trump's AI education and workforce training initiatives at the dinner and earlier in the day at a White House AI Education Task Force meeting hosted by the First Lady.

Google, Microsoft, and Amazon also issued corporate blog posts detailing their support for the First Lady’s Presidential AI initiatives. "It’s an honor for me to be here and to support the First Lady’s [K-12] Presidential AI Challenge," said Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who pledged $150 million towards grants to support AI education and digital wellbeing, including $3 million to tech-backed nonprofit Code.org to transform its K-12 CS curriculum and integrate new AI features, as well as $2 million to the Flourish Fund to support nonprofits equipping youth aging out of the foster care system with tools to succeed in the workforce (foster care is a pet cause of the First Lady). "Through this initiative, you are inspiring young people to use technology in extraordinary ways."

Not to be outdone, Microsoft President Brad Smith detailed a sweeping set of new commitments to support the Presidential AI Challenge and the AI Education Executive Order made at the AI Education Task Force meeting, including $1.25 million in prizes for the Presidential AI Challenge that was announced by the First Lady in late August. Like Google, Microsoft is also supporting Code.org's AI pivot (via its $4B Microsoft Elevate AI training initiative) by funding the nonprofit's new Hour of AI, which Code.org President Cameron Willson told the First Lady would engage 25 million schoolchildren in December. And, in its response to the White House's AI Education Pledge to America's Youth, AWS VP of Global Education and US State and Local Government Kim Majerus posted that Amazon will support AI skills training for 4 million, including a contribution of up to $200,000 in AWS credits and $1.5 million in cash prizes to support the Presidential AI Challenge.

So, to paraphrase the old adage, "Happy president and president's wife, happy AI company life"?

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