Wen | Jia Xuan
Editor|Principal
In recent months, AIGC has become a hot topic in tech circles and the internet industry.
As a disruptive technology, artificial intelligence has quietly penetrated into all aspects of our lives, and has gradually become a powerful assistant in people's daily life and work. More and more people are paying attention to and learning how to apply these technologies, the industry is also beginning to explore how to help ordinary people better use AI, and professional educational institutions have also entered the market.
NetEase Youdao was the first to make a sound. In mid-March, NetEase Youdao launched a series of self-developed AI courses - "Artificial Intelligence Painting and Design" and "ChatGPT from Beginner to Proficient", the former is the first formal course on the market to systematically train AI painting, and the latter is a course for a wide range of working people to achieve automated office. Both courses aim to provide learners with comprehensive and systematic AI skills training, which attracts public attention.
Source: NetEase Cloud Classroom
Why did NetEase Youdao quickly launch self-developed AI courses? What preparations and thinking did the R&D team do behind the scenes? How useful can learning AI be for "migrant workers"? To explore these questions, Hedgehog Commune (ID: ciweigongshe) chatted with Han Yining, head of NetEase Cloud Classroom AI course products.
The first AI lesson of "Migrant Worker"
The troubles of "beating workers" are usually similar: there are many repetitive work content, and staying up late overtime has become commonplace; Low efficiency and insufficient time; Problems such as slow salary increases and difficult promotions are everywhere. In this context, the application of AI technology has given many "migrant workers" new hope.
In March this year, NetEase Youdao launched a self-developed course "ChatGPT from beginner to proficient", using ChatGPT as a basic tool to try to provide a new way of working to help people improve work efficiency, reduce work burden, and realize automated office. The course poster also has such a slogan: 1 month with ChatGPT+Python to improve work efficiency by 10 times.
This course is mainly divided into three parts, namely ChatGPT Introduction, ChatGPT Office Automation Practice, ChatGPT Data Analysis and Visualization Practice. Through these courses, learners can understand the basic concepts and operation methods of ChatGPT technology, and combine Microsoft Office and other office tools to realize automated office, use code technology for data analysis, etc., improve work efficiency and data processing capabilities, and make work more intelligent and efficient. It is worth mentioning that this course is also very suitable for career newcomers and AI white users. Adopt a templated teaching method to allow learners to quickly get started, easily master skills, and use them immediately.
Source: NetEase Cloud Classroom
March is the first month of ChatGPT's popularity in China, NetEase Youdao launched relevant courses and opened registration, and the speed of course development and launch surprised the industry. However, Han Yining, head of NetEase Cloud Classroom AI course product, told Hedgehog Commune that self-developed AI courses were not a sudden decision made by NetEase Youdao.
In fact, as early as early January this year, the NetEase Youdao team has realized the importance of this technological innovation, and began to discuss internally on "whether to develop AI teaching courses" and "based on which values".
First of all, the team has good content precipitation and technical ability as the basis for the research and development of AI courses.
In the past few years, NetEase Youdao has launched courses such as "18-week Data Analysis Camp" and "NetEase Visual Designer Training Program", which have accumulated in the field of efficient office and visual design, which is an important reason why NetEase Youdao chose to focus on ChatGPT and AI painting design first.
Secondly, as a new technology that is being explored and discussed all over the world, how to set the teaching objectives and market positioning of AI courses has become a key issue for the team to consider in the early stage.
Practicality and correctness are the two core footholds of NetEase Youdao's self-developed AI courses.
As a paid course, the goal of NetEase Youdao's self-developed AI course is not based on the sharing of knowledge and interests, but to enable learners to achieve efficiency or technology improvement in the office process, that is, AI application courses for "migrant workers" and "white users".
"In the past two months, we have repeatedly thought about what GPT can bring to users in the next 2 to 3 years? How rich are the applications? In order to answer these questions, we have exhaustively studied a lot of articles and materials, taking into account the views of the industry leaders who developed GPT in the early days. For example, OpenAI founder Altman said that the most important thing about GPT is 'useful', so we also put a high weight on the 'practicality' of the course. Han Yining said.
Even more challenging is to ensure the correctness of the course.
As a new technology to be explored, the NetEase Youdao team needs to make basic value judgments and carefully consider the "what not to say" and "what not to do" of the course.
Not saying anything means not making judgments easily in areas that are currently difficult to grasp and predict. For example, what will AI look like in a few decades? What is the relationship between AI and humans?
What not to do means that the course will not simply explain the development trend of AI in the industry, nor will it go into controversial areas.
For example, GPT was initially "out of the loop" because GPT could quickly write papers, but due to the controversial application of AI in the academic field, the team did not design and reflect relevant topics in teaching and training. Similarly, some of the content on how to use GPT to "nugget" on the market does not appear in the scope of course teaching.
Hammers and nails
With the development of AI technology, people's expectations for AI are getting higher and higher. However, due to the insufficient understanding of AI, users often have two misunderstandings, namely "AI omnipotence" and "AI useless".
The first misconception is that users see AI technology as a tool that can solve any problem, like a "hammer" in hand, and everything they see becomes a "nail". But in fact, the application of AI technology is still affected by technical limitations and data quality. If users blindly trust AI technology, they will lose their ability to think and judge and be driven by AI technology.
The second misunderstanding is that users have a certain misunderstanding of the actual capabilities of AI technology, just like when there is no "hammer", it is impossible to find the property that everything can be knocked. The rapid iteration of AI technology is already an indisputable fact, and if users despise or ignore it, they will lose the opportunity to keep pace with the times.
Hedgehog Commune observed that at this stage, there are many people who have an entertainment mentality for AI, but not many people really apply it to work, as if everyone knows that GPT is powerful, but can't say what specific workflows can really be used. Therefore, if you want to play the value of AI, you must establish an application awareness that combines AI functions with your own needs.
The first thing is to let users know what AI can do. It's like teaching Python in the early days, letting users know that Python can do something, and users will go to Python. The same goes for GPT, where users need to know what it can do and what they need it to do before asking GPT questions.
Second, let users know how to tap the value of AI. If the specific functions are not explained, many users just think that GPT is fun, can chat with it at will, and can also use the characteristics of AI man-machine indistinguishability to "play terriers" in social circles. But if it is really applied to work, users will not be satisfied that GPT provides an answer, but hope that GPT can provide a good answer to empower the work. "It's easy to give an answer, but it's hard to give you the accurate, specific, high-quality answer you want." Han Yining said.
For example, everyone knows that GPT can generate interview outlines or business copy, but many people don't: GPT can define roles and generate content according to many different identities, which can be called a "thousand faces" assistant.
Through the explanation of the content of NetEase Youdao's self-developed AI course, the Hedgehog Commune put forward two requirements to GPT and compared the generated answers.
Requirement 1: Please help me write an interview outline of "What do AI veterans think about GPT".
Requirement 2: Suppose you are a professor of journalism at the Communication University of China, and you will interview an AI veteran to find out what he thinks about GPT, please provide an interview outline.
Requirement 1
Requirement 2
From the generation results, it is obvious that the generated content of requirement 1 is relatively scattered, more like a structured question given after "brainstorming", which is not a "good interview outline" and cannot be directly applied to actual work.
Since Requirement 2 defines the role of GPT as "Professor of Journalism at Communication University of China", the problem outline generated by GPT focuses more on the relationship and influence between GPT and professional learning in the field of journalism and universities. For example, the application prospect of GPT in the field of journalism, what to do about fake news, whether GPT will replace journalists, whether journalism students need to learn GPT technology, and so on. These problems can not only be used directly in the work, but also present users with clear problem ideas and logical frameworks.
If users want to use AI well in real business, they must learn how to realize its potential. NetEase Youdao has sorted out and summarized more than ten common role settings and question tones when asking GPTs in its self-developed AI course, which users can directly use.
"It's also very much like a 'person', and the user has to constantly stimulate it in order to bring out the best of it." What you give is rough, and the content it gives is simple; If you give something accurate enough, the content he gives will be better. Han Yining said.
"Superindividual"
In the process of course development, the NetEase Youdao team made an interesting discovery: the iteration of thinking brought about by the development of AI has gradually affected the company's recruitment and employment.
Due to the priority impact of AI technology on the Internet industry, in order to investigate the course goals and user needs, NetEase Youdao chatted with the design directors of Internet giants and employers, trying to understand what kind of people they need.
A design director told NetEase Youdao that in the past, the designers who were most afraid of recruiting "eyes are high and low" - their aesthetic vision is particularly good, but they can't draw it. Now the thinking has changed, they want candidates to be "eye-high" - because designers with "low eyes" do not know what good things are, it is difficult to draw good works.
AI makes execution much easier, and insights and questions are especially important. Without a well-developed worldview, keen eye and a higher stage, it is difficult for users to make good things. With the development of AI technology, the industry has begun to slowly accept talents with "eyes high hands and low hands", and "eyes are low and hands are high" and "eyes are low hands" will face the risk of being eliminated to a large extent.
Some school officials also began to get nervous. Some vocational colleges took the initiative to find NetEase Youdao and asked whether they could open AI-related courses for schools, especially practical courses such as AI painting design. If students enter society from colleges and universities, but do not use GPT and cannot use AI to draw, the future is likely to be out of touch with social needs. Hedgehog Commune learned that NetEase Youdao's school-enterprise cooperation department is currently promoting the landing of AI course-related products.
The rapid development of technology has become inevitable, how can the "workers" be invincible?
The first is to improve metacognitive ability, that is, self-monitoring and self-regulation of cognitive processes such as learning, thinking, and decision-making. If you want to improve metacognitive ability, you can't just hear one or two sounds. At present, the amount of "one-size-fits-all" and either-or information on the Internet is far from enough, and only by dabbling in more metacognitive content and understanding more systematic and difficult works can we essentially understand the rapidly developing new technology.
The second is to be self-centered and selective. The increase in the amount of information and the easy access to information can also cause noise and stress. "Using AI well" is not the same as "using all functions", humans need to free their hands and gain more freedom through AI, rather than becoming slaves to technology.
More importantly, use AI in practice first. There is a popular saying in the industry: AI eliminates people who can't use AI. When the new era comes, even if the abacus plays well, if you do not learn to use the computer, you will probably face the fate of the abacus being eliminated by the computer.
AI is the role of Copilot (co-pilot) and the assistant of humans - this is the definition and understanding of the current stage of development of AI within NetEase Youdao, and it is also the basis for the teaching theory and values of NetEase Youdao's self-developed AI courses. Since the role of AI is an assistant, it is necessary to make AI a "super tool" for humans.
According to Han Yining, at least half a year ago, NetEase began to use AI painting to improve business efficiency, and explored the complete form of use and operation process that can be applied to work in business practice. Especially in the game design department, it used to take two or three days for an original artist to create a prototype of a protagonist, but now it can be finalized in a few hours to half a day with AI tools.
The course poster made by the designer using AI Source: NetEase Youdao
In addition to the use of tools and skills, NetEase Youdao also thought, planned and deeply cultivated the future commercialization scenarios of AI skills, that is, how to use technology teaching to help individuals break existing career boundaries and enhance long-term career competitiveness.
Taking the designer profession as an example, the current AI design course is more about teaching tools. In fact, if an individual establishes a good sense of design, with the help of AI technology, he can not only be a visual designer, but also a cross-border clothing designer, or even a home decoration designer, and so on.
Based on these considerations, NetEase Youdao put forward comprehensive requirements for self-developed AI courses such as high information concentration, strong practicality, and commercialization-oriented. The ultimate goal of these AI courses is to cultivate future "super individuals."
Han Yining felt very lucky. Whether it was because of the course development work or the company's business arrangement, he and his team had the opportunity to be the first to understand and encounter many important innovations brought about by AIGC technology. In his opinion, in 1 to 2 years, the scope of use and coverage of AI will far exceed our current imagination, and even human society will change differently.
"Understand it early, use it earlier, and it can help individual development much more than people think." Han Yining said.
("Han Yining" in the text is a pseudonym, generated by AI)