SWITCHED ON

The latest news and views from

the world of ICT and edtech

Elon Musk reportedly planning to launch AI rival to ChatGPT maker

Elon Musk is reportedly planning to launch an artificial intelligence company to compete with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, as Silicon Valley battles for dominance in the rapidly developing technology, The has reported. The billionaire boss of Tesla and Twitter is in the process of bringing together a team of AI researchers and engineers, and is in talks with several investors about the project.

The move - which would see him joining tech giants Microsoft, Google and Amazon, and startups including OpenAI, in the fast-changing generative AI space - appears to signal a rapid change of direction. co-signed a letter in which he and more than 1,800 others demanded a six-month pause in AI research; it later emerged that some of the

Newcastle edtech firm raises £4m to expand neuro-inclusion tech platform

Bdaily News has reported that a North East edtech firm has raised £4m to expand its neuro-inclusion platform to support employees. Cognassist provides a software-as-a-service platform focused on identifying and supporting individuals with hidden learning needs, underpinned by extensive scientific research and a vast cognitive dataset. The investment, from Gresham House Ventures, will enable Cognassist to continue its growth within the education market and penetrate the enterprise market, where demand for neuroinclusive solutions to adequately support employees is rapidly emerging. Cognassist, which is headquartered in Newcastle, was founded in 2019 by Chris Quickfall ,and has already scaled its underlying business within the education market, providing greater social mobility for learners and helping diverse minds to thrive.

How (some) use can be good for teenagers

New research has thrown up some welcome news for children and parents alike. Many parents worry about the amount of screen time young people consume but BBC News has reported that Dr Rebecca Anthony, a research associate at Cardiff University’s public health body Decipher, says somewhat more positive findings have emerged while studying responses to the 2019 Student Health and Wellbeing Survey.

“What they were finding is there is a small but significant association between time spent online and depressive symptoms - but a review came out and said we’re not really looking at the nuances of social media,” she said. “We used the survey to look at who young people were engaging with, as well as how long they were spending online.”

And, for once, there was good news about screen time.

Better wellbeing was found to be associated with those who spent their time online speaking to their close and wider group of friends who they already knew offline. Dr Anthony said there was a “very clear message” that spending time speaking to people online the teenagers did not know was associated with “much poorer wellbeing” and was stronger for teenage girls who only messaged people online.

The research may provide some welcome news after another survey found teenagers in Wales had exercised less and spent more time in front of a screen during the pandemic, with almost a quarter experiencing adverse mental health symptoms.

For Dr Linda Papadopoulos, psychologist and ambassador for online safety body Internet Matters, the most vital thing parents can do is get to know what their children are doing. “Look out for how your kids are interacting online, and how it makes them feel, in the same way that you would with anything - they start a new club, they start a new school,” she said.

“Did your child go from being open and happy to becoming very, very withdrawn? Did your child go from being very quiet to being very, very agitated when you take their tech off them?”

She uses the analogy of the fivea-day fruit and vegetables health message. “It’s wonderful that I connect with my friends online but if that’s all I’m doing, that’s a problem. That’s one vegetable. The other vegetable is, have you had a play date? Have you gone out? Have you moved? Have you interacted - just by text, or have you spoken?”

Dr Anthony said she had been surprised at how “switched on” some teenagers were in relation to self-control, including turning off notifications when they were doing homework.