This week, Google researchers published a paper describing results from an AI tool built to create music. The tool, called MusicLM, is not the first AI music tool to be launched. But the examples Google provided demonstrate musical creative ability based on a limited set of descriptive words.

Several different music examples produced by MusicLM were published online. Some of the generated music came from just one- or two-word descriptions, such as “jazz”, “rock” or “techno (高科技舞曲)”. The tool also created other examples from more detailed descriptions containing whole sentences.

The MusicLM model operates similarly to the machine-learning systems used by ChatGPT. ChatGPT and MusicLM both require powerful computers to operate complex machine-learning models. The San Francisco-based company OpenAI launched ChatGPT late last year. ChatGPT has recently received a lot of attention because of its ability to generate complex writings and other content from just a simple description in natural languages. Such tools can produce human-like results because they are trained on huge amounts of data. Many different materials are fed into the systems to permit them to learn complex skills to create realistic works.

However, the MusicLM researchers said there were some risks linked to the new tool. One of the biggest issues the researchers identified was biases (偏好) present in the training data. A bias might be including too much of one side and not enough of the other. The researchers said this raised a question about appropriateness for music generation for cultures underrepresented in the training data.

In late summer, Death Valley National Park earns its name. The heat in this region of California and Nevada is unbearable. Despite the heat, there was a slow but steady drop of water into the collection bottle of Omar Yaghi’s device, a group of components resembling a telescope. By the end of the day, this system had collected only a few millilitres of water — barely enough for a refreshing sip. But these results, published in July, represent a landmark in the field of Atmospheric Water Harvesting (AWH).

The key ingredient in this device — a water-absorbing chemical called MOF-303 — has the potential to deliver life-sustaining volumes of clean water to regions that currently struggle to access it. “The vision there is to have something like a village-scale device,” says Yaghi, a chemist at the University of California. “If you’ve got a tonne of MOF-303, you could deliver about 500 litres of water a day.”

By current estimates, roughly two billion people lack access to clean drinking water. Desalinated seawater can meet some of this need, but the technology required remains costly and is limited to coastal regions. This accounts for the growing enthusiasm for alternative solutions that extract clean water from the air.

“It is estimated that Earth’s atmosphere contains nearly 13,000 cubic kilometres of water — over six times the volume of the world’s rivers. We cannot exhaust it — it’s always refilled in the process of natural water cycle,” says Tian Li, a materials scientist at Purdue University. And although many of the most promising AWH technologies are still at the stage of lab demonstrations, the field is quickly developing towards real-world systems that produce plentiful amounts of water at low cost.

ChatGPT, a new chatbot model developed by US-based AI research laboratory OpenAI, has quickly become a hit globally due to its advanced conversational capabilities.

It can write emails, computer codes, even academic papers and poems, and has passed a number of tests within seconds. Educators worldwide are discussing whether AI should be used in education. Some universities have banned it. The New York City’s Department of Education, for example, banned the chatbot from its public school devices and networks, with some people warning that it could encourage more students to cheat, especially in exams.

Many more welcome this app, claiming that, like most technological improvements and cutting-edge creations in history, ChatGPT is a powerful tool for the development of higher education.

Embracing AI as early as possible is advisable. Higher education institutions should make preparations for including AI in their syllabus (教学大纲). They can start by offering related courses, because by understanding how it works, they can make better use of it. Besides, students with good knowledge of AI are more competitive when it comes to getting a good job, as an increasing number of jobs are being done by computer programmes—some in cooperation with humans. AI-powered education technologies can be employed to make the learning experience more suitable for each student based on his or her strengths and weaknesses. As for professors, AI can free them from doing some dull tasks so they can concentrate on teaching and interacting with students.

Since we cannot avoid ChatGPT and other AI-powered applications from entering the field of higher education, we should make collective efforts to ensure they have a positive impact on society and the future of education. Despite AI helping make learning much more interesting and enjoyable, humans need to work very hard to win the race with technology.