Category: Top News

IBL News | New York

Anthropic, the creator of the Claude chatbot, open-sourced yesterday a new standard called Model Context Protocol (MCP) for connecting AI assistants to the systems where data lives. The standard aims to produce better, more relevant responses to queries. MCP works for any model, not just Anthropic’s.

AI assistants have gained mainstream adoption, but even the most sophisticated models are constrained by their isolation from data—trapped behind information silos and legacy systems. Every new data source requires custom implementation, making truly connected systems challenging to scale.

Anthropic explained that MCP addresses this challenge by providing a universal, open standard for connecting AI systems with data sources, replacing fragmented integrations with a single protocol. “The result is a simpler, more reliable way for AI systems to access the data they need,” the company said.

The architecture is straightforward: developers can expose their data through MCP servers or build AI applications (MCP clients) that connect to these servers.

There are three major components of the Model Context Protocol for developers:

• The Model Context Protocol specification and SDKs
• Local MCP server support in the Claude Desktop apps
• An open-source repository of MCP servers

To help developers start exploring, Anthropic shared pre-built MCP servers for popular enterprise systems like Google Drive, Slack, GitHub, Git, Postgres, and Puppeteer.

Early adopters like Block and Apollo have integrated MCP into their systems, while development tools companies, including Zed, Replit, Codeium, and Sourcegraph, are working with MCP to enhance their platforms.

This enables AI agents to retrieve relevant information more effectively, understand the context surrounding a coding task more fully, and produce more nuanced and functional code with fewer attempts.

“Open technologies like the Model Context Protocol are the bridges that connect AI to real-world applications, ensuring innovation is accessible, transparent, and rooted in collaboration,” said Dhanji R. Prasanna, Chief Technology Officer at Block.

MCP ostensibly solves this problem through a protocol that enables developers to build two-way connections between data sources and AI-powered chatbots and applications. Developers can expose data through “MCP servers” and create “MCP clients” — for instance, apps and workflows — that connect to those servers on command.

Rivals like OpenAI prefer that customers and ecosystem partners use their data-connecting approaches and specifications. OpenAI has said it plans to bring the capability, called Work with Apps, to other types of apps.

Anthropic just released Model Context Protocol (MCP), and it’s wild: you can now control and access data from Google Drive, Slack, GitHub, and more directly through Claude. In practical terms, it turns Claude into a command center for all your apps.pic.twitter.com/3dt62PFa5C

— ale𝕏 fazio (@alxfazio) November 25, 2024

99 seconds is insane@AnthropicAI released Model Context Protocol this AM.

GitHub, Google Maps, Slack, filesystem, POSTgres can now all be used right in Claude's UI.

The timeline for side projects just went down to 2 minutes. I speedran six during lunch.

This one finds lunch… pic.twitter.com/mtKY2WdDQC

— Howard Gil 🖇️ r/accoon (@HowardBGil) November 26, 2024

IBL News | New York

Mercor, which uses AI to vet and interview job candidates and then match them to open roles, has conducted more than 100,000 interviews and evaluated 300,000 people in less than two years.

With a workforce of 15 employees, this AI interviewer start-up is now valued at $250 million, following a $32 million round. The business is profitable and has grown 50% month over month.

Billionaire investor Peter Thiel, Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, two OpenAI board directors, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers also personally invested.

Mercor’s marketplace now depends on its own LLM, which builds on OpenAI and fine-tunes its proprietary data around its job-seeking process.

Applicants upload their resumes and take a 20-minute video interview with Mercor’s AI. Half that time is spent discussing the candidate’s experience, and the other half is spent responding to a relevant case study.

The job seeker’s application is then matched against all possible open jobs on Mercor’s marketplace. For more specialized roles, a second, tailored AI interview might follow.

Mercor promises to quickly connect with employers’ qualified candidates through contracted hourly, part-time, and full-time commitments.

Mercor’s largest pool of such talent remains in India.

The roles include engineering, product development, design, operations, and content.

Mercor faces competition from well-capitalized talent markets, such as startup unicorn Andela.

IBL News | New York

OpenAI announced several tools this week, including a public beta of its “Realtime API” for building nearly real-time multi-modal conversational and AI-generated voice response apps.

It currently supports text and audio as input and output, as well as function calling.

These low-latency responses use only six voices, not third-party voices, to prevent copyright issues.

This move follows OpenAI’s effort to convince developers to build tools with its AI models at its 2024 DevDay.

The San Francisco-based research lab said that the company has over 3 million developers building with its AI models.

OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil said the recent departures of CTO Mira Murati and Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew slow innovation.

IBL News | New York

On Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump named Linda McMahon the new Secretary of Education.

“As Secretary of Education, Linda will fight tirelessly to expand ‘Choice’ to every State in America and empower parents to make the best Education decisions for their families,” Trump said in a statement that described McMahon as a “fierce advocate for Parents’ Rights.”

McMahon reposted Trump’s announcement. Earlier in the day, she joined Trump and Elon Musk, who was named a co-chair of a new “Department of Government Efficiency,” at the SpaceX Starship launch in Texas.

McMahon, 76, is a co-chair of Trump’s presidential transition team. She is a former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) executive who served in the first Trump administration. She ran the Small Business Administration for much of his first term and is married to former WWE CEO Vince McMahon.

If the Senate confirms her, McMahon will oversee a department that Trump said he planned to “get rid” of as it currently exists and allow each state to “handle education” individually.

McMahon was head of the Small Business Administration during his first presidency before she stepped down from the Cabinet-level post in 2019 to lead the pro-Trump America First Action super PAC.

Before she joined the first Trump administration, McMahon served on the Connecticut State Board of Education in 2009, before she resigned to make unsuccessful bids in 2010 and 2012 for U.S. Senate seats in the state.

McMahon was one of Trump’s top donors during the 2024 campaign, contributing more than $20 million to the Make America Great Again Inc. super PAC and $937,800 to his campaign and affiliated joint fundraising committees.

IBL News | New York

Instructure Holdings, Inc., which manages the Canvas LMS, the leading learning platform, announced last week that it completed its sale to two investment firms, KKR and Dragoneer, for $4.8 billion (or $23.60 per share).

As part of the transaction, Instructure’s common stock was removed from trading on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange).

“Having KKR’s support will help us double down on core markets, scale our global reach at a faster pace and unlock new opportunities as we continue to innovate and enhance Canvas and the Instructure Learning Ecosystem,” said Steve Daly, CEO of Instructure.

According to its data, the company expects to deliver $1B in revenue by 2028 with a platform that hosts 200 million learners from 100 countries and is supported by 1,000 partners. Currently, its annual revenue is below $500 million.

Instructure has been publicly traded since 2021 after Thoma Bravo, its existing majority owner, briefly took it private for a year in 2020.

IBL News | New York

What AI agents are needed beyond tutoring and content creation in universities?

Critical areas relate to student recruitment, admission, enrollment, management, and support. Curriculum design, delivery, and research are also crucial. Strategy, business management, and marketing are other areas that require agents.

Student Recruitment:
– Domestic Student Recruitment
– International Student Recruitment

Student Admission:
– Study Application Management
– Learning Recognition Management

Student Enrolment:
– Matriculation
– Enrollment
– Student Allocation
– Timetable Management

Student Management:
– Scholarship Management
– Student Liability Management
– Student Academic Progress Management
– Cross-Institutional Study
– Placement Management
– Examination Management
– Special Consideration Management
– Research Candidature Management
– Student Misconduct Management

Student Support:
– Careers Advice
– Academic Advice
– Core Skills Development
– Financial Advice
– Student Grievance Management

Student Assessment:
– Learning Assessment
– Student Research Assessment

Curriculum Management:
– Curriculum Planning
– Curriculum Design
– Curriculum Production
– Curriculum Accreditation
– Offering Management
– Curriculum Improvement
– Curriculum Disestablishment

Curriculum Delivery:
– Learning & Teaching Resource Preparation
– Learning & Teaching Resource Management
– Learning & Teaching Delivery
– Student Supervision

Completion Management:
– Completion Award

Research Opportunities & Planning:
– Research Opportunity Management
– Collaborative Opportunity Management
– Research Project Design

Research Funding:
– Research Fund Sourcing
– Research Grant Management

Research Assurance:
– Research Ethics Management
– Research Integrity Management
– Research Performance Management
– Research Quality Management

Research Management:
– Research Funds Management
– Research Program Management

Research Delivery:
– Research Data Management
– Research-Creation
– Research Infrastructure Management
– Research Resource Management

Research Dissemination:
– Research Output Management
– Research Outcome Management
– Research Impact Management
– Research Commercialization Management

Business Capability Management:
– Business Planning
– Enterprise Architecture
– Customer Experience Management
– Business Process Management
– Service Management
– Change Management
– Portfolio & Program Management
– Project Management
– Product Management
– Benefits Management

Strategy Management:
– Vision & Strategy Development
– Strategic Plan Management

Advancement Management:
– Alumni Management
– Development & Fundraising
– Donor, Sponsor & Philanthropist Management

Marketing Management:
– Advertising
– Campaign
– Market Research
– Marketing Planning
– Communication

Library Administration:
– Library Collection Management
– Collection Access Management

Government, Risk & Compliance:
– Policy Management
– Quality Management
– Risk Management
– Compliance Management
– Business Continuity Management
– Incident Management
– Investigation Management
– Internal Audit
– Complaint & Compliment Management

Joe Sabado, from UC Santa Barbara, created a compelling diagram about AI agents:

Curriculum Management:
– Curriculum Planning
– Curriculum Design
– Curriculum Production
– Curriculum Accreditation
– Offering Management
– Curriculum Improvement
– Curriculum Disestablishment

Student Recruitment:
– Domestic Student Recruitment
– International Student Recruitment

Student Admission:
– Study Application Management
– Learning Recognition Management

Student Enrolment:
– Matriculation
– Enrollment
– Student Allocation
– Timetable Management

Student Management:
– Scholarship Management
– Student Liability Management
– Student Academic Progress Management
– Cross-Institutional Study
– Placement Management
– Examination Management
– Special Consideration Management
– Research Candidature Management
– Student Misconduct Management

Student Support:
– Careers Advice
– Academic Advice
– Core Skills Development
– Financial Advice
– Student Grievance Management

Curriculum Delivery:
– Learning & Teaching Resource Preparation
– Learning & Teaching Resource Management
– Learning & Teaching Delivery
– Student Supervision

Student Assessment:
– Learning Assessment
– Student Research Assessment

Completion Management:
– Completion Award

Research Opportunities & Planning:
– Research Opportunity Management
– Collaborative Opportunity Management
– Research Project Design

Research Funding:
– Research Fund Sourcing
– Research Grant Management

Research Assurance:
– Research Ethics Management
– Research Integrity Management
– Research Performance Management
– Research Quality Management

Research Management:
– Research Funds Management
– Research Program Management

Research Delivery:
– Research Data Management
– Research Creation
– Research Infrastructure Management
– Research Resource Management

Research Dissemination:
– Research Output Management
– Research Outcome Management
– Research Impact Management
– Research Commercialization Management

Strategy Management:
– Vision & Strategy Development
– Strategic Plan Management

Business Capability Management:
– Business Planning
– Enterprise Architecture
– Customer Experience Management
– Business Process Management
– Service Management
– Change Management
– Portfolio & Program Management
– Project Management
– Product Management
– Benefits Management

Library Administration:
– Library Collection Management
– Collection Access Management

Government, Risk & Compliance:
– Policy Management
– Quality Management
– Risk Management
– Compliance Management
– Business Continuity Management
– Incident Management
– Investigation Management
– Internal Audit
– Complaint & Compliment Management

Advancement Management:
– Alumni Management
– Development & Fundraising
– Donor, Sponsor & Philanthropist Management

Marketing Management:
– Advertising
– Campaign
– Market Research
– Marketing Planning
– Communication

IBL News | New York

With Donald Trump’s victory for a second presidential term and a Congress potentially under unified G.O.P. control, colleges feel politically and culturally weaker and fear that new proposed policies can have a wider impact, The New York Times wrote. Who President-elected Trump chooses to lead the Education Department could play an important role.

During his campaign, President-elected Trump said he thought that colleges needed to be reclaimed from “Marxist maniacs,” while his running mate, JD Vance, has described universities as “the enemy.” (Both men attended Ivy League institutions.)

In the last years, republicans have portrayed colleges as bastions of leftism, promising to reshape higher education by rooting out progressive ideology.

Additionally, universities have been under increasing pressure from lawmakers, and public confidence in colleges has fallen.

Last year, two Ivy League presidents resigned following the way they handled pro-Palestinian activists on their campuses. Other top university leaders have resigned amid criticism over protest responses.

IBL News | New York

Microsoft is adding AI-powered text editing to its Windows 11 Notepad.

This feature, called Rewrite, allows users to rephrase sentences, adjust tone, and modify the length of the content based on preferences. It uses a model named GPT.

To make it work, the user highlights the text he or she wants to improve.

The user can rewrite a sentence to sound more formal or make a paragraph more concise. He can also customize the tone of your writing to match your needs, from casual to professional.

After selecting your desired option, Notepad will generate three variations of the rewritten text.