Month: April 2023

Posted on

Honestly with Bari Weiss - AI With Sam Altman: The End of The World? Or The Dawn of a New One?

Just six months ago, few outside of Silicon Valley had heard of OpenAI, the company that makes the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. Now, this application is used daily by over 100 million users, and some of those people use it more often than Google. Within just months of its release, it has become the fastest-growing app in history. ChatGPT can write essays and code. It can ace the bar exam, write poems and song lyrics, and summarize emails. It can give advice, scour the internet for information, and diagnose an illness given a set of blood results, all in a matter of seconds. And all of the responses it generates are eerily similar to those of an actual human being. 

For many people, it feels like we’re on the brink of something world-changing. That the technology that powers ChatGPT, and the emergent AI revolution more broadly, will be the most critical and rapid societal transformation in the history of the world to date. If that sounds like hyperbole, don’t take it from me: Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai said AI’s impact will be more profound than the discovery of fire. Computer scientist and Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng said AI is the new electricity. Some say it’s the new printing press. Others say it’s more like the invention of the wheel, or the airplane. Many predict the AI revolution will make the internet seem like a small step. And just last month, The Atlantic ran a story comparing AI to nuclear weapons.

But there’s a flip side to all of this optimism, and it’s a dark one. Many smart people believe that AI could make human beings obsolete. Thousands of brilliant technologists—people like Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak—are so concerned about this software that last month they called for an immediate pause on training any AI systems more powerful than the current version of ChatGPT. One of the pioneers of AI, Eliezer Yudkowsky, claims that if AI continues on its current trajectory, it will destroy life on Earth as we know it. He recently wrote, “If somebody builds a too-powerful AI, under present conditions, I expect that every single member of the human species and all biological life on Earth dies shortly thereafter.”

Which is it? Is AI the end of the world? Or the dawn of a new one? To answer that question for us today: Sam Altman. Sam is the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT, which makes him arguably one of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley, and if you believe the hype about AI, the world. I ask him: is the technology that powers ChatGPT going to fundamentally transform life on Earth as we know it? In what ways? How will AI affect our basic humanity, our jobs, our understanding of intelligence, our relationships? And are the people in charge of this powerful technology, people like himself, ready for the responsibility?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Posted on

Bay Curious - Real High Schoolers of the Bay Area

High School—It's a pretty wild time in our lives. You're still growing and figuring out who you are, while juggling schoolwork, relationships, responsibilities, and rapidly-approaching adulthood. As part of KQED's Youth Takeover week, four high school students have been sharing audio diaries with us over the past few months. They let us into what's happening in their lives, and all the joys and heartbreaks of being a teenager.

Additional Reading:


Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts

Thank you to our youth contributors: Emiliano Mejia, Yulieth Aguilar, Carlos Escala and Finn McDonald. And thanks to KQED Youth Media Program Manager Amanda Vigil and Specialist Emiliano Villa. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Amanda Font, and Christopher Beale. Additional support from Cesar Saldana, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Jasmine Garnett, Carly Severn, Jenny Pritchett and Holly Kernan.

Posted on

The Intelligence from The Economist - Rising Starmer: An interview with Britain’s opposition leader

As the country prepares to go to the polls next year, The Economist sits down with the leader of the Labour Party. Could Sir Keir Starmer’s agenda revive the UK economy? Our data-driven analysis on the women most affected by the overturning of Roe v Wade. And, five books that illustrate the plights of Iranian women


For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, try a free 30-day digital subscription by going to www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer

Posted on

The Best One Yet - 🚽 “The monster in your sink” – InSinkErator’s $3B sink. Chipotle’s love-flation. Microsoft’s video game duty.

Remember when we told you 2 out of 3 acquisitions fail? Well we found one that didn’t: Insinkerator and Whirlpool. Chipotle stock just hit an all-time high because they raised prices on your burrito… but you ate it anyway (we call it “Love-flation”). And Microsoft was about to make the biggest deal in its entire history for video games… but then someone pulled the power cord. $WHR $CMG $MSFT $ATVI Want merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.com Follow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypod And now watch us on Youtube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Posted on

The Daily Detail - The Daily Detail for 4.27.23

Alabama

  • Sponsor of the PRICE act says committee chairman using delay tactic
  • Sen. Tuberville unmoved by Liz Warren's demand he stop blocking nominees
  • Two state leaders head to US Mexico border next week
  • A bill to deal with financial shortfall from end of permit fees passes House
  • Dothan jury finds Coley McCraney guilty of four counts including murder
  • Man released early from prison now back behind bars for rape and violence

National

  • Second American dies in Sudan amidst civil unrest and violence
  • Bio Labs in Sudan fall into hands of militants, labs funded by US agencies
  • Sixth circuit court rules that bump stocks are not machine gun part
  • Judge order Hunter Biden to court in person re: child support payments
  • Disney files lawsuit against FL governor  and state for retaliation
  • MI Democrat sentenced to 6mos house arrest for ballot tampering
Posted on

Everything Everywhere Daily - The Tyranny of the Rocket Equation

In 1897, the visionary Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky discovered an equation that governed how rockets worked. 

His equation, which was independently discovered by several other rocket scientists, immutably governs how we can send rockets into space. 

The variables in his equation have determined everything surrounding spaceflight and rocketry since its inception and will for the foreseeable future. 

Learn more about the Tyranny of the Rocket Equation on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.


Sponsor

BetterHelp is an online platform that provides therapy and counseling services to individuals in need of mental health support. The platform offers a range of communication methods, including chat, phone, and video sessions with licensed and accredited therapists who specialize in different areas, such as depression, anxiety, relationships, and more. Get 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/Everywhere


If you’re looking for a simpler and cost-effective supplement routine, Athletic Greens is giving you a FREE 1 year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs with your first purchase. Go to athleticgreens.com/EVERYWHERE. 


Subscribe to the podcast! 

https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes

--------------------------------

Executive Producer: Charles Daniel

Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen

 

Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere


Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com


Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily

Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip

Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Posted on

NBN Book of the Day - Elaine H. Ecklund and David R. Johnson, “Varieties of Atheism in Science” (Oxford UP, 2021)

Not all atheists are New Atheists, but thanks in large part to the prominence and influence of New Atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens, New Atheism has claimed the pulpit of secularity in Western society. New Atheists have given voice to marginalized nonreligious individuals and underscored the importance of science in society. They have also advanced a derisive view of religion and forcefully argued that science and religion are intrinsically in conflict. Many in the public think that all scientists are atheists and all atheist scientists are New Atheists, militantly against religion and religious people. But what do everyday atheist scientists actually think about religion?

Drawing on a survey of 1,293 atheist scientists in the U.S. and U.K., and 81 follow-up in-depth interviews, Varieties of Atheism in Science (Oxford Academic Press, 2021) by Professors Elaine Howard Ecklund and David R. Johnson, explains the pathways that led to atheism among scientists, the diverse views of religion they hold, their perspectives on the limits of what science can explain, and their views of meaning and morality. The findings reveal a vast gulf between the rhetoric of New Atheism in the public sphere and the reality of atheism in science. The story of the varieties of atheism in science is consequential for scientific and religious communities and points to tools for dialogue between these seemingly disparate groups.

Elaine Howard Ecklund is the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, Professor of Sociology, and Director of the Boniuk Institute at Rice University, Houston TX. Her research examines social and institutional change, especially when individuals leverage aspects of their religious, racial, and gender identities to change institutions. Elaine is the author of seven books, over 100 research articles, and numerous op-eds. She has received grants and awards from multiple organizations.

David R. Johnson is an associate professor of higher education in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University. His research agenda examines how universities are shaped by changes in their institutional environments, especially as it relates to capitalism, religion, and politics. He has previously published in numerous academic journals, a book with Johns Hopkins University Press, A Fractured Profession: Commercialism and Conflict in Academic Science (2017), and co-authored another book with Elaine Ecklund, Secularity and Science: What Scientists around the World Actually Think, from Oxford University Press (2019). In fact, they joined Carrie Lynn on New Books in Secularism in September 2019 to discuss that book; listen here.

Carrie Lynn Evans is a PhD student at Université Laval in Quebec City. carrie-lynn.evans@lit.ulaval.ca @carrielynnland

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/book-of-the-day

Posted on

New Books in Native American Studies - Timothy R. Pauketat, “Gods of Thunder: How Climate Change, Travel, and Spirituality Reshaped Precolonial America” (Oxford UP,

Timothy R. Pauketat’s Gods of Thunder: How Climate Change, Travel, and Spirituality Reshaped Precolonial America (Oxford UP, 2023) is a sweeping account of what happened when Indigenous peoples of Medieval North and Central America confronted climate change.

Few Americans today are aware of one of the most consequential periods in North American history—the Medieval Warm Period of seven to twelve centuries ago (AD 800-1300 CE)—which resulted in the warmest temperatures in the northern hemisphere since the "Roman Warm Period," a half millennium earlier. Reconstructing these climatic events and the cultural transformations they wrought, Pauketat guides readers down ancient American paths walked by Indigenous people a millennium ago, some trod by Spanish conquistadors just a few centuries later. The book follows the footsteps of priests, pilgrims, traders, and farmers who took great journeys, made remarkable pilgrimages, and migrated long distances to new lands.

Along the way, readers discover a new history of a continent that, like today, was being shaped by climate change—or controlled by ancient gods of wind and water. Through such elemental powers, the history of Medieval America was a physical narrative, a long-term natural and cultural experience in which Native people were entwined long before Christopher Columbus arrived or Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs.

Spanning from North to Central America, Gods of Thunder focuses on remarkable parallels between pre-contact American civilizations separated by a thousand miles or more. Key archaeological sites are featured in every chapter, leading us down an evidentiary trail toward the book's conclusion that a great religious movement swept Mesoamerica, the Southwest, and the Mississippi valley, sometimes because of worsening living conditions and sometimes by improved agricultural yields thanks to global warming a thousand years ago. The author also includes a guide to visiting the archaeological sites discussed in each chapter of the book.

Sarah Newman (@newmantropologa) is an archaeologist and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. Her research explores long-term human-environmental interactions, including questions of waste and reuse, processes of landscape transformation, and relationships between humans and other animals.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/native-american-studies

Posted on

Opening Arguments - OA 732: Court Calls Bullsh*t on Devin Nunes Cowsuit

Liz and Andrew give a brief update on how it's going for Donald Trump in the E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit. (Spoiler alert: not good! Like, contempt of court not good.)

Then, the duo break down the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Ryan Lizza in the LOLsuit filed by former Representative and guy-who-sued-an-Internet-cow-and-lost, Devin Nunes. It's informative AND hilarious!

In the Patreon bonus, we tell you how the omniversal fear of Antonin Scalia created modern supplemental jurisdiction law!

Notes Nunes v. Lizza Order https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.iand.55763/gov.uscourts.iand.55763.149.0.pdf

 Eighth Circuit holding https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/21/09/202710P.pdf

Devin Nunes’s Family Farm Is Hiding a Politically Explosive Secret https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a23471864/devin-nunes-family-farm-iowa-california/

-Support us on Patreon at: patreon.com/law

-Follow us on Twitter:  @Openargs

-Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/openargs/

-For show-related questions, check out the Opening Arguments Wiki, which now has its own Twitter feed!  @oawiki

-And finally, remember that you can email us at openarguments@gmail.com