Month: November 2023

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More or Less: Behind the Stats - Can maths prove the existence of aliens?

Are we alone in the universe ? and if not, how many other civilisations might there be? Remarkable images and data sent back to Earth by the James Webb telescope have given a new impetus to a well-worn debate. We ask how far mathematics ? and in particular a famous equation called the Drake Equation ? can be used to answer one of the most fundamental questions we face. Paul Connolly investigates with the help of Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Professor at the University of Edinburgh and Bill Diamond, President and CEO of the SETI Institute in California.

Presenter: Paul Connolly Producers: Paul Connolly and Jon Bithrey Editor: Richard Vadon Production Co-ordinator: Katie Morrison Sound Engineer: David Crackles

(Image: : A cluster of young stars, surrounded by clouds of interstellar gas and dust, in a nebula, located in the constellation Carina. Credit: Reuters)

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It Could Happen Here - It Could Happen Here Weekly 106

All of this week's episodes of It Could Happen Here put together in one large file

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Planet Money - The alleged theft at the heart of ChatGPT

When best-selling thriller writer Douglas Preston began playing around with OpenAI's new chatbot, ChatGPT, he was, at first, impressed. But then he realized how much in-depth knowledge GPT had of the books he had written. When prompted, it supplied detailed plot summaries and descriptions of even minor characters. He was convinced it could only pull that off if it had read his books.

Large language models, the kind of artificial intelligence underlying programs like ChatGPT, do not come into the world fully formed. They first have to be trained on incredibly large amounts of text. Douglas Preston, and 16 other authors, including George R.R. Martin, Jodi Piccoult, and Jonathan Franzen, were convinced that their novels had been used to train GPT without their permission. So, in September, they sued OpenAI for copyright infringement.

This sort of thing seems to be happening a lot lately–one giant tech company or another "moves fast and breaks things," exploring the edges of what might or might not be allowed without first asking permission. On today's show, we try to make sense of what OpenAI allegedly did by training its AI on massive amounts of copyrighted material. Was that good? Was it bad? Was it legal?

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Big Technology Podcast - OpenAI’s Big Week, The Pin Is Here, Cruise’s Major Recall

Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Big Technology Podcast hits 1 million downloads 2) OpenAI's developer feels looks like Apple 3) Building GPT bots with no code 4) OpenAI promises to pay for legal defense of copyright lawsuits 5) Andreessen Horowitz says copyrighted material is key to billions in value 6) Is "The Pin" the next smartphone? 7) Wait, are we buying the Pin? 8) The Pin's cool features 9) Elon Musk's AI is out 10) Is Microsoft's close knit relationship with OpenAI a bigger strength than realized? 11) Cruise recalls 950 robotaxis 12) Have we reached Peak subscription? 13) Ranjan's lessons about subscription at the FT 14) Our new idea for podcasts on the PIN

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Consider This from NPR - When Disaster Hits, Dogs Come To The Rescue

This year the U.S. has experienced devastating natural disasters.

Outbreaks of tornadoes leveled entire neighborhoods.

Flooding trapped people in their homes.

Wildfires burned out of control.

When people go missing during these catastrophes, it's a race against time to find them alive – or their remains.

That crucial search is often carried out by specially trained dogs.

FEMA has 280 certified detection dogs trained to find people in disasters. Another 80 dogs are trained to search for human remains.

NPR's Scott Detrow visits a Maryland training facility where dogs, and their handlers, learn skills that could save lives.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org

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Consider This from NPR - When Disaster Hits, Dogs Come To The Rescue

This year the U.S. has experienced devastating natural disasters.

Outbreaks of tornadoes leveled entire neighborhoods.

Flooding trapped people in their homes.

Wildfires burned out of control.

When people go missing during these catastrophes, it's a race against time to find them alive – or their remains.

That crucial search is often carried out by specially trained dogs.

FEMA has 280 certified detection dogs trained to find people in disasters. Another 80 dogs are trained to search for human remains.

NPR's Scott Detrow visits a Maryland training facility where dogs, and their handlers, learn skills that could save lives.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy
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Consider This from NPR - When Disaster Hits, Dogs Come To The Rescue

This year the U.S. has experienced devastating natural disasters.

Outbreaks of tornadoes leveled entire neighborhoods.

Flooding trapped people in their homes.

Wildfires burned out of control.

When people go missing during these catastrophes, it's a race against time to find them alive – or their remains.

That crucial search is often carried out by specially trained dogs.

FEMA has 280 certified detection dogs trained to find people in disasters. Another 80 dogs are trained to search for human remains.

NPR's Scott Detrow visits a Maryland training facility where dogs, and their handlers, learn skills that could save lives.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The Gist - The Science Of History

History is the product of remembering our past, so it involves the mind, though we have underused neuroscience in understanding how we know what we think we know. Abby Smith Rumsey chairs the board of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, and she is out with a new book Memory, Edited: Taking Liberties with History, in which she looks to science to help her understand the past. And a false narrative about children dying in Gaza is amplified by the media echo chamber.


Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara

Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com

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Subscribe to The Gist Subscribe: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/

Follow Mikes Substack at: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack

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Motley Fool Money - Show Business is Back in Business!

Studios struck a deal with actors and now the content engine can start back up again, but will Hollywood be tighter with its spend?. 

(00:11) Emily Flippen and Andy Cross discuss:

  • SAG-AFTRA’s deal with the film and tv industry, Disney’s deal to buy the rest of Hulu, and Warner Brothers Discovery’s “generational disruption.”
  • The Trade Desk’s warning about ad markets, and DataDog showing healthy signs in cloud spend.
  • How Adyen is learning how to better play the expectations game.


(19:02) Motley Fool Contributor Lou Whiteman spoke with Brad Jacobs, former CEO of XPO Logistics, about embracing a problem, how a short-seller targeting his company led to a great capital allocation decision, and other lessons from his book How to Make a Few Billion Dollars.

(31:14) Emily and Andy break down two stocks on their radar: Axon and Gartner.


Stocks discussed: DIS, WBD, TTD, DDOG, ADYEY, CPNG, XPO, LLY, IT, AXON

Host: Dylan Lewis

Guests: Emily Flippen, Andy Cross, Lou Whiteman, 

Engineers: Rick Engdahl, Annie Pope



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