I suggest that the problem is both more obvious and more fundamental: The daily lived experience of the AI boom sucks.
AI is making everything worsedoomsdayscenario.coThe political problem isn't the data centers — it's that AI is a turd mountain looming over daily life.The Economist digs into a study of 27,000 Chinese students and their use of AI:
After six months, pupils using AI saw their average homework score rise by 18% across all subjects. The time they took to complete each assignment fell from an average of 64 minutes to 45. But come exam time, the same students scored 20% below their classmates who had not called on ai’s help. Homework scores once predicted exam performance; now those who score highest are, perversely, more likely to do worse in exams.
Does AI stop children from learning?economist.comNew data show the peril and promise of the technologyA single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace, according to a new preprint study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.
Universal Health Coverage Could Save $1 Trillion and 114,000 Lives Every Year, Yale Study Projectsysph.yale.eduA single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system itA sober analysis from the News Agents podcast of the press's role in the death of former Cambridge professor Jason Arday. Sopel is right here to repeat the adage stressed in every journalism school in the world: What's interesting to the public isn't necessarily in the public interest.
Trump used the press as human shields but the White House Correspondents Association has barely raised a grumble. Margaret Sullivan on what should have been the last straw:
So what did the White House Correspondents Association do?
Its new president, Jacqui Heinrich, a Fox News correspondent, had a talk last week with White House officials to express the organization’s concerns and to suggest different protocols. She also sent an off-the-record memo to WHCA members explaining she had had a “candid and productive meeting” with White House officials.
And that, apparently, was that. A quiet meeting and a quiet memo — sadly weak — along the lines of all those pointless “thoughts and prayers” we hear about after a mass shooting.
Journalists as Trump's 'human shields' should be the WHCA's last strawmargaretsullivan.substack.comInstead, the response of the press group's leader, a Fox News correspondent, was pitifully weakA 404 Media investigation was able to reveal Amazon’s book buying operation, which hasn’t been previously reported, by placing a tracking device in a rare book we suspected would be acquired by an AI company for training data, and following it around the country to its final destination.
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility404media.coWe placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.We seem to be the last to know.
Google Turns On Gemini A.I. for Students Using Its Classroom Appnytimes.comGoogle enabled A.I. features for K-12 schools that have allowed student access to Gemini. Until this week, Google automatically enabled Gemini in Classroom only for students 18 or older.Time and time again, this vindictive child has served up fabrications regarding the caterpillar’s appetite that consist of nothing but radical left talking points.
Karoline Leavitt Slams Toddler Son Over Baseless Accusations That Caterpillar Very Hungrytheonion.comWASHINGTON—Blasting the 2-year-old’s incessant lying to the American people, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday slammed her toddler son over baseless accusations that the caterpillar was very hungry. “Time and time again, this vindictive child has served up fabrications regarding the caterpillar’s appetite that consist of nothing but radical left talking points,” Leavitt […]This Louis Vuitton-Singer-Porsche collaboration is beautiful work.
On the outside, the two latest vintage Porsche 911s reimagined by automotive design company Singer have little in common with a Louis Vuitton bag. But look closely at the interior of the cabriolet and coupe, and you’ll see patterns and finishes intrinsic to the French fashion house.
Louis Vuitton’s Next Release? Vintage Porscheswsj.comIn a collaboration with Singer, the fashion label made over two vintage sports cars.[W]hen Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Instagram recently to announce she is freezing her eggs, surely MAGA was resoundingly grateful to her for carrying forward this pro-baby message, right? Not quite. As the 36-year-old New York Democrat was no doubt aware would happen, MAGA commentators lashed out at her for preserving her ability to have kids in the future. Christian right commentator Allie Beth Stuckey said she was “selfish.” Podcast host Matt Walsh called Ocasio-Cortez’s choice “backwards and ridiculous.” The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway argued that the congresswoman’s video was a “sad public performance/display of unnecessarily unwise decision making.”
In the MAGAsphere, it’s not enough for a woman to want motherhood. If she doesn’t give up her career and even her personal happiness in the process of making babies, it doesn’t count. Being pregnant isn’t enough. Conservatives also seem to require the “barefoot” and “in the kitchen” parts of the traditional job description.
AOC exposes MAGA’s motherhood hypocrisysalon.comThe New York congresswoman freezes her eggs, and Republicans show their true feelingsThe Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council had an important task: to attract foreign investment into Nigeria. It had a line in the federal budget, a sought-after office inside the Federal Secretariat in Abuja, where ministries are housed, and a website on the official government of Nigeria domain. There was only one hitch. It did not officially exist.
How a made-up agency found its way into Nigeria’s budgetft.comAlleged head of fictional investment council was allocated government funding and met top officialsAn Australian man wanted to use AI agent OpenClaw to automate the booking of classes at his local gym. It was... rather good at it. TechCrunch:
When he asked the bot to book him a spot, the best it could do was No. 4 on the wait list, he told ABC. Then his agent told him it had found a way to book him into the classes in advance. Far in advance. Months before the gym made those classes available for sign up.
Bird asked if it could move him up on the waitlist. It did as asked and attempted to do so. The bot had found a vulnerability in the authorization portion of the appointment software the gym was using. It hacked in and canceled the No. 1 reservation on the wait list. The bot cheerfully told him, according to logs of the chat published by ABC:
Tech industry is buzzing after a Claude agent hacked into a gym | TechCrunchtechcrunch.comAn OpenClaw agent hacked into a gym's reservation system to bump its human boss higher on a class's waitlist. And the tech industry took notice.The hypocrisy is at once comical and frightening. We like it when our athletes offer their opinions on this or that issue, except when we disagree with those opinions. (Stick to sports!) And athletes who choose not to play this silly parlor game are dismissed as cowards.
Aaron Rodgers, Sophie Cunningham speak out. Caitlin Clark doesn’t. Either way, they losenytimes.comThese days, we dissect athletes' every utterance in search of hidden meanings and innuendo. The hypocrisy is both comical and frightening.