The Vulnerable World Hypothesis
"This paper introduces the concept of a vulnerable world: roughly, one in which there is some level of technological development at which civilization almost certainly gets devastated by default, i.e. unless it has exited the ‘semi-anarchic default condition’. Several counterfactual historical and...
Source: doi.org
A New Kind of AI Copy Can Fully Replicate Famous People. The Law Is Powerless.
New AI-generated digital replicas of real experts expose an unnerving policy gray zone. Washington wants to fix it, but it’s not clear how.
Source: politico.com
These six questions will dictate the future of generative AI
Generative AI took the world by storm in 2023. Its future—and ours—will be shaped by what we do next. TL;DR 1. Will we ever mitigate the bias problem? (Probably) 2. How will AI change the way we apply copyright? (A lot) 3. How will it change our jobs? (Maybe not as much as feared but things will...
Source: technologyreview.com
Early warnings and emerging accountability: Total's responses to global warming, 1971-2021 Global Environmental Change.
Building upon recent work on other major fossil fuel companies, we report new archival research and primary source interviews describing how Total responded to evolving climate science and policy in the last 50 years. We show that Total personnel received warnings of the potential for catastrophic global...
Source: sciencedirect.com
The Impact of Mask Distribution and Promotion on Mask Uptake and COVID-19 in Bangladesh
A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that face masks can protect against COVID-19. There is, however, limited rigorous evidence on the extent to which mask-wearing is effective in reducing COVID-19 in a real-life situation with imperfect and inconsistent mask use. In Bangladesh, researchers...
Source: poverty-action.org
Major U.K. science funder to require grantees to make papers immediately free to all
New policy brings UKRI-funded research in line with European open-access push
Source: sciencemag.org
AT&T lobbies against nationwide fiber, says 10Mbps uploads are good enough
AT&T admits fiber is most "future-proof" but wants US to fund slower networks.
Source: arstechnica.com
Keeping Student Trust
The report outlines a set of recommendations for institutions and campus administrators related to different uses of student data.
Source: newamerica.org
International dual and joint degrees to get green light
"India is set to greenlight dual and joint degrees awarded by Indian universities with international partners as part of its internationalisation plan being pushed through forcefully since its inclusion last year in the National Education Policy (NEP), a blueprint for the next decade." These dual and...
Source: universityworldnews.com
PAIRED: A New Multi-agent Approach for Adversarial Environment Generation
This Google AI blog describes a method for machine learning using paired agents. The gap between the one that did the best and the one that did the worst is regret. That feeling of 'could have done' better is what pushes the 'unsupervised environment design' algorithm towards a better solution. "The...
Source: googleblog.com
COVID-19 has transformed education – here are the 5 innovations we should keep
"Five changes made to higher education during COVID-19 will be beneficial afterwards, according to an expert, including more creative assessment methods." Whilst this is written from the perspective of university education this authentic, rich, and active learning approach can and should be applied to...
Source: weforum.org
Climate Change: Government may review road-building policy
It follows a legal challenge from campaigners, who argue the policy does not fit with climate targets.
Source: bbc.com
Dreadful user experience can be expensive.
"Citibank just got a $500 million lesson in the importance of UI design: Citibank was trying to make $7.8M in interest payments. It sent $900M instead." The screenshot is from court records where the judge ruled against Citibank who had wanted to get their money back. The lesson is to always include...
Source: arstechnica.com
WhatsApp to go ahead with changes despite backlash
The messaging app is making a second attempt to convince users to accept its new privacy policy.
Source: bbc.com
Declining Life Expectancy in the United States
This Viewpoint reviews the social and economic drivers of declines in longevity in the US, especially among lower socioeconomic status groups, and proposes policy options for the Biden-Harris administration to mitigate the trend, including an increase in the federally mandated minimum wage. Atheendar...
Source: jamanetwork.com
Twitter a goldmine for tracking consumer mood on prices, Bank of Italy finds.
The Bank of Italy said on Monday a set of experimental indicators it created from the content of millions of tweets accurately tracked consumer mood on price, offering scope for a powerful new monetary policy tool.
Source: reuters.com
UCL cancer policy update
“Because of the complexity of delivering better cancer care and the dynamics of NHS funding and introducing better practices in the health service there is a strong case for developing new cancer strategies for all the UK nations for the 2020s. Britain could also benefit from leading an independent...
Source: ucl.ac.uk
Dominic Cummings wants 'weirdos' to help run the UK. Will it work?: A senior adviser to the UK's prime minister suggests
Dominic Cummings wants 'weirdos' to help run the UK. Will it work?: A senior adviser to the UK's prime minister suggests policy-making can be improved by training AI on government data, but the researchers he cites say they aren't so sure
Source: newscientist.com
After the morning after: what next for UK trade policy? - Trade Knowledge Exchange: In the aftermath of the UK General Elections,
After the morning after: what next for UK trade policy? - Trade Knowledge Exchange: In the aftermath of the UK General Elections, in which the Conservatives won 364 out of 650 seats in House of Commons, the question that arises is what this means for the UK and the EU. “Getting Brexit done” was,...
Source: trade-knowledge.net
Publication bias is a challenge in science and a criticism of the influence of industry.
Publication bias is a challenge in science and a criticism of the influence of industry. In the domain of biosciences and drug development more accountability (e.g. the FDAAA 2007), editorial and peer-review training (as suggested by the Cochrane Collaboration), and statistical techniques (as championed...
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