Tag: current affairs – international

What AI doesn’t know: we could be creating a global ‘knowledge collapse’ / Study Finds More Than Half Of AI’s References Are Fabricated or Erroroneous

As GenAI becomes the primary way to find information, local and traditional wisdom is being lost. And we are only beginning to realise what we’re missing… GenAI is trained on massive datasets of text from sources such as books, articles, websites and transcripts – hence the name “large language model” (LLM). But this “training data”… Read More What AI doesn’t know: we could be creating a global ‘knowledge collapse’ / Study Finds More Than Half Of AI’s References Are Fabricated or Erroroneous

Dilip

Dark forces are preventing us fighting the climate crisis – by taking knowledge hostage

The fundamental problem is this: that most of the means of communication are owned or influenced by the very rich George Monbiot If this were just a climate crisis, we would fix it. The technology, money and strategies have all been at hand for years. What stifles effective action is a deadly conjunction: the climate… Read More Dark forces are preventing us fighting the climate crisis – by taking knowledge hostage

Dilip

Brutish, bullying, imperialistic: the Ugly American is back

Donald Trump is using US power to insert himself into other countries’ affairs, treating them as vassals Steven Greenhouse For decades, president after president has sought to rid the US of its image as a bullying, imperialistic nation. But with his blustering, often brutish behavior toward other countries, Donald Trump has rapidly revived that notion. Under Trump,… Read More Brutish, bullying, imperialistic: the Ugly American is back

Dilip

Disappearing people, disappearing morals – how two years has changed Gaza and Israel

There can be no healing until the world stares into and acknowledges the void torn open by this conflict Orly Noy About two weeks after 7 October, I received a WhatsApp message from an acquaintance in Gaza. He asked me to check on his mother, who at that time was hospitalised in East Jerusalem. He had… Read More Disappearing people, disappearing morals – how two years has changed Gaza and Israel

Dilip

Zohran’s run

The enduring lesson of Zohran Mamdani’s victory is that the moderate Centre is invariably the respectable front for right-wing prejudice. The voices of the liberal Centre, the political ‘moderates’, the newspapers and the magazines responded to Mamdani’s candidacy in a way that was indistinguishable from Donald Trump’s denunciations Mukul Kesavan New York’s mayoral race was… Read More Zohran’s run

Dilip

‘You’re not rushing. You’re just ready:’ Parents say ChatGPT encouraged son to kill himself

NB: This is the most horrifying example of what AI represents and what it can do to humanity. This is pure nihilism. I don’t need to say more. DS Zane Shamblin sat alone in his car with a loaded handgun, his face illuminated in the predawn dark by the dull glow of a phone. He… Read More ‘You’re not rushing. You’re just ready:’ Parents say ChatGPT encouraged son to kill himself

Dilip

The Disaster Correspondent: Why I stopped explaining the Middle East to Americans

NB: The phrase ‘the fundamental racism of their editorial line’, sums up what it feels to be the perennial object of dehumanisation by the Western establishments and a sizeable part of their populations. Lina Mounzer has said something very important here, and it has lessons not only for the West and Israel, but also for… Read More The Disaster Correspondent: Why I stopped explaining the Middle East to Americans

Dilip

Zohran Mamdani elected mayor of New York City in historic win / NYC’s millionaires flee as Socialist surge sparks suburban bidding wars

Anna Betts in New York City Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani was elected on Tuesday as the 111th mayor of New York City, defeating former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and making history as the city’s first Muslim mayor. Current mayor Eric Adams, who had campaigned for a second term as an independent, dropped out of the race in September. When Mamdani… Read More Zohran Mamdani elected mayor of New York City in historic win / NYC’s millionaires flee as Socialist surge sparks suburban bidding wars

Dilip