Tag Archives: AI

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – January 5, 2024

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The Guardian Weekly (January 4, 2024) – The new issue features ‘Make or Break 2024’ – The biggest election year in history.

About 2 billion people have the opportunity to cast their ballots in polls that span the globe from the United States to Taiwan, and India to Mexico in 2024. The outcomes, as our analysts and correspondents explain in our big story, have implications for us all.

Washington bureau chief David Smith looks at the likely rerun of 2020’s Biden v Trump contest in November and explores what has changed and what has not in the US as the old adversaries square up. It is an almost foregone conclusion that Narendra Modi will be back for a third term as Indian prime minster, reports Hannah Ellis-Petersen from Delhi where analysts fear his victory will further imperil the country’s Muslim minority. And while Vladimir Putin will certainly continue as president in Russia, Pjotr Sauer explains why the man about to become fifth-time president might allow other candidates onto the ballot list. From Taiwan’s poll on 13 January to the 27-state European elections in June, how citizens vote will influence the geopolitical landscape for us all, while the conduct of campaigns will reveal how vulnerable democracies now are to misinformation and cyber interference from malign actors.

Research Preview: Nature Magazine January 4, 2024

Volume 625 Issue 7993

Nature Magazine – January 3, 2024: The latest issue cover features  an artist’s impression of a massive young star in the process of forming.

US nuclear-fusion lab enters new era: achieving ‘ignition’ over and over

NIF beamlines entering the lower hemisphere of the NIF Target Chamber, as seen from the ground floor of the Target Bay.

Researchers at the National Ignition Facility are consistently creating reactions that make more energy than they consume.

By Jeff Tollefson

In December 2022, after more than a decade of effort and frustration, scientists at the US National Ignition Facility (NIF) announced that they had set a world record by producing a fusion reaction that released more energy than it consumed — a phenomenon known as ignition. They have now proved that the feat was no accident by replicating it again and again, and the administration of US President Joe Biden is looking to build on this success by establishing a trio of US research centres to help advance the science.

DeepMind AI outdoes human mathematicians on unsolved problem

A player holds a hand of Set game cards over a green table.

Large language model improves on efforts to solve combinatorics problems inspired by the card game Set.

Davide Castelvecchi

The card game Set has long inspired mathematicians to create interesting problems.

Now, a technique based on large language models (LLMs) is showing that artificial intelligence (AI) can help mathematicians to generate new solutions.

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – Jan 5, 2024

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Times Literary Supplement (January 3, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Lady Vanishes’ – Muireann Maguire on a revival of classic crime fiction; What next for Julian Assange; David Hockney’s drawings; Dreaming up 007; The science of belonging and more…

Finance Preview: Barron’s Magazine – January 1, 2024

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BARRON’S MAGAZINE – JANUARY 1, 2024 ISSUE:

Inside Saudi Arabia’s $3 Trillion Plan to Move Past Oil

Inside Saudi Arabia’s $3 Trillion Plan to Move Past Oil

The world’s largest oil exporter has a plan to transform its economy into a high-tech hub for global business. How investors can ride along.

The Best Income Investments for 2024

The Best Income Investments for 2024

Stocks with dividends lead our annual listing. Energy pipelines and utilities also look like good bets.

Changes Could Be Coming to Your 401(k) in 2024

Changes Could Be Coming to Your 401(k) in 2024

Secure 2.0 included new benefits for savers—but many employers have been slow to add them.

Preview: Foreign Policy Magazine – Winter 2024

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Foreign Policy Magazine – December 28, 2023: The new issue features ‘The Year The World Votes’ – Elections have consequences. What will happen when nearly half of the global population heads to the polls?

The Promise and Peril of Geopolitics

The world’s most dismal science could make Eurasia safe for illiberalism and predation—or protect it from those forces.

By Hal Brands, a professor of global affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

An illustration shows a stylized globe with a crack through it. A hand with a wrench tightens the screw atop the globe.

Alexander Dugin is a bit of a madman. The Russian intellectual made headlines in the West in 2022, when his daughter was killed, apparently by Ukrainian operatives, in a Moscow car bombing likely meant for Dugin himself. Dugin would have been targeted because of his unapologetic, yearslong advocacy for a genocidal war of conquest in Ukraine. “Kill! Kill! Kill!” he screeched after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first invasion of that country in 2014, adding: “This is my opinion as a professor.” Even at his daughter’s funeral, Dugin stayed on message. Among her first words as an infant, he claimed, were “our empire.”

Previews: The Top Five Stories To Watch In 2024

The Economist (December 28, 2023) – What are the stories set to shape 2024? From the biggest election year in history, to how to control AI and even taxis that fly, The Economist offers its annual look at the world ahead.

Video timeline: 00:00 – The World Ahead 2024 00:33 – Vital votes 03:34 – Taxis take off 07:10 – AI rules 10:19 – Industry cleans up? 13:48 – BRICS build

Finance Preview: Barron’s Magazine – Dec 25, 2023

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BARRON’S MAGAZINE – DECEMBER 25, 2023 ISSUE:

Apple’s Search for Growth

Apple’s Search for Growth

Apple trades near record highs, with a market value no other company has ever attained. Now it has to justify the gains

Why Emerging Markets Could Have a Strong Run Next Year

Why Emerging Markets Could Have a Strong Run Next Year

Mexico and Brazil are heading into a favorable interest rate backdrop already in a strong position.Long read

This Stock Is a Better Electric-Vehicle Bet Than Tesla. Buy It Now.

This Stock Is a Better Electric-Vehicle Bet Than Tesla. Buy It Now.

Tesla and China-based BYD are financially similar. Both car makers generated almost identical operating profit in the third quarter. The one big difference: their valuations.Long read

5 Ways to Play the Rally in Small-Cap Stocks

5 Ways to Play the Rally in Small-Cap Stocks

Shares of smaller companies have taken off in the recent rally, but they are still a bargain compared with bigger companies.Long read

Star Stockpickers Are Coming to ETFs. Why They May Not Shine as Brightly.

Star Stockpickers Are Coming to ETFs. Why They May Not Shine as Brightly.

Active ETFs are the industry’s hottest trend. Picking winners is as tricky as ever.Long read

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Dec 22, 2023

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Science Magazine – December 21, 2023: The new issue featuresAI-Powered Forecasting – Predicting worldwide weather and cyclone tracks with greater speed and accuracy; Fifty years after the Endangered Species Act, what’s next?; Long-sought quasiparticle could transform quantum computing and What Salvadorans feared about bitcoin…

The quantum phantom

A ghostly quasiparticle rooted in a century-old Italian mystery could unlock quantum computing’s potential—if only it could be pinned down

Are cryptocurrencies currencies? Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador

Preference for cash and privacy fears deterred bitcoin adoption in El Salvador.

Mimicking polar bear hairs in aerogel fibers

Encapsulated aerogel fibers offer thermal insulation, breathability, and strength

Opinion & Politics: Reason Magazine – February 2024

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REASON MAGAZINE (December 21, 2023)The latest issue features ‘The Conformity Gauntlet’ – How Universities use DEI Statements to Enforce Groupthink; The Post-Neoliberalism Moment; We Absolutely Do Not Need an FDA for AI, and more…

Universities Use DEI Statements To Enforce Groupthink

An illustration showing college graduates navigating a maze | Illustration: Joanna Andreasson

DEI statements are political litmus tests, write Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott.

The Post-Neoliberalism Moment

An illustration of Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich Hayek | Illustration: Friedrich Hayek, Margaret Thatcher, and Milton Friedman; Joanna Andreasson REASON 27 Source images: Graphic Goods/Creative Market, Mosi/Fiverr

Anyone advocating neoliberal policies is now persona non grata in Washington, D.C.

DANIEL W. DREZNER

We Absolutely Do Not Need an FDA for AI

topicsfuture | Photo: @eshear/X

If our best and brightest technologists and theorists are struggling to see the way forward for AI, what makes anyone think politicians are going to get there first?

KATHERINE MANGU-WARD