At 12:30 pm local time on Monday, the power went out. Across Spain and Portugal trains, planes, and traffic lights abruptly stopped working. Reports emerged of people being stuck in lifts, and Google Maps live data showed traffic jams in big cities, including Madrid and Barcelona, as they became gridlocked. …
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Donald Trump Is Already Ruining Christmas
While children are told stories about elves and reindeer, the truth is that hundreds of thousands of people work year-round to make sure Christmas feels magical. From factory employees in China stringing lights on artificial trees to dock workers unloading containers of toys, this vast labor force ensures Americans can …
Read More »The Meta Trial Shows the Dangers of Selling Out
Meta has a lot at stake in the current FTC lawsuit against it. In theory a negative verdict could result in a company breakup. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg once faced an even bigger existential threat. Back in 2006, his investors and even his employees were pressuring him to sell his …
Read More »‘Who Is Doge?’ Has Become a Metaphysical Question
The question of who DOGE is has taken on an almost metaphysical quality as the organization’s mandate has expanded. According to Trump’s January 20 executive order establishing DOGE, every federal agency is required to create a DOGE team of at least four employees. (Ehikan’s claim that there is no DOGE …
Read More »The Real Winners of the Trump Memecoin Feeding Frenzy
On Wednesday, the team behind the official Donald Trump memecoin sparked a trading frenzy after announcing that the investors who held the largest amount of the crypto coin in the coming weeks would be invited to a gala dinner attended by the US president. “At this intimate private dinner, hear …
Read More »Eli Lilly Sues 4 GLP-1 Telehealth Startups, Escalating War on Knockoff Drugs
The FDA gave compounders a grace period to wind down their production of the drugs after the shortage was over. Small pharmacies had until February 18 to comply, while larger outsourcing facilities had until March 19. (Semaglutide compounders were ordered to cease mass production this spring, with smaller compounders given …
Read More »‘You Can’t Lick a Badger Twice’: Google Failures Highlight a Fundamental AI Flaw
Here’s a nice little distraction from your workday: Head to Google, type in any made-up phrase, add the word “meaning,” and search. Behold! Google’s AI Overviews will not only confirm that your gibberish is a real saying, it will also tell you what it means and how it was derived. …
Read More »Is Tesla on the Outs in China?
Zoë Schiffer: Can you talk to me about that relationship? And also, what is Tesla’s standing like in China? Is it viewed as a popular, cool car still? Zeyi Yang: It’s still sort of, because for the longest time, Chinese auto brands have been seen as inferior to foreign brands. …
Read More »AI Is Spreading Old Stereotypes to New Languages and Cultures
So, there’s the training data. Then, there’s the fine-tuning and evaluation. The training data might contain all kinds of really problematic stereotypes across countries, but then the bias mitigation techniques may only look at English. In particular, it tends to be North American– and US-centric. While you might reduce bias …
Read More »Bad News for China: Rare Earth Elements Aren’t That Rare
“The heavy rare earth elements are added as sort of a spice, a doping agent, to maintain the magnetism of the magnet at high temperatures. It also improves corrosion resistance and the longevity of the magnet,” says Seaver Wang, director of the climate and energy team at the Breakthrough Institute, …
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