Leben (Life aka misc) The Planet (on, and off)
Americans Are Leaving the US in Record Numbers
In its 250th year, is America, land of immigration, becoming a country of emigration? Last year the U.S. experienced something that hasn’t definitively occurred since the Great Depression: More people moved out than moved in. The Trump administration has hailed the exodus — negative net migration — as the fulfillment Read more…
Leben (Life aka misc)
Which Piece of Speculative Fiction Had the Greatest Single-Day Stock Market Impact?
The methodology — tracking S&P 500 daily moves for post-1986 releases and DJIA moves for pre-1986 ones — crowned The Matrix as the all-time leader, its March 1999 US debut coinciding with a 1.11% drop in the index. Citrini’s “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis” came in a close second at Read more…
Leben (Life aka misc)
Burger King Will Use AI To Check If Employees Say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You’
Burger King is launching an AI chatbot that will live in the headsets used by employees. The voice-enabled chatbot, called “Patty,” is part of an overarching BK Assistant platform that will not only assist employees with meal preparation but also evaluate their interactions with customers for “friendliness.” Thibault Roux, Burger Read more…
Leben (Life aka misc) Technology
Anthropic Drops Flagship Safety Pledge
Anthropic, the AI company that has long positioned itself as the industry’s most safety-conscious research lab, is dropping the central commitment of its Responsible Scaling Policy — a 2023 pledge to never train an AI system unless it could guarantee beforehand that its safety measures were adequate. “We didn’t really Read more…
Leben (Life aka misc)
Hegseth Gives Anthropic Until Friday To Back Down on AI Safeguards
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei until Friday evening to give the military unfettered access to its AI model or face harsh penalties. Hegseth told Amodei in a tense meeting on Tuesday that the Pentagon will either cut ties and declare Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” or Read more…
Crypto Leben (Life aka misc) The Planet (on, and off)
Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ Explores Stablecoin For Gaza
Officials working with Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” are exploring setting up a stablecoin for Gaza as part of efforts to reshape the devastated Palestinian enclave’s economy, according to five people familiar with the discussions. The talks around introducing a stablecoin — a type of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged Read more…