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☆ An ex-Meta employee calculated that his family of 3 needs $5.6 million to retire in San Francisco. Here's the formula he used and how he plans to hit his 'enough number.'
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-14 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

When Andre Nader got laid off, he and his wife had enough in savings that he didn't have to job search. To go from 'semi FIRE' to 'full FIRE,' he calculated his family of 3 would need $5.6 million. He and his wife were living and working full-time in tech in San Francisco, raising a toddler, and loosely planning on eventually leaving the expensive Bay Area. His "enough number" is also different — it's closer to $5.6 million, he told Business Insider. His "enough number" is constantly shifting, but here's how he came up with $5.6 million for a family of three living in San Francisco.

Persons: Andre Nader, doesn't, —, Meta, Nader, They'd, I'm, I've, outsized, he's, Roth Organizations: Service, FIRE, Affordable, UC, Social Security, Vanguard, Market, Index Fund Locations: San Francisco, Meta, California

☆ These tech investors are trawling UC Berkeley to fund the next Perplexity or Databricks
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-21 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The University of California, Berkeley, is the top producer of alumni starting tech companies. Founded by Jeremy Fiance, The House Fund targets Berkeley-affiliated startups like Databricks. Related stories"I was learning more and more about what The House Fund is from the outside in," Hargreaves said. His move from Founders Fund to The House Fund hasn't been previously reported. The House Fund said it can write checks up to $10 million.

Persons: Jeremy Fiance, Zachary Hargreaves, —, Jeremy, Aravind Srinivas, Hargreaves, it's, Fund hasn't Organizations: University of California, Fund, Berkeley, House Fund, Service, College of Computing, Data Science, Society, The, SpaceX, Founders Fund, Investors, Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Berkeley Endowment Management Company, UC Investments, Ahoy Locations: Berkeley

☆ My homeowner nightmare
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-10 | by ( Vishal Persaud | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The moment I saw I had an email from my solar company, I knew my nightmare was about to take another unsettling turn. But he didn't know any more than I did about how much longer my solar panels would remain useless. Meanwhile, my solar panels have been sitting on my roof for four months, entirely unused, taunting me from above. AdvertisementI also reached out to California's Contractors State License Board, which regulates solar companies, asking what recourse SunPower's customers had. But it seems ludicrous to buy a solar system that I had no intention of buying in the first place.

Persons: I'd, SunPower, it's, —, Severin Borenstein, Ernst & Young, Gordon Johnson, Johnson, Forbes, David F, Larcker, Brian Tayan, Pavel Molchanov, Raymond James, There's, haven't, I'm, Vishal Persaud Organizations: Pacific Gas and, Berkeley's Haas School of Business, Nasdaq, GLJ Research, Stock, Industry, Sun Solar, California's Contractors, Board, Business Locations: Fresno , California, New York City, California, America, Fresno, —

☆ Polaris Dawn spacewalk: Watch live as SpaceX's commercial astronauts attempt mission's historic EVA
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-12 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Their week-long mission, called Polaris Dawn, is fully private with no NASA involvement — but it's no billionaire joyride. The Polaris Dawn spacewalk planThe spacewalk procedure begins 48 hours before opening the Crew Dragon's hatch, with a "pre-breathe." Polaris Dawn crew members train to recognize symptoms of complications from decompression. The Polaris Dawn crew will have to open Dragon's nosecone with no airlock to keep its cabin pressurized. Polaris Program via XThe risks and stakes are highThe Polaris Dawn spacewalk plan — no airlock, vehicle fully open to space — is not totally unprecedented.

Persons: —, joyride, Elon Musk's, It's, Jared Isaacman, Anna Menon, Sarah Gillis, Scott Poteet, haven't, Leroy Chiao, Chiao, John Kraus, Isaacman, Gillis, — Menon, Poteet, Mike Hopkins, NASA Abhi Tripathi, Tripathi, Menon, Bill Gerstenmaier Organizations: Service, SpaceX, Business, Polaris, NASA, Elon, Air Force, Polaris Program, Space Station, Reuters, UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory Locations: Mars, West Coast, Hawthorne , California

☆ Polaris Dawn's spacewalk will be historic — and risky. Here's everything to know.
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-10 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Persons: —, joyride, Elon Musk's, It's, Jared Isaacman, Anna Menon, Sarah Gillis, Scott Poteet, haven't, Leroy Chiao, Chiao, John Kraus, Isaacman, Gillis, — Menon, Poteet, Mike Hopkins, NASA Abhi Tripathi, Tripathi, Menon, Bill Gerstenmaier Organizations: Service, SpaceX, Business, Polaris, NASA, Elon, Air Force, Wednesday, Polaris Program, Space Station, Reuters, UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory Locations: Mars, West Coast, Hawthorne , California

☆ SpaceX launches 4 people, including a billionaire, on the most ambitious private human spaceflight yet
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-10 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Mikhaila Friel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Polaris Dawn mission is a fully private spaceflight, commissioned and funded by a billionaire. Godspeed Polaris Dawn crew, may you make history and return safely." High radiation and the first commercial spacewalkOnce they settle into orbit, the Polaris Dawn crew has a five-day agenda packed with experiments and a bold spacewalk plan. AdvertisementA SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the crew of the Polaris Dawn Mission, entered space on Tuesday. So the Polaris Dawn crew plans to fly through a belt of intense radiation and monitor their hearts, airways, and eyes along the way.

Persons: —, it's, Elon Musk's, Anna Menon, Sarah Gillis, Scott Poteet, Jared Isaacman, SpaceX Menon, Gillis, Poteet, Isaacman, Frank Messina, SpaceX's, CHANDAN KHANNA, John Kraus, Polaris Dawn, Abhi Tripathi, they're, Tripathi, Starship's, Isaacman haven't Organizations: Service, Polaris, Business, SpaceX, US Air Force, Mission, Polaris Dawn, Apollo, Polaris Program, UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory, of Liberty Locations: Mars, Cape Canaveral , Florida, Texas

☆ Golden Opportunity to Boost Job, Labor Market: Raise the Minimum Wage
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-08 | by ( Emily Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour for 15 years. Given the situation, here's an idea: Why not raise the federal minimum wage right now? Getting anything done legislatively is always a challenge, especially in an election year, but polls indicate a higher minimum wage is broadly popular. AdvertisementOnce the minimum wage gets so high that it starts to cause a bunch of job loss, that's a problem. If a higher minimum wage lifts millions of people out of poverty, that's incredible.

Persons: it's, Yannet Lathrop, California's, It's, Jacob Vigdor, Vigdor, Justin Wiltshire, Michael Reich, David Neumark, shouldn't, we've, they've, Emily Stewart Organizations: Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Employment, New York Times, Congressional, University of Washington, University of Victoria, UC Berkeley's Center, Dynamics, University of California, Business Locations: Nebraska, Florida, Washington ,, Washington, West, Wisconsin, Iowa, Mississippi, South Carolina, Seattle, California, British Columbia, New York, Irvine, America, Wiltshire

In 2023, Texas led the nation in solar installations on its power grid, surpassing California for its second consecutive year. Explosive power demand poses a challenge to the Biden administration's goal of converting the U.S. power grid to 100% clean electricity by 2035. Nextracker is a leading U.S. solar firm, building systems that allow panels to track to the position of the sun, improving the efficiency of solar power plants. Shugar pointed to the massive number of renewable projects in the U.S. seeking connection to the power grid. But as energy demand increases, the value of each additional hour should rise, eventually making longer duration batteries more cost effective, he said.

Persons: Brandon Bell, Andrés Gluski, Joseph Rand, We've, Kelley, Wells, Goldman Sachs, Biden, Ryan Sweezey, Wood Mackenzie, Richard Kinder, Kinder Morgan, Kinder, Amin Nasser, Nasser, Shugar, Lawrence, Lazard, Nextracker's Shugar, Lawrence Berkeley, Amol Phadke, Rand, Sweezey, Reid Ramdathsingh, Ramdathsingh, Fluence, John Zahurancik, Zahurancik, it's, Zahuranick Organizations: Getty, Renewables, Energy Information Administration, Department of Energy, Big Tech, Microsoft, AES Corporation, Google, AES, Meta, UBS, Solar, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, U.S, Tech, North America, DOE, CNBC, University of California Berkeley's Goldman School of Public, Goldman School, Lawrence, Rystad Energy, Siemens Locations: Ector County , Texas, Texas, California, United States, U.S, Wells Fargo, Saudi, Houston, Lawrence Berkeley, Fluence's Americas

☆ With AI writing so much code, should you still study computer science? This new data point provides an answer.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-03 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewOne of the most persistent concerns around generative AI is whether the technology will put workers out of a job. Github Copilot can write a lot of code these days, so is it even worth studying computer science now? There's a new data point that helps answer at least part of this question: Students are still lining up in droves to take computer science in college. Related VideoFirst-year applications to UC Berkeley's College of Computing, Data Science, and Society CDSS increased 48% this year. "Generative AI can speed up the more mundane parts of software development, and software developers tend to adopt efficiency tools quickly," he added.

Persons: —, That's, Jennifer Chayes, Gavin Newsom, Fei, Fei Li, There's, John DeNero, He's, DeNero Organizations: Service, Business, University of California, UC Berkeley's College of Computing, Data Science, UC Berkeley, Berkeley's College of CDSS, Stanford, Joint California, Science, Google, Berkeley Locations: University of California Berkeley, San Francisco, Lilt

☆ A policy that's supposed to create more affordable housing often backfires, leaving cities with higher home prices and rents. There's a way to fix that.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-04 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A key policy designed to create affordable housing for low-income people has long been scrutinized for being generally ineffective. So a policy designed to create more affordable housing can actually result in fewer homes and higher housing costs. Related storiesPhillips wanted to determine whether there's an optimal inclusionary zoning policy and if not, what the policy's tradeoffs look like. This involves finding a balance between creating more deed-restricted affordable housing and boosting the overall supply of housing. He concluded that the value of the government subsidy for building affordable housing needs to outweigh its costs.

Persons: Shane Phillips, Phillips Organizations: Service, Business, UCLA, UC Berkeley's Terner, Housing Innovation Locations: American, Los Angeles

☆ SpaceX is poised to make rocket launches 10 times cheaper with Starship, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Marianne Guenot | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

With its recent Starship mission, SpaceX is poised to cut launch costs 10-fold, said an expertThe firm flew its flagship mega-rocket to space without exploding on Thursday for the first time. AdvertisementSpaceX's Starship launch on Thursday didn't only look cool. SpaceX has already shaved launch costs downStarship-Super Heavy is the biggest launch system ever developed. AdvertisementA picture shows Starship fully stacked on its launchpad. "Lowering launch costs has always been the first step to unlocking broader, deeper sources of value from space," he said.

Persons: —, Elon, Brendan Rosseau, Abhi Tripathi, Elon Musk, Starship's, George Nield, Harvard's Rosseau, Tripathi Organizations: SpaceX, Service, Harvard Business School, Super, Mission, University of California, Space Sciences Laboratory, Space Shuttle, Space Transportation

☆ What dream job? Gen Z and millennials are being forced to confront a difficult job market.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-09 | by ( Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The unemployment rate rose to 3.9% last month, the highest level in two years. AdvertisementGen Z and millennials entering the job market or in the early stages of their careers are facing a much tougher job market than in recent years, and many are adjusting their expectations for a dream career as the hiring landscape worsens. Despair about the ailing job market looks most acute among recent graduates, or students quickly approaching their graduation dates. AdvertisementOnly 44% of workers under 30 said they were "very satisfied" with their job, according to a 2023 Pew Research study. The job market boomed during the pandemic, with the unemployment rate going from 6.4% at the beginning of 2021 to 3.5% at the end of 2022.

Persons: Z, —, Gen Zers, Harry Holzer, Natasha Bernfeld, Bernfeld, Larry Jackson, he's, they've, Jackson, Emily Bianchi, Bianchi, it's, Georgetown's Holzer, It's, Dua Organizations: Service, Federal Reserve, Challenger, McKinsey & Company, Labor Department, UC Berkeley's, Pew, Emory University Locations: Georgetown, New York, Dua

☆ A 27-year-old Berkeley city council member wanted to build more affordable housing. Relentless harassment from 'left NIMBYs' pushed him to resign.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-27 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Read previewWhen Rigel Robinson was elected to the Berkeley City Council in 2018 — just months after graduating from UC Berkeley — he was determined to tackle the city's housing crisis as its youngest-ever council member. As an undergrad serving on Berkeley's student government, Robinson grew passionate about building more affordable student housing in the notoriously expensive city. Meanwhile, the university is facing a severe student housing shortage amid a broader affordability crisis. But Robinson's advocacy for housing in People's Park was met with a wave of harassment from residents who wanted to keep the park as is. Earlier this month, the conflict escalated as hundreds of police officers arrested dozens of protesters and cleared tents at People's Park.

Persons: —, Rigel Robinson, Robinson, Gavin Newsom, it's, hasn't, Terry Taplin, he'll, what's Organizations: Service, Berkeley City Council, UC Berkeley —, Business, Economic, Gov, Berkeley, City of Locations: Berkeley, People's, Berkeley's, West Coast, YIMBYs, City, City of Berkeley

☆ Student-loan borrowers are taking on more debt, and it's not all tuition — blame skyrocketing housing costs
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-07 | by ( Eliza Relman | Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

AdvertisementRigel Robinson, chair of the Land Use, Housing, and Economic Development Committee on the Berkeley City Council, said "the student housing crisis has become the defining characteristic of the student experience at UC Berkeley." Experts said the housing crisis is making the already high student-debt load in the country worse. But with housing costs spiking, living expenses are a big part of the story for many. Darrell Owens, a policy analyst at California YIMBY — an advocacy organization working to end California's housing crisis — noted that the student housing crisis exacerbates the broader housing crisis. "Then what ends up happening is that they spike housing costs for other people."

Persons: —, Katie Ibsen, Ibsen, Berkeley, Gavin Newsom, Rigel Robinson, Robert Kelchen, Kelchen, Marcella Bombardieri, Bombardieri, They're, Pell, I've, Darrell Owens, Robinson, it's Organizations: Service, University of California, Business, Gov, Economic, Berkeley City Council, UC Berkeley, Department of Educational, University of Tennessee, Knoxville ., Center for American Progress, Kootenai, Parsons School of Design, Hope, Temple University, Pell Grants Locations: Berkeley, COVID, Davis , California, Knoxville, Knoxville . College, California, Montana, Kootenai College, New York City, Jersey City

☆ UC Berkeley is using a wall of shipping containers to block activists from the new site of its student housing complex
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-05 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

UC Berkeley is trying to build a new $312 million housing complex on the iconic People's Park. AdvertisementThe makeshift wall is around "15 to 16 feet high," UC Berkeley spokesperson Kyle Gibson told The Associated Press. People's Park on a night that UC Berkeley and other authorities prepare to cordon off People's Park on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024 in Berkeley, CA. In August, people in a mass protest pushed down a fence that UC Berkeley tried to use to cordon off the area. The empty shipping containers around People's Park echo the hundreds of containers set up to fill gaps on the Arizona-Mexico border in 2022.

Persons: —, UC Berkeley's, Kyle Gibson, Jason Armond Organizations: UC Berkeley, Service, UC, Associated Press, UC Berkeley's, Los Angeles Times, Getty, Berkeley, Guardian Locations: Berkeley , California, People's, Berkeley , CA, Park, California, Berkeley, Arizona, Mexico

☆ Jewish groups sue UC Berkeley over 'unchecked' antisemitism
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | Companies Need To Integrate Climate Reporting Across Functions To Comply With California S New Law | Henry Engler | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Prospective students tour the University of California, Berkeley campus before beginning of the new semester, in Berkeley, California, U.S., June 8, 2023. The complaint also said "no fewer" than 23 law school groups have anti-Jewish policies. Law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law specialist, said the complaint painted a "stunningly inaccurate" picture of the school. The law school, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ, the University of California system and its President Michael Drake are among the other defendants. Other plaintiffs include the Brandeis Center's Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education, a nationwide group whose members include UC Berkeley staff and students.

Persons: Carlos Barria, Louis, Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ, Michael Drake, Hitler, Louis D, Jonathan Stempel, Richard Chang Organizations: University of California, REUTERS, Louis D, Brandeis Center, UC Berkeley's, UC Berkeley, UC Berkeley Chancellor, Brandeis Center's, Fairness, UC, New York University, NYU, Regents, Court, Northern District of, Thomson Locations: Berkeley, Berkeley , California, U.S, Israel, San Francisco federal, Northern District, Northern District of California, New York

☆ Sam Altman says successful people ‘believe in themselves almost to the point of delusion’—that's frightening, says expert
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, speaks to the media as he arrives at the Sun Valley Lodge for the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 11, 2023 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Some, like ex-OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, believe in taking it to an extreme — and that's when they turn from inspiring to frightening, says a leadership expert. "The most successful people I know believe in themselves almost to the point of delusion." Altman is "far from the first entrepreneur to have endorsed the idea that you have to believe in yourself, above all else" to succeed, says Moore. In his blog post, titled "How To Be Successful," Altman cited billionaire Elon Musk's "absolute certainty" that SpaceX could soon send a rocket to Mars as the "benchmark for what conviction looks like."

Persons: Sam Altman, Don Moore, Berkeley's, Altman, Moore, Elon Musk's, Musk Organizations: OpenAI, Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business, CNBC, Microsoft, SpaceX Locations: Sun Valley , Idaho, OpenAI, Mars

☆ California just legalized affordable housing in church parking lots and coastal cities — and it could help solve the state's crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-22 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Many housing advocates are also disappointed that Newsom vetoed a bill — AB 309 — to create "social housing" on government-owned land. Resnikoff, whose organization endorsed the effort, noted that the state's current fiscal conditions make it very hard to pass housing policy that requires funding. Advocates are quick to point out that California housing policy has impacts far beyond its borders. How effectively California deals with its housing affordability issues also directly impacts other states' housing markets. The migration of California residents to places from Texas to Oregon has put additional pressure on those states to provide even more housing.

Persons: Gavin Newsom, —, Ned Resnikoff, Chris Elmendorf, State Sen, Scott Wiener, Elmendorf, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Breed, that's, Resnikoff, Brittany Murray, Newsom, Alex Lee, Lee, Eric Adams Organizations: Service, California, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, State, San Francisco Mayor London, Bloomberg, UC Berkeley's Terner, Housing Innovation, Habitat, Getty, New York City Locations: California, Francisco, San Francisco, Washington, Long, Greater Los Angeles, Vienna, Austria, Singapore, Central, Southeast Asia, New, Texas, Oregon

☆ A Berkeley law professor is telling law firms not to hire his antisemitic students
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Kwan Wei Kevin Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Berkeley law professor wrote in a WSJ op-ed that law firms shouldn't hire his antisemitic students. AdvertisementAdvertisementA law professor from the University of California Berkeley is telling law firms not to hire his antisemitic students. "Legal employers in the recruiting process should do what Winston & Strawn did: treat these law students like the adults they are. If a student endorses hate, dehumanization or anti-Semitism, don't hire him," Solomon wrote in the op-ed, published on Sunday. Solomon is a corporate law professor who specializes in business law as well as law and economics.

Persons: Steven Davidoff Solomon, —, Winston, Strawn, Solomon, Bill Ackman, wouldn't, Israel, Shearman, Sterling, Deringer Organizations: Service, University of California, New York University, Hamas, Harvard University, Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups, Harvard, Justice, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University Locations: Berkeley, Israel, Palestine, Palestinian, Gaza

☆ Elon Musk’s worst nightmare
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-12 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

It's hard to tell, for a simple reason: The data on the safety of robot cars sucks. Until robot cars have traveled for hundreds of millions of miles, there's no way to get a statistically significant, unequivocal conclusion. If the data on robot cars is equivocal or incomplete, then those rules should keep them off the road. In a sense, she's Elon Musk's worst nightmare. To her, the safety of self-driving cars is not an abstract question.

Persons: Missy Cummings, Elon Musk, Cummings, Elon, Musk, Tesla, stans, Musk's, —, that's, Terry Chea, Big, Waymo, Kyle Vogt, Cruise, Vogt, hillier, it's, Steven Shladover, Missy, She's, she's Elon, Don Quixote, Adam Rogers Organizations: Twitter, Duke University, National, Traffic, Musk's bros, NHTSA, George Mason University, Cruise, Navy, LinkedIn, Waymo, UC Berkeley's Institute of Transportation Studies, San, Boeing, Max Locations: San Francisco, Muskovites, Silicon, Silicon Valley, California

☆ Side-by-side photos show 4 major changes made to SpaceX's Starship rocket system after its first launch ended in an explosion
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Marianne Guenot | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

AdvertisementAdvertisementMore than a thousand changes have been made to the rocket since and it is now "ready to launch" again Musk recently said. SpaceX's enormous Starship mega-rocket is made of two stages: the Starship spaceship and its booster, the Super Heavy booster. The Starship-Super Heavy launch system is made up of two stages. Instead, for Starship's maiden test flight, SpaceX decided to see if they could absorb the force of the flames with a thick concrete launchpad alone. The FAA will still need to review the changes made to the Starship launch system before it can grant a new license.

Persons: Elon Musk, Musk, it's, Abhi Tripathi, Starship's, Tripathi, Ashlee Vance, Vance, hushes, —, SpaceX's, LabPadre, SpaceX hasn't, It's, April's, Polly Trottenberg, Jared M, Margolis Organizations: SpaceX, Service, NASA, Super, Mission, University of California's, Sciences Laboratory, Flight Safety, FAA, Bloomberg, Boca Chica, CNBC, Texas Commission, Environmental, Center for Biological Diversity Locations: Wall, Silicon, Starship's, Boca Chica , Texas

☆ ChatGPT and GPT-4 skew the most liberal — and Meta's LLaMA is the most conservative AI model, a new study says
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Kylie Kirschner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In a new study, researchers gave 14 AI models a political compass test and graphed the data. OpenAI's ChatGPT and GPT-4 were the most liberal, Meta's LLaMA was the most conservative, and Google's BERT models were in between. OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's LaMDA AI model, and other chatbots have been criticized for sometimes giving racist, sexist, and otherwise biased responses. A political compass graph from the study shows how each AI model is biased. OpenAI cofounder and president Greg Brockman has said in response to criticisms of ChatGPT's left-leaning political bias, "we made a mistake."

Persons: BERT, OpenAI's, Shangbin Feng, Chan, Yuhan Liu, Yulia Tsvetkov, RoBERTa, Meta, Steven Piantadosi, Sam Altman, ChatGPT, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Greg Brockman, ChatGPT's, Brockman, Elon Musk, OpenAI, OpenAI —, Musk Organizations: Morning, University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, OpenAI, Google, UC Locations: Xi'an, North Korea, Syria, Iran, Sudan

☆ Why the US should be more excited about tiny homes
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

While there is a lot of interest in tiny homes, it's too early to measure their success. Tiny homes, generally defined as homes under 1,000 square feet — compared with the typical US home size of 2,500 square feet — are a growing market for those seeking affordability, community, and simplicity. Tiny homes — and accessory dwelling units, their slightly larger counterpart — are being eyed as a solution to the country's housing shortage. A tiny home designed and built by Colorado-based tiny home developer, Mitchcraft Tiny Homes. Tiny homes are "a spear point against the armor" to these restrictions, he added.

Persons: Katie Sandoval, Clark, Blue Wells, you've, Skylar Olsen, Zack Giffin, Giffin, Louise Beaumont, Getty, Rebecca Zisser, Muhammad Alameldin, Gavin Newsom, Joyce Higashi, Tiny, Newsom, Alameldin, It's, Barbara Clark, Sandoval Organizations: Service, Consumers, California, University of California, Housing Innovation, state's Department of Housing, Gov, Washington D.C Locations: California backyards, Wall, Silicon, Bay, Blue, South Carolina, New Hampshire, San Diego, Denver, Portland, Cities, Indianapolis, Austin, Colorado, California, ADUs, Jose, While California, —, Washington, Jersey, Sonoma .

☆ The FBI surveilled J. Robert Oppenheimer for months on one man's suggestion. During the surveillance, interviewees alleged he was feeding nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Sebastian Cahill | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The FBI watched J. Robert Oppenheimer for months after he helped make the WWII-ending atomic bomb. Reports from the FBI show Oppenheimer was accused of Communism and spreading information to Russia. During the investigation, though, Pitzer said he had new doubts about Oppenheimer's loyalty to the country, due to his initial reservations about the development of the H-bomb. The Atomic Heritage Foundation does consider Oppenheimer likely to have held communist sympathies, but maintains that information in the report was exaggerated. At the end of the inquest, Oppenheimer's top-level security clearances were revoked, a devastating blow to the scientist.

Persons: Robert Oppenheimer, Oppenheimer, J, Christopher Nolan's, Edgar Hoover, Lewis Strauss, Hoover, Strauss, Kenneth Pitzer, Pitzer, Ward Evans, Jean Tatlock, Bernard Peters, Oppenheimer's, Jennifer Granholm, Granholm, AHF Organizations: FBI, Congress, Service, US Atomic Energy, Los Alamos National Laboratory, UC, Loyola University , Chicago, Atomic Energy, German Communist Party, Atomic Heritage Foundation, USA, US, Department of Energy, DOE Locations: Russia, Wall, Silicon, Soviet Union, UC Berkeley's

☆ UK homebuilders under pressure as lofty mortgages deter first-time buyers
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Ajose Koilparambil | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Midcap firms Bellway (BWY.L) and Crest Nicholson (CRST.L) have also pointed to high mortgage rates hampering demand from first-time buyers. Even a potential revival of the government's 'Help to Buy' scheme, which offered incentives to first-time buyers, will not be enough to improve affordability, analysts have said. Persimmon (PSN.L), one of Britain's biggest homebuilders heavily exposed to first-time buyers compared to its FTSE 100 peers, has offered new customers a "10 months mortgage free" deal. Still, the housing sector faces an uncertain path to recovery, given the ultra-elevated mortgage rate levels. Meanwhile, investors will look out for updates on demand when a couple of high-profile homebuilders report half-year results next month.

Persons: Barratt, BDEV.L, Nicholson, Steve Turner, Bellway, Peel Hunt, Sam Cullen, housebuilders, Cullen, Persimmon, Rob Perrins, Jeremy Hunt, Aynsley Lammin, Aby Jose Koilparambil, Sweta Singh, Saumyadeb Organizations: Berkeley, Reuters, Home Builders Federation, Bank of, Times, Housing, Thomson Locations: Berkeley, England, Wales, Bank of England, Bengaluru

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