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☆ Opinion: What happened to Elon Musk?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Opinion Frida Ghitis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Appalled, Enes Kanter Freedom, the Turkish-born former NBA player, a fierce critic of Erdogan, told CNN, “I don’t want to hear about Elon Musk talking about free speech ever again. It turns out Musk’s free speech absolutism is less than absolute. Absurdly, he now says, “By ‘free speech,’ I simply mean that which matches the law.” So, if a tyrant makes a law banning criticism, will Musk believe that muzzling its critics conforms with free speech? Beyond his free speech hypocrisy, there’s the vanishing aura of Musk as the thoughtful futurist concerned about humanity’s fate. Soros, Musk wrote – to almost 140 million Twitter followers – “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization.

☆ Elon Musk says he's a 'pro-Semite, if anything' when questioned about his public attacks on George Soros
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

His comments came after he compared George Soros to the "X-Men" villain Magneto on Monday. Elon Musk tried to defend his statements on the Jewish billionaire George Soros a day after likening Soros to a comic-book villain. On Monday, Musk tweeted that Soros reminds him of the "X-Men" villain, Magneto, while claiming that Soros "hates humanity." Musk then doubled down on his criticism of Soros, saying he thinks it's true that Soros does hate mankind, but offered no further substantiation for the claim. —nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) May 16, 2023Musk's tweet on Monday saying "Soros reminds me of Magneto," has been viewed 39 million times as of press time.

WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - The speaker of Taiwan's parliament praised Japan, South Korea and the Philippines on Tuesday for helping to create a "crescent of defense" with Taiwan and the U.S. against China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region. You praised Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for calling Taiwan a global issue and opposing a change to the status quo by force. "The crescent of defense formed by Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines will, with American support, be a key stabilizer of peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region," he added. China has been stepping up its military activities around Taiwan to try and force the democratically governed island to accept Beijing's sovereignty. It has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

☆ Humans are so boring that AI will not only take over mankind's jobs — it'll want to say 'goodbye' to us altogether, says an AI CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The CEO of an AI firm says AI may find humans so boring, it will want to say "goodbye" to us. Mostaque's Stability AI runs Stable Diffusion, an artificial intelligence-operated tool that allows users to generate images from short text prompts. Mostaque's Stability AI is worth $1 billion, and with more cash expected to flow in, it is speculated that the company's true valuation is around $4 billion. Getty Images alleged in a statement on January 17 that Stability AI "unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright." Stability AI did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment sent outside regular working hours.

☆ India's Mankind Pharma soars 31%, valuing condom maker at almost $7 bln
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Rama Venkat | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BENGALURU, May 9 (Reuters) - Shares of Manforce condom maker Mankind Pharma Ltd (MNKI.NS) surged as much as 31% in debut trading on Tuesday, valuing the company at 566.43 billion rupees ($6.93 billion) in the country's biggest listing so far this year. The company, which also owns India's top at-home pregnancy testing kit Prega News, opened at 1,300 rupees, staying above that mark through the morning session and hitting its highest at 1,414 rupees. It was seeking a valuation of 432.64 billion rupees ($5.29 billion) at the upper end of a price band it set for its initial public offering last month. The strong debut will likely lift the sentiment for the IPO market overall." The company's IPO had an offer for sale of shares worth 43.26 billion rupees from existing shareholders, including its founder Ramesh Juneja, and allocated 12.98 billion rupees worth of shares to 77 anchor investors including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Government of Singapore, Goldman Sachs and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

☆ AI pioneer says its threat to world may be 'more urgent' than climate change
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Martin Coulter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, May 5 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence could pose a "more urgent" threat to humanity than climate change, AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton told Reuters in an interview on Friday. "I wouldn't like to devalue climate change. I wouldn't like to say, 'You shouldn't worry about climate change.' He added: "With climate change, it's very easy to recommend what you should do: you just stop burning carbon. Signatories included Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque, researchers at Alphabet-owned DeepMind, and fellow AI pioneers Yoshua Bengio and Stuart Russell.

☆ South Africa’s most epic hikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Joe Yogerst | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Here are nine of South Africa’s best multiday backpacking trails:Otter TrailThe coastal Otter Trail takes in some of South Africa's most beautiful coastline. South African TourismSouth Africa’s oldest (established in 1968) and most celebrated hiking route, the Otter Trail runs along the Eastern Cape coast between Storms River Mouth and Nature’s Valley in Garden Route National Park. South African TourismSummit the legendary Drakensberg escarpment on a vertiginous route that rises high above Thendele Royal Natal National Park in KwaZulu-Natal province. Distance: About 25 kilometers (16 miles)Time: 2 daysInfo: hikingsouthafrica.co.za/kgaswane-summit-trail/Tsitsikamma TrailThe Garden Route National Park is an advenure sport paradise. Each traverse takes seven to 10 days during the South African spring (September-November).

☆ Microsoft economist warns of A.I. election interference from 'bad actors'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

being used by bad actors" than they should about AI productivity outpacing human productivity, Microsoft chief economist Michael Schwarz said at a World Economic Forum event Wednesday. Microsoft first invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019, years before the two companies would integrate OpenAI's GPT large language model into Microsoft's Bing search product. Politicians and regulators have expressed growing concern about the potential impact of AI technology as well. Vice President Kamala Harris will meet Thursday with top executives from Anthropic, another AI firm, and Google, Microsoft and OpenAI to discuss responsible AI development, the White House told CNBC Tuesday. "Please remember, breaking is much easier than building," Schwarz noted.

☆ Sam Altman is building his utopia, whether you want it or not
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Melia Russell | Julia Black | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +41 min

Altman told Insider, "We debate our approach frequently and carefully." "I don't think anyone can lose your dad young and wish he didn't have more time with him," Altman told Insider. Altman told Insider that his thinking had evolved since those posts. (When asked about guns, Altman told Insider he'd been "happy to have one both times my home was broken into while I was there.") When asked about this, Altman told Insider in an email: "i can guess what that's about; these stories grow crazily inflated over the years of getting re-told!

☆ He's played chess with Peter Thiel, sparred with Elon Musk and once, supposedly, stopped a plane crash: Inside Sam Altman's world, where truth is stranger than fiction
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Melia Russell | Julia Black | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +41 min

But, "you do at some point need to start having contact with reality," he told Insider. The plan was still only a rough sketch, Blania told Insider, but that didn't seem to matter to his host. "He always wanted to understand everything at a very deep level," Thrun told Insider in an email. (When asked about guns, Altman told Insider he'd been "happy to have one both times my home was broken into while I was there.") When asked about this, Altman told Insider in an email: "i can guess what that's about; these stories grow crazily inflated over the years of getting re-told!

☆ 50 years ago, he made the first cell phone call
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

“I’m calling you on a cell phone, but a real cell phone, a personal, handheld, portable cell phone,” Cooper, then an engineer at Motorola, said on the phone to Joel Engel, head of AT&T-owned Bell Labs. “I was not surprised that everybody has a cell phone,” Cooper, now 94, told CNN. Today, 97% of Americans own a cell phone of some kind, according to a 2021 study by Pew Research Center. I know there are disadvantages to the cell phone. “Overall, I think the cell phone has changed humanity for the better and that will continue in the future.”

☆ Don't let NASA fool you: The next astronauts on the moon will not be wearing black spacesuits
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

NASA and Axiom Space revealed a new spacesuit for the Artemis moon missions last week. The spacesuit is black, but astronauts have to wear white when they're on the lunar surface. Axiom Space chief engineer Jim Stein shows off the prototype spacesuit in Houston on March 15, 2023. Astronauts can't wear black on the moonThe Apollo moon suits were white for a reason. Axiom's spacesuit prototype looks cool, but we're waiting for the version that will go to the moon.

☆ A close Russian ally is messing with the legendary spaceport it leases to the Kremlin, seizing assets over an unpaid debt
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Baikonur is a source of pride for Moscow, from which the Soviet Union sent the first man to space. Baikonur is pivotal to the Russian space program. Even though it isn't physically in Russia, it has been leased by the Kremlin since Kazakhstan became independent when the Soviet Union collapsed. Founded by the Soviet Union as a test range for intercontinental ballistic missiles, it was transformed into a space port in 1955. It remains a key part of Russia's space program, and is the only site where Russia launches missions to the International Space Station.

☆ Xi: China's proposal on Ukraine reflects unity of global views
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 20 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday that Beijing's proposal on how to solve the Ukraine crisis reflects global views and seeks to neutralise consequences, but acknowledged that the solutions are not easy. The China proposal, a 12-point paper released last month, represents "as much as possible the unity of the world community's views," Xi wrote in an article in Rossiiskaya Gazeta, a daily published by the Russian government, according to Reuters' translation from Russian. Xi has been seeking to present China as a global peace maker and project it as a responsible great power. A peaceful resolution to the situation in Ukraine, Xi wrote, would also "ensure the stability of global production and supply chains." "There is no universal model of government and there is no world order where the decisive word belongs to a single country," Xi wrote.

☆ Steven Spielberg and Noam Chomsky say AI is soulless and scary
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Both Steven Spielberg and Noam Chomsky have expressed their doubts about artificial intelligence. Spielberg said that AI requires humans to surrender creative expression and autonomy to AI. Both Spielberg and Chomsky separately gave their views on how AI could have serious repercussions on mankind's ability to create and think independently. Chomsky, a linguistics professor, cognitive scientist, and philosopher, believes that AI tools like ChatGPT have "sacrificed creativity for a kind of amorality." In the piece published on Wednesday, Chomsky, Roberts, and Watumull wrote that AI systems like ChatGPT are incapable of independent thought.

☆ I got a job on Netflix's 'Next in Fashion' by DMing a producer on Instagram. Here's what my job is like as a stylist
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Eboni Boykin-Patterson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

She landed a stylist job on season 2 of 'Next in Fashion' after dropping out of fashion school. I wouldn't have been able to land my first major stylist job at New York Fashion Week if I had been at school. Three days later, he called and said he was on the New York Fashion Week calendar, and asked if I would style his show. These are a few models I styled for Nicholas Raefski’s Fall/Winter 2022 presentation at New York Fashion Week. I was allowed to make TikTok content on the Netflix set, as long as I didn't give away anything creatively.

☆ Welcome to the age of 'AI-nxiety,' in which anxiety about AI taking over our jobs and lives is at the top of everybody's minds
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Reena Koh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The threat of AI is increasingly clear and well founded, and it is causing serious anxiety. Luckily, this wave of AI technology is projected to create 97 million new jobs, according to the World Economic Forum. Their forecast has proven to be true so far, as despite being in the early stages of development, AI technology has already significantly threatened a variety of industries. Just within the last couple of weeks, Buzzfeed announced that it will be using AI technology to generate content, while Netflix Japan has already created an animated film using AI-generated artwork, according to Vice. Simply put, the AI revolution is here to stay, and its ramifications will become increasingly noticeable in our everyday lives.

☆ A booming market for gear to help seniors grow older at home is creating an opportunity for investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

Alphabet, Amazon and Best Buy are among the fund's plays on the aging in place theme. Best Buy breaks into the space It's Best Buy that has really been doubling down on its efforts to break into the space. Best Buy sees the role of technology within health care becoming much more important. Medicare Advantage's health care at home coverage includes primary care, transitional care when someone is released from a hospital and often hospice care, she said. That should lead to higher earnings power, said Baker, who has a buy rating and $237 price target on Lowe's stock.

☆ World must abandon Cold War mentality, China's vice premier tells Davos
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

In a special address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Liu repeatedly called on countries to improve diplomatic ties, "to "firmly safeguard world peace." China's Vice Premier Liu He said Tuesday that the world needs to abandon its Cold War mentality and seek to strengthen international cooperation. In a special address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Liu repeatedly called on countries to improve diplomatic ties, "to "firmly safeguard world peace." Earlier on Tuesday, China's commerce ministry said the country's vice premier would soon meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Switzerland. Late last year, U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping signaled a desire to improve bilateral ties.

☆ Investors clinging to the S&P 500 aren't safe and should get out of crowded trades and into other areas like small caps, Bank of America's top stock strategist says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Investors clinging onto the S&P 500 aren't safe, according to BofA's Savita Subramanian. She encouraged investors to allocate more funds into overlooked areas of the market, like energy and small cap stocks. Last year was dismal for stocks, with the S&P 500 losing 20% as the Fed jacked up interest rates and battled sky-high inflation. She pointed instead to areas like energy and small cap stocks, which are relatively less crowded compared to the S&P 500 and could be a safer bet. Other Wall Street analysts have also predicted a 20% drop in the first half, which could be a major buying opportunity for investors, Subramanian said.

☆ The tragic story of the only 3 cosmonauts who died in space
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

This Soviet crew had spent 23 days in space, setting a new record for human space flight endurance, and were finally coming home. They gathered existing equipment and hastily put together a space station that was launched on April 19, 1971. A treadmill was installed on the Salyut 1 and the cosmonauts forwent their space suits in the space station and Soyuz. But a few missteps on the ship and by the Soviet space program led to the tragic deaths of the cosmonauts. According to Siddiqi, the death of the three cosmonauts had a lasting impact on the Soviet space program afterward.

☆ A mysterious set of bones was found in a bog in Europe, and they could indicate an ancient ritual
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The skeleton could be part of a collection of "bog bodies" found all over Northern Europe. Evidence also suggests that the "bog body" could have been there as part of a ritual. Researchers understood it to be a "bog body" which refers to the dozens of usually male bodies found in bogs in Europe. One of the most famous bog bodies, the Tollund Man, was also found in Denmark. This has been widely done throughout ancient times, and this is most likely a victim of such a ritual," Struve said in a press release.

☆ Zelenskyy's TIME Person of the Year Award is proof that resilience is the most important trait any leader can have
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Marguerite Ward | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

He embodies valor and resilience, traits business leaders should exhibit in tough times. The Ukrainian leader's speaking style is characterized by short sentences, vivid imagery, and empathy, all of which make him effective. A 2021 research paper published in the Academy of Management Journal found business leaders who led by example boosted productivity in their businesses. Some of the most convincing business leaders of our time have leaned into emotion when making key arguments. "President Zelenskyy remains focused on his core assignment.

☆ The bubble in predicting the end of the world
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Edward Chancellor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers says the world faces the “most complex, disparate and cross-cutting set of challenges” he’s ever encountered. In his wittily titled “The End of the World is Just the Beginning”, the geopolitical strategist suggests that a number of countries from Germany to China face insuperable demographic challenges. The threat to America’s global hegemony from China is the subject of Ray Dalio’s “The Changing World Order”. The U.S. stock market bubble has only partially deflated, bond yields around the world trail below inflation, and global property markets are exposed to rising interest rates. The Assyrian who forecast the world would end in 2800 BC was wrong.

☆ End of Qatar's football project or just the start?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Shady Amir | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

FOOTBALL PROJECTOn the eve of the crucial Senegal game, Sanchez said the team had prepared psychologically for the possibility of an early exit from the tournament. "We are a small country, the smallest to host the World Cup, and we are aware of the fact that we may be knocked out early, but that doesn't mean the end of the football project," he said. Against Senegal, Sanchez made three changes to the starting lineup, including bringing in goalkeeper Meshaal Barsham. When the Netherlands later drew 1-1 with Ecuador, it was the end of Qatar's hopes in the World Cup. The question remains though as to whether it's the end of the Qatari football project or just the start.

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