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☆ Inside OpenAI's Sam Altman's fixation on death and the apocalypse
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Melia Russell | Julia Black | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, spends a lot of time thinking about risk, especially as it relates to AI. One investor friend told Insider that Altman became even more fixated on delaying death when his father died in 2018. One investor friend told Insider that Altman "says we vastly underestimate risk in society." The investor friend told Insider that urgency grew when Altman's father, a real-estate developer, died in 2018. "I don't think anyone can lose your dad young and wish he didn't have more time with him," Altman told Insider.

☆ 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!

☆ Peru's Toledo returns home to join two other former heads of state in jail
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Peru's former President Alejandro Toledo walks with others after his arrival at the airport following his extradition to Peru, in Callao, Peru April 23, 2023. Toledo, president between 2001 and 2006, turned himself in on Friday for extradition. They have requested a 20-year prison sentence. Toledo, an economist by profession and with a doctorate from Stanford University in the United States, became the second former Peruvian president to be extradited. Fujimori was extradited from Chile and is serving a 25-year prison sentence for human rights abuses.

☆ Saadiyat: The 'island of happiness' just off Abu Dhabi
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Chris Dwyer | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Jon Arnold Images Ltd/Alamy Stock PhotoWhile Abu Dhabi itself is home to bombastic contemporary architecture, Saadiyat – an easy 20-minute drive from downtown and Abu Dhabi International Airport – is a natural wonderland, edged by small sand dunes. Elevated boardwalks protect them from beachgoers – part of a conservation project led by Jumeirah at Saadiyat Island Resort and its inhouse marine biologist. Department of Culture and Tourism Abu DhabiOpen year-round, Saadiyat Beach Golf Club is home to a Gary Player signature 18-hole golf course. Luc Castel/Getty ImagesInaugurated in 2017, The Louvre Abu Dhabi is France’s largest cultural project abroad. Louvre Abu Dhabi isn’t the only highbrow place on Saadiyat – behind the dunes there are two world-class educational institutions, too.

☆ Will Netflix price cuts, ad-supported plan help add more users?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Yuvraj Malik | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Smartphone with Netflix logo is seen in front of a descending stock graph in this illustration taken April 19, 2022. Netflix is expected to add 3.43 million subscribers in the April-June period, according to 16 analysts polled by Refinitiv, compared with 970,000 subscriber losses in the year-ago quarter. Amazon knocked Netflix off the top spot in the United States last year, according to consulting firm Parks Associate. Netflix in November introduced a streaming plan with advertising for $6.99 per month in 12 countries, after resisting commercials for years. "In 2020, only one in five new sign-ups were to ad-supported plans; last year, it was nearly one in three."

The Lebanese bank did not respond to a message seeking comment. Bank statements seen by Reuters show how the Salameh accounts at AM Bank ballooned from $15 million in 1993 to more than $150 million by 2019. Lebanese prosecutors suspect the accounts, from which regular cash withdrawals were made, were used to conceal money laundering activity, a Lebanese judicial source said on Saturday. According to the lawyer, French prosecutors have summoned his client with a view of naming him a formal suspect. If French prosecutors suspected Salameh of wrongdoing, they could not hear him as a witness, Sur said.

☆ I'm an instructor at the Esalen Institute, a famous wellness retreat near Silicon Valley. Here's why tech executives flock to this oasis of 'transformation.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Esalen Institute is a retreat and educational institute that was established in Big Sur, California in 1962. When I came to Esalen for the first time in 2014 I thought: How does this place even exist? It's a rare place where water coming down from the mountains, hot spring water coming up from the Earth, and water from the Pacific Ocean all collide in one place. But I'm not meditating all day at Esalen — I'm focused on making an impact in the world. People are coming to us in transitionGiven our proximity to Silicon Valley, we do draw people from the tech world.

☆ Nvidia's stock has climbed as Wall Street bets on A.I. Why investors say its promise is worth the premium
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

NVDA YTD mountain Nvidia shares so far this year Nvidia's stock' is trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of roughly 58 times. The focus on Nvidia's capabilities in this area have only grown since it unveiled new AI technologies at its GTC conference. On the heels of the conference, Goldman Sachs called the chipmaker a "key AI enabler," while Bank of America said Nvidia's AI dominance could "reshape the existing tech industry." That's in part because along with the hardware and software, Nvidia offers the engineers and relationships with both end-users and research organizations, which could stunt competitor plans from the get-go, Freund explained . Because so many engineers are already using Nvidia's software, some companies may face resistance if attempting to transition to a new language, explained Pieran Maru, an investment analyst at global asset management firm GAM Investments.

The firm has a price target of $65, which implies 9.6% from the stock's closing price on Tuesday. Meanwhile, JPMorgan said that it is "starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel" for Micron as inventory levels begin to improve. The firm has a price target of $75, implying 26.5% upside from Tuesday's close price. His price target of $46 implies shares falling by almost a third from their closing price on Tuesday. Micron shares have rallied more than 18% in 2023, but have tumbled 27.7% over the last 12 months.

☆ France pension reform protests turn violent following national day of action
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Aurore Laborie Dalal Mawad Oliver Briscoe Allegra Goodwin Pierre Bairin Helen Regan | Aurore Laborie | Dalal Mawad | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Paris CNN —More than a million people took to the streets across France on Thursday with protests turning violent in some areas as demonstrators voiced their fury at proposed pension reforms. At least 80 people were arrested and 123 police officers injured in France on Thursday during the nationwide protests, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. The gate of the Bordeaux city hall after it was set on fire during a demonstration on a national day of action, on March 23 in Bordeaux, southwestern France. French riot police apprehend a protester amid clashes during a demonstration against pension reform in Paris on March 23, 2023. It rammed the legislation through the French National Assembly last week using a constitutional clause that allows the government to bypass a vote.

☆ Equatorial Guinea confirms eight more Marburg cases - WHO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

DAKAR, March 23 (Reuters) - Eight new confirmed cases of Marburg disease have been reported in Equatorial Guinea, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. This brings the total of laboratory-confirmed cases to nine and probable cases to 20 since the outbreak of the deadly disease similar to Ebola was declared in February. The areas reporting cases are about 150 kilometres (93 miles) apart, suggesting a wider transmission of the virus, the WHO said. Marburg virus disease is a viral haemorrhagic fever that can have a fatality rate of up to 88%, according to the WHO. Neighbouring Cameroon also detected two suspected cases of Marburg disease last month despite restricting movement along the border to avoid contagion.

☆ Nvidia's 'dominant A.I. leadership' is clear after GTC developer conference, Wall Street analysts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

If there's one takeaway from Nvidia 's developer conference, it's the computing firm's dominant leadership in artificial intelligence, according to Wall Street analysts. Investors piled into Nvidia shares this year as they sought ways to play the growing AI trend. NVDA 1Y mountain Nvidia shares 1-year The event only added to their confidence in the stock. to a multi $Tn+ IT/Infrastructure as a service industry TAM from narrower chip-only industry opportunity," Arya wrote to clients on Tuesday. JPMorgan's Harlan Sur reiterated an overweight rating, saying Nvidia's "dominant AI leadership" is clear following the event.

The president, the government and the majority," a senior MP in Macron's camp, Gilles Le Gendre, told Liberation newspaper. Another MP in Macron's camp, Patrick Vignal, bluntly urged the president to suspend the pension reform bill, which will raise the retirement age by two years to 64, given the anger it has triggered, and its deep unpopularity. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes 1 2 3 4 5While Borne said the administration would try in future to better involve citizens and unions in lawmaking, she gave no specifics, and both said they had devoted as much time to dialogue on the pension bill as possible. Other opposition MPs urged Macron to fire Borne, call snap elections and hold a referendum on the pension bill because of the widespread anger. Polls show a wide majority of French are opposed to the pension reform, as well as the government's decision to push the bill through parliament without a vote.

Operations were normal at the company's Normandy site in the north, while the Feyzin refinery in the southeast was operating almost normally, the person added. A union official said earlier that the Normandy refinery would be stopped this weekend. At oil major ExxonMobil's (XOM.N) Esso-branded Port Jerome refinery in Normandy, workers have been called to strike from Saturday at 2 p.m. (1300 GMT), a CGT union official said. It was unclear whether Esso's Fos-sur-Mer refinery in the south would be similarly affected. Reporting by Benjamin Mallet, Forrest Crellin and America Hernandez; Editing by Jan Harvey and Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ California, Northeast menaced by late-season winter storms
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Brendan O'Brien | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A general view shows flooded streets in Pajaro, California, U.S., March 12, 2023, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. On the West Coast, the storm targeted areas of northern and Central California already saturated from the unusual bout of bad weather. It promised to dump as much as seven inches (18 cm) of rain in higher elevations and up to three inches elsewhere, the National Weather Service said in its forecast. The growing frequency and intensity of such storms amid bouts of prolonged drought are symptomatic of human-caused climate change, experts say. The storm in the Northeast threatened to produce wet snow that could topple power lines and trees, causing power outages.

☆ California flood watch issued as next atmospheric river looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LOS ANGELES, March 9 (Reuters) - Flood watch notices were posted across northern and central California for Thursday ahead of an atmospheric river storm expected to douse much of the state with heavy rain, including mountain areas still buried from a near-record snowfall. But smaller, waterfront communities along several major rivers and their tributaries also braced for the possibility of overflowing streams swollen by heavy showers and runoff of melting snow. Elsewhere, the NWS issued "prepare now" alerts for residents along the Big Sur, Carmel, Salinas and Pajaro rivers. "It's really a combination of all this heavy rainfall coming and also rapidly melting snow." The looming deluge follows a three-week barrage of nine atmospheric river storms that struck California in late December through mid-January, triggering widespread flooding as well as hundreds of mudslides, rockfalls and sinkholes across the state.

☆ Britain to publish plan for asylum ban on Channel migrants
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Andrew Macaskill | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] Migrants leave a French maritime protection vessel, as the boat they were travelling in with 60 other migrants began to take water in the English Channel, in an attempt to reach Britain, in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, November 29, 2022. The new legislation will mean that anyone who arrives on small boats will be prevented from claiming asylum and deported to so-called safe third countries, according to government officials, who asked not to be named. The court subsequently ruled it lawful in December, but opponents are seeking to appeal that verdict. It is expected the legal battle will end up in the UK Supreme Court and may not be resolved for months. Once the small-boat crossings have ended, Britain would be prepared to create more legal routes for asylum seekers, Sunak said last year.

☆ 'Let's bring France to a halt': Oil refineries blocked and trains halted by pension reform protests
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Christophe Archambault | Afp | Getty ImagesStrike action over plans to raise the pension age in France caused widespread disruption on Tuesday, as trains came to a near-standstill, many schools were shut and fuel deliveries were blocked from refineries. Lou Benoist | Afp | Getty ImagesEric Sellini, a representative from the CGT union at TotalEnergies, told Reuters that a strike blocking the Gonfreville refinery in Normandy would run until Thursday. Another at the Donges refinery in western France is set to run until Friday, he added. Sameer Al-doumy | Afp | Getty ImagesThe strikes come as French workers grapple with red-hot inflation, which accelerated unexpectedly in February to hit 6.2% year-on-year. Around two thirds of the public support protests against the pension reforms, according to an Elabe survey.

☆ French environment minister urges restrictions to avoid water crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( America Hernandez | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Eric GaillardPARIS, March 6 (Reuters) - France's 100 departmental prefects should not hesitate to enact quick decrees restricting local water use given alarmingly low groundwater levels, French Environment Minister Christophe Béchu said on Monday. The announcement came after Béchu met virtually with prefects to get a view of the country's overall water situation as the country experiences its driest winter since 1959. Low water levels last summer impacted hydroelectric production and forced reduced power output at France's nuclear plants, which use river water to cool reactors. In several parts of France there was also an interruption of drinking water, which Béchu said he was keen to avoid this year. A national water resource management plan, initially expected in January, is now slated to be published before the end of March, the ministry said.

☆ Analysts praise Nvidia's results, call A.I. opportunities the next big growth vector for the chipmaker
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Strong overall results from Nvidia and more artificial intelligence developments outweigh the chip stock's gaming center miss in its recent quarterly print, analysts say. The chipmaker on Wednesday posted better-than-expected quarterly results , driven by growth in its data center business that includes AI chips. CEO Jensen Huang added during a call with analysts that AI is at an "inflection point," leading businesses to purchase its chips for machine learning software. And, while the company's gaming business is unlikely to rebound to its pandemic heights, it looks "largely derisked" going forward, wrote Morgan Stanley's Joseph Moore. He added that this segment could become a steady 10% growth business for the chip maker.

☆ These are Wall Street's favorite chip stocks, including one expected to rally more than 30%
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Fred Imbert | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

It might be time to look for buying opportunities in a beaten-down part of the tech sector: semiconductor stocks. Chip stocks have been under pressure from supply chain disruptions sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic. This, along with the recent push toward artificial intelligence technology, has boosted chip stocks in early 2023. The average analyst price target on the stock implies the most upside of any name on the list at 33%, FactSet data shows. He also hiked his price target on Analog Devices to $230 per share from $215.

☆ France tears down beach apartment block as rising sea bites
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Stephane Mahe | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Today, the hulk of the 80-flat Le Signal apartment block perches precariously on a dune just metres from the water and local authorities are tearing it down before it tumbles. By 2010, the ocean was lapping at the dune on which Le Signal was built. "Le Signal's situation is largely symbolic for what is happening in terms of coastal erosion France," he said. He said ever-rising sea levels and increasingly violent storms made it impossible to let people live in Le Signal without costly shore protection measures that could also have negatively impacted nearby shorelines. "Le Signal is a warning for what could happen in other zones and for the need to prepare for it now," he said.

☆ Last-Minute Valentine’s Gifts (They’ll Never Know You Procrastinated)
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Or choose a bouquet subscription to remind your valentine of you each time blooms arrive—get 10% off your subscription gift with code BUYSIDESTEMS. Masterclass has more than 180 courses to choose from, so you’re sure to find a great match. Lucky for last-minute shoppers, the candles are available online and for in-store pickup at Nordstrom, so you have time to swing by for one before Valentine’s Day arrives. If your valentine is a yogi, they may enjoy the cushiony, versatile mat that Buy Side named best overall yoga mat. Slippers make an easy Valentine’s Day gift like these unisex grippy slippers—recommended in our selection of best women’s slippers.

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