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Daily Archives: February 15, 2023

Don’t wait for AI search. Get better results with what you have now.

Washington Post: “…Microsoft unveiled its new Bing at a big event in February and has made the ChatGPT-powered search engine available as a beta to a select number of people, with a waitlist to test it out. Google recently previewed its own take on AI chatbot results called Bard, though it will not be available to the public until a later date. But what problem is AI-search technology trying to solve? One seems to be giving a single pat answer to what is traditionally multiple time-consuming searches, letting you ask questions naturally instead of using existing search shorthand and tricks. They also build on something search engines have already been doing, excerpting the most essential parts of existing content to save you a click. For example, you can skip right to the recipe for a killer oatmeal cookie recipe buried under lengthy personal stories about the baker’s childhood. For now, most people are still doing their searches the old fashioned way. Here’s how you can search better using what you already have, until something better comes along…”

Nine years of ranking the most influential companies driving tropical deforestation

“2023: A watershed year for action on deforestation – For nine years, Global Canopy’s Forest 500 has tracked the policies and performance of the 350 most influential companies and 150 financial institutions linked to deforestation in their supply chains and investments. We are three years past the 2020 deadline that many organisations set themselves to… Continue Reading

Lawyers Fail to Serve the Public and Themselves: ChatGPT to the Rescue to Placate the Jealous Mistress?

RIPS Law Librarian – Lawyers Fail to Serve the Public and Themselves: ChatGPT to the Rescue to Placate the Jealous Mistress? by Sarah Gotschall: “As law librarians and legal research professors, we have witnessed firsthand how law students struggle with their time and labor-intensive legal research and writing assignments. And of course, the many of us… Continue Reading

CBO – Federal Debt and the Statutory Limit, February 2023

“CBO projects that, if the debt limit is not raised or suspended, the government’s ability to issue additional debt—other than to replace maturing securities—will be exhausted between July and September 2023. The debt limit—commonly called the debt ceiling—is the maximum amount of debt that the Department of the Treasury can issue to the public or… Continue Reading

Strengthening and Democratizing the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Innovation Ecosystem

Strengthening and Democratizing the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Innovation Ecosystem: An Implementation Plan for a National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource. National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Task Force, January 2023. “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing our country and our world. From how citizens navigate their daily lives to how researchers drive discoveries in the lab to how… Continue Reading

Federal Library Directory

“The Federal Library Directory, now in an updated second edition, profiles federal libraries and information centers in the United States and abroad. Presented with an interactive map, the directory displays geographic and collections data from nearly 1,400 federal libraries. FEDLINK is offering this public dataset to locate government resources more easily for scholars and library… Continue Reading

Microsoft’s Bing is an emotionally manipulative liar

The Verge: “Microsoft’s Bing chatbot has been unleashed on the world, and people are discovering what it means to beta test an unpredictable AI tool. Specifically, they’re finding out that Bing’s AI personality is not as poised or polished as you might expect. In conversations with the chatbot shared on Reddit and Twitter, Bing can… Continue Reading

American Views 2022: Part 2, Trust Media And Democracy

“As part of Knight Foundation’s belief that a strong Fourth Estate is paramount to a thriving democracy, the organization has worked with Gallup to study Americans’ trust in the news media, consistently finding that their level of confidence is driven by perceptions of news organizations’ accuracy, bias and transparency. However, a new report finds that… Continue Reading