404 Media, July 14, 2024. Goldman Sachs: AI Is Overhyped, Wildly Expensive, and Unreliable. “Investment giant Goldman Sachs published a research paper about the economic viability of generative AI which notes that there is “little to show for” the huge amount of spending on generative AI infrastructure and questions “whether this large spend will ever… Continue Reading
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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici
Quick Claude Artifacts Use Case
Brainyacts – “Today, I want to show you a cool and simple use case for Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 model and its incredible ability to generate dynamic graphics and other elements. In the short video below, I demonstrate how a simple prompt can create a sophisticated simulation illustrating the interaction between worked hours, billing realization, and… Continue Reading
Millions of Americans are stranded on “heat islands”
Axios: “Millions of Americans live in parts of cities where the “urban heat island” effect can significantly increase temperatures, especially during heat waves, per a new analysis by nonprofit climate research group Climate Central. Why it matters: Heat islands — wherein heat is trapped by heat-absorbing surfaces and structures — can make cities less livable… Continue Reading
AI tools help journalists assess authenticity of images in immediate aftermath of Trump shooting
GeekWire: “Journalists used artificial intelligence to check the authenticity of images from the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday night — demonstrating both the potential and the limitations of AI technology in minimizing the spread of misinformation online. AI tools offered by Seattle-based non-partisan nonprofit organization TrueMedia.org were used by reporters… Continue Reading
AI In Finance and Banking – July 15, 2024
AI In Finance and Banking – July 15, 2024 – This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government documents, papers by NGO/IGO organizations and economists, speeches, and industry white papers on the subject of AI’s fast paced impact on the banking and finance sectors. The chronological links provided are to the primary sources,… Continue Reading
How to avoid falling for misinformation and conspiracy theories
Washington Post [unpaywalled] – There’s a flood of real, misleading and fake breaking news and information online. Proceed with caution: “Anyone with an internet connection can watch breaking news unfold in real time, or at least some version of it. Across social media, posts can fly up faster than most fact-checkers and moderators can handle,… Continue Reading
What the New York Times Missed: 71 More of the Best Books of the 21st Century
Lit Hub: “Last week, The New York Times Book Review published a list of the “100 Best Books of the 21st Century.” (Well, so far, obviously. Why not just call it the best books of the last 25 years? Do they know something we don’t? Oh well.) To put it together, the Book Review surveyed “hundreds of… Continue Reading
Climate Zones
The Pudding – Visualization: How will your city feel in the future – “This project looks at 70 global cities, and tracks their classification from present day to 2070. And with climate change, your city isn’t just getting hotter: it will resemble the distinctive climate of completely different places…A 2018 study, led by climatologist Hylke… Continue Reading
Governing in the Age of AI: A New Model to Transform the State
Governing in the Age of AI: A New Model to Transform the State is a joint report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and Faculty.”…In this report, we describe an AI-enabled model of government in which every citizen has their own digital public assistant to help manage their relationship with the government, freeing… Continue Reading
The World’s Power Grids Are Failing as the Planet Warms
Bloomberg [unpaywalled] – Outages from Albania to Texas show how electricity networks aren’t ready for climate change. “…The climate crisis exposes electricity networks to flash floods ripping down transmission towers, droughts drying up hydro reservoirs and demand spikes from cooling during searing heat. “The whole power system was built and designed in one climatic era… Continue Reading
Answers – What’s Project 2025?
Unpacking the Pro-Trump Plan to Overhaul US Government “…The Forces Behind Project 2025 – Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts launched Project 2025 in April 2022, a few months before Trump officially announced his reelection campaign. Since then, the number of groups backing the initiative has grown. As of now, Project 2025’s advisory board and so-called… Continue Reading
(Almost) 200 Years of News-Based Economic Sentiment
(Almost) 200 Years of News-Based Economic Sentiment Jules H. van Binsbergen, Svetlana Bryzgalova, Mayukh Mukhopadhyay & Varun Sharma – Working Paper 32026. DOI 10.3386/w32026 Issue Date January 2024. “Using text from 200 million pages of 13,000 US local newspapers and machine learning methods, we construct a 170-year-long measure of economic sentiment at the country and state… Continue Reading
