ChatGPT AI lists jobs it can do better than humans as millions could be put out of work ChatGPT was unveiled in November and went on to break records as the fastest-growing user base ...... OpenAI’s wildly popular chatbot, ChatGPT, is expected to replace 4.8 million U.S. jobs ....... The bot told the outplacement firm that it would most likely replace positions that are repetitive and predictable, and ones that are also seeped in language requirements. Those fields, according to the bot, include: customer service representatives; translators and interpreters; technical writers; copywriters; and data entry clerks. ......... The AI chatbot added that it could see itself entering other fields such as data science; machine learning; mathematics and statistics; computer science; robotics and automation; and business. ....... the AI system can sometimes "hallucinate" and "make up information that's incorrect, but sounds plausible." The spokesperson added that OpenAI's mission is to "enhance jobs" with AI, not eliminate them. .......... The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, has even compared the technology to the Manhattan Project, when the first nuclear weapons were developed during World War II. ....... The letter says the labs should use such a pause to hash out "and implement a set of shared safety protocols for advanced AI design and development that are rigorously audited and overseen by independent outside experts." .
Macron and Xi’s Guangzhou rendezvous a sign of China’s enthusiasm for French leader, analysts say In a rare meeting outside Beijing, French president to reunite with Chinese counterpart in southern metropolis on Friday after talks in capital city ... Macron will also meet investors and answer questions from university students while in the export powerhouse of Guangdong ........ and his attempt to carve his own “third way” of handling China without being confrontational...... Speaking upon his arrival in Beijing on Wednesday, the French president indicated France would seek engagement with China, especially in commercial areas.
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In Beijing trip, European leaders’ unity on China will be put to the test French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen will arrive in Beijing on Wednesday ....They will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but Macron, hoping to firm economic ties, is less hawkish than von der Leyen ....... In the run-up to the visit, however, the commission president took her place among the continent’s toughest talkers on China. Her speech in Brussels last week was seen as an attempt to bolster the European Union’s approach both politically and economically. ........ The Frenchman bristles at the idea of taking a hardline approach akin to the United States’ policy. The strongest proponent of a sovereign European Union, Macron sees a three-day state visit as a chance to reestablish France and Europe as a “third way” somewhere between the US and China. ........ Macron will press Chinese leaders to help end Russia’s 13-month invasion of Ukraine – but not too hard. ........ “China is one of the few countries in the world – if not the only one – to have a game-changing effect on the conflict, in either direction,” the official added........ “China has now turned the page on the era of ‘reform and opening’ and is moving into a new era of security and control,” she said. Von der Leyen will hold private meetings with Xi as well as with Premier Li Qiang in Beijing. ...... She also played down hopes that China would help broker peace in Ukraine, saying that Beijing was trying to redraw the global order with itself at the centre. ........ some have also speculated that it puts von der Leyen on a collision course with both France and Germany, which are less interested in shaking ties with the world’s second-largest economy. ........ described the commission’s new outlook as “more China-last than Europe-first”. .......... Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agree that “economic decoupling with China is a dangerous and self-harming proposition for the EU, [that] Europeans should not emulate the United States’ hawkish approach”. .
Ukraine ‘ready’ to talk to Russia on Crimea if counteroffensive succeeds Senior official says Kyiv does not exclude liberation of occupied peninsula by military means ......... “If we will succeed in achieving our strategic goals on the battlefield and when we will be on the administrative border with Crimea, we are ready to open [a] diplomatic page to discuss this issue,” Sybiha said, referring to Kyiv’s long-planned counteroffensive....... He added: “It doesn’t mean that we exclude the way of liberation [of Crimea] by our army.” ........ Sybiha’s remarks may relieve western officials who are sceptical about Ukraine’s ability to reclaim the peninsula and worry that any attempt to do so militarily could lead President Vladimir Putin to escalate his war, possibly with nuclear weapons......... Crimea would need “a political solution because of just the concentration of force that is there and what it would mean for the Ukrainians to go in there”. ........ In the early days of the war, Ukraine was willing to negotiate with Moscow over the future of Crimea rather than insisting on regaining it militarily at all costs. .......... in May last year he indicated Ukraine could consider a peace deal if Russian forces returned to positions in eastern Ukraine predating last year’s invasion and suggested the issue of Crimea would be resolved later through diplomacy......... Ukrainian forces would be on Crimea’s doorstep in “five to seven months”. ........ the Ukrainian leadership felt “that after a successful counteroffensive [in the rest of the country] Putin might be eager to talk”......... 87 per cent of Ukrainians considered any territorial concessions to achieve peace unacceptable. Only 9 per cent said they would accept concessions if it meant lasting peace. ........ 64 per cent of Ukrainians want Ukraine to try to retake all of its territory, including Crimea, “even if there is a risk of a decrease in western support and a risk of a protracted war”.
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Poorer world and no real winners in China-US decoupling, IMF warns Effects of strategy will fall hardest on China-aligned Southeast Asian economies, but Washington and its allies also face costs, report finds ...... Continued fragmentation of foreign direct investment between geopolitical blocs could see global output fall by 2 per cent ...... China and closely associated Southeast Asian economies are likely to suffer the most as a more divided global investment landscape driven by geopolitical tensions takes shape ........ while the US and its allies may appear to be “relative winners”, they are also likely to face considerable economic costs as they pursue stronger national security or technological leadership ......... .
Thursday, April 06, 2023
Wednesday, April 05, 2023
5: Putin
Woke the plank! Were pirate ships actually beacons of diversity and democracy? In September 1695, the Plymouth-born “king of pirates”, Henry Avery, seized treasure worth £600,000 (in today’s terms, nearly £100m) from the Grand Mughal fleet in the Red Sea. ........ Avery sailed for Madagascar where he established a pirate republic with his henchmen called Libertalia, a proto-communist utopia where all goods were held common. ........ the so-called golden age of piracy between 1650 and 1730 in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. ........ 1881, when Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the first half of Treasure Island. ....... there is a chasm deeper than the Mariana Trench between piratical reality and fiction. ........ Somali pirates plying the same waters as Avery did centuries earlier ........ “Pirates existed in the shadows, in the margins of society – overthrowing societal conventions and creating their own counterculture.” ......... “The toothless or peg-legged buccaneer hoisting a flag of defiance against the world … is, perhaps, as much a figure of the Enlightenment as Adam Smith or Voltaire, but he also represents a profoundly proletarian liberation, necessarily violent and ephemeral.” ......... pirates lasted on average two years at their illegal trade before being hanged, drowned or sensibly retiring. ........ “It wasn’t as hierarchical as the Royal Navy,” says Slade. “Captains were elected. And they lived according to a code.” The exhibition sets out the code that prevailed on Black Bart’s ship. According to article one: “Every man has a vote in affairs of moment; has equal title to the fresh provisions, or strong liquors, at any time seized, and may use them at pleasure.” ......... Stevenson, whose Treasure Island created many of the enduring emblems of the pirate genre: the one-legged rogue, the cabin boy hiding in an apple barrel, the map to the buried treasure marked by an X ......... The golden age of piracy came to a bloody end in the 1730s as governments decided pirates were too much of a liability to trade and stamped them out.
Russian defector sheds light on Putin paranoia and his secret train network Former security officer tells of president’s strict quarantine and says he has ‘lost touch with the world’ .......... a secret train network, identical offices in different cities, a strict personal quarantine and escalating security protocols. ............ “pathologically afraid for his life” ....... the train was used because it “cannot be tracked on any information resource .......... a secret railway network including parallel lines and stations near Putin’s residences in the Valdai national park in Novo-Ogaryovo, and near his Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. ........ “Our president has lost touch with the world,” he said. “He has been living in an information cocoon for the past couple of years, spending most of his time in his residences, which the media very fittingly call bunkers. He is pathologically afraid for his life. He surrounds himself with an impenetrable barrier of quarantines and an information vacuum. He only values his own life and the lives of his family and friends.” ......... a virtual state within a state that includes firefighters, food testers and other engineers who travel with Putin on his trips abroad, providing a rare first-hand insight into the levels of paranoia and sheltered lifestyle of the Russian president. “They call him the Boss, worship him in every way and only ever talk of him in those terms” ......... Putin relies heavily for information on reports provided by his security services. Putin did not use a mobile phone or the internet .......... and did not even bring an internet specialist with him on foreign trips. “He only receives information from his closest circle, which means that he lives in an information vacuum” ......... Putin is still in quarantine and requires all staff working in the same room as him to also undergo a two-week quarantine, severely limiting the number of people who have personal contact with him. ............ Putin used identical offices in St Petersburg, Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo, and that the secret services used fake motorcades and decoy planes to pretend he was leaving. “This is a ruse to confuse foreign intelligence, in the first place, and secondly, to prevent any attempts on his life” ........... “He has shut himself off from the world,” Karakulov said. “His take on reality has become distorted.” .......... until nearly the end of the trip, when Karakulov told his fellow officers he was feeling unwell and then fled with his family to the airport
No phone, no internet, no power, no money – it was like being sent back to the Victorian era After five unplugged hours, my dog and the house were pristine. I needed distraction
Russian defector sheds light on Putin paranoia and his secret train network Former security officer tells of president’s strict quarantine and says he has ‘lost touch with the world’ .......... a secret train network, identical offices in different cities, a strict personal quarantine and escalating security protocols. ............ “pathologically afraid for his life” ....... the train was used because it “cannot be tracked on any information resource .......... a secret railway network including parallel lines and stations near Putin’s residences in the Valdai national park in Novo-Ogaryovo, and near his Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. ........ “Our president has lost touch with the world,” he said. “He has been living in an information cocoon for the past couple of years, spending most of his time in his residences, which the media very fittingly call bunkers. He is pathologically afraid for his life. He surrounds himself with an impenetrable barrier of quarantines and an information vacuum. He only values his own life and the lives of his family and friends.” ......... a virtual state within a state that includes firefighters, food testers and other engineers who travel with Putin on his trips abroad, providing a rare first-hand insight into the levels of paranoia and sheltered lifestyle of the Russian president. “They call him the Boss, worship him in every way and only ever talk of him in those terms” ......... Putin relies heavily for information on reports provided by his security services. Putin did not use a mobile phone or the internet .......... and did not even bring an internet specialist with him on foreign trips. “He only receives information from his closest circle, which means that he lives in an information vacuum” ......... Putin is still in quarantine and requires all staff working in the same room as him to also undergo a two-week quarantine, severely limiting the number of people who have personal contact with him. ............ Putin used identical offices in St Petersburg, Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo, and that the secret services used fake motorcades and decoy planes to pretend he was leaving. “This is a ruse to confuse foreign intelligence, in the first place, and secondly, to prevent any attempts on his life” ........... “He has shut himself off from the world,” Karakulov said. “His take on reality has become distorted.” .......... until nearly the end of the trip, when Karakulov told his fellow officers he was feeling unwell and then fled with his family to the airport
No phone, no internet, no power, no money – it was like being sent back to the Victorian era After five unplugged hours, my dog and the house were pristine. I needed distraction
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