“AI – Artificial Intelligence”

In one of the first in-depth probes of the viability of AI displacing labour, researchers modelled the cost attractiveness of automating various tasks in the U.S., concentrating on jobs where computer vision was employed — for instance, teachers and property appraisers. They found only 23 per cent of workers, measured in terms of dollar wages, could be effectively supplanted. In other cases, because AI-assisted visual recognition is expensive to install and operate, humans did the job more economically.

23% is a lot and the rest won’t be far behind.

“By the time you’re done hiring a no work history minimum wage employee, you’re out of pocket about $54,000″

On the streets of San Francisco, the updated version of Tesla’s driver-assistance software still took the wheel in places it wasn’t designed to handle, including blowing through stop signs

Last weekend, my Tesla Model Y received an over-the-air update to make its driver-assistance software safer. In my first test drive of the updated Tesla, it blew through two stop signs without even slowing down.

In December, Tesla issued its largest-ever recall, affecting almost all of its 2 million cars. It is like the software updates you get on your phone, except this was supposed to prevent drivers from misusing Tesla’s Autopilot software.

Thousands of child abuse images have been discovered in a database for artificial intelligence systems, raising fears that AI tools have been “trained” on the illegal images.

Researchers have identified more than 3,000 cases of child sexual abuse material in a vast trove of images designed to create AI photo generation software.

The free database, known as “LAION-5b”, has been used to develop AI software – including a version of Stable Diffusion, a popular image generator.

Sports Illustrated was once the benchmark for sports content but today the site has been accused of publishing AI-generated content under the names of authors who are also AI-generated. Case in point, Drew Ortiz who had a photo and an author biography on the site.

AI is a new front in our civilisational war

The blink-if-you-missed-it four-day drama at the tech firm OpenAI requires deep attention. On the surface it looks like power shenanigans; underneath lies a tale of humanity’s future and geopolitics.

The strange saga began a week ago, when the board of the nonprofit decided to fire its AI guru and cultish leader, Sam Altman. But when the 700+ staffers of OpenAI wrote an open letter saying that they too would go with the ousted CEO, he was swiftly reinstated.

“… Open AI researchers warned the board of directors about a powerful AI breakthrough that could pose threats to humanity, before the firing and rehiring of its CEO Sam Altman.

Several staff researchers sent a letter to the OpenAI board, warning that the progress made on Project Q*, pronounced as Q-star, had the potential to endanger humanity, two sources familiar with Altman’s ouster told Reuters.

The previously unreported letter ultimately led to the removal of Altman, the creator of ChatGPT, and the ensuing chaotic five days within the startup company.”

After Dwayne Ouelette took over the Canadian Tire in North Bay, Ont., last year, he decided to buck the trend and ditch the store’s four self-checkout machines — which had been there for a decade.

“I’m not comfortable using them and I don’t think some of my customers are comfortable [either],” said Ouelette, who removed the machines in July and replaced them with cashiers.

“I’d rather my customers see my cashiers and if there’s any questions or concerns, at least there’s somebody they can talk to.”

My local Shopper’s Drug Mart drove me away with their totalitarian devotion to self-checkout at the expense of customer need.