As you know from reading me I think AI is a very mixed bag. I can see how it could be helpful, I also see how it could, and has been, used in very negative ways spewing AI generated misinformation and fake porn to mention just two of the many damages AI is causing. California is the first state to really think the issue through by passing California’s SB 1047. The tech industry of course, which has profit as its only real priority, is furious and doing everything it can to sabotage such legislation. I think, we need national legislation, regulating this technology before it destroys our democracy and social wellbeing.
Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI Scientist, has warned that liability for mass casualties caused by AI will destroy the industry. Credit: Chesnot / Getty
If I build a car that is far more dangerous than other cars, don’t do any safety testing, release it, and it ultimately leads to people getting killed, I will probably be held liable and have to pay damages, if not criminal penalties.
If I build a search engine that (unlike Google) has as the first result for “how can I commit a mass murder” detailed instructions on how best to carry out a spree killing, and someone uses my search engine and follows the instructions, I likely won’t be held liable, thanks largely to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.
So here’s a question: Is an AI assistant more like a car, where we can expect manufacturers to do safety testing or be liable if they get people killed? Or is it more like a search engine?
I have had occasion to meet and speak candidly with several people I didn’t know, and their comments have left me seriously concerned with what I see as the growing sense that America is no longer a country where working hard will give you the success you seek. I see this as a fundamental aspect of the obscene wealth inequality that now shapes American society. I find it interesting that this article is appearing in Murdoch’s conservative Wall Street Journal. I see that as the recognition of a trend that has become irrefutable. I also think the reason that the Harris ticket is doing so well is because they are directly speaking to the trend and promising change.
Americans overwhelmingly desire all the traditional trappings of the American dream—owning a home, having a family, and looking forward to a comfortable retirement. But very few believe they can easily achieve it.
A July Wall Street Journal/NORC poll of 1,502 U.S. adults shows a stark gap between people’s wishes and their expectations. The trend was consistent across gender and party lines, but held more true for younger generations, who have been priced out of homeownership and saddled with high interest rates and student debt.
While 89% of respondents said owning a home is either essential or important to their vision of the future, only 10% said homeownership is easy or somewhat easy to achieve. Financial security and a comfortable retirement were similarly labeled as essential or important by 96% and 95% of people, respectively, but rated as easy or somewhat easy to pull off by only 9% and 8%.
Twelve years ago, when researchers at Public Religion Research Institute asked 2,501 people if the American dream “still holds true,” more than half said it did. When The Wall Street Journal asked the same question in July, that dropped to about […]
As this article explains the EPA has issued an emergency ban on a chemical used in commercial pesticides called Dacthal. I hope you don’t use chemical pesticides but, if your do, If you have any pesticides in your garage or garden shack that contain Dacthal, listed on products as dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate immediately take the container to some center that handles poisons. It is dangerous to your health, particularly pregnant women and children.
The pesticide Dacthal is commonly used on strawberries. Credit: bluecinema / E+ / Getty
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued an emergency notice pulling the pesticide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, also known as DCPA or Dacthal.
The chemical was placed under an emergency order to stop further use, the first order of its kind in nearly four decades, because of the risk it poses to fetuses in pregnant people. According to the EPA, when pregnant people are exposed to DCPA, it can change the fetal thyroid hormone levels.
After birth, the baby may experience low birth weight, impaired brain development and decreased IQ, the agency warned. Later in life, the exposure could also be linked to impaired motor skills. The EPA noted that some of the effects of exposure could be irreversible.
“DCPA is so dangerous that it needs to be removed from the market immediately,” Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said in a statement. “It’s EPA’s job to protect people from exposure to dangerous chemicals. In this case, pregnant […]
The United States was once a world leader in education, now we aren’t even in the top 50 nations, and college has become a source of financial crisis for millions. This did not happen by chance, it is the result of a deliberate policy of the Republican Party. Project 2025 even proposing eliminating the Department of Education.
Here is a list of countries where college is free while in the U.S. it causes millions to go into serious debt.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Supreme Court on Wednesday kept on hold the latest multibillion-dollar plan from the Biden administration that would have lowered payments for millions of borrowers, while lawsuits make their way through lower courts.
The justices rejected an administration request to put most of it back into effect. It was blocked by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In an unsigned order, the court said it expects the appeals court to issue a fuller decision on the plan “with appropriate dispatch.”
The Education Department is seeking to provide a faster path to loan cancellation, and reduce monthly income-based repayments from 10% to 5% of a borrower’s discretionary income. The plan also wouldn’t require borrowers to make payments if they earn less than 225% of the federal poverty line — $32,800 a year for a single person.
Last year, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority rejected an earlier plan that would have wiped away more than […]
The United States, as you can see from the chart that heads this report the U.S. scores 36th in the world on educational capabilities. That we are the world’s leader on education is another of the lies we routinely tell ourselves. In fact we have a very poorly educated population, and a well-educated population is critical to a successful democracy.
As you see here Americans score very badly in the international rankings on educational capabilities
Reporting Highlights
Enrollment Plunging: Since the pandemic began, public school enrollment has declined by a million students nationwide, as many have switched to private schools and homeschooling.
City Schools Are Closing: Rochester, New York, is shutting 11 of its 45 schools. In Seattle, parents expect 20 elementary schools will close. In Columbus, Ohio, nine schools may cease to operate.
Unequal Effects: Closings fall especially on majority-Black schools. As top students move to private and suburban schools, special-needs students are left behind in fewer city facilities.
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story. Were they helpful?
In the 1990s, when Liberia descended into civil war, the Kpor family fled to Ivory Coast. A few years later, in 1999, they were approved for resettlement in the United States and ended up in Rochester, New York. Janice Kpor, who was 11 at the time, jokingly wonders whether her elders were under the impression that they were moving to New York City. What she […]
