All posts tagged: debate

Do reasoning models really think or not? Apple research sparks lively debate, response

Do reasoning models really think or not? Apple research sparks lively debate, response

Published by skeptic

Join the event trusted by enterprise leaders for nearly two decades. VB Transform brings together the people building real enterprise AI strategy. Learn more Apple’s machine-learning group set off a rhetorical firestorm earlier this month with its release of “The Illusion of Thinking,” a 53-page research paper arguing that so-called large reasoning models (LRMs) or reasoning large language models (reasoning LLMs) such as OpenAI’s “o” series and Google’s Gemini-2.5 Pro and Flash Thinking don’t actually engage in independent “thinking” or “reasoning” from generalized first principles learned from their training data. Instead, the authors contend, these reasoning LLMs are actually performing a kind of “pattern matching” and their apparent reasoning ability seems to fall apart once a task becomes too complex, suggesting that their architecture and performance is not a viable path to improving generative AI to the point that it is artificial generalized intelligence (AGI), which OpenAI defines as a model that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work, or superintelligence, AI even smarter than human beings can comprehend. ACT NOW: Come discuss the latest LLM …

MPs finish Report Stage debate on Assisted Dying Bill

MPs finish Report Stage debate on Assisted Dying Bill

Published by skeptic

Notes For further comment or information, media should contact Humanists UK Assisted Dying Campaigner Nathan Stilwell at [email protected] or phone 07456200033. (Media only) Humanists UK and My Death, My Decision have people and their loved ones who would be affected by this change available for the press. If you have been affected by the current assisted dying legislation, and want to use your story to support a change in the law, please email [email protected]. Humanists defend the right of each individual to live by their own personal values, and the freedom to make decisions about their own life so long as this does not result in harm to others. Humanists do not share the attitudes to death and dying held by some religious believers, in particular that the manner and time of death are for a deity to decide, and that interference in the course of nature is unacceptable. We firmly uphold the right to life but we recognise that this right carries with it the right of each individual to make their own judgement …

MPs to debate assisted dying changes – campaigners to rally in support

MPs to debate assisted dying changes – campaigners to rally in support

Published by skeptic

MPs will return to debate potential changes to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at its Report Stage on Friday 13 June. They will debate amendments on ‘Approved substances and devices; Advertising; Inquests; investigations and death certification; Guidance and codes of practice; Welsh language; Monitoring, consultation and reviews; The Assisted Dying Commissioner; Implementation; Regulations; Extent; Commencement.’ Supporters of assisted dying will be gathering on Parliament Square from 9:30 until the end of proceedings, at roughly 14:30. This is the second day of Report Stage. The day will begin with votes on amendments from the first day that were not yet voted upon. Following those votes, MPs will debate and potentially vote on the second day. It is unclear whether MPs will complete Report Stage on 13 June. If not, they will continue on 20 June. After that, they will have Third Reading, where MPs will vote on the Bill again as a whole before it heads to the Lords. The changes to the Bill debated at the first Report Stage debate in May …

African church leaders address decolonization and reparations and debate their role

African church leaders address decolonization and reparations and debate their role

Published by skeptic

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — As calls for decolonization and reparations for the transatlantic slave trade gain momentum globally, African church leaders, theologians and religious scholars gathered June 3-6 for a wide-ranging conversation about how colonial countries should make amends for historical wrongs done to the continent and the place of the church in the debate. The Consultation on Decolonization and Reparations, meeting in the Kenyan capital and convened by the All-Africa Conference of Churches, asked, “Is the whole idea of decolonization or decoloniality an African agenda, driven by African voices and priorities?” according to the conference’s website. “It is a whole complex thing, but it’s worth engaging,” said Ven. J.W. Kofi deGraft-Johnson, an Anglican priest who is secretary general of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa. “The conversation has started. It’s a process (for which) all actors should be brought on board.”  The participants’ considerations went back 140 years, to the 1884-1885 Berlin Conference, when European nations assembled in the German capital and divided the continent among themselves, in what is historically known as …

NSS calls for boys to be protected at ritual circumcision debate

NSS calls for boys to be protected at ritual circumcision debate

Published by skeptic

Left to right: Dr Alejandro Sanchez, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain MBE, Dr Antony Lempert, Hifsa Haroon-Iqbal OBE The National Secular Society has called for boys to be protected from ritual circumcision at a debate in central London. The debate was co-hosted by the NSS and Debate London, and took place at St Bride’s Church. Over 100 guests attended. The motion was “boys should not be ritually circumcised”. Proposing the motion, NSS council member Dr Antony Lempert said circumcision is a “child safeguarding anomaly” that confused a “laudable tolerance for different beliefs” with an “inappropriate deference to the unrestricted expression of those beliefs”. He said performing an irreversible surgery on people too young to form an opinion is “the antithesis of freedom of religion and belief”. Opposing the motion, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain MBE argued that circumcision is a parent’s human right and that it should be regulated but not deferred. He said circumcision would have been abandoned as a practice if parents thought it were harmful. NSS human rights lead Dr Alejandro Sanchez said the …

MPs debate decriminalising abortion in England and Wales

MPs debate decriminalising abortion in England and Wales

Published by skeptic

Pictured: All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group member Tony Vaughan MP MPs yesterday debated decriminalising abortion following a public petition on the subject. The debate was led by All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group member Tony Vaughan MP. Humanists UK welcomes the debate and calls on MPs to back an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to take abortion out of the criminal code. This is likely to be voted on later this month. The debate was called as the petition calling on the Government to decriminalise abortion received more than 100,000 signatures. It took place ahead of a proposed amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill which seeks to remove women from the criminal law in relation ending their own pregnancies led by Tonia Antoniazzi MP and has the support of over 115 cross-party MPs and 50 pro-choice organisations including BPAS, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and Humanists UK. The amendment will not change abortion time limits or its provision in any way. If selected, the amendment will be voted on later this month. In …

The great debate: Should you eat on the tube?

The great debate: Should you eat on the tube?

Published by Sam

The video is uncaptioned. TikTok user @ub1ub2 is speechless. In the clip, a woman eats curry and rice with one hand, and chats on the phone with the other. The comments are divided; some outraged, some indifferent. Hot food, on the tube — can this ever be ok? The woman is hardly alone. Not long ago, I witnessed a fellow commuter demolishing two steak bakes, a sausage roll and a cake in the space of perhaps four stops. This person was next to me and, after swiping the debris off my lap, I was left pondering whether this was acceptable behaviour or not. I concluded — of course — that food should stay off the tube, especially if it does any of the following: smell, crumble, ooze, melt, pop, squirt, or offend (granted, this last one is perhaps less subjective than the others…). I was naive enough to believe that this was a fairly universal view until I checked the comments of a video I posted on TikTok, where a seemingly hostile debate was taking …

The Debate That American Conservationists Should Be Having

The Debate That American Conservationists Should Be Having

Published by José

The Endangered Species Act always had a hole in it. It was intended to protect ecosystems as well as individual species—it says so right in the original 1973 text—but it has no provisions to do so directly. For decades, conservationists successfully plugged that hole by arguing in court that the ESA’s prohibition of harm to individual species includes destroying a species’ habitat. Now the Trump administration wants to negate that argument by asserting that to harm an endangered species means only to injure or kill it directly: to rip it out by the roots or blow it away with a shotgun. Habitat destruction has been the most common threat to endangered species in the U.S. since 1975. If the administration succeeds in redefining harm to exclude it, the Endangered Species Act won’t be able to effectively protect most endangered species. That much of the act’s power can be destroyed by tweaking its definition of one phrase reveals its central weakness. Preserving old-growth forest for a single owl species (to give a classic example) means the …

NSS to hold debate on ritual circumcision of boys

NSS to hold debate on ritual circumcision of boys

Published by skeptic

The National Secular Society will co-host a debate on the ritual circumcision of boys in central London next month. NSS council member Dr Antony Lempert and NSS human rights lead Dr Alejandro Sanchez will speak for the motion that boys should not be ritually circumcised. The debate will take place at St Bride’s Church in the City of London on June 3, from 7 to 9 PM. Tickets are available free of cost but advanced booking is required The NSS campaigns against all forms of ritual genital cutting of children. Ritual male circumcision is performed in some Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities. Unlike ritual genital cutting of girls (female genital mutilation, or FGM), ritual circumcision of boys is generally understood to be legal. Speaking against the motion are rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain OBE and Hifsa Haroon-Iqbal OBE, director of political engagement, media, and communication at the Association of British Muslims. The debate follows recent convictions relating to circumcision which have prompted increased scrutiny of the practice. In January, ex-doctor Mohammed Siddiqui was jailed for actual …

MPs debate Assisted Dying Bill as part of Report Stage

MPs debate Assisted Dying Bill as part of Report Stage

Published by skeptic

Today MPs debated the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill as part of Report Stage. They debated a series of amendments, and voted on two. Andrew Copson, Chief Executive for Humanists UK said: ‘We welcome today’s debate on assisted dying, with many eloquently standing up for compassion and dignity, emphasising that no-one should be compelled to endure unnecessary suffering at the end of life. We hope MPs remain committed to crafting a law that is robust and safe, yet deeply mindful of the experiences and dignity of those facing their final days.’ What happened today, in summary The changes to the Bill debated today were: ‘Obligations, duties and protections for medical practitioners, hospices and care homes; The procedure for receiving assistance under the Act including safeguards and protections; Eligibility and mental capacity.’ Amendment NC10 (widening opt-outs) was agreed to without a vote. Amendment (a) to NC10, which would essentially have allowed employers as a whole to opt their employees out regardless of the employees’ views, was defeated 279 to 243. MPs will return on …