All posts tagged: depends

Is the US economy doing well? It depends if you ask a Democrat or a Republican | Joe Biden

Is the US economy doing well? It depends if you ask a Democrat or a Republican | Joe Biden

Published by skeptic

When he delivered his State of the Union address in March, Joe Biden framed the state of the American economy as a true success story, pointing to the historically low unemployment rate and falling inflation as signs of the country’s robust recovery from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. “I inherited an economy that was on the brink. Now, our economy is literally the envy of the world,” the US president said. “And it takes time, but the American people are beginning to feel it.” As Biden frequently boasts, 15m jobs have been created since he took office, and the unemployment rate now stands at 4% after 41 consecutive months of job gains, following the longest stretch of sub-4% unemployment since the 1960s. Inflation has also cooled, after the annual consumer price index hit a peak of 9.1% in June 2022. Stock markets have hit new highs, with the Dow Jones industrial average passing 40,000 points for the first time ever. The International Monetary Fund predicted last month that the US economy was on …

Is Tesla’s reputation ruined? It depends on who you ask

Is Tesla’s reputation ruined? It depends on who you ask

Published by skeptic

Photo: Tesla Conversations around Tesla’s reputation leaned toward the negative throughout 2023, but it depends on who you’re talking to, reports YouGov. What’s the ‘Buzz’ about Tesla’s reputation? The global market research firm conducted polls about what it calls the “Buzz” around Tesla – that is, what people are hearing about the brand – and whether there’s been a change in the proportion of people considering driving its EVs following recalls and recent negative headlines. YouGov asked US adults about “Buzz” between January 2023 and April 2024: Over the past two weeks, which of the following brands have you heard something POSITIVE / NEGATIVE about (whether in the news, through advertising, or talking to friends and family)? Tesla’s Buzz scores stayed consistently negative through 2023 among YouGov’s “all US adults” category, with an average score of -7.1 in a score range of -20 to 90, and its scores dipped a bit further following the Autopilot ADAS recall in December. Tesla’s customer base had considerably higher Buzz scores in 2023, meaning they were more likely to …

‘If we don’t win, you know, it depends’

‘If we don’t win, you know, it depends’

Published by skeptic

Former President Donald Trump said in a new interview with Time magazine that he doesn’t think there will be political violence around the 2024 election because he believes he’ll win — but that it “always depends on the fairness of an election.” The comments came along with a statement that Trump would “consider” pardoning every person who has been charged or convicted for rioting at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after the then-president rallied his followers against what he has repeatedly and baselessly called a “rigged” election. Trump also answered questions digging into his campaign position on abortion policy being left up to the states — and deflecting questions pressing him on any potential federal action, including his position on whether abortion medication should be available. And Trump reinforced past statements he has made on Russia doing “whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries who don’t pay their “fair share” and the extent of a military crackdown he plans to order on illegal immigration. When Trump was asked in an initial interview about …

Biden tells Netanyahu US support in Gaza depends on civilian protection

Biden tells Netanyahu US support in Gaza depends on civilian protection

Published by skeptic

US President Joe Biden, left, pauses during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, to discuss the war between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 18, 2023. POOL / VIA REUTERS President Joe Biden told Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, April 4, that future US support for the Gaza in war depends on new steps to protect civilians and aid workers. Biden and Netanyahu spoke by phone days after Israeli airstrikes killed seven food aid workers in Gaza and added a new layer of complication in the leaders’ increasingly strained relationship. “He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers,” the White House said in a statement following the leaders’ call. “He made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.” Biden’s tougher tone in the call reflected mounting “frustration” that Israel is not …

Can We Trust Large Language Models? Depends on How Truthful They Are

Can We Trust Large Language Models? Depends on How Truthful They Are

Published by skeptic

The trust we put in Large Language Models (LLMs) ought to depend on their truthfulness. So how truthful are LLMs? For many routine queries, they seem accurate enough. What’s the capital of North Dakota? To this query, ChatGPT4 just now gave me the answer Bismarck. That’s right. But what about less routine queries? Recently I was exploring the use of design inferences to detect plagiarism and data falsification. Some big academic misconduct cases had in the last 12 months gotten widespread public attention, not least the plagiarism scandal of Harvard president Claudine Gay and the data falsification scandal of Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne. These scandals were so damaging to these individuals and their institutions that neither is a university president any longer.  When I queried ChatGPT4 to produce 25 cases of academic research misconduct since 2000 (as part of my project to understand how design inferences might help preserve academic integrity), seven of those accused of academic misconduct either were plainly innocent or could not reasonably be charged with misconduct for lack of evidence. In one case, the person charged …

Is Britain doomed to terminal decline? It all depends on how you feel

Is Britain doomed to terminal decline? It all depends on how you feel

Published by skeptic

A Labour government will need to be robust, honest and busy. Its challenges are too numerous to list (24 per cent satisfaction in the NHS anyone?), but it must provide evidence that change is possible and happening. Hope is an elusive quality but just generating some is half the battle. There’s a tendency in the British psyche to accept decline as natural, that yesterday was always better. We’re a tough crowd. During the financial crisis of 2008, Britain’s other great modern satirist, Nigel Blackwell of the band Half Man Half Biscuit, released the song National Shite Day, a six-minute excoriation of just how awful life can seem here. It’s our default setting in hard times, and it’s always hard times for someone somewhere. Source link

China’s Rush to Dominate A.I. Comes With a Twist: It Depends on U.S. Technology

China’s Rush to Dominate A.I. Comes With a Twist: It Depends on U.S. Technology

Published by skeptic

In November, a year after ChatGPT’s release, a relatively unknown Chinese start-up leaped to the top of a leaderboard that judged the abilities of open-source artificial intelligence systems. The Chinese firm, 01.AI, was only eight months old but had deep-pocketed backers and a $1 billion valuation and was founded by a well-known investor and technologist, Kai-Fu Lee. In interviews, Mr. Lee presented his A.I. system as an alternative to options like Meta’s generative A.I. model, called LLaMA. There was just one twist: Some of the technology in 01.AI’s system came from LLaMA. Mr. Lee’s start-up then built on Meta’s technology, training its system with new data to make it more powerful. The situation is emblematic of a reality that many in China openly admit. Even as the country races to build generative A.I., Chinese companies are relying almost entirely on underlying systems from the United States. China now lags the United States in generative A.I. by at least a year and may be falling further behind, according to more than a dozen tech industry insiders …

Can Ukraine still win? Why the outcome of the war depends on ammunition

Can Ukraine still win? Why the outcome of the war depends on ammunition

Published by skeptic

After two years of conflict and constant Russian bombardment, the war in Ukraine has reached a near-standstill. Both armies have been stuck in trench warfare for most of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. This is what’s known as a “tactical stalemate”: Neither side has enough soldiers, weapons or ammunition to gain the upper hand. The West is struggling to continue supplying Ukraine with the equipment that is necessary now that artillery exchanges have become the most common method of fighting, in particular with 155 mm artillery shells. Faced with stalling support, Ukraine must find an alternative. 2024 is a year that promises to be decisive in the outcome of the war. List of open sources used in this investigation Thomas Eydoux, Mahé Richard-Schmidt, Elisa Bellanger, Le Monde’s video desk and Sinead McCausland Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version. Source link

Ontario’s economic growth depends on Long-Duration Energy Storage

Ontario’s economic growth depends on Long-Duration Energy Storage

Published by skeptic

Justin Rangooni, Executive Director of Energy Storage Canada, discusses Long-Duration Energy Storage, and how it is a necessity for a sustainable future that not only has the technology to create it, but the energy to power it. After years of consistency, in the next three decades, Ontario’s energy sector and its electricity grid are expected to undergo a substantial transformation, which, of course, leaves a lot of room for innovation. While all types and technologies of energy storage are seeing substantial innovation in their composition and application, long-duration energy storage (LDES) is perhaps seeing more than others because there are far fewer instances of LDES assets having been deployed or connected to major grids, apart from pumped hydro. LDES for the future Yet, long-duration storage technologies are poised to be one of the critical technologies supporting the changes to Ontario’s grid as the province, like many regions, prepares to secure two or three times its current generating capacity and meet its ambitious decarbonisation goals. Changing the blend of resources supplying energy to the province, with …

Art Philanthropy in the US Depends on Prestige

Art Philanthropy in the US Depends on Prestige

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) entrance façade in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City. Via Wikipedia   Art philanthropy in the US relies on the prestigious reputation of artistic institutions, Northeastern study shows. Since time immemorial, wealthy people and organizations remain known to support artistic endeavors. Also, the vast majority of American institutions of modern art still rely on donations from the private sector.   Art Philanthropy as Excessively Localized Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.   In 2018, the New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that it received over $250 million in charitable contributions. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts also announced that it gathered more than $60 million in donations. This constitutes about half of each institution’s overall income. Most art institutions have tight financial constraints.   The annual budgets of art museums get a meagre 15% of funding from government subsidies. Using its network science resources, Northeastern’s Centre for Complex Network Research created a comprehensive quantitative image of charitable art support. The goal was to …