All posts tagged: expanding

how AI could assist humans in expanding access to global literature and culture

how AI could assist humans in expanding access to global literature and culture

Published by skeptic

News that Dutch publishing house Veen Bosch & Keuning (VBK) has confirmed plans to experiment using AI to translate fiction has stirred up a thought-provoking debate. Some believe it marks the beginning of the end for human translators, while others see this as the opening up of a new world of possibilities to bring more literature to even more people. These arguments are becoming increasingly vocal as the advance of AI accelerates at an ever-increasing rate. This debate interests me as my work examines the intersections of art, ethics, technology and culture, and I have published research in areas of emerging technologies, particularly in relation to human enhancement. Across every new technology, debate centres on what we stand to lose by embracing change and, with AI, this echoes the developments in the recent history of genetic science. But somehow, when we meddle with culture and human history, it can seem that something even more fundamental than DNA is at stake. Fiction translation, with its intricate language, emotional undertones and nuances, has traditionally been the domain …

Expanding Voting Rights After the Civil War

Expanding Voting Rights After the Civil War

Published by skeptic

  The American Civil War ended in the late spring of 1865 with a decisive Union military victory. Despite being defeated militarily, the former Confederacy made no effort to change its treatment of Black people. Slavery was formally eliminated with the Thirteenth Amendment, which all former Confederate states were made to ratify, but Southern states quickly implemented “Black Codes” to try to subjugate formerly enslaved people.   Setting the Stage: Slavery in the South An 1867 wood engraving of slaves laboring in a cotton field in the American South before the Civil War. Source: National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)   For the first eighty years of the American republic, slavery was a controversial institution. Primarily, slave states were in the South and provided agricultural labor. By the 1840s, the agrarian economy of the South relied heavily on slave labor. Tensions over slavery began to increase during this decade, influenced by the Second Great Awakening religious movement that opened many Americans’ eyes to the evils of forced bondage. This greatly expanded the abolition movement to …

China’s Xi Arrives in Hungary for Talks on Expanding Chinese Investments

China’s Xi Arrives in Hungary for Talks on Expanding Chinese Investments

Published by skeptic

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Hungary late Wednesday, the final stop on his five-day European tour, where he’s expected to finalize a number of agreements with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that will deepen China’s economic footprint in the region. Xi is set to spend two nights in the Hungarian capital Budapest where he will meet with Orbán and Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok. Talks will center on future Chinese investments in the Central European country, which has courted deep economic ties with Beijing even as mainstream European leaders have pursued more protectionist policies to limit its reach on the continent. Orbán, a nationalist populist whose illiberal policies have pushed him to the fringes of the European Union, made his country the first in the 27-member bloc to participate in Xi’s signature Belt and Road Initiative. Hungary has straddled a middle ground between its membership in the EU and NATO and a willingness to establish diplomatic and trade relationships with autocratic governments outside those groupings. Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, told a …

Houthis Warn Drone & Missile Attack Coverage Expanding To Mediterranean Sea

Houthis Warn Drone & Missile Attack Coverage Expanding To Mediterranean Sea

Published by skeptic

Yahya Saree, spokesperson for the Iranian-backed Houthi terror group, declared in a televised speech to supporters at a Friday rally in Al-Sabeen Square, Sana, that they intend to target Israel-linked ships in the eastern Mediterranean. The risk of conflict spilling over from the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden remains high.  “We will target any ship heading to Israeli ports in the Mediterranean, in any area we are able to reach,” Saree said.  Given that the eastern Mediterranean is 1,900 kilometers (1,180 miles) from Yemen, this may indicate that the conflict area is broadening, triggering a new escalation of the multi-month war.  Fernando Ferreira, energy analyst at Rapidan Energy Group, noted: “The Houthi nuisance continues, but they are at the limit of their ability to cause disruptions. The real risk of escalation comes from Israeli retaliation on IRGC officers/assets helping the Houthis.” This comes as Houthis have attacked dozens of Western and Israel-linked commercial vessels and military ships across the southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait, Gulf of Aden, and even the Strait of Hormuz since last November. The group claims these maritime attacks are in solidarity …

Expanding clergy sexual abuse probe targets New Orleans Catholic church leaders

Expanding clergy sexual abuse probe targets New Orleans Catholic church leaders

Published by Sam

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Authorities have expanded an investigation of clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans to include senior church officials suspected of shielding predatory priests for decades and failing to report their crimes to law enforcement. Louisiana State Police carried out a sweeping search warrant last week at the Archdiocese of New Orleans, seeking a long-secreted cache of church records and communications between local church leaders and the Vatican about the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse. The search signaled a new phase of the investigation that will seek to determine what particular church leaders, including Archbishop Gregory Aymond and his predecessors, knew about claims that the warrant describes as “ignored and in many cases covered up.” “The Archdiocese of New Orleans has been openly discussing the topic of sex abuse for over 20 years,” Bill Kearney, an archdiocese spokesman, said in a statement. “In keeping with this, we also are committed to working with law enforcement in these endeavors.” The warrant contained several new details about the sex-trafficking …

Amazon CodeWhisperer is now called Q Developer and is expanding its functions

Amazon CodeWhisperer is now called Q Developer and is expanding its functions

Published by skeptic

Pour one out for CodeWhisperer, Amazon’s AI-powered assistive coding tool. As of today, it’s kaput — sort of. CodeWhisperer is now Q Developer, a part of Amazon’s Q family of business-oriented generative AI chatbots that also extends to the newly-announced Q Business. Available through AWS, Q Developer helps with some of the tasks developers do in the course of their daily work, like debugging and upgrading apps, troubleshooting, and performing security scans — much like CodeWhisperer did. In an interview with TechCrunch, Doug Seven, GM and director of AI developer experiences at AWS, implied that CodeWhisperer was a bit of a branding fail. Third-party metrics reflect as much; even with a free tier, CodeWhisperer struggled to match the momentum of chief rival GitHub Copilot, which has over 1.8 million paying individual users and tens of thousands of corporate customers. (Poor early impressions surely didn’t help.) “CodeWhisperer is where we got started [with code generation], but we really wanted to have a brand — and name — that fit a wider set of use cases,” Seven …

Apple Considers Expanding Manufacturing Base to Indonesia

Apple Considers Expanding Manufacturing Base to Indonesia

Published by skeptic

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company is “looking at” potential manufacturing opportunities in Indonesia following his recent meeting with the country’s president. ‌Tim Cook‌ with Indonesian ministers (photo: AP Photo) During the meeting with Joko Widodo, Cook highlighted the mutual interest in boosting local manufacturing to support Indonesia’s economic growth. “We talked about the president’s desire to see manufacturing in the country, and it’s something that we will look out,” Cook later told reporters. Indonesia has been actively seeking to attract foreign manufacturing to power its economic development, with the Widodo administration pushing to become a new hub for international business. This offers new openings for Apple as it pursues its strategy to reduce reliance on Chinese manufacturing, which is mainly operated by its assembly partner Foxconn. Apple seeks to diversify its supply chain in the face of geopolitical tensions, economic slowdown, and other risks such as production disruptions caused by China’s COVID lockdowns. With production shifts already opened in Vietnam and India, Apple is exploring further expansion in Southeast Asia. “I think the …

No, the expanding Universe doesn’t break the speed of light

No, the expanding Universe doesn’t break the speed of light

Published by skeptic

In one of the most monumental discoveries of the 20th century, we learned that the Universe is not simply a static, unchanging background, but rather that space itself expands as time marches on. It’s as though the very fabric of the Universe itself is stretching so that distant objects get farther and farther apart. We see this phenomenon in all directions and in all locations in space when we look beyond the Local Group. And yet, nearly 100 years after it was all worked out, it’s still a puzzling, counterintuitive phenomenon, even for experts in astronomy and astrophysics. It’s only natural to wonder, if the Universe is expanding, how fast is the expansion of space? That’s what Darren Bobley wants to know, asking: “Hi! Would you kindly help me to understand how fast space is expanding compared to light – in lay terms? (That mega-parsec idea is too heady for me.) Is it roughly 2x the speed of light? 100x times? Etc.” It’s common, when we think about something expanding, to think in terms of …

Security in Eastern Congo Deteriorating, Rebel Group Expanding Territory

Security in Eastern Congo Deteriorating, Rebel Group Expanding Territory

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UNITED NATIONS —  Security in Congo’s mineral-rich east has deteriorated since recent elections, with a rebel group allegedly linked to neighboring Rwanda making “significant advances and expanding its territory,” the U.N. special envoy for the conflict-wracked African nation said Wednesday. Bintou Keita told the U.N. Security Council this has created “an even more disastrous humanitarian situation, with internal displacement reaching unparalleled numbers.” Last month, the United States told Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo that they “must walk back from the brink of war,” the sharpest warning yet of a looming conflict. U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood again condemned “the aggressive military incursion” into eastern Congo by the M23 rebel group and the Rwandan Defense Force and attacks including on U.N. peacekeepers. He called on the leaders of Rwanda and Congo “to make the decision to pursue peace — for the sake of their people, the region and the world.” Wood described M23 as “a group which has perpetrated appalling human rights abuses against civilians, including sexual and gender-based violence.” He called the international …

DeSantis signs bills expanding prison sentences for undocumented migrants | US immigration

DeSantis signs bills expanding prison sentences for undocumented migrants | US immigration

Published by skeptic

Florida’s governor signed bills Friday that increase the prison and jail sentences for immigrants who are living in the United States illegally if they are convicted of driving without a license or committing felonies. Ron DeSantis is a frequent critic of the Biden administration over its handling of the Mexican border, sending Florida law enforcement agents and national guard members to Texas. The Republican governor, who ended his attempt for his party’s presidential nomination last month, has also flown immigrants who entered Texas illegally to Massachusetts and California. “We do not tolerate illegal immigration, let alone lawlessness committed by illegal aliens who shouldn’t be here in the first place. The bills I signed [on Friday] further enhance Florida’s capabilities to uphold the law,” DeSantis said. The driver’s license bill increases the maximum sentence for anyone convicted of driving without a license twice or more from 60 days in jail to a year. This also applies to US citizens and immigrants in the country legally – but in Florida, undocumented people are barred from obtaining a …