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Parmy Olson: Don’t believe your lying eyes in the AI era

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:08:15 GMT

A fake photo of an explosion near the Pentagon went viral across Twitter on Monday, and stocks dipped. The incident confirmed what many have said for months: Misinformation is on course to be supercharged as new AI tools for concocting photos get easier to use.Fixing this problem with technology will be an endless game of whack-a-mole. It’s certainly worth trying to track image provenance, as Adobe Inc. is doing with its Content Authenticity Initiative. But as the saying goes, a lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is still lacing up its boots. In a world where more content than ever is being generated artificially, we’ll all need to become more skeptical about what we see online — especially in the run-up to a U.S. presidential election next year.The Pentagon “photo” became particularly messy because of Twitter’s poor excuse for a verification system. Elon Musk revamped the site’s blue ticks so that they would no l...

Other voices: Immigration can help solve the nursing shortage

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:08:15 GMT

The U.S. nursing workforce is shedding workers. About 100,000 nurses quit or retired during the pandemic, while another 800,000 have signaled an “intent to leave” by 2027. And yet, the country is failing to tap an available group of qualified health-care workers: immigrants. While there’s no single fix for the U.S.’s nursing shortage, a more efficient system to bring in foreign-trained professionals would go a long way toward easing it.Immigrants comprise about 16% of registered nurses and have been a crucial part of the health-care workforce for decades. Even so, the U.S. lacks a dedicated pathway for foreign-trained nurses to work in the country. Most come through the employment-based immigration system, which is capped at 140,000 green cards per year for all applicants and their family members. Of that number, roughly 40,000 are allocated to “skilled workers, professionals and other workers,” a category that includes nurses. Because most of tho...

Post-it power: Lake Elmo teacher lifts student with supportive messages

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:08:15 GMT

With Finn Helwig, 10, at her side, fourth-grade teacher Pam Mohs goes over a civics project with students at Lake Elmo Elementary School on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)When Maggie Helwig opened her youngest son’s locker at Lake Elmo Elementary School, she didn’t know what to expect.Maybe a forgotten homework assignment, candy wrappers, a collection of Tupperware containers or “a bunch of garbage and old food,” she said.Instead, the locker was papered with a collection of colorful Post-it note messages that her son Finn, 10, has received from his fourth-grade teacher, Pam Mohs.The colorful notes, which Finn had stuck to the sides, back and roof of the locker, are handwritten messages of love and support for Finn, who has struggled in school since kindergarten, Helwig said.“Great job in reading yesterday!” read one. “You worked hard on Friday afternoon!” read another.“I didn’t even know this was happening,” Helwig said. “He never mentioned it. I cr...

Eileen Bjorkman: Flight canceled? Stuck on the tarmac? Here’s a solution: more women in aviation

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:08:15 GMT

The aviation industry has a problem. A shortage of airline pilots is causing a “constraint on capacity,” which translates to canceled flights and delays for travelers — especially on smaller airlines. There’s more: In early April, the FAA warned that a shortage of air traffic controllers is expected to gum up travel this summer, especially in the Northeast. And according to one industry observer, the lack of maintenance personnel in aviation is reaching crisis levels.Aviation’s capacity woes underline a massive industry blind spot: Women remain largely grounded. Women make up less than 20% of those employed in all aviation jobs in the U.S., a figure that skews that high only because so many flight attendants and customer service agents are women. Only 4.6% of airline pilots are women, and aviation mechanics fare even worse, at 2.6%.The low pilot numbers are especially discouraging compared with women’s progress in other professional fields. In 202...

Theodore Kim: Can today’s AI truly learn on its own? Not likely

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:08:15 GMT

One of the boldest, most breathless claims being made about artificial intelligence tools is that they have “emergent properties” — impressive abilities gained by these programs that they were supposedly never trained to possess. “60 Minutes,” for example, reported credulously that a Google program taught itself to speak Bengali, while the New York Times misleadingly defined “emergent behavior” in AI as language models gaining “unexpected or unintended abilities” such as writing computer code.This misappropriation of the term “emergent” by AI researchers and boosters deploys language from biology and physics to imply that these programs are uncovering new scientific principles adjacent to basic questions about consciousness — that AIs are showing signs of life. However, as computational linguistics expert Emily Bender has pointed out, we’ve been giving AI too much credit since at least the 1960s. A new stu...

98.3 TRY Social Dilemma: Is It Okay to Power Wash Your House At 7 a.m. On Saturday?

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:08:15 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Today's 98.3 TRY Social Dilemma is about Saturday mornings. Here's the email I received. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! Hi Jaime, this is Corinne and I’m a longtime listener and think you and your listeners would be the perfect people to settle a debate my husband and I are having about when he should start a loud project this weekend. My husband is very gung-ho about power washing our house on Saturday and then putting together a giant gazebo on Sunday. Both projects will be loud and probably really annoying to our neighbors, who are old and grumpy from time to time. My husband wants to start 7am for both projects in hopes to be done by noon and have the rest of his day. I think he shouldn’t start until 9-9:30 to not disturb our neighbors on Memorial Day weekend. He said landscapers start at that time so why shouldn’t he be allowed to. I say just because the landscapers start at that time doesn’t ...

Saratoga Springs man accused of Caroline St. robbery

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:08:15 GMT

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- A Saratoga Springs man was arrested on Monday, May 15, after a robbery and alleged assault investigation. Jose Colon, 53, is charged with second-degree robbery. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! The Saratoga Springs Police Department says around 1 a.m. on Monday, May 15, patrol officers were stopped by civilians reporting they had witnessed an assault occur on Caroline Street. After speaking with witnesses, officers found the victim and were advised an assault and robbery had occurred. The victim was taken to Saratoga Hospital and was released following treatment. Police say after canvassing the area, they couldn't find the suspect, and the investigations division was called in to assist. Saratoga man arrested in robbery investigation During the investigation, police identified Jose Colon as the suspect. He was arrested and charged later that day.

Saratoga Springs man arrested in robbery investigation

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:08:15 GMT

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- A Saratoga Springs man was arrested on Tuesday following a robbery investigation. Juan Munguia, 34, faces multiple charges. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! The Saratoga Springs Police Department says they received a report of a robbery around 2:45 a.m. on Sunday, May 14, that took place in the area of Lake Avenue and Pavilion Row. Police say the suspect approached the victim from behind and forcibly took property, fleeing on a bike.Once police were notified, they weren't able to find the suspect. The Investigations Division was alerted and assisted in an investigation. Police say following an investigation, they identified Munguia as the suspect. Former teacher sentenced for sexual abuse Charges:Third-degree robberyFourth-degree grand larcenyMunguia was arrested on Tuesday and was held pending arraignment.

Ask Amy: Friendship is no “give” and all “take”

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:08:15 GMT

Dear Amy: My husband and I stumbled into an awesome friendship last year around the holidays, when we met “Chelsea.” (We are all middle-aged.)As the friendship progressed we traded gifts or small favors.Then we came to learn that Chelsea is still living at home with her aging parents, and while she works full time, she is always broke.She asked to send her Amazon packages to our home (claiming she lives in a high traffic area and doesn’t want them stolen), but we were uncomfortable after she did this more than once.We believe it’s largely due to trying to hide her purchases from her parents, as she obviously has out-of-control spending that led to her living with them in the first place.Recently her mother became ill, resulting in a lengthy hospital stay. Chelsea missed work.We were kind enough to wire funds to her for extra food or incidentals but then I saw her posting on Facebook about how broke she is and how she never gets the help she needs when she asks for it.She...

Greek opposition parties unable to form alliance, new election expected 25 June

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:08:15 GMT

Greece's main opposition parties rejected mandates to form a government coalition on Tuesday, setting up a second vote in June following an inconclusive 21 May vote.The leftist Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, and the socialist PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis returned to President Katerina Sakalaropoulou separate mandates that were offered separately.KyriakosMitsotakis had previously opted to not form a coalition. His New Democracy party, which won 40% of the vote on Sunday, was beaten by Syriza (20.1%). He has now pushed for another vote, in an attempt to achieve a majority.Tsipras claimed he was unable to form a coalition after many voters had turned away from Syriza’s radical anti-establishment, anti-establishment, style which had brought it to power in the turbulent years during the Greek debt crisis.Tsipras' Syriza, which ruled between 2015 and 2019, told reporters outside the presidential residence: "I don't have any reason to hide the fact that the election result was a painful s...