Michelle Ma

We talk about the evolution of #AI @CadeMetz, technology correspondent at @the-new-york-times on the latest episode of "Night Owls."  https://lnkd.in/eJc-VWW4  Cade wrote a great book on the subject, called "Genius Makers." https://lnkd.in/eUZPtrbe It is well worth reading and very readable.

8

Interesting how chat preservation continues to come up in the context of government investigations. This time #TikTok is in the crosshairs, with 22 state attorneys general asking a Tennessee court to order the company to preserve and produce relevant evidence in a multi-state investigation into harm to youth mental health. The states say TikTok destroyed internal messages and chat logs, as well as communications records from the enterprise collaboration platform Lark (developed by TiktTok parent ByteDance). 💡 Lark is the "primary method by which TikTok employees communicate internally about substantive business topics related to the platform and its features, including matters related to the states' consumer protection investigation," the AGs' filing says. 🚩 The Lark chats are a "critical window into the candid thought processes, intentions, and observations of those responsible for designing, managing, and operating the features on TikTok's platform, which cause the mental health harm to our children and teens that are the focus of this investigation." 💡 The AGs believe that evidence related to the Lark chats were "purposely lost" and that "substantive communications were made on Lark that the States will never see, to the detriment of their investigations and any further necessary action." Read the filing here: https://lnkd.in/g6ArSefi Law.com

13

2 Comments

Oof. This chart really tells the story of the collapse of online news distribution over the past two years. From this story: https://lnkd.in/gEkAAhQ3

18

2 Comments

This inaugural discussion of the “Democracy in an Age of Uncertainty” series freatured special guests Nikole Hannah-Jones, Camille François, and Piotr Smolar. Moderated by Steve Clemons. #Disinformation, facilitated by #AI, is polarizing public opinion, promoting violent extremism and hate speech and, ultimately, undermining our democracies and diminishing trust in our electoral and judicial systems. How can we measure the threat of fake news and what tools do we have to offset its corrosive effects? How can we adjust our behaviors and mindset –– both as individuals and as a society –– to temper its destruction? DC Public Library Villa Albertine BLUM-KOVLER AND KOVLER FAMILY FOUNDATION https://lnkd.in/ecEDq8Pn

5

How did the single-family house and white picket fence become the defining image of the American dream? In my latest piece for the "Ideas" column at The New York Times, I explore this question, and how rising housing costs have forced younger generations to redefine the American dream for themselves. When the concept of the American dream first emerged, it was meant to be an ideal for people to mold into whatever fit their lives. In 1931, the author James Truslow Adams published his best-selling history of the nation “The Epic of America.” On page 404, he described the “American dream” as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.” Over time, it became a more rigid model, cementing homeownership at its core. Now, young Americans have been forced into a turning point for the American dream, one that might not have a house in it at all. For the last month, I’ve been speaking with millennials and zoomers across the country to learn how they think about the American dream. My survey was nonscientific, but it dovetailed with recent polling: Many of the people I spoke with expressed how today’s exorbitantly high prices have made homeownership feel unattainable, and that in such an uncertain world — plagued by pandemics, political turmoil, war, climate change and other disasters — it felt foolish to pinch pennies for the goal of one day buying property. Instead, many young people are placing more value on community and family, growing their wealth in other ways, or spending more on everyday pleasures. https://lnkd.in/eRvWva6C

21

1 Comment

Teaching robots to navigate new environments is tough. You can train them on physical, real-world data taken from recordings made by humans, but that’s scarce and expensive to collect. Digital simulations are a rapid, scalable way to teach them to do new things, but the robots often fail when they’re pulled out of virtual worlds and asked to do the same tasks in the real one. Now there’s a potentially better option: a new system caled LucidSim that uses generative AI models in conjunction with a physics simulator to develop virtual training grounds that more accurately mirror the physical world. A four-legged robot dog trained using this method achieved a higher success rate in real-world tests than those trained using more traditional techniques. New from me for MIT Technology Review 🤖 🐶 https://lnkd.in/ekmB9hvb

14

1 Comment

There's a lot of excitement in San Francisco about artificial intelligence. There are numerous startups, plenty of money flowing into the sector and hopes the technology will lead to The City's next big tech boom and help revive its depressed downtown. But AI isn't an unalloyed good. Ever bigger AI models are requiring increasing amounts of energy to train and use — and releasing larger and larger amounts of carbon dioxide in the process. Those amounts can add up to quite a lot. Training GPT-4, OpenAI's latest model, could have resulted in the same amount of carbon emissions as 83 roundtrip flights from San Francisco to New York. I spoke with some leading researchers and looked at an assortment of scientific literature to get a sense of how much energy AI is requiring, how much greenhouse gas emissions it's generating — and whether we should expect the growth of either to slow down anytime soon.

15

3 Comments

🗞 In this week's Prima Facie newsletter for Capital Brief I've covered a topic that's been bubbling away in my brain for a few months now: NDAs. 📖 Initially brought to my attention via research Regina Featherstone and Sharmilla Bargon in March, this is becoming an increasing area of debate and scrutiny. Plus: 💰 Litera has some new research on tech and billing in the legal industry. I spoke with Litera APAC lead Stefan Steenveld about why Australia lags behind US and UK counterparts in technology adoption, relying more heavily on hiring freezes or reducing head counts than US or UK firms when adapting to the economic climate. And: ⚖ Judgment day is coming in the ACCC v Delta Building Automation attempted bid-rigging lawsuit linked to National Gallery of Australia. https://lnkd.in/gJnKAP8P Until next Thursday! #nondisclosureagreements #bidrigging #competitionlaw #legalaffairs

27

Latest strategy in fighting election skepticism: Radical transparency 
Many jurisdictions now monitor election equipment with GPS trackers, video-record ballot counting and open their headquarters for tours.

4

You’ve probably seen a lot of headlines pointing out that red states outpace blue states with clean tech growth — including here at Cipher! — so we set out to dig deeper to determine the “why” behind this trend by interviewing renewable energy developers, lawyers, economists and analysts involved in the U.S. energy transition. The answer lies in a mix of natural resources and regulatory policies that give these states “the competitive edge,” especially when IRA credits are factored in, said Peter Gardett, head of research at Karbone, a New York-based firm specializing in decarbonization and renewable markets. In other words, development goes where the economics make sense — even if the politics don’t. Read more from Amena H. Saiyid in Cipher News:

49

6 Comments

Promotions are slowing down. New for Bloomberg News with my colleagues Daniel Neligh and Ella Cerón: Among 68 million white-collar professionals, just 1.3% were promoted in the first three months of the year, the lowest rate in five years, according to an exclusive analysis conducted for us by Live Data Technologies. As the labor market has softened, the balance of power has shifted back to employers, who are under less pressure to hand out promotions in order to hold onto workers. Slowing promotions also helps companies control costs. Demisha Jennings, a career coach I talked to, has seen the shift firsthand among her clients. While promotions a few years ago came easily for some based on tenure, workers nowadays have to carefully document their impact. “It’s a lot harder, you really have to fight for it now,” she said. But a slower approach comes with risk: Companies that delay promotions for top performers could demoralize their strongest contributors — and, in some cases, lose them to competitors. https://lnkd.in/eTJZNsZT #career #promotion #raise #labormarket #costcutting #hiring #hr

33

1 Comment

Congestion pricing was supposed to start today in New York City. It didn't after Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this month announced an indefinite pause. My latest article in The Wall Street Journal traces the rise and pause of congestion pricing — a tale that involves 17 years and around $700 million. The abrupt reversal, which some attribute to Hochul’s reluctance to impose a new fee in an election year, leaves metro New York grappling with a historic missed opportunity and fiscal mess. There is no relief in sight for the city’s traffic congestion, which is the worst in the world, according to data published last week. The epic collapse in New York shows how a fear of dramatic change can give the status quo stubborn power over those trying to solve some of America’s most intractable challenges. That leaves policymakers nibbling at the edges of deeply rooted problems, even after investing huge sums of money and political capital. Blown up in a New York minute were plans for around $15 billion of planned improvements to the city’s ailing mass-transit system, the largest transportation network in North America. The reversal cast aside around $700 million in meticulous prep work, including a $555-million contract to install tolling cameras—which are already up and ready to go—and $33 million for a customer-service center with 100 employees who have already been brought on, officials said. Planners invested thousands of hours, including going to London and Stockholm to research their congestion-pricing programs, according to people familiar with the travel. What was supposed to be a transformative moment when New York led the way and boldly tackled traffic congestion, air pollution and transit funding, has instead turned into a surprising loss for a broad coalition that includes major employers, real-estate developers and subway riders. Surprised by the reversal were Hochul’s own lieutenants, including Janno Lieber, a fierce champion of congestion pricing and the chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The MTA—which carries around 5.5 million passengers each day in the New York metro area—now faces a $16.5 billion-financial hole from the loss of money from congestion pricing and federal matching funds. Just days after Hochul’s announcement, a beleaguered Lieber joined a conference call with advocates in which he said he was equally shocked and remained committed to the program, three people familiar with the exchange said. “This is devastating,” he said, according to a person on the call. Here's the latest from me and Joseph De Avila —>

29

2 Comments

Tim and I wrote about "Country Platforms" -- a concept that's very popular these days as a fix for climate and EMDE finance more broadly, but somewhat tricky to pin down. It's not meaningless; there is fairly broad agreement on the components; but those components are not necessarily aligned and can easily be in conflict. Unsurprisingly, different actors are understandably emphasising different elements: - Private finance likes the "one stop shop" kind of idea; - IFIs like the coordination and perhaps a more systems-oriented approach; - Global South governments like the prospect of a more sovereign vision of climate and development finance. While these aspirations are coherent in theory, they aren't necessarily mutually reinforcing. For example: the IMF and World Bank are keen on coordinating on policy reform -- what might that mean for sovereignty? #climatefinance #adaptation #developmentfinance #imf #worldbank https://lnkd.in/eRujD-_m Thanks to Sarah Colenbrander and colleagues who have done some solid work on this.

23

1 Comment

I’ve just passed the 6-month mark at my new gig at Sherwood News and I am just blown away by the work I have gotten to contribute to as an editor. A small sample of my favorites from our reporters: Jon Keegan (fresh out today!) dives into what the investment arm of the CIA is putting its cash into: https://lnkd.in/et7E9ujB J. Edward Moreno has done an incredible series on America’s grocery stores. My only real contribution was moral support and pushing through a “big format” to showcase the maps he worked so hard on, but I love this series too much not to mention it: https://lnkd.in/eB67ekEz https://lnkd.in/eC34guXe Working with Jack Raines on Weird Money is a blast, but this piece from May on Planet Fitness and its unfit business model remains a fave: https://lnkd.in/epwYnuDc Matt Phillips writes smart stuff about the markets on the daily, but love that he stepped out of his usual lane to write about North Koreans sneakily working American tech jobs: https://lnkd.in/e3WPm78w Who knew? And of course, Rani Molla’s dive on Tesla’s unsold inventory you can see from space is already a classic: https://lnkd.in/e6JW7Kyy Also love working with some super talented freelancers. A few favorites: Patrick Sisson on How Americans are so thirsty for electrolytes (it’s what we crave): https://lnkd.in/eRcJy5P5 Megan DeMatteo went to Finland, the supposedly happiest country and wondered why everyone seemed... less than happy there. This piece dug into those happiness reports and I got to learn how to make pretty charts for it: https://lnkd.in/edyrxW_m Jeremy Greenfield’s solid arguments to use for why your parents should buy you a house: https://lnkd.in/eaYGtr83 And finally, Amanda Clayman’s first advice column gave some ideas on how one woman (and all of us, let’s be real) could stop spending so much money on junk: https://lnkd.in/e3_TpcxX Next edition coming next week! Speaking of which, we are open to both questions for Amanda (advice @ sherwood.news) and pitches (pitches @ sherwood.news), or you can pitch me directly, I’m especially looking for interesting crypto and personal finance ideas. This barely scratches the surface of the good journalism the team is doing and I’m so grateful to be a part of it.

68

6 Comments

Liars beware, I am now Intermediate at Digital Investigation Techniques according to AFP and Google News Initiative. This course focused on tracking election disinformation and verifying climate claims. It was interesting to see how the course's tools could be used to examine past/current elections.

30

1 Comment

The Democratic Party just approved its official 2024 platform, a ninety-one-page document that includes pledges to combat the climate crisis, reduce pollution, and advance clean energy. But it fails to mention any commitment to tackle an obstacle that a growing number of Democrats at the federal, state, and local levels have in recent years sought to address head on: the fossil fuel industry’s ongoing campaigns to deceive the American people about their products’ harm and obstruct meaningful climate action. While oil industry disinformation goes unmentioned in the Democrats’ platform, it appears to have continued around — and at — the DNC itself. On Wed, DNC member RL Miller and climate activists disrupted an Exxon-sponsored panel that included the company's senior director of climate strategy and technology. In 2019, Kamala Harris told Mother Jones that the U.S. DOJ should “absolutely” investigate the industry. If she wins the election, expect renewed calls for the nation’s top law enforcement agency to do just that. More: https://lnkd.in/grUD_84z

28

20 Comments

Dipped into international climate finance with Somini Sengupta: https://lnkd.in/ehkctani

18

I wrote about the new version of ChatGPT's voice assistant, GPT-4o, which can talk, laugh, interpret emotions and even sing. It's clearly modeled on Samantha from "Her," and it means that we are leaving the era of the dry, impersonal AI helper, and entering into much stranger territory. How will society change when AI voices can convince us they're human? Will we fall for our AI assistants, as Theodore does for Samantha? Or will other companies' more detached, less emotional chatbots carry the day? I wrote about the possibilities in The New York Times.

176

18 Comments

With the US election now over, there are a host of outlets out there speculating about what the result means for the world. For our corporate governance and securities space, here are my five quick takes about what the new administration might mean #corpgov https://lnkd.in/eaZuEqbB

7