On the final Friday of every month I curate among the observations and insights that have been shared on social media. I name these Friday’s Finds.
The 4 Lessons of Navy Officers (Or Workplace Employees): Intelligent, Diligent, Silly and Lazy
Intelligent and Lazy: Whereas most senior leaders will deny this classification, it applies effectively, and never only for the explanations cited by Hammerstein-Equord. These are the leaders who’ve the breadth of expertise and depth of knowledge to ask the fitting questions, see the long run for what it’s, and make the fitting selections underneath the best duress. They’re additionally famend for locating the only options to probably the most tough issues, and that drives lots of people loopy.
AI is Coming for Canada’s Democracy
When AI can generate 1000’s of convincing feedback, flood public consultations with pretend enter, or make it almost inconceivable to inform actual information from fabricated tales, the foundations of democratic participation begin to crack … The issue goes even deeper. AI is changing into subtle sufficient to seek out loopholes in legal guidelines and rules — exploiting gaps that have been by no means meant to exist. And it could possibly generate a flood of plausible false content material, making it more durable for voters and governments to inform what’s actual, and what isn’t … A model of the Web dominated by bots and artificial content material is coming quick — that’s already underway. However it doesn’t must imply the tip of significant democratic participation. Canada can nonetheless construct digital programs that maintain actual folks on the heart — if we begin now.
Each Information Centre Is a US Navy Base
For 3 many years, the purpose of tech growth has been to not enhance our lives or to serve the general public good, however fairly to maximise shareholder worth and to extend the ability of the businesses that management it.
It’s that nature of digital expertise that’s on the root of so most of the social harms the tech oligopoly has saddled us with lately. We have to acknowledge that was a selection, and we will select to take a unique path.
However we should additionally concentrate on the pitfalls forward. Some Canadian tech executives who, till just lately, have been pushing for a Conservative authorities are embracing a program of digital sovereignty as effectively, however it’s explicitly not one which centres the general public good.
Huge photo voltaic farms might provoke rainclouds within the desert
The mannequin confirmed that moist, high-altitude winds from the Persian Gulf would suffice. When situations have been ripe, the mannequin discovered, a 20-square-kilometer photo voltaic discipline would improve rainfall by almost 600,000 cubic meters—equal to 1 centimeter of rain falling throughout an space the scale of Manhattan. If such rainstorms occurred 10 occasions in a single summer season, they would offer sufficient water to help greater than 30,000 folks for a yr.
“The usage of ‘hallucinate’ is a stroke of true evil genius within the AI world. In ANY different context we’d simply name them errors & the fail price can be crystal clear. As an alternative, ‘hallucinate’ implies real sentience & the *absence* of actual error. Aw, this software program isn’t shit! Boo’s simply dreaming!” —@CatValente
IEEFA: The misguided stampede to construct gasoline energy crops
Rising LNG exports will result in extra worth volatility within the U.S. and in addition might result in persistent and long-term will increase in pure gasoline prices, a double whammy for customers. The worth of recent combined-cycle gasoline crops is roughly triple the price of tasks constructed within the early 2020s, and orders positioned now doubtless won’t be fulfilled till 2030, or later. The prices of wind and photo voltaic, paired with dispatchable battery storage, should not monitoring the fast climb of gasoline costs; {hardware} is available; and so they don’t have any gas prices.
“The Authorities of Spain won’t applaud those that set the world on fireplace, simply because they present up with a bucket of water.” —Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, through @RandahlFink
