During much of the last century, Ernst Mayr, at Harvard, was among the world’s most influential evolutionary biologists. One of his interests was whether intelligent life was present elsewhere in the universe.
Mayr argued that intelligence at or above the level of humans was not likely to increase the lifespan of a species, so the existence of similarly intelligent species on other planets was far from assured.
This would be true even if there were many planets in other solar systems with conditions allowing for life over the long time period required for such a species to evolve. Twenty years ago Noam Chomsky discussed Mayr’s work on the first page of his 2003 book, Hegemony or Survival.
Chomsky feared that the United States’ attempt to assert global dominance could easily end the existence of the human species, providing an example of self-extinction of a highly intelligent species. Self-extinction is clearly non-adaptive, and an intelligent species should avoid it at all costs.
A new artificial intelligence program can keep up with human beings on a number of professional and academic tests, according to its creator, which said the model scored among the top 10% of test-takers on a simulated bar exam.
Technology firm OpenAI unveiled its latest language model on Tuesday, dubbed GPT-4, saying the program is “more reliable, creative, and able to handle much more nuanced instructions” than its predecessor, GPT-3.5.
“GPT-4 is a large multimodal model (accepting image and text inputs, emitting text outputs) that, while less capable than humans in many real-world scenarios, exhibits human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks,” it said. “For example, it passes a simulated bar exam with a score around the top 10% of test takers; in contrast, GPT-3.5’s score was around the bottom 10%.”
The AI model also performed at the 93rd percentile on a SAT reading exam and at the 89th percentile on a SAT math test, the company added.
The GPT software has been embedded in a number of other apps, such as the language-learning program Duolingo, which is aiming to create conversational bots, as well as automated tutors for the online education company Khan Academy.
The model’s previous iteration, GPT-3.5, gained popularity in the form of the ChatGPT chatbot program, which is capable of holding complex, human-like conversations with users.
According to OpenAI, GPT-4 is its “most advanced system yet,” and unlike GPT-3.5 is able to process image prompts in addition to text. However, despite its improved capabilities, the company warned the new model is “not fully reliable” and still suffers from some glitches, including what it calls “hallucinations,” in which the AI simply fabricates information or generates erroneous answers.
The company partnered with Microsoft earlier this year, receiving a multibillion-dollar investment from the tech giant to further develop its AI models. The new GPT-4 program will play a major role in Microsoft’s Bing chatbot, which was unveiled on a limited basis earlier this year, and the company is expected to announce integration into other consumer products sometime in the coming weeks, according to the Financial Times.
On March 4th, four days before International Women’s Day, two women were found dead in the community of Piedra Ancha, Jamiltepec.
Another woman was found on March 6th in Santa Maria Atzompa and only a few hours later a young woman was murdered in Santa Maria Petapa.
The Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System, placed Oaxaca in its January 2023 report as the state that ranks first in Mexico with 12 femicides.
As of March 6th, Oaxaca has 28 femicides (between femicides and intentional homicides) so far in 2023, reported the Rosario Castellanos Women’s Studies Group (GESMujer).
In contrast, this year will be the fourth anniversary of the Gender Violence Alert Declaration against Women; that is to say that the violence not only has not decreased, it has worsened.
So far in 2023, there are 33 missing women according to the Search Unit for Missing and Unlocated Persons of the Oaxaca Attorney General’s Office.
Among them, , who disappeared on March 7th in the capital of Oaxaca.
“It is unfortunate that, more than three years after the issuance of the Alert for Gender Violence, the government of Oaxaca continues without mechanisms with immediate and coordinated measures between the various powers and levels of government to face the seriousness of the situation of violence. against women”, the Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equity stated.
For the feminist Angelica Ayala Ortiz, president of GESMujer, Oaxaca is at “a critical moment” by having this first place for femicides nationwide in a country where more than ten women are murdered every day between femicides and intentional homicides.
“Disgraceful, pitiful and outrageous first place. Unfortunately, Oaxaca has 98% to 100% impunity in cases of femicide, this sends a bad sign that the attacker is not punished”, she lamented.
This March 8th, International Women’s Day, a green and purple tide spread through the streets of communities and cities in Oaxaca, to demand an end to femicides, disappearances of women, gender violence and to demand justice and security given the state of impunity.
“We are tired and fed up with what they want to impose on us, that they curtail our freedoms, rights and our lives, we all come together today because fear and impotence become small in the face of courage”, said a woman at the demonstration in the capital of Oaxaca.
They also accused the complicity that has existed between the last three prosecutors of the entity, Ruben Vasconcelos, Arturo Peimbert and the newcomer Bernardo Rodriguez Alamilla, which has left the victims of femicide violence in impunity.
Two U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress aircraft from the 23rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron integrated with NATO Allies in eastern Europe, Mar. 9, 2023.
The bombers, who are forward deployed to Moron Air Base, Spain, for a Bomber Task Force deployment, flew down the Mediterranean as they proceeded to Bulgaria for an integration with Bulgarian Armed Forces strengthening NATO posture in Eastern Europe.
The aircraft then flew into Romania taking part into a NATO exercise.
“Bomber Task Force missions highlight U.S. capabilities and commitment to work closely with our allies and partners,” said Maj. Douglas Hulsey, Bomber Task Force planner. “Working together with our NATO counterparts allows us to optimize our combined capabilities while deterring aggression against NATO.”
Upon conclusion of the NATO exercise in Romania, the…
March 15th will be important for stepping up industrial action. On February 1st workers from different jobs and industries came out on strike together. This time the number of different sectors taking action has increased.
Teachers at schools, sixth forms and colleges are already on strike, as are junior doctors.133,000 civil servants are due to strike, as are London Underground workers. Amazon workers will also be striking on the day.
However, union bureaucrats are continuing to sabotage struggle. Postal workers won’t be coming out on March 15th and neither will most rail workers. Neither will nurses and ambulance workers. The nurses’ union, the RCN , called off strikes as did UNISON representing various hospital workers.
The RCN called off strikes in Wales at the beginning of February over a ballot to accept a 6.5 pay deal, well below inflation, plus a lump sum while in England strikes were called off without even a pay offer. In Scotland a deal for a below inflation pay offer of 7.5% was agreed for 2022, with a 6.5% offer for the current year being pushed by the RCN leadership.
Strikes Update: How Wednesday 15 March’s strikes affect you .. Up to 150,000 civil servants, working across more than 100 government departments and agencies, will be on strike. Members of the Public and Commercial Services and Prospect unions are taking…
The Unison, GMB and Unite unions stopped strikes by ambulance workers on March 5th, and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy halted strikes of 64,000 physiotherapists and support workers.
This shows that what we in the ACG have been saying all along is proving to be true. Union bureaucrats are halting strikes whilst they negotiate below inflation deals. This has seriously affected strikes by health workers and transport workers and education workers in Scotland. The education workers union the NEU stopped strike action in Wales and called for acceptance of a below inflation 11.8% pay offer.
Border Force workers represented by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union will strike on March 15. Border Force is the UK’s border control service; the strike will impact international arrivals at all UK ports, as well as those in Calais, Dunkirk, and Coquelles in France.
This shows that what we in the ACG have been saying all along is proving to be true. Union bureaucrats are halting strikes whilst they negotiate below inflation deals. Even more reason to develop organisation at a grassroots level, to create strike committees and establish joint liaisons between workers in different sectors in order to take control of the struggles.
Thousands more UK civil servants to join March 15 strikeFeb 28, 2023 — Around 33000 more civil servants in Britain, including those working for the tax office, have voted to stage a strike on March 15 …
‘This is a such a helpful news story from Izvestia reporters, published today, which I have taken the liberty of copying here in the English translation‘they give the lie to reports of how Russia is stagnated and pinned down in Ukraine. The forces fighting in that region for Russia are not in any way stagnated, dispirited or poorly supported....Not Something Else
Russian troops are increasing the pace of their offensive in the Donbas. Marines of the Pacific Fleet are moving forward in the area of Ugledar, Izvestia correspondents report.
They visited the line of contact and saw groups of snipers clearing the way for Black Beret assault squads. Nearby Marinka and Avdiivka continue to be hit as well.
Our troops are conducting active attacks along the line of contact to pull the enemy forces away from Artemivsk (Bakhmut), where the phase of decisive battles begins, experts explain.
‘In the Yuzhnodonetsky and Zaporizhia directions, aircraft and artillery of the Vostok group of troops defeated enemy units in the area of Ugledar in the DPR, Poltavka, Gulyai-Pole and Shcherbakov in the Zaporizhia region.
During the day, up to 60 militants, two pickup trucks, as well as D-20 and D-30 howitzers were destroyed here, the Russian Defense Ministry said’.
According to some reports, the Ukrainian forces have concentrated a group of up to 15-20 thousand people for a deblocking strike on Artemivsk (Bakhmut).
Soon, the sniper and his assistants take up a firing position in an abandoned house. The group takes the first shots, but it is necessary to quickly relocate — the place where the sniper was lying is already illuminated and it can be covered by artillery or mortars at any time.
After 20,000 elections were simulated, the program calculated that your vote only mattered in 41 of those elections: 0.205% of the time! To put that into perspective, imagine you live in a country where presidential elections are carried out every 4 years, always between two candidates with equal chances of winning. Let us also imagine […]
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