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Larry Magid: AI has risks but can also make us safer

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:49 GMT

We’re hearing a lot about the dangers of generative AI like ChatGPT, the new Microsoft Bing and Google Bard. For example, Geoffrey Hinton, who is often referred to as the “godfather of AI,” recently quit his job at Google so he could speak freely about the risks of AI being developed by Google and other companies.Related ArticlesBusiness | Larry Magid: Google unveils new devices while focusing on AI Business | Larry Magid: Voice cloning makes virtual kidnapping more convincing Business | The caller said he’d kidnapped my wife. Here’s what I did wrong then. Business | Magid: Teens can now use Meta Horizon Worlds He told PBS News Hour that he worries about “the risk of super intelligent AI taking over control from people.” Numerous tech experts, including Elon Musk, have called for a pause in the development of powerful generative AI models while we explore their risks and ways to make them safer.There’s...

Dodgers un-invite SF drag group from pride event, appearing to bow to conservative pressure

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:49 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Long-running San Francisco drag group that dress as nuns have been un-invited from appearing at the Los Angeles Dodgers pride event next month. The group, which has been performing and making appearances since 1979, was due to appear at the Dodgers' 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night on June 16.However, in a tweet Wednesday, the Dodgers announced that the Sisters would no longer be invited due to unspecified "controversy." San Francisco is naming the nation’s first drag laureate "We are now aware that our inclusion of one group in particular -- The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence -- in this year's Pride Night has been the source of some controversy," the tweet read. "Given the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the sisters' inclusion in our evening, and in an effort not to distract from the great benefits that we have seen over the years of Pride Night, we are deciding to remove them from this year's group of honorees."The San Francisco chapter...

Correction: Racial Slur-Student Suspended story

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:49 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — In a story published May 16, 2023, about a student suspended for videotaping a teacher using a racial slur, The Associated Press misspelled the last name of the student’s mother. She is Kate Welborn, not Kate Wellborn. Source

Pentagon leak suspect was warned multiple times about mishandling of classified information

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:49 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Superiors of the Massachusetts Air National Guard member charged with leaking highly classified military documents had raised concerns internally on multiple occasions about his handling or viewing of classified information, according to a court filing Wednesday. Justice Department lawyers made the disclosure in a court papers urging a magistrate judge to keep Jack Teixeira behind bars while he awaits trial in the case stemming from the most consequential intelligence leak in years. The judge is expected to hear more arguments Friday on prosecutors’ detention request and issue a ruling. Teixeira is accused of sharing highly classified documents about top national security issues in a chatroom on Discord, a social media platform that started as a hangout for gamers. He has not yet entered a plea. Prosecutors told the judge in their filing that Teixeira continued leaking documents even after he was admonished by superiors on two separate occasions last year over &#...

Denz claims first Grand Tours stage win, Thomas stays in Giro lead

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:49 GMT

RIVOLI, Italy (AP) — Nico Denz won the 12th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Thursday for his first victory in a Grand Tour, while Geraint Thomas kept hold of the pink jersey as the race prepares to head into the mountains.Denz, who rides for Bora-Hansgrohe, beat Toms Skujiņš and Sebastian Berwick at the end of the 185-kilometer (115-mile) hill leg from Bra to Rivoli in the Piedmont region.The first stage win for Denz in his sixth Giro prompted the German to yell in joy after crossing the line and put his hands on his head as his eyes appeared to tear up.All three riders were in a large breakaway that had to battle to escape at the beginning of the day.The trio pulled away from its fellow escapees and had an advantage of more than eight minutes on the general classification group on the toughest part of the stage, a second-category climb 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the finish.The rest of the breakaway rolled across the line two minutes, 20 seconds behind, around six minutes ahead of ...

Hurricanes’ Teravainen set to return for Game 1 of East final against Florida

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:49 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Thursday that forward Teuvo Teravainen is set to return from injury for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final against Florida.Teravainen hasn’t played since suffering a thumb injury in Game 2 of the first-round series against the New York Islanders. The injury required surgery on April 20, so his expected return Thursday night will come exactly four weeks later.Teravainen has worked on the top line and is a strong passer. He also is a valuable penalty killer. He has been skating with the team in practices this week leading up to the best-of-seven series, working on a line with captain Jordan Staal and Martin Necas in Thursday’s morning skate.___AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsSource

Looking for a house? High mortgages, few homes lead to biggest annual price drop in 11 years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:49 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A persistently low inventory of homes on the market held back U.S. home sales again in April, even as the national median sale price posted its biggest annual drop in 11 years. Existing home sales fell 3.4% in April from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.28 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. That’s slightly below what economists were expecting, according to FactSet.Sales sank 23.2% compared with April last year. The annual drop was steepest in markets across the Western part of the country, where sales plunged more than 30% from a year earlier.The national median home price slipped 1.7% from April last year to $388,800, the NAR said. While modest, the year-over-year decline is the biggest since January 2012, the tail end of a a multiyear slide in home prices after the mid-2000s housing bubble burst.The latest housing market figures are more evidence that even with prices easing back after rising for more than a decade many w...

Mexico finds 49 migrants who had been kidnapped from bus

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:49 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s army said Thursday that troops have found 49 migrants, including 11 children, who were kidnapped from a bus earlier this week.Defense Secretary Gen. Luis Cresencio Sandoval said 650 police and army troops were involved in the search for the migrants, who disappeared Tuesday.The last 33 of the migrants were found early Thursday in an area where another mass kidnapping of migrants occurred in April. Sandoval said none of the abductors had been arrested, nor were two bus drivers found yet.The migrants said a drug cartel abducted them when their bus stopped at a gas station in northern Mexico.Sandoval did not identify the cartel responsible for the kidnapping, but acknowledged the Gulf cartel and others gangs operate in the area, where the northern states of San Luis Potosi and Nuevo Leon meet.He also did not rule out the possibility that more migrants may be found, because there wasn’t a clear accounting of how many were on the bus to start with.Sandov...

Medvedev making more progress on clay with Italian Open semifinal appearance

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:49 GMT

ROME (AP) — Daniil Medvedev’s clay-court game keeps improving.First came a run to the French Open quarterfinals in 2021. Then an appearance in the fourth round at Roland Garros a year ago.Now, the third-ranked Russian is making big strides at the Italian Open.Medvedev beat German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann 6-2, 6-2 on Thursday to reach the semifinals in Rome after losing his opener in his three previous appearances at the Foro Italico.“I said before the tournament that I was feeling really great in practice,” Medvedev said. “It’s always a danger to say this, because when you lose the first round you’re going to be, ‘Why did I say this?’ But I’m proving it. I feel great.”On an overcast day, Medvedev controlled play with his flat groundstrokes and big first serve to the end the run of Hanfmann, who upset Monte Carlo Masters champion Andrey Rublev in the previous round after also taking out ninth-seeded Taylor Fritz.Medvedev has dropped only one set in four matches.His semifinal oppone...

Sam Zell, billionaire real estate investor, dies

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:51:49 GMT

Sam Zell, a Chicago real estate magnate who earned a multibillion-dollar fortune and a reputation as “the grave dancer” for his ability to revive moribund properties has died due to complications from a recent illness. He was 81. Bearded and blunt-spoken, Zell reveled in bucking traditional wisdom. He had a golden touch with real estate, and got his start managing apartment buildings as a college student. By the time he reached his 70s, he had amassed a fortune estimated at $3.8 billion.Zell sold Equity Office, the office-tower company he spent three decades building, to Blackstone Group for $39 billion in 2007. It was the largest private equity transaction in history, and Zell personally netted $1 billion.A month later, he made another deal that ultimately tarnished his image: the acquisition of the ailing Tribune Co. for $13 billion. The media giant filed for bankruptcy the following year.Real estate was his trademark, but as he noted in an interview shortly before mak...