Lifeboat Foundation

Last week, Twitter said it is shutting down free access to its APIs starting February 9. Now, days before the deadline, Elon Musk said that after getting feedback from developers, Twitter will provide a write-only API for “bots providing good content that is free.”

This decision is as opaque as some of the other policy decisions under Musk’s management. There is no information on what constitutes “good content” and who will decide that. However, if Twitter ends up implementing this rule, some bots will get a new lifeline on the social network.

Previously, Twitter shuttered API access to third-party clients saying they broke a “long-standing rule” without any specification. Then the company silently updated its developer terms to reflect that app can’t “use or access the Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications.”

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Continue reading “How to Prevent Almost ALL Disease — The Medlife Crisis Podcast #1” »

To further promote Copilot, GitHub is giving it an update, which will bring a set of new capabilities. According to GitHub, this update will benefit both users in the Copilot for Individuals and Copilot for Business plans.

Copilot is an AI-based coding tool that offers autocomplete-style suggestions while the users code. It complements Visual Studio, Neovim, and JetBrains integrated development environments, making code writing easier and faster for developers. In December, GitHub announced its ‘Copilot for Business,’ which costs $19 per user monthly. Aside from the features in the single-license Copilot tier, the business plan includes license management and organization-wide policy management capabilities. This collection of capabilities is now getting an expansion with a new update GitHub is pushing for Copilot for Individuals and Copilot for Business plans.

First of these improvements are the corporate proxy support (including those with self-signed certificates) specifically for Copilot for Business and the better quality of code suggestions in the entire Copilot tool. According to GitHub, the latter is made possible through the upgraded AI Codex model, the new Fill-In-the-Middle paradigm, and a lightweight client-side model.

Electric buses could help solve the problem. Today Bhattacharya is the CEO and co-founder of BasiGo, a mobility startup racing to electrify the city’s buses. The company is not alone. Swedish-Kenyan electric vehicle manufacturer Roam also has its eyes set on Nairobi’s mass transport sector. Both are rolling out fleets of buses this year that could mark the start of a new chapter for city’s famous matatu culture.

During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in Nairobi, Kenya, something improbable happened: a mountain appeared. To curb the transmission of the virus, authorities called on the city’s thousands of private bus operators to cease trading. “Within three days, the air completely cleared,” recalls entrepreneur Jit Bhattacharya. “You could see Mount Kenya … crystal clear,” some 90 miles away.

Bhattacharya also saw an opportunity. Kenya produces 90% of its electricity from renewable sources – mostly geothermal and hydropower – and has surplus grid capacity, yet it imports nearly all its petroleum fuels. What if clean energy could be channeled into the transport sector? Maybe it could help the city clean up its act. Maybe Mount Kenya could become a permanent feature for Nairobi once more.

Continue reading “Electric buses are driving a silent revolution in Nairobi” »

Is Director of the Division of Research, Innovation and Ventures (DRIVe — https://drive.hhs.gov/) at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (https://aspr.hhs.gov/AboutASPR/ProgramOffices/BARDA/Pages/default.aspx), a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) office responsible for the procurement and development of medical countermeasures, principally against bioterrorism, including chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats, as well as pandemic influenza and emerging diseases.

Dr. Patel is committed to advancing high-impact science, building new products, and launching collaborative programs and initiatives with public and private organizations to advance human health and wellness. As the DRIVe Director, Dr. Patel leads a dynamic team built to tackle complex national health security threats by rapidly developing and deploying innovative technologies and approaches that draw from a broad range of disciplines.

Continue reading “Dr. Sandeep Patel, Ph.D. — BARDA — Developing Effective Life-Saving Medical Countermeasures For All” »

Monica P. Medina (https://www.state.gov/biographies/monica-p-medina/) is Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. She was also recently appointed as United States Special Envoy for Biodiversity and Water Resources.

Previously, Secretary Medina was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She was also a Senior Associate on the Stephenson Ocean Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Co-Founder and Publisher of Our Daily Planet, an e-newsletter on conservation and the environment.

Continue reading “Monica Medina, Assistant U.S. Secretary, Oceans & International Environmental & Scientific Affairs” »

United States Marines outsmarted artificially intelligent (AI) security cameras by hiding in a cardboard box and standing behind trees.

Former Pentagon policy analyst Paul Scharre has recalled the story in his upcoming book Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

Please join the Project on Nuclear Issues for a book launch event, featuring “The Fragile Balance of Terror: Deterrence in the Nuclear Age.”

In The Fragile Balance of Terror, edited by Vipin Narang and Scott Sagan, the foremost experts on nuclear policy and strategy offer insight into an era rife with more nuclear powers. Some of these new powers suffer domestic instability, others are led by pathological personalist dictators, and many are situated in highly unstable regions of the world—a volatile mix of variables. The increasing fragility of deterrence in the twenty-first century is created by a confluence of forces: military technologies that create vulnerable arsenals, a novel information ecosystem that rapidly transmits both information and misinformation, nuclear rivalries that include three or more nuclear powers, and dictatorial decision making that encourages rash choices. The nuclear threats posed by India, Pakistan, Iran, and North Korea are thus fraught with danger.
Audience questions: https://forms.gle/t1ecgsgib9hhFjAC8
This event is made possible by general CSIS support.

Continue reading “Book Event: The Fragile Balance of Terror: Deterrence in the Nuclear Age” »

Developing new AI is dangerous. But not doing it is even riskier.

We need more civic education on artificial intelligence, says Eileen Donahoe.

Continue reading “Artificial Intelligence & the Importance of Civics | Global Stage | GZERO Media” »