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The “Singularity” is here. Or is it? Silicon Valley nears a tipping point.

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:24:29 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — For decades, Silicon Valley anticipated the moment when a new technology would come along and change everything. It would unite human and machine, probably for the better but possibly for the worse, and split history into before and after.The name for this milestone: the Singularity.It could happen in several ways. One possibility is that people would add a computer’s processing power to their own innate intelligence, becoming supercharged versions of themselves. Or maybe computers would grow so complex that they could truly think, creating a global brain.In either case, the resulting changes would be drastic, exponential and irreversible. A self-aware superhuman machine could design its own improvements faster than any group of scientists, setting off an explosion in intelligence. Centuries of progress could happen in years or even months. The Singularity is a slingshot into the future.Artificial intelligence is roiling tech, business and politics like nothing...

Bringing AI tools to the workplace requires a delicate balance

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:24:29 GMT

By Kevin J. Delaney, The New York Times CompanyBy midyear, all of Morgan Stanley’s thousands of wealth advisers are expected to have access to a new artificial-intelligence-powered chat tool.The tool, which is already in use by about 600 staff members, gives advisers answers to questions such as “Can you compare the investment cases for Apple, IBM and Microsoft?” and follow-ups such as “What are the risks of each of them?” An adviser can ask what to do if a client has a potentially valuable painting — and the knowledge tool might provide a list of steps to follow, along with the name of an internal expert who can help.“What we’re trying to do is make every client or every financial adviser as smart as the most knowledgeable expert on any given topic in real time,” said Jeff McMillan, the head of analytics, data and innovation for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.Experts disagree about whether AI will wind up destroying more jobs than it creates over time. But it is clear that ...

It was once called the “Ritz-Carlton of day care.” Now this Colorado child care center is at risk of losing its license.

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:24:29 GMT

When Crème de la Crème opened its $5 million day care facility in Lone Tree in 1999, it promised to be the largest, priciest and most advanced child care center in Colorado.The Greenwood Village-based company, which now boasts 47 locations across 14 states, “aspires to be the Harvard — or perhaps the Ritz Carlton — of day care,” the Rocky Mountain News reported in a 1998 article.Its “Disneyland-like” amenities included a 32-foot-high atrium housing a Victorian cityscape of themed classrooms. The company’s centers sport mini water parks and kid-sized basketball and tennis courts.But beneath the opulent veneer lies a day care facility at risk of being shut down by the state over years of consistent violations, including repeated child abuse and neglect allegations, according to a review by The Denver Post of hundreds of pages of licensing records and police reports.At least two teachers at the company’s flagship Lone Tree day care center...

Brighton lands $250 million solar panel manufacturing plant

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:24:29 GMT

Brighton has scored a second big green energy win this year — a solar module manufacturing plant expected to employ more than 900 workers.VSK Energy Inc. (VSK), a joint venture between India-based Vikram Solar and the private equity firm Phalanx Impact Partners and the development firm Das & Co., plans to invest $250 million in a new manufacturing facility in Brighton to make solar panels, a market that overseas producers have dominated for years.“The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act was a landmark moment for the clean energy future of the United States,” said Sriram Das, chairman of VSK Energy and managing director of Das & Co, in a press release. “The Biden Administration and Congress have called for immediate action and, through our partnership in VSK, we are taking a decisive step towards achieving solar technology self-sufficiency, fortifying America’s energy security, and propelling large-scale solar deployment.”To receive fede...

New AI chatbot tutors could upend student learning

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:24:29 GMT

PALO ALTO, Calif. — A dozen students huddled at communal classroom tables one morning this spring, their gazes fixed on math lessons on their laptops.The sixth graders at Khan Lab School, an independent school with an elementary campus in Palo Alto, California, were working on quadratic equations, graphing functions, Venn diagrams. But when they ran into questions, many did not immediately summon their teacher for help.They used a text box alongside their lessons to request help from Khanmigo, an experimental chatbot tutor for schools that uses artificial intelligence.The tutoring bot quickly responded to one student, Zaya, by asking her to identify specific data points in a chart. Then Khanmigo coaxed her to use the data points to solve her math question.“It’s very good at walking you through the problem step by step,” Zaya said. “Then it congratulates you every time it helps you solve a problem.”Khan Lab School students are among the first schoolchildren in the United States...

How California is helping save the next generation of abortion doctors

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:24:29 GMT

For decades, abortion education has been mandatory in the training of ob-gyn doctors.Now, a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, it is increasingly unavailable.With abortion access vanishing in almost half of the country, Bay Area medical-training programs have launched a deliberate and concerted counteroffensive, hosting and helping future doctors from states where access is restricted. The goal is twofold: to ensure the nation doesn’t lose a generation of providers, and to arm doctors everywhere with the expertise to care for women who, now more than ever, need to understand the new complexities of being pregnant.“It’s key that we learn how to counsel our patients on all of their options,” said 29-year-old Dr. Anita Vasudevan, who left her home state of Texas for UC San Francisco-sponsored abortion training at a primary care residency program at Sutter Santa Rosa Family Medicine. “Not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because it can be ...

Opinion: Climate leadership means funding nature-based solutions

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:24:29 GMT

The California Legislature recently passed a budget bill that includes hundreds of millions of dollars for nature-based solutions to the climate crisis. We applaud the investments in climate resilience and natural resources, especially the State Coastal Conservancy, which has had a major impact on the Bay Area’s landscapes. We encourage the governor to support this budget with his signature. It includes the kind of investments that need to become a consistent component of future budgets.Climate change is here and happening now. From nonstop atmospheric rivers to orange, smoke-filled skies, every Bay Area resident has experienced some of the impacts. And the impacts are only going to worsen. The good news is that solutions are available if we choose to act and if our elected leaders invest public funds. Now is the time to mobilize at the pace and scale needed to address the biggest challenge of our lifetime. The state budget is one important step in that direction.We are ready to tak...

Bay Area’s 3 big cities all vying to be Bay FC’s long-term hometown

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:24:29 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — There’s yet another territorial battle shaping up between the cities of Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose.Now the Bay Area’s three largest cities are vying to become the future home of Bay FC.The National Women’s Soccer League’s newest franchise is set to kick off in the spring of 2024 at a temporary home, which will likely be the San Jose Earthquakes’ home of PayPal Park.And while there is still so much for Bay FC to do in the run-up to that first match next spring, Alan Waxman, co-founder and CEO of Sixth Street and co-chair of Bay FC, has made it clear that the organization wants its own training facility and stadium in the long-term future.“You can’t be a world-class franchise without having a world-class practice stadium, because that’s where the players live,” Waxman told this news organization. “And ultimately, you can’t be world class without having your own stadium. And we’re playing to win.”The desire for a stadium specific for a women’s team may have see...

Elias: California insurance chief mustn’t cave in to industry he regulates

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:24:29 GMT

You would never know it by watching the almost ubiquitous television commercials advertising State Farm Insurance to viewers on a wide variety of telecasts.Related ArticlesLocal Opinion | Elias: Newsom should appeal decision to free Manson Family member Local Opinion | Opinion: Valley Water project protects Milpitas residents, businesses from flooding Local Opinion | Opinion: Saratoga mayor offers safety tips for summer Local Opinion | Opinion: Expanding RYDE enables senior mobility and empowerment Local Opinion | Elias: Newsom would be wise to stick with his planned transit funding cut State Farm has fired the first shot in what might become a war against California home and apartment owners, though, one with eventual costs amounting to billions of dollars. Allstate Insurance one week later admitted that it has already joined in.The State Farm strike came on May 26, when it announced to little fanfare t...

Putin responde desafiante a rebelión del Grupo Wagner: “Una puñalada por la espalda”

Published Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:24:29 GMT

El presidente de Rusia, Vladímir Putin, prometió el sábado que defenderá su país frente a la rebelión armada declarada por el propietario del contratista militar privado Grupo Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, que dirigió a de sus tropas desde Ucrania hasta una ciudad clave al sur de Moscú.El motín, que Putin calificó como “una puñalada por la espalda”, era la mayor amenaza a su liderazgo en más de dos décadas en el poder.El ejército privado de Prigozhin parece controlar el cuartel general militar en Rostov del Don, una ciudad a más de 660 millas de la capital rusa, desde donde se gestionan las operaciones en Ucrania, según un reporte de inteligencia del Ministerio de Defensa de Gran Bretaña.No está claro cómo pudo Prigozhin entrar a la ciudad rusa ni cuántos soldados lo acompañaban. Crisis en Rusia: Moscú impone medidas antiterroristas, mientras Grupo Wagner sigue en rebeldía Rusia investiga al jefe mercenario del Grupo Wagner por supuestas amenaza...