But does this new faux rhino horn still make your tiny, limp, ED-afflicted, PP rock hard like the original is believed to? Asking for @tinman
An AI avatar tried to argue a case before a New York court. The judges weren't having it NEW YORK — It took only seconds for the judges on a New York appeals court to realize that the man addressing them from a video screen — a person about to present an argument in a lawsuit — not only had no law degree, but didn't exist at all. The latest bizarre chapter in the awkward arrival of artificial intelligence in the legal world unfolded March 26 under the stained-glass dome of New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division’s First Judicial Department, where a panel of judges was set to hear from Jerome Dewald, a plaintiff in an employment dispute. “The appellant has submitted a video for his argument," said Justice Sallie Manzanet-Daniels. “Ok. We will hear that video now.” On the video screen appeared a smiling, youthful-looking man with a sculpted hairdo, button-down shirt and sweater. “May it please the court,” the man began. "I come here today a humble pro se before a panel of five distinguished justices.” “Ok, hold on,” Manzanet-Daniels said. “Is that counsel for the case?” “I generated that. That’s not a real person,” Dewald answered. It was, in fact, an avatar generated by artificial intelligence. The judge was not pleased. “It would have been nice to know that when you made your application. You did not tell me that sir,” Manzanet-Daniels said before yelling across the room for the video to be shut off. “I don't appreciate being misled,” she said before letting Dewald continue with his argument. Dewald later penned an apology to the court, saying he hadn't intended any harm. He didn't have a lawyer representing him in the lawsuit, so he had to present his legal arguments himself. And he felt the avatar would be able to deliver the presentation without his own usual mumbling, stumbling and tripping over words. In an interview with The Associated Press, Dewald said he applied to the court for permission to play a prerecorded video, then used a product created by a San Francisco tech company to create the avatar. Originally, he tried to generate a digital replica that looked like him, but he was unable to accomplish that before the hearing. “The court was really upset about it,” Dewald conceded. “They chewed me up pretty good.” Even real lawyers have gotten into trouble when their use of artificial intelligence went awry. In June 2023, two attorneys and a law firm were each fined $5,000 by a federal judge in New York after they used an AI tool to do legal research, and as a result wound up citing fictitious legal cases made up by the chatbot. The firm involved said it had made a “good faith mistake” in failing to understand that artificial intelligence might make things up. Later that year, more fictious court rulings invented by AI were cited in legal papers filed by lawyers for Michael Cohen, a former personal lawyer for President Donald Trump. Cohen took the blame, saying he didn't realize that the Google tool he was using for legal research was also capable of so-called AI hallucinations. Those were errors, but Arizona's Supreme Court last month intentionally began using two AI-generated avatars, similar to the one that Dewald used in New York, to summarize court rulings for the public. On the court’s website, the avatars — who go by “Daniel” and “Victoria” — say they are there “to share its news.” Daniel Shin, an adjunct professor and assistant director of research at the Center for Legal and Court Technology at William & Mary Law School, said he wasn't surprised to learn of Dewald’s introduction of a fake person to argue an appeals case in a New York court. “From my perspective, it was inevitable,” he said. He said it was unlikely that a lawyer would do such a thing because of tradition and court rules and because they could be disbarred. But he said individuals who appear without a lawyer and request permission to address the court are usually not given instructions about the risks of using a synthetically produced video to present their case. Dewald said he tries to keep up with technology, having recently listened to a webinar sponsored by the American Bar Association that discussed the use of AI in the legal world. As for Dewald's case, it was pending before the appeals court as of Thursday.
Computer Scientist: “ I will now ask ChatGPT the location of the last Golden Ticket to the Golden Age.” ChatGPT: “Not enough Compute to complete the operation. Please add Nvidia processors.” That would be a good Nvidia commercial.
$6.9 Billion Solution: Engineers Unveil Cleaner, Cheaper Way to Desalinate Seawater Eliminating acid and base treatments from conventional desalination plants could save billions of dollars worldwide, making seawater a more cost-effective source of drinking water. Water desalination plants may soon be able to eliminate the use of costly chemicals by using new carbon cloth electrodes that remove boron from seawater, an essential step in making seawater safe to drink. The technology is detailed in a study published in Nature Water by engineers from the University of Michigan and Rice University. Boron, a naturally occurring element in seawater, becomes a toxic contaminant in drinking water when it passes through standard salt-removal filters. Its concentration in seawater is about twice the World Health Organization’s most relaxed safety limit for drinking water and five to twelve times higher than what many crops can tolerate. Why current filters fall short “Most reverse osmosis membranes don’t remove very much boron, so desalination plants typically have to do some post treatment to get rid of the boron, which can be expensive,” said Jovan Kamcev, U-M assistant professor of chemical engineering and macromolecular science and engineering and a co-corresponding author of the study. “We developed a new technology that’s fairly scalable and can remove boron in an energy-efficient way compared to some of the conventional technologies.” In seawater, boron exists as electrically neutral boric acid, so it passes through reverse osmosis membranes that typically remove salt by repelling electrically charged atoms and molecules called ions. To get around this problem, desalination plants normally add a base to their treated water, which causes boric acid to become negatively charged. Another stage of reverse osmosis removes the newly charged boron, and the base is neutralized afterward by adding acid. Those extra treatment steps can be costly. “Our device reduces the chemical and energy demands of seawater desalination, significantly enhancing environmental sustainability and cutting costs by up to 15 percent, or around 20 cents per cubic meter of treated water,” said Weiyi Pan, a postdoctoral researcher at Rice University and a study co-first author. Global savings and water access Given that global desalination capacity totaled 95 million cubic meters per day in 2019, the new membranes could save around $6.9 billion annually. Large desalination plants—such as San Diego’s Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant—could save millions of dollars in a year. Those kinds of savings could help make seawater a more accessible source of drinking water and alleviate the growing water crisis. Freshwater supplies are expected to meet 40% of demand by 2030, according to a 2023 report from the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. The new electrodes remove boron by trapping it inside pores studded with oxygen-containing structures. These structures specifically bind with boron while letting other ions in seawater pass through, maximizing the amount of boron they can capture.
robotics, i don't really mind and care. AI on the other hand is getting toward dangerous and terrifying territory.
I am unable to speak to all of the waste - byproducts, but Boron has had various uses in the past. The Boron that would come from desalination plants perhaps - probably would need some additional processing to be useful. Boron in cleaners and detergents For more than a century, cleaning solutions have benefitted from borates’ multifunctional capabilities. Their versatility makes them suitable components in a variety of industrial formulations targeting different surface types. Sourcing high-quality, refined borates or perborates enables you to produce effective and safe industrial cleaning solutions. That’s critical as more industries are demanding cleaning products that lower maintenance costs and reduce health and environmental risks. As a trusted partner across several industries, we can help you find the right product and concentration for your specific application. Boron in glass and glass fibers Using highly refined product from a reliable borate supplier, such as U.S. Borax, is key to glass manufacturing process stability. We offer a range of packaging methods and particle sizes that meet narrow specifications, enabling uniform raw material distribution in your mix. And, rigid quality standards ensure you receive borates free of impurities. As a result, you get a homogenized mix, eliminating heating imbalances and other processing issues. Consistency like this is paramount, lowering the risk of defects in your products and costly rejects. Energy efficiency and sustainability is top of mind for many glass manufacturers, areas where we can help you improve. Sourcing from U.S. Borax means partnering with a supplier who invested in reducing emissions and empowering a more environmentally friendly glass industry. Borax was a sponsor of a TV series (Death Valley Days) in the 60's and Reagan was a part of the series for a while. In this Video, he is peddling Boraxo.
TIL we have a Senator Moran. https://www.moran.senate.gov/ Trying real hard not to make a Kansas joke.
Yeah A16z and Thiel's VC have their hands in that. In other unrelated happenings, China already has cameras to track their drivers and will fine them for any driving offense much like streetlight cameras but with the entire highway.
Musk and the rest of the US tech folks want your information, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the Chinese want it as well. House Select Committee Says DeepSeek Is Threat to US Security A House select committee recommended Wednesday (April 16) that the government address risk from Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) models after finding that DeepSeek presents a threat to U.S. security. The House Select Committee on China recommended that the government expand export controls, improve the enforcement of export controls, and “prevent and prepare for strategic surprise related to advanced AI.” It said this in an executive summary of a report released Wednesday, “DeepSeek Unmasked: Exposing the CCP’s Latest Tool For Spying, Stealing and Subverting U.S. Export Control Restrictions.” “This report makes it clear: DeepSeek isn’t just another AI app — it’s a weapon in the Chinese Communist Party’s arsenal, designed to spy on Americans,” Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., the chairman of the committee, said in a Wednesday press release. Moolenaar also said in the release that the committee sent a formal letter to Nvidia on Wednesday demanding answers about how the company’s chips ended up powering DeepSeek’s AI models. In a statement posted on X, Nvidia said that it follows the government’s instructions on what it can sell and where “to the letter.” “The technology industry supports America when it exports to well-known companies worldwide — if the government felt otherwise, it would instruct us,” the statement said. “Our reported Singapore revenue indicates the billing address, often for subsidiaries of our U.S. customers. The associated products are shipped to other locations, including the United States and Taiwan, not to China.” The committee’s investigation found that DeepSeek funnels Americans’ data to China through back-end infrastructure connected to a Chinese military company and manipulates the results it presents through its AI model to align with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda, according to the executive summary. The investigation also found that it is “highly likely” that DeepSeek used unlawful techniques and stole from American AI models when creating its own model and “appears to be” powered by advanced chips from Nvidia that are restricted from export to China, per the summary. Citing research by Graphika, the report also said DeepSeek’s AI model was “amplified and celebrated” by social media accounts affiliated with China when it was released.
