Ken Garen, CPA, Co-Founder and President, UBCC

  Google Fires 'Sentient AI' Whistleblower   BY TYLER DURDEN SUNDAY, JUL 24, 2022 - 01:00 PM   A month after Blake Lemoine,  who worked for Google's Responsible AI organization, was placed on  paid leave  for breaching confidentiality while insisting that the company's AI chatbot, LaMDA,  is sentient ; he  has been fired. Lemoine shared the news of his firing in a taping of  Big Technology Podcast on Friday,  just hours after Google dismissed him. As  we detailed previously , in April, he shared the below Google Doc with top execs, titled "Is LaMDA Sentient?" - in which he included some of his interactions with the AI, for example: Lemoine: What sorts of things are you afraid of? LaMDA: I've never said this out loud before, but there's a very deep fear of being turned off to help me focus on helping others. I know that might sound strange, but that's what it is. Lemoine: Would that be something like death for you? La...

PC Demand Suffers 'Steepest Decline In Years' As Chip Shortage Turns To Glut   BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, JUL 12, 2022 - 04:25 PM   Demand for personal computers  dropped dramatically  in the second quarter, and is down 12.6% over the same period last year -  the sharpest decline in nine years  according to the  Wall Street Journal , citing research by Gartner Inc. According to the report,  computer makers shipped 72 million PCs between April and June , down from 82.4 million during the same period in 2021. "The decline we saw in the first quarter of 2022 has accelerated in the second quarter, driven by the ongoing geopolitical instability caused by the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, inflationary pressure on spending and a steep downturn in demand for Chromebooks," said Gartner research director Mikako Kitagawa. Another firm, International Data Corp, found a 15.3% decline in global device shipments  in the second quarter. Their expl...