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

The City That’s Trying to Replace Politicians With Computers (It’s Working) After sneaking his AI-written water bill into law, Ramiro Rosário says government press-release writers could go, too By Samantha Pearson and Luciana Magalhaes Dec. 22, 2023 8:58 am ET PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil — In a country with a history of corruption and government inefficiency, Councilman Ramiro Rosário has come up with what he believes is a winning strategy to improve the work of politicians: replace them with computers. The 37-year-old legislator in Brazil’s southern city of Porto Alegre passed the country’s first law in November that was written entirely by ChatGPT, the artificial-intelligence chatbot developed by the San Francisco startup OpenAI. The law itself was purposefully boring—a proposal to stop the local water company from charging residents for new water meters when they were stolen from their front yards. It would easily pass, calculated Rosário. One recent day, donning jeans and sneakers...

DeepMind Says Its AI Solved a Math Problem That Humans Were Stumped By Story by Noor Al-Sibai December 16, 2023 AI has, for seemingly the first time, solved a famously difficult math problem — and folks, this discovery is huge if true.© Provided by Futurism Fun Times DeepMind claims that for the first time, an AI has solved a famously difficult math problem with a solution that eluded human mathematicians — which could be huge if it holds up to scrutiny. In interviews with MIT Technology Review and The Guardian, Google DeepMind researchers waxed prolific about their new AI tool, which they claim has generated a brand new solution to what's known as the "cap set problem," which involves plotting more and more dots without any of them ever forming a straight line. The novel findings, which the researchers announced in a paper published in the journal Nature, would mark the first time AI has made a unique scientific discovery which, because it was previously unknown, w...

Scientists discover ‘magical’ material that’s stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum — and its potential is dizzying Story by Rick Kazmer • September 21, 2023 Galvorn is stronger than steel, lighter than aluminum, and has the conductivity of copper, according to an article on LinkedIn. While the jury is still out on whether it’s faster than a speeding bullet, experts at Houston-based DexMat suggest their product can revolutionize the green tech landscape. Galvorn can be an alternative to rare and expensive copper — a crucial metal in electronics, according to a report from GreenBiz. What’s more, the inventors plan to displace dirty materials, contribute to cleaner air, and advance green tech as their “magical” material is rolled out. Galvorn is the result of a more than $20 million investment from two U.S. Air Force research agencies, the Department of Energy, and NASA, among other tech heavy hitters, GreenBiz reports. “DexMat’s potential climate impact gets us dizzy,” ...

Evidence of a Wooden Structure That Predates Our Species Uncovered Story by Mike McRae • September 20, 2023 A pair of interlocking logs that haven't seen sunlight in half a million years could challenge some fundamental assumptions about the technology and culture of our Stone Age ancestors. Uncovered in 2019 at the Kalambo Falls in Zambia, the objects provide archaeologists with an exceptionally rare look at wooden technology from mid-Paleolithic Africa, a time better known for an acceleration in the innovations of stone tools. The logs also predate the evolution of our own species, Homo sapiens. An analysis conducted by an international team of researchers has now come to the astonishing conclusion that the wooden artifacts were once part of a permanent structure of some kind, such as a platform or building. If so, the discovery complicates the conventional image of hominins as nomads hunting migrating herds or gathering seasonal flora with relatively basic tools. "Th...

These Industries Are Most 'At Risk' For AI Automation BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, JUN 30, 2023 - 09:20 PM Since the release of tools like ChatGPT, artificial intelligence (AI) has begun to permeate industries worldwide, transforming the way we work and live. To gain insight into this rapidly evolving landscape, Visual Capitalist's Marcus Lu and Sabrina Lam - using data from MSCI - has ranked U.S. industries by their estimated share of employment that could be exposed to AI-driven automation. Data and Highlights This analysis comes from a March 2023 report published by Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research. The authors estimated automation exposure for over 900 U.S. jobs using the O*NET occupational database, which provides details on the types of tasks each occupation conducts. Exposure estimates were then weighted by the employment share of each occupation, and aggregated to the industry level. Industry Estimated Share of U.S. Employment Exposed to AI (%) Office and...

Carbon Footprint Of Lab-Grown Beef "Orders Of Magnitude" Worse Than Traditionally Raised: Study BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 2023 - 05:45 PM A new study from the University of California, Davis, has found that lab-grown, or "cultivated" meat's environmental impact is likely to be "orders of magnitude" higher than retail beef based on current and near-term production methods. The preprint study, which has yet to undergo peer review, concludes that the energy needed and greenhouse gasses emitted during all stages of production of lab-grown meat is far greater than traditionally raised beef. Researchers conducted a life-cycle assessment of the energy needed and greenhouse gases emitted in all stages of production and compared that with beef. One of the current challenges with lab-grown meat is the use of highly refined or purified growth media, the ingredients needed to help animal cells multiply. Currently, this method is similar to the biotech...

Wendy's Plans New Underground Delivery System for Mobile Orders BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2023 - 04:00 PM Fast food chain Wendy's is testing new technology to automate its stores. This is more bad news for human workers as automation and artificial intelligence invade the fast food industry. Wendy's announced a new partnership with Pipedream, a hyper logistics company, to pilot-test the first underground autonomous robot system that will allow food from the kitchen to be sent to designated parking spots via an underground network of pipes. "The partnership marks another bold step for Wendy's in driving industry innovation as it strives to serve digital-forward customers with greater ease, speed, and accuracy," Wendy's wrote in a press release. "We know that serving orders quickly and accurately leads to increased customer satisfaction. "Pipedream's Instant Pickup system has the potential to unlock greater mobile order speed...

Experiment contradicts Einstein and reveals ‘spooky quantum action’ with superconducting qubits 30 meters apart Story by Raúl Limón • May 11, 2023 6PM EDT Physicist James Trefil once said that quantum mechanics is a “place where the human brain will simply never feel comfortable.” This discomfort happens because nature, at a microscopic scale, obeys laws at odds with our perception of macroscopic reality. These laws include superposition (a particle can simultaneously be in different states, like Erwin Schrödinger’s live and dead cat), and quantum entanglement at a distance. Albert Einstein described the latter as “spooky action at a distance,” a principle allowing particles separated by distance to respond instantaneously and behave as a single system. A spectacular experiment that defies the speed of light was recently published in Nature by an international team of scientists led by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, collaborating with Spain’s Institute of...

AI Is About To Be Everywhere Authored by Aden Tate via The Organic Prepper blog, May 10, 2023 Do you remember when drones were first released to the commercial market? There was a lot of talk about the privacy implications of them, and more than one case of where people were flying them over other peoples’ property, looking in peoples’ windows, and more of the like. Now, drones are firmly entrenched in modern society and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. They’ve not only been incorporated into militaries throughout the world, but they’re now in search and rescue operations, used for photography, security, and more. During Covid, Baltimore PD even wanted to use them to enforce social distancing. You probably don’t even think about it anymore. Now enter AI. AI is already all around you, but most recognize that ChatGPT ushered in a new era of AI. Right now, we’re all in the same stage that we were when drones were first released – theorizing about potential fears, costs, and wh...

Wendy's Unveils Google-Powered AI Chatbot At Drive-Thru BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, MAY 09, 2023 - 09:00 PM Wendy's is reportedly developing an artificial intelligence chatbot powered by Google's natural-language software designed to automate drive-thrus. The Wall Street Journal spoke with Wendy's Chief Executive Todd Penegor, who said the fast-food chain's chatbot would be rolled out in June at a company-owned restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. The Wendy's drive-thru chatbot "will be very conversational," Penegor explained. He said, "You won't know you're talking to anybody but an employee." Wendy's software engineers have been working with Google to build a large language model to understand words, popular expressions, and phrases in various dialects and accents when a customer orders. It'll understand acronyms unique to Wendy's, like "JBC" for a junior bacon cheeseburger. "Google Cloud's generative...

Scientists just made a massive breakthrough on an alternative to lithium-ion batteries: ‘These batteries are essential’ Story by Laurelle Stelle • May 6, 2023 Researchers have recently discovered a way to make an efficient battery out of zinc — an inexpensive, commonly found metal — instead of the rare metals used in lithium batteries. Most rechargeable batteries today are lithium-ion batteries, which include other metals like cobalt and nickel, Tech Xplore reports. As electric vehicles (EVs) and large-scale energy storage get more common, we’ll need more and more of those metals — but because they’re uncommon, the costs are often massive. Many researchers are working on cheaper battery options to reduce or replace these metals. One Chinese company has created a car powered by a sodium battery, and a University of Maryland researcher has invented a partly biodegradable battery made of zinc and crab shells. Researchers have even found not one but two ways to store energy in ordinary...

'Godfather Of AI' Quits Google And Warns World About Impending 'AI-Driven' Crisis BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, MAY 03, 2023 - 09:50 PM The "Godfather of AI" resigned from his position at Google, where he has worked for over a decade. He joined a growing chorus of critics who warn of the existential risk artificial intelligence systems pose to humans. On Monday, Google computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton tweeted: "In the NYT today, Cade Metz implies that I left Google so that I could criticize Google. Actually, I left so that I could talk about the dangers of AI without considering how this impacts Google. Google has acted very responsibly." In an interview with The New York Times, Hinton said it was only after quitting Google that he could openly talk about the dangers of AI. He still believed the systems were inferior to the human brain in some ways but he thought they were eclipsing human intelligence in others. "Maybe what is going on in th...

CEOs are getting closer to finally saying it — AI will wipe out more jobs than they can count Story by hchowdhury@insider.com (Hasan Chowdhury) • Yesterday 9:38 AM Tech workers are finding out what it's like to be replaced by AI. IBM said on Monday that it would pause hiring on roles that it thought AI could do instead. It's the boldest statement yet from tech firms turning to AI to help them get efficient. What's it like to be told that you're not just out of a job, but that your bosses think your job can be done by AI? Tech workers are about to find out. On Monday, per a report by Bloomberg, it emerged that IBM is preparing to pause hiring on roles that it believed could be better performed by AI. That leaves 7,800 jobs at the tech giant vulnerable to being eradicated for good. Since the release of ChatGPT, tech CEOs have been racing to decide if the generative AI technology underlying the buzzy chatbot is more than a gimmick and can deliver on its promises to...

MIT Scientists Create New Nanoparticle Sensors To Detect Early Cancer Via Simple Paper Test Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), April 30, 2023 Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have designed nanoparticle sensors that could diagnose early-stage cancer through a simple urine test on a strip of paper. The scientists said these sensors, designed to detect many cancerous proteins, could also distinguish the type of tumor, how it responds to treatment, and whether it has metastasized. “We are trying to innovate in a context of making technology available to low- and middle-resource settings. Putting this diagnostic on paper is part of our goal of democratizing diagnostics and creating inexpensive technologies that can give you a fast answer at the point of care,” said Sangeeta Bhatia, a biomedical engineer at MIT and senior author of the study published on April 24 in Nature Nanotechnology. Bhatia’s team had initially investigated the co...

Google Bard Can Now Help Write Software Code Friday, 21 April 2023 12:35 PM EDT Alphabet Inc.'s Google said Friday it will update Bard, its generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, to help people write code to develop software, as the tech giant plays catch-up in a fast-moving race on AI technology. Last month, the company started the public release of Bard to gain ground on Microsoft Corp. The release of ChatGPT, a chatbot from the Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI, last year caused a sprint in the technology sector to put AI into more users' hands. Google describes Bard as an experiment allowing collaboration with generative AI, technology that relies on past data to create rather than identify content. Bard will be able to code in 20 programming languages including Java, C++ and Python, and can also help debug and explain code to users, Google said Friday. The company said Bard can also optimize code to make it faster or more efficient with simple prompts such a...

AI Will Eventually Be 'As Good A Tutor As Any Human': Bill Gates Authored by Samantha Flom via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), April 21, 2023 Artificial intelligence (AI) may not be advanced enough to replace teachers now, but according to Bill Gates, that time is not far off. “The AIs will get to that ability to be as good a tutor as any human ever could,” the Microsoft co-founder said at the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego on April 18. “We have enough sample sets of those things being done well that the training can be done,” he added. “So, I’d say that is a very worthwhile milestone, is to engage in a dialogue where you’re helping to understand what they’re missing. And we’re not that far.” Gates’ comments came within the context of a larger conversation about the future role of technology in education with Jessie Woolley-Wilson, CEO of DreamBox Learning. “AI has, ever since the focus became machine learning, it’s achieved some unbelievable milestones,” Gates told Woolley-...

X.AI - Musk Reportedly Creating ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence Rival BY TYLER DURDEN SATURDAY, APR 15, 2023 - 07:55 AM Despite recent outspoken criticism of artificial intelligence - warning of the "danger of training AI to be woke" - it appears Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is working on an AI-related project that will reportedly take on ChatGPT. The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times reported that Musk has started a new AI firm called X.AI Corp. Developing artificial intelligence is nothing new for Musk. Together with the company’s current CEO, Sam Altman, he co-founded and chaired OpenAI in 2015. The revelation came after information surfaced that Musk is assembling a team of AI researchers and engineers, according to The FT. Musk incorporated a company named X.AI on March 9, according to Nevada business records. He is the company’s only director, its secretary is listed as Jared Birchall, the ex-Morgan Stanley banker who manages Musk’s wealth. Musk rec...

Samsung accidentally leaked its secrets to ChatGPT — three times! By Andy Sansom April 5, 2023 Samsung learns a lesson in security It appears that like the rest of the world, Samsung is impressed by ChatGPT but the Korean hardware giant trusted the chatbot with much more important information than the average user and has now been burned three times. The potential for AI chatbots in the coding world is significant and Samsung has, until now, allowed staff in its Semiconductor division to use OpenAI’s bot to fix coding errors. After three information leaks in a month, expect Samsung to cancel their ChatGPT Plus subscription. Indeed the firm is now developing its own internal AI to assist with coding to avoid further slip-ups. One of the leaks reportedly concerns an employee asking ChatGPT to optimize test sequences for identifying faults in chips, an important process for a firm like Samsung that could yield major savings for manufacturers and consumers. Now, OpenAI is sitting o...

Mass Automation To Sweep Across Walmart Stores By 2026 BY TYLER DURDEN THURSDAY, APR 06, 2023 - 05:25 PM Walmart, the largest private employer in the US, revealed on Tuesday plans to automate a large swath of its stores and warehouses within a three-year timeframe. This move aligns with the surge of artificial intelligence technologies being introduced into the economy to enhance efficiency; however, it also threatens to displace millions of jobs. In a press release, the mega-retailer with more than 1.6 million US employees said: By the end of Fiscal Year 2026, Walmart believes roughly 65% of stores will be serviced by automation, approximately 55% of the fulfillment center volume will move through automated facilities, and unit cost averages could improve by approximately 20%. As Walmart's stores and warehouses shift towards automation, the demand for human labor will drop. Nevertheless, the retailer noted that the reduction in the workforce could lead to increased wages fo...

Scientists discover lithium replacement that may revolutionize EV batteries: ‘99.7% efficient after over 400 hours of use’ Story by Ben Stern • 14h ago Maryland is already famous for its crabs — but researchers at the University of Maryland are looking to give that distinction an entirely different meaning. A team of scientists at the school’s Center for Materials Innovation found that crustaceans like crabs and lobsters contain a chemical in their shells called chitin, which can be used to power batteries when combined with zinc. Crustacean shells packed with this chemical are typically thrown out en masse by restaurants that have no other use for them. But researchers believe this waste could serve as a powerful resource in the search for more sustainable batteries. Lithium-ion batteries, the common kind found in most of our cellphones and laptops, can take hundreds of thousands of years to break down after they’re used up — not to mention the devastating environmental impa...

Astrophysicist claims to be close to building a time machine Story by By Walla! • March 29, 2023 12:32 PM You won't need to get a DeLorean from Back to the Future, but maybe something similar is on the way. Prof. Ron Mallett believes that he has found the equation to make time travel possible, even if it's highly unlikely to happen during his lifetime. The researcher believes that he finally cracked the code which will enable time travel after he had a revelation while being hospitalized. Ronald Mallet, an astrophysicist who dedicated most of his adult life to proving that time travel is possible, found scientific equations and principles with whose help he says it will be possible to build a real and functioning time machine. Mallett dedicated his life to time travel Even though he recognizes that his designs and theories will probably not make time travel possible during his lifetime, he has been working on his ambitious project for years, in parallel to a respectable...

Beware Liberals And Conservatives Delivering 'Catastrophic News' Authored by John Tamny via RealClear Wire, March 28, 2023 It’s little known today, but a major driver of Henry Ford’s interest in machines was an aversion to work. And horses. Born into a farming family in Michigan, Ford’s migration away from “the land” was rooted in a desire to avoid the dawn-to-dusk toil that defined life for an overwhelming majority in the 19th century. So, while Ford is most known for having democratized access to the automobile, it’s less known that Ford Motor Company also mass-produced tractors. 650,000 in 1927 alone. In his words, “What a waste it is for a human being to spend hours and hours behind a slowly moving team of horses in the same time a tractor could do six times as much work." Ford’s intimate knowledge of how machines multiply human productivity while reducing time on the job came to mind while reading Washington Post columnist Max Boot’s recent assertion that “Russ...

New Documents Expose Government Censorship Efforts At Facebook And WhatsApp Authored by Jonathan Turley, March 26, 2023 New emails uncovered in the ongoing Missouri v. Biden litigation reportedly show that the Biden Administration’s censorship efforts extended to Facebook to censor private communications on its WhatsApp messaging service. In recent months, the Twitter Files revealed an extensive and secret effort by the FBI and other agencies to censor citizens on social media. I testified on that effort. Democratic members oppose efforts to investigate the full scope of this effort and even denounced those calling for greater transparency as “Putin lovers” and apologists for insurrectionists and racists. Yet, the evidence of an extensive censorship and blacklisting effort by the Administration continues to mount. Facebook (now known as Meta) is accused of working with the government to target citizens with dissenting views on Covid and the pandemic. According to emails obtained t...

Eminent Oxford Scientist Says Wind Power "Fails On Every Count" Authored by Chris Morrison via DailySceptic.org, March 26, 2023 It could be argued that the basic arithmetic showing wind power is an economic and societal disaster in the making should be clear to a bright primary school child. Now the Oxford University mathematician and physicist, researcher at CERN and Fellow of Keble College, Emeritus Professor Wade Allison has done the sums. The U.K. is facing the likelihood of a failure in the electricity supply, he concludes. “Wind power fails on every count,” he says, adding that governments are ignoring “overwhelming evidence” of the inadequacies of wind power, “and resorting to bluster rather than reasoned analysis”. Professor Allison’s dire warnings are contained in a short paper recently published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation. He notes that the energy provided by the Sun is “extremely weak”, which is why it was unable to provide the energy to sustain e...

Cashless Society: Panera Bread Debuts "Frictionless" Palm Payment System BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, MAR 22, 2023 - 06:40 PM Amazon's palm-reading payment technology was first introduced at numerous Whole Foods locations in California, enabling customers to pay for their groceries by scanning their palms at checkout terminals rather than using cash or a card. Now Panera Bread is experimenting with Amazon's cashless payment system as the war on cash marches on. On Wednesday, Panera Bread announced plans to roll out a "contactless payment method" to several stores with additional locations in the coming months. The bakery-cafe chain has over 2,000 locations, and its loyalty program has 52 million members. "Panera is the first national restaurant company to use Amazon One as both a way for guests to pay and access their loyalty account with their palm," the company said. "Our philosophy has been centered around leveraging best-in-class techn...

Baidu Granted Permits To Operate Humanless Robotaxis In Beijing BY TYLER DURDEN SATURDAY, MAR 18, 2023 - 11:30 AM It looks like those robotaxis that were promised years ago are finally making their way onto the roads. The only problem is they aren't Teslas - instead, they are products of Beijing's internet search giant, Baidu. The company, akin to Google in the U.S., received "the first permits to provide fully driverless ride-hailing services in a suburb of Beijing", according to a Bloomberg wrap-up Friday morning. Baidu says it has plans of putting 10 robotaxis on the road to start in the Beijing Yizhuang Economic Development Zone, which Bloomberg notes is "roughly the size of Manhattan". The vehicles will have no human driver in the car. As a condition of the new permits, the company won't be able to charge fees for rides yet. "Baidu won China’s first commercial licenses for fully humanless taxis in Wuhan and Chongqing" back in August, ...

Microsoft Cuts AI Ethics Team As It Invests Billions More Into AI Technology, Report Says Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), March 17, 2023 The last remaining members of an ethics and society team within Microsoft’s artificial intelligence (AI) department didn’t survive a recent round of mass layoffs, according to a report. The change comes as Microsoft signs a “multi-year, multi-billion-dollar investment” deal with OpenAI, the startup behind AI-powered image and text generators like DALL-E and ChatGPT, and upgrades its Bing search engine and Edge internet browser to incorporate a “new, next-generation OpenAI large language model that is more powerful than ChatGPT.” The team, as reported by tech news site Platformer, was tasked to make sure Microsoft’s ethical standards regarding AI were actually reflected in product designs. The team was also reportedly working to identify potential risks posed by integrating OpenAI’s technology into a range of Microsoft pro...