FedEx pilots reject new labor agreement with management

Omer Yusuf, Memphis Commercial Appeal
Mon, July 24, 2023 





FedEx pilots rejected the new tentative agreement with company management, according to a news release from the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) on Monday morning.

The pilots rejected the tentative agreement by a vote of 57% to 43%. A news release from the FedEx's pilot union in June shared details about the agreement, which includes a 30% pay increase and a 30% increase to the pilots’ legacy pension.

“Our members have spoken and we will now regroup and prepare for the next steps. In the coming weeks, the FedEx ALPA leadership will meet to establish a timeline for assessing pilot group priorities moving forward," said Capt. Chris Norman, FedEx ALPA chair, in a statement. "FedEx pilots remain unified and that will drive a new path that will help produce an agreement that all FedEx pilots will be proud to support."

FEDEX NEWS: FedEx executives remain confident about future despite mixed earnings report. Here's why.

It is expected the National Mediation Board will convene a status conference with both parties, but there is no time requirement for this to occur.

This comes nearly two months after FedEx announced a tentative agreement had been reached between the labor union and management.

“The tentative agreement voting results have no impact on our service as we continue delivering for our customers around the world,” FedEx said in a statement Monday. “The parties will return to negotiations under the supervision of the National Mediation Board. While we are disappointed in these voting results, FedEx will continue to bargain in good faith with our pilots to achieve an agreement that is fair for all FedEx stakeholders.”

The FedEx pilots' union leadership voted in June to approve a new contract between the Memphis-based company and pilots, which at the time seemed like another step toward ending the two-year-plus negotiation process.

The membership ratification ballot among union members — the step following the leadership vote — opened July 5 and closed Monday.

The pilots' union has been in contract negotiations with FedEx management since May 2021. The most updated contract was signed by FedEx pilots in 2015. The ALPA and FedEx management had been in mediation since November 2022.

American Airlines union postpones vote for contract agreement

Reuters
Sun, July 23, 2023

(Reuters) — American Airlines' pilot union has indefinitely postponed the ratification vote for a tentative labor contract agreement, it said in a memo on Sunday.

The voting will now take place "at a date and time to be determined", the union said.
American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL)

American Airlines pilots were due to vote on Monday after the company on Friday raised the value of its contract offer to pilots by more than $1 billion. The union had earlier warned that ratification was in jeopardy.

The delay should give the union more time to weigh the sweetened offer from the US carrier.

The Texas-based carrier said on Friday's changes brought the total value of the four-year proposed contract to $9 billion and would match the pay rates and retroactive pay in United Airlines' tentative agreement.

American Airlines did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru and Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

New Mexico Senator Calls Out Enduring Effects Of 'Oppenheimer' Nuke Test


Sara Boboltz
Sat, July 22, 2023

Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” which dramatizes the Trinity nuclear test carried out almost eight decades ago, is inspiring reflection on one part of the story not covered by his smash hit film: the lingering effects of the experiment on U.S. soil.

New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D) called attention to the consequences for his home state in a series of tweets posted Thursday, just ahead of the triumphant opening weekend that “Oppenheimer” shared with the “Barbie” movie.

“It’s critical to note 78 years after the nuclear tests this movie centers on, New Mexico continues to face collateral damage from the Trinity Test site,” Luján wrote.

A mushroom cloud is visible after the first atomic explosion at the Trinity test site near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

“New Mexico was chosen for its uninhabited space, however, nearly half a million people were horribly affected,” he added, citing a Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists article. “Generations of New Mexicans later, thousands of victims and their family members continue to face serious, sometimes deadly health complications.”

Census figures show that 40,000 people lived within a 60-mile radius of the test site, according to the Alamogordo Daily News, a local paper.

A 1990 bill, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, compensated many communities affected by U.S. military nuclear explosions — but survivors of the Trinity test were not included.

Luján pointed to the deadly array of cancers that afflicted people who lived in the area for decades afterward, again citing the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. For years the senator has been trying, unsuccessfully, to amend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to include people in the Trinity fallout zone.

Plans for the blast were kept secret because of the enormous consequence a nuclear weapon would have in World War II; the effects of radiation were not well known at the time.

As a result, those who lived in the surrounding region — many of them Native Americans and other people of color — were startled awake at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945. Inquiring reporters were told that it was a merely “a considerable amount of high explosives and pyrotechnics” that had exploded at an Air Force base.

A 1945 aerial view after the first-ever atomic explosion, at the Trinity test site in New Mexico.

A 1945 aerial view after the first-ever atomic explosion, at the Trinity test site in New Mexico.

Young campers sleeping around 50 miles from the detonation site thought something had exploded at their camp.

“We were all just shocked … and then, all of a sudden, there was this big cloud overhead, and lights in the sky,” one of them, Barbara Kent, told National Geographic in 2021. She was 13 that summer.

“It even hurt our eyes when we looked up. The whole sky turned strange. It was as if the sun came out tremendous,” Kent said.

She and other girls played in the nuclear fallout — white flakes falling from the sky like desert snow. Ten of the 12 campers died before age 40, Vice reported in 2016, with Kent telling the outlet that this was “no coincidence.” She herself had battled cancer.

Much of the fallout went in a northern direction, affecting people as far away as Colorado, Idaho and Montana.

The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, which seeks federal recognition of Trinity’s effects, has compiled stories from survivors on its website.

Small animals like chickens reportedly died in the wake of the nuclear blast, and infant deaths surged in subsequent months, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. People later reported that they continued to consume meat and dairy products from cows within the fallout zone.

But no government agency was keeping track of the broader effects. A 2020 report from the National Cancer Institute suggested that the Trinity test likely contributed to the fallout zone’s cancer rate, but that it was very difficult to estimate the exact number of excess cases given how long ago it happened.

As Luján wrote, “It’s the sad truth that too many have died from the radioactive fallout from these decades-old tests.”

https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/history/trinity-test-1945

Trinity Test -1945 - Nuclear Museum - Atomic Heritage Founda... 

New Mexico Senator Tom Udall, Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, and New Mexico Representative Ben Ray Luján are among the legislative backers of the Downwinders as they ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/us/trinity-test-anniversary.html

The Legacy of the First Nuclear Bomb Test - The New York Tim... 

Jul 15, 2020 ... The 75th anniversary of what's known as the Trinity explosion, ... first atomic explosion at the Trinity test site in New Mexico in 1945.

https://tucson.com/news/retrotucson/1945-atomic-bomb-test-in-new-mexico-desert-rocked-tucson/article_92aa6ac0-e669-11eb-b3f3-df037dab486a.html

1945 atomic bomb test in New Mexico desert rocked Tucson 

Jul 17, 2021 ... Nuclear bomb test, Trinity Site, New Mexico ... A SAC B-47 bomber from Davis-Monthan AFB slides underneath a KC-97 tanker 15,000 feet above ...

https://home.army.mil/wsmr/application/files/3316/8020/2958/T-site_brochure_S.pdf

Trinity Site - U.S. Army Garrisons 

Both uranium 235 and plutonium are fissionable and can be used to produce an atomic explosion. Los Alamos National Lab was established in northern New Mexico ...

https://wsmrmuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/life_at_trinity_base_camp_HSR_2001.pdf

Life at Trinity Base Camp - White Sands Missile Range Museum 

Mountain War Time, scientists working in cooperation with the U.S. Army staged the world's first atomic explosion in a remote region of south-central New Mexico ...

https://www.losalamoshistory.org/trinitytest.html

Trinity Test - LOS ALAMOS HISTORY 

​—Gen. Thomas Farrell, eyewitness at the Trinity test, writing the day afterwards ... Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives, Marvin Davis Collection.

Italy needs migration, admits Giorgia Meloni as she softens her stance

Our Foreign Staff
Sun, July 23, 2023 

Giorgia Meloni was accused by some on the Right for abandoning her principles after taking power - AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia

Italy needs migration, Giorgia Meloni said as she sought to win support from African nations on a plan to curb human trafficking into Europe.

The hard-Right prime minister, who came to power on a pledge to block migrant boats in the Mediterranean, softened her rhetoric in an attempt to build alliances with the nations migrants leave or pass through.

Ms Meloni convened a summit, of more than 20 nations and top EU officials, in Rome after largely failing to control migrant flows in the first months of her term.

Addressing an audience that included Tunisia’s president as well as representatives from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, she said that everyone was harmed by illegal migration.

“No one benefits from this,” she said, “except criminal groups who get rich at the expenses of the most fragile and use their strength even against the governments.”

Ms Meloni proposed working more closely with countries of origin to manage migrant flows and fight criminal traffickers.

However, she said that she was open to creating more legal routes into her country as “Europe and Italy need immigration”.

Earlier this month, Italy pledged to issue 425,000 new work visas for non-EU nationals from 2023 to 2025, increasing the number of permits available each year to a high of 165,000 in 2025. In 2019, before Covid struck, Italy issued just 30,850 visas.

Critics on the Right have accused Ms Meloni, the leader of the ruling Brothers of Italy party, of abandoning her principles after taking power.

The Italian prime minister told the conference that Western arrogance had hampered finding a solution to migrant flows, which have surged this year.

More than 83,000 migrants have landed in Italy this year, compared with about 34,000 in the same period in 2022.

She said: “The West too often has given the impression of being more interested in giving lessons rather than lending a hand. It is probably this diffidence that has made it difficult to make progress on solutions.”

The Rome summit came a week after one of the key participants – Kais Saied, the Tunisian president – signed a memorandum of understanding for a “comprehensive strategic partnership” in a meeting that included Ms Meloni and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president.

Giorgia Meloni with Kais Saied, the Tunisian president, at the Rome summit 

- Tunisian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Financial details were not released, but the EU has held out the promise of nearly €1 billion (£865.5 million) to help restart Tunisia’s hobbled economy, and €100 million (£86,550,000) for border control, as well as search and rescue missions at sea and repatriating immigrants without residence permits.

“We want our agreement with Tunisia to be a template. A blueprint for the future. For partnerships with other countries in the region,” Ms von der Leyen told the conference.

The EU could work with countries such as Tunisia in expanding their production of renewable energy to the benefit of all, she added.

Mohamed al-Menfi, head of Libya’s Presidential Council, called for help from richer nations.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Pope Francis called on European and African governments to help migrants trapped in desert areas in north Africa, and to ensure that the Mediterranean was never again “a theatre of death” for those attempting to cross.

Traders union UGA wants EU to increase capacity of grain 'solidarity lanes'

Reuters
Mon, July 24, 2023 

KYIV, July 24 (Reuters) - The Ukrainian grain traders union UGA said on Monday it had urged the European Union to increase the capacity of so-called solidarity lanes to help it export grain following the collapse of the Black Sea grain deal.

The EU established the solidarity lanes last year after Russia's invasion to try to help Ukraine export grain and other agricultural products by providing alternative transit routes via rail, road and inland waterways.

Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU's executive European Commission, last week underlined the need for the solidarity lanes to continue operating after Russia quit the deal allowing safe export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea.

Outlining its proposals on its website, the UGA said it wanted exports via the solidarity lanes to grow by 1-1.5 million tons a month and suggested European carriers and ports involved in the transit of Ukrainian grain should receive partial compensation from the Commission in the form of subsidies.

It did not say how much the current capacity is.

"This will lead to a significant reduction in the cost of grain transportation and will enable Ukrainian farmers to export surplus grain without losses to countries that need Ukrainian grain and stabilize global food security," the UGA said.

The UGA said the increase could be achieved by exporting grain through ports in the Baltic states, Germany, the Netherlands, Croatia, Italy and Slovenia.

The UGA said it had also proposed to transfer sanitary, phytosanitary and veterinary control from checkpoints on the border with Ukraine to the territory of the destination country, which it says would provide a significant increase in export.

UGA expects Ukraine's 2023 combined grain and oilseed crop to reach 69 million tons, while export in 2023/20204 is seen at about 45 million tons.

(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka and Kyiv newsroom, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

UK

Young Swiss workers may be offered visas to fill job shortages under Home Office plans


Ben Riley-Smith
Sun, July 23, 2023 

The Home Office is looking at loosening migration policy - Alamy

Thousands of Swiss young adults could be given two-year visas to come to Britain as waiters, baristas and au pairs under plans being examined by the Home Office.

Officials have approached their counterparts in Switzerland to try to reach a special deal for 18- to 30-year-olds to work in the UK for a limited period, and vice versa.

There are hopes to sign similar agreements with European Union nations, but that is complicated by Brussels’ usual insistence that such deals are struck collectively by the EU bloc.

This loosening of migration policy is a reflection of the tight UK labour market, with unemployment low and yet many job vacancies remaining, which has been cited as a factor in rising prices.

It is also notable given the rhetoric that Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, often employs on immigration, including recently on the need to train more Britons for jobs where there are skills gaps.

The development, first reported in The Sunday Times, would help restaurants, cafes, households looking for a nanny, and other employers to find suitable workers to fill vacancies.

Britain’s departure from the EU, which took effect in January 2020, means that the UK is no longer part of the bloc’s “freedom of movement” rules.

They allowed any EU citizen to freely move to another EU country without needing a visa.

The rule became a central issue in the EU referendum, with those advocating Brexit arguing that the inability to control the number of people who moved from the EU to the UK had to end.

The idea being pursued by the Home Office is for bilateral deals that would allow a number of people aged 18-30 to move to the UK for a set period of time to work.

It would likely be reciprocal, meaning that a similar number of Britons aged between 18 and 30 would be able to move to work in the country that struck the deal.

A Home Office insider insisted that Switzerland, which being outside the EU has more flexibility to make such agreements, was the only country that has been approached so far.

European Commission leaders tend to oppose individual members striking immigration deals with third countries without Brussels being involved in the negotiations.

Such deals are normally struck across the EU’s 27 member states. That approach could complicate any Home Office attempt to make agreements with the likes of France and Italy.

The policy push appears to be in its early stages. A Home Office insider said that government officials, rather than Ms Braverman herself, had reached out to Switzerland.

How tightly to set the post-Brexit immigration regime continues to be an issue that splits the Conservative Party, with fervent Eurosceptics favouring a tougher approach to work visas.

Washington's AI discussions are focused on beating China as part of a new Cold War, says Marc Andreessen

Hasan Chowdhury
Mon, July 24, 2023

Marc Andreessen made the comments on a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair

AI is shaping up to be a new Cold War with China, according to Marc Andreessen.


The Silicon Valley veteran discussed US policymakers' plans on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.


It comes as regulators scramble to create rules to govern the technology.

Washington's leaders are determined that the US will beat China in a global race to dominate AI as a new Cold War takes shape, according to Marc Andreessen.

In a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the Silicon Valley investor and cofounder of VC firm a16z suggested his recent conversations with policymakers on AI have taken on a more competitive tone as soon as China is mentioned.

"The minute you open up the door and talk about China, and what China is going to do with AI, and what that's gonna mean in this new Cold War that we're in with China, it's a completely different conversation," he said.

Andreessen added that Washington's policymakers said not only do they need "American AI to succeed," but that they need to "beat the Chinese." The comments were first reported by Fortune.

The comments from Andreessen come as the ChatGPT-led rise of AI this year has left policymakers grappling with the potential harms posed by the technology and devising rules that govern its use.

Last week, tech leaders from a range of companies leading the AI charge, including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Meta, signed a voluntary pledge at the White House to deliver safeguards for the development of AI.

However, Andreessen's comments suggest Washington is also keen to aggressively accelerate the development of AI as a means of maintaining an edge over China at a time when geopolitical tensions between the world's two largest superpowers are simmering over.

Andreessen said Beijing's leaders "view AI as a way to achieve population control" because "they're authoritarians."

During a recent trip to China, Elon Musk said he told Chinese leaders that an AI-led superintelligence in the future could have the power to overthrow the government.

Representatives for Andreessen did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment outside regular working hours.

 Business Insider

Marc Andreessen says his A.I. policy conversations in D.C. ‘go very differently’ once China is brought up

Steve Mollman
Sun, July 23, 2023 


Marc Andreessen spends a lot of time in Washington, D.C. these days talking to policymakers about artificial intelligence. One thing the Silicon Valley venture capitalist has noticed: When it comes to A.I., he can have two conversations with the “exact same person” that “go very differently” depending on whether China is mentioned.

The first conversation, as he shared on an episode the Joe Rogan Experience released this week, is “generally characterized by the American government very much hating the tech companies right now and wanting to damage them in various ways, and the tech companies wanting to figure out how to fix that.”

Then there’s the second conversation, involving what China plans to do with A.I.

“It’s a completely different conversation,” said Andreessen, cofounder of the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. “All of a sudden it’s like, ‘Oh well we need American A.I. to succeed, and we need American technology companies to succeed, and we need to beat the Chinese.’”

China, of course, has a vision for A.I. that many observers find unsettling.

“They view A.I. as a way to achieve population control,” said Andreessen. “They’re authoritarians. So the number one priority for the Chinese leadership is always that the Chinese population stay under control and not revolt or expect to be able to vote or whatever.”

While China wants to use A.I. for authoritarian control within its own borders, it also wants to export those capabilities to leaders in other nations, Andreessen continued. He noted that in the field of A.I. security cameras, for example, China has world-leading companies. “They’re really good at like sniffing out people walking down the street,” he said.

Andreessen noted many nations are deploying 5G networks using Chinese technology. On top of that infrastructure, he said, they can roll out China's A.I. authoritarian surveillance technology.

“What they pitch to the president or prime minister of country X is if you install our stuff you’ll be able to better control your population,” he said. “And of course a lot of people running a lot of countries would find the China model quite compelling.”

Back in America, he continued, “Once you start thinking in those terms. you realize that, actually, all these debates that are happening in the U.S. are interesting and maybe important, but there’s this other much bigger, I would argue more important, thing that’s happening—which is, what kind of world do we think we’re living in 50 years from now?”

In Washington, D.C., he said, “The minute you open up the door and talk about China, and what China is going to do with A.I., and what that’s gonna mean in this new Cold War that we’re in with China, it’s a completely different conversation…One of my hopes would be that people start thinking outside just our own borders and start thinking about the broader global implications of what’s happening.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

The highly-skilled jobs being replaced by AI

Tom Haynes
Mon, July 24, 2023

AI

Workers in the technology sector are already feeling the impact of the dawn of the age of artificial intelligence, with half as many job vacancies as there were last year in some roles, new figures have revealed.

Analysis from job site Adzuna found a significant drop in the number of jobs on offer for more than a dozen careers previously identified as being “most exposed” to AI.

Vacancies for several professions had plummeted by as much as 50pc since 2022, the website found.

Adzuna’s data showed there were 691 listed vacancies in July for graphic designers, compared to 1,641 last year – a drop of 58pc.

Software engineering roles also plummeted by 57pc, from 20,193 vacancies to 8,644.

While a stagnant economy and persistently high inflation are likely to be making employers reticent about hiring, the impact of AI technology such as ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, is also likely to be having an impact, Adzuna said.

Tech workers were a notable casualty of the AI revolution, it said. Roles in data management, IT support analysts and web designers fell by more than a third.

The website identified dozens of jobs which were judged to be the most exposed to AI replacement, using studies published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the University of Pennsylvania, and Goldman Sachs.

AI’s takeover of the workplace has caused disquiet among unions, who have called on the Government to regulate the nascent technology.

Less than half of those surveyed by tech union Prospect said they were confident their employer would consult them about introducing the technology at work.

Andrew Pakes, Prospect’s deputy general secretary, said: “Advances in technology have the potential to bring huge benefits to both employers and workers.

“But there needs to be proper consultation with workers about what is being introduced and how before anything is implemented.”

Now read: The careers that will survive the AI revolution – and pay the highest salary

Britons are increasingly nervous about using AI relative to other countries, according to a report by pollster Ipsos.

Only 12pc of those surveyed by the company said they believed AI would create more job opportunities than jobs that are lost – and just under half (46pc) said businesses should embrace the technology in the workplace.

Customer service jobs are expected to vanish as roles become more automated, the report found.

Roughly four in 10 said they did not expect AI to impact their job in the next year, but the figure fell to one in four when looking five years from now.

Andrew Hunter, of Adzuna, said: “Skilled, white-collar workers whose jobs rely on their wealth of knowledge may be particularly at risk from AI, with the technology increasingly able to emulate responses and outputs.

“Job vacancies have fallen across the board year-on-year, but some jobs have seen larger declines that may in part be due to the increasing adoption of AI.”

However, Mr Hunter said AI “will also create new job opportunities for roles like prompt engineers as companies clamour to make the most of advancements.”

It comes as research by nonprofit employment network Generation found the entry-level tech job had “disappeared”.

The report found 94pc of employers in over 16 industries said they required prior work experience, with two-thirds of companies demanding at least a year of work experience.

A.I. might have what it takes to replace the C-suite — But experts say the top jobs are safe for cultural reasons

Geoff Colvin
Mon, July 24, 2023 

PhonlamaiPhoto—Getty Images

Future CEOs and other denizens of the C-suite may look back on Nov. 30, 2022, with decidedly mixed emotions. That day, the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, reversed years of research findings about which workers would be most threatened by automation. For the first time, instead of low- and middle-skilled workers, it’s top executives who are seemingly in A.I. crosshairs.

“I think decisions CEOs make will be amenable to machines in the long run,” says Anton Korinek, an economist and professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden business school, who has studied artificial intelligence and its effects on labor. “It will be possible to automate everything CEOs can do. The trillion-dollar question, of course, is how long that long run is going to be.”

The reversal of research results has been startling. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development last year published a hefty study on how A.I. will affect workers, based on a survey of experts conducted before the ChatGPT launch. One conclusion: The C-suite needn’t worry. Of 48 different kinds of jobs, “top executives” ranked No. 47 on “automatability.” Only “religious workers” were less threatened.

But more recent studies paint a starkly different picture. A post-ChatGPT study by researchers at Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York University, using U.S. Department of Labor data on more than 800 occupations, finds that chief executive jobs are in the top 12% of positions that could be significantly changed or eliminated by ChatGPT-type technology. More broadly, the study finds that “highly-educated, highly-paid, white-collar occupations may be most exposed to generative A.I.”

“What a contrast to what most people were worried about just a year ago,” Korinek observes. “We thought automation may affect lower-skilled physical workers. After the ChatGPT moment, it looks like just the opposite is happening.”

Could A.I. really eliminate C-suite positions, typically the highest paid jobs in business? In theory, yes. Incorporation laws don’t require companies to have anyone in those positions. Charles Elson, a corporate governance authority and an attorney at the Holland & Knight law firm, says those laws require that “the affairs of the corporation shall be under the direction of the board of directors. There’s no law that you have to have a CEO or other officers.”

In practice, however, experts say the C-suite may be more stoutly armor-plated than the academics think. In the real world, technology—even highly-capable technology—isn’t the only factor determining how top-level jobs will get done. A chatbot won’t take over a C-suite job until it can clear three hurdles, none of them easy. In order from easiest to most difficult:
It would have to do the whole job

Sounds obvious, but the difference between doing the whole job and doing almost the whole job is night and day. If A.I. can do much but not all of a CFO’s job, for example, the CFO becomes more productive and valuable. Economists would say the technology complements the worker. But if A.I. can do the whole job, the technology substitutes for the worker, and the worker is unemployed.

Today’s A.I. could be a turbocharged complement to C-suite executives. For example, Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of the pioneering A.I. company DeepMind, has launched a startup called Inflection.ai, which offers a personal assistant that it claims will help you talk through tough decisions, come up with creative ideas, change jobs, learn a new skill, and much else. But current A.I. isn’t ready to negotiate contracts with your suppliers and customers, evaluate your employees, or allocate your company’s capital.

How long before A.I. can do all that and more, enabling it to substitute for C-suite labor rather than just complement it? It could be sooner than you expect. A.I. engines are doubling their capabilities every three to six months, according to Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and researchers led by Jaime Sevilla at the U.K.’s University of Aberdeen. Consider ChatGPT Plus, which launched in February, an upgrade on ChatGPT at $20 per month. Original ChatGPT scored in the bottom 10% of test takers on the Uniform Bar Exam, while ChatGPT Plus scores in the top 10%. ChatGPT is limited when it comes to performing advanced math, but ChatGPT Plus includes a tool called Code Interpreter, which analyzes data, creates charts, and performs complex math on the user’s own data.

Even those impressive capabilities leave a long way still to go, however. Korinek believes a world-class A.I. CEO would require long-predicted artificial general intelligence (AGI), which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman defines as “AI systems that are generally smarter than humans.” And that level of technology may not be just around the corner. When Geoffrey Hinton, one of the so-called “godfathers of A.I.,” was asked recently when AGI would arrive, he tweeted, “I now predict 5 to 20 years but without much confidence,”and he later told the Guardian newspaper that he “wouldn’t rule out 100 years.”

Yet even AGI won’t be enough to displace a human C-suite executive, because a digital replacement would have to do more than master tasks. Specifically…
It would have to satisfy regulators

All businesses are regulated, and some — financial services, health care, transportation, manufacturing — are heavily regulated. How much trust will regulators invest in A.I.? For example, imagine that a bank wants A.I. to take over a function previously handled by the CFO — “that is going to be heavily scrutinized by the regulators,” says David Wilkins, a Harvard Law School professor whose work on the role of the general counsel has familiarized him with many regulated industries, “particularly after the information about ChatGPT and its tendency to hallucinate.”

Another example: In any publicly traded company’s SEC annual report, the CFO and CEO must sign statements certifying that “this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact,” among many other promises. Would regulators allow A.I. to sign that certification? That puts the government in charge of allowing A.I. to displace CFOs and CEOs.

But even without the regulatory wrinkle, A.I is unlikely to replace a human executive because…
It would have to satisfy society — customers, employees, shareholders, communities

Korinek foresees a future in which humans may be hired for some jobs “merely for the fact of being human,” even if A.I. could do the jobs more effectively and at lower cost. He calls them “nostalgic jobs.” C-suite positions may be prime candidates.

A.I.’s galloping advance “forces us to ask what are the human qualities that we value among our top leaders,” says Wilkins, whose areas of study include leadership and ethics. “It’s not just reaching the correct decision. It’s also about persuading people to feel good about that decision, to be motivated to follow that decision.”

Even if A.I. makes better decisions than humans do, Wilkins believes, that won’t be enough. Will A.I. “make us feel that we have been heard, been valued, been judged by something we can understand, meaning another human being?” he asks. He acknowledges that we have already accepted speaking to bots on the phone, resolving disputes on eBay and Amazon without ever engaging a person, and forsaking human interaction in other ways. But “we’re a long way from giving up on that altogether,” he says. “If we do give up on that altogether, then it’s not clear to me what being human really means anymore.”

The nature of humanity is deep waters even for the C-suite. To take just one more step, let’s imagine that in the coming decades the conception of humanity changes. Indistinguishable humanoid robots — think of the Synths in the TV series Humans, or the Replicants in the 1982 film Blade Runner — become real, powered by artificial general intelligence. Could they displace the C-suite?

Creating such robots will obviously be a much harder job than developing only the AGI component. But whenever that might happen — maybe then.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Opinion
EDITORIAL: Climate change deniers can't believe their eyes


The Herald Bulletin, Anderson, Ind.
Mon, July 24, 2023 

Jul. 24—Believe it or not, climate change is here.

This summer you can see it, smell it, feel it, even taste it.

Here in Indiana, hazy air from distant Canadian wildfires has left Hoosiers wheezing, coughing and staying indoors, spoiling summer days over portions of the past several weeks.

In the northeast, record flooding has wrought death and destruction.

And in the southwest, temperatures have soared off the charts, surpassing 110 degrees for 19 straight days in Phoenix.

While the United States, like the rest of the world, has experienced severe weather episodes throughout its history, scientists attribute the upward trend in incidence of wildfires, flooding and heat this summer and over the past decade directly to climate change caused by man, most notably through the burning of fossil fuels.

The climate is becoming less stable, leading to more, longer-lasting and wider-spread natural disasters.

Take the Canadian wildfires. (Please take them!)

Given the dry air and abundant trees of the vast country to our north, it's not unusual for forest fires to claim Canadian wilderness each summer. But this is different.

So far this year, more that 27 million acres have been scorched in Canada, overrunning the past record, set in 1995, by more than 9 million acres. Already, nearly 4,500 wildfires have been counted and, as of July 19, more than 800 were still actively burning.

For Hoosiers, this signals more bad news — we likely haven't seen the end of 2023's hazy summer days.

Beyond wildfires, floods and heatwaves, climate change is manifesting other changes dramatically affecting Americans.

Here's one example: In California, near record snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains, abetted by heavy rainfalls in the spring, has brought back to life Tulare Lake, which dates to the Ice Age.

Over the past few months, Tulare has steadily reemerged to overrun 168 square miles of some of the nation's most valuable farm country.

It's an economic and ecological disaster. The waters are polluted by chemicals, manure and diesel fuel. Under the surface, buildings rot and abandoned cars rust. Farmers who work the land for a living are ruined.

Tulare has no natural outlet. It's expected to be an unwanted guest for a long, long time.

Despite record wildfires, unprecedented flooding, searing heat — and the reappearance of an Ice Age lake — many Americans are still skeptical about what is happening.

Findings of a recent survey, show that less than half (49%) believe that human activity causes climate change. Nearly 1 in 10 believe climate change isn't happening at all, according to the poll conducted and published in May by IPSOS, a multinational research and consulting firm.

But climate change clearly is happening. Just walk outside the next time smoke from Canadian wildfires wafts across the Hoosier state. If you won't heed science, perhaps you'll believe your own itchy, watering eyes.

Revealed: Saudi oil wealth backed £4bn Selfridges takeover

Imperialism and world economy : Bukharin, Nikolaĭ Ivanovich, 1888-1938 

Christopher Williams
Sat, July 22, 2023

De facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to boost Saudi Arabia's international clout - BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images

Saudi Arabia has emerged as a private financial backer of the £4bn takeover of Selfridges, as part of a shopping spree intended to increase its international clout and boost development of its economy.

The Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the £500bn Public Investment Fund (PIF), acquired an interest in the historic department store via the Austrian property company Signa Holding, City sources revealed.

The PIF backed the Signa fund that acquired a 50pc stake in Selfridges last August. Signa swooped in equal partnership with the Thai retailer Central Group. Saudi Arabian finance represented a minority of Signa’s contribution.

CANADIAN OWNERS

The pair won an auction launched by the Weston family, owners of Selfridges since 2003, prompted by the death of Galen Weston, the patriarch. Signa and Central’s £4bn bid came out ahead of competition from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Signa is controlled by the billionaire René Benko, who has been named by Austrian prosecutors as a suspect in a long-running political corruption investigation. He has denied any wrongdoing. The PIF previously invested in Signa Sports, an online sportswear retailer which listed in New York in 2021.

The deal for Selfridges would complete a trio of high-profile investments in the UK by the PIF, after it acquired majority ownership of Newcastle United in 2021 and last year became the second-largest shareholder in Aston Martin.

The PIF’s interest in Selfridges via Signa highlights the way Saudi Arabia is using intermediaries – most famously including the Japanese technology powerhouse Softbank and its Vision Fund – to deploy some of its vast wealth.

Selfridges was sold by the Weston family in a £4bn deal - Jonathan Brady/PA Wire

The PIF is the spearhead of efforts by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), to seek higher returns on the country’s massive oil revenues and gain expertise to drive economic development. It has taken stakes in an array of major Western technology and entertainment companies, and financial institutions.

MBS, who has been invited to visit the UK in autumn despite an assessment by the US that he approved the 2018 murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, is using the PIF’s firepower to improve the Kingdom’s international standing.

He is ploughing hundreds of billions into Neom, a vast urbanisation project that includes a 170km-long, 200m-wide “linear city” in the desert called The Line. The Kingdom aims to attract famous retailers and restaurants.

Saudi Arabia is also spending heavily to bring sports including football, cricket and golf, via its controversial LIV tour, to the Kingdom. It is also funding a new flag carrier airline to take on regional competitors Emirates and Qatar Airways.

The PIF interest in Selfridges opens a new front to the fierce rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which owns the department store’s longstanding London competitor Harrods.

In Qatari hands, Harrods has pursued international expansion, opening stores in airports and in China. Selfridges, founded in 1908, is yet to operate outside the UK.

Signa and Central loaded it up with extra debt under a structure which separates Selfridges’ property from its retail business. The London branch of Bangkok Bank provided a loan of £1.7bn that is secured against the freehold of its flagship London store. The Swiss lender EFG Bank also provided a loan to help fund the deal, secured against Selfridges’ Exchange Square site in Manchester.

As well as providing capital for an acquisition, such debt structures can substantially increase returns. They can also impose higher financial risks on a business, however, particularly when interest rates are rising.

In its most recent accounts, for the year to the end of January 2022, Selfridges retail business reported a sharp increase in sales last year as shoppers returned after the pandemic. Revenues rose 28pc to £653m, although remained £200m short of their pre-Covid peak. Selfridges has since said it had its best Christmas ever last year.

The PIF declined to comment. Signa confirmed the PIF’s interest and said it had no intention to sell any portion of its stake in Selfridges.

A Signa spokesman said: “The ownership of Selfridges has not changed.“

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