Manzar: Art and Architecture from Pakistan, 1940s to TodayThe National Museum of QatarThrough January 31, 2025The promise of formally daring buildings extends to their contents. What happens inside must be bold and unusual too, right? The National Museum of Qatar opened in 2019, designed by Jean Nouvel after the form of a mineral crystal that blooms in intersecting clusters of flattened disks. It is an extraordinary object: its matte, sand-colored concrete surface absorbs daytime shadows and reddens beautifully in the dusk. Of course, the closer you get, the more the illusion of an impossibly big mineral resolves into a building, and once you go inside, the wild promise of the exterior normalizes into gently angular spaces, which are less of a headache to fill with people and art. Today these interiors host Manzar: Art and Architecture from Pakistan, 1940s to Today, the first survey of its kind. The ambitious project covers 80 years of Pakistani history, from before partition to today, and it is a kind of manifesto by the Art Mill Museum, a Qatari institution that plans to open in 2032, and its intent to be international and multidisciplinary. Manzar was curated by Caroline Hancock and Zarmeene Shah for art, and Aurlien Lemonier for architecture, as a linear chronology that is about two-thirds art, one-third architecture, in distinctly separate segments embedded with vitrines of historical materials like newspapers.Community Centre (2024), by Yasmeen Lari (Kuzey Kaya Buzlu/ Qatar Museums)It is packed with discoveries, from the easily-appreciated zip of Bani Abidis video works to the multidisciplinary and multimedia range of Imran Mir and Shahzia Sikander, and subtler choices about how to tell the story, like acknowledging the long partition and including material on the Bangladesh independence strugglethough a Western visitor might miss the bravery since the display is tucked into a corner. It took a Pakistani acquaintance to point out that we still arent taught about it in school. Im astonished that they included it.It must have been a challenge to imagine what kind of visitor the exhibition would be talking to in an exhibition where most of the artworks, names, and stories will be unfamiliar to most. That could be why this exhibition feels scholarly; and it is a scholarly achievement to put so many names in broader international circulationtimely too, when many of the protagonists are in their 80s and 90s, and their archives in need of long-term homes. The video interviews and the accompanying publication (especially its bibliography) are intended as material for future work, and sustain the curators claim that this is only a first step. The modesty is encoded in the title: Manzar can mean a scene, a view, a landscape, or a perspective in Urdu. But exhibitions are not tentative in their nature; cram all that effort and expertise and history in a series of rooms and it cant help but be convincing, which is a problem for a project that wants to be foundational and propositional all at once. The space, the vitrines, the materials, the labelsmuseums speak with weight and authority that contradicts an open project. This intent is correct and it is very contemporary. But its implementation still uses old-fashioned tools and conventions, and Manzar stumbles over this gap, which is most noticeable in the architectural parts of the exhibition.The first building we see is the Tarbela Dam, which is presented as a historical note instead of as the kind of project thats typically excluded from architecture. Its a detail, but for a new institution with the ambition to claim its place and the freedom to define itself and its methodswhy not cross the line? And once you notice one conventional choice, you see them everywhere.Behrupiya (2024) by Mariah Lookman (Kuzey Kaya Buzlu/ Qatar Museums)Weaving art and architecture into one exhibition is difficult, and Manzar illustrates how much architecture suffers when architectural objects are treated like artworks, conventionally. Its as if the exhibition wasnt made by a new institution at all, but had come direct from MoMA or Pompidou.Plastic art hides less from visitors than do architectural drawings, photographs, and publications that can only represent processes, so architectural objects sit alongside artworks like shy cousins at the partypresent, but a lot of effort to talk to. So half the exhibition speaks, the other half is silent, and the multidisciplinary promise of the title, the and between Art and Architecture, remains a tempting idea. Weaving together two disciplines and narrating the complexity of architectural stories for a contemporary audience requires more than wee labels and a wall text far away. Thankfully there are the videos: groups of interviews are presented separately from the objects they reference. But as fascinating and charming as it is to hear artists and architects speak, these interviews can only do so much because they, like everyone else, tell the stories they want people to know. Should curators challenge self-narratives? Convention says, no.After a few rooms of art and historical introduction, the first section dedicated to architecture occurs about midway through the exhibition, with midcentury projects by some of the expected namesEdward Durell Stone, Neutra, Doxiadis, cochardas well as by new ones like Muzharul Islam, Medhi Ali Mirza, and Mohammad Abdul Ahed. Yasmeen Lari appears too, as the only woman in a group photo from 1956. This is the first architectural island, titled Nation Building and two stories in this section could have had obvious contemporary relevance: mass migration and new cities.Hasan Homes (1972) by Arif Hasan (Courtesy Arif Hasan)Migration could have been discussed through the spatial stories of post-partition refugees who arrived in incredible numbers to cities like Karachi. Their adaptation and accommodation produced teachable mistakes like Doxiadiss masterplan and Korangi development. And new cities could have been approached through a case study of Islamabad, which seems like it should have resonated with local Qatari visitors as well as viewers from other Gulf states. But the visitor is left to make the connections for themself. The second room dedicated to architecture is based on 70s regionalism, around the time of the Zia coup, and it introduces more names like Habib Fida Ali, Kamil Khan Mumtaz, and Nayyar Ali Dada. The latters Alhamra Arts Council gets a handsome new model for the show, surrounded by abundant original material it is the most detailed project in the exhibition, but we arent told why its important. Laris handsome drawings for the Angoori Bagh People Housing Programme 1975 and Experimental Building from 1981 are also treated like puzzle boxes, intriguing and silent.Only the videos tell stories. In one of them, Arif Hasan said: Doxiadis did not understand sociology, and goes onto explain continuing effects of the optimistic Greeks early planning mistakes. Hasan also talks about racists and refugees, and of stepping in to stop displacements that would have been catastrophic. Since the video is around the corner from the relevant display, you have to make the link yourself, if you know the projects well enough to remember which is which. All the contemporary reading that a critical and informed visitor expects is in these videos. The architects talk about context and process, their personal experiences of turning away from personal ego and from powerful people, or crossing class boundaries. Lari recalls being asked: Show us where the chickens will go?Fathers House 18981994 (1994) by Zarnia, courtesy Taimur Hassan Collection. (Kuzey Kaya Buzlu/ Qatar Museums)Memory of a Pink (2012) by Huma Mulji, courtesy Taimur Hassan Collection. (Kuzey Kaya Buzlu/ Qatar Museums)When artarchitectural contact does happen it is through artworks like Zarinas somber floor plans from memory and Huma Muljis pink painting of a wall fragment, both of which summon lost places. The more recent works at the end of the exhibition most naturally blend art and architecture through urban Karachi pop, cinema ads, bazaars, and stickers. So do artworks on the politics of land and human and nonhuman bodies: Seema Nusrats collages of blast sandbags and Naiza Khans long presence on Manora Island both pull on threads that lead from the colonial era through globalization to American drone strikes.The exhibitions final act is a courtyard where the stars are a group of charming and hopeful pavilions designed by Lari and made of natural materials by Pakistani craftswomen brought to Qatar. Here, at last, are architectural objects that can stand on their own.Lev Bratishenko is writer and recovering curator.

A new international architecture competition that asks designers to ideate housing atop Tempelhofer Feld has sparked outrage in Berlin. The 940-acre green space about the size of Central Park is frequented by 200,000 people every week. A referendum was passed in 2014 that was supposed to stymie new buildings on the former airfield, but Germanys ruling coalition made up of center-right (CDU) and center-left (SPD) parties is intent on developing the park to allegedly help quench the capitals housing crisis. Tempelhofer Feld sits beneath the defunct Berlin Tempelhof Airport, a gargantuan complex planned in the 1930s by Ernst Sagebiel, one of Albert Speers stooges. The airport was shuttered in 2008its runways werent big enough for todays jumbo jets and it was too close to the city center. Its replacement, Berlin Brandenburg Airport, opened in 2020. Still, Berlin Tempelhof Airport is among the 20 largest buildings on earth, a place that Norman Foster called the mother of all airports. Tempelhofs dubious history aside, the adjacent park is cherished; on any given day its regular to see visitors fly kites, have picnics, go on dates, read books, and find respite there.A kiting skateboarder at Tempelhofer Feld circa 2021 (Mitch Altman/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 2.0)Now, developers and government leaders want to change all that. Last week, the Senate Department for Urban Development, Building, and Housing announced its Tempelhofer Feld Ideas Competition which asked designers to consider how the park may be opened up to thoughtful peripheral development. This is happening despite the Tempelhofer Feld Law that was passed in 2014 thanks to a group called 100% Tempelhofer Feld Initiative, who fought for the referendum. A Vital Ecological HabitatToday, opposition groups like Architects4THF have teamed up with 100% Tempelhofer Feld Initiative to stop development from happening. The need for more housing in Berlin is real, opposition leaders say, but commodifying a beloved public utility isnt the right way to go about it. This echoes a similar story unfolding in New York where activists are fighting to stop development from coming to Elizabeth Street Garden in Manhattan, albeit whats unfolding in Berlin is on a much larger scale.Tempelhofer Feld is one of Berlins most significant green spaces and a vital ecological habitat, said Bika Rebek, a Berlin-based architect and educator, , and organizer for Architects4THF. Rebek said that the ideas competition which entails permanent construction at Tempelhofer Feld undermines the democratic mandate instilled in the 2014 law and opens the park to real estate speculation.Cyclists at dusk on Tempelhofer Felds runway (Lukas Beck/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0)Tempelhofer Feld first opened up for public use in 2010, two years after Berlin Tempelhof Airport closed, thanks to a master plan by McGregor Coxall, a landscape architecture firm with offices in the U.K. and Australia. After the ribbon cutting, the park quickly took on a new life as the largest public space in Berlin. But loopholes still allowed for buildings to be built on the parks fringes, a gray area that was plugged in 2014 when the Tempelhofer Feld Law was passed. Still, it wouldnt be difficult for the Berlin House of Representatives to overturn the referendum, protesters note. They would just need a simple majority vote, like any other law.CDU officials say they want to build housing for working families, but many arent so sure about the ruling coalitions motivations.Emptiness has a space and silence has a voiceBerlin needs another 194,000 additional apartments by 2030, according to its 2019 urban development plan, in order to meet current demand; but how exactly to fix that problem has created the usual striations (and Twitter/X fights) between YIMBYs and NIMBYs. For years after World War II, there were bombed out land parcels all over Berlin where new buildings could go up, but now it seems those are depleted. What is to be done?Community garden at Tempelhofer Feld (Joe Mabel/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0)The pro-development bund says the answer is seemingly obvious: Build up areas where there arent any buildings, like public parks. Those on the left however have taken a more anti-capitalist approach by vying for things like rent control: In 2020, the city government passed a rent control law, but that ruling was declared unconstitutional in 2021 after stiff pushback from the real estate lobby. Thousands of Berliners took to the streets to protest the ruling.Today, Berliners like Rebek are working to keep Tempelhofer Feld public, permanently. Rebek said that Architects 4THF and 100% Tempelhofer Feld Initiative teamed up to call attention to this critical issue and advocate for the continued protection of Tempelhofer Feld as an irreplaceable public and ecological asset for the city, she noted. The decision not to build can also be an architectural statement: Emptiness has a space and silence has a voice.

Kathryn Coopers Layered Photos Capture the Complexities of Starling MurmurationsNovember 19, 2024Kate MothesFlocks of starlings share risk as hundredseven thousandsof eyes are on the lookout for predators. Remarkably, the group achieves this without any leadership structure, the simple interactions between individuals creating outcomes greater than the sum of their parts, says scientist and photographer Dr. Kathryn Cooper.Coopers professional background in physics and bioinformaticsa data science applied to biological systemsled her to study of the dynamics of networks. She uses a 19th-century photographic technique called chronophotography to reveal what she describes as the robustness of self-organised systems in nature.Some of the earliest motion studies during the Victorian era employed chronophotography. Coopers remarkable panoramas of starling murmurations contain numerous individual photos that, when superimposed into a single image, display the incredible flight paths and coordination of the group.Just before dusk, smaller groups from the same area gather together above a communal roosting site.As the flock grows larger, they cast about the sky in an undulating murmuration.A few basic principles govern the groups rhythmic complexity, namely that each bird responds only to those closest to it. This means that when one bird turns to avoid attack from a falcon, the birds around it also turn, Cooper says. The neighboring birds turn a split second later, then their neighbors turn, and so on, which sends a wave of information through the flock, she adds.This year, Coopers views of starlings were recognized by the Sony World Photography Awards and the Royal Photographic Society. Find more on her website and Instagram.Previous articleNext article

Published November 19, 2024 6:00am EST close 'CyberGuy': Easy way to motorize your manual baby stroller to give it the push and power it needs Tech expert Kurt Knutsson discusses how an innovative Easy-Way kit turns standard strollers electric, simplifying navigation for parents. Ever wished your trusty stroller could magically power itself up those steep hills or through sandy beaches? Well, get ready to have your mind blown. The is a game-changer for parents seeking to ease their daily stroller routines. This innovative device transforms any standard stroller into an electric one, making walks with little ones easier and more enjoyable.IM GIVING AWAY A $500 GIFT CARD FOR THE HOLIDAYSEnter bysigning up for my free newsletter. Electric stroller kit (Easy-Way) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)What is the Easy-Way kit?The Easy-Way kit is designed to retrofit existing strollers, providing electric assistance without the need for a brand-new stroller purchase. This Polish startup's creation is currently featured on Kickstarter, aiming to make life easier for parents everywhere. Electric stroller kit (Easy-Way) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Key features of the Easy-Way electric kitThe Easy-Way kit is designed to be compatible with most strollers that have a rear axle width ranging from 21.7 to 29.5 inches. It features two powerful 150-watt motors that automatically adjust their output based on the terrain, ensuring a smooth experience whether you're going uphill or downhill.With a single charge, parents can expect over 19 miles of use, making it ideal for long city strolls or trips out of town. Additionally, the kit includes a user-friendly remote that is mounted on the stroller handle, allowing parents to select from five different levels of electric assistance to suit their needs. Electric stroller kit remote (Easy-Way) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)How the Easy-Way kit worksThe Easy-Way kit clamps onto the stroller's frame above the rear axle, featuring rubber rollers that engage with the stroller's wheels. Integrated sensors track wheel speed and incline, adjusting motor output automatically for uphill climbs and downhill descents. Electric stroller kit (Easy-Way) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Safety features of the Easy-Way kitThe Easy-Way kit is equipped with essential safety features designed to enhance the security of both the child and the parent. If a parent lets go of the stroller, the system automatically locks the wheels in place, effectively acting as a parking brake to prevent any unintended movement.Additionally, the kit includes an emergency braking function that helps to avoid dangerous situations when navigating slopes, ensuring that the stroller remains under control at all times. Electric stroller kit (Easy-Way) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Conquering any terrain with the Easy-Way kitThe Easy-Way kit provides exceptional uphill assistance, making climbing hills effortless for parents. It also features downhill control, which prevents the stroller from rolling away on slopes, ensuring safety during descents. Additionally, the kit is beach-ready, designed to handle loose sand and uneven surfaces, allowing for smooth strolls in challenging environments. Electric stroller kit (Easy-Way) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)The soothing rocking feature of the Easy-Way kitOne of the standout features of the Easy-Way is its ability to rock the stroller gently, helping soothe infants during outings. With three rocking modes, parents can choose the intensity that best suits their child's preferences. Electric stroller kit (Easy-Way) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Installation and maintenanceThe Easy-Way kit features a quick installation process that requires no tools, taking less than a minute to set up. Its durable design is weather-resistant and built to withstand various conditions, ensuring reliability during daily use. Electric stroller kit (Easy-Way) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)How to get oneThe Easy-Way is currently available through aKickstarter campaign. By pledging approximately $496, backers can secure one of these kits before they hit retail shelves. Once production is complete, the planned retail price will be around $648. This preorder opportunity allows early adopters to take advantage of a lower price while supporting this exciting new product. Electric stroller kit (Easy-Way) (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Kurt's key takeawaysFor parents looking to reduce physical strain while enjoying outdoor activities with their children, the Easy-Way electric stroller kit offers an innovative solution. By blending technology with practicality, this tool promises to make parenting just a little bit easier, one stroll at a time.Are devices like the Easy-Way electric stroller making parenting too easy and contributing to a culture of laziness? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPFor more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.Follow Kurt on his social channels:Answers to the most asked CyberGuy questions:New from Kurt:Copyright 2024 CyberGuy.com.All rights reserved. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on "FOX & Friends." Got a tech question? Get Kurts free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

peshkov - stock.adobe.comNewsMicrosoft Ignite: AI capabilities double every six monthsIf Moore's law promised a doubling of tech every 18 months, the pace is three times quicker with AI developments, says Satya NadellaByCliff Saran,Managing EditorPublished: 20 Nov 2024 9:38 During his keynote presentation at the start of Microsofts annual Ignite conference in Chicago, CEO Satya Nadella discussed artificial intelligence (AI) scaling, through which the capabilities of the tech is doubling every six months.Just like Moores Law, we saw the doubling in performance every 18 months with AI. We have now started to see that doubling every six months or so, he said.He believes a new scaling law will emerge for AI based on the amount of computational time needed to run AI inference. This ability to scale is leading to three major shifts in technological development, according to Nadella.The first is what he describes as a universal multimodal interface universal interface, which supports speech, images, videos, for both input and output.Second, he said: We have new reasoning and planning capabilities, essentially neural algebra to help solve complex problems and can detect patterns involving people, places and things.You can even find relationships between people, places and things using this new algebra.The third is what Nadella calls support for long term memory-rich context, adding: If you put all these things together, you can build a very rich agentic world defined by this tapestry of AI agents, which can act on our behalf across our work and life across teams, business processes, as well as organisations.The company kicked off the Ignite event announcing previews of new AI capabilities. Among these is Copilot Actions, now in private preview, which is designed to enable anyone to automate everyday tasks in Microsoft 365 using simple prompts.Microsoft also unveiled new agents in Microsoft 365, including a natural language AI assistant for Sharepointfor finding and querying content more quickly, and a new Teams agentprovides what Microsoft describes as real-time, speech-to-speech interpretation in meetings. According to Microsoft, meeting participants will also have the option to have the agent simulate their personal voice.Another new agent is for employee self-service. Available on Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat in private preview, this can be used to expedite answers for common policy-related questions and, according to Microsoft, simplifies action-taking on key HR and IT-related tasks, such as helping employees to understand their benefits or request a new laptop. The agent can be customised in Copilot Studio to meet an organisations unique needs.Other agents in public preview take real-time meeting notes in Teams and automate project management from start to finish in Planner.On the developer support side, Microsoft has introduced Azure AI Foundry, which it said gives customers access to all existing Azure AI services and tooling, plus new capabilities. Among these is the Azure AI Foundry software developers kit. Available in preview, this provides what Microsoft calls a unified toolchain for designing, customising and managing AI apps and agents.According to Microsoft, the Azure AI Foundry provides enterprise-grade control and customisation. It offers 25 prebuilt app templates and can be accessed from familiar tools such as GitHub, Visual Studio and Copilot Studio.Read more AI development storiesHow open source is shaping AI developments: The Linux Foundation outlines efforts to bolster enterprise AI adoption through a framework for managing and deploying AI applications, standardised tooling and open data alternatives.Microsoft aims at AI development: New data management and analytics suite features include databases and a data catalog to enable enterprises to develop and operationalize advanced applications.In The Current Issue:Interview: Rahul Todkar, head of data and AI, TripadvisorGartner Symposium: Why the chance of digital success is randomDownload Current IssueDomino fall release topples challenges across AI assembly, scale & governance CW Developer NetworkClearly smart, SAS acquires Hazy: A wider vision for synthetic data CW Developer NetworkView All Blogs

This years most influential woman in UK technology Sheridan Ash, founder and co-CEO of Tech She Can created the charity to bridge the accessibility gap that exists when it comes to female role models in the technology space.While there are many high-profile women in tech, these role models are people to aspire to be, and many young girls feel they need women only one or two steps ahead of them in their careers to show them the path to the top.Computer Weeklys Rising Stars category wasintroduced in 2014as a way to increase the number of women showcased as industry role models.Each year, alongside the top 50 list, Computer Weekly asks its judges to suggest Rising Stars who are starting their journey towards a possible place in the top 50 in the future, and who represent the future of the tech sector.This years Rising Stars are:Hendy founded digital suicide prevention tool R;pple in 2020, designed to help people who are making online searches relating to self-harm or suicide.She is CEO of the charity, which she does alongside her work as the cyber culture manager at Deloitte.With an extensive background in cyber, Hendy is also a TEDx speaker, an ambassador for One Young World and a JAAQ creator, covering the topic of suicide prevention.Underhill has spent her entire career at Lloyds Banking Group, since joining the firm as a graduate in 1999.She has held several roles at Lloyds, and is currently HR director for technology and data, part of the firms Group Chief Operating Office, where she is responsible for developing its people strategies for technology.She has previously sat on the board of now disbanded tech diversity collective the Tech Talent Charter.Clark has worked in the public sector for many years, most recently being appointed the parliamentary under-secretary of state for artificial intelligence (AI) and digital government at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).Her responsibilities range across AI and digital, including AI regulation, transparency and ethics, as well as cyber security and digital identity, and public services.Before her Parliamentary career, Clarks focus was on medicine, having studied bioinformatics at the University of Exeter and worked in roles in diagnostic biochemistry and diagnostic virology.Find out more about our past Rising StarsHeavily focused on the use of AI, Duarte co-founded non-profit We and AI in 2020 to ensure AI is developed with everyone in mind, creating communities to ensure diverse teams of people are involved in the technologys future development.She is also the lead of Better Images of AI, a not-for-profit that offers a free library of images that better represent AI to reduce the use of stereotypical representations of AI such as humanoid robots, glowing brains, outstretched robot hands, blue backgrounds and the Terminator.In 2020, she also became the founding editorial board member of the AI and Ethics Journal, published by Springer Nature.Davis heads up talent, engagement and diversity, as well as learning and development, for IT infrastructure firm Softcat.Her role involves looking after the development of all employees across the organisation, as well as developing the firms graduate and apprenticeship programmes.She is also an advisory board member of community group Women of the Channel.Thakrar founded and is CEO of Included VC, a venture capital fund dedicated to making sure diversity entrepreneurs gain the funding they need.Its not her first time working with entrepreneurs previously she headed up innovation and entrepreneurship in Deep Science Ventures at Imperial College London.

Your boss has read about the power of generative AI and wants you to stop dithering about potential risks and start delivering results. Good luck.

Alexander Sikov/Getty ImagesScholar Gary Marcus has become a kind of Poet Laureate on the shortcomings of artificial intelligence(AI), chronicling in numerous books and articles how the technology often comes up short and is less impressive than the average individual believes.When, five years ago, Marcus wrote about the technical shortcomings of AI, in Rebooting AI, with co-author Ernest Davis, his critique was still somewhat theoretical, pointing to potential dangers of the technology.In the years since, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. That situation leaves Marcus with a real-world canvas upon which to reflect on the actual, present danger of AI.His latest work, Taming Silicon Valley,published last month by MIT Press, catalogs those real-world effects. The book should be required reading for anyone whose life will be touched in any small part by AI, which is pretty much everyone today. As always, Marcus writes in a strong voice that moves through the material in a breezy, commanding style, backed by a solid command of science and technology. The payoff is often blunt, with Marcus predicting worse is to come from each anecdotal example he cites.Also: Kirk and Spock reunite: AI gives us the Star Trek farewell we always wantedAs he's knee-deep in the Twitterverse (Xverse), Marcus makes the most of other voices, quoting scholars and concerned individuals who have themselves written about the dangers at length.The first 50 pages of the book are a story of mishaps with AI, especially generative AIs, and the risks and harms they may -- and, in some cases, already do -- bring. This is familiar territory for anyone who followsMarcus's Substack or his X feed, but it's useful to have the context in one place.The danger has nothing to do with super-intelligent AI, or "artificial general intelligence". Marcus has long been a skeptic of present-day machine learning and deep learning achieving super-human capabilities. He pokes fun at notions that such an intelligence will annihilate humanity in one fell swoop.Also:The best AI for coding in 2024 (and what not to use)"In the field, there is a lot of talk of p(doom), a mathematical notation, tongue-slightly-in-cheek, for the probability of machines annihilating all people," writes Marcus in Taming Silicon Valley. "Personally, I doubt that we will see AI cause literal extinction."Instead, Marcus is concerned with the quotidian dangers of what not-so-smart machines are already doing to society via ChatGPT and other similar programs.Marcus takes us on a tour of the 12 worst present dangers of AI. These dangers include large language models (LLMs) functioning as machines to mass-produce information, such as the dilemma of "scammy AI-generated book rewrites [that] are flooding Amazon," according to a Wired magazine article he cites.More serious are deep-fake voices pretending to be kidnapped individuals, which is something that has already taken place multiple times. "We can expect it to happen a lot more," he predicts of the extortionist scams.Marcus spends many pages discussing intellectual property theft in the form of copyrighted works appropriated by OpenAI and others for training LLMs, without obtaining consent. As is often the case, Marcus can give a greater weight to the matter than one might initially think."The whole thing has been called the Great Data Heist -- a land grab for intellectual property that will (unless stopped by government intervention or citizen action) lead to a huge transfer of wealth -- from almost all of us -- to a tiny number of companies," he writes.Also:Google's Gems are a gentle introduction to AI prompt engineeringThe middle third of the book moves beyond discussing harms to a critique of Silicon Valley's predatory practices and how giant tech firms hoodwink the public and lawmakers by weaving mythology around their inventions to make them seem simultaneously important and utterly benign.The broken promises of OpenAI receive a deserved skewering from Marcus. They include the company no longer being a non-profit, and no longer being "open" in any meaningful sense, instead hiding all of their code from public scrutiny.But the problem is more than a single bad actor: Silicon Valley is rife with misdirection and disingenuousness.Among several rhetorical tricks, Marcus highlights companies such as Microsoft, OpenAI, and Alphabet's Google claiming they're too busy contemplating Doomsday scenarios to bother with the kinds of present dangers he outlines."Big Tech wants to distract us from all that, by saying -- without any real accountability -- that they are working on keeping future AI safe (hint: they don't really have a solution to that, either), even as they do far too little about present risk," he writes."Too cynical? Dozens of tech leaders signed a letter in May 2023 warning that AI could pose a risk of extinction, yet not one of those leaders appears to have slowed down one bit."The result of this approach by big tech has been the co-opting of government, known by policy types as "regulatory capture"."A tiny number of people and companies are having an enormous, largely unseen influence," writes Marcus. "It is not a coincidence that in the end, for all the talk we have seen of governing AI in the United States, mostly we have voluntary guidelines, and almost nothing with real teeth."Given the demonstrable dangers and the self-serving maneuvers of Big Tech, what can be done?In the final third, Marcus reflects on how to tackle the present dangers and the tech culture of misrepresentation and selfishness. He is an outsider to the policy world, even though he has testified before US Congress as an expert.As such, he doesn't provide a blueprint for what should happen, but he does an intelligent job of offering suggestions that make obvious good sense -- for the most part.For example, copyright law should be updated for the age of LLMs."The point now should be to update those laws," he writes, "to prevent people from being ripped off in a new way, namely, by the chronic (near) regurgitators known as large language models. We need to update our laws."Also:The data suggests gen AI boosts software productivity - for these developersThere also needs to be new statutes to protect privacy in the face of the "surveillance capitalism" that uses sensors to suck up everyone's data."As of this writing, no federal law guarantees that Amazon's Echo device won't snoop in your bedroom, nor that your car manufacturer won't sell your location data to anyone who asks," observes Marcus.The biggest gaping hole in the regulatory world is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 passed by the US Congress. Section 230 frees online services, including Meta's Facebook and X, of any responsibility for content, including brutal, disparaging, violent content. It also frees the users of those services to bully their fellow users while hiding behind the excuse that it's only one person's opinion."Newspapers can be sued for lies; why should social media be exempt?" Marcus rightly observes. "Section 230 needs to be repealed (or rewritten), assigning responsibility for anything that circulates widely." Amen to that.Also:6 ways to write better ChatGPT prompts - and get the results you want fasterMarcus also explores broad preventative measures as first principles, including transparency, such as not only demanding open-source code but in many cases forcing companies to disclose how LLMs and the like are being used."Have large language models been used, for example, to make job decisions, and done so in a biased way? We just don't know" because of the lack of transparency, traceability, and accountability, observes Marcus.Amidst all the possible ways Marcus explores for reckoning with risk, his book makes its strongest case in arguing for a regulatory agency for AI -- both domestic and international -- to handle the complexity of the task.Making laws is too slow a procedure, ultimately, to address present harms, writes Marcus. "Litigation can take a decade or more," as he observed in testimony before the US Senate in 2023. An agency can also be "more nimble" than lawmakers, he observes.Also:Google's new AI course will teach you to write more effective prompts - in 5 stepsAlthough there is little appetite for an AI agency, he writes, "the alternative is worse: that without a new agency for AI (or perhaps more broadly for digital technology in general), the United States will forever be playing catchup, trying to manage AI and the digital world with infrastructure that long predates the modern world."In arguing for an AI agency, Marcus faces two challenges. One is demonstrating substantial harm. It's one thing to show risks, as Marcus does in the first 50 pages; however, all those risks have to add up to sufficient harm to rally both public opinion and the urgency of lawmakers.The modern history of regulation shows that rules and agencies have been created only after great harm has been demonstrated. The Securities Act of 1933, which brought strict requirements to what public companies can and cannot do to protect the investing public, followed the stock market crash of 1929, which erased whole fortunes and wrecked the global economy. It was a moment of such unprecedented disaster that it galvanized regulatory efforts. The International Atomic Energy Agency was created to regulate nuclear fission only after the atomic bomb that killed 200,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. On a smaller scale, the US Food and Drug Administration emerged in the early twentieth century after journalists and progressive activists shed light on the massive harms of tainted substances.Also:Think AI can solve all your business problems? Apple's new study shows otherwiseIn other words, governments have rarely acted to promote regulation in advance of the demonstration of substantial harm.Do Marcus's first 50 pages make a convincing case? It's not clear. Given how many individuals use ChatGPT and the like, any notion of harm has to compete with the mass appeal of the tools. Every harm identified by Marcus might be excused away by the enthusiastic user of ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google Gemini as merely the price to be paid for getting a new tool.I emailed Marcus to ask, "Is there enough harm demonstrated in the first 50 pages of the book to justify the measures proposed in the last 60 pages of the book?"In reply, Marcus noted "someone did actually commit suicide in what seems to be LLM-related circumstances," referring to an incident in April of 2023 where a man in his thirties committed suicide after six weeks of interacting with a chatbot.Also:Google survey says more than 75% of developers rely on AI. But there's a catchMarcus noted that beyond an actual incident, "we already are facing many negative consequences of generative AI, ranging from misinformation to covert racism to nonconsensual deepfake porn to harm to the environments; these are all growing fast." "We already are facing many negative consequences of generative AI," argues Marcus. Gary MarcusMarcus's reply reasserts the question of how much harm is too much before society says, enough, and establishes controls.In fact, the best reason for an AI agency may be that there is unlikely to be societal agreement about harm. For some, such as Marcus, any harm is too great, while others want first and foremost to nurture the incipient technology without imposing too many restrictions.An AI agency could reconcile that deep divide by rigorously logging and following up on reported harms, and exploring theoretical harms, to move beyond conjecture to a comprehensive sense of the dangers posed to society.The second big challenge to Marcus's call for an AI agency is how to define what it should oversee. Most agencies have a mandate based on at least rough outlines of what is in their purview.Also:Agile development can unlock the power of generative AI - here's howThe US Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, regulates the transaction of "securities", which may include equities, such as common stock of a publicly listed company, or debt instruments, such as bonds. The SEC does not regulate other tradable instruments, such as derivatives contracts, which are left to another agency, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.The problem with the term "artificial intelligence" is that it has never been a real term. Marcus and other scholars use the term as a shorthand. But, in reality, AI has no precise meaning. AI is a grab-bag, a catch-all for any kind of computer science work that one feels like designating as AI.The late AI scholar Marvin Minsky of MIT coined the term "suitcase words" to mean expressions that could represent whatever anyone wanted them to include. AI is a suitcase word. It can include LLMs but, with the increasing marketing of any software as AI, all sorts of code could be labeled as "AI" whether or not it has anything in common with LLMs.That situation presents a problem for regulators: where to draw the line for their regulatory authority.Also:Could AI make data science obsolete?Should regulators regulate only things that use a certain technological component linked to machine-learning forms of AI, such as stochastic gradient descent, which is used to train most LLMs?Or should they regulate all things that have a certain observed effect, such as appropriating copyrighted material or producing output in natural language? Or should they broaden their bailiwick to anything and everything that claims to be AI?I asked Marcus in an email, "How will regulators know what is in their bailiwick?"Marcus's view is that experts will sort out the definitional questions: "Obviously we need experts, same as we do e.g. for FDA or regulating airplanes."Marcus continued: "Somehow we manage to navigate these definitional questions relatively well for 'food' 'drug', etc." True, except those things are real things, for which definitions can, ultimately be found; AI is not.Marcus urged me not to "overthink" the matter: "Each regulation is going to have a scope relevant to the regulation, e.g. the bill [California Governor Gavin] Newsom just signed on training and transparency is solely about models that are trained," noted Marcus. "A regulation that is about employment discrimination should be about any algorithm, trained or hard-coded, that is used to make employment decisions, etc."Also:Your dream programming job demands this language, every site agreesThat approach is true of individual measures, but it doesn't solve the question of the mandate for an AI agency. Any agency that comes into being will have to have a mandate just like the FDA. That's going to prove tricky while the term AI is a murky one, filled with hype.That situation, however, shouldn't deter society from the project of an AI agency. Marcus's main argument is still the strongest one: law-making simply can't keep pace with the proliferation of AI, however one defines the technology. An oversight body, staffed with experts in the field, armed with regulatory powers, needs to be vigilant on a daily basis. With the imminent change of power in Washington, D.C. as Donald J. Trump becomes the US President in January, I asked Marcus how he views the odds of such an agency taking shape.He is not optimistic:America absolutely needs an AI agency - both to encourage and leverage innovation, but also to mitigate the risks of AI, such as misinformation, discrimination, cybercrime, damage to environment, and the widespread theft of intellectual property. I fear that the Trump administration will ignore many of these risks, letting them escalate, and leaving society to bear them. I very much hope that I am wrong.Artificial Intelligence

Billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont, chairman of the Charoen Pokphand Group, speaks at a seminar in Bangkok in 2017.Dario Pignatelli/BloombergThe Charoen Pokphand Group, an agriculture conglomerate controlled by the family of Thai billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont, will spend 10.55 billion pesos ($179 million) to breed and raise hogs in the Philippines.Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) Philippines Corp., a unit of Charoen Pokphand Foods, will spend that amount on 20 new breeding projects across the country, the Philippine Board of Investments said.The company will lease farms to breed parent stock pigs, producing thousands of piglets annually that will be transferred to wean-finish/grow-out farms until they reach market weight.The project, which will be spread across 11 provinces and create 1,250 jobs, was issued a Green Lane Certification by the nations Board of Investment, the first for an agricultural venture since 2023, when the Philippines started speeding up and simplifying permit and licensing for strategic investments.Each facility will use advanced farm equipment including climate controlled pig buildings, feed silos and automated feeding systems, farrowing pens and crates, gestation pens and both diesel and biogas generators.Dhanin, who received the Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award at the Forbes Global CEO Conference in September 2023, is Thailands second-richest tycoon with a net worth of $14.7 billion, according to Forbes real-time data. Dhanin was Charoen Pokphand chairman for 48 years until he stepped down in 2017. His eldest son, Soopakij, and the youngest, Suphachai, are CP's chairman and CEO respectively. The company has interests in retail, telecommunications, finance, pharmaceuticals, property, autos and e-commerce.

VALENCIA, SPAIN - NOVEMBER 02: A woman walks along a street full of mud and waste from houses after ... [+] heavy rain and flooding hit large parts of the country on November 02, 2024 in Paiporta municipality, in Valencia, Spain. (Photo by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)Getty ImagesWatching the devastating floods in Valencia, Spain, this year turned climate urgency into personal reality for me. Streets I know well were submerged, communities devastated, and the cleanup costs exceeded $3.8 billion. These disasters are no longer distant or rarethey are here, now. Against this backdrop, COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, feels like a critical moment.Baku, historically an oil hub, powered the industrial revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, it hosts discussions about transitioning from that fossil fuel legacy to renewable energy. This symbolism is striking, but action is what matters now. COP29 is not about incremental progress; it must be a decisive step toward securing our climate future.Central to this years summit is the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), which will replace the outdated $100 billion annual finance pledge. Developing countries are calling for significant increases in funding and mechanisms to unlock private capital, enabling them to adapt to climate impacts and transition to clean energy. Wealthier nations remain hesitant, citing economic uncertainties. Without an ambitious NCQG, trust between nations could erode further, leaving the most vulnerable to face the growing impacts of climate change alone.BAKU, AZERBAIJAN - NOVEMBER 11: Participants from Kenya photograph one another in front of a ... [+] billboard about climate finance on the opening day of the UNFCCC COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)Getty ImagesRecent reports suggest the global clean technology market could exceed $2 trillion by 2035, offering unprecedented economic opportunities. Yet, without clear and ambitious policies, and robust public finance, private investment may falter. Over 260 companies, through the Fossil to Clean campaign, are urging governments to triple renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency by 2030. They emphasize that certainty and long-term commitments are essential for unlocking the capital needed to accelerate the energy transition.MORE FOR YOUAt COP29, discussions have been intense. The World Resources Institute outlines three key elements needed for a successful NCQG: a bold finance target, de-risking mechanisms to attract private investment, and strong accountability measures to ensure the effective use of funds. While there has been progress, consensus remains fragile. Wealthier nations have yet to commit to figures that match the scale of the challenge, and time is running out.Equally important is the issue of fossil fuels. The UAE Consensus from COP28 set a clear direction: transition away from fossil fuels, triple renewables and double energy efficiency by 2030. This commitment to shifting away from fossil fuels must be reaffirmed in COP29s final text. This will reiterate to countries that their new national climate plans (NDCs) must have robust clean energy polices embedded and clear plans to reduce energy demand and progressively replace fossil fuel use with clean energy.Without this, the world risks backsliding into systems that perpetuate carbon dependency, leaving future generations to pay the price.A photograph taken on March 19, 2019 shows the oil wells of Bibi Heybat Oil Field, situated at the ... [+] coast of the Caspian Sea outside Baku. - Bibi Heybat's first oil drill took place in 1847, making it the oldest oil field in the world. (Photo by Mladen ANTONOV / AFP)AFP via Getty ImagesBusinesses are not waiting for governments to act. Many have already shifted their investments toward renewable energy and efficiency technologies, recognising that the future is clean. However, private-sector efforts alone are not enough. Governments must provide the regulations that allow businesses to scale up their efforts and accelerate the global transition.Baku is also a test of geopolitical cooperation. The world faces crises that compete for attentioneconomic recovery, energy security, and conflictsbut climate change remains an existential threat that transcends these challenges. If COP29 can align nations behind actionable commitments, it will reassert faith in multilateralism. However, the risk of another summit that prioritises compromise over urgency is real.As ministers prepare for the final stages of negotiations, the outcomes of COP29 will shape the agenda for COP30 in Brazil and beyond. Whether this summit is seen as a breakthrough or a missed opportunity depends on the decisions made now. Strong finance commitments and explicit fossil fuel phase-out language, that can deliver ambitious, investible NDCs are critical.The tools to address the crisis exist. Whats missing is the political courage to act. COP29 must deliver outcomes that go beyond rhetoric and provide the mechanisms needed to accelerate change. Anything less risks failing the moment. For those who have seen the devastation of recent climate impacts at home or away, the stakes are very clear. The world is watching, the time to deliver is now.