byKATE HESTONDaily Inter Lake|February 14, 2025 12:00 AMA bill that would ban the use of mRNA vaccines, including for Covid-19, is on its way to the House floor after passing out of committee in a party-line vote Wednesday. Sponsored by Rep. Greg Kmetz, R-Miles City, and co-sponsored by Northwest Montana Reps. Tracy Sharp, R-Polson, and Lukas Schubert, R-Kalispell, House Bill 371 would prohibit administering vaccines developed with mRNA, or messenger ribonucleic acid, technology on humans. The bill deems the technology, which was employed to create the Covid-19 vaccines, a hazard. The House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 12 voted 12-8 to send the bill to the floor. Sharp, along with local Reps. Braxton Mitchell, R-Columbia Falls, and committee Chair Amy Regier, R-Kalispell, voted in favor. The bill was amended to specify that the legislation would ban mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases" and not gene therapy products used to treat cancers or genetic disorders.Supporters had previously testified that the vaccines caused more harm than good. [mRNA vaccines are] the most destructive and lethal medical products that have ever been used in medical history, Dr. Christine Drivdahl-Smith, a family physician in Miles City, told the committee earlier this month.Opponents, though, said mRNA vaccines safely help the body build antibodies against diseases. They also argued that removing vaccines limits individual choice and involved the government in health care decisions. This bill interferes with the health care provider, patient relationships, it interferes with the practice of medicine, said Dr. Douglas Harrington, a preventative medicine physician and the state medical officer for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, during testimony earlier this month. Reporter Kate Heston may be reached at 758-4459 or kheston@dailyinterlake.com.

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As businesses race to implement generative AI in 2025, they risk making potentially devastating ... [+] mistakes that could result in severe financial and reputational damage.Adobe StockAccording to recent research, 67% of business leaders believe that generative AI will bring significant change to their organizations over the next two years.But in the rush to adopt and deploy this world-changing technology, its pretty likely that mistakes will be made.The downside of this enormous potential is that when things go wrong, the damage can be quite serious too, from reputational harm to harsh fines and, perhaps worst of all, loss of customer trust.So heres my overview of five of the most common mistakes that I believe many businesses and business leaders will make in the coming year so you can plan to avoid them.Omitting Human OversightPowerful and transformative as it undoubtedly is, we cant ignore the fact that generative AI isnt always entirely accurate. In fact, some sources state that factual errors can be found in as many as 46 percent of AI-generated texts. And in 2093, the tech news website CNET paused the publication of AI-generated news stories after having to issue corrections for 41 out of 77 stories. What this means for businesses is that proofreading, fact-checking and keeping a human-in-the-loop is essential if you dont want to run the risk of making yourself look silly.Of course, humans make mistakes, too, and any business involved in information exchange should have robust procedures for verification regardless of whether they use generative AI or not.Substituting GenAI For Human Creativity And AuthenticityMORE FOR YOUAnother mistake I am worried we will see far too frequently is becoming over-reliant on genAI as a substitute for human creativity. This is likely to have negative consequences on the authenticity of a business or a brand voice. While its easy to use ChatGPT or similar tools to churn out huge volumes of emails, blogs, social media posts and suchlike super-fast, this frequently leads to overly generic, uninspiring content that leaves audiences feeling disconnected or even cheated. Video game publisher Activision Blizzard, for example, was recently criticized by fans for using AI slop in place of human-created artwork. Its important to remember that generative AI should be used as a tool to augment human creativity, not to replace it.Failing To Protect Personal Data Unless a generative AI application is run securely on-premises on your own servers, theres often no real knowing what will happen with the data entered into it. OpenAI and Google, for example, both state in their EULAs that data uploaded to their generative chatbots can be reviewed by humans or used to further train their algorithms. This has already caused problems for some organizations Samsung stated that its employees had inadvertently leaked confidential company information by entering it into ChatGPT without being aware of the consequences. Incidents like this create a risk for companies that they will end up in breach of data protection regulations, which can lead to severe penalties. This is likely to be an increasingly common occurrence as more and more companies start using generative AI tools, and organizations particularly those that handle personal customer data at scale should ensure staff are thoroughly educated about these dangers.Overlooking Intellectual Property RisksMany commonly used generative AI tools, including ChatGPT, are trained on vast datasets scraped from the internet, and in many cases, this includes copyrighted data. Due to the lack of maturity in AI regulations, the jury is still out on whether this constitutes a breach of IP rights on the part of AI developers, with several cases currently going through the courts. The buck might not stop there, however. Its been suggested that businesses using genAI tools could also find themselves liable at some point in the future if copyright holders manage to convince courts that their rights have been infringed. As of now, failing to assess whether AI-generated output could contain copyright or trademark-infringing materials is likely to land businesses in hot water in 2025, if they arent taking proactive measures to make sure it doesnt.Not Having A Generative AI Policy In PlaceIf you want to minimize the chances that anyone working for your organization makes any of these mistakes, then probably the best thing to do is to tell them not to. The potential use cases for genAI are so varied, and the opportunities it creates are so vast that it's almost certainly going to be misused at some point. Perhaps the most important single step you can take to reduce the chance of that happening is to have a clear, defined framework in place setting out how it can and cant be used.As far as I'm concerned, this is a no-brainer for every organization that stops short of a blanket ban on generative AI, which would be a pretty big mistake, given the opportunities it creates. Without such a policy in place, you can almost guarantee it will be used without appropriate oversight, overused to the detriment of human creativity, and lead to unauthorized disclosure of personal data, IP infringement, and all the other mistakes covered here.To wrap up in 2025, we will see organizations take huge steps forward as they become increasingly confident, creative and innovative in the way they use generative AI. We will also see mistakes. Being fearful of the transformative potential of generative AI will most likely hand the lead to our competition, but adopting a careful and cautious approach can save us from costly mistakes.

Chinese President Xi Jinping makes a toast at the Great Hall of the People in September 2023 in this file photo.Andy Wong-Pool/Getty ImagesPresident Xi Jinping met some of Chinas most prominent tycoons, sending what analysts say is the strongest signal of support in years to companies like web giants Alibaba and Tencent.Xi met them at a symposium for private sector enterprises on Monday held at Beijings Great Hall of the People, reported the official Xinhua News Agency, and delivered a speech after listening to the entrepreneurs.Xi pledged unwavering support to private enterprises, including financing support and tax relief, and in creating a more fair competitive environment. Our private economy will only be stronger, and it cant be weakened, he said according to Xinhua. And it must perform on a bigger stage.Pony Ma, cofounder of gaming and social media giant Tencent and the countrys second-richest man with a fortune of $52.1 billion, was at the event, a person with knowledge of the matter told Forbes Asia. Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma, BYD cofounder Wang Chuanfu, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun as well as Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei could be seen in footage from state broadcaster CCTV. Reuters first reported the meeting would take place last week.Private enterprises now play an extremely important role in stabilizing the economy, as China still faces high growth pressure and uncertainties in 2025, Shen Meng, managing director of Beijing-based boutique investment bank Chanson & Co., says by WeChat. Hosting the highest level meeting with private sector entrepreneurs further sends positive signals to their development. The last time Xi held such a meeting was in 2018, at the onset of a U.S.-China trade war during the first Donald Trump administration, which brought significant risks to the countrys economy, Feng Chucheng, founding partner of Shanghai-based research firm Hutong Research, says by WeChat. Now, China is facing off with the U.S. not just on trade but advanced technologies including AI and semiconductors, as the worlds two largest economies jockey for supremacy in these areas.The U.S. has imposed sweeping controls on selling AI- and chip-related technologies to China, not entirely successfully. DeepSeek, whose founder Liang Wenfeng was also reportedly among the tech entrepreneurs meeting Xi on Monday, released in January a highly cost-effective AI model that stunned Silicon Valley. It subsequently wiped off about $1 trillion from the market caps of tech leaders including Nvidia as investors started to question whether high spending in AI-related chips is necessary.E-commerce behemoth Alibaba announced in January that its latest Qwen AI model could be better than DeepSeek and some OpenAI models in certain areas of performance. Tencent says it is beta testing the integration of DeepSeeks model in its WeChat messaging app in China, fueling hopes this would create an AI super app with enhanced search and recommendation functions. Tencents Hong Kong-listed shares rose as much as 6.5% on that news in Mondays trading.The private sector will serve as the foundation of future growth, Hutong Researchs Feng says. He adds that one of the Monday meetings goals was to double down on driving consumption and innovation to support economic recovery.Signals of support for the private sector from the top amounts to a dramatic reversal of attitude. After Jack Mas 2020 criticism of Chinas financial regulatory system, Beijing effective halted an initial public offering of fintech giant Ant Group, which Ma cofounded after Alibaba. Officials conducted a sweeping crackdown on the technology sector, fining companies billions of dollars for monopolistic practices and even halting the issuance of gaming licenses as they blamed online games for causing addiction among youth.Alibaba cofounder Ma travelled overseas for years, before gradually appearing in public view starting from 2024. The company confirmed last week that it is partnering with Apple to introduce AI services for iPhone users in China, which analysts say might help Alibaba attract more users for its AI models down the road.

Screens display web pages of the Chinese AI DeepSeek in Goyang, South Korea, on Feb. 17, 2025.Jung Yeon-jeAFP/Getty ImagesBy Associated PressFebruary 17, 2025 12:00 AM ESTSEOUL, South Korea DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, has temporarily paused downloads of its chatbot apps in South Korea while it works with local authorities to address privacy concerns, according to South Korean officials on Monday.South Koreas Personal Information Protection Commission said DeepSeeks apps were removed from the local versions of Apples App Store and Google Play on Saturday evening and that the company agreed to work with the agency to strengthen privacy protections before relaunching the apps.Read More: Is the DeepSeek Panic Overblown?The action does not affect users who have already downloaded DeepSeek on their phones or use it on personal computers. Nam Seok, director of the South Korean commissions investigation division, advised South Korean users of DeepSeek to delete the app from their devices or avoid entering personal information into the tool until the issues are resolved.Many South Korean government agencies and companies have either blocked DeepSeek from their networks or prohibited employees from using the app for work, amid worries that the AI model was gathering too much sensitive information.The South Korean privacy commission, which began reviewing DeepSeeks services last month, found that the company lacked transparency about third-party data transfers and potentially collected excessive personal information, Nam said.Nam said the commission did not have an estimate on the number of DeepSeek users in South Korea. A recent analysis by Wiseapp Retail found that DeepSeek was used by about 1.2 million smartphone users in South Korea during the fourth week of January, emerging as the second-most-popular AI model behind ChatGPT.More Must-Reads from TIMEInside Elon Musks War on WashingtonWhy Do More Young Adults Have Cancer?Colman Domingo Leads With Radical Love11 New Books to Read in FebruaryHow to Get Better at Doing Things AloneCecily Strong on Goober the ClownColumn: The Rise of Americas BroligarchyIntroducing the 2025 ClosersContact us at letters@time.com

Don Pettits been snapping away in orbit again. This time, the NASA astronaut has captured a stunning image of the Milky Way from the International Space Station (ISS) . It also features Earth and city lights some 250 miles below the orbital outpost.Starry starry night from an orbital palette pic.twitter.com/YpFVIEMzO9 Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) February 15, 2025Sharing it on social media on Sunday, the epic image quickly picked up a lot of likes and positive comments.Recommended VideosOne contributor wrote: If I saw this in person Id never want to return to Earth. Simply stunning, while another described it as cosmic strokes on a celestial canvas.Please enable Javascript to view this contentThe image follows a similarly striking shot (below) posted by Pettit last week, captured from inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule currently docked at the space station.Star field from @Space_Station. Taken from the SpaceX Crew 9 Dragon vehicle showing the Southern Cross region using my homemade star tracker. Big thanks to @BabakTafreshi for doing the image processing I cant do on orbit. pic.twitter.com/Tx4SmHXUXk Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) February 12, 2025The star tracker that Pettit refers to is a device that he co-designed and built to capture long-exposure, blur-free photographs of stars. The device works by rotating the camera at the same rate as the stations orbit once every 90 minutes compensating for the stations motion to enable sharp photos of distant stars.Since arriving at the ISS in September last year, Pettit has been showing off his photography skills by posting a slew of impressive images of Earth and beyond.One of his most stunning efforts is of rivers in the Amazon Basin, which he described as looking like flowing silver snakes. He also captured the recent maiden launch of Blue Origins New Glenn rocket in a somewhat surreal image, and photographed a Crew Dragon capsule as it returned to Earth at high speed at the end of the historic Polaris Dawn mission.Pettit recently took part in a Q&A session from the ISS in which he talked about what its like to take photos of Earth from inside the space-based facility, while he has also performed the coolest camera lens swap youll ever see thanks to microgravity.Editors Recommendations

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsIts ready for the takingPlenty of precedent out thereApple has the stack readyApples ambitions in the immersive world of augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) are off to a rough start. The $3,500 Vision Pro failed to kick off a market storm. Then came reports of Apple cancelling its AR smart glasses project.The company, however, is not done yet. As per Bloomberg, Apple is bringing its suite of AI tools called Apple Intelligence to the visionOS platform. That means AI tricks such as Writing Tools, Genmoji, and Image Playground are coming to the headset.Recommended VideosThose arent really exciting upgrades for the Vision Pro, especially considering its steep price tag and the kind of advanced tech stack it has to offer. You arent buying a $3,500 AR/VR headset to fix grammar, or whip up AI generated stickers, after all. What Apple should instead focus on, is the healthcare and the medical science segment. Thats a niche where it can find more serious takers for a device like the Vision Pro, than an average buyer interested in AR or VR headset for recreational tasks like gaming or watching immersive videos.NAKAMIRThe domain of medical science is no stranger to AR and VR advancements, and specifically, their great potential in a scientist or healthcare professionals day to day activities. This is what experts at Stanford University have to say about the potential of AR/V tech:In future, VR and AR displays may be worn by patients during part of telehealth visits to measure vital signs and other health metrics for the physician, then add data automatically to the electronic health record with the patients permission.They also mention how emergency medical technicians (EMT) can assess a medical situation and get apt instructions, when they see and relay the patients condition directly to an expert physician via a headset or smart glasses.For example, The NARA (Nakamir Augmented Reality Assistant) combines AI and AR on a Microsoft HoloLens 2 for assisting workers across different fields, including healthcare. In another proven scenario, a mixed reality headset or AR glasses can be used to guide a person about emergency life-saving steps.HeruExperts also propose that such hardware should be included in the Automatic external defibrillators (AED) kits, so that instructions on usage and other such protocols can be provided in a more immersive fashion during emergency situations.The folks over at Heru are using headsets to offer optometry services, such as conducting at home vision tests. The test is taken at home and the relevant data is transmitted to the healthcare experts, who can subsequently lay out the plans for further assistance based on the results.In the realm of mental health and wellness, VR gear can also help with mindfulness for stress reduction in PTSD, focusing attention for ADHD, reinforcing skills taught in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or memory and cognitive training for neurodegenerative diseases.VA ImmersiveA pilot study conducted by the Strategic Initiatives Lab at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found that VR-driven experiences can help with alleviating loneliness, ease anxiety, and assist with pain and stress, among other related mental health issues in veterans. The government agency also offers a detailed Introductory Guide to Immersive Technology material (PDF) to assist with providing the right XR-driven care to veterans.Professors Kim Bullock and Jeremy Bailenson at Stanford recently detailed how Virtual reality-assisted physical therapy and mirror visual feedback (MVF) can help children living with cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that seriously hinders body motion and posture.Their findings have been published in the American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience. A company named XRHealth offers a wide range of pain management, cognitive training, neuro rehabilitation, and mindfulness care to patients, delivered via VR headsets and FDA-registered therapeutic apps.The folks over at NYU Langone Health are deploying AR and VR tech to create immersive 3D anatomy modules that provide a photorealistic experience to medical students, allowing them to learn anatomical structures in detail.NYU Langone HealthResearchers at the Miami Miller School of Medicine recently tested how VR headsets can Alleviate the significant stress experienced during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum.The possibilities of deploying the Vision Pro in healthcare are endless, as the field continues to expand and research picks up pace. Experts suggest that sensors, such as those capable of measuring electroencephalography (EEG) can be integrated in XR hardware to help provide care to Alzheimers patients.Apple already makes a wide range of devices that are equipped with biosensors that can record a wide set of biomarkers. They can prove to be of great help to doctors at assessing a patients health history, such as heart rate activity and sleep patterns. For example, the Apple Watch can measure oxygen saturation levels, detect irregular heart rate rhythm, sense temperature deviations, and a lot more.The Beats PowerBeats Pro 2 earbuds can measure heart rate. All this biosensing data is tied to the Apple Health platform, which is available across a wide range of devices. Pushing the Vision Pro into that ecosystem more deeply wont be an issue for Apple.Christine Romero-Chan / Digital TrendsThe many possibilities for using VR headsets and AR glasses in health care at home provide strong reasons for designing HMDs to measure bio-signals, offer secure telemedicine video streaming, and deliver immersive therapies, writes Angela McIntyre, Executive Director of the Stanford Wearable Electronics (eWEAR) Initiative at Stanford University.Yes, there are cybersecurity and privacy risks. But if there is one company that has done an acceptable job of safeguarding user privacy in the domain of tech, it is Apple. Moreover, the company wont exactly be walking into an uncharted territory if it pushed the Vision Pro as a health-centric product.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already granted De Novo request or Premarket Approval via a 510(k) clearance to a wide range of AR/VR gear in the field of medicine. As of September 2024, the agency had authorized 69 medical devices that rely on AR and VR tech for diagnostic, treatment, telemedicine, virtual care, and therapeutic purposes.Christine Romero-Chan / Digital TrendsOn the other end of the equation, Apple already works with a wide pool of scientific experts and educational institutions. For its latest Health Study, the company tapped experts at the Harvard Medical School to assess how data gathered from iPhones and wearable devices can further scientific research.The Vision Pro has all the computing power at its disposal, and one of the most advanced AR/VR display tech the industry has to offer. All it needs is to make a solid push into a domain where the benefits of AR and VR have a proven track record, alongside plenty of uptake by experts.It would make sense for a $3,500 headset to find such medical utility, rather than Apple selling a flashy dream of virtual computing that can already be performed just fine with a Mac and pair of less-bulky XR glasses on a much lower budget.Editors Recommendations

The Chinese technology giant has begun tests to integrate homegrown startup DeepSeeks AI model into its Weixin messaging app.

A drone unit in Ukraine said it destroyed three prized Russian air defense systems in a single day.It posted clips of drone attacks, saying it hit a Tor-M2, a Buk-M2, and a Buk-M3.In its post on Saturday, the unit also highlighted that the drones were funded by civilians.The drone unit of a Ukrainian brigade in Zaporizhzhia said it destroyed three advanced Russian air defense systems in a single day.The Ronin company of the 65th Mechanized Rifle Brigade posted footage of the first-person view drone attacks on Saturday, saying it took out a Tor-M2, a Buk-M2, and a Buk-M3.Those are some of Moscow's most prized mobile surface-to-air missile systems, with the Tor-M2 lauded in Russian state media in 2023 as a "cutting-edge" weapon that can counter drone swarms on the move.With a range of about 7.5 miles, the Tor-M2 is designed to engage up to 48 targets at once at low to medium altitudes.The Buk-M3 is also one of Russia's newest air defenses. Russian state media outlet TASS compared it in 2016 to the Medium Extended Air Defense System, a Western-made system meant to replace the Patriot. Each Patriot system is estimated to cost about $1.1 billion.The clips posted by the "Ronin" company on Saturday showed first-person view drones closely approaching the air defense systems before their video feeds went dark. While the drones' flight trajectory and distance to the Russian defenses indicate a successful hit, Business Insider couldn't independently verify if the systems were actively deployed assets or were destroyed.But the videos show yet another example of how the fighting in Ukraine is increasingly relying on cheap loitering munitions, even to counter high-value targets.Drone makers in Ukraine usually tell BI that they sell or create exploding drones for $750 to $1,500 apiece, depending on the device's size.Meanwhile, it's difficult to pinpoint how much Russia spends on its air defense systems. The Ukrainian military has estimated that the Tor-M2 costs about $27 million per unit and that the Buk-M3 costs about $40 to $50 million per unit.The Ronin company's post on Saturday also indicated that the drones used in the attack weren't officially supplied but received through civilian donations."The sponsor of the defeat is the Sternenko community," the unit wrote on its social media channel, referring to the Ukrainian crowdfunding activist Serhii Sternenko.Sternenko, one of the biggest drone crowdfunders in Ukraine, acknowledged the attacks on Saturday, calling the drone unit "true masters of their craft" in a post on his Telegram channel."We provide them with drones upon individual requests specifically for performing such tasks," he wrote, adding that the air defense systems were positioned at the Russian rear.Drone warfare continues to evolve on the battlefield in Ukraine.For example, with loitering munitions becoming so ubiquitous, the war fronts have increasingly been reported to become saturated with jammers. That prompted Russian units to bring fiber-optic drones to the fight last year, and Ukrainian companies and brigades have been following suit in manufacturing their own versions.Russia's defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment sent by BI outside regular business hours.