Human creativity: key to unlocking AI’s potential

Human creativity: key to unlocking AI’s potential

John Nosta writes: Every day, it seems that artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) are winning the battle for both cognition and creativity, dazzling us with their problem-solving prowess and even artistic flair. But a new paper casts a fascinating and unexpected light on this issue: The secret to AI’s most transformative power may lie not in its algorithms but in the creative minds that guide it. This study examined more than a thousand scientists working in a…

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The elites had it coming

The elites had it coming

Thomas Frank writes: Liberals had nine years to decipher Mr. Trump’s appeal — and they failed. The Democrats are a party of college graduates, as the whole world understands by now, of Ph.D.s and genius-grant winners and the best consultants money can buy. Mr. Trump is a con man straight out of Mark Twain; he will say anything, promise anything, do nothing. But his movement baffled the party of education and innovation. Their most brilliant minds couldn’t figure him out….

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Biden and his inner circle betrayed Harris and lied to America

Biden and his inner circle betrayed Harris and lied to America

“Joe Biden’s decision to run for president again was a catastrophic mistake.” – @JonFavsListen to more Pod Save America wherever you get your podcasts. pic.twitter.com/nhtO9hs4aA — Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) November 8, 2024 Jon Favreau, Obama’s former speech writer, said on Pod Save America: [Biden and his inner circle] refused to believe he was unpopular. They refuse to acknowledge until very late that anyone could be upset about inflation. And they just kept telling us that his presidency was historic…

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Musk believes in climate change. Trump doesn’t. Will that change?

Musk believes in climate change. Trump doesn’t. Will that change?

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk has described himself as “pro-environment” and “super pro climate.” But he also threw himself wholeheartedly into electing as president someone who has dismissed global warming as a hoax. Now, as President-elect Donald J. Trump prepares to enter the White House, one big question is how much sway — if any — Mr. Musk’s views on climate change and clean energy might have in the new administration. During the campaign, Mr. Trump noticeably softened…

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Judge hits pause on Trump’s election interference criminal case

Judge hits pause on Trump’s election interference criminal case

NBC reports: The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s federal election interference case has granted a request from special counsel Jack Smith to hit pause on the process and give him a month to formally request how to move forward — likely the first step in ending the prosecution. In a filing on Friday, Smith said that “as a result of the election” the prosecution “respectfully requests that the Court vacate the remaining deadlines in the pretrial schedule to afford the Government…

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The next pandemic?

The next pandemic?

Fortune reports: Almost from the beginning of the spread of H5N1 bird flu among farms and ranches in the U.S. earlier this year, experts and researchers warned that a critical lag in the blood testing of exposed workers might lead to an underestimation of the virus’s potential transmission to humans. Those warnings have proved prophetic. And the federal Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) now finds itself not only trying to blunt the spread of the virus, but also…

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Qatar to pause Gaza ceasefire mediation, source says

Qatar to pause Gaza ceasefire mediation, source says

Reuters reports: Qatar will stop trying to mediate a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal until Hamas and Israel are willing to resume talks, an official briefed on the matter said, while also casting doubt on the continued presence of Hamas’ political office in Doha. The Gulf country has been working alongside the United States and Egypt on months of so-far fruitless talks between the warring sides in Gaza and its withdrawal from that process would further complicate efforts to…

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What makes human culture unique?

What makes human culture unique?

Arizona State University News: Why is human culture — the shared body of knowledge passed down across generations — so much more powerful than animal cultures? “What’s special about our species?” is a question scientists have wrestled with for centuries, and now a scientist at Arizona State University has a new hypothesis that could change the way we perceive ourselves and the world around us. “Ten years ago, it was basically accepted that it was the ability of human culture…

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‘Party of the elites’: How Republicans tapped into anti-elitist sentiment

‘Party of the elites’: How Republicans tapped into anti-elitist sentiment

  “What went wrong is the question a lot of people are asking right now.” Harris underperformed Joe Biden in every single state across the country, eviscerating any path she may have had to victory. To discuss how her campaign made so many wrong turns and was painted as elitist by billionaires like Trump and Musk, Mehdi talks to Ryan Grim, co-founder of Drop Site News, and Don Calloway, former Missouri Representative and founder of the National Voter Protection Action…

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America’s political discordance: The Trump voters who want progressivism

America’s political discordance: The Trump voters who want progressivism

Amanda Marcotte writes: Perhaps out of fear of insulting their audiences, the pundits, journalists, and political consultants engaged in the lengthy post-mortem about Donald Trump’s horrific victory Tuesday are avoiding the most obvious cause: ignorance. Millions of people who desperately want more progressive policies cast their ballots for a man whose agenda is exactly the opposite of what they want. On Fox News Wednesday, Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt insisted, “The American people delivered a resounding victory for President Trump and…

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Stop pretending Trump is not who we are

Stop pretending Trump is not who we are

Carlos Lozada writes: “We’re not going back,” Harris told us. The tragedy is not that this election has taken us back, but that it shows how there are parts of America’s history that we’ve never fully gotten past. In her book “America for Americans,” Erika Lee argues that Trump’s immigration policies and statements are part of a long tradition of xenophobia — against Southern Europeans, against newcomers from Asia, Latin America and the Middle East — a tradition that has…

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The wreckage Merrick Garland leaves behind

The wreckage Merrick Garland leaves behind

Lisa Needham writes: It has often been said that Donald Trump was running for president to keep himself out of prison. Mission accomplished. But the fact that Trump wasn’t behind bars long ago, that he didn’t suffer any consequences for his criming and now likely never will, can be laid squarely at the feet of one man: Attorney General Merrick Garland. Garland dragged his feet on prosecuting Trump for election interference and pilfering classified documents, making it easy for him…

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Despite climate concerns, young voter turnout slumped and its support split between the parties

Despite climate concerns, young voter turnout slumped and its support split between the parties

Inside Climate News reports: For 19-year-old Carson Carpenter, voting for Donald Trump was a “no-brainer.” Carpenter, who grew up in Prescott, Arizona, and was president of Arizona State University’s College Republicans until this week, said he was mainly influenced by concerns about the economy, particularly affordability. He also strongly believes in environmental protection, and he feels that progress on the environment will continue under Trump. “I think that people that say Trump is bad for the environment, they would be…

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Undoing the ‘deep state’ means Trump would undo over a century of progress in building a federal government for the people and not just for rich white men

Undoing the ‘deep state’ means Trump would undo over a century of progress in building a federal government for the people and not just for rich white men

By Joseph Patrick Kelly, College of Charleston If elected, Donald Trump has vowed to demolish what he calls the “deep state” – a conspiratorial term for the American federal bureaucracy. A second Trump administration, running mate JD Vance has said, should fire thousands of civil servants and replace them with MAGA loyalists. Trump has said he would tap the billionare Elon Musk as the hatchet man to lead his proposed government commission on “efficiency” in government. Compared with the other…

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