What does it mean for AI to understand?

What does it mean for AI to understand?

Melanie Mitchell writes: Remember IBM’s Watson, the AI Jeopardy! champion? A 2010 promotion proclaimed, “Watson understands natural language with all its ambiguity and complexity.” However, as we saw when Watson subsequently failed spectacularly in its quest to “revolutionize medicine with artificial intelligence,” a veneer of linguistic facility is not the same as actually comprehending human language. Natural language understanding has long been a major goal of AI research. At first, researchers tried to manually program everything a machine would need…

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Physicists prove anyons exist, a third kingdom of quasiparticles that only arise in two dimensions

Physicists prove anyons exist, a third kingdom of quasiparticles that only arise in two dimensions

Discover reports: After decades of exploration in nature’s smallest domains, physicists have finally found evidence that anyons exist. First predicted by theorists in the early 1980s, these particle-like objects only arise in realms confined to two dimensions, and then only under certain circumstances — like at temperatures near absolute zero and in the presence of a strong magnetic field. Physicists are excited about anyons not only because their discovery confirms decades of theoretical work, but also for practical reasons. For…

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Hidden Pentagon records reveal pattern of failures in deadly strikes

Hidden Pentagon records reveal pattern of failures in deadly strikes

The New York Times reports: Shortly before 3 a.m. on July 19, 2016, American Special Operations forces bombed what they believed were three ISIS “staging areas” on the outskirts of Tokhar, a riverside hamlet in northern Syria. They reported 85 fighters killed. In fact, they hit houses far from the front line, where farmers, their families and other local people sought nighttime sanctuary from bombing and gunfire. More than 120 villagers were killed. In early 2017 in Iraq, an American…

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A humanitarian catastrophe: ‘No one benefits from a failed state in Afghanistan’

A humanitarian catastrophe: ‘No one benefits from a failed state in Afghanistan’

David Ignatius writes: Americans have been generous after military victories. Just look at the postwar economic miracles in Germany and Japan. But it’s harder to be generous in defeat — as we see in the Biden administration’s wary response to the humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s seizure of power there in August. As winter approaches, Afghanistan’s battered population faces food shortages approaching famine; its financial system has imploded, thanks in part to U.S. Treasury sanctions. There is, literally,…

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In South Africa, Gauteng’s Omicron wave is already peaking. Why?

In South Africa, Gauteng’s Omicron wave is already peaking. Why?

David Wallace-Wells writes: In Gauteng, South Africa’s Omicron epicenter, the wave seems to be cresting. In other parts of the country, too, the terrifyingly fast rise of the new variant appears already to be slowing and even receding. This is very encouraging, since it suggests that Omicron waves elsewhere in the world may also be, if disorientingly fast, also mercifully short. But it is also a bit confusing, given that the wave has peaked well before anything like it had…

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Trump White House made ‘deliberate efforts’ to undermine Covid response, report says

Trump White House made ‘deliberate efforts’ to undermine Covid response, report says

NBC News reports: The Trump administration engaged in “deliberate efforts” to undermine the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic for political purposes, a congressional report released Friday concludes. The report, prepared by the House select subcommittee investigating the nation’s Covid response, says the White House repeatedly overruled public health and testing guidance by the nation’s top infectious disease experts and silenced officials in order to promote then-President Donald Trump’s political agenda. In August of last year, for example, Trump hosted…

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McConnell rips ‘horrendous’ January 6 riot, says public ‘needs to know’ what happened

McConnell rips ‘horrendous’ January 6 riot, says public ‘needs to know’ what happened

HuffPost reports: Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell described the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as “horrendous” in a surprising interview Thursday, and said he was looking forward to what the House select committee investigating it discovers. “I think the fact finding is interesting. We’re all going to be watching it,” McConnell told Spectrum News. “It was a horrendous event, and I think what they’re seeking to find out is something the public needs to know.” [Continue reading…]…

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The most openly anti-Semitic president in U.S. history

The most openly anti-Semitic president in U.S. history

Jonathan Chait writes: Donald Trump is the most openly anti-Semitic president in American history. There is no close second. While many presidents expressed anti-Semitic beliefs in private, only Trump has done so repeatedly, and usually in public. If you go through the list of classic anti-Semitic beliefs, Trump has checked off nearly every box: — Jews are natural negotiators (“I’m a negotiator, like you folks”) — Jews buy off politicians (“You want to control your own politician”) — Jews are…

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America is not ready for Omicron

America is not ready for Omicron

Ed Yong writes: America was not prepared for COVID-19 when it arrived. It was not prepared for last winter’s surge. It was not prepared for Delta’s arrival in the summer or its current winter assault. More than 1,000 Americans are still dying of COVID every day, and more have died this year than last. Hospitalizations are rising in 42 states. The University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, which entered the pandemic as arguably the best-prepared hospital in the country,…

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Unvaccinated Covid patients push hospital systems past the brink

Unvaccinated Covid patients push hospital systems past the brink

Bloomberg reports: In a Kentucky hospital bed at the end of November, a Covid-19 patient from the state’s latest wave of infections lay alone behind the glass isolation wall. A high-flow oxygen mask pushed extra air into his damaged lungs. His heart beat fast, though he lay frail and still. His mouth opened and closed to take tiny gulps of air. It looked like he was suffocating. Kentucky’s Covid landscape is a lot like what’s happening in the rest of…

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Will we always need Covid-19 boosters? Experts have theories

Will we always need Covid-19 boosters? Experts have theories

STAT reports: With the world facing the latest in a seemingly endless stream of coronavirus variants — and with bullish talk from manufacturers about a need for even more vaccine shots — you wouldn’t be alone if you were wondering: Are Covid boosters always going to be a fixture in our future? The simple truth is that, at this point, there’s no definitive answer to that question. But virologists, immunologists, and vaccinologists have opinions that are anchored in an understanding…

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January 6 investigators mull whether Trump violated obstruction law

January 6 investigators mull whether Trump violated obstruction law

Politico reports: Members of the Jan. 6 select committee are homing in on a politically explosive question: Did Donald Trump’s actions amid the Capitol attack amount to criminal obstruction of Congress? Twice this week, committee vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) has raised the possibility that Trump’s conduct while a mob of his supporters overtook the Capitol could qualify as an effort to obstruct the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. Cheney described that as a “key” topic facing the panel,…

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How Meadows and a band of loyalists fought to keep Trump in power

How Meadows and a band of loyalists fought to keep Trump in power

The New York Times reports: Two days after Christmas last year, Richard P. Donoghue, a top Justice Department official in the waning days of the Trump administration, saw an unknown number appear on his phone. Mr. Donoghue had spent weeks fielding calls, emails and in-person requests from President Donald J. Trump and his allies, all of whom asked the Justice Department to declare, falsely, that the election was corrupt. The lame-duck president had surrounded himself with a crew of unscrupulous…

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Global warming can set the stage for deadly tornadoes

Global warming can set the stage for deadly tornadoes

Inside Climate News reports: Adding a grim exclamation point to a year of deadly climate extremes, the early December tornadoes that killed at least 90 people in the Southeast were some of the most intense storms on record so late in the year. The storms fired up in Arkansas the night of Dec. 10, during weather far too hot and humid for the season, and raced across Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee and Kentucky on Dec. 11. It will take weeks of…

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