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Enough is enough! If a U.S. Senator can be thrown to the floor and handcuffed, YOU and I are not safe!

On 06/12/2025, in culture, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, ethics, future, game-changing environment, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, policy, political science, society, United States, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
As you can see and hear below, Senator Alex Padilla had been trying to get answers for several weeks now from Homeland Security, but wasn’t hearing much back. So he heard that the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, was holding a press conference down the hallway and he attended it to see if he could get some answers to his questions. And while I don’t have all the details on how this situation unfolded, there is NO WAY that a U.S. Senator should be pushed out of a conference room and then pushed to the ground and handcuffed for trying to get answers for his constituents! No way!

As others in the videos below assert, a line has been crossed in our country!

Let’s move to impeach Donald Trump and also rid his administration of these incompetent individuals who are destroying our democracy! If they don’t like the Constitution and how our country has been governed for over 200 years, then perhaps they should consider leaving this country. 

The actions they are taking are NOT making America great again. They are making America the stench of the world.

And it’s not just Donald Trump and members of his administration that should be held accountable. Let’s also start holding Donald’s instruments of power — such as his ICE Agents and others who behave like them — accountable. To any ICE agents out there, take those damn masks off. You shouldn’t be hiding behind masks.

By the way, the silence from the Republicans is deafening.
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Calif. Senator Forcibly Removed and Handcuffed After Interrupting Noem — from nytimes.com by Shawn Hubler, Jennifer Medina, and Jill Cowan (this is a gifted article)
Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, was shoved out of a room and handcuffed after he tried to question Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, during a news conference.

In the tense hyperpartisanship of the moment, the episode quickly swelled into a cause célèbre for both parties. Democratic senators, House members and governors rushed to denounce the treatment of a sitting senator, framing it as the latest escalation in authoritarian actions by the Trump administration. It followed the indictment on Tuesday of Representative LaMonica McIver of New Jersey and the arrest of Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, after the officials, both Democrats, tried to visit a new immigration detention facility in the city.

Republicans just as eagerly tried to frame Mr. Padilla’s behavior as in line with what they have called the lawlessness of the political left as President Trump tries to combat illegal immigration.

 

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A deeply troubling item from the NY Times (gifted article)

On 05/27/2025, in Daniel S. Christian, ethics, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, policy, political science, society, United States, by Daniel Christian

Republican Bill Would Limit Judges’ Contempt Power — from nytimes.com by Michael Gold (this is a gifted article)
Democrats have argued that House Republicans’ measure would rob courts of their power by stripping away any consequences for officials who ignore judges’ rulings.

The sprawling domestic policy bill Republicans pushed through the House [last] Thursday would limit the power of federal judges to hold people in contempt, potentially shielding President Trump and members of his administration from the consequences of violating court orders.

Republicans tucked the provision into the tax and spending cut bill at a time when they have moved aggressively to curb the power of federal courts to issue injunctions blocking Mr. Trump’s executive actions. It comes as federal judges have opened inquiries about whether to hold the Trump administration in contempt for violating their orders in cases related to its aggressive deportation efforts.

From DSC:
This is deeply disappointing to see that this sneaky little provision was tucked away in a 1,000+ page bill. It’s highly likely that it’s from Donald Trump himself — as he stands in contempt of court from a Supreme Court ruling from several weeks ago. But what is equally troubling is that the Republican “leadership” is good with it too, evidently. Shame on them. This isn’t leadership. This is tyranny and a blatant disregard for the rule of law.

What’s even more troubling about the whole Trump situation is that just over half of America put him there. For those who put him in office, I’m not sure how they can tell their children not to lie. Because if a person voted for Donald Trump, they no longer care about someone telling the truth.

Character matters. Ethics and morals matter. The Constitution matters. People matter. America matters. The rule of law matters. Justice matters.  We need to take a serious look in the mirror.

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Summers Says Harvard Student Ban ‘The Stuff of Tyranny’ [bloomberg.com]

On 05/23/2025, in culture, ethics, game-changing environment, higher education, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, political science, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Summers Says Harvard Student Ban ‘The Stuff of Tyranny’ — from bloomberg.com

Former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers blasted the Trump administration’s decision to block Harvard University from enrolling international students, calling on the institution to fight back. “This is vicious, it is illegal, it is unwise, and it is very damaging,” Summers, who is president emeritus of Harvard University, told Bloomberg TV. “Why does it make any sense at all to stop 6,000 enormously talented young people who want to come to the United States to study from having that opportunity?” “Harvard must start by resisting,” he said. “This is the stuff of tyranny.” Summers spoke to Bloomberg’s David Ingles on “The China Show.” (Source: Bloomberg)

 

GIFTED ARTICLE

Trump Administration Says It Is Halting Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students
The move was a major escalation in the administration’s efforts to pressure the college to fall in line with President Trump’s demands.

The Trump administration on Thursday said it would halt Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, taking aim at a crucial funding source for the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college in a major escalation of the administration’s efforts to pressure the elite school to fall in line with the president’s agenda.

The administration notified Harvard about the decision — which could affect about a quarter of the school’s student body — after a back-and-forth in recent weeks over the legality of a sprawling records request as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s investigation, according to three people with knowledge of the negotiations. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

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We Visited Rumeysa Ozturk in Detention. What We Saw Was a Warning to Us All. [Markey, McGovern, & Pressley]

On 04/25/2025, in Emotion, legislatures / government / legal, policy, political science, society, sociology, United States, by Daniel Christian

We Visited Rumeysa Ozturk in Detention. What We Saw Was a Warning to Us All. — from nytimes.com by Edward J. Markey, Jim McGovern, and Ayanna Pressley. This is a gifted article.

When we met Ms. Ozturk in Basile, she told us she feared for her life when she was taken off the streets of her neighborhood, not knowing who had grabbed her or where they were taking her. She said that at each step of her transit — from Massachusetts to New Hampshire to Vermont to Louisiana — her repeated requests to contact her lawyer were denied. Inside the detention center, she was inadequately fed, kept in facilities with extremely cold temperatures and denied personal necessities and religious accommodations. She suffered asthma attacks for which she lacked her prescribed medication. Despite all this — and despite being far away from her loved ones — we were struck by her unwavering spirit.

Why did the Trump administration target her? By all accounts, it’s because she was one of the authors of an opinion essay for The Tufts Daily criticizing her university’s response to resolutions that the Tufts student senate passed regarding Israel and Gaza.

This is not immigration enforcement. This is repression. This is authoritarianism.
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Fight the Trump Administration’s Defiance of the Constitution and Courts [5calls.org]

On 04/23/2025, in dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, legislatures / government / legal, policy, political science, society, United States, by Daniel Christian

Fight the Trump Administration’s Defiance of the Constitution and Courts — from 5calls.org

On April 14th, the Trump administration openly defied a unanimous order from the Supreme Court by refusing to bring back a person they knowingly sent to a torture prison in El Salvador by mistake.
…

Since Day 1, the Trump administration has been consistently eroding the constitutional separation of powers and system of checks and balances. They have…

From DSC:
Be more like Harvard.

Harvard sues the Trump administration in escalating confrontation — from washingtonpost.com by Susan Svrluga and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel
Lawsuit argues that government actions, including freezing $2.2 billion in federal funding, violated the First Amendment and didn’t follow legal procedures.

Harvard University sued the Trump administration in federal court Monday, the latest move in the escalating feud between the nation’s wealthiest school and the White House.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts against multiple federal agencies, seeks to block the Trump administration from withholding federal funding “as leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard.”

Alan M. Garber, the president of Harvard, said in a message to the university community Monday that the Trump administration’s actions are unlawful and beyond the government’s authority.

From DSC:
Trump has WAAAAY overstepped his jurisdiction and has crossed boundaries left and right. He has single-handedly wreaked havoc across the world — especially with the trade wars and by undermining the Federal Reserve. But he has also trampled on the rights of people living in America. Perhaps we need to write or revisit the job description of a President of the USA. But that’s not really going to help. He wouldn’t listen to it or read it anyway.

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Let’s impeach Donald Trump while we still have a constitutional democracy. This is unbelievable! [Christian]

On 03/26/2025, in Access to Justice (A2J), Canada, change, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, legislatures / government / legal, policy, political science, United States, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
This is unbelievable to me! I’m posting this item from Will Richardson because I agree with him 100%. I’m embarrassed to be an American right now. Again, this is unbelievable. Our nation is in an extremely dangerous situation. Donald Trump and his Republican Administration have made a mockery of justice and Donald has now put his thumb to his face and doesn’t even listen to the orders from the Justice Department anymore*.

To the Republican Leadership in our nation, may you be held accountable for your actions — and may they be remembered in the future.

And for our neighbors in Canada — as well as in other nations: Please forgive us. We are one messed-up country these days. This is NOT how many of us want our nation to be and to act. 

The following posting is here on linkedin.com and here is the article that Will links out to at The Guardian. 

 

It was surreal listening to my friends recount everything they had done to get me out: working with lawyers, reaching out to the media, making endless calls to detention centers, desperately trying to get through to Ice or anyone who could help. They said the entire system felt rigged, designed to make it nearly impossible for anyone to get out.

The reality became clear: Ice detention isn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a business. These facilities are privately owned and run for profit.

Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. It’s a lucrative business: CoreCivic made over $560m from Ice contracts in a single year. In 2024, GEO Group made more than $763m from Ice contracts.

— Jasmine Mooney

Also see (below excerpted from this list of articles/items):

Canadian Who Was in an ‘American Pie’ Video Says ICE Held Her for 12 Days — from nytimes.com by Neil Vigdor
Jasmine Mooney, 35, said she was put “in chains” after immigration enforcement officers flagged her visa application paperwork. The former actress was finally allowed to return to Vancouver.

Jasmine Mooney’s Immigration Lawyer Sounds US Alarm— from newsweek.com by Billal Rahman

U.S. immigration lawyer Jim Hacking says Mooney’s case is part of a rising number of incidents in the past 10 days where individuals with different immigration statuses— including one with a permanent resident card—have been detained or deported in unprecedented ways.

Hacking says he has been advising non-citizens to avoid leaving the United States, as he believes there is a growing risk they may not be allowed to return.

This warning also applies to Canadians with current or past work visas or other forms of immigration status, he adds.

* Here are but a few articles re: Trump attacking or outright disregarding the Justice Department:

Defiance and Threats in Deportation Case Renew Fear of Constitutional Crisis — from nytimes.com by Adam Liptak (DSC: This is a GIFTED article)
Legal scholars say that the nation has reached a tipping point and that the right question is not whether there is a crisis, but rather how much damage it will cause.

Over the weekend, the Trump administration ignored a federal judge’s order not to deport a group of Venezuelan men, violating an instruction that could not have been plainer or more direct.
…
The line between arguments in support of a claimed right to disobey court orders and outright defiance has become gossamer thin, they said, again raising the question of whether the latest clash between President Trump and the judiciary amounts to a constitutional crisis.

Legal scholars say that is no longer the right inquiry. Mr. Trump is already undercutting the separation of powers at the heart of the constitutional system, they say, and the right question now is how it will transform the nation.

Judge Grants the Government Another Day to Share Details on Deportation Flights — from nytimes.com by Alan Feuer (DSC: This is a GIFTED article)
Judge James Boasberg has asked the government to tell him what time two planes took off from U.S. soil and from where, what time they left U.S. airspace and what time they landed in El Salvador.

Earlier this week, department lawyers sought to cancel a hearing where they were supposed to talk about the flights in open court and then, in a highly unusual move, tried to have Judge Boasberg removed from the case altogether.

When they filed their emergency request asking for a stay on Wednesday morning, the court papers used bombastic language attacking Judge Boasberg, who has already faced calls for impeachment by President Trump and some of his congressional allies. 

It’s Trump vs. the Courts, and It Won’t End Well for Trump —  (DSC: This is a GIFTED article) — it is an opinion piece out at The New York Times by J. Michael Luttig (Judge Luttig was appointed by President George H.W. Bush and served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1991 to 2006.)

President Trump has wasted no time in his second term in declaring war on the nation’s federal judiciary, the country’s legal profession and the rule of law. He has provoked a constitutional crisis with his stunning frontal assault on the third branch of government and the American system of justice. The casualty could well be the constitutional democracy Americans fought for in the Revolutionary War against the British monarchy 250 years ago.
…
The bill of particulars against Mr. Trump is long and foreboding. For years Mr. Trump has viciously attacked judges and threatened their safety. Recently he called for the impeachment of a federal judge who has ruled against his administration. He has issued patently unconstitutional orders targeting law firms and lawyers who represent clients he views as enemies. He has vowed to weaponize the Department of Justice against his political opponents. He has blithely ignored judicial orders that he is bound by the Constitution to follow and enforce.

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DC: I can’t stay quiet. I would urge all of us not to stay quiet. An item re: Trump trying to control the media.

On 03/03/2025, in journalism, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, political science, UK, United States, by Daniel Christian

The ‘Gulf of America’ feud is about something bigger: Trump wants to control the media — from theguardian.com by Margaret Sullivan
The president punished the AP for choosing its own language, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The press must show unity

Even more broadly, it is about Donald Trump’s wide-ranging effort to control the media and be able to spread propaganda and interfere with the flow of accurate information.

The disagreement started soon after the president decided unilaterally that the Gulf of Mexico was to be called the Gulf of America*. The executive order was one more display of Trump’s capricious and imperious way of doing things; his first month has been a relentless exercise in chaos and norm-destruction.

After the Associated Press, the global news organization, decided to stick with using the long-established name which makes sense to its international readership, the Trump White House determined that punishment was in order.

What’s happening is ugly. In the US, the government doesn’t get to dictate the language journalists use in their stories. There’s a little thing called the first amendment to the US constitution that prohibits this. But the Trump administration, as usual, has its own – often unconstitutional and sometimes illegal – ideas.

The actions against the AP are “retribution, plain and simple, and a shameful attempt to bully the press into ideological compliance”, said Tim Richardson of PEN America.

*Insert from DSC, not from The Guardian:
This was an incredibly arrogant thing to do — something a dictator who is drunk on power and wanting even more power, territory, and wealth would do.

To Mexico and to the rest of the world: Please forgive America for what we’ve become. Then pray for us. Our hearts, minds, perspectives, expectations, and behaviors need a lot of help. 

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2025 Survey of College and University Presidents [insidehighered.com]

On 02/28/2025, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business side of he, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, leadership, learning ecosystem, parents/guardians, policy, political science, reinvent, society, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

2025 Survey of College and University Presidents
Learn about presidents’ takes on topics such as financial confidence, the 2024 election’s impact on higher ed & more.

Inside Higher Ed’s 2025 Survey of College and University Presidents was conducted by Hanover Research. The survey asked presidents from 298 public and private, largely nonprofit two- and four-year institutions timely questions on the following issues:

  • General financial and economic confidence, plus mergers and acquisitions
  • Politics, policy and the 2024 election’s impact on higher education
  • Public perceptions of higher ed and the value of a degree
  • Campus speech
  • Race on campus
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Environmental sustainability goals
  • Campus health and wellness, including student mental health
  • Management, governance and the hardest part about being a president
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Perhaps God allowed Donald Trump to be President in order to *HUMBLE* the United States. [Christian]

On 02/21/2025, in change, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, Emotion, ethics, game-changing environment, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, policy, political science, United States, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I realize that I lose a lot of readers because I put some scripture from the Bible on this blog and I mention the names of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and our Heavenly Father here as well. I address matters of faith from time to time. So I have hesitated greatly to put anything out here re: politics. I will lose further readership most likely.

But I can no longer be silent on the matter of Donald Trump and the Republican Administration* as a whole. Like many others, I’m very disappointed that our nation elected him — and I think it’s time we Americans took a long, hard look in the mirror on that one.

  • Donald Trump scorns the Constitution and he seeks to destroy our democracy — something many people have given their lives to develop and support. 
  • He orchestrated the January 6, 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol building. His supporters called for the life of the (then-current) Vice President if he didn’t do what they wanted him to do.
  • Speaking of the insurrection…Donald Trump is a convicted felon and would have likely lost several more court cases had he not been able to make a MOCKERY of our judicial system. His money, power, and position were able to postpone many of those court cases. As a relevant aside here, who knows how many people were given access to confidential records of the U.S. (for a price no doubt). He should be in jail right now. You and I would have been thrown in jail a looooong time ago. But Donald Trump laughs at justice — he distorts justice. 
  • He acts like a toddler — at most, a junior high school student.
  • He bullies people and nations.
  • He threatens retribution if someone doesn’t agree with him.
  • He belittles people and nations.
  • He creates massive division, not unity. He reminds me of Adolph Hitler.
  • He is an embarrassment to the United States. He has destroyed so much diplomatic work and goodwill on the global stage. Our allies — or perhaps I should say former allies now — were shocked to recently hear about Donald Trump’s stances on many things.
  • And the tariffs aren’t helpful either. They create barriers and will likely increase prices here in the U.S.
  • I can’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth. For a President of the United States to exhibit this characteristic over and over again, it sets a horrible example for the younger generations to see. It further establishes a culture in America that is NOT the type of culture I want to live in or have my descendants live in. I do not support the type of culture that Donald Trump creates. 

I, for one, apologize to the rest of the world that our nation elected him as President. This was a massive mistake.

So I’m beginning to think that the LORD allowed Donald Trump to become President NOT to make America Great Again (MAGA) — as that whole campaign seems to be a lie too — but rather to HUMBLE America. 

By the way, I don’t think Donald Trump is a Christian — at all. Besides his hatred of the truth as well as the other items listed above…if he were truly a Christian, he would not have balked at the Bishop’s urging him to be compassionate to others (at his Inauguration). He would have listened to her wisdom. Plus, he would have put his hand on the Bible when he took his oaths.

Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 1:19 is highly relevant to the United States right now. And so is 2 Chronicles 7:14:

14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
.

* In the past, I have voted for members of the Republican and Democratic Parties — Presidents, VPs,
Governors, Senators, Representatives, and more. But when Karl Rove & Company started
playing too many games for my taste, I moved towards voting mostly for Democrats. 

To the Futurist Jack Uldrich:
Thank you for your posting entitled “A Special Edition: Jack Uldrich’s Friday Future 15: Truth, Compassion and Love.” It got me to finally write this posting that I’ve been meaning to write for several weeks now.

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Build-your-own media literacy calendar — Introducing the 2025 Calendar from Wonder Media [Sue Ellen Christian & Students]

On 12/29/2024, in 21st century, adjunct faculty, adult learning, business, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, curriculum, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, experimentation, faculty/staff, global / globalization, graphics, higher education, ideas, internet, journalism, K-12 related, liberal arts, library / librarians, media/film, Michigan, multimedia, music, new media literacies, online media, parents/guardians, platforms, podcasting, political science, reading, skills, social learning / networks, social media, society, sociology, story, student-related, teachers, technologies for your home, TVs, United States, universities, vendors, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

Introducing the 2025 Wonder Media Calendar for tweens, teens, and their families/households. Designed by Sue Ellen Christian and her students in her Global Media Literacy class (in the fall 2024 semester at Western Michigan University), the calendar’s purpose is to help people create a new year filled with skills and smart decisions about their media use. This calendar is part of the ongoing Wonder Media Library.com project that includes videos, lesson plans, games, songs and more. The website is funded by a generous grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, in partnership with Western Michigan University and the Library of Michigan.

 

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The state of AI; using AI to buy a home; introducing canvas; + other items re: AI in general

On 10/14/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, economics, future, game-changing environment, NVIDIA, Open AI, political science, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, science, society, sociology, tools, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, writing, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Great…we have another tool called Canvas. Or did you say Canva?

Introducing canvas — from OpenAI
A new way of working with ChatGPT to write and code

We’re introducing canvas, a new interface for working with ChatGPT on writing and coding projects that go beyond simple chat. Canvas opens in a separate window, allowing you and ChatGPT to collaborate on a project. This early beta introduces a new way of working together—not just through conversation, but by creating and refining ideas side by side.

Canvas was built with GPT-4o and can be manually selected in the model picker while in beta. Starting today we’re rolling out canvas to ChatGPT Plus and Team users globally. Enterprise and Edu users will get access next week. We also plan to make canvas available to all ChatGPT Free users when it’s out of beta.

Using AI to buy your home? These companies think it’s time you should — from usatoday.com by Andrea Riquier

The way Americans buy homes is changing dramatically.

New industry rules about how home buyers’ real estate agents get paid are prompting a reckoning among housing experts and the tech sector. Many house hunters who are already stretched thin by record-high home prices and closing costs must now decide whether, and how much, to pay an agent.

A 2-3% commission on the median home price of $416,700 could be well over $10,000, and in a world where consumers are accustomed to using technology for everything from taxes to tickets, many entrepreneurs see an opportunity to automate away the middleman, even as some consumer advocates say not so fast.

The State of AI Report 2024 — from nathanbenaich.substack.com by Nathan Benaich

The Great Mismatch — from the-job.beehiiv.com. by Paul Fain
Artificial intelligence could threaten millions of decent-paying jobs held by women without degrees.

Women in administrative and office roles may face the biggest AI automation risk, find Brookings researchers armed with data from OpenAI. Also, why Indiana could make the Swiss apprenticeship model work in this country, and how learners get disillusioned when a certificate doesn’t immediately lead to a good job.
…
A major new analysis from the Brookings Institution, using OpenAI data, found that the most vulnerable workers don’t look like the rail and dockworkers who have recaptured the national spotlight. Nor are they the creatives—like Hollywood’s writers and actors—that many wealthier knowledge workers identify with. Rather, they’re predominantly women in the 19M office support and administrative jobs that make up the first rung of the middle class.

“Unfortunately the technology and automation risks facing women have been overlooked for a long time,” says Molly Kinder, a fellow at Brookings Metro and lead author of the new report. “Most of the popular and political attention to issues of automation and work centers on men in blue-collar roles. There is far less awareness about the (greater) risks to women in lower-middle-class roles.”

Is this how AI will transform the world over the next decade? — from futureofbeinghuman.com by Andrew Maynard
Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei has just published a radical vision of an AI-accelerated future. It’s audacious, compelling, and a must-read for anyone working at the intersection of AI and society.

But if Amodei’s essay is approached as a conversation starter rather than a manifesto — which I think it should be — it’s hard to see how it won’t lead to clearer thinking around how we successfully navigate the coming AI transition.

Given the scope of the paper, it’s hard to write a response to it that isn’t as long or longer as the original. Because of this, I’d strongly encourage anyone who’s looking at how AI might transform society to read the original — it’s well written, and easier to navigate than its length might suggest.

That said, I did want to pull out a few things that struck me as particularly relevant and important — especially within the context of navigating advanced technology transitions.

And speaking of that essay, here’s a summary from The Rundown AI:

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei just published a lengthy essay outlining an optimistic vision for how AI could transform society within 5-10 years of achieving human-level capabilities, touching on longevity, politics, work, the economy, and more.

The details:

  • Amodei believes that by 2026, ‘powerful AI’ smarter than a Nobel Prize winner across fields, with agentic and all multimodal capabilities, will be possible.
  • He also predicted that AI could compress 100 years of scientific progress into 10 years, curing most diseases and doubling the human lifespan.
  • The essay argued AI could strengthen democracy by countering misinformation and providing tools to undermine authoritarian regimes.
  • The CEO acknowledged potential downsides, including job displacement — but believes new economic models will emerge to address this.
  • He envisions AI driving unprecedented economic growth but emphasizes ensuring AI’s benefits are broadly distributed.

Why it matters: 

  • As the CEO of what is seen as the ‘safety-focused’ AI lab, Amodei paints a utopia-level optimistic view of where AI will head over the next decade. This thought-provoking essay serves as both a roadmap for AI’s potential and a call to action to ensure the responsible development of technology.

AI in the Workplace: Answering 3 Big Questions — from gallup.com by Kate Den Houter

However, most workers remain unaware of these efforts. Only a third (33%) of all U.S. employees say their organization has begun integrating AI into their business practices, with the highest percentage in white-collar industries (44%).
…
White-collar workers are more likely to be using AI. White-collar workers are, by far, the most frequent users of AI in their roles. While 81% of employees in production/frontline industries say they never use AI, only 54% of white-collar workers say they never do and 15% report using AI weekly.
…
Most employees using AI use it for idea generation and task automation. Among employees who say they use AI, the most common uses are to generate ideas (41%), to consolidate information or data (39%), and to automate basic tasks (39%).

Nvidia Blackwell GPUs sold out for the next 12 months as AI market boom continues — from techspot.com by Skye Jacobs
Analysts expect Team Green to increase its already formidable market share

Selling like hotcakes: The extraordinary demand for Blackwell GPUs illustrates the need for robust, energy-efficient processors as companies race to implement more sophisticated AI models and applications. The coming months will be critical to Nvidia as the company works to ramp up production and meet the overwhelming requests for its latest product.

Here’s my AI toolkit — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan and Nikita Roy
How and why I use the AI tools I do — an audio conversation

1. What are two useful new ways to use AI?

  • AI-powered research: Type a detailed search query into Perplexity instead of Google to get a quick, actionable summary response with links to relevant information sources. Read more of my take on why Perplexity is so useful and how to use it.
  • Notes organization and analysis: Tools like NotebookLM, Claude Projects, and Mem can help you make sense of huge repositories of notes and documents. Query or summarize your own notes and surface novel connections between your ideas.
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The race against time to reinvent lawyers [Furlong] + other items in the legal/legaltech world

On 07/11/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, change, curriculum, dangers of the status quo, emerging technologies, experimentation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, policy, political science, productivity / tips and tricks, reinvent, skills, strategy, technology (general), tools, by Daniel Christian

The race against time to reinvent lawyers — from jordanfurlong.substack.com by Jordan Furlong
Our legal education and licensing systems produce one kind of lawyer. The legal market of the near future will need another kind. If we can’t close this gap fast, we’ll have a very serious problem.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Lawyers will still need competencies like legal reasoning and analysis, statutory and contractual interpretation, and a range of basic legal knowledge. But it’s unhelpful to develop these skills through activities that lawyers won’t be performing much longer, while neglecting to provide them with other skills and prepare them for other situations that they will face. Our legal education and licensing systems are turning out lawyers whose competence profiles simply won’t match up with what people will need lawyers to do.

A good illustration of what I mean can be found in an excellent recent podcast from the Practising Law Institute, “Shaping the Law Firm Associate of the Future.” Over the course of the episode, moderator Jennifer Leonard of Creative Lawyers asked Professors Alice Armitage of UC Law San Francisco and Heidi K. Brown of New York Law School to identify some of the competencies that newly called lawyers and law firm associates are going to need in future. Here’s some of what they came up with:

  • Agile, nimble, extrapolative thinking
  • Collaborative, cross-disciplinary learning
  • Entrepreneurial, end-user-focused mindsets
  • Generative AI knowledge (“Their careers will be shaped by it”)
  • Identifying your optimal individual workflow
  • Iteration, learning by doing, and openness to failure
  • Leadership and interpersonal communication skills
  • Legal business know-how, including client standards and partner expectations
  • Receiving and giving feedback to enhance effectiveness

Legal Tech for Legal Departments – What In-House Lawyers Need to Know — from legal.thomsonreuters.com by Sterling Miller

Whatever the reason, you must understand the problem inside and out. Here are the key points to understanding your use case:

  • Identify the problem.
  • What is the current manual process to solve the problem?
  • Is there technology that will replace this manual process and solve the problem?
  • What will it cost and do you have (or can you get) the budget?
  • Will the benefits of the technology outweigh the cost? And how soon will those benefits pay off the cost? In other words, what is the return on investment?
  • Do you have the support of the organization to buy it (inside the legal department and elsewhere, e.g., CFO, CTO)?

2024-05-13: Of Legal AI — from emergentbehavior.co

Long discussion with a senior partner at a major Bay Area law firm:

Takeaways

A) They expect legal AI to decimate the profession…
B) Unimpressed by most specific legal AI offerings…
C) Generative AI error rates are acceptable even at 10–20%…
D) The future of corporate law is in-house…
E) The future of law in general?…
F) Of one large legal AI player…

2024 Legal Technology Survey Results — from lexology.com

Additional findings of the annual survey include:

  • 77 percent of firms have a formal technology strategy in place
  • Interest and intentions regarding generative A.I. remain high, with almost 80 percent of participating firms expecting to leverage it within the next five years. Many have either already begun or are planning to undertake data hygiene projects as a precursor to using generative A.I. and other automation solutions. Although legal market analysts have hypothesized that proprietary building of generative A.I. solutions remain out of reach for mid-sized firms, several Meritas survey respondents are making traction. Many other firms are also licensing third-party generative A.I. solutions.
  • The survey showed strong technology progression among several Meritas member firms, with most adopting a tech stack of core, foundational systems of infrastructure technology and adding cloud-based practice management, document management, time, billing, and document drafting applications.
  • Most firms reported increased adoption and utilization of options already available within their current core systems, such as Microsoft Office 365 Teams, SharePoint, document automation, and other native functionalities for increasing efficiencies; these functions were used more often in place of dedicated purpose-built solutions such as comparison and proofreading tools.
  • The legal technology market serving Meritas’ member firms continues to be fractured, with very few providers emerging as market leaders.

AI Set to Save Professionals 12 Hours Per Week by 2029 — from legalitprofessionals.com

Thomson Reuters, a global content and technology company, today released its 2024 Future of Professionals report, an annual survey of more than 2,200 professionals working across legal, tax, and risk & compliance fields globally. Respondents predicted that artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to save them 12 hours per week in the next five years, or four hours per week over the upcoming year – equating to 200 hours annually.

This timesaving potential is the equivalent productivity boost of adding an extra colleague for every 10 team members on staff. Harnessing the power of AI across various professions opens immense economic opportunities. For a U.S. lawyer, this could translate to an estimated $100,000 in additional billable hours.*

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DSC: I can not stay silent on Trump. He is dangerous to our democracy.

On 07/03/2024, in Daniel S. Christian, ethics, hearts -- matters of the heart, Legal operations, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, policy, political science, society, sociology, surviving, United States, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I realize I lose a lot of readers on this Learning Ecosystems blog because I choose to talk about my faith and integrate scripture into these postings. So I have stayed silent on matters of politics — as I’ve been hesitant to lose even more people. But I can no longer stay silent re: Donald Trump.

I, too, fear for our democracy if Donald Trump becomes our next President. He is dangerous to our democracy.

Also, I can see now how Hitler came to power.

And look out other countries that Trump doesn’t like. He is dangerous to you as well.

He doesn’t care about the people of the United States (nor any other nation). He cares only about himself and gaining power. Look out if he becomes our next president. 

From Stefan Bauschard:

Unlimited Presidential power. According to Trump vs the US, the “President may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for his official acts.” Justice Sotomayor says this makes the President a “king.” This power + surveillance + AGI/autonomous weapons mean the President is now the most powerful king in the history of the world.

Democracy is only 200 years old.

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AI candidates for office?! + other AI-related items

On 06/17/2024, in legislatures / government / legal, political science, society, UK, Uncategorized, by Daniel Christian

AI candidate running for Parliament in the U.K. says AI can humanize politics — from nbcnews.com by Angela Yang and Daniele Hamamdjian; via The Rundown AI
Voters can talk to AI Steve, whose name will be on the ballot for the U.K.’s general election next month, to ask policy questions or raise concerns.

Commentary from The Rundown AI:

The Rundown: An AI-powered candidate named ‘AI Steve’ is running for U.K. Parliament in next month’s general election — creating polarizing questions around AI’s use in government affairs.

The details:

  • AI Steve is represented by businessman Steve Endacott and will appear as an independent candidate in the upcoming election.
  • Voters can interact with AI Steve online to ask policy questions and raise concerns or suggestions, which the AI will incorporate based on feedback.
  • If elected, Endacott will serve as AI Steve’s human proxy in Parliament, attending meetings and casting votes based on the AI’s constituent-driven platform.

Why it matters: The idea of an AI running for office might sound like a joke, but the tech behind it could actually help make our politicians more independent and (ironically) autonomous. AI-assisted governance is likely coming someday, but it’s probably still a bit too early to be taken seriously.

Also related, see:

From The Deep View:

The details: Hearing aids have employed machine learning algorithms for decades. But these algorithms historically have not been powerful enough to tackle the ‘cocktail party’ problem; they weren’t able to isolate a single voice in a loud, crowded room.

Dr. DeLiang Wang has been working on the problem for decades and has published numerous studies in recent years that explore the application of deep learning within hearing aids.

Last year, Google partnered up with a number of organizations to design personalized, AI-powered hearing aids.

Why it matters: Wang’s work has found that deep learning algorithms, running in real-time, could separate speech from background noises, “significantly” improving intelligibility in hearing-impaired people.
The tech is beginning to become publicly available, with brands like Phonak and Starkey leveraging deep learning and AI to enhance their hearing aids.

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“World’s first AI-powered news network” [Channel 1] + other items re: AI in general

On 12/13/2023, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Europe, global / globalization, journalism, policy, political science, productivity / tips and tricks, society, sociology, tools, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

 

Channel 1 -- personalized gloabl news network powered by generative AI

From DSC:
Hhhhhmmmmm……not sure yet that this is a good idea. But I doubt there’s any stopping it.

 

How AI ‘sees’ the world – what happened when we trained a deep learning model to identify poverty — from theconversation.com by Ola Hall Hamid Sarmadi Thorsteinn Rögnvaldsson

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have created a step change in how to measure poverty and other human development indicators. Our team has used a type of AI known as a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) to study satellite imagery and identify some types of poverty with a level of accuracy close to that of household surveys.

E.U. reaches deal on landmark AI bill, racing ahead of U.S. — from washingtonpost.com by Anthony Faiola, Cat Zakrzewski and Beatriz Ríos (behind paywall)
The regulation paves the way for what could become a global standard to classify risk, enforce transparency and financially penalize tech companies for noncompliance.

European Union officials reached a landmark deal Friday on the world’s most ambitious law to regulate artificial intelligence, paving the way for what could become a global standard to classify risk, enforce transparency and financially penalize tech companies for noncompliance.

Along these lines, also see:

 

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