If Thoughts Were Data, Machines Could Write
Human experience is what makes sense of the written wordThe fact that creativity does not follow computational rules may well be a ceiling for machine writing and it is not made of glass.
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SXSW 2019: Grappling with AI’s immense culture shifts
Panelists Robert J. Marks and Jay Richards spot the human advantage in an AI-driven cultureFrom homeschooled teens to high-tech entrepreneurs to retired doctors to University of Texas students, Christ Church was full of Austinites trying to understand what the rapid growth of AI technologies means for their future.
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Random Thoughts on Recent AI Headlines
There is usually a story under those layers of hype but not always the one you thoughtWhen Thomas Sowell was writing his syndicated column on economics, I always looked forward to his sporadically appearing “Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene.” Reminding readers that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I offer my own “Random Thoughts on Recent AI Headlines.”
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Universal Basic Income? Fear of AI Fuels Bad Economics
If new technology led to mass permanent unemployment, history would be an endless saga of expanding joblessnessAlthough the coming shift will be abrupt, new technologies enable us to focus, as economists would put it, on our comparative advantage over machines.
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STEM Education 5: What Difference Do Family and Privilege Make to Success?
A strong family helps a STEM nerd succeed. However, a “strong family” is not necessarily a family that had an easy ride, as my own story shows.The money my parents could make in the new urban environment was good, but it was a bad place to raise kids. In high school, I began to run with gangs and do many things I’m not proud of. Dad and Mom scraped together money for me to go to college instead.
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Amazon pulls out of the New York City deal
Is this a message about the new economy in America?Jay Richards thinks that crony capitalism is a long-term problem but that, in this case, New York legislators showed “staggering economic illiteracy and a disregard for their constituents”
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STEM Education 4: Do STEM Nerds Need to Learn Latin?
Okay, not Latin. But some arts subjects do enhance a STEM careerWell-roundedness is appropriate in applied STEM curricula to the extent that it rounds out the skills necessary for success as a STEM professional.
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STEM EDUCATION 2. Not Everyone Is Lucky Enough to be a Nerd
How do you identify extroverted nerds? When you are talking to them, they look at YOUR shoes
Remember the Luddites!
The Luddites became famous for breaking machinery during the Industrial Revolution. Were they entirely wrong?
STEM EDUCATION 1. Pursuing Nerd Quality Over Nerd Quantity
Reducing math and science to practice is what engineers do. Scientists didn’t put a man on the moon. Engineers did.
Will the Free Market Help or Hurt Us in an AI-Empowered World?
We may need new institutions, such as insurance against job obsolescence
Does AI Art Spell the End of the Artist’s Way of Life?
An AI-produced painting sold at auction for $432,500. But is it a trend or just a novelty?Rather than announce that human artists are now doomed, software engineer Ben Dixon interviewed a number of them and came away with a rather different picture, that “AI-generated art will improve, but artistic creativity will remain a human discipline.”
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How Can Information Theory Help the Economy Grow?
New information is the true source of new wealth; everyone wins when we learn how to produce it more efficiently
Be Choosy About What You Automate!
Having automated many processes, I can assure you that that is the First Rule of Automation
No, Twitter Is Not the New Awful
It’s the Old Awful back for more. It’s the Town Without Pity we all tried to get away from
McDonald’s, Meet McPathogens
What happens when the drive to automate everything meets the Law of Unintended Consequences?
Who Does the Concept of “Intellectual Property” Really Benefit?
Was traditional copyright law meant to protect algorithms that decide people’s financial fate?
Is AI Creating the Conditions for Marxist Revolution?
An analyst looks at the conditions then and now
The Death of the Ad Agency Was Widely Publicized
But, like so many industries, advertising turned out to be weathering the digital storm after allA recent surge in jobs could be temporary. But it’s beginning to look as though the iconic ad culture is adjusting to the digital age. There's a film in that too. Probably a lot of them.
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