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Daily Archives: March 21, 2023

Good news: ChatGPT would probably fail a CFA exam

Financial Times: “It’s an algorithmic mystery box that inspires fear, awe and derision in equal measure. The simulacrums it creates are programmed to pass off retained information as knowledge, applying unwarranted certainty to assumptions born of an easily bypassed ethical code. Its output threatens to determine whether huge numbers of people will ever get a job. And yet, the CFA Institute abides. OpenAI’s release of GPT-4 has caused another angst attack about what artificial intelligence will do to the job market. Fears around AI disruption are particularly acute in finance, where the robotic processing of data probably describes most of the jobs much of the time. Where does that leave the CFA Institute? Its chartered financial analyst qualifications offer an insurance policy to employers that staff will behave, and that their legal and marketing bumf will be produced to code. But CFA accreditation is only available to humans, who pay $1,200 per exam (plus a $350 enrolment fee), mostly to be told to re-sit. If a large-language model AI can pass the finance world’s self-styled toughest exam, it might be game over for CFA’s revenue model, as well as for several hundred thousand bank employees. Fortunately, for the time being, it probably can’t. Presented with a Level III sample paper from the CFA website, ChatGPT flunks the very first question…”

TSA confirms plans to mandate mug shots for domestic air travel

Papers Please: “In an on-stage interview [March 14, 2023] at South By Southwest by a reporter for the Dallas Morning News, the head of the US Transportation Security Administration made explicit that the TSA plans to make collection of biometric data mandatory for airline travel: According to a report in [March 15, 2023] of the… Continue Reading

Popular Political Podcasts Dataset

The Popular Political Podcast Dataset developed by Valerie Wirtschafter and Chris Meserole at the Brookings Institution: “Podcasts have exploded in popularity recently. Over the past decade, monthly podcast listeners have risen from just over 10% of the U.S. population to more than 40%—a reach on par with major social media platforms like Instagram. Yet for… Continue Reading

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan Issues Sweeping Subpoenas to Universities Studying Misinformation

Pro Publica: “In the subpoenas, Jordan asserted that the schools may have contributed to the Biden administration’s “censorship regime by advising on so-called misinformation. House Republicans have sent letters to at least three universities and a think tank requesting a broad range of documents related to what it says are the institutions’ contributions to the… Continue Reading

Incorporating AI-Powered Chatbots into Legal Research Exercises and Assignments

RIPS Law Librarian: Oh No, Another ChatGPT Post: Incorporating AI-Powered Chatbots into Legal Research Exercises and Assignments – Olivia Smith Schlinck – “Since it was launched at the end of November 2022, the discourse around ChatGPT and AI search tools has been unrelenting. What impact will AI-powered chatbots have on education? Will students submit ChatGPT-written essays and… Continue Reading

Civilian Harm in Ukraine – Russia’s Assault on Daily Life in Ukraine

Bellingcat – map and dataset of 1,000+ incidents [includes incident’s date, location, description, sources, type of area affected, and type of weapon system]: “This map plots out and highlights incidents that have resulted in potential civilian impact or harm since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. The incidents detailed have been collected by Bellingcat researchers.… Continue Reading

Google’s Bard lags behind GPT-4 and Claude in head-to-head comparison

TechCrunch: “Google has taken the wraps off Bard, its conversational AI meant to compete with ChatGPT and other large language models. But after its shaky debut, users may understandably be a bit wary of trusting the system — so we compared it on a few example prompts with its AI peers, GPT-4 and Claude. This… Continue Reading

ChatGPT comes for radio

The Verge: “It’s been pretty slow in the audio world for the past few weeks — except when it comes to AI, which seems to be progressing at a clip.  Today, ChatGPT comes to radio, NPR employees prepare for layoffs, and Spotify expands its audiobook business….RadioGPT makes it easy to replace human DJs with bots.… Continue Reading