#linguistics

#linguistics

Migration doesn't necessarily have a set endpoint.Looking for belonging in an unfamiliar place, and lingering over memories of what's been left behind, can result in a perpetually itinerant state of mind.For the Haitian schoolteacher who legally gains passage to the United States in Where the Mountain Meets the Sea, that means giving up a fulfilling vocation to handle strangers' baggage at the Miami airport while hoping to find love and start a family.

Over the past decade or so, cars have become pretty complicated machines, with often complex user interfaces.Mostly, the industry has added touch to the near-ubiquitous infotainment screen-it makes manufacturing simpler and cheaper and UI design more flexible, even if there's plenty of evidence that touchscreen interfaces increase driver distraction.

Comment OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said his upstart is preparing for the coming of artificial general intelligence - though there's disagreement about what AGI actually means and skepticism about his claim that OpenAI's mission is to ensure that AGI "benefits all humanity."If you teared up at the legally non-binding sentiment of Google's discontinued "Don't be evil" diktat, read on.

With the surge of AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Microsoft's Bing AI, companies are looking to keep their AI models up to date, ensuring they aren't spitting out hallucinations, misinformation, and even creepy threats - all of which they're prone to do in their current state.The trend has even given birth to a new profession, "prompt engineering," which involves simply speaking to these chatbots in plain text to refine their ability to give relevant and trustworthy answers.

Roger C. Schank, a scientist who made influential contributions to the field of artificial intelligence and then, as an academic, author and entrepreneur, focused on how people learn, died on Jan. 29 in Shelburne, Vt.He was 76.His wife, Annie Schank, said the cause was heart failure.She added that Dr. Schank, who lived in Quebec, had been in failing health for more than a year.

Cat stickers hang on display last week in Hanoi, Vietnam.The Lunar New Year begins on Sunday and marks the Year of the Cat in Vietnam and the Year of the Rabbit in China, South Korea and other East and Southeast Asian countries.Linh Pham/Getty Images The Lunar New Year begins on Sunday, and more than a billion people will ring in a fresh year, prompting one of the world's largest annual migrations as observers travel for family reunions.

Citing dwindling enrollment, the University of Pittsburgh plans to close its nearly 60-year-old English Language Institute on June 30.Alongside other offerings for nonnative English speakers, the English Language Institute provides a 20-hour-per-week intensive English program that lasts 13 weeks."Enrollments in English Language Institute programs have declined over the last several years as part of a larger trend of declining enrollments in intensive English programs nationally," wrote Kathleen Blee, the dean of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at Pitt. "This decreasing demand has impacted the ELI's ability to sustain itself financially."

February Spotlight: Letters in the Mail
Twice a month, The Rumpus brings your favorite writers directly to your IRL mailbox via our Letters in the Mail programs.We've got one program for adults and another for kids ages 6-12.Next month, subscribers will be receiving letters from Matthew Salesses and Anuradha Bhowmik, and Eleanor Glewwe and Lee Edward Födi, respectively.

Zelenskyy said the purpose of his visit is to "strengthen resilience and defense capabilities" of his country.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky makes a surprise visit to Kherson on November 14, 2022, in Kherson, Ukraine.Paula Bronstein / Getty Images Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington, D.C. on Wednesday to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden and speak directly to Congress, which is set to vote later this week on increasing funding for Ukraine as it continues its war against Russia.