#open-letter

#open-letter

Proposals to tackle sexual harassment in the street in England and Wales do not go far enough because the bar for offences has been set too high, charities have warned.The Fawcett Society, Girl Guiding and Refuge are among organisations who say the requirement to prove perpetrators intended to cause alarm or distress undermines the provisions of two bills intended to protect women and girls going through parliament.

World-leading air pollution scientists have called on Rishi Sunak to distance himself from Conservative colleagues who are dismissing the facts on the serious health risks of toxic air.In a letter, Prof Frank Kelly and 35 other prominent air pollution scientists call on the prime minister to tell his colleagues not to endorse merchants of doubt who undermine the factual and truth foundations of life.

France's top constitutional court has sanctioned the controversial use of surveillance powered by artificial intelligence at next year's Olympics in a blow to privacy campaigners.The French court's decision came two months after the national assembly approved laws allowing for the experimental use of hi-tech surveillance in an attempt to head off any trouble at the Games next summer, when 600,000 people are expected to attend.

BCE Inc. is cutting 1,300 positions and closing or selling nine radio stations as the company plans to significantly adapt how it delivers the news.The eliminated positions include a six per cent cut at Bell Media.Bell says the job cuts are in response to unfavourable public policy and regulatory conditions that it can no longer outwait.

For the next year, this is what Alexandra Mussar will call home: a cramped bedroom with water damage and dysfunctional sinks, in a house shared with six other students.For this, she's paying $840 every month.This isn't how she pictured her university housing experience, but after six long months hunting for somewhere to live, she says she felt she had to settle.

The boss of one of Labour's biggest union donors has branded the party's plan to ban new oil and gas production in the North Sea "a huge mistake".Gary Smith, the GMB union's general secretary, said energy plans should be built around "decent jobs", not bans.Labour has pledged to block all new domestic oil and gas developments and invest in renewables if it wins power.

Rishi Sunak's Downing Street food summit has been described as empty" by food and farming industry representatives, who rounded on the prime minister for failing to discuss soaring inflation or set out measures to safeguard British food production.The Farm to Fork summit, the first meeting of its kind, brought together farmers, food producers and some of Britain's largest supermarkets.

Encouraging abuse victims to come forward without a specialist support system in place is "totally irresponsible", campaigners have said.Their open letter, with 150 signatories including Rape Crisis and Refuge, calls for fully-funded support to be included in the upcoming Victims Bill.It was written by a woman whose friend helped convict their abusive running coach but then took her own life.

A Liberal Democrat councillor in Salford has been urged to resign after winning a seat in the Cotswolds as well thanks to a loophole in electoral law.Chris Twells, who won a seat on Salford council last year in the Ordsall ward, stood as what his own party insisted was a paper candidate in the Cotswolds and confounded expectations by winning.

Technology NPR's Adrian Florido speaks with Peter Stone, computer science professor at the University of Texas, on an open letter calling for a temporary halt in development of advanced artificial intelligence.Copyright 2023 NPR.All rights reserved.Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

A class-action lawsuit alleges Shopify Inc. reneged on a deal it offered some employees who were laid off in a recent round of cuts.The class action alleges some of the Ottawa software business' employees laid off at the start of May were presented with departure packages outlining hefty severance sums they would be entitled to should they sign the agreement within a few days.

It has been six months since ChatGPT opened to the public, and our lives, feeds, and timelines have been busy with AI.Tech giants are working relentlessly to innovate toward AI.Microsoft with 365 Co-pilot, Adobe has unveiled Firefly and Sensei, Canva has showcased their Magics, and Meta, previously focused on the Metaverse, the company publicly acknowledged " playing a little bit of catch-up " on AI hardware trends, details of the overhaul.

A federal judge sided in favor of the four leading publishers in the U.S. who sued the Internet Archive for scanning and lending out numerous digital copies of copyrighted books for free during the early days of COVID-19.Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin Random House all sued the nonprofit after they offered a National Emergency Library, a temporary book collection created from thousands of ebooks that ran from March 24, 2020 to June 16, 2020.

LGBT+ activists stormed a talk with feminist Kathleen Stock at the Oxford Union before one of them glued themselves to the floor on Tuesday.Hundreds of chanting protesters marched towards the 200-year old debating society where they blared music including Nancy Sinatra's These Boots Are Made For Walking as Prof Stock arrived.

A trans rights protester who glued themselves to the floor during a talk by gender-critical feminist Kathleen Stock has been removed by police.Four police officers spent around 10 minutes attempting to remove the activist, who was one of around 200 protesters to gather at the Oxford Union on Tuesday in opposition to Professor Stock's appearance following remarks in her book Material Girls, in which she outlined views perceived by some as trans-exclusionary.

Feminist Kathleen Stock should be allowed to deliver a speech at Oxford University, the prime minister has said.Rishi Sunak, whose intervention comes ahead of expected protests against Professor Stock's address at an Oxford Union event, said that debate was a hallmark of a tolerant society.The row has seen the Oxford University LGBTQ+ Society say it is standing up for its right to protest and for trans rights while the university's vice-chancellor has defended Prof Stock's appearance as a matter of freedom of speech.

Health campaigners have called for the overdue release of new baby food and drink guidelines over concerns about the amount of sugar infants are consuming from popular shop-bought products.Action on Sugar, along with 16 other groups including The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Obesity Health Alliance, British Dental Association and the World Cancer Research Fund, have signed an open letter to Health Secretary Steve Barclay urging the release of the guidelines to ensure that all food and drink products marketed to babies are nutritionally appropriate.

Rishi Sunak is being urged to directly intervene to ensure Scotland's deposit return scheme (DRS) can come into force next year.Groups such as Greenpeace UK, Keep Britain Tidy and the Marine Conservation Society have signed an open letter to the Prime Minister, demanding the UK Government grants an exemption for DRS in Scotland under the Internal Market Act which regulates trade in the different parts of the UK following Brexit.

A majority of Americans believe that the rise of artificial intelligence technology could put humanity's future in jeopardy, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Wednesday.The poll found that over two-thirds of respondents are anxious about the adverse effects of AI, while 61 percent consider it a potential threat to civilization.

AI: What do students think?by Lily Goodchild, Latymer Upper School With the seemingly unstoppable development of AI, what does it mean for students, and how do they view it in their day-to-day life?Like many adults, the opinion of students takes a wide array of stances.Dash Amerikova, a student studying Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry believes that while they understand the rooted hatred of literature and art students towards Chat GPT', as a STEM based student they 'love the possibilities opened to [them] by Chat GPT.' Along with being able to write speaker notes quickly and efficiently, Amerikova says that it can be a very productive timesaver for things that do not require much of your devoted attention'.

A number of well-known AI researchers - and Elon Musk - have signed an open letter calling on AI labs around the world to pause development of large-scale AI systems, citing fears over the "profound risks to society and humanity" they claim this software poses.The letter, published by the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, notes that AI labs are currently locked in an "out-of-control race" to develop and deploy machine learning systems "that no one - not even their creators - can understand, predict, or reliably control."

Phil Jones will leave Manchester United when his contract expires this summer, after a "very difficult" few years.The 31-year-old, who has been capped 27 times by England, made 229 appearances for United and scored six goals.The defender joined in 2011 from Blackburn Rovers and was part of the title-winning team the next season.

Jane Fonda has said the late French director Rene Clement asked to sleep with her during the making of their 1964 thriller Joy House, saying he said he needed to see what my orgasms were like before she filmed a sex scene.Fonda made the allegation on an episode of chat show Watch What Happens Live, when host Andy Cohen asked her to name one man in Hollywood that tried to pick you up once that you turned down.

Appeal comes amid concern strict intellectual property rules hamper the production of affordable vaccines and medicines.Hiroshima, Japan Scientists have called on the Group of Seven to take urgent action to tackle the world's lack of preparedness for the next pandemic, warning that developing countries continue to lack access to life-saving treatments and vaccines.

Starting Friday, major hospitals in the Boston area will no longer require most people to wear masks while on their grounds.The state's COVID-19 public health emergency is set to expire on May 11.The following day, Boston Medical Center, Mass General Brigham, Tufts Medical Center, Beth Israel Lahey Health, and UMass Memorial Health will lift their mult-year mask mandates requiring every person on hospital premises to wear a mask regardless of vaccination status.

Here's a round-up of Al Jazeera's Middle East coverage this week.Erdogan's the man to beat in Turkey, Palestinians mark the Nakba's 75th anniversary, and Sudan's fighting continues.Here's your round up of our coverage, written by Abubakr Al-Shamahi, Al Jazeera Digital's Middle East and North Africa editor.

Ukrainian forces use a multiple-rocket launcher to fire at Russian positions on the front line near Bakhmut on Wednesday.(Libkos/AP)Explosions rocked Kyiv early Thursday, according to its mayor, as Russia continued its barrage of airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital.An air raid alert remained in place and residents were urged to stay in shelters.

A journalist takes a picture of a Kh-47 Kinzhal Russian hypersonic missile warhead, shot down by a Ukrainian Air Defence in Kyiv on May 12. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)As wartime Russia experiences a surge in treason cases, the arrests for high treason of three Russian academics who work on hypersonic missile technology on the same faculty in Siberia have drawn a rare, public outcry from Russia's scientific community.

A court in Russia ordered pretrial detention for a prominent theater director and a playwright on Friday after the two were accused of "justifying terrorism."Director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk will be jailed for at least two months while awaiting trial, Russian news agencies reported.

Image A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency visited the plant yesterday.Credit...Andrey Borodulin/Agence France-Presse Getty Images Russia and Ukraine are ramping up their military forces in southern Ukraine.Now, concerns are rising about what an escalation in fighting could mean for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the top U.N. nuclear official said yesterday.

Forced out of the Freedom Center to make way for Bally's Chicago Casino, Tribune Publishing has agreed to buy the Daily Herald printing plant in Schaumburg for an undisclosed price, keeping the presses rolling for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers.The deal, announced Wednesday, is expected to close within days, with printing operations and production employees moving to the new facility in the northwest suburbs over the coming months, sources said.

A decision by the Los Angeles Dodgers to honor the long-running Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is outraging right-wingers.The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence first formed in San Francisco in 1979.A group of gay men in nun-like drag, they preached about the benefits of living authentic lives and warned against the dangers of religious moralizing.

Teachers at the Leathersellers' Federation of Schools announced nine days of strike action as governors voted to become a multi-academy trust (MAT), despite significant opposition.Workers had already gone on strike for six days over the MAT plan and national pay and conditions.Anti-academy parents claim the schools Prendergast School, Prendergast Ladywell, Prendergast Vale and Prendergast Primary have subjected pupils to political lobbying.

It wasn't exactly a Nigerian prince scam.Florida charter school principal Jan McGee resigned Tuesday after sending $100,000 to a scammer pretending to be South African entrepreneur Elon Musk, who's worth an estimated $192 billion.According to Orlando, Fla., station WESH, McGee was repeatedly warned that the grifter, who promised to invest millions into Burns Science and Technology after the school paid him a six-figure upfront investment, was likely not the world's second richest man.

A third of London's youth clubs will close without new funding, a charity warned on Thursday as it launched a campaign to save them.London Youth said disadvantaged children will be hardest hit by the closure of youth centres because they play a vital role in helping them into the world of work.An open letter from London's forgotten generation' of young people has been painted on a billboard in Shoreditch to draw attention to the campaign, which urges policy makers not to let young people's ambitions die.

Most chorus members at the English National Opera (ENO) would be forced to leave their jobs if the company relocates outside London, because of ties that include children at school, caring responsibilities, and partners with jobs in the capital.More than two-thirds would leave the profession altogether, according to a survey carried out by Equity, the union that represents chorus members.

On a rainy night in May, German writer Erich Kastner stands among Nazi SA officers and onlookers before a burning pyre that illuminates Berlin's Opernplatz, now called Bebelplatz.Men in black SA uniforms throw piles of books on to the fire.Kastner listens as his name is shouted into a microphone: "Against decadence and moral decay!

As reported last week, the EU is in the process of putting together some of the widest-ranging rules looking to govern AI.If passed, the EU could be the second major region, outside of China, that has passed legislation specifically for AI.So, what is going on with this law?Well, according to The E.U.

Story by The UK's competition watchdog has launched a review of the artificial intelligence market, in an effort to weigh up the potential opportunities and risks of a technology Bill Gates dubs as " revolutionary as mobile phones and the Internet."The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) it would investigate the systems underpinning tools such as ChatGPT in order to evaluate the competition rules and consumer protections that may be required.

The EU has been warned that it risks handing control of artificial intelligence to US tech firms if it does not act to protect grassroots research in its forthcoming AI bill.In an open letter coordinated by the German research group Laion, or Large-scale AI Open Network, the European parliament was told that one-size-fits-all rules risked eliminating open research and development.

An artificial intelligence-focused tech ethics group has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate OpenAI for violating consumer protection rules, arguing that the organization's rollout of AI text generation tools has been "biased, deceptive, and a risk to public safety."The Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP) filed its complaint today following the publication of a high-profile open letter calling for a pause on large generative AI experiments.

More than 1,000 artificial intelligence experts, researchers and backers have joined a call for an immediate pause on the creation of giant AIs for at least six months, so the capabilities and dangers of systems such as GPT-4 can be properly studied and mitigated.The demand is made in an open letter signed by major AI players including Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI, the research lab responsible for ChatGPT and GPT-4; Emad Mostaque, who founded London-based Stability AI; and Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple.

NPR is making a small ask of its readers: That they disregard both their sense of sight and common sense.On Friday, NPR's official Twitter account decried the World Athletics Council's decision to prohibit male-to-female transgender athletes from competing in women's track and field events, asserting that it was reached despite a dearth of evidence to support it.

For those tuning into the NewFronts presentations virtually this week, there's a live chat function to the right of the video player.Some of the comments that popped up were pretty amusing.For the win: "Is it me or does it feel that at least 50% of everyone's script has been written by ChatGPT."

In today's ExchangeWire news digest: Disney shutters its metaverse unit; the AOP takes a stand against "unscrupulous" tech vendors' use of publisher data; and Gopuff relies on rivals firms to help with deliveries.Disney closes metaverse unit
Walt Disney Co. has shuttered its metaverse division after just over a year of operation.

According to The New York Times, AI pioneer Dr. Geoffrey Hinton has resigned from Google so he can "speak freely" about potential risks posed by AI.Hinton, who helped create some of the fundamental technology behind today's generative AI systems, fears that the tech industry's drive to develop AI products could result in dangerous consequences-from misinformation to job loss or even a threat to humanity.

A new joint pledge by U.S. federal agencies to enforce existing laws upon cutting-edge AI tools is winning praise from tech law experts, who say it's an effective rebuttal to industry arguments for self-regulation.The statement released earlier this week by the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission emphasizes that the agencies aren't going to give artificial intelligence companies special treatment just because their products are new.

In a rare show of unity, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Thursday condemning the Taliban's discrimination against women and girls in Afghanistan and called for the country's leadership to swiftly reverse policies banning education, employment and equal public participation of women and girls.

Amid growing worries about the insidious effects of disinformation from Russia, the prime ministers of eight European countries including Ukraine, Moldova and Poland have signed an open letter asking the chief executives of major social media companies to take more aggressive steps to halt the spread of false news on their platforms.

An open letter signed by Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Andrew Yang, and many others asks that companies like OpenAI (which Musk cofounded) stop releasing new AI models until the risks can be better understood and better managed.But the AI genie's already well out of the bottle and expandingand there may be no pausing that.

04:34 Screens display the logos of OpenAI and ChatGPT in Toulouse, southwestern France, on January 23, 2023.Lionel Bonaventure, AFP An open letter signed by Twitter CEO Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and many others, is warning against 'profound risks to society and humanity'.Are tech companies moving too fast in rolling out powerful artificial intelligence technology that could one day outsmart humans?

Joseph Wilkinson | (TNS) New York Daily News Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and other tech industry leaders called for a brief pause in artificial intelligence research in an open letter publicized Wednesday.Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? the letter reads.

Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and other tech industry leaders called for a brief pause in artificial intelligence research in an open letter publicized Wednesday."Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth?" the letter reads."Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?

Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and more than 1,200 other founders and top research scientists have signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause on all giant AI experiments to get a better handle on the risks and benefits of the technology and its impact on the world.The letter notes that powerful AI systems should be developed only after we're confident that the effects will be positive and the risks manageable.

Today, three out of five young creatives say that they're uncomfortable working with high-carbon brands like oil and gas companies, according to 2022 YouGov research released by the creative campaigning group Glimpse.But as creatives move through the industry, they face increasing pressure to work with brands that don't align with their views, often with no clear solution presented.

Retail consultant and broadcaster Mary Portas has sent an open letter to department store John Lewis warning that it has let go of the soul.Ms Portas published the letter on the networking site LinkedIn following the news John Lewis was considering ending its employee-owned business structure in order to attract investment.

FRANCE IN TURMOIL Police officers stand behind their shields covered in paint thrown by protesters during a rally against pension reform in Nantes, western France, on March 11, 2023.Jeremias Gonzalez, AP Annie Ernaux, the 2022 Nobel literature laureate, has backed calls for a thorough investigation after four female students said they were sexually assaulted by police in the western city of Nantes following a protest against President Emmanuel Macron's deeply contentious pension reform.

A woman stands at the digital research portal in the Central Library of the Municipal Libraries in the Palace of Culture in Dresden, Germany on February 27, 2023.Robert Michael / picture alliance via Getty Images Internet Archive vowed to appeal after a U.S. district court judge on Friday sided with four major publishers who sued the nonprofit for copyright infringement.

From the start, the HBO series Succession, returning Sunday for its fourth and final season, has kept us dangling.The first ever episode teased a retirement announcement that never came, and ever since, the characters have fought over who should succeed the powerful media titan Logan Roy (Brian Cox) as head of the Waystar Royco media empire.