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AI Will Affect 40% of Jobs and Likely Increase Inequality: IMF Head (Maria)
The author writes, “Artificial intelligence will affect 40% of jobs around the world and it is ‘crucial’ that countries build social safety nets to mitigate the impact on vulnerable workers, according to the head of the International Monetary Fund. AI, the term for computer systems that can perform tasks usually associated with human levels of intelligence, is poised to profoundly change the global economy with advanced economies at greater risk of disruption.”
Trump Is a Master Press Manipulator. This Election Season, the Media Needs to Be Prepared (Reader Steve)
From the San Francisco Chronicle: “The news media are about to reach a pivotal moment when it will no longer be possible to ignore the Trump ’24 presidential candidacy. The media will then have to confront, once again, a problem that has baffled them ever since Donald J. Trump launched his first campaign in 2016 — how to cover this guy.”
The Unpredictable But Entirely Possible Events That Could Throw 2024 Into Turmoil (Sean)
From Politico: “It certainly looks like we’re headed toward a rematch of Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden and a bitterly contested, close general election. But, if recent history is a guide, something unexpected could be right around the corner. We asked an array of futurists and technologists, historians and political scientists, foreign policy analysts and other savvy prognosticators whose expertise is identifying future risk: What might be the ‘Black Swan’ event that disrupts the seeming inevitability of the 2024 campaign?”
SEC Says Its X Account Was Compromised to Falsely Say Bitcoin ETFs Approved (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “A highly anticipated decision by the US Securities and Exchange Commission on whether to approve a spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded fund quickly morphed into a major cybersecurity incident [last week]. The SEC’s X account was compromised and a fake post claiming that the agency had green lit plans for the products fueled a brief surge in the price of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency. It also has sparked an investigation by US authorities into how a social media account at Wall Street’s main regulator was compromised.”
How Twitter Activists Turned a Viral Story About Orthodox Jews Into a Modern Blood Libel (Dana)
From Forward: “A new Jewish story has gone viral: A tunnel has been discovered under the legendary Chabad headquarters on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, popularly referred to as 770. This is a story that is at turns baffling, amusing and heartbreaking. The fact that it is also utterly bizarre, especially to outsiders, has caused it to go viral. And almost as soon as it did, so too did the antisemitic conspiracies. The actual story of this incident concerns the ideological future of a Hasidic movement and a feud over who controls its building. But to bad actors online, this community drama has become evidence of something more sinister.”
Why Are So Many American Pedestrians Dying at Night? (Reader Jim)
The authors write, “Sometime around 2009, American roads started to become deadlier for pedestrians, particularly at night. Fatalities have risen ever since, reversing the effects of decades of safety improvements. And it’s not clear why. What’s even more perplexing: Nothing resembling this pattern has occurred in other comparably wealthy countries. … What changed, starting about 15 years ago, that would cause rising numbers of pedestrian deaths specifically in the U.S. — and overwhelmingly at night?”
You Don’t Need Everything You Want (Laura)
The author writes, “I am tired of talking about money. I recognize how that sounds, given that I talk about money for a living. Still, it feels like an inordinate number of conversations I’m involved in lately end up about how much more expensive everything is now (which is true) and how much the economy sucks (which is false). … Part of the issue is that we seem to have blurred the distinction between a want and a need.”
