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Everyone Will Be a Boss in the Future — of AI Employees: Microsoft (Maria)
The author writes, “Microsoft has good news for anyone with corner office ambitions. In the future we’re all going to be bosses — of AI employees. The tech company is predicting the rise of a new kind of business, called a ‘frontier firm,’ where ultimately a human worker directs autonomous artificial intelligence agents to carry out tasks. Everyone, according to Microsoft, will become an agent boss. Microsoft, a leading backer of the ChatGPT developer OpenAI, expects every organisation to be on their way to becoming a frontier firm within the next five years.”
New Images Could Change Cancer Diagnostics, but ICE Detained the Harvard Scientist Who Analyzes Them (Dana)
From NBC News: “A groundbreaking microscope at Harvard Medical School could lead to breakthroughs in cancer detection and research into longevity. But the scientist who developed computer scripts to read its images and unlock its full potential has been in an immigration detention center for two months — putting crucial scientific advancements at risk. The scientist, the 30-year-old Russian-born Kseniia Petrova, worked at Harvard’s renowned Kirschner Lab until her arrest at a Boston airport in mid-February. She is now being held at ICE’s Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana, and fighting possible deportation to Russia, where she said she fears persecution and jail time over her protests against the war in Ukraine.”
5 Companies in Pope Francis’s ‘Inclusive Capitalism’ Group (Mili)
From Quartz: “Throughout Pope Francis’s 12-year papacy, championing what Vatican observers called ‘compassionate capitalism’ was one of his causes. Sometimes he would excoriate CEOs, and other times he would work with them. The Council for Inclusive Capitalism was a vehicle affiliated with the Pope that aimed to incite corporate change. Each organization on the council — formed in 2020 — has committed to changing aspects of its business model.”
A Wrong Turn Onto a Bridge at the US-Canada Border Has a Detroit Woman Facing Deportation (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “On March 8, the woman and her daughters were in a vehicle being driven by her 19-year-old brother. She used a phone app to find the nearest Costco and didn’t realize the closest store was on the Canadian side of the bridge. They drove onto the bridge’s toll plaza, but didn’t go past the toll booths. They were stopped by CBP agents and taken to a nearby building where she was questioned and fingerprinted. She also signed a form stating she entered the US illegally. She said agents told her she was going to be deported and encouraged her to take her daughters with her back to Guatemala.”
Former FAA Contractor Pleads Guilty To Sharing US Airport Files With Iran (Sean)
From The Hill: “Court documents show that from ‘at least December 2017 to June 2024, Rahmati cooperated with the Iranian government ‘using a cover story to hide his conduct, obtaining employment with an FAA contractor with access to sensitive non-public information about the U.S. aviation sector, and obtaining open-source and non-public materials about the US solar energy industry and providing it to Iranian intelligence officers,’ the DOJ release states.”
The Vicious Cycle of Extreme Heat Leading to More Fossil Fuel Use (Laura)
The author writes, “Last year was the hottest on record, and global average temperatures passed the benchmark of 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times for the first time. Simultaneously, the growth rate of the world’s energy demand rose sharply, nearly doubling over the previous 10-year average. As it turns out, the record heat and rapidly rising energy demand were closely connected.
Scientists Find Strongest Evidence Yet of Life on an Alien Planet (Dana)
The author writes, “Scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have obtained what they call the strongest signs yet of possible life beyond our solar system, detecting in an alien planet’s atmosphere the chemical fingerprints of gases that on Earth are produced only by biological processes. The two gases — dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, and dimethyl disulfide, or DMDS — involved in Webb’s observations of the planet named K2-18 b are generated on Earth by living organisms, primarily microbial life such as marine phytoplankton — algae. This suggests the planet may be teeming with microbial life, the researchers said. They stressed, however, that they are not announcing the discovery of actual living organisms but rather a possible biosignature — an indicator of a biological process — and that the findings should be viewed cautiously, with more observations needed.”
