💡 Premium Supporter recap + fact-based optimistic news
📉 India has eliminated extreme poverty. 🥔 Genetically modified potatoes eliminate the need for pesticides. 🌱 Scientists have developed a method to transform salty soil into fertile farmland.
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😲 Shaky Start in Sarajevo
I woke up a little after four in the morning in Sarajevo. On my way back from the bathroom, I heard a strange noise. After a moment, I realized it was the hangers in the closet rattling. Odd, I must have bumped into the bed or something.
Had I been more awake, I would have understood that it wasn't possible; the bed isn't positioned that way. I went back to bed and fell asleep again.
In the morning, as I scrolled through the news, I saw: Earthquake in Bosnia!
I mentioned earlier that it will be nice to update my perception of Sarajevo, which is marked by the war in the 90s and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Now I can add an earthquake to that list.
Luckily, it was a minor one, and no people seem to have been harmed.
During the day, I held a masterclass on AI for EEAS, which is the EU's diplomatic arm. I demonstrated, among other things, how to use ChatGPT to write texts in a variety of ways.
We used a description of EEAS as a starting point and let ChatGPT transform it into a limerick:
There once was a service called EEAS,
Promoting peace and ease, if you please.
Since twenty-eleven,
They've worked to make heaven,
For Europeans, across all the seas.
Building on a NATO report, we also discussed how to use AI in strategic communication and how to counter AI propaganda from Russia and other malicious actors. Because such disinformation can pop up anywhere.
Mathias Sundin
The Angry Optimist
Premium Supporter content
🦾 AI will not lead to mass unemployment (but something much bigger will happen)
Economics professor David Autor disputes the AI experts who believe that AI will lead to mass unemployment.
💡 Musings of the Angry Optimist: A robot with ChatGPT
A robot that can pick up trash, while reasoning why it chose to give a human an apple. The robot Figure One uses ChatGPT to talk and listen, while performing physical tasks.
💡 Fact-based optimistic news of the week
📉 India has eliminated extreme poverty (and increased economic equality)
India has eradicated all extreme poverty, according to the international poverty line of 1.9 dollars per day. This is partly thanks to a growth rate of 2.9 percent per year since 2011-12. At the same time, economic inequality has significantly decreased in both urban and rural areas.
💵 JPMorgan reduces manual labor by 90 percent thanks to AI
The tool, named Cash Flow Intelligence, is already used by about 2,500 customers. AI technology has the potential to shorten workweeks and contribute to medical advances, according to JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon.
🩺 Kry achieves profitability thanks to AI
By introducing generative AI into its processes, Kry has significantly increased its internal efficiency. The administrative time around each patient-doctor meeting has been reduced by approximately 30 percent.
🥔 Genetically modified potatoes increase yields and eliminate the need for pesticides
Scientists have tested genetically modified potatoes that show promising results in combating late blight, a disease that causes significant crop losses. In field trials, the GMO potato variety Vic.172 showed total resistance to late blight, potentially reducing the need for pesticides.
🌱 Scientists have developed a method to transform salty soil into fertile farmland
The treatment involves burying crop stalks underground and covering them with plastic to retain soil moisture. China, ranked as the third-largest country with salt-alkali soil, sees potential in applying this technique to a third of these lands.
🎙️ Fact-based optimism at your event?
Are you planning a conference or event and feeling too much doom and gloom? Book me, The Angry Optimist, to spread fact-based optimism and hope.
Learn more at mathiassundin.org.
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