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Larry Magid: AI makes mistakes but could it destroy us?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

Before I get to the potentially deadly serious part of today’s column, I’d like to start on the lighter side. Lighter, that is, unless you happen to be attorney Steven A. Schwartz.Related ArticlesBusiness | Larry Magid: Pixel 7A gives you more than you pay for Business | Magid: AI has risks but can also make us safer Business | Larry Magid: Google unveils new devices while focusing on AI Business | Larry Magid: Voice cloning makes virtual kidnapping more convincing In representing a man named Roberto Mata who said he was injured aboard an Avianca flight, Schwartz reportedly filed a 10-page legal document, citing previous cases, including Martinez v. Delta Air Lines, Zicherman v. Korean Air Lines and Varghese v. China Southern Airlines.  Just to be sure, the lawyer asked ChatGPT to verify that the cases were real. It said that they were.Not surprisingly, Avianca’s lawyers, along with the judge, did their own research but...

Bay Area Pride Month events on Thursday

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

(KRON) – The first day of June marks the start of Pride Month and there are several events being held around the Bay Area to celebrate.Here are a list of events kicking off Pride Month on Thursday: 10 a.m.Belmont - A pride flag-raising event will be held at Belmont City Hall to kick off Pride Month.Redwood City - San Mateo Board President Dave Pine will lead a pride flag-raising event at 400 County Center.11 a.m.Santa Rosa - Sonoma County Pride will hold a flag-raising event at Fourth Street and Mendocino Avenue. The group will meet at Old Courthouse Square and the flag will be raised on top of the Rosenberg Building. This Bay Area city is the best place in the country to raise a family: study 12 p.m.Hayward - A pride flag-raising will be held at City Hall Plaza located at 777 B Street to kick off Pride Month for the City of Hayward.12:30 p.m.Oakland - The City of Oakland will hold a pride flag-raising event at City Hall located at 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. Visitors are asked to me...

California advances fentanyl bills focused on prevention, increased penalties

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers have advanced more than a dozen bills aiming to address the fentanyl crisis, including some that would impose harsher prison sentences for dealers, ahead of a critical deadline this week.Legislators in the Assembly and Senate debated measures on Wednesday as they tried to wrap up several hundred pieces of legislation before Friday — the last day a bill can pass out of its original chamber and get a chance to become law later this year. Ousted SF DA Boudin says he won’t run in 2024, takes new job Fentanyl overdoses are killing roughly 110 Californians each week, officials said, and lawmakers are divided on how best to stem the crisis.Some Democratic lawmakers support policies that focus on education, prevention and treatment, while Republicans and more moderate Democrats want more enforcement against fentanyl dealers.State lawmakers across the country, including in Democratic-controlled legislatures such as Oregon and Nevada,...

From Stonewall to today: 50+ years of modern LGBTQ+ history

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, the New York Police Department unwittingly helped start the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. At the time, clubs with gay or lesbian patrons weren't allowed to serve alcohol, but the Stonewall Inn still served booze to their customers, giving police cause to raid the bar. The clientele pushed back, and 13 people were arrested. LGBTQ+ people and their allies protested for days. Among the crowd was transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson, who later founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), an organization that provided resources for LGBTQ+ youth and sex workers. Bay Area Pride Month events on Thursday After the events at Stonewall—which the NYPD eventually apologized for in 2019—more and more people pushed for LGBTQ+ equality. Activists organized the first LGBTQ+ marches in the United States and worldwide, giving rise to annual Pride parades. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association no longer considered being gay or lesbian a me...

FBI Reopens Case Against Julian Assange, Despite Australian Pressure to End Prosecution

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

The FBI has reopened an investigation into Australian journalist Julian Assange, according to front-page reporting from the Sydney Morning Herald. The news that the FBI is taking fresh investigative steps came as a surprise to Assange’s legal team, given that the U.S. filed charges against the WikiLeaks founder more than three years ago and is involved in an ongoing extradition process from a maximum security prison in the United Kingdom so that he can stand trial in the United States. Biden is now picking a fight with Australia (after offending them by cancelling a trip there over the debt ceiling) by re-opening a case against Australian journalist Julian Assange even as the country calls for his repatriation pic.twitter.com/P2tDMe7uRk— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) June 1, 2023Assange is charged under the Espionage Act with obtaining, possessing, and publishing classified information that exposed U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, crimes that themselves have gone unp...

US sanctions Iranians over alleged assassination plots of former US officials, dissidents

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Thursday announced sanctions against a group of Iranian and Turkish people and firms accused of plotting to assassinate former U.S. government officials, dual U.S. and Iranian nationals, and dissidents. Three Iran- and Turkey-based people; a company affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, which is a branch of the country’s military; and two senior officials of Iran’s Intelligence Organization are accused of being involved in plotting to kill journalists and activists, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.The sanctions against them block all access to their U.S. money and property and prohibit Americans and American firms from working with them. The U.S. remains focused on disrupting plots by the Iranian military, which has “engaged in numerous assassination attempts and other acts of violence and intimidation against those they deem enemies of the Iranian regime,” Treasury’s under secretary fo...

Supreme Court rules against union in labor dispute involving truck drivers and wet concrete

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a dispute about the pressure that organized labor can exert during a strike, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday against unionized drivers who walked off the job with their trucks full of wet concrete.The decision united liberal and conservative justices in labor’s latest loss at the high court. The lone dissenter in the case, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, said the ruling would hinder the development of labor law and “erode the right to strike.” Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority, said the union failed to take reasonable precautions to protect the company’s concrete when the drivers went on strike. Barrett wrote that the drivers for Washington state-based Glacier Northwest quit work suddenly, putting the company’s property in “foreseeable and imminent danger.”“The Union’s actions not only resulted in the destruction of all the concrete Glacier had prepared that day; they also posed a risk of foreseeable, a...

Lizzo le planta cara a las burlas por sobrepeso

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

(CNN) — Lizzo respondió a comentarios contra su cuerpo.En una serie de mensajes en redes sociales que solo pueden ser vistos por sus seguidores, la cantante respondió a un tuit en el que alguien publicaba un video de la reciente actuación de Lizzo en homenaje a Tina Turner en “Proud Mary” y comentaba su peso.“Acabo de entrar en la aplicación y este es el tipo de comentarios que veo sobre mí a diario”, tuiteó Lizzo. “Realmente está empezando a hacerme odiar el mundo. Luego alguien en los comentarios dijo que como ‘mucha comida rápida’. LITERALMENTE DEJÉ DE COMER COMIDA RÁPIDA HACE AÑOS…”.También compartió un tuit que teorizaba que no estaba dispuesta a perder peso porque “es su marca”.“No estoy tratando de SER gorda. No estoy tratando de SER más pequeña”, tuiteó Lizzo en respuesta. “Literalmente, solo intento vivir y estar sana. ¡Así es como luce mi cuerpo incluso cuando estoy comiendo muy sano ...

Canada’s Penny Oleksiak to miss world swimming championships because of injury

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

TORONTO (AP) — Seven-time Olympic medalist Penny Oleksiak will miss the world swimming championships in July while she continues rehabbing from injury.Oleksiak had been coming back from left knee surgery since last August when she developed an unrelated shoulder issue.The 22-year-old Canadian competed for the first time in nine months at the Mare Nostrum meet in Barcelona, Spain, in May. After that, she and coach Ryan Mallette decided she would focus on continued rehabilitation rather than swim at worlds in Fukuoka, Japan.“Now I need to focus on my rehab to get back to where I want to be and put myself in position to be at my best next season,” Oleksiak said.She is the most decorated Canadian Olympian in history. Among her seven medals is a gold in the 100-meter freestyle at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.___AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsSource

Balacera y apuñalamiento mortal en Fairfax habría sido por “robo relacionado a drogas”

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:58:10 GMT

Dos jóvenes murieron después de lo que la policía del condado Fairfax describió como un “robo relacionado con drogas” en el área de Falls Church el Día de los Caídos.Las autoridades identificaron a las víctimas como Braden Deahl, del condado Arlington, y Jonas Skinner, de Ashburn. Sus edades rondaban en los 18 y 20 años, respectivamente. Por su parte, Vladimir García Montes, de 18 años, de Falls Church, fue acusado de robo con resultado de muerte, dijo la policía el miércoles. Un joven de 17 años enfrenta el mismo cargo. La policía también indicó que esperaba actualizaciones a medida que continúa la investigación.“Los detectives creen que un robo relacionado con drogas condujo al tiroteo mortal de un hombre y el apuñalamiento fatal de otro”, señaló el Departamento de Policía del Condado Fairfax en un comunicado.Los K9 encontraron una “cantidad significativa de marihuana cerca (de la zona) por lo que se cree que está relacionada con el homicidio”, según las autoridades. Los oficiales...