Showing 1 - 10 of 22
Two models for future autonomous agentic AIs
News, Published on 10/04/2025
» AI "agents" are coming, whether we are ready or not. While there is much uncertainty about when AI models will be able to interact autonomously with digital platforms, other AI tools, and even humans, there can be little doubt that this development will be transformative -- for better or worse. Yet, despite all the commentary (and hype) around agentic AI, many big questions remain unaddressed, the biggest being which type of AI agent the tech industry is seeking to develop.
Will we waste the AI opportunity?
Oped, Published on 25/02/2025
» I was fortunate to participate in the recent AI Action Summit in Paris, where many discussions emphasised the need to steer AI in a more socially beneficial direction.
Was DeepSeek-R1 release a Sputnik moment for AI?
News, Published on 07/02/2025
» After the release of DeepSeek-R1 on Jan 20 triggered a massive drop in chipmaker Nvidia's share price and sharp declines in various other tech companies' valuations, some declared this a "Sputnik moment" in the Sino-American race for supremacy in artificial intelligence. While America's AI industry arguably needed shaking up, the episode raises some difficult questions.
The Trump shock is the Democrat Party's fault
Oped, Published on 19/11/2024
» The outcome of the US presidential election was more of a Democratic loss than a triumph for Donald Trump. The Democrats lost not because US President Joe Biden stayed in the race too long and not because Kamala Harris is unqualified but because they have been losing workers and failed to win them back.
Rethinking national prosperity through institutions
News, Published on 13/11/2024
» Each autumn, a telephone call from Stockholm launches one or a few scholars to international fame with the bestowal of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences -- a process that Irving Wallace dramatised in his 1962 potboiler The Prize.
Why do some countries prosper while others falter?
News, Jeffrey Frankel, Published on 06/11/2024
» Why have some countries grown rich and others not? The three winners of this year's Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences -- Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A Robinson -- offer a simple answer: institutions. Countries with "inclusive" institutions -- which underpin an open society, accountable government, economic freedom, and the rule of law -- do better than those with "extractive" institutions that reward those in power.
How the world can escape the new Gilded Age
News, Published on 25/10/2024
» Tech billionaires such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are not just among the richest people in human history. They also are exceptionally powerful -- socially, culturally and politically. While this is partly a reflection of the social status that our society attaches to wealth in general, that is not the whole story.
Beastly diversions
Oped, Postbag, Published on 19/10/2024
» Re: "Thailand's most unlikely A-list celebrity", (PostScript, Sept 22) & "Hippo rescue", (PostBag, Oct 17).
Nobel economics prize goes to inequality researchers
Published on 15/10/2024
» STOCKHOLM: Three US-based academics won the 2024 Nobel economics prize on Monday for research that explored the aftermath of colonisation to understand why global inequality persists today, especially in countries dogged by corruption and dictatorship.
The debate about AI safety gets everything wrong
News, Published on 07/08/2024
» A huge industry has emerged in recent years as China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union have made the safety of artificial intelligence a top priority. Obviously, any technology -- from cars and pharmaceuticals to machine tools and lawnmowers -- should be designed as safely as possible (one wishes that more scrutiny had been brought to bear on social media during its early days).