Showing 11 - 20 of 22
Unlocking AI's potential for everybody
Oped, Diane Coyle, Published on 18/08/2023
» Artificial intelligence is moving fast. People are using generative AI and large language models (LLMs) to build new services and perform existing tasks, and the underlying technology itself is advancing quickly. As the Nobel laureate economist Michael Spence observes, this wave of adoption could well yield significant productivity gains, after almost two decades of lackluster growth. Every day brings news like Google's recent announcement that its AI has helped American Airlines reduce contrails by 54%, reducing each flight's climate footprint.
Adam Smith 300 years later
Oped, Diane Coyle, Published on 30/06/2023
» This year marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Adam Smith, the founding father of modern economics. It comes at a time when the global economy faces several daunting challenges.
Threat of air pollution, climate change
Oped, Chris Malley & Diane Archer & Johan Kuylenstierna & Eric Zusman, Published on 10/06/2023
» In some parts of the world, air pollution is called an "invisible killer" because it cannot be seen in the atmosphere but greatly impacts human health. Unfortunately, levels of air pollution in Thailand are often so far in excess of World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines to protect health that the invisible killer is recognisable across urban and rural landscapes. At least 40,000 premature deaths occur in Thailand every year due to air pollution exposure and the respiratory, cardiovascular, lung cancer, and other diseases it causes, making it arguably the single greatest environmental threat to the health and well-being of Thailand's population.
The growing challenge of plastic for Thailand
Oped, Chris Oestereich, Diane Archer & Istvan Rado, Published on 13/05/2023
» The first synthetic plastic, Bakelite, was patented in 1907 by Belgian chemist, Leo Baekeland. Bakelite was used in a variety of iconic products in the first half of the 20th century, but the overall use of plastic was then inconsequential in comparison to what followed.
The promise and peril of generative AI technology
Oped, Diane Coyle, Published on 26/04/2023
» Ever since OpenAI released its ChatGPT chatbot last year, a growing number of analysts have been predicting that generative artificial intelligence will displace millions of workers and cause widespread economic upheaval. But how exactly will generative AI affect the global economy?
Preempting a generative AI monopoly
Oped, Diane Coyle, Published on 07/02/2023
» ChatGPT, the new artificial-intelligence chatbot developed by the San Francisco-based research laboratory OpenAI, has taken the world by storm. Already hailed as a milestone in the evolution of so-called large language models (LLMs), the world's most famous generative AI raises important questions about who controls this nascent market and whether these powerful technologies serve the public interest.
Subarctic boreal forest, vital for the planet, is at risk
Diane Desobeau and Marion Thibaut of AFP, Published on 14/11/2022
» FORT MCMURRAY, Canada: It burns, it drifts, it falls victim to insects. And it's shrinking.
GDP's headline appeal on the wane
News, Diane Coyle, Published on 20/12/2021
» How should we measure economic success? Criticism of conventional indicators, particularly gross domestic product, has abounded for years, if not decades. Environmentalists have long pointed out that GDP omits the depletion of natural assets, as well as negative externalities such as global warming. And its failure to capture unpaid but undoubtedly valuable work in the home is another glaring omission. But better alternatives may soon be at hand.
The end of the free-market paradigm
Business, Diane Coyle, Published on 06/02/2020
» The 2020s will be the decade when the idea that economic problems can be "left to the market" to solve is finally put to rest -- after 40 years during which that belief has caused untold damage to society and the environment.
Informal solutions key to plastics
News, Diane Archer & Curt Garrigan, Published on 06/05/2019
» Plastic is now almost impossible to escape in our daily life. Yet, it is causing untold destruction of our natural environment. Recent studies show that all water bodies are contaminated by micro-plastics, from the UK to China. Moreover, the effects of plastic pollution are felt most by ocean life as was the case when it was found that a dead whale found in the Philippines had ingested 40 kilogrammes of plastic.