Earlier this week, the Telegraph reported a curious admission from OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. In a filing submitted to the U.K. Parliament, the company said that “leading AI models” could not exist without unfettered access to copyrighted books and articles, confirming that the generative-AI industry, worth tens of billions of dollars, depends on creative work owned by other people.
Israel’s military assault on Gaza is not just a humanitarian disaster but also generating massive amounts of planet-heating emissions and exacerbating the climate crisis. The carbon emissions from Israel’s bombs, tanks, fighter jets and other military activity in the first two months of the war were higher than the annual carbon footprints of 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, according to researchers in the United States and United Kingdom.
We speak with guests in Johannesburg and Jerusalem about South Africa’s landmark case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, where judges are being asked to intervene to stop a genocide. “What essentially South Africa is calling for is a ceasefire in Gaza,” says South African human rights lawyer Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh. We also speak with Palestinian genocide scholar Maha Abdallah, who says there is “extreme urgency” for the world to stop the bloodshed.
South Africa began to make its case Thursday at the International Court of Justice that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. In their opening statements, South Africa’s lawyers argued that the sheer scale of Israel’s violence, which has so far killed more than 23,000 people since October 7, is part of a political and military strategy aimed at the destruction of Palestinian life, using statements from top Israeli leaders to show genocidal intent.
The defense secretary underwent a prostatectomy to remove cancer and suffered painful complications.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are using microgravity to unlock the disease’s secrets.
The high court’s order temporarily freezes a lower court decision that blocked enforcement of Idaho’s near-total abortion ban in emergency circumstances.
Pollsters and political operatives said the fact Americans are unlikely to see their drug prices go down by November means the FDA’s decision is unlikely to have any tangible effect on the presidential election.
Friday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the unemployment rate dropped from 3.9% to 3.7%, not far above a five-decade low of 3.4% in April.
Expiring Covid benefits and new limits on safety net programs threaten to hit Americans’ pocketbooks — especially among core parts of the Democratic electorate.
Top White House aides reviewed private polling showing Biden’s economic message falling flat and suggesting paths toward a turnaround.
Human rights groups say Israel is using starvation as a weapon in the Gaza Strip as Israel severely restricts the delivery of humanitarian aid, medicine and food supplies to millions inside the besieged and bombed territory. In a new report,” Israeli human rights group B’Tselem lays out how Israel’s decision to cut off electricity, water and international humanitarian aid to Gaza after a 17-year blockade against the territory has led to a very quick collapse of infrastructure.
As the Biden administration faces mounting public and internal criticism for supporting and arming Israel’s 96-day assault on Gaza, we speak with Tariq Habash, who last week became the first Biden appointee to publicly resign from the government to protest Biden’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
We look at The Cost of Inheritance, a new documentary that examines the growing movement for reparations for Black American descendants of people who were enslaved and addressing the historical injustices they have faced. While some of this is being done by city and state commissions tasked with studying reparations, others are attempting to address systemic racism at the local and personal level, as detailed in the film.
President Biden delivered his second campaign speech of the year Monday at the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where a white supremacist gunman killed nine people in 2015. Biden remembered the victims, spoke of the “poison of white supremacy” and assailed his Republican rivals for not taking racism seriously, but Biden’s speech was interrupted at one point by protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel’s U.S.
“I know which I’m choosing,” said the 2016 Democratic candidate.
The Democrats fired back at the South Carolina Republican for her swipe at Hunter Biden during a House Oversight Committee hearing.
Even the Florida governor got a kick out of his 2024 rival’s curt response.
Donald Trump might have been on a different channel, but Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley shared equally grandiose delusions about the state of the race.
Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis are battling for runner-up in next week’s Iowa caucuses, which the former president is expected to win by a large margin.
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When the Civil War is in the news, it’s almost never a good sign about the health of the republic.
First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
Trump’s lawyer walked into a trap.
If you squint and tilt your head, you can see some similarities in the blurry shapes that are Harvard and OpenAI. Each is a leading institution for building minds, whether real or artificial—Harvard educates smart humans, while OpenAI engineers smart machines—and each has been forced in recent days to stare down a common allegation. Namely, that they are represented by intellectual thieves.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are using microgravity to unlock the disease’s secrets.
The high court’s order temporarily freezes a lower court decision that blocked enforcement of Idaho’s near-total abortion ban in emergency circumstances.
Pollsters and political operatives said the fact Americans are unlikely to see their drug prices go down by November means the FDA’s decision is unlikely to have any tangible effect on the presidential election.
Friday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the unemployment rate dropped from 3.9% to 3.7%, not far above a five-decade low of 3.4% in April.
Expiring Covid benefits and new limits on safety net programs threaten to hit Americans’ pocketbooks — especially among core parts of the Democratic electorate.
Top White House aides reviewed private polling showing Biden’s economic message falling flat and suggesting paths toward a turnaround.
Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
Last week, I asked: If you could question leaders of academic institutions like a member of Congress, forcing them to contend with any aspect of higher education, what would you ask them?
Replies have been edited for length and clarity.
Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
Last week, I asked: If you could question leaders of academic institutions like a member of Congress, forcing them to contend with any aspect of higher education, what would you ask them?
Replies have been edited for length and clarity.