science

Nine of the world’s top 10 research institutions are now Chinese. By Imran Khalid ( Foreign Policy in Focus) – In the last decade, a profound shift has taken place in global academia that has fundamentally altered the hierarchy of scientific research. China, once considered a peripheral player in cutting-edge science, has now ascended to […]

Artificial Intelligence

The New Age Militarists – And their Threat to our Common Future

William D. Hartung

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Alex Karp, the CEO of the controversial military tech firm Palantir, is the coauthor of a new book, The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West. In it, he calls for a renewed sense of national purpose and even greater cooperation between government and the tech […]

China

Moonbases and Solar Arrays: Will China win the Space Race as Musk’s DOGE cripples NASA?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The irrational, ignorant and often plain stupid cuts that rogue DOGE operatives of Elon Musk are making to the US government will endanger the health and well-being of American society for decades. Musk himself is a giant contractor for the government and many of his moves may be intended to […]

Pentagon

The Battle for the Soul of American Science: The Pentagon goes to School

William D. Hartung

( Tomdispatch.com ) – The divestment campaigns launched last spring by students protesting Israel’s mass slaughter in Gaza brought the issue of the militarization of American higher education back into the spotlight. Of course, financial ties between the Pentagon and American universities are nothing new. As Stuart Leslie has pointed out in his seminal book […]

Animals

We Humans are embedded in a Web of Intelligent Life, not the Pinnacle of a Hierarchy

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – From the largest to the smallest and the oldest to the youngest creatures on Earth–Antarctic blue whales and coastal redwood trees, minute bacteria and human beings–we are all enmeshed in layers of relationships. We need each other, though some more than others. Plants evolved hundreds of millions […]

Artificial Intelligence

Massive IT Outage spotlights major Vulnerabilities in the global information Ecosystem

The Conversation

By Richard Forno, University of Maryland, Baltimore County | – (The Conversation) – The global information technology outage on July 19, 2024, that paralyzed organizations ranging from airlines to hospitals and even the delivery of uniforms for the Olympic Games represents a growing concern for cybersecurity professionals, businesses and governments. The outage is emblematic of […]

Artificial Intelligence

A.I. may kill us All, but not the Way you Think

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – The conventional Artificial Intelligence doomsday scenario runs like this. A robot acquires sentience and decides for some reason that it wants to rule the world. It hacks into computer systems to shut down everything from banking and hospitals to nuclear power. Or it takes over a factory to […]

Artificial Intelligence

Israel’s AI-Powered Genocide

Middle East Monitor

by Sarmad Ishfaq We are witnessing the genocide of the Palestinians based on algorithms and machine learning; a system of apartheid in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip reinforced by artificial intelligence; and surveillance and facial recognition systems of such prowess that Orwell’s 1984 regime would be green with envy. Today’s Israeli-occupied Palestine manifests […]

Arab World

Why are Algorithms called Algorithms? A brief History of the Persian Polymath you’ve likely never Heard of

The Conversation

By Debbie Passey, The University of Melbourne | – (The Conversation) – Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without algorithms. So, we’ve all heard of them, but where does the […]