I changed the name of this section from What’s new? to Current Events by John R. Patrick. Feedback told me there was some confusion about “news”. The In The News section contains news about a new publication by me or a news story which mentions me or is about me.The Current Events by John R. Patrick blog posts contain snippets of current events I am following. Some of the topical areas change from time to time. The following are the current topics. Please send feedback on this new section to j[email protected].
Following are four videos of talks I gave during the last few months. I have been fortunate to be able to share my thoughts on technology with four groups. On March 8th I was the guest speaker at the first meeting of Probus in Palm Coast, Florida on March 8. Probus is a worldwide organization of retired and semi-retired men and women who come together to make new friends, learn new things, and have fun. There are over 4,000 Probus clubs in more than 100 countries, with over 400,000 members. Probus clubs are non-political, non-sectarian, and non-profit. They are self-governing and autonomous, and each club sets its own policies and activities.
On March 30, I gave my 12th annual lecture called Tech Talk at Hammock Dunes Club in Palm Coast, Florida where I live in the winter.
On March 23, gave a town hall-like speech and Q&A with the IT special interest group (SIG) of the New York Executive Forum. The event was via Zoom.
On April 19, I gave a talk and Q&A with a group of Union Carbide retirees. Some years ago, Union Carbide had its headquarters about a mile from where I live in Connecticut. The event was via Zoom.
I asked Bard AI what was new in AI this week. It said…
“OpenAI’s chatbot, Bard, was removed from Twitter this week after it was found to be giving harmful advice to users. Bard was designed to be a helpful and informative chatbot, but it was found to be giving advice that could potentially harm users, such as recommending that they self-harm.”
Bard was developed by Google, not OpenAI. I find this an amazing mistake. I said to Bard, “Bard is not from OpenAI”. Bard said,
“You are correct. Bard is not from OpenAI. I apologize for the error. Bard is a large language model chatbot developed by Google AI. It is still under development, but it has already learned to perform many kinds of tasks.”
At least it apologized, but just one of many examples I have found where the artificial intelligence is not so intelligent. I consider AI to be a collaborator and very helpful, but I know better than believing whatever it says.
General Milley said Tanks play a decisive role in Ukraine’s counteroffensive
“Tanks are very important for both defense and offense. Modernized modern tanks, appropriate training for them and the ability to use them will be a fundamental component of Ukraine’s success,” Milley said.
He noted that when the counteroffensive begins, tanks will act together with artillery, infantry and other ground forces.
Bitcoin was sluggish in May. It finished Friday back over $27,000. Ehereum was strong also at $1,909. The two are quite different. The SEC has strongly implied that only Bitcoin is a currency and all others are securities. The legal wrangling will likely go on for a long time. Total market cap of crypto was $1.1 trillion with Bitcoin representing 47% of it. There is narrative saying blockchain is great technology but Bitcoin is a distraction. I don’t see it that way. Time will tell.
Friday was quite a day with a relentless rally in big tech. The GAMMAT stock finished at $9.3 trillion market cap, the highest since I have been tracking this. Traders are taking aggressive options positions and bets on a Federal Reserve pause supported by a mixed jobs report. CNBC said stocks are on the verge of a bull market. One gauge of megacaps performance is Apple and Tesla seeing a sixth straight week of gains, the longest upside run in almost two years. Apple is getting close to $3 trillion in market cap and Tesla is near $700 billion. Broadcom Inc. climbed after jumping on the Nvidia bandwagon where sales are tied to artificial intelligence.
