188 asia

188 asia Facepalm: Large language models have a long, steep hill to climb before they prove trustworthy and reliable. For now, they are helpful in starting research, but only fools would trust them enough to write a legal document. A professor specializing in the subject should know better. A Stanford professor has an egg on his face after submitting an affidavit to the court in support of a controversial Minnesota law aimed at curbing the use of deepfakes and AI to influence election outcomes. The proposed amendment to existing legislation states that candidates convicted of using deepfakes during an election campaign must forfeit the race and face fines and imprisonment of up to five years and $10,000, depending on the number of previous convictions. Minnesota State Representative Mary Franson and YouTuber Christopher Kohls have challenged the law, claiming it violates the First Amendment. During the pretrial proceedings, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison asked the founding director of Stanford's Social Media Lab, Professor Jeff Hancock , to provide an affidavit declaring his support of the law (below). Expert Declaration of Professor Jeff Hancock via CourtListener The Minnesota Reformer notes that Hancock drew up a well-worded argument for why the legislation is essential. He cites several sources for his conviction, including a study titled "The Influence of Deepfake Videos on Political Attitudes and Behavior" in the Journal of Information Technology & Politics. He also referenced another academic paper called "Deepfakes and the Illusion of Authenticity: Cognitive Processes Behind Misinformation Acceptance." The problem is that neither of these studies exist in the journal mentioned or any other academic resource. The plaintiffs filed a memorandum suggesting that the citations could be AI-generated. The dubious attributions challenge the declaration's validity, even if they aren't from an LLM, so the judge should throw it out. "The citation bears the hallmarks of being an artificial intelligence 'hallucination,' suggesting that at least the citation was generated by a large language model like ChatGPT," the memorandum reads. "Plaintiffs do not know how this hallucination wound up in Hancock's declaration, but it calls the entire document into question." Click to enlarge If the citations are AI-generated, it is highly likely that portions, or even the entirety of the affidavit, are, too. In experiments with ChatGPT, TechSpot has found that the LLM will make up quotations that do not exist in an apparent attempt to lend validity to a story. When confronted about it, the chatbot will admit that it made the material up and will revise it with even more dubious content (above). It is conceivable that Hancock, who is undoubtedly a very busy man, wrote a draft declaration and passed it on to an aide to edit, who ran it through an LLM to clean it up, and the model added the references unprompted. However, that doesn't excuse the document from rightful scrutiny and criticism, which is the main problem with LLMs today. The irony that a self-proclaimed expert submitted a document containing AI-generated misinformation to a legal body in support of a law that outlaws that very information is not lost to anyone involved. Ellison and Hancock have not commented on the situation and likely want the embarrassing faux pas to disappear. The more tantalizing question is whether the court will consider this perjury since Hancock signed under the statement, "I declare under penalty of perjury that everything I have stated in this document is true and correct." If people are not held accountable for misusing AI, how can it ever get better?No. 4 South Carolina women rout Purdue 99-51

The Panthers are among the bracket's final eight. Meanwhile, Lehigh ended FCS playoff foe Richmond's 10-game winning streak, and Randolph-Macon advanced to the last 16 in Division III.Imphal: Normal life was badly affected in the Imphal Valley comprising five Manipur districts on Saturday due to a 24-hour shutdown called by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) in protest against the killing of a village defence volunteer. The Joint Action Committee (JAC) called the 24-hour shutdown, which ended on Saturday evening, to protest the killing of a village defence volunteer, and the arrest of six others on December 14. Police earlier said that village volunteer Laishram Prem was killed and six others were arrested after an encounter with the Manipur police commandos near Salungpham High School in Thoubal district. Police claimed that the six persons they arrested and the slain were members of the banned outfit PREPAK who were allegedly involved in extortion activities. Some arms and ammunition, including those earlier looted from police armouries, were recovered from their possession, the official said. In view of the shutdown, markets, including the usually bustling Paona and Thangal Keithel markets in Imphal, were deserted as shopkeepers closed their establishments. Educational institutions, including schools and colleges, also remained shut, and most vehicles remained off the roads across the valley, comprising five districts. Members of the ‘Meira Paibis’ (women vigilantes) took to the streets to enforce the shutdown. Local clubs, civil society organisations (CSOs), and the Women’s Wing of the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) also supported the shutdown. No major incident in connection with the shutdown was reported in any of the five valley districts. In Bishnupur district, bandh supporters vandalised a few vehicles that were plying on the roads. The JAC has decided not to claim Laishram Prem’s body until their demands are fulfilled. The JAC has been demanding strict action against police officials allegedly involved in the death of the village volunteer and the unconditional release of six village volunteers arrested on December 14.

TORONTO — Broad-based gains led Canada's main stock index to close higher in the shortened Christmas Eve trading session while U.S. stock markets also rose. The S&P/TSX composite index ended up 97.84 points at 24,846.82. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 390.08 points at 43,297.03. The S&P 500 index was up 65.97 points at 6,040.04, while the Nasdaq composite was up 266.24 points at 20,031.13. The Canadian dollar traded for 69.51 cents US compared with 69.47 cents US on Monday. The February crude oil contract was up 86 cents at US$70.10 per barrel and the February natural gas contract was up 16 cents at US$3.50 per mmBTU. The February gold contract ended up US$7.30 at US$2,635.50 an ounce and the March copper contract was up two cents at US$4.11 a pound. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 24, 2024. Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) The Canadian PressPresident-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday that he wants real estate developer Charles Kushner, father of Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France. Mr Trump made the announcement in a Truth Social post, calling Charles Kushner “a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker”. Mr Kushner is the founder of Kushner Companies, a real estate firm. Jared Kushner is a former senior Trump adviser who is married to Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka. The elder Mr Kushner was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after pleading guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations. Prosecutors alleged that after Charles Kushner discovered his brother-in-law was co-operating with federal authorities in an investigation, he hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation. Mr Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to his own sister, the man’s wife, prosecutors said. Mr Kushner eventually pleaded guilty to 18 counts including tax evasion and witness tampering. He was sentenced in 2005 to two years in prison – the most he could receive under a plea deal, but less than what Chris Christie, the US attorney for New Jersey at the time and later governor and Republican presidential candidate, had sought. Mr Christie has blamed Jared Kushner for his firing from Mr Trump’s transition team in 2016, and has called Charles Kushner’s offences “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was US attorney”. Mr Trump and the elder Mr Kushner knew each other from real estate circles and their children were married in 2009.

Authored by Svetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com, Europe’s industry is set to lose further competitiveness as high energy prices, rising natural gas prices, and concerns about gas supply this winter are increasing uncertainty about factory utilization amid rising costs. European benchmark natural gas prices are hovering around a one-year high hit last month as cold snaps in November dashed hopes and prayers of a third relatively mild winter in a row. In recent weeks, Europe has been depleting its natural gas stocks at the fastest pace since 2016 as demand has increased with the colder temperatures. This adds to the looming end of Russian pipeline gas supply to Europe via Ukraine after December 31 and growing competition for spot LNG supply with Asia for winter demand. As a result, Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, the benchmark for Europe’s gas trading, jumped last month to a 2024 high and continued to rise in early December, boosting power prices across Europe and raising energy costs for businesses. This winter could inflict more pain on industries relying on natural gas and force curtailments in production, analysts and industry executives have told Reuters . The much higher energy costs in Europe are putting its industries at a disadvantage compared to the U.S., Asia, or the Middle East. For example, the current Dutch hub price is almost five times higher than the benchmark U.S. natural gas price at Henry Hub. The highest spot-based electricity prices in Europe since February 2023 threaten industrial production in key economies and loom large over business sentiment. The rising energy costs threaten major European economies, just as Germany, the biggest economy in Europe, narrowly avoided a recession in the third quarter of the year. Eurozone GDP grew by 0.4% in the third quarter, Eurostat’s flash estimate has shown. That was higher than expected as the two top economies, those of Germany and France, outperformed forecasts.The year in review: Influential people who died in 2024NEW DELHI: Election Commission , in its interim response Saturday to concerns raised by Congress regarding "arbitrary deletion and additions of voters" and increase in voting percentages between 5pm and 11.30pm on polling day in the recent Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections , reiterated that electoral roll updation is a transparent process conducted with the involvement of all political parties. The commission also agreed to meet a Congress delegation to hear the party's concerns regarding the polling process, EC sources said. While ruling out any discrepancy in turnout data, EC clarified - just as it had when similar doubts were raised by Congress during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections - that the gap in the 5pm data and the final voter turnout was on account of procedural priorities, as presiding officers perform statutory duties near the close of polling before updating voter turnout data. EC underlined in the letter sent to Congress's law, human rights and RTI department, that the poll panel has, starting with the 2024 general elections, made it a standard practice to put out a press statement with updated voter turnout figures as of 11.45pm on polling day, as an "additional disclosure measure". Congress had flagged the twin concerns despite the varied results in Maharashtra and Jharkhand - while the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance won a landslide in Maharashtra, UPA recorded a spectacular win in Jharkhand. Even as EC, in its response, tried to allay the concerns raised by Congress, it agreed to get the issues regarding the addition and deletion of voters examined. It not only agreed to convey its detailed and final reply to the issues raised but also granted an in-person hearing to the party delegation at 5pm on Dec 3. EC sources said the commission has agreed to meet a Congress delegation as it would like to hear what the party has to say on the concerns raised, in wake of the EC's repeated clarifications. In its letter to Congress, EC recalled its last letter to the party dated May 10, 2024, wherein it recorded the reasons for deviation in voting percentage at 5pm and at the close of polling day (around 11.45pm). It reiterated that total votes polled at each polling booth were given by the presiding officer, before leaving the polling station, to authorised agents of candidates in Form 17C Part 1, at the end of polling in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. "This cannot be changed...This number aggregates to final voter turnout which all political parties and candidates can verify," stated EC. EC said that it takes employees on poll duty from state govt departments. "The presiding officer, near the completion of polling at polling stations, performs multiple statutory responsibilities like filling up of various statutory forms, record keeping of activities in the presiding officer's diary, sealing of the machines, etc. The data feeding from polling stations into the turnout app, at this stage, thus takes time," it stated.

Voices: Macron’s Notre-Dame reopening is an ode to history in a Europe with no clear futureGiants will try to snap a 7-game losing streak when they host the Saints

Former Shakhtar Donetsk captain Anatolii Tymoshchuk cynically called on Ukraine to start negotiations with Russia to end the current war. The assistant head coach of Zenit St. Petersburg called it a political manipulation to deprive him of all his awards and titles for his shameful silence about the Russian invasion of our country on February 24, 2022. Tymoshchuk stated this in a letter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne (CAS), speaking about the war for the first time, according to the CAS website . The former athlete accused the Ukrainian Football Association (UAF) of allegedly imposing illegal sanctions and also spoke out "for peace in his native land," forgetting that it was Russia, where he continues to work, that unleashed the unmotivated war. "I strongly advocate peace in my native land, and the only thing I can think about now is for the parties to sit down at the negotiating table as soon as possible and find a consensus that will restore peace. If the UAF believes that sanctions against me will somehow help this, then I myself am ready to give up everything. But as a professional, an athlete, and a person for whom a football reputation is more than just words, I will never allow myself to be made an instrument of political manipulation," Tymoshchuk said. This looks especially cynical because earlier he took part in an auction that raised money for the Russian army in the Kursk region, where the Ukrainian army has established a bridgehead. The traitor also had a business in Ukraine. Anatolii refused to condemn Russia for the attack on Ukraine and only managed to squeeze out a small Instagram story in which he simply called for peace. In addition, it was reported that Tymoshchuk is trying to obtain a Romanian passport. The Zenit coach is trying to circumvent the sanctions imposed on him by the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC). Earlier, it was reported that the traitor to Ukraine was recruited by the Federal Security Service (FSB), which is the reason for his silence on the war in Ukraine. Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber . Do not fall for fakes!‘Hoarding collapse was an act of God’: Bhavesh BhindeThe opposition BJD on Tuesday said it lodged the complaint with the Election Commission claiming ''unusual'' variances in the votes cast in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in Odisha after six months as it took time to gather the data. Addressing a press conference, BJD MLA Arun Kumar Sahoo alleged that district election officers did not provide the data even after queries under the RTI were filed. Expressing ''surprise'' with the BJP's criticism, he said, ''Why is BJP reacting when no one has blamed them? This indicates that there might be some design.'' The BJD, in its memorandum to the EC on Monday, claimed that ''serious discrepancies'' have been found between Form 17-C filled by presiding officers and Form-20 filled by returning officers. It also claimed that discrepancies were found in the number of votes polled in assembly constituencies and corresponding 21 parliamentary constituencies. The variations ranged from 4,056 votes in Dhenkanal to 3,521 votes in Kandhamal and 2,701 votes in Balangir, the party said. Reacting to it, BJP MP Balabhadra Majhi had said, ''Six months after the election, now they have realised that they do not have the power. They are doing all this drama just to stay in the limelight.'' Sahoo said, ''After the elections, we asked the district collectors for information about all the booths. But they did not provide it. Everyone has the right to get this information.'' He alleged that the state government has given an ''unwritten order'' to the district collectors not to provide the data. ''We have been researching and collecting information for six months after being denied data. We found several lacunae. If the EC is correct, then why is the copy not being given,'' he asked. ''How come data provided by the presiding officers and the returning officers differ?'' he asked, maintaining that these gaps have created confusion in the minds of the people and thus the BJD approached the EC for clarification. (This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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