Mission Everywhere

The author's grandmother discovered YouTube. Courtesy of CHIN-TSU My grandma got her first iPhone after a brief health scare and became hooked on YouTube videos. She slipped farther away from the family store, old friends, and the dinner table. Seeing her blush at silly romance videos made me realize that she wasn't wasting time. On the day my Taiwanese grandma A-Ma turned 80, she complained about a lingering dizziness . When she got up from the floor mat, she fainted. Though the blackout lasted only two seconds and the doctor ruled the trigger to be temporary low blood pressure , my aunt was worried enough to dust off an old iPhone in case of an emergency. Being illiterate, it took my grandma a full week to master punching in the four-digit passcode . I was worried during my entire visit home in Taiwan. My cousin helped her figure out her phone Everything changed when my 6-year-old cousin came home from kindergarten with a new obsession with Minecraft videos . Not...

Bloomberg : As weather betting grows on prediction markets, climate experts are debating whether it improves forecasts by aggregating knowledge or is simply a zero-sum game   —  From Kalshi and Polymarket to niche scientific platforms, traders are predicting the weather — and climate experts are debating the results. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/blMt52o

Ellen O'Regan / Politico : Survey of 6,698 people across six EU countries: around 84% said they don't trust US tech companies with their personal data; 93% don't trust Chinese companies   —  Europe is rolling out measures to keep data local and reduce reliance on foreign tech.  —  More than 8 in 10 Europeans … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/PvOwaDJ

Washington Post : Sources: Anthropic met with Christian leaders in March to seek input on Claude's moral and spiritual development and if it could be considered a “child of God”   —  The artificial intelligence company asked religious leaders for guidance on building a moral chatbot.  —  Summary from Techmeme https://ift.tt/QZN6mpX

The Claude app (left) and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei (right) Getty Images US businesses that integrate AI have tended to choose OpenAI. However, Anthropic has seen business spending surge in recent months, according to Ramp's index. Anthropic's reputation got an unexpected boost after it challenged a deal with the Pentagon. Anthropic is close to passing OpenAI when it comes to business spending on AI, according to new data. Ramp , a finance automation and corporate card issuer, said half of its customers now pay for AI products. Among those customers, 30.6% use Anthropic, up 6.3% from March. The gap between Anthropic and OpenAI, which accounts for 35.2% of customers, has narrowed dramatically, according to Ramp. "At the current pace, Anthropic is on track to surpass OpenAI within the next two months," a Ramp spokesperson told Business Insider. "It already leads among early adopters, including VC-backed companies, and in key sectors like software, fi...

Zijing Wu / Financial Times : A wave of top AI researchers returned from the US to China in the past year, driven by better pay, quality of life, and a more restrictive US immigration system   —  Engineers and scientists return for better pay and quality of life as US grows more hostile  —  In the hushed corridors … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/OGj2lbW