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Scoop
17-07-2025
- Business
- Scoop
On The Costs Of Regulating Cost, And Burkina Faso As A Role Model
Funny how 'blow-out' gets so readily applied to cost escalation in the provision of public services (hospital rebuilds, the Cook Strait ferries) but when politicians get the figures wrong for their pet projects, its just a matter of opinion. Case in point : the original cost estimates for the Regulatory Standards Bill came to $18 million a year – but this week, MBIE calculations released under the Official Information Act indicate that the annual cost could be $50-60 million, or roughly three times the original figure. Sounds like a cost blow-out to me. The sort of incompetence the Bill was created to prevent. MBIE has also calculated that between 95 and 285 full time equivalent staff would be needed to carry out the legislative vetting work envisaged. And already we know that staff at Seymour's Regulations Ministry get paid considerably more than other public servants, on average. In response, Seymour has queried the figures, and suggested that AI would help to reduce those costs. (Hmm. What could possibly go wrong if we asked Chat GTP to rewrite the Resource Management Act in the style of Ayn Rand?) At best, AI might conceivably cut the time spent on several basic administrative tasks, but that would hardly bridge the gap between $18 million and $50-60 million. As the Greens regulation spokesperson Francisco Hernandez told RNZ, one UK study showed that AI would reduce public service labour costs by only about 5%. With the Bill, Hernandez says, money is being diverted from frontline public services into'one person's ideological vanity project': 'But the level of nuanced work of interpreting secondary legislation and how it applies to a principles not the sort of thing that could easily be automated.' Nor will the Regulatory Standards Bill do much to restore business confidence, which MBIE expects will be negatively affected by the introduction of an extensive vetting process and related compliance worries that are unlikely to survive a change of government. Offal in, offal out This week, the news has been almost as bad about another ACT Party fiasco – the school lunches programme. In recent weeks, a venerable political gambit has been used to repair the programme as a success. First, government enacts a terrible idea, and lots of people complain. No matter how many of them complain – or how loudly - the government totallky ignores them and, over time, people just give up. The government then declares the decline in the number of complaints to be a sign of success! That's exactly what has happened with school lunches. People have been forced to accept a shoddier product as the new norm. This week though, Business Desk revealed just how shoddy that product has become. Reportedly, an offal mince blend is now being used in school lunches instead of pure beef mince, in order to cut costs. The School Lunch Collective has started using a cheaper offal mince blend, a move that has raised compliance questions. The supplier, headed by the Compass Group, quietly updated its website to disclose the use of 'beef trim/heart' only after BusinessDesk and regulators made inquiries late last week. Business Desk understands the value blend, which is 50% beef trim and 50% beef heart, is about 25% cheaper than pure beef mince. Feeding offal to children to make a anyone who voted for the ACT Party at the last election should now be hanging their head in shame. Out of Africa Unless a natural disaster, coup or rugby team is involved, Africa rarely makes it onto our news bulletins. Even back when it was called Upper Volta, Burkina Faso barely rated a mention. Yet weirdly, Burkina Faso's young leader Ibrahim Traore recently became a point of contention between the leaders of two of our major political parties. Traore was praised by Te Pāti Māori leader Rawiri Waititi, and damned by ACT Party leader David Seymour with equal fervour. As is usually the case with any country not in the Anglophile sphere of interest, local media coverage didn't go much beyond the initial 'he said/he said' exchange. That's a pity, given that in the non-Anglo media, Traore is arguably the most popular political figure on the African continent right now. To Waititi, Traore is a 'hero' - the view that Seymour has described as 'insane.' Insane? This seemed rich coming from someone who – as recently as 2023 – was still expressing his admiration for Margaret Thatcher. Why does Waititi rate Traore so highly? After seizing power in a coup in 2022, Traore's regime cut ties with France, its former colonial ruler, and set up a state-owned mining company. He also required foreign mining firms to (a) give the citizens of Burkina Faso a 15% stake in their local operations and (b) transfer skills to the local people. To further ensure that Burkina Faso receives a fairer share of the benefits from its mineral wealth, Traore is also said to be building a gold refinery and establishing national gold reserves for the first time in the nation's history. The leaders of Mali and Niger are doing much the same. As the UK Financial Times has reported: Their more interventionist from a desire to assert national sovereignty after decades under the thumb of western miners and subject to contracts the new rulers view as tilted in favour of the companies. They have been rewriting mining laws, demanding higher tax payments and larger ownership stakes in the industry, but have also resorted to restricting operations, issuing arrest warrants and detaining employees. The effects of France's grim colonial record of exploitation and oppression are still evident. Just before Traore's coup, the literacy rate for those aged 15+ was below 35%, which is almost half the average level of literacy found across the Sahel, the region located between the Sahara desert and the savannahs of Central Africa. Burkina Faso and two other Sahel countries (Mali, Niger) have cut ties with Western colonial powers and forged defence links with Russia, and its Wagner Group of mercenaries. Unfortunately across the Sahel region, the banking system remains in France's colonial grip. How come this is still possible? As the US Foreign Policy magazine recently conceded in an article otherwise hostile to Traore: ...[There] is a growing frustration with France's continued economic role in Africa, a result of the enduring Central and West African franc currency systems that continue to exist in twelve former French colonies in the region. This currency regime, which during de-colonization aimed to provide a smooth landing for African economies by pegging their currencies to the stability of the French franc, has endured through the transition to the euro until today. Yet, perhaps the most humiliating aspect of this system is that 50 percent of each member state's foreign assets are held in Paris, plus an additional 20 percent for 'sight liabilities.' All up, one can readily see why Traore's fightback against Western economic dominance and minerals extraction has struck a sympathetic chord with Waititi. Despite the authoritarian nature of the Burkina Faso regime, some of its brutal suppression of dissent has been a survival tactic in the face of the advances by jihadi military forces. For that reason alone, Traore's survival is in the West's self-interest. The jihadis appear to be winning, across much of the Sahel region. To combat them, the Sahel governments that have kicked out France and the United States have not only turned to the Wagner Group for military assistance, but have offered mining rights to Moscow in compensation. Russian assistance has also boosted Traore's sophisticated social media presence. As a result, deepfake AI videos of Beyonce, Justin Bieber and R Kelly have appeared online in which they appear to wish God's blessing on Ibrahim Traore for a long life, and for many more years of enlightened rule. In reality, Traore's rule barely extends beyond the country's two main cities, with jihadi militia controlling much of the countryside. Elections have to be deferred, Traore claims, until these Salafi fundamentalist forces are defeated - otherwise, people would be killed by the rebels for daring to cast a ballot. Given the extent of the jihadi threat, Burkina Faso is now rated by some as being the world's number one centre of Salafi terrorism. Footnote: Unfortunately, politics readily lends itself to this lionising vs demonising process, focussed on individual heroes and villains. The Congolese politician Laurent Kabila once called this process 'dancing in the glory of the monster.' Meaning : it's not about the man, it should be about the system. We need to better understand why the political system rewards the sort of leaders we get. Anthem for a nation The Ivory Coast has always had a strong influence on the music of Burkina Faso. Born in Ivory Coast, the artist now known as Floby has been a fixture on the Burkinabe music scene for over 15 years. From last year, here's a single in which he celebrates his country, and its people:
IOL News
12-06-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Godzille enters the fray: Let the local government elections games begin
That's not my opinion, but that of ChatGTP, responding to my question as to what would happen to a municipality if a toxic leader were to parachute in and take over. And the 'toxic' label was also not attached by this writer but by former Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba. 'When a toxic leader from outside takes over the mayoral position in a municipality, the effects can ripple through nearly every aspect of local governance and community life.' Of course, the paratrooper leader in question is none other than DA Federal Chair Helen Zille, otherwise known as Godzille to those who view her as a political version of that fearful half-gorilla-half-whale fictional monster. And this isn't just a dream – or a nightmare for those scared of her – it can actually happen in a matter of months. The Cape-based never-say-die disruptor can easily move in with her sister or someone like that, and qualify as a resident of the once-shiny City of Gold. Dealing with the party's primaries – the mayoral candidate screening and interviews – would be a breeze. I wouldn't be surprised to see her smiling assassin face on the ballot paper and the street posters. And with her GNU wheeling and dealing experience, she can easily take over the hot seat – depending, of course, on what the people say during the upcoming elections. The crumbling city that is still Mzansi's economic hub does indeed require some drastic shake-up, but I fear Godzille would shake it beyond repair. But let's all just watch and see – especially those of us watching from a distance but with hopes of seeing the rot come to a stop and things turn around.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
It was ChatGPT, says Italian who ‘hoped Meloni's daughter would meet same fate as murder victim'
An Italian teacher who called for Giorgia Meloni's eight-year-old daughter to be murdered has blamed ChatGPT for his online post. Stefano Addeo, 65, who teaches German in a school near Naples, caused fury at the weekend when he wrote on social media that he hoped Ginevra, the Italian prime minister's daughter, would 'meet the same fate' as a 14-year-old girl who was recently allegedly murdered by her jilted boyfriend. The post was condemned across the political spectrum, with opposition MPs as well as members of the governing coalition saying it was unacceptable. He is now under investigation by the authorities for inciting hatred. Mr Addeo attempted on Monday to justify the message, saying that it had been created by the artificial intelligence chatbot, albeit at his request. He told the La Repubblica newspaper: 'It wasn't me, it was artificial intelligence. I saw on television on Friday that the government was not distancing itself from the war in Israel. I asked ChatGTP to create a message critical of Meloni. This crazy thing emerged and I posted it.' Asked why he had not taken a moment to reflect on the gravity of the post, he said: 'I just wanted to post something. ChatGTP is more harmful than you think. I'm a Catholic, I'm in favour of animal rights, I'm a vegetarian. 'I'm on the Left but that does not excuse this type of message. I've had to cancel all my social media platforms, the consequences have been really ugly. I've had to shut myself away at home. 'People are throwing tomatoes at my front door. I have been depicted as a monster. I'm really shocked – people are issuing threats against me. I did a really stupid thing.' He said furore over the incident meant he had been harangued in the streets of his home town. The teacher, who has no children and lives with his 90-year-old mother, said that if he had the opportunity to meet the prime minister, he would apologise. 'I would hug her, asking her forgiveness. I wish only the best for her daughter, although I would advise her to be careful about social media,' he said. But it has emerged he has also posted messages threatening the children of other members of the Right-wing coalition – Matteo Salvini, the transport minister and head of the League party, and Antonio Tajani, the foreign minister and a former European commissioner. 'This is intolerable – you can attack me, but not my daughter,' said Mr Salvini. The teacher's social media post was a reference to the horrific case of Martina Carbonaro, a 14-year-old schoolgirl who was beaten to death with a rock a few days ago, allegedly by her 18-year-old ex-boyfriend. He was allegedly furious that she had ended their relationship. After attacking her, he attempted to hide her body beneath rubbish and debris in an abandoned farmhouse near the town of Afragola, north of Naples, it was reported. Ms Meloni, who is halfway into her five-year term as premier, has decried what she called a 'sick climate' in Italian political discourse. She said that threats made against her and her young daughter represent 'a spiral of hatred fed by an ideological fanaticism that has exceeded every limit. No political differences or ideological cause can ever justify attacks on children'. Matteo Renzi, the leader of a centre-Left party and a former prime minister, said the teacher should lose his job. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Yahoo
Federal judge mulls sanctions for attorneys who used AI in court filing
The front of Hugo L Black Courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama on August 15, 2023. A U.S. District Judge is considering sanctions against attorneys representing the state for using artificial intelligence to draft a legal filing that either misstated legal authorities or cited cases that do not exist. (Jemma Stephenson/Alabama Reflector) BIRMINGHAM — A federal judge said Wednesday she would consider sanctions on attorneys who filed a motion that used artificial intelligence and cited legal authorities that do not exist. U.S. District Court Judge Anna M. Manasco told attorneys representing the state in the lawsuit — claiming corrections officers failed to protect an inmate — that lawyers continue to use artificial intelligence even after other courts have imposed corrective measures throughout the country. 'Generally, this has occurred in other cases where the courts have imposed sanctions and standing orders,' Manasco said during the hearing. 'This incident is proof-positive that those sanctions were insufficient. That causes me to consider a fuller range of sanctions.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Attorneys Matthew Reeves, the attorney who used AI; Bill Lunsford, the attorney overseeing the case, and litigants from Montgomery-based Butler Snow, the firm where Reeves and Lunsford are employed, expressed remorse and publicly apologized to both the plaintiffs and the court regarding the incident. 'I had limited use of artificial intelligence products such as Westlaw Precision with CoCounsel and ChatGTP,' Reeves said to Manasco during the hearing Wednesday. 'I first used it related to dietary matters. That is how I started to use it.' Reeves then said he began querying artificial intelligence to research colleges for his son before applying the technology professionally for research into policies and practices related to different issues. It then culminated in using it to obtain citations for the case. He said he was aware that using artificial intelligence to obtain citations did not comply with the firm's policies and that he did not verify the citations during the two instances that he relied on AI for the citations. Reeves, who according to his LinkedIn profile has been a partner with Butler Snow since April 2023, said Manasco is within her discretion to impose sanctions. 'My only request, since I am the only one responsible, is not to punish my colleagues,' he said. The incident involves five citations that Manasco characterized as 'hallucinated' across two documents filed with the court. The court was made aware of the fabricated citations after the attorneys for Frankie Johnson, the plaintiff in the case, filed a document to oppose the state's request to have their client available to give testimony on a certain date. 'As discussed below, Defendant has cited no legitimate authority to support his proposition that ordering a deposition before an anticipated document production is appropriate,' the filing said. 'Instead, Defendant appears to have wholly invented case citations in his Motion for Leave, possibly through the use of generative artificial intelligence.' Lunsford and Butler Snow have been awarded millions of dollars to represent the Alabama Department of Corrections in cases alleging abuse within Alabama's prison facilities. In December 2024, the Contract Review Committee approved contracts totaling $4.8 million to Lunsford and Butler Snow. The committee had previously approved $14.9 million in July 2023 and another $7.68 million in June of that same year. Blood Money: Alabama Department of Corrections pays to settle lawsuits alleging excessive force Manasco listed several possible consequences, from continuing education seminars and fines to referrals to the Alabama State Bar or even temporary suspensions. Johnson, currently incarcerated at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, said in the lawsuit that he was attacked by as many as 13 people and stabbed at least nine times in the prison in December 2019. Johnson said that despite the attack, staff at the prison failed to properly protect him afterward. 'As a consequence of their individual and collective failure, on or about March 5, 2020, while restrained in shackles and handcuffs during a therapy session, Mr. Johnson was stabbed repeatedly by another prisoner at Donaldson,' the lawsuit states. The attorneys for ADOC filed a motion to compel Johnson to testify the week of June 3. Johnson's attorneys said that they would not have enough time to prepare their client to give testimony. In response, Reeves and Lunsford filed another document stating that other courts have required people who are incarcerated to give their testimony during a deposition when they are given the appropriate notice, which they argue was done in this case. 'Defendant bolstered this assertion with a lengthy string citation of legal authority and parentheticals that appeared to support Defendant's proposition,' Johnson's attorneys said. 'But the entire string citation appears to have been made up out of whole cloth.' Johnson's attorneys noted four of the citations in the ADOC filing. One included an appropriate case but was not relevant to the issue that Reeves and Lunsford claimed in the document they filed. A second case, Kelley v. City of Birmingham, was said to be decided in the U.S. Northern District of Alabama in 2021, when it was actually a Alabama state case from 1939. Two other citations referred to cases that did not exist. Attorneys for Johnson began to review other documents that Lunsford and Reeves filed with the court in the case. They then found another citation that was fabricated in a different document in which 'Plaintiff's counsel found a string of similarly named opinions, none of them stood for the proposition Defendant represented, and Plaintiff's counsel could not identify any case using the citation Defendant provided,' Johnson's attorneys said in their filing. The plaintiffs in the case agreed to allow Reeves to refile the document to have Johnson testify by the original date that he and Lunsford requested, but this time with the appropriate citations. Manasco will allow the leadership at the Butler Snow law firm another 10 days to review its policies and practices pertaining to the use of artificial intelligence before considering the matter further. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Forbes
27-03-2025
- Forbes
Your AI Mindset Translator: The Future Of Understanding Is Here?
In an era of hyper-connectivity and stark ideological divides, bridging the chasm of differing viewpoints is more precious than ever. When dystopian politics make the grasp of reality a shifting target, while news cycles amplify discord, and social media reinforce already harrowing echo chambers, our daily interactions can leave us bewildered by the seemingly foreign logic of others. We grapple with the frustration of miscommunication, where even shared language fails to bridge the gap in understanding. It's as if we're speaking different dialects of the same tongue, each rooted in distinct, impenetrable mindsets. Could an AI mindset translator help? While Google Translate has long facilitated linguistic cross-pollination, a more subtle translation is needed now – one that transcends words and dives into the fabric of thoughts, feelings and aspirations. Could artificial intelligence, our ubiquitous chatbot companions, evolve into sophisticated perspective interpreters, unraveling the complexities of diverse mindsets? At the heart of human connection lies empathy, the ability to walk in another's shoes. Can a machine, devoid of lived experience, truly emulate this nuanced capacity? Surprisingly, research suggests AI's immense potential in this arena. Consistently AI-powered bots are perceived as more empathetic, understanding, and friendly than their human counterparts, particularly in customer service and therapeutic contexts. Especially in mental health support, chatbots were seen as more understanding and less judgmental than human therapists. To be clear, this isn't about genuine feeling but the AI's ability to analyze and respond with patterns that mimic empathetic communication, such as acknowledging emotions and validating experiences – yet the end result, the customer experience, seems to validate that appearances sometimes prime reality. Communication extends beyond mere words. Non-verbal cues convey meaning, like tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language. A study by Mehrabian (1971) famously suggested that 7% of communication is verbal, 38% is vocal, and 55% is facial. While the precise percentages are debated, the principle remains: non-verbal cues are vital. While current AI models lack the full spectrum of human sensory perception, they rapidly advance in emotion and intent detection. Multimodal models, integrating video, audio, and text, are becoming adept at discerning subtle nuances in tonality and facial expressions, offering a more holistic understanding of human interaction. They can detect micro-expressions and slight changes in vocal intonation, indicating underlying emotions like stress or deception. Beyond the ever-advancing multimodal capacities of the big frontier models, such as ChatGTP and Gemini, companies like Smart Eye specialize in emotion AI. This progress opens a fascinating possibility: AI as a tool to navigate the intricate landscape of human thought and feelings. Imagine leveraging this technology to bridge cultural divides, comprehend opposing political viewpoints, or gain insight into different socio-economic backgrounds. Could AI become a mediator of not just words but worldviews? To effectively curate AI as a mindset interpreter, we can embrace four principles: 1. Awareness: Recognizing the inherent biases within ourselves and the AI systems we employ is the point of departure. AI models are trained on data, and that data reflects the biases present in society. For example, language models like GPT-3 have been shown to exhibit gender and racial biases, reflecting the skewed representation in their training data. We must be conscious of these limitations and actively seek to mitigate them while being candid about our ingrained personal biases. 2. Appreciation: Cultivating an appreciation for the diversity of human thought needs to happen offline, tech-less. AI can help us identify patterns and perspectives that remain hidden. By analyzing large datasets of text and speech, AI can reveal the underlying values and beliefs that shape different mindsets. For instance, AI-driven sentiment analysis can identify the emotional tone of political discourse, exposing different groups' underlying anxieties and aspirations. Furthermore, AI can create interactive visualizations that illustrate the distribution of opinions on complex issues, enabling a more nuanced understanding of public sentiment. Still, this information will only make a difference if our minds are open to acknowledging what AI is surfacing. "None so blind as those who will not see" (John 9:39-41). 3. Acceptance: Acceptance does not equate to agreement. It signifies a willingness to engage with perspectives that differ from our own without dismissing them outright. AI can facilitate this by providing neutral, objective summaries of complex arguments, allowing us to see the logic behind opposing viewpoints. This is especially useful in political discourse, where AI tools can identify common ground and facilitate constructive dialogue. For instance, AI-powered systems could be used to analyze political speeches and identify areas of potential agreement between opposing candidates, fostering more productive debate. Platforms that use AI to summarize and systematically present diverse arguments on hot-button topics may build a foundation for gradual mutual acceptance. 4. Accountability: We must hold ourselves and AI systems accountable for the information they produce and the interpretations they offer. AI-generated insights can serve mutual understanding or deepen the divide. This requires human intent for transparent and verifiable outputs. We must be mindful of the potential for AI to be used to manipulate or misrepresent information. By prioritizing ethical considerations and promoting responsible AI development, we can harness its potential for good. This means fostering transparency in how AI models make decisions, ensuring that algorithms are auditable, and establishing clear guidelines for the ethical use of AI in communication. The future of AI and NI – natural intelligence, isn't a pre-written script but an organically evolving dynamic. As our natural and artificial 'minds' are increasingly entangled, the big question is whether AI becomes a 'mirror neuron' for humanity and what we will see in that mirror. Will it reflect back our shared empathy, or are we going to face a 'hall of mirrors,' a distorted reality of personalized echo chambers that are misted by prejudice? The risk of weaponized, hyper-personalized propaganda is not a distant threat but a phantom limb, already twitching. Yet, within this uncertainty lies a promise. Beyond its use as a mindset translator, AI could be configured as a mindset cartographer, to chart the sprawling territories of human understanding. Imagine: AI not just translating words but deciphering the very music of thought. The choice is ours: to forge a future of resonant understanding or to surrender to the cacophony of fractured realities.
