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We’re using AI chatbots wrong. Here’s how to direct them.

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:18:59 GMT

By Brian X. Chen, The New York Times CompanyAnyone seduced by AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard — wow, they can write essays and recipes! — eventually runs into what are known as hallucinations, the tendency for artificial intelligence to fabricate information.The chatbots, which guess what to say based on information obtained from all over the internet, can’t help but get things wrong. And when they fail — by publishing a cake recipe with wildly inaccurate flour measurements, for instance — it can be a real buzzkill.Yet as mainstream tech tools continue to integrate AI, it’s crucial to get a handle on how to use it to serve us. After testing dozens of AI products over the last two months, I concluded that most of us are using the technology in a suboptimal way, largely because the tech companies gave us poor directions.The chatbots are the least beneficial when we ask them questions and then hope whatever answers they come up with on their own are true, which is...

Should Denver have a night mayor?

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:18:59 GMT

New Mayor Mike Johnston has a lot of city positions to fill after taking the reins of Denver government less than a month ago but he’s already voiced his interest in the possibility of adding another job to that stack. The potential new city job, should it be created, could come with a trendy nickname, too; night mayor.To be clear, the so-called “night mayor” would not be a new elected office. It would not require someone to sit in Johnston’s chair at city hall when he goes home for the evening or to wear a cape and cowl and roam the streets to deter crime.It’s a real position that exists — under different formal titles — in more than a dozen American cities from New Orleans to San Francisco. Just what the person filling the role does varies by municipality, but in most cases, it involves economic boosterism and problem-solving for restaurants, bars, clubs, art spaces and other businesses that do a lot of their work after dark.The Denver Art...

Colorado asked 4 states to share their gray wolves. So far, it’s received 3 maybes and a hell no.

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:18:59 GMT

Colorado wildlife officials have a 261-page wolf management plan, a voter-mandated Dec. 31 deadline to bring the canine to the state and an area designated for their release.But they don’t have any wolves. Yet.Colorado wildlife officials continue to search for the wolves they need four months before the deadline for the species’ reintroduction to the state, as decided by voters in 2020. Conversations continue with three states — Washington, Oregon and Montana — and another two have unequivocally rejected the idea.The search for wolves has highlighted the fractured system of management of the species across the West and the complex politics around the carnivores, which have inspired contentious litigation and political spats.Colorado wildlife officials remain confident they’ll be able to find wolves to release between Glenwood Springs, Vail and the Roaring Fork Valley by the voter-mandated Dec. 31 deadline.“We are confident that we will gain the co...

Detroit police changing facial-recognition policy after pregnant woman says she was wrongly charged

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:18:59 GMT

DETROIT — The Detroit police chief said he’s setting new policies on the use of facial-recognition technology after a woman who was eight months pregnant said she was wrongly charged with robbery and carjacking in a case that was ultimately dismissed by prosecutors.The technology, which was used on images taken from gas station video, produced leads in the case but was followed by “very poor” police work, Chief James White said.“We want to ensure that nothing like this happens again,” White said Wednesday.His comments came two days after the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan urged Detroit police to stop using the technology. The city was sued last week by Porcha Woodruff, a 32-year-old Black woman, who was arrested in February while trying to get children ready for school. There have been two similar lawsuits against Detroit.Woodruff was identified as a suspect in a January robbery and carjacking through facial-recognition technology. She denied any role. The Wayne Co...

Indiana tests if the heartland can transform into a chip hub

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:18:59 GMT

LEBANON, Ind. — Over the past 14 months, Indiana began converting 10,000 acres of corn and bean fields into an innovation park. State leaders met with the CEOs of semiconductor giants in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. And they hosted top Biden administration officials to show off a $100 million expansion of chip research and development facilities at a local university.The actions were driven by one main goal: to turn Indiana into a microchip manufacturing and research hub, almost from scratch.“We’ve never done anything at this scale,” said Brad Chambers, who was Indiana’s commerce secretary in charge of economic development. “It’s a multibillion-dollar commitment by the state to be ready for the transitions that are happening in our global economy.”Indiana’s moves are a test of the Biden administration’s efforts to stimulate regional economies through the $52 billion CHIPS and Science Act, a landmark package of funding that is planned to begin going out the door in the next f...

Grading the Week: Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon isn’t just an All-Star player. He’s a Hall-of-Fame friend. Just ask Nikola Jokic.

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:18:59 GMT

If you’re truly lucky in sports, you get a teammate like Aaron Gordon. If you’re truly lucky in life, you’ve got a friend like Mr. Nugget. If you’re truly blessed, maybe you’ve got a handful.Serbian journo/podcaster Marko Ljubomirovic perked up The Grading The Week gang’s ears on Friday when he went to the social-network-that-should-still-be-named-Twitter and posted a picture of Gordon, Nuggets forward, cool dude, free spirit and Man of the People, and noted that the NBA champ and newly-minted Denver legend had just arrived by plane to Serbia. Which we can only fathom is for a random visit to you-know-who.Ljubomirovic sent a follow-up “X” — sorry, Mr. Musk, that logo looks like something you’d find at the bottom of a 1982 newspaper ad for a very, very naughty adult film — to put Gordon’s appearance in context: There are “trotting races” slated for the Sombor Hippodrome Sunday afternoon across the pond.The Nuggets are Nikola Jokic’s job. Joker’s horses are his passion. And one ...

Goodbye, PG&E… hello, “San Jose Power”?

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:18:59 GMT

In a potential game changer for San Jose’s energy market, the City Council is set to decide whether to lay the early groundwork for creating its own utility company, a project sparked by mounting concerns over Pacific Gas & Electric’s reliability and the need to ramp up power supply in an increasingly electrified economy.On Tuesday, councilmembers will vote on whether to establish a new department called “San Jose Power” and submit an application for access to a forthcoming underground transmission line that would become the beating heart of the city’s new service. If the council forges ahead with the idea — still likely years away from becoming a reality — the city would build out and operate its own power lines to serve future housing, transportation and industrial hubs around downtown and north San Jose.But there’s already strong opposition to the high-stakes plan. Unsurprisingly, PG&E is against it — along with the re...

Maui fire: ‘This whole town of Paradise knows exactly what they’re feeling’

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:18:59 GMT

Tamra Fisher forced herself to stop watching the harrowing videos of the wildfire racing through Maui. The sense of doom was overwhelming her.She has videos of her own terrifying escape from fire, the ones her trauma counselor has urged her to avoid. Nearly five years ago, from the driver’s seat of her bright yellow VW, stuck in paralyzed traffic, her phone camera captured the smoke turning day to night as she fled the deadliest wildfire in California history, the Camp Fire in her hometown of Paradise. It recorded her chilling screams — “Move! Move!” — that no one could hear, and the man named Larry in a big white truck who rescued her and her three elderly dogs panting in the back seat.This week, when she watched the video of two men fleeing Lahaina in their car, the smoky skies, the sheets of glowing orange embers, the driver gasping and honking, she knew it had to be her last.“I was panicking for him. I wanted to put my foot on the gas for him,” Fisher said in an inte...

Opinion: PG&E applies multiple layers of protection to fight wildfires

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:18:59 GMT

PG&E welcomes and values engagement on our Community Wildfire Safety Program. We want our customers and our hometowns to see and know the work we are doing to make our electric system safer and more resilient against the threat of wildfires.Your recent editorial (“New PG&E wildfire safety strategy requires scrutiny”) asked important questions about our efforts to mitigate wildfires.I can say unequivocally that every one of our 26,000 coworkers at PG&E are dedicated to ending catastrophic wildfires caused by our equipment. Over the past few years, we have reduced the wildfire risk posed by our equipment by 90%, and this year we estimate that we will achieve a 94% reduction with new and expanded measures.We have advanced and evolved our wildfire programs and tools with the goal of delivering maximum risk reduction at the lowest possible cost to our customers.We want to reassure our customers that the essential work of our trained PG&E vegetation-management inspectors a...

How DC-area residents can help the people of Maui devastated by wildfires

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:18:59 GMT

Devastating wildfires swept through Maui earlier this week, killing at least 80 people. As the damage is assessed and the island is looking to recover, how can you help?In the D.C. region and nationally, dozens of organizations are looking to provide relief to the small Hawaiian island.Officials estimate more than 1,000 acres of land has burned. Thousands are without power or cell service because of the damage.Here are a few volunteer opportunities that are recommended by Charity Navigator.World Central Kitchen is a D.C.-based nonprofit founded by famed chef José Andrés. His team is on the ground feeding thousands of residents and front-line workers as they continue to contain the fire.Residents of Lahaina have started returning to their neighborhoods to see what is left of their homes after the Maui fires. Communities are still without power & water, so WCK teams are setting up distribution points to provide fresh meals to impacted families. #ChefsForHawaii pic.twitter.com/91b4...