11 votes

Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of June 15

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Tags: politics.usa, usa, recurring.weekly

This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.

This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.

6 comments

  1. KapteinB
    Link
    Ukraine Among Beneficiaries as US Announces $1B Aid Package for UNICEF, WFP (Kyiv Post)

    Ukraine Among Beneficiaries as US Announces $1B Aid Package for UNICEF, WFP (Kyiv Post)

    The US State Department announced more than $1 billion in humanitarian and disaster response assistance through UNICEF and the World Food Program. Ukraine is among more than 40 countries expected to benefit from the funding, which will support food, health, child protection, logistics, water and sanitation programs.

    3 votes
  2. [3]
    nic
    Link
    Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in — and they’re not good

    Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in — and they’re not good

    . The physicians, who had all performed at least 2,000 colonoscopies during their careers, were given access to an AI system that analyses colonoscopy images in real time and flags a type of precancerous intestinal lesion called an adenoma.

    During the three-month period before the AI tool was introduced, the specialists found at least one adenoma during 28.4% of colonoscopies. During the three-month period after the tool was introduced, the adenoma detection rate for colonoscopies performed without AI assistance decreased to 22.4%.

    3 votes
    1. [2]
      FriendlyGnome
      Link Parent
      The snippet - and what is available to read before the paywall - talks about loss of skill when the AI wasnt available, but doesnt talk about whether the AI had a positive impact when it was...

      The snippet - and what is available to read before the paywall - talks about loss of skill when the AI wasnt available, but doesnt talk about whether the AI had a positive impact when it was available.I don't doubt this one bit but I wish I could read the article to see if the diagnostic accuracy was better with the AI tool.

      I can imagine a lot of analogous situations where I just don't care about skill atrophy because I don't need that skill anymore:

      • worse at driving a manual car after getting an automatic transmission
      • worse at lighting a charcoal grill because I switched to propane
      • worse at drawing straight lines freehand because I switched to CAD

      I'm a bit of a luddite so I do feel a bit of a loss about those things, but at the same time, it seems inherent in any technological innovation that some skills will be lost, and it's important to know what is being gained with the new tool available to put that loss into context.

      2 votes
      1. LukeZaz
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        This isn't mentioned in part because the study wasn't about that and doesn't answer it as a result. The article does talk about skill loss from other technologies, however: Personally, I do care...

        but doesnt talk about whether the AI had a positive impact when it was available

        This isn't mentioned in part because the study wasn't about that and doesn't answer it as a result. The article does talk about skill loss from other technologies, however:

        Other technologies have made particular skills obsolete in the past, notes Tapani Rinta-Kahila, an information-systems researcher at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. For example, GPS navigation systems have eroded people’s navigation skills. Generative AI tools, however, are “the first technology that automates various cognitive faculties around thinking and interpretation, which were long considered unique human skills”.

        Personally, I do care about this. Neural nets still have problems in them that real doctors do not, and that's assuming we're using those rather than just throwing ChatGPT or Claude at it like a moron. Racial bias becomes more systemic, for example. So the best way to use them when they work is to do so as a backup option1 — but if the doctors trust it to do the work, then we're offloading, resulting in deskilling. Supervising doesn't work when that happens because if the doctor's ability to detect polyps independently is atrophying from this, then so too is their ability to supervise. This can very easily make the neural net a worse option.

        (As automation does, this also runs the risk of rendering even more jobs as "unnecessary," which is both reckless in its current speed and also generally dangerous in a world that demands labor for survival.)

        I'm a bit of a luddite

        Good! Worker's rights are important, and that's what Luddites were often about.

        1. For example, I think the best way might be to have it operate in the background, as easy to ignore as possible, and it only shows up if it detects something when the doctor didn't. Any other outcome results in no message at all, to prevent reliance on the tech.

        Edit: Rephrased second paragraph to clarify that I don't think supervisory use works.

        5 votes
  3. [2]
    nic
    Link
    JD Vance 'humiliated' by Iranian negotiators in stunning spectacle: 'Never looked weaker'

    JD Vance 'humiliated' by Iranian negotiators in stunning spectacle: 'Never looked weaker'

    “This was humiliation. No one in modern history has made America wait and beg for negotiations. This was the moment JD Vance should have returned to Washington. The Islamic regime did this on purpose,”

    “In diplomacy, the side with leverage doesn't wait in the room,” Taha wrote. “You claim to be leading and winning, yet you arrived first. First mistake.”

    2 votes
    1. LukeZaz
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      I look at this article and it reminds me very much of the way Trump supporters view the world: The most important thing is what "looks strong." Might makes right, and as such you do negotiations...

      I look at this article and it reminds me very much of the way Trump supporters view the world: The most important thing is what "looks strong." Might makes right, and as such you do negotiations best by spitting on people.

      In case it's not obvious, I really don't like this worldview, and as such I don't really care for this article either. Does it make America look weak? Yeah, probably, to some people. But I think we should strive to care about more important things than "which party showed up first" or "did they shake hands." When people treat those as vital, they make internationally important decisions based centrally around theatrics. That's insane.

      I don't care that J.D. Vance showed up early to a meeting with someone who refused a handshake, and I will never browbeat someone for trying to end a war just because they were clumsy about it.1 I will, however, care about the fact that he was a large part of why it started to begin with, because that is worth caring about.

      1. Insofar as he can be given any credit for "trying to end a war," that is. It's pretty clear that Iran is pressuring the U.S. to end war in Lebanon too, and I rather doubt the current admin would care if they weren't being forced to.

      8 votes