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fc188 xyz Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26. Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products. “We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time,” said a statement from OpenAI. Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said “appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation.” The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide. His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a “happy, smart and brave young man” who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends. Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT. “Suchir’s contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn’t have succeeded without him,” said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what made him such an exceptional engineer and scientist was his attention to detail and ability to notice subtle bugs or logical errors. “He had a knack for finding simple solutions and writing elegant code that worked,” Schulman wrote. “He’d think through the details of things carefully and rigorously.” Balaji later shifted to organizing the huge datasets of online writings and other media used to train GPT-4, the fourth generation of OpenAI's flagship large language model and a basis for the company's famous chatbot. It was that work that eventually caused Balaji to question the technology he helped build, especially after newspapers, novelists and others began suing OpenAI and other AI companies for copyright infringement. He first raised his concerns with The New York Times, which reported them in an October profile of Balaji . He later told The Associated Press he would “try to testify” in the strongest copyright infringement cases and considered a lawsuit brought by The New York Times last year to be the “most serious.” Times lawyers named him in a Nov. 18 court filing as someone who might have “unique and relevant documents” supporting allegations of OpenAI's willful copyright infringement. His records were also sought by lawyers in a separate case brought by book authors including the comedian Sarah Silverman, according to a court filing. “It doesn’t feel right to be training on people’s data and then competing with them in the marketplace,” Balaji told the AP in late October. “I don’t think you should be able to do that. I don’t think you are able to do that legally.” He told the AP that he gradually grew more disillusioned with OpenAI, especially after the internal turmoil that led its board of directors to fire and then rehire CEO Sam Altman last year. Balaji said he was broadly concerned about how its commercial products were rolling out, including their propensity for spouting false information known as hallucinations. But of the “bag of issues” he was concerned about, he said he was focusing on copyright as the one it was “actually possible to do something about.” He acknowledged that it was an unpopular opinion within the AI research community, which is accustomed to pulling data from the internet, but said “they will have to change and it’s a matter of time.” He had not been deposed and it’s unclear to what extent his revelations will be admitted as evidence in any legal cases after his death. He also published a personal blog post with his opinions about the topic. Schulman, who resigned from OpenAI in August, said he and Balaji coincidentally left on the same day and celebrated with fellow colleagues that night with dinner and drinks at a San Francisco bar. Another of Balaji’s mentors, co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, had left OpenAI several months earlier , which Balaji saw as another impetus to leave. Schulman said Balaji had told him earlier this year of his plans to leave OpenAI and that Balaji didn't think that better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence “was right around the corner, like the rest of the company seemed to believe.” The younger engineer expressed interest in getting a doctorate and exploring “some more off-the-beaten path ideas about how to build intelligence,” Schulman said. Balaji's family said a memorial is being planned for later this month at the India Community Center in Milpitas, California, not far from his hometown of Cupertino. —————- EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. —————-- The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives.Prince Harry jokes about getting a tattoo on his a** in hilarious video with singer Jelly Roll

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Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products. “We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time,” said a statement from OpenAI. Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said “appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation.” The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide. His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a “happy, smart and brave young man” who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends. Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT. “Suchir’s contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn’t have succeeded without him,” said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what made him such an exceptional engineer and scientist was his attention to detail and ability to notice subtle bugs or logical errors. “He had a knack for finding simple solutions and writing elegant code that worked,” Schulman wrote. “He’d think through the details of things carefully and rigorously.” Balaji later shifted to organizing the huge datasets of online writings and other media used to train GPT-4, the fourth generation of OpenAI's flagship large language model and a basis for the company's famous chatbot. It was that work that eventually caused Balaji to question the technology he helped build, especially after newspapers, novelists and others began suing OpenAI and other AI companies for copyright infringement. He first raised his concerns with The New York Times, which reported them in an October profile of Balaji . He later told The Associated Press he would “try to testify” in the strongest copyright infringement cases and considered a lawsuit brought by The New York Times last year to be the “most serious.” Times lawyers named him in a Nov. 18 court filing as someone who might have “unique and relevant documents” supporting allegations of OpenAI's willful copyright infringement. His records were also sought by lawyers in a separate case brought by book authors including the comedian Sarah Silverman, according to a court filing. “It doesn’t feel right to be training on people’s data and then competing with them in the marketplace,” Balaji told the AP in late October. “I don’t think you should be able to do that. I don’t think you are able to do that legally.” He told the AP that he gradually grew more disillusioned with OpenAI, especially after the internal turmoil that led its board of directors to fire and then rehire CEO Sam Altman last year. Balaji said he was broadly concerned about how its commercial products were rolling out, including their propensity for spouting false information known as hallucinations. But of the “bag of issues” he was concerned about, he said he was focusing on copyright as the one it was “actually possible to do something about.” He acknowledged that it was an unpopular opinion within the AI research community, which is accustomed to pulling data from the internet, but said “they will have to change and it’s a matter of time.” He had not been deposed and it’s unclear to what extent his revelations will be admitted as evidence in any legal cases after his death. He also published a personal blog post with his opinions about the topic. Schulman, who resigned from OpenAI in August, said he and Balaji coincidentally left on the same day and celebrated with fellow colleagues that night with dinner and drinks at a San Francisco bar. Another of Balaji’s mentors, co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, had left OpenAI several months earlier , which Balaji saw as another impetus to leave. Schulman said Balaji had told him earlier this year of his plans to leave OpenAI and that Balaji didn't think that better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence “was right around the corner, like the rest of the company seemed to believe.” The younger engineer expressed interest in getting a doctorate and exploring “some more off-the-beaten path ideas about how to build intelligence,” Schulman said. Balaji's family said a memorial is being planned for later this month at the India Community Center in Milpitas, California, not far from his hometown of Cupertino. —————- EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. —————-- The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives.

Jimmy Carter: Many evolutions for a centenarian ‘citizen of the world’BOSTON — Forty years ago, Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie rolled to his right and threw a pass that has become one of college football’s most iconic moments. With Boston College trailing defending champion Miami, Flutie threw the Hail Mary and found receiver Gerard Phalen, who made the grab while falling into the end zone behind a pair of defenders for a game-winning 48-yard TD. Flutie and many of his 1984 teammates were honored on the field during BC’s 41-21 victory over North Carolina before the second quarter on Saturday afternoon, the anniversary of the Eagles’ Miracle in Miami. “There’s no way its been 40 years,” Flutie told The Associated Press on the sideline a few minutes before he walked out with some of his former teammates to be recognized after a video of The Play was shown on the scoreboards. A statue commemorating Doug Flutie's famed "Hail Mary" pass during a game against Miami on Nov. 23, 1994, sits outside Alumni Stadium at Boston College. Famous football plays often attain a legendary status with religious names like the "Immaculate Reception," the "Hail Mary" pass and the Holy Roller fumble. It’s a moment and highlight that’s not only played throughout decades of BC students and fans, but around the college football world. “What is really so humbling is that the kids 40 years later are wearing 22 jerseys, still,” Flutie said of his old number. “That amazes me.” That game was played on national TV the Friday after Thanksgiving. The ironic thing is it was originally scheduled for earlier in the season before CBS paid Rutgers to move its game against Miami, thus setting up the BC-Miami post-holiday matchup. Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie rejoices in his brother Darren's arms after B.C. defeats Miami with a last second touchdown pass on Nov. 23, 1984, in Miami. “It shows you how random some things are, that the game was moved,” Flutie said. “The game got moved to the Friday after Thanksgiving, which was the most watched game of the year. We both end up being nationally ranked and up there. All those things lent to how big the game itself was, and made the pass and the catch that much more relevant and remembered because so many people were watching.” There’s a statue of Flutie winding up to make The Pass outside the north gates at Alumni Stadium. Fans and visitors can often be seen taking photos there. “In casual conversation, it comes up every day,” Flutie said, when asked how many times people bring it up. “It brings a smile to my face every time we talk about it.” A week after the game-ending Flutie pass, the Eagles beat Holy Cross and before he flew off to New York to accept the Heisman. They went on to win the 49th Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day. Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie evades Miami defensive tackle Kevin Fagan during the first quarter of a game on Nov. 23, 1984, in Miami, Fla. “Forty years seem almost like incomprehensible,” said Phalen, also standing on the sideline a few minutes after the game started. “I always say to Doug: ‘Thank God for social media. It’s kept it alive for us.”’ Earlier this week, current BC coach Bill O’Brien, 55, was asked if he remembered where he was 40 years ago. “We were eating Thanksgiving leftovers in my family room,” he said. “My mom was saying a Rosary in the kitchen because she didn’t like Miami and wanted BC to win. My dad, my brother and I were watching the game. “It was unbelievable,” he said. “Everybody remembers where they were for the Hail Mary, Flutie pass.” Mike Tyson, left, slaps Jake Paul during a weigh-in ahead of their heavyweight bout, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Irving, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) In this image taken with a slow shutter speed, Spain's tennis player Rafael Nadal serves during a training session at the Martin Carpena Sports Hall, in Malaga, southern Spain, on Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) A fan takes a picture of the moon prior to a qualifying soccer match for the FIFA World Cup 2026 between Uruguay and Colombia in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Santiago Mazzarovich) Rasmus Højgaard of Denmark reacts after missing a shot on the 18th hole in the final round of World Tour Golf Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) Taylor Fritz of the United States reacts during the final match of the ATP World Tour Finals against Italy's Jannik Sinner at the Inalpi Arena, in Turin, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni) Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Jalen Tolbert (1) fails to pull in a pass against Atlanta Falcons cornerback Dee Alford (20) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/ Brynn Anderson) Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love, top right, scores a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears in Chicago, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) India's Tilak Varma jumps in the air as he celebrates after scoring a century during the third T20 International cricket match between South Africa and India, at Centurion Park in Centurion, South Africa, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski warms up before facing the Seattle Kraken in an NHL hockey game Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) Kansas State players run onto the field before an NCAA college football game against Arizona State Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Manhattan, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) A fan rapped in an Uruguay flag arrives to the stands for a qualifying soccer match against Colombia for the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico) People practice folding a giant United States flag before an NFL football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) Brazil's Marquinhos attempts to stop the sprinklers that were turned on during a FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifying soccer match against Venezuela at Monumental stadium in Maturin, Venezuela, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) Georgia's Georges Mikautadze celebrates after scoring his side's first goal during the UEFA Nations League, group B1 soccer match between Georgia and Ukraine at the AdjaraBet Arena in Batumi, Georgia, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Tamuna Kulumbegashvili) Dallas Stars center Mavrik Bourque, right, attempts to score while Minnesota Wild right wing Ryan Hartman (38) and Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson (32) keep the puck out of the net during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt) Mike Tyson, left, fights Jake Paul during their heavyweight boxing match, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) Italy goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario misses the third goal during the Nations League soccer match between Italy and France, at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno) Cincinnati Bengals tight end Mike Gesicki (88) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Las Vegas Raiders during the second half of an NFL football game in Cincinnati, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) President-elect Donald Trump attends UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Fans argue in stands during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between France and Israel at the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Thursday Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) Slovakia's Rebecca Sramkova hits a return against Danielle Collins, of the United States, during a tennis match at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals at the Martin Carpena Sports Hall, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Malaga, southern Spain. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez) St. John's guard RJ Luis Jr. (12) falls after driving to the basket during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against New Mexico, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith) England's Anthony Gordon celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the UEFA Nations League soccer match between England and the Republic of Ireland at Wembley stadium in London, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) Katie Taylor, left, lands a right to Amanda Serrano during their undisputed super lightweight title bout, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver DJ Turner, right, tackles Miami Dolphins wide receiver Malik Washington, left, on a punt return during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) UConn's Paige Bueckers (5) battles North Carolina's Laila Hull, right, for a loose ball during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Greensboro, N.C., Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. 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Premium Brands Holdings Co. ( TSE:PBH – Get Free Report ) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 6th, Zacks Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.85 per share on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.27%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. Premium Brands Trading Up 0.0 % Shares of Premium Brands stock opened at C$79.61 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 161.28, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.56. The stock has a market capitalization of C$3.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 0.98. Premium Brands has a 52-week low of C$75.67 and a 52-week high of C$97.10. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is C$82.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$88.28. Premium Brands ( TSE:PBH – Get Free Report ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported C$1.11 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of C$1.36 by C($0.25). Premium Brands had a net margin of 1.78% and a return on equity of 6.43%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.27 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Premium Brands will post 6.039823 EPS for the current year. Insider Activity at Premium Brands Analysts Set New Price Targets PBH has been the subject of several recent research reports. TD Securities reduced their price target on Premium Brands from C$129.00 to C$120.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Premium Brands from C$106.00 to C$101.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. CIBC cut their price objective on shares of Premium Brands from C$103.00 to C$90.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Premium Brands from C$100.00 to C$96.00 in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Raymond James set a C$100.00 price target on shares of Premium Brands and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$103.11. Get Our Latest Stock Report on Premium Brands About Premium Brands ( Get Free Report ) Premium Brands Holdings Corporation, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and distributes food products primarily in Canada and the United States. It operates in two segments, Specialty Foods and Premium Food Distribution. The company provides processed meat, deli products, meat snacks, beef jerky and halal, sandwiches, pastries, specialty and gourmet products, entrees, panini, wraps, subs, hamburgers, burgers, salads and kettle products, muffins, breads, pastas, pizza, and baking and sushi products. See Also Receive News & Ratings for Premium Brands Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Premium Brands and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died

Westshore Terminals Investment Co. ( TSE:WTE – Get Free Report ) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 5th, Zacks Dividends reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.375 per share on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $1.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Westshore Terminals Investment Stock Performance Shares of TSE WTE opened at C$23.05 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of C$1.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.72 and a beta of 0.86. Westshore Terminals Investment has a one year low of C$21.93 and a one year high of C$29.08. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of C$23.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$23.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 62.89. Westshore Terminals Investment ( TSE:WTE – Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported C$0.55 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$103.50 million for the quarter. Westshore Terminals Investment had a return on equity of 14.82% and a net margin of 27.78%. Sell-side analysts expect that Westshore Terminals Investment will post 1.5632706 EPS for the current year. About Westshore Terminals Investment Westshore Terminals Investment Corporation operates a coal storage and unloading/loading terminal at Roberts Bank, British Columbia. The company has contracts to ship coal from mines in British Columbia, Alberta, and the United States. Westshore Terminals Investment Corporation was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. See Also Receive News & Ratings for Westshore Terminals Investment Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Westshore Terminals Investment and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .PM orders strict action against tax defaulters PM Shehbaz says that ongoing measures for FBR’s digitization would bring billions in benefits to national treasury Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif gestures as he speaks in a meeting. — PID/File LAHORE: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has directed authorities to bring tax defaulters into the tax net and take strict action against non-compliance. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1700472799616-0'); }); He made these remarks while presiding over a crucial review meeting on strategies to enhance revenue collection on Saturday. During the meeting, officials briefed the prime minister on the installation and monitoring of video analytics in the sugar industry. Highlighting the importance of technology, the prime minister said, “Improving the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) performance through technology is the government’s top priority.” He emphasized that the use of video analytics in the sugar industry would significantly improve revenue collection, eliminate hoarding and help stabilize prices. “Our utmost effort is to ensure the availability of sugar at affordable prices for the public,” he stated, directing regular monitoring of sugar stocks to maintain an uninterrupted supply chain. The prime minister also ordered stringent and indiscriminate action against tax evasion and under-reporting by sugar mills. He underscored that ongoing measures for FBR’s digitization would bring billions of rupees in benefits to the national treasury. Additionally, the prime minister instructed the swift completion of FBR’s value chain digitization and called for rapid implementation of video analytics in cement and tobacco industries. The meeting was attended by Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Khan Cheema, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, Minister of State for Finance Ali Pervaiz Malik, and senior government officials. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took notice of the non-implementation of recommendations of the inquiry committee on the death of Pakistanis in the boat incident in Greece in 2023. An inquiry has been ordered in the context of the recent boat sinking incident in Greece. The prime minister has directed the three-member committee to review the implementation of recommendations of the inquiry committee set up in June 2023 and determine the responsibility of officers who did not implement it. Chairman Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism (AML & CFT) Authority and former IG Police Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhira has been appointed as the chairman of the inquiry committee. The members include DG Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Destruction Authority Ehsan Ghani and Director (NCB-Interpol) FIA Malik Sikandar Hayat. The Prime Minister’s Office has also issued the Terms of Reference of the inquiry. Meanwhile, the prime minister has constituted an 8-member committee under the chairmanship of Rana Sanaullah, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Inter-Departmental Liaison Division, on the issue of implementation of tax regime for the newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Other members of the committee include Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Engineer Amir Muqam, Minister of State for Finance Ali Parwez Malik, FBR Chairman Rashid Mahmood Langriyal, Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, representative of Pakistan Association of Large Steel Production, representative of Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturing Association and former president KPCCI Zahidullah Khan Shinwari.

Croatia’s incumbent President Zoran Milanovic won most of the votes in the first round of a presidential election on Sunday but must face a runoff against a ruling party candidate to secure another five-year term. With nearly all of the votes counted, left-leaning Mr Milanovic won 49% while his main challenger Dragan Primorac, a candidate of the ruling conservative HDZ party, trailed far behind with 19%. Pre-election polls had predicted that the two would face off in the second round on January 12, as none of the eight presidential election contenders were projected to get more than 50% of the vote. Mr Milanovic thanked his supporters but warned that “this was just a first run”. “Let’s not be triumphant, let’s be realistic, firmly on the ground,” he said. “We must fight all over again. It’s not over till it’s over.” Mr Milanovic, the most popular politician in Croatia, has served as prime minister in the past. Populist in style, the 58-year-old has been a fierce critic of current Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and continuous sparring between the two has been a recent hallmark of Croatia’s political scene. Mr Plenkovic has sought to portray the vote as one about Croatia’s future in the EU and Nato. He has labelled Mr Milanovic “pro-Russian” and a threat to Croatia’s international standing. “The difference between him (Mr Primorac) and Milanovic is quite simple: Milanovic is leading us East, Primorac is leading us West,” he said. Though the presidency is largely ceremonial in Croatia, an elected president holds political authority and acts as the supreme commander of the military. Mr Milanovic has criticised the Nato and European Union support for Ukraine and has often insisted that Croatia should not take sides. He has said Croatia should stay away from global disputes, thought it is a member of both Nato and the EU. Mr Milanovic has also blocked Croatia’s participation in a Nato-led training mission for Ukraine, declaring that “no Croatian soldier will take part in somebody else’s war”. His main rival in the election, Mr Primorac, has stated that “Croatia’s place is in the West, not the East”. However, his bid for the presidency has been marred by a high-level corruption case that landed Croatia’s health minister in jail last month and which featured prominently in pre-election debates. Trailing a distant third in the pre-election polls is Marija Selak Raspudic, a conservative independent candidate. She has focused her election campaign on the economic troubles of ordinary citizens, corruption and issues such as population decline in the country of some 3.8 million. Sunday’s presidential election is Croatia’s third vote this year, following a snap parliamentary election in April and the European Parliament balloting in June.

Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has diedSuchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26. Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products. “We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time,” said a statement from OpenAI. Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said “appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation.” The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide. His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a “happy, smart and brave young man” who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends. Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT. “Suchir’s contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn’t have succeeded without him,” said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what made him such an exceptional engineer and scientist was his attention to detail and ability to notice subtle bugs or logical errors. “He had a knack for finding simple solutions and writing elegant code that worked,” Schulman wrote. “He’d think through the details of things carefully and rigorously.” Balaji later shifted to organizing the huge datasets of online writings and other media used to train GPT-4, the fourth generation of OpenAI's flagship large language model and a basis for the company's famous chatbot. It was that work that eventually caused Balaji to question the technology he helped build, especially after newspapers, novelists and others began suing OpenAI and other AI companies for copyright infringement. He first raised his concerns with The New York Times, which reported them in an October profile of Balaji . He later told The Associated Press he would “try to testify” in the strongest copyright infringement cases and considered a lawsuit brought by The New York Times last year to be the “most serious.” Times lawyers named him in a Nov. 18 court filing as someone who might have “unique and relevant documents” supporting allegations of OpenAI's willful copyright infringement. His records were also sought by lawyers in a separate case brought by book authors including the comedian Sarah Silverman, according to a court filing. “It doesn’t feel right to be training on people’s data and then competing with them in the marketplace,” Balaji told the AP in late October. “I don’t think you should be able to do that. I don’t think you are able to do that legally.” He told the AP that he gradually grew more disillusioned with OpenAI, especially after the internal turmoil that led its board of directors to fire and then rehire CEO Sam Altman last year. Balaji said he was broadly concerned about how its commercial products were rolling out, including their propensity for spouting false information known as hallucinations. But of the “bag of issues” he was concerned about, he said he was focusing on copyright as the one it was “actually possible to do something about.” He acknowledged that it was an unpopular opinion within the AI research community, which is accustomed to pulling data from the internet, but said “they will have to change and it’s a matter of time.” He had not been deposed and it’s unclear to what extent his revelations will be admitted as evidence in any legal cases after his death. He also published a personal blog post with his opinions about the topic. Schulman, who resigned from OpenAI in August, said he and Balaji coincidentally left on the same day and celebrated with fellow colleagues that night with dinner and drinks at a San Francisco bar. Another of Balaji’s mentors, co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, had left OpenAI several months earlier , which Balaji saw as another impetus to leave. Schulman said Balaji had told him earlier this year of his plans to leave OpenAI and that Balaji didn't think that better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence “was right around the corner, like the rest of the company seemed to believe.” The younger engineer expressed interest in getting a doctorate and exploring “some more off-the-beaten path ideas about how to build intelligence,” Schulman said. Balaji's family said a memorial is being planned for later this month at the India Community Center in Milpitas, California, not far from his hometown of Cupertino. —————- EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. —————-- The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives.

By Danny Westneat, The Seattle Times The struggles of Seattle’s downtown to recover after the pandemic have rightly been blamed on some key factors, such as the inability of the city to get control of public safety there. But new data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows just how much the change in how we work has affected Seattle — more so than any other city in America. Seattle has led the nation in remote work among the 20 largest cities, for the five-year period from 2019 through 2023, new census figures show. The gap between Seattle and many other cities is surprisingly wide. The share of Seattleites working from home for their predominant commuting method is twice as high as it is in New York City, the data from the bureau’s American Community Survey shows. In Seattle, 31.3% of the workforce has been working mainly from home — more than 140,000 employees. That’s up from just 7.2% in the five-year period before the pandemic dislocated everything. It’s nearly as many as the 170,000 Seattle workers who still commute the old-fashioned way, solo by car. Seattle is the capital of remote work New census data shows that Seattle has had the largest share of its workforce working remotely among the 20 biggest cities from 2019 through 2023. The Census Bureau’s five-year data includes one year before the pandemic, then the pandemic itself and also the two years after it had begun to subside. It gives the most complete picture to date of what happened with the workforce in various cities. The bureau also releases one-year surveys that give a more up-to-date picture. In that data, through the end of 2023, Seattle ranks second for remote work among big cities, at 28.5%, behind only banking-dominated Charlotte, N.C., at 29.7%. Workers have been returning to offices, slowly, pretty much everywhere. But inside Seattle city limits, remote work remains high despite Amazon’s push to get its entire workforce back, starting three days per week in May 2023, and due to head to all five days starting Jan. 2. After Seattle, the next highest cities for work from home were Austin, Texas, (27.5%), San Francisco (27.5%), Charlotte (25.5%) and Denver (24.4%), the five-year data shows. ( One year data for 2023 put Portland’s percentage at 25.7%.) The data comes from asking workers ages 16 and up how they got to work in the previous week — drive alone, take public transit, walk, work from home, and so on. People were asked to select what they did on most days, so someone working from home might still also go into the office at times and vice versa. Researchers have also begun teasing out the impact a big switch to remote work is having on cities. One study from MIT found that remote work did lead to an easing in traffic. It wasn’t as much as expected, though, because remote workers tend to run errands throughout the day in their cars. Most strikingly, they found the remote work trend came mostly at the expense of public transit. Ridership on buses and trains declined more than twice as fast as car travel in response to remote work. The new census figures show this for Seattle. As remote work more than quadrupled here since prepandemic, the share of workers who commute alone in cars has dropped about 21%. But those taking public transit plummeted 36%. The researchers concluded that transit agencies “need to adapt” to have more noncommuting trips that are less peak-focused, mirroring the all-day flexibility of the new work environment. If remote work starts to increase again, it may call into question the planned expansion of expensive, fixed-guideway transit systems such as light rail. In Seattle, the lack of safety downtown and on transit may also be propping up remote work. It’s a tougher sell for bosses to argue you must commute back to the office when the city can’t keep the bus stops open in Little Saigon, or the Metro drivers safe from attack. Researchers at Stanford University found that working from home is hugely popular but is also exacerbating the siloing of society. It’s for the well-off and highly educated (hello, Seattle). Lower-paid, less-educated workers often don’t even get the option. “The Great Work-from-Home Divide,” they called it. “Further sorting and segmentation is likely to further erode productive social cohesion,” one researcher depressingly predicted. While most of the focus is on what’s happening to workers and companies, in Sacramento, Calif., they hired a team of consultants to assess the economic impact on the city itself. The findings, the team wrote, “were astounding, far outweighing the initial projections of loss to Sacramento through the downtown core alone.” The real estate losses alone were projected in the billions. There’s also the lost spending of all those workers who used to be downtown. The study concluded that downtown Sacramento — which has a remote work rate only about half of Seattle’s — is facing at least $4.4 billion in economic losses due to work from home. Seattle hasn’t done such a study — it should. We could at least then face the new reality head on. As it is, the Downtown Seattle Association says there are still more than 500 vacant storefronts in the downtown core. Some of those might come back if public safety improves. But as the Sacramento study showed, a lot of the customer base is simply hanging out in other neighborhoods now. The massive loan defaults of top downtown developer Marty Selig on some of his Seattle office buildings may be a signal of what’s to come. Stanford economics researcher Nicholas Bloom predicts the return-to-office movement, currently being pushed by Amazon and other companies, is going to stall out. Remote work has dipped and plateaued postpandemic, but it will inevitably rise again in the future, “driven by ever-improving technologies.” “For cities, this will mean increasingly moving from a place of work to a place of leisure and consumption,” he writes. The key to that, he says, is “good public infrastructure, and improved services like education and police. To attract residents, shoppers, and diners, cities must provide appealing services and control crime.” Seattle is trying on those fronts, though not all that consistently — or effectively. Much more is needed. Maybe Amazon’s drive back to the office will rejuvenate things. But one idea is to forget about attracting new big employers or mall-like retail outlets for now, and instead go small. Mark Hinshaw, a former Seattle Times architecture writer who now lives in Italy, says in Europe the government sometimes jump-starts the street by stepping in to take over the leases of distressed buildings, then renting out spots to small businesses. It’s often why streets in Italy and cities like Vancouver, B.C., are lined with “small, quirky businesses” rather than large chains or services like banks, he writes. The government has incentivized the little guys to come in. “Building owners need to get over the idea they’re going to get a big bank (or) a large national brand clothing store,” he wrote earlier this year on Post Alley. “It’s going to take marketing these spaces to small locally owned businesses — and at significantly lower rents.” We’re now nearly five years on since the pandemic first hit, and downtown still is pocked with hundreds of vacant storefronts. Some targeted effort like this is desperately needed. Or the downtown of America’s remote work capital may itself feel pretty remote for years to come. ___ (c)2024 The Seattle Times Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26. Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI’s strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products. “We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time,” said a statement from OpenAI. Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said “appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation.” The city’s chief medical examiner’s office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide. His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a “happy, smart and brave young man” who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends. Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT. “Suchir’s contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn’t have succeeded without him,” said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what made him such an exceptional engineer and scientist was his attention to detail and ability to notice subtle bugs or logical errors. “He had a knack for finding simple solutions and writing elegant code that worked,” Schulman wrote. “He’d think through the details of things carefully and rigorously.” Balaji later shifted to organizing the huge datasets of online writings and other media used to train GPT-4, the fourth generation of OpenAI’s flagship large language model and a basis for the company’s famous chatbot. It was that work that eventually caused Balaji to question the technology he helped build, especially after newspapers, novelists and others began suing OpenAI and other AI companies for copyright infringement. He first raised his concerns with The New York Times, which reported them in an October profile of Balaji . He later told The Associated Press he would “try to testify” in the strongest copyright infringement cases and considered a lawsuit brought by The New York Times last year to be the “most serious.” Times lawyers named him in a Nov. 18 court filing as someone who might have “unique and relevant documents” supporting allegations of OpenAI’s willful copyright infringement. His records were also sought by lawyers in a separate case brought by book authors including the comedian Sarah Silverman, according to a court filing. “It doesn’t feel right to be training on people’s data and then competing with them in the marketplace,” Balaji told the AP in late October. “I don’t think you should be able to do that. I don’t think you are able to do that legally.” He told the AP that he gradually grew more disillusioned with OpenAI, especially after the internal turmoil that led its board of directors to fire and then rehire CEO Sam Altman last year. Balaji said he was broadly concerned about how its commercial products were rolling out, including their propensity for spouting false information known as hallucinations. But of the “bag of issues” he was concerned about, he said he was focusing on copyright as the one it was “actually possible to do something about.” He acknowledged that it was an unpopular opinion within the AI research community, which is accustomed to pulling data from the internet, but said “they will have to change and it’s a matter of time.” He had not been deposed and it’s unclear to what extent his revelations will be admitted as evidence in any legal cases after his death. He also published a personal blog post with his opinions about the topic. Schulman, who resigned from OpenAI in August, said he and Balaji coincidentally left on the same day and celebrated with fellow colleagues that night with dinner and drinks at a San Francisco bar. Another of Balaji’s mentors, co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, had left OpenAI several months earlier , which Balaji saw as another impetus to leave. Schulman said Balaji had told him earlier this year of his plans to leave OpenAI and that Balaji didn’t think that better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence “was right around the corner, like the rest of the company seemed to believe.” The younger engineer expressed interest in getting a doctorate and exploring “some more off-the-beaten path ideas about how to build intelligence,” Schulman said. Balaji’s family said a memorial is being planned for later this month at the India Community Center in Milpitas, California, not far from his hometown of Cupertino. —————- EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. —————– The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives. More articles from the BDN