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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Anniversary of Destruction, Loss, and Bravery in Ukraine</strong> - Ukrainians have responded with remarkable dignity and courage, but there is little to romanticize one year into the Russian invasion. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/an-anniversary-of-destruction-loss-and-bravery-in-ukraine">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How the Government Cancelled Betty Anns Debts</strong> - For a ninety-one-year-old law-school graduate, the Department of Education discharged more than three hundred thousand dollars in student debt. Could relief be that simple? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-the-government-forgave-betty-anns-debts">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What Is Ron DeSantis Doing to Floridas Public Liberal-Arts College?</strong> - DeSantis is not simply inveighing against progressive control of institutions. He is using his powers as governor to remake them. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/what-is-ron-desantis-doing-to-floridas-public-liberal-arts-college">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Maria Pevchikh, Putins Grand Inquisitor</strong> - A deputy to Alexey Navalny discusses his near-fatal poisoning, her own probe of Kremlin corruption, and battling Moscow from exile. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/maria-pevchikh-alexey-navalny-vladimir-putin">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Greening the Burial of the Dead, in Brooklyn</strong> - The historic Green-Wood Cemetery—the final resting place of Leonard Bernstein and half a million others—explores a cutting-edge method of processing human remains: electric cremation. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/greening-the-burial-of-the-dead-in-brooklyn">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
<ul>
<li><strong>Why its so hard to get answers on long Covid</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A tangled bit of thin yellow rope, with one end leading off to the left and the other end off to the right." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Tx_meEguFxDreSB4xMkiTqTjlX4=/0x0:3109x2332/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72036900/GettyImages_93115410.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Getty Images/iStockphoto
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Even the best-designed studies yield some head-scratching results.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fI2H15">
Scientists have been scrambling to understand long Covid ever since the first SARS-CoV-2-infected patients reported persistent symptoms in <a href="https://twitter.com/preshitorian/status/1242831605330313216">early 2020</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9wo2hG">
The condition <a href="https://www.contagionlive.com/view/trying-to-unravel-the-mystery-of-long-covid">includes</a> a wide range of symptoms new or worsened after a SARS-CoV-2 infection that last at least three months post-infection and affect a persons quality of life. A recent estimate suggests about <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-022-00846-2">65 million people worldwide</a> are affected.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ncCiV2">
Thousands of long Covid studies have hit the preprint servers over the past few years, and literal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-022-00846-2#Sec1">reams of new knowledge</a> have emerged. But despite the research interest, disentangling long Covids symptoms from those of other conditions like chronic lung diseases, autoimmune syndromes, and neuropsychiatric disorders remains a challenge, and scientists still dont understand whos at greatest risk for developing long-term health problems after a Covid-19 infection.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pBMlja">
In the last few months, the first in a series of studies from the <a href="https://www.covidinspire.org/">Inspire</a> group (Innovative Support for Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infections Registry) have been published, and offer painstakingly collected data aimed at answering big questions about long Covid.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G6PSKG">
Inspire — a CDC-funded collaboration among eight US academic medical centers — is in many ways better designed than many other long Covid studies. However, while some of the studys findings are instructive, others are confusing. Some even appear to challenge the reality that people with long Covid face — for example, by suggesting that people who didnt catch Covid had more persistent, severe fatigue than people who were infected.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ofILks">
These new studies help us understand long Covid better, even if theyre not entirely neat. And looking at them closely can help us understand why long Covid — a condition <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34529639/">tied to</a> <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2021/05/10/with-long-covid-history-may-be-repeating-itself-among-people-of-color/">health inequities</a> — is so hard to study, especially in a country with some of the <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/abs/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.01566">worst health inequities in the world</a>.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dVqvN1">
It can also help us understand why good studies sometimes yield perplexing results, and what scientists can and should do when that happens.
</p>
<h3 id="OXT7tu">
The Inspire study is different — and more rigorous — than many<strong> </strong>long Covid studies that came before it
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4mXoU8">
The Inspire study <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04610515">originated</a> in 2020 as an effort to understand the lived experience and broader impact of Covid-19. When its investigators noticed other studies suggesting <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35717982/">different Covid variants had<strong> </strong>different risks for long Covid</a>, they used the study data to try to<strong> </strong>answer why and other tough questions about more persistent symptoms.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YTVHqF">
A problem with many long Covid studies is that some long Covid symptoms — fatigue, headache, and chest pain — are pretty common and can be caused by other conditions like migraine, asthma, depression, and anxiety, or environmental factors like poor air quality. It can be tricky to figure out if a patient has persistent exhaustion because of a recent Covid infection or if something else is going on.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bRgz5P">
The Inspire study organizers tried to account for this. They decided any adults who had symptoms<em> </em>of Covid-19 would be eligible for their study — both those who tested positive for Covid-19 and those who tested negative for the infection. This design would ideally help isolate Covid-19 as the cause of even the most common symptoms. (They ultimately enrolled 4,113 Covid-positive people and 1,362 Covid-negative people, all tested between December 2020 and June 2022.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1UGKaT">
The <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0264260">study design</a> included a few other features intended to avoid some of the problems baked into other studies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IaDZO1">
For starters, rather than using data gathered from electronic medical records, the study uses data gathered from surveys administered directly to participants. “Electronic health record data is often relatively restricted,” said Michael Gottlieb, an emergency medicine doctor at Rush University who co-led the study. Information about key symptoms is often missing, depending on what questions clinicians asked each patient and what each patient reported to their provider.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7GYWlx">
The survey the Inspire group administered also asked about a much broader range of symptoms than most clinicians would ask about, including questions about sleep quality, ability to focus, and hair loss. Additionally, it asked about these issues using questions that have been <a href="https://www.healthmeasures.net/explore-measurement-systems/promis">proven by the National Institutes of Health</a> to be really good at accurately capturing symptoms often reported by people with chronic illnesses.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lqx4JB">
Another promising feature of the study is that it gathers data going forward from the moment of enrollment, rather than going backward from that moment (a design technically called “prospective”). This makes it less likely that a symptom will be unreported or reported incorrectly because a patient has forgotten the details.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hQPotN">
All told, Inspire was well-positioned to deliver answers. Did it?
</p>
<h3 id="Q65pyn">
Inspire delivered some unsurprising findings — and some head-scratchers
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bdREwv">
So far, three papers from the Inspire study have been published<strong> </strong>since December 2022. Some of the findings they detail jibe with what many clinicians are seeing in long Covid clinics.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MOfUg6">
<a href="https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciad045/7007177?login=false">Results the group published in January</a> showed that while more people with Covid developed persistent symptoms if they were infected before the delta variant emerged, it wasnt because of differences between variants. Rather, it was because of social or demographic factors, like preexisting conditions, hospitalization for Covid, and race and ethnicity. Additionally, they found vaccination was protective against developing long Covid after infection. Researchers had suspected that preexisting conditions and vaccination played into long Covid risk. So this all made sense.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RqIt3y">
Other findings emerging from Inspire are more confusing.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q3CoiI">
The big one being: People in the control group — that is, the people who never had Covid — had higher rates of symptoms related to long Covid.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ymxstn">
In the January study, people who tested negative for Covid actually had higher rates of severe fatigue three months after testing than people who had Covid. They also experienced many other symptoms — like fever, headache, runny nose, and sore throat — at rates comparable to or higher than Covid-positives.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WbKdrx">
Also confusing were findings detailed in<strong> </strong>an <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2799116">earlier publication</a> by the study group, which reported poor well-being more often among Covid-negative patients than among people who tested positive — 54 percent compared with 40 percent.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZAghbN">
What to make of this?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dFs22w">
Its possible Covid diagnostics are part of the problem. When it comes to Covid tests, “the chances of a false negative are actually quite high, especially if you look at patients that are symptomatic,” said Alma Azola, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at Johns Hopkins University who specializes in long Covid care, and false-negative rates can be as high as <a href="https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-1495">38 percent</a>. That means a large number of people might have been<strong> </strong>incorrectly assigned to the non-Covid control group when they actually did have the infection.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="m0NPsk">
This is a possibility the authors acknowledge in the publication, although there are other possible reasons for this finding, said Gottlieb.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bhvMml">
One being, other <a href="https://www.vox.com/22298751/long-term-side-effects-covid-19-hauler-symptoms">infections can produce “long” symptoms</a> similar to long Covid. “Just because they didnt have Covid doesnt mean they couldnt have had another infection that caused a post-infectious syndrome,” he said. After all, they were tested for Covid-19 because they were symptomatic in some way.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C8bWV5">
Another possibility: More people in the Covid-negative group dropped out of the study before it was completed than in the Covid-positive group. If they did so<strong> </strong>because they felt better sooner, that could have skewed the results.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ctrG2S">
Other differences between the Covid-positive and Covid-negative groups could also lead to differences in outcomes: People without Covid were less likely to be female, white, and have private health insurance. Its possible these characteristics track with other life experiences that raise the risk of severe fatigue and other symptoms. (Gottlieb noted that the latest study was not set up to directly assess this possibility.)
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4l6a6t">
And theres yet another, perhaps more uncomfortable possibility: Our medical system under-recognizes that fatigue and other symptoms exist at high rates, even when theyre not related to Covid.
</p>
<h3 id="KJGljv">
Studying long Covid got messier as the pandemic evolved, and is particularly hard to study in the US
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xKErnf">
Is there a way to avoid these pitfalls? An ideal study would be one that enrolled all Covid-positive patients in a defined area at the moment of diagnosis — without a selection process — as well as asymptomatic<em> </em>controls, and called all of them a few months after infection, said Jeffrey Martin, an infectious disease doctor and epidemiologist at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7vpw4C">
That study hasnt been done. The closest anything has come, Martin said, was a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7037a2.htm">study</a> the Long Beach, California, health department conducted the first year of the pandemic, before widespread home testing led so many Covid-positive people to go unidentified by local health departments.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kKjgss">
The investigators randomly selected adults from a list of all positive Covid tests reported to the county and called them to ask whether, two months after their result, they had any persistent symptoms. One-third did.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QwMPgB">
Big challenges to long Covid research remain, and will only grow.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rJqRjf">
“Studying long Covid has gotten harder over time,” said Michael Peluso, an infectious disease doctor and researcher who studies long Covid at UCSF.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hdruow">
When scientists first began researching long Covid, the virus was still relatively new, Peluso explained. Everyone was at risk of catching SARS-CoV-2, reinfections hadnt happened yet, nobody had been vaccinated, and there were no treatments. All of thats now changed — and because its not clear which factors affect long Covid, scientists need to think about all of them.
</p>
<h3 id="7E2SUT">
How scientists think through the confusing results
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7G9TJm">
Whats a scientist to do when a new study about a poorly understood disease contains confusing findings? Several experts I spoke with said the answer is to look more closely.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xJl0XH">
When study results dont make sense, said Peluso, sometimes “those observations come to be because of some issue with how a study is designed or recruited or recorded, and that requires a lot of thought and interpretation.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aREQxD">
The American health care system adds a layer of complexity that impedes research: Because our medical records are not held centrally — the way our tax records are — its a much bigger lift to do population-wide research in the US compared with countries like the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9719829/">United Kingdom</a> and <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072529">Israel</a>. Instead of gathering anonymized information from a database that includes everyone who gets health care, researchers have to enroll people in studies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0ppzbe">
That introduces bias into the data, said Peluso, because in the US, “research includes people who choose to participate in research” — but often, it doesnt include people who cant get time off to participate in a study or cant afford to travel to a study site. That leaves lower-income and rural people — who are often also racial and ethnic minorities — less likely to be represented in clinical studies.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GvgkWy">
Recruiting issues aside, the confusing findings could be an important clue.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HNwQtM">
“This happens all the time — we make surprising observations that turn out to totally upend a field,” Peluso said.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mBdzlU">
Unexpected results require clinicians to ask themselves: “Does this make sense with what I am seeing as a clinician every day interacting with people?’” said Peluso. “If it doesnt, it doesnt necessarily mean that its wrong — it just means that we need to give it a little bit more thought and understand why.”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="M7m8pD">
Other ongoing studies will hopefully fill in some gaps. Several large long Covid studies, including the National Institutes of Healths <a href="https://recovercovid.org/publications">Recover</a> and<strong> </strong><a href="https://ncats.nih.gov/n3c">N3C</a> studies, continue to examine questions about what long Covid looks like and whos most at risk. There are also large <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36138154/">studies</a> <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35172971/">conducted</a> using the massive medical records database of the national Veterans Health Administration medical centers; theyre not perfect, said Azola — “were looking at old white men” — but their ability to look at a large group before and after Covid-19 infection is instructive.
</p>
<h3 id="nzWjKe">
Patients want answers these studies havent yet provided
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dR5gGl">
Meanwhile, patients with long Covid may not be following Inspires results as closely as some researchers. “No one cares,” said Diana Güthe, founder of the long Covid advocacy group SurvivorCorps. The study just isnt about the questions that matter, she said: How does it “offer any help to a patient who is suffering, out of work, unable to care for their children, their parents, unable to pay their mortgage, chasing doctors who are gaslighting them, in severe physical pain?” she asked.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3kHXIg">
What people with long Covid really want are clinical studies of treatments for the condition, and studies that show whether repeat infections even after vaccination raise the risk of developing persistent symptoms, said Güthe. Gottlieb said his team is working on additional analyses to answer the latter question and several others.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fpQwlz">
While some patients may not see the utility of this research, clinicians and scientists say its important for establishing better understanding about long Covid. And while the Inspire study isnt perfect, its still much better than most long Covid studies, said Martin — few even attempt to include a control group.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g331f7">
“People want answers,” said Peluso. But its important for the world to see the complexity of scientific discovery, he said, because thats how science works. Most people experience science as something thats already proven right, “but before something makes it into a medical textbook, it is very messy,” he said.
</p></li>
<li><strong>The exciting new AI transforming search — and maybe everything — explained</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="A drawing of a man holding a smartphone with a picture of a brain on it over his eyes." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nyxK8Fu8fChAh4dJEe78pXB1FA0=/164x0:4735x3428/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72036832/GettyImages_1195224000.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Malte Mueller/Getty Images
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Generative AI is here. Lets hope were ready.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QITaxT">
The worlds first generative AI-powered search engine is here, and its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/technology/bing-chatbot-microsoft-chatgpt.html">in love with you</a>. Or it <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-microsoft-corp-business-software-fb49e5d625bf37be0527e5173116bef3">thinks</a> youre kind of like Hitler. Or its <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/bing/comments/110eagl/the_customer_service_of_the_new_bing_chat_is/">gaslighting you</a> into thinking its still 2022, a more innocent time when generative AI seemed more like a cool party trick than a powerful technology about to be unleashed on a world that might not be ready for it.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1yRizW">
If you feel like youve been hearing a lot about generative AI, youre not wrong. After a generative AI tool called ChatGPT went viral a few months ago, it seems everyone in Silicon Valley is trying to find a use for this new technology. Generative AI is essentially a more advanced and useful version of the conventional artificial intelligence that already helps power everything from autocomplete to Siri. The big difference is that generative AI can create new content, such as images, text, audio, video, and even code — usually from a prompt or command. It can write <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/cnet-is-experimenting-with-an-ai-assist-heres-why/">news articles</a>, <a href="https://builtin.com/media-gaming/ai-movie-script">movie scripts</a>, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/02/13/ai-in-poetry/">poetry</a>. It can make images out of some <a href="https://qz.com/2176389/the-best-examples-of-dall-e-2s-strange-beautiful-ai-art">really specific</a> parameters. And if you listen to some experts and developers, generative AI will eventually be able to make almost anything, including entire apps, from scratch. For now, the killer app for generative AI appears to be search.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gmxroz">
One of the first major generative AI products for the consumer market is Microsofts new AI-infused Bing, which <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2023/2/7/23590069/bing-openai-microsoft-google-bard">debuted in January</a> to great fanfare. The new Bing uses generative AI in its web search function to return results that appear as longer, written answers culled from various internet sources instead of a list of links to relevant websites. Theres also a new accompanying chat feature that lets users have human-seeming conversations with an AI chatbot. Google, the undisputed king of search for decades now, is planning to release <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2023/2/6/23588308/google-bard-chatbot-chatgpt-ai-testing-public">its own version</a> of AI-powered search as well as a chatbot called Bard in the coming weeks, the company said just days after Microsoft announced the new Bing.
</p>
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In other words, the AI wars have begun. And the battles may not just be over search engines. Generative AI is already starting to <a href="https://openai.com/blog/introducing-chatgpt-and-whisper-apis">find its way</a> into mainstream applications for everything from food shopping to social media.
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Microsoft and Google are the biggest companies with public-facing generative AI products, but they arent the only ones working on it. Apple, Meta, and Amazon have their own AI initiatives, and there are plenty of startups and smaller companies developing generative AI or working it into their existing products. TikTok has a generative AI <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/15/23306101/tiktok-ai-greenscreen-filter-text-to-image-mainstream">text-to-image system</a>. Design platform Canva <a href="https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/text-to-image-ai-image-generator/">has one</a>, too. An app called <a href="https://www.cnn.com/style/article/lensa-ai-app-art-explainer-trnd/index.html">Lensa</a> creates stylized selfies and portraits (sometimes with <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2022/12/ai-avatars-lensa-beauty-boobs.html">ample bosoms</a>). And the open-source model <a href="https://stability.ai/blog/stable-diffusion-public-release">Stable Diffusion</a> can generate detailed and specific images in all kinds of styles from text prompts.
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<div class="c-float-right">
<aside id="4ArGpw">
<q>Generative AI has the potential to be a revolutionary technology, and its certainly being hyped as such</q>
</aside>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ANjHWV">
Theres a good chance were about to see a lot more generative AI showing up in a lot more applications, too. OpenAI, the AI developer that built the ChatGPT language model, <a href="https://openai.com/blog/introducing-chatgpt-and-whisper-apis">recently announced</a> the release of APIs, or application programming interfaces, for its ChatGPT and Whisper, a speech recognition model. Companies like Instacart and Shopify are already implementing this tech into their products, using generative AI to write shopping lists and offer recommendations. Theres no telling how many more apps might come up with novel ways to take advantage of what generative AI can do.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ia0tpC">
Generative AI has the potential to be a revolutionary technology, and its certainly being hyped as such. Venture capitalists, who are always looking for the next big tech thing, believe that generative AI can replace or automate a lot of creative processes, freeing up humans to do more complex tasks and making people more productive overall. But its not just creative work that generative AI can produce. It can <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/generative-ai-helping-boost-productivity-of-some-software-developers-731fa5a">help developers</a> make software. It could <a href="https://www.reachcapital.com/2022/12/10/gpt-and-a-new-generation-of-ai-for-education/">improve education</a>. It may be able to discover <a href="https://venturebeat.com/ai/how-generative-ai-and-e-coli-are-speeding-up-new-drug-discovery/">new drugs</a> or become <a href="https://a16z.com/2022/12/14/generative-ai-slack-debate/">your therapist</a>. It just might make our lives easier and better.
</p>
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Or it could make things a lot worse. There are reasons to be concerned about the damage generative AI can do if its released to a society that isnt ready for it — or if we ask the AI program to do something it isnt ready for. How ethical or responsible generative AI technologies are is largely in the hands of the companies developing them, as there are <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/01/30/ai-chatgpt-regulation-laws">few if any</a> regulations or laws in place governing AI. This powerful technology could put millions of people out of work if its able to automate entire industries. It could spawn <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/02/21/chatbots-misinformation-nightmare-chatgpt-ai">a destructive new era of misinformation</a>. There are also concerns of bias due to a lack of diversity in the <a href="https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/google-microsoft-execs-share-how-racial-bias-can-hinder-expansion-health-ai">material and data</a> that generative AI is trained on, or the people who are overseeing that training.
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Nevertheless, powerful generative AI tools are making their way to the masses. If 2022 was the “<a href="https://venturebeat.com/ai/how-2022-became-the-year-of-generative-ai/">year of generative AI</a>,” 2023 may be the year that generative AI is actually put to use, ready or not.
</p>
<h3 id="h5oWGk">
The slow, then sudden, rise of generative AI
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TIisXc">
Conventional artificial intelligence is already integrated into a ton of products we use all the time, like <a href="https://support.google.com/mail/answer/9116836?hl=en&amp;co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop">autocomplete</a>, voice assistants like <a href="https://www.amazon.jobs/en/teams/alexa-ai">Amazons Alexa</a>, and even the recommendations for <a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-02-22/spotify-debuts-a-new-ai-dj-right-in-your-pocket/">music</a> or <a href="https://research.netflix.com/research-area/machine-learning">movies</a> we might enjoy on streaming services. But generative AI is <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2023/1/5/23539055/generative-ai-chatgpt-stable-diffusion-lensa-dall-e">more sophisticated</a>. It uses deep learning, or algorithms that create artificial neural networks that are meant to mimic how human brains process information and learn. And then those models are fed enormous amounts of data to train on. For example, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/28/the-emerging-types-of-language-models-and-why-they-matter/?guccounter=1">large language models</a> power things like ChatGPT, which train on text collected from around the internet until they learn to generate and mimic those kinds of texts and conversations upon request. Image models have been fed tons of images and captions that describe them in order to learn how to create new content based on prompts.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jMeZis">
After years of development, most of it outside of public view, generative AI <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2023/1/5/23539055/generative-ai-chatgpt-stable-diffusion-lensa-dall-e">hit the mainstream</a> in 2022 with the widespread releases of art and text models. Models like Stable Diffusion and DALL-E, which was released by OpenAI, were first to go viral, and they let anyone create new images from text prompts. Then came OpenAIs <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/12/7/23498694/ai-artificial-intelligence-chat-gpt-openai">ChatGPT</a> (GPT stands for “generative pre-trained transformer”) which got everyones attention. This tool could create large, entirely new chunks of text from simple prompts. For the most part, ChatGPT worked <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/05/technology/chatgpt-ai-twitter.html">really well</a>, too — better than anything the world had seen before.
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Though its one of <a href="https://www.cbinsights.com/research/generative-ai-funding-top-startups-investors/">many AI startups</a> out there, OpenAI seems to have the most advanced or powerful products right now. Or at least, its the startup that has given the general public access to its services, thereby providing the most evidence of its progress in the generative AI field. This is a demonstration of its abilities as well as a source of even more data for OpenAIs models to learn from.
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OpenAI is also backed by some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. It was <a href="https://openai.com/blog/introducing-openai/">founded in 2015</a> as a nonprofit research lab with $1 billion in support from the likes of Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, Amazon, and former Y Combinator president Sam Altman, who is now the companys CEO. OpenAI has since changed its structure to become a <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-elon-musk-openai-profit">for-profit company</a> but has yet to make a profit or even much by way of revenue. Thats not a problem yet, as OpenAI has gotten a considerable amount of funding from Microsoft, which began investing in OpenAI in 2019. And OpenAI is seizing on the wave of excitement for ChatGPT to promote its API services, which <a href="https://openai.com/pricing">are not free</a>. Neither is the companys <a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-plus">upcoming ChatGPT Plus service</a>.
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</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A drawing of a human hand reaching out to shake a robot hand." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ptH008z4PtDKmpw8S7NbWAlQBtc=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24476709/GettyImages_1195223774.jpg"/> <cite>Malte Mueller/Getty Images</cite>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="izaJzk">
Other big tech companies have for years been working on their own generative AI initiatives. Theres Apples <a href="https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/gaudi">Gaudi</a>, Metas <a href="https://ai.facebook.com/blog/large-language-model-llama-meta-ai/">LLaMA</a> and <a href="https://ai.facebook.com/blog/greater-creative-control-for-ai-image-generation/">Make-a-Scene</a>, <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/aws-and-hugging-face-collaborate-to-make-generative-ai-more-accessible-and-cost-efficient/">Amazons collaboration with Hugging Face</a>, and Googles <a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/lamda/">LaMDA</a> (which is good enough that one Google engineer <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine/">thought</a> it was sentient). But thanks to its early investment in OpenAI, Microsoft had access to the AI project everyone knew about and was trying out.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j2UYWQ">
In January 2023, Microsoft <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2023/1/23/23567991/microsoft-open-ai-investment-chatgpt">announced</a> it was giving $10 billion to OpenAI, bringing its total investment in the company to $13 billion. From that partnership, Microsoft has gotten what it hopes will be a real challenge to Googles longtime dominance in web search: a new Bing powered by generative AI.
</p>
<h3 id="KHbbMi">
AI search will give us the first glimpse of how generative AI can be used in our everyday lives … if it works
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mbYDAN">
Tech companies and investors are willing to pour resources into generative AI because they hope that, eventually, it will be able to create or generate just about any kind of content humans ask for. Some of those aspirations may be a long way from becoming reality, but right now, its possible that generative AI will power the next evolution of the humble internet search.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LF5lVX">
After months of rumors that both Microsoft and Google were working on generative AI versions of their web search engines, Microsoft <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2023/1/26/23571710/microsoft-open-ai-chatgpt-google">debuted</a> its AI-integrated Bing in January in a splashy media event that showed off all the cool things it could do, thanks to OpenAIs custom-built technology that powered it. Instead of entering a prompt for Bing to look up and return a list of relevant links, you could ask Bing a question and get a “complete answer” composed by Bings generative AI and culled from various sources on the web that you didnt have to take the time to visit yourself. You could also use Bings chatbot to ask follow-up questions to better refine your search results.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yOta3C">
Microsoft wants you to think the possibilities of these new tools are just about endless. And notably, Bing AI appeared to be ready for the general public when the company announced it last month. Its now being rolled out to people on an ever-growing wait list and incorporated into other Microsoft products, like its <a href="https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2023/02/28/introducing-a-big-update-to-windows-11-making-the-everyday-easier-including-bringing-the-new-ai-powered-bing-to-the-taskbar/">Windows 11 operating system</a> and <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/02/22/the-new-bing-preview-experience-arrives-on-bing-and-edge-mobile-apps-introducing-bing-now-in-skype/">Skype</a>.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tkaGJT">
This poses a major threat to Google, which has had the search market <a href="https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share#yearly-200901-202301">sewn up</a> for decades and makes most of its revenue from the ads placed alongside its search results. The new Bing could chip away at Googles search dominance and its main moneymaker. And while Google has been working on its own generative AI models for years, its AI-powered search engine and corresponding chatbot, which it <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2023/2/6/23588308/google-bard-chatbot-chatgpt-ai-testing-public">calls Bard</a>, appear to be <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2023/2/7/23590069/bing-openai-microsoft-google-bard">months away</a> from debut. All of this suggests that, so far, Microsoft is winning the AI-powered search engine battle.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qv18gE">
Or is it?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LBcCZA">
Once the new Bing made it to the masses, it quickly became apparent that the technology might not be ready for primetime after all. Right out of the gate, Bing <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23599007/microsoft-bing-ai-mistakes-demo">made basic factual errors</a> or <a href="https://dkb.blog/p/bing-ai-cant-be-trusted">made up stuff entirely</a>, also known as “<a href="https://venturebeat.com/ai/got-it-ai-creates-truth-checker-for-chatgpt-hallucinations/">hallucinating</a>.” What was perhaps more problematic, however, was that its chatbot was also saying some disturbing and weird things. One person <a href="https://twitter.com/MovingToTheSun/status/1625156575202537474">asked</a> Bing for movie showtimes, only to be told the movie hadnt come out yet (it had) because the date was February 2022 (it wasnt). The user insisted that it was, at that time, February 2023. Bing AI responded by telling the user they were being rude, had “bad intentions,” and had lost Bings “trust and respect.” A New York Times reporter <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/technology/bing-chatbot-microsoft-chatgpt.html">pronounced</a> Bing “not ready for human contact” after its chatbot — with a considerable amount of prodding from the reporter — began expressing its “desires,” one of which was the reporter himself. Bing also <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-microsoft-corp-business-software-fb49e5d625bf37be0527e5173116bef3">told an AP reporter</a> that he was acting like Hitler.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jNGRTA">
In response to the bad press, Microsoft has tried to put some <a href="https://blogs.bing.com/search/february-2023/The-new-Bing-Edge-%E2%80%93-Updates-to-Chat">limits and guardrails</a> on Bing, like limiting the number of interactions one person can have with its chatbot. But the question remains: How thoroughly could Microsoft have tested Bings chatbot before releasing it if it took only a matter of days for users to get it to give such wild responses?
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q6eMNO">
Google, on the other hand, may have been watching this all unfold with a certain sense of glee. Its limited Bard rollout hasnt exactly <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/8/23590864/google-ai-chatbot-bard-mistake-error-exoplanet-demo">gone perfectly</a>, but Bard hasnt compared any of its users to one of the most reviled people in human history, either. At least, not that we know of. Not yet.
</p>
<div class="c-float-left">
<aside id="Ain3q8">
<q>So far, Microsoft is winning the AI-powered search engine battle. Or is it? </q>
</aside>
</div>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cRmrZ6">
Again, Microsoft and Google arent the only companies working on generative AI, but their public releases have put more pressure on others to roll out their offerings as soon as possible, too. ChatGPTs release and OpenAIs partnership with Microsoft <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/21/technology/ai-chatgpt-google-search.html">likely accelerated</a> Googles plans. Meanwhile, Meta <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/pfbid02zHwANqWrZLMimhq7U97i3xaHkMEHu8CLsa9TGRj1QeejwDxRFChxSK1zY6yPak5Kl">is working</a> to get its generative AI into as many of its own products as possible and just <a href="https://ai.facebook.com/blog/large-language-model-llama-meta-ai/">released</a> a large language model of its own, called Large Language Model Meta AI, or LLaMA.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FH8VzE">
With the rollout of APIs that help developers add ChatGPT and Whisper to their applications, OpenAI seems eager to expand quickly. Some of these integrations seem pretty useful, too. Snapchat <a href="https://newsroom.snap.com/say-hi-to-my-ai">now has</a> a chatbot called “My AI” for its paid subscribers, with plans to offer it to everyone soon. <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/27/23614959/snapchat-my-ai-chatbot-chatgpt-openai-plus-subscription">Initial reports</a> say its just ChatGPT in Snapchat, but with even more restrictions about what it will talk about (no swearing, sex, or violence). Instacart will use ChatGPT in a feature called “Ask Instacart” that can <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/instacart-joins-chatgpt-frenzy-adding-chatbot-to-grocery-shopping-app-bc8a2d3c">answer customers questions</a> about food. And Shopifys Shop app has a <a href="https://twitter.com/shop/status/1630995646843944960">ChatGPT-powered assistant</a> to make personalized recommendations from the brands and stores that use the platform.
</p>
<h3 id="tSQ4a2">
Generative AI is here to stay, but we dont yet know if thats for the best
</h3>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5f4jZ5">
Bing AIs problems were just a glimpse of how generative AI can go wrong and have potentially disastrous consequences. Thats why pretty much every company thats in the field of AI goes out of its way to reassure the public that its being very responsible with its products and taking great care before unleashing them on the world. Yet for all of their <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2022/06/21/microsofts-framework-for-building-ai-systems-responsibly/">stated commitment</a> to “building AI systems and products that are trustworthy and safe,” Microsoft and OpenAI either didnt or couldnt ensure a Bing chatbot could live up to those principles, but they released it anyway. Google and Meta, by contrast, were very conservative about releasing their products — until Microsoft and OpenAI gave them a push.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GRcaKM">
Error-prone generative AI is being put out there by many other companies that have promised to be careful. Some text-to-image models are infamous for producing images with <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/ai-generated-art-hands-fingers-messed-up">missing or extra limbs</a>. There are chatbots that <a href="https://slashdot.org/story/23/02/11/1911205/bing-hallucinated-the-winner-of-the-super-bowl-four-days-before-it-happened">confidently declare</a> the winner of a Super Bowl that has yet to be played. These mistakes are funny as isolated incidents, but weve already seen one <a href="https://futurism.com/cnet-ai-errors">publication</a> rely on generative AI to write authoritative articles with significant factual errors.
</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="A drawing of hands with 12 fingers using a laptop." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ogMUVEGowZnv5u9gqhCHv3iOLGA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24476711/GettyImages_1138909571.jpg"/> <cite>Malte Mueller/Getty Images</cite>
</figure>
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</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VWPQgC">
These screw-ups have been happening for years. Microsoft had one high-profile AI chatbot flop with its 2016 release of Tay, which Twitter users almost immediately trained to say some <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-chatbot-racist">really offensive things</a>. Microsoft quickly <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/03/25/learning-tays-introduction/">took it offline</a>. Metas Blenderbot is based on a large language model and was released in August 2022. It didnt go well. The bot seemed to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/09/blenderbot-meta-chatbot-facebook">hate Facebook</a>, got <a href="https://mashable.com/article/meta-facebook-ai-chatbot-racism-donald-trump">racist and antisemitic</a>, and <a href="https://www.laptopmag.com/news/i-argued-with-metas-new-ai-chatbot-blenderbot-3-about-iphone-vs-android-heres-what-happened">wasnt very accurate</a>. Its <a href="https://blenderbot.ai/">still available</a> to try out, but after seeing what ChatGPT can do, it feels like a clunky, slow, and weird step backward.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mjcPlD">
There are even more serious concerns. Generative AI threatens to put a lot of people out of work if its good enough to replace them. It could have a profound impact on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/education-experts-teachers-generative-ai-chatgpt-classroom-2023-1">education</a>. There are also <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/23580554/generative-ai-chatgpt-openai-stable-diffusion-legal-battles-napster-copyright-peter-kafka-column">questions of legalities</a> over the material AI developers are using to train their models, which is typically scraped from millions of sources that the developers dont have the rights to. And there are questions of bias both in the material that AI models are training on and the people who are training them.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UoQN6S">
On the other side, some <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/24/woke-ai-chatgpt-culture-war/">conservative bomb-throwers</a> have accused generative AI developers of moderating their platforms outputs too much and making them “woke” and biased against the right wing. To that end, Musk, the self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist and OpenAI critic as well as an early investor, is <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/fighting-woke-ai-musk-recruits-team-to-develop-openai-rival">reportedly considering</a> developing a ChatGPT rival that wont have content restrictions or be trained on supposedly “woke” material.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hpgGZt">
And then theres the fear not of generative AI but of the technology it could lead to: artificial general intelligence. AGI can learn and think and solve problems like a human, if not better. This has given rise to science fiction-based fears that AGI will lead to an army of super-robots that quickly realize they have no need for humans and either turn us into slaves or wipe us out entirely.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="J1jozi">
There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about generative AIs future, too. Its a powerful technology with a ton of potential, and weve still seen relatively little of what it can do and who it can help. Silicon Valley clearly sees this potential, and venture capitalists like <a href="https://a16z.com/2023/02/07/everyday-ai-consumer/">Andreessen Horowitz</a> and <a href="https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/generative-ai-a-creative-new-world/">Sequoia</a> seem to be all-in. OpenAI is valued at <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chatgpt-creator-openai-is-in-talks-for-tender-offer-that-would-value-it-at-29-billion-11672949279">nearly $30 billion</a>, despite not having yet proved itself as a revenue generator.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xmhy0o">
Generative AI has the power to upend a lot of things, but that doesnt necessarily mean itll make them worse. Its ability to automate tasks may give humans more time to focus on the stuff that cant be done by increasingly sophisticated machines, as has been true for technological advances before it. And in the near future — once the bugs are worked out — it could make searching the web better. In the years and decades to come, it might even make everything else better, too.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GiFpMh">
Oh, and in case you were wondering: No, generative AI did not write this explainer.
</p></li>
<li><strong>CPAC used to be a barometer. Now its all about Trump.</strong> -
<figure>
<img alt="Donald Trump Jr. standing onstage and pointing to one side. A sign behind him reads, “Triggered with Don Jr.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GtV6FxnfwoQlWB_TDiL4e7FFvLc=/0x0:5095x3821/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72035694/1471003087.0.jpg"/>
<figcaption>
Donald Trump Jr. speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on March 03, 2023. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
A guide to the very Trumpy vibes at this years Conservative Political Action Conference.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9rqY4g">
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was once the place to capture the pulse of the conservative movement. The annual conference, which boasts that Ronald Reagan spoke at its inaugural event, was filled with attendees in tricorn hats during the rise of the Tea Party and in fedoras during the libertarian moment that followed. But, in 2023, CPAC attendees are still wearing the same MAGA hats that theyve donned for over half a decade.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ABsmmv">
Yet, its hard to interpret this years CPAC as a barometer of the American right or a measuring stick for anything. Unlike past years when potential presidential candidates swarmed to appear at the annual event, this years conference was a purely Trumpist enterprise. Most of Trumps potential competitors for the nomination — including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence — didnt show up. They flocked instead to an event held by Club for Growth in South Florida to appeal to right-wing donors rather than the MAGA diehards roving the corridors of a Maryland hotel who were all seemingly ready for Trump to win his third consecutive presidential election. The nature of the event was made stark on the agenda: There were four members of the Trump family speaking over the course of the three-day conference as well as four elected Republicans who voted to certify the 2020 election in Trumps favor.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CRD71Z">
The decay at CPAC was partly due to the challenges the event itself faces. Matt Schlapp, the head of the American Conservative Union (ACU), which puts on the event, has faced increasing scrutiny over his <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/28/matt-schlapp-cpac-assault-claim-leadership/">stewardship of the group</a>. These concerns have been accelerated by <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2023/1/17/23559538/sexual-battery-allegations-against-matt-schlapp-explained">allegations of sexual misconduct</a> that he faces after an anonymous male Republican campaign staffer sued Schlapp in January, claiming that Schlapp groped and propositioned him.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pC7utx">
But, then again, if allegations of sexual misconduct and problematic financial stewardship were enough to sink someones reputation in the conservative movement, Trump would never have won the nomination, let alone the presidency.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cjRPpj">
Instead, much of the enervated vibes at CPAC stem from the fact that the conference increasingly represented a diehard MAGA strain of the conservative movement. The media presence this year was not Fox but the Chinese religious movement Falun Gong: Instead of Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, there were major media presences from the Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty (NTD) TV, which are both affiliated with Falun Gong.
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Even the slightest heterodoxy was frowned upon. After a lukewarm reception to her speech in a half-empty ballroom, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley — who was one of the few 2024 presidential hopefuls to attend — was met with chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump” and “we love Trump” from attendees after she left the ballroom. The shouts drowned out her efforts to make small talk with those attendees who wanted selfies with Haley as well as the reporters who fruitlessly tried to ask her questions.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0wOfum">
The exhibit hall was packed with Trump merchandise as well. Those attendees in need of a MAGA hat or yet another Trump T-shirt had four shops to choose from. And those who were all set on merchandise could pose in a replica of Trumps Oval Office or simply buy a signed copy of Sean Spicers childrens book, <a href="https://bravebooks.us/products/the-parrots-go-bananas"><em>The Parrots Go Bananas</em></a>. The latter was easy to do; to get an autograph from the former White House press secretary, one did not exactly have to fight through the largest crowd in history. There was a longer line on Friday afternoon at the booth for Patriot Mobile, a self-proclaimed Christian conservative cellphone company, for fringe right-winger Jack Posobiec to sign copies of his book. Posobiec, a longtime promoter of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/5/13842258/pizzagate-comet-ping-pong-fake-news">Pizzagate</a> conspiracy theory, had been banned from CPAC in 2017 before eventually being allowed to return to the gathering, which held an affiliated event in Viktor Orbans Hungary last year.
</p>
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Through it all was a sense of slow and steady decay creeping through the event as the attendees talked quietly among themselves asking where and when CPAC started to go downhill. It felt like a homage to one of <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/donald-trump-running-for-president-2024.html">Trumps favorite movies, <em>Sunset Boulevard</em></a>. There was a focus on faded past glories and Trump-era grievances as it was a cycle of the same extended universe of MAGA celebrities. Attendees vied for a selfie with Sebastian Gorka or Mike Lindell as crowds swarmed the booth where Steve Bannon broadcast his daily television show.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bvVO7a">
Inside the hall, CPAC attendees applauded when Matt Gaetz called for abolishing the FBI and hooted and hollered when Steve Bannon assailed Fox News because it “illegitimately called [the 2020 election] for the opposition and not Donald J. Trump.” Perhaps the liveliest moment in the ballroom where speakers came and went was when attendees scrambled to look under their chairs when Donald Trump Jr. announced that there were gold-covered chocolate bars scattered throughout the ballroom that served as a ticket to a private reception with his father. Some were so eager to attend that they worked their way through the ballroom in case there was a ticket hidden under one of the hundreds of empty chairs in the back.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mv9EGq">
The question from CPAC is simply just what percentage of the larger conservative movement CPAC and MAGA diehards currently represent. CPAC is no longer a measuring stick, its simply a factional gathering. If this subset represents half of the GOP or even a third, then Trump is the favorite for the nomination. If its a fifth or a quarter of the party, Trump is vulnerable in a primary but his diehards still present long-term challenges for whoever the nominee is. That question sparked hours of late-night debate over drinks in hotel bars at the conference between the operatives and journalists obligated to come for business. But, among the attendees, those who have probably spent, at minimum, hundreds of dollars on a ticket and traveled from across the country to attend, there was no debate. They were with Trump.
</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Cordelia and Alexandros catch the eye</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pharazon, Elveden, Vyasa and Amazing Attraction and Vivaldo excel</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Indian players should have been captains in WPL: Anjum Chopra</strong> - Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore opted for Indian captains in Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana respectively, while the other teams went with Australian players</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Women Premier League | Delhi Capitals hold slight edge over Royal Challengers Bangalore with better domestic talent</strong> - Multiple World Cup-winning legendary Australian Meg Lannings Delhi team will have a slight edge over their opponents in terms of pure Indian talent.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mohammed Shami set to return in playing XI for next Test, rank turner unlikely for final Test</strong> - India are currently leading the four-Test series 2-1 but need to win the last game to qualify for the WTC finals</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Meghalaya | HSPDP MLAs office set on fire for supporting NPP-BJP alliance</strong> - The HSPDP decided to form an alliance with the TMC and Congress, but its two MLAs went ahead and supported the NPP-BJP coalition.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Major fire at vehicle showroom in Thrissur</strong> - Three vehicles gutted in fire; Preliminary estimation shows a loss of ₹3 cr</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Minister orders temporary closure of water park after students fall ill</strong> -</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Gutkha ban | Supreme Court issues notice on Tamil Nadu govts plea against Madras HC order</strong> - A Bench of justices K.M. Joseph and B.V. Nagarathna issued notice to Food Safety Commissioner, Jayavilas Tobacco Traders and others on a plea filed by the Tamil Nadu Government</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bishop Joseph Gabriel Fernandez passes away</strong> -</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
<ul>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bakhmut: Fighting in the street but Russia not in control - deputy mayor</strong> - The city has seen months of intense fighting - despite its strategic value being questioned.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Kyiv orders partial evacuation of liberated city</strong> - Families with children and the disabled people are told to leave Kupiansk in Ukraines north-east.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ales Bialiatski: Nobel Prize-winning activist sentenced to 10 years in jail</strong> - Nobel Prize winner Ales Bialiatski was accused of smuggling cash into Belarus to fund protests.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Matteo Messina Denaro: Coded note led to Italy mafia boss arrest</strong> - Police found the note inside a chair leg during a search of Matteo Messina Denaros sisters house.</p></li>
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Putin accuses Ukraine of border terrorist act in Russian village</strong> - Kyiv denies Moscows claim that Ukrainian saboteurs fired at civilians in a Russian village.</p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Do masks work? Its a question of physics, biology, and behavior</strong> - A recent review from a prominent scientific source has reignited the debate over masks. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1921845">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Feast your eyes on this image of remnant from earliest recorded supernova</strong> - Dark Energy Camera captures rare view of RCW 86, remnant of supernova recorded in 185 CE. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1921594">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Measles exposure at massive religious event in Kentucky spurs CDC alert</strong> - Kentucky has one of the lowest vaccination rates among kindergartners in the country. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1921820">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>AI-powered Bing Chat gains three distinct personalities</strong> - Bing Chat is no longer unhinged, but it can hallucinate more if you want it to. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1921578">link</a></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Netflix fights attempt to make streaming firms pay for ISP network upgrades</strong> - Netflix to EU: ISPs are trying to charge twice for the same infrastructure. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1921732">link</a></p></li>
</ul>
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
<ul>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A guy walks into a bar and says, “O-o-one b-b-beer, p-please.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The bartender tells him, “I used to have a stutter too. Then one day, my wife gave me head, and from that point on I was cured!” The guy gets really excited and runs out the door without ever getting his beer.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The next day, the guy walks back into the bar and says, “O-o-one b-b-beer, p-please.” The bartender asks him, “It didnt work, huh?” The guy says, “N-n-nope. B-but y-your h-h-house is r-r-really n-n-nice.”
</p>
</div>
<!-- SC_ON -->
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/cloudswarm"> /u/cloudswarm </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11hq0fg/a_guy_walks_into_a_bar_and_says_ooone_bbbeer/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11hq0fg/a_guy_walks_into_a_bar_and_says_ooone_bbbeer/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Paddy rings his new girlfriends doorbell, holding a big bunch of flowers.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She opens the door, sees the flowers, and drags him in.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
She lies back on the couch, pulls up her skirt, rips her knickers off and says “This is for the flowers.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Dont be silly,” says Paddy… “You must have a vase Somewhere!”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/DooleyMTV"> /u/DooleyMTV </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11hhjfm/paddy_rings_his_new_girlfriends_doorbell_holding/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11hhjfm/paddy_rings_his_new_girlfriends_doorbell_holding/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A man and woman are going at it, when they hear a car out front.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
The woman quickly says
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“Hurry, out the window, its my husband.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Frightened, the man grabs his jocks and starts trying to get them on whilst climbing out the window.
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Suddenly, he turns around and states
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Hang on, Im your husband. Why would you do that to me?”
</p>
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
To which she responds
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
“Why did you try to run?”
</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Golett03"> /u/Golett03 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11h6gk7/a_man_and_woman_are_going_at_it_when_they_hear_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11h6gk7/a_man_and_woman_are_going_at_it_when_they_hear_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>To the bastard in a wheelchair that stole my camouflage jacket..</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
You can hide, but you cant run!
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Response-Cheap"> /u/Response-Cheap </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11hj55y/to_the_bastard_in_a_wheelchair_that_stole_my/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11hj55y/to_the_bastard_in_a_wheelchair_that_stole_my/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>If pro is the opposite of con…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
Then whats the opposite of progress?
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YourAverage1stGrader"> /u/YourAverage1stGrader </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11hl65s/if_pro_is_the_opposite_of_con/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11hl65s/if_pro_is_the_opposite_of_con/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
</ul>
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