Friday 7th June 2024
  • The Case for MDMA’s Approval Is Riddled With Problems - WIRED (No paywall)

    Only two drugs are formally approved for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and they don't help everyone. A lack of effective treatment options has led some patients to seek out the psychedelic drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy, to help relieve their symptoms when traditional medications and therapy don't work.

    In the US, momentum has been growing to legalize MDMA and other psychedelics. Lykos Therapeutics, which has been testing MDMA alongside psychotherapy in clinical trials for years, had a chance this week to prove that the combination is effective at treating PTSD. But at a June 4 meeting, a panel of advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration overwhelmingly voted that there wasn't enough evidence to recommend its approval. Just two of the 11 committee members were convinced that the treatment was effective, and only one said its benefits outweighed the risks.

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  • This AI-powered “black box” could make surgery safer - MIT Technology Review (No paywall)

    A new smart monitoring system could help doctors avoid mistakes—but it’s also alarming some surgeons and leading to sabotage.

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  • The AI-Augmented Leader - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)

    Humans are good at inventing tools, but not as good at adapting to the change these tools can cause. While there has been much focus on the technical impacts and potential dark side of AI, the authors’ research has shown that AI can enhance and empower leadership, actually helping make leaders more human. To do this, we need to invest just as much in the development of our human potential as we do in harnessing the power of AI. This means focusing on the core leadership qualities of awareness, wisdom, and compassion, as well as taking on a both/and mindset. The “AI-augmented leader” can leverage both the power of AI and develop their most human qualities, bringing the best of both human and machine to their leadership practice.

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  • 9 Questions to Help You Figure Out Why You’re Burned Out - Harvard Business Review (No paywall)

    The World Health Organization characterizes burnout as comprising three key dimensions: sustained feelings of exhaustion, feelings of personal inefficacy, and increased mental distance from one’s job. In this article, the author outlines nine questions to ask yourself under each of these three categories to help you diagnose what’s causing your burnout. It’s likely a combination of factors, requiring a number of changes over time to fully address it, and not something a one-off vacation can reverse right away. Nonetheless, the answers to these questions serve as a starting point and can inform steps you can take to address your burnout and possibly prevent it from happening again in the future.

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  • Workers Are Concerned About AI Taking Their Jobs. Should Managers Be Too? - Inc.com (No paywall)

    But should they be the only ones feeling the heat? A new announcement by the workplace management software company Asana suggests that managers, too, may eventually see some of their responsibilities automated. The San Francisco-based firm is launching what it calls "AI teammates," which are essentially chatbots that can "advise on priorities, power workflows, and even take action on work."  Leveraging Asana's proprietary "work graph" data model--which links "work and workflows to higher level company objectives"--the bots are supposedly capable of assigning projects, triaging tasks, and identifying issues that stand in the way of team success.

    Asana says one early adopter, an outdoor ad firm, is already using AI teammates to automate aspects of its request process, including delegating tasks to specific employees and helping with client research. Another Asana customer, a cybersecurity firm, has reportedly used the software to enforce internal naming conventions and translate content to ensure brand consistency.

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  • Silicon Valley in uproar over Californian AI safety bill - FT (No paywall)

    Tech companies launch fightback against proposed law to introduce ‘kill switch’ on powerful artificial intelligence models

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  • US tech sector pressures Chinese venture capital to divest - FT (No paywall)

    Start-up stakes are being sold to American investors in anticipation of Washington restricting foreign ownership

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  • Both a ‘skills tsunami’ and a ‘silver tsunami’ are set to hit the workforce at the same time, McKinsey says. - Fortune (No paywall)

    Back in 2010, the U.S. had around 12 million more unemployed people than it had job vacancies, senior McKinsey partner Anu Madgavkar said during the consultancy’s media day last week. “Despite the ups and downs of Covid, things are more normal now, but we still have a deficit—2.5 million more vacancies than job seekers.”

    That imbalance, coupled with the ever-present advancements in AI, has led to what Madgavkar calls a “skills tsunami.” She defined the term as the massive shift in capabilities workers are soon going to need. There’s also, she added, a “silver tsunami,” which describes the institutional loss of talent and perspective as millions of older workers head into retirement. 

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  • Europe ‘afraid’ of Chinese EVs, says BYD boss Wang Chuanfu, ahead of likely EU tariff hike - Fortune Europe (No paywall)

    The European Union is expected to unveil tariffs in the coming weeks targeting Chinese electric cars following a probe into Beijing’s EV subsidies, a move that will likely hurt the small-but-growing number of imports into Europe. China has hinted it will retaliate with its own 25% tariffs, as trade tensions continue to escalate.

    BYD has risen to become a dominant player in the EV industry, having halted production of cars solely with combustion engines in early 2022. By last year, the Shenzhen-based auto giant made and sold 3 million electric and hybrid vehicles, cracking the top 10 list of global automakers by sales.

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  • Philippine Tycoon Edgar Saavedra Gears Up To Build $3 Billion Solar Dream After Completing His Toughest IPO - Forbes (No paywall)

    Saavedra’s Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC) completed this month a 5.6-billion-peso initial public offering. Combined with the 5 billion pesos raised in April from the sale of about 28% stake in its REIT unit to the billionaire Sy family’s SM Investments, Saavedra said Citicore Renewable now has the funding to deliver the initial 1,000 megawatts, a fifth of his target. CREC shares started trading today on the Philippine Stock Exchange. The shares gained as much as 3% to 2.78 pesos apiece, before closing at its IPO price of 2.70 pesos.

    The IPO also opened the doors to a stream of financing that will bankroll CREC’s annual 36-billion-peso capital expenditure needed to deliver 1,000 megawatts of new capacity every year. It had 118 megawatts of solar energy capacity in 2023. It is also developing wind and hyrdopower projects.

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