Highlighting unrest in Washington and reported threats to state capitols across the nation, Mississippi Today journalists discuss the odd start to 2021 for the state’s elected officials in this week’s The Other Side podcast episode.
The post Riots, impeachment and teacher pay: What’s going on in 2021? appeared first on Mississippi Today.
China’s star has been steadily rising for decades. Besides slashing extreme poverty rates from 88 percent to under 2 percent in just 30 years, the country has become a global powerhouse in manufacturing and technology. Its pace of growth may slow due to an aging population, but China is nonetheless one of the world’s biggest players in multiple cutting-edge tech fields.
One of these fields, and perhaps the most significant, is artificial intelligence. The Chinese government announced a plan in 2017 to become the world leader in AI by 2030, and has since poured billions of dollars into AI projects and research across academia, government, and private industry. The government’s venture capital fund is investing over $30 billion in AI; the northeastern city of Tianjin budgeted $16 billion for advancing AI; and a $2 billion AI research park is being built in Beijing.
On top of these huge investments, the government and private companies in China have access to an unprecedented quantity of data, on everything from citizens’ health to their smartphone use. WeChat, a multi-functional app where people can chat, date, send payments, hail rides, read news, and more, gives the CCP full access to user data upon request; as one BBC journalist put it, WeChat “was ahead of the game on the global stage and it has found its way into all corners of people’s existence. It could deliver to the Communist Party a life map of pretty much everybody in this country, citizens and foreigners alike.” And that’s just one (albeit big) source of data.
Many believe these factors are giving China a serious leg up in AI development, even providing enough of a boost that its progress will surpass that of the US.
But there’s more to AI than data, and there’s more to progress than investing billions of dollars. Analyzing China’s potential to become a world leader in AI—or in any technology that requires consistent innovation—from multiple angles provides a more nuanced picture of its strengths and limitations. In a June 2020 article in Foreign Affairs, Oxford fellows Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne argued that China’s big advantages may not actually be that advantageous in the long run—and its limitations may be very limiting.
To get an idea of who’s likely to take the lead in AI, it could help to first consider how the technology will advance beyond its current state.
To put it plainly, AI is somewhat stuck at the moment. Algorithms and neural networks continue to achieve new and impressive feats—like DeepMind’s AlphaFold accurately predicting protein structures or OpenAI’s GPT-3 writing convincing articles based on short prompts—but for the most part these systems’ capabilities are still defined as narrow intelligence: completing a specific task for which the system was painstakingly trained on loads of data.
(It’s worth noting here that some have speculated OpenAI’s GPT-3 may be an exception, the first example of machine intelligence that, while not “general,” has surpassed the definition of “narrow”; the algorithm was trained to write text, but ended up being able to translate between languages, write code, autocomplete images, do math, and perform other language-related tasks it wasn’t specifically trained for. However, all of GPT-3’s capabilities are limited to skills it learned in the language domain, whether spoken, written, or programming language).
Both AlphaFold’s and GPT-3’s success was due largely to the massive datasets they were trained on; no revolutionary new training methods or architectures were involved. If all it was going to take to advance AI was a continuation or scaling-up of this paradigm—more input data yields increased capability—China could well have an advantage.
But one of the biggest hurdles AI needs to clear to advance in leaps and bounds rather than baby steps is precisely this reliance on extensive, task-specific data. Other significant challenges include the technology’s fast approach to the limits of current computing power and its immense energy consumption.
Thus, while China’s trove of data may give it an advantage now, it may not be much of a long-term foothold on the climb to AI dominance. It’s useful for building products that incorporate or rely on today’s AI, but not for pushing the needle on how artificially intelligent systems learn. WeChat data on users’ spending habits, for example, would be valuable in building an AI that helps people save money or suggests items they might want to purchase. It will enable (and already has enabled) highly tailored products that will earn their creators and the companies that use them a lot of money.
But data quantity isn’t what’s going to advance AI. As Frey and Osborne put it, “Data efficiency is the holy grail of further progress in artificial intelligence.”
To that end, research teams in academia and private industry are working on ways to make AI less data-hungry. New training methods like one-shot learning and less-than-one-shot learning have begun to emerge, along with myriad efforts to make AI that learns more like the human brain.
While not insignificant, these advancements still fall into the “baby steps” category. No one knows how AI is going to progress beyond these small steps—and that uncertainty, in Frey and Osborne’s opinion, is a major speed bump on China’s fast-track to AI dominance.
A lot of great inventions have happened by accident, and some of the world’s most successful companies started in garages, dorm rooms, or similarly low-budget, nondescript circumstances (including Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple, to name a few). Innovation, the authors point out, often happens “through serendipity and recombination, as inventors and entrepreneurs interact and exchange ideas.”
Frey and Osborne argue that although China has great reserves of talent and a history of building on technologies conceived elsewhere, it doesn’t yet have a glowing track record in terms of innovation. They note that of the 100 most-cited patents from 2003 to present, none came from China. Giants Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu are all wildly successful in the Chinese market, but they’re rooted in technologies or business models that came out of the US and were tweaked for the Chinese population.
“The most innovative societies have always been those that allowed people to pursue controversial ideas,” Frey and Osborne write. China’s heavy censorship of the internet and surveillance of citizens don’t quite encourage the pursuit of controversial ideas. The country’s social credit system rewards people who follow the rules and punishes those who step out of line. Frey adds that top-down execution of problem-solving is effective when the problem at hand is clearly defined—and the next big leaps in AI are not.
It’s debatable how strongly a culture of social conformism can impact technological innovation, and of course there can be exceptions. But a relevant historical example is the Soviet Union, which, despite heavy investment in science and technology that briefly rivaled the US in fields like nuclear energy and space exploration, ended up lagging far behind primarily due to political and cultural factors.
Similarly, China’s focus on computer science in its education system could give it an edge—but, as Frey told me in an email, “The best students are not necessarily the best researchers. Being a good researcher also requires coming up with new ideas.”
Beyond the question of whether China will achieve AI dominance is the issue of how it will use the powerful technology. Several of the ways China has already implemented AI could be considered morally questionable, from facial recognition systems used aggressively against ethnic minorities to smart glasses for policemen that can pull up information about whoever the wearer looks at.
This isn’t to say the US would use AI for purely ethical purposes. The military’s Project Maven, for example, used artificially intelligent algorithms to identify insurgent targets in Iraq and Syria, and American law enforcement agencies are also using (mostly unregulated) facial recognition systems.
It’s conceivable that “dominance” in AI won’t go to one country; each nation could meet milestones in different ways, or meet different milestones. Researchers from both countries, at least in the academic sphere, could (and likely will) continue to collaborate and share their work, as they’ve done on many projects to date.
If one country does take the lead, it will certainly see some major advantages as a result. Brookings Institute fellow Indermit Gill goes so far as to say that whoever leads in AI in 2030 will “rule the world” until 2100. But Gill points out that in addition to considering each country’s strengths, we should consider how willing they are to improve upon their weaknesses.
While China leads in investment and the US in innovation, both nations are grappling with huge economic inequalities that could negatively impact technological uptake. “Attitudes toward the social change that accompanies new technologies matter as much as the technologies, pointing to the need for complementary policies that shape the economy and society,” Gill writes.
Will China’s leadership be willing to relax its grip to foster innovation? Will the US business environment be enough to compete with China’s data, investment, and education advantages? And can both countries find a way to distribute technology’s economic benefits more equitably?
Time will tell, but it seems we’ve got our work cut out for us—and China does too.
Image Credit: Adam Birkett on Unsplash
*Warning: Explicit language and content*
In episode 55, We discuss supposed cases of reincarnation. (This is part two.)
All Cats is part of the Truthseekers Podcast Network.
Host: April Simmons
Co-Host: Sabrina Jones
Theme + Editing by April Simmons
Contact us at allcatspod@gmail.com
Call us at 662-200-1909
https://linktr.ee/allcats – ALL our links
Shoutouts/Recommends: Spring Cleaning, Name That Tune, WandaVision, Bridgerton
Credits:
https://www.rd.com/article/chilling-reincarnation-stories/
https://www.rd.com/list/signs-of-past-life/
https://www.ranker.com/list/believable-reincarnation-stories/erin-wisti
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/james-leininger
—
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/april-simmons/support
The COVID-19 pandemic has driven Mississippians to drink.
“When COVID hit, apparently everybody started buying toilet paper, liquor, fitness equipment and they started renovating their homes,” said Chris Graham, commissioner of the Department of Revenue. “Just overnight, our numbers (liquor sales) went through the roof. In March our numbers went way up and continued through December.”
Such is the dichotomy that is Mississippi: the heart of the conservative Bible Belt, where liquor was not made legal until 1966 and where until this day four counties remain dry for liquor and beer sales. Heck, in some counties before the law was changed in 2020, it was illegal to even possess liquor.
Former Gov. William Winter, who passed away recently, used to tell stories of collecting a liquor tax for the state in the 1950s during his tenure as tax collector even though the entire state was dry.
For much of the time since the pandemic hit in full force in March, socially conservative Mississippi has led the nation in terms of growth of liquor sales, Graham recently told a legislative committee.
The Alcohol Beverage Control, which is a division of the state Department of Revenue, regulates liquor sales in the state and also is the supplier of liquor and wine to the state’s 1,600 restaurants and catering services and more than 600 liquor stores. Graham said in a normal year, ABC delivers about 3.5 million cases of liquor and wine, but delivered about 4 million during 2020.
For the first six months of the current fiscal year, which started on July 1, the state has collected $53.1 million in taxes on liquor and wine – an increase of 30% over the previous year. And for the previous fiscal year, liquor and wine taxes were up 9% thanks primarily to the strong sales that occurred late in the fiscal year that ended June 30 as the coronavirus ramped up in the state.
In fairness to Mississippians, though, they are not just sitting around drinking. Graham pointed out, based on his personal observations, that the sales of toilet tissue, exercise equipment and home building supplies also were up.
Indeed, state revenue reports compiled by legislative staffers reveal that people are shopping more. Sales tax collections to the state — generated from the 7% tax levied on most retail items — are up 4.6% to a little more than $1 billion. People especially are shopping online. Use tax collections from the 7% tax on items purchased online are up 40.3% to $204.5 million. Use tax collections continue to be one of the fastest — if not the fastest — growing revenue streams for the state.
Overall, revenue collections are up $236.1 million or 8.4%.
When the pandemic hit and many businesses were impacted by a slowdown, the fear was that revenue collections would take a dramatic nosedive, forcing a reduction in vital state services in such areas as education, health care and law enforcement. But that revenue nosedive did not occur.
Former State Economist Darrin Webb, who retired last year, earlier said that collections were buoyed in part by the extra $600 per week in unemployment benefits and stimulus payments provided by federal legislation. In a poor state like Mississippi, with a large segment of its populace working in low paying jobs, the federal funds were a major boost.
In addition, Mississippi — to the dismay of many — has the highest state-imposed sales tax on food. With people staying home more, they most likely were purchasing more food helping to increase sales tax revenues.
And apparently if Mississippians were eating at home, they wanted some liquor or wine to go with their meals.
The result is that instead of legislators having to cut budgets as was feared this past summer, they now are making plans to provide a $1,000 per year pay raise to teachers, costing about $51 million annually.
The rosy state revenue report belies the fact that many Mississippians are hurting economically, especially since the federal stimulus funds have been cut or are beginning to be exhausted. Some believe the situation will get much worse not only for Mississippians but for state revenue collections if additional federal stimulus is not provided in the coming weeks. And, of course, if revenue collections decline that could lead to a cut in those vital services.
But based on what has happened thus far, legislators are hopeful they are not facing the specter of those budget cuts and are even planning a major investment in education in terms of teacher pay.
After all, many sources of state revenue collections — liquor and others — are on the rise. And many believe with the Legislature in session, at least the sale of liquor will continue to rise.
The post Mississippians are drinking at a record pace during the pandemic appeared first on Mississippi Today.
Gov. Tate Reeves extended a mask mandate that covers most of the state in efforts to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, he announced Friday afternoon.
The mandate, which requires the wearing of masks in public areas and has been in effect for weeks as the number of COVID-19 cases in the state has surged, has been extended until Feb. 3. The order covers 73 of the state’s 82 counties, including all of Mississippi’s major population areas. In recent weeks the mandate has covered most of the state, but Reeves has resisted calls to issue a statewide order.
READ MORE: See all of Mississippi’s COVID-19 data here.
The areas not covered by the mandate are primarily rural counties on the western side of the state: Adams, Claiborne, Issaquena, Jefferson, Lawrence, Quitman, Sharkey, Tunica and Wilkinson.
“It is important that we continue to take this virus seriously,” Reeves said in a statement. “We are working on getting Mississippi vaccinated, but continue to social distance, keep gatherings small and wear your mask.”
On Friday, the Mississippi State Department of Health reported 2,342 new coronavirus cases, 55 deaths and 220 outbreaks in long-term care facilities. Hospitals across the state have been stressed in recent weeks because of the surge in cases. In total, Mississippi has experienced 248,189 cases and 5,411 deaths from the coronavirus.
The governor also extended the requirement that masks be worn statewide on school grounds. The executive order also limits crowd sizes at various gatherings.
READ MORE: Mississippi health officer says January will likely be state’s worst month for COVID-19 deaths.
The post Gov. Tate Reeves extends mask mandate for most of Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium starting Sept. 4 caused at least one unintended consequence: Most renters were then no longer deemed at a great enough risk of homelessness to qualify for the only rental assistance program available at the time.
Now, the nonprofits running the Rental Assistance for Mississippians Program (RAMP) have shut off the program altogether until the moratorium lifts. Scott Spivey, Mississippi Home Corporation director and chair of the National Council of State Housing Agencies, said the state’s local housing partners have stopped offering rental assistance with their federal Emergency Solutions Grant, through which the state received $18 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the pandemic, because of guidance from the federal agency.
HUD did not respond to questions in several phone messages and emails.
But the moratorium never guaranteed that evictions would cease to occur during the pandemic because renters had to first be aware of the federal order, meet several requirements to qualify and provide a declaration to their landlord before potentially going to court. Even then, a judge might not honor it.
Meanwhile, housing hangs in the balance for hundreds of thousands of Mississippians as rent debts continue to pile up. Officials estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 families in renter households across the state were at risk of eviction and that past due rent could reach as high as $225 million in January, according to a September report global advisory firm Stout conducted for the National Council of State Housing Agencies.
There are two other pots of money Mississippi can still use for rental assistance, but programs to administer those funds have not begun. These funds would not have the same restrictions as the Emergency Solutions Grant and could be used during the moratorium, Spivey said.
Only about $13 million in pandemic relief has been used to alleviate this burden on renters in Mississippi so far, though $276 million has been allocated or made available for this use.
A new relief bill Congress passed last month extended the moratorium, which was set to expire at the end of December, to Jan. 31. President-elect Joe Biden has announced plans to request another extension. Because many tenants haven’t been able to secure rental assistance — such as the roughly 6,700 people RAMP has turned away — their debt will be waiting for them when the ban lifts. When it does, state law permits landlords to begin kicking out delinquent tenants immediately.
Mississippi Center for Justice is helping provide resources to renters who have gotten behind on rent, such as whether the moratorium applies to them, how to invoke it and where to apply for assistance through a hotline that may be reached at 228-702-9983.
Here is the status of each program designed to help renters during the pandemic:
Rental Assistance for Mississippians Program (RAMP) – $3 million/$18 million
Mississippi received $18 million in pandemic relief funds through the existing Emergency Solutions Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which it started administering through the RAMP program in July. Due to stiff federal guidelines and strict eligibility, the funds have been awarded slowly, just about $3 million in the first six months. By January, officials had suspended the program until the moratorium lifts.
Mississippi Rental Assistance Grant Program – $13.5 million/$20 million (CLOSED)
The Mississippi Legislature allocated $20 million in rental assistance grants to be administered by the Mississippi Development Authority and awarded to property owners as opposed to tenants. The money, which came from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, had to be spent by the end of 2020. Beginning in November, the agency approved applications for 4,363 units and awarded $9.7 million in residential grants and $3.8 million in grants for commercial properties. The program has concluded, MDA spokesperson Melissa Scallan told Mississippi Today.
Community Development Block Grant funds – $0/$38 million
Mississippi received an additional $38 million in Community Development Block Grant funds during the pandemic and Gov. Tate Reeves told Mississippi Today in October he would commit the entire amount to rental assistance. The program has yet to begin, Spivey said, as local agencies await federal guidance.
December COVID relief package – $0/$200 million
Under the new stimulus package Congress passed Dec. 20 and President Donald Trump signed Dec. 27, Mississippi is eligible to receive about $200 million out of $25 billion for rental assistance. The program has yet to begin.
The post Rental assistance suspended due to eviction moratorium, which isn’t always honored appeared first on Mississippi Today.
READ: Health department clarifies vaccine supply, new appointments available Jan. 25
The post Marshall Ramsey: Fire! appeared first on Mississippi Today.
The state health department announced Friday that it received additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, which will go towards already booked appointments next week. The press release adds that the Mississippi Department of Health anticipates new appointments will be available the week of Jan. 25.
The news comes two days after MSDH said it ran out of doses for new appointments. The department later clarified that those seeking a second dose and those who already booked appointments would not be affected.
The earlier release also said MSDH hoped to receive a large shipment of vaccine in February, causing some to think that the state would be out of new doses until then.
“The anticipated arrival of significantly more vaccine in February is in addition to the steady, modest supply that we are currently receiving weekly,” Friday’s press release clarified.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center, which manages the state’s booking system for vaccine appointments, said it was unprepared for this week’s expansion of eligibility to those 65 and over and to those with pre-existing conditions. Mississippians on social media shared frustrations over long wait times and confusion with the state’s phone line and online booking system.
“There are more people with pre-existing conditions or 65+ than there are doses of the vaccine today,” Gov. Tate Reeves tweeted Wednesday. “So not everyone will have the ability to get a dose immediately or at their preferred site.”
“If you’ve gotten your first dose, or have an appointment for it, you’ll get your second dose,” he added. “We have plenty of appointments and the ability to logistically handle everyone. Just need more first doses.”
Now in the fifth week of administering doses, MSDH reported over 38,000 vaccinations this week alone, a huge surge compared to the 56,000 total vaccinations in the first four weeks combined.
READ MORE: Frequently asked questions about COVID-19 vaccines in Mississippi
Friday’s announcement also said the new allotment will include a “modest amount” for community partners.
“The additional vaccine will be distributed to community partners in a manner that seeks to address both geographic and racial disparities,” MSDH said.
The post Health department clarifies vaccine supply, new appointments available Jan. 25 appeared first on Mississippi Today.
