Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryBusiness and Finance

open-door-to-a-new-home-with-key-and-home-shaped-keychain-mo-329376481-stockpack-adobestock
Open door to a new home with key and home shaped keychain. Mortgage, investment, real estate, property and new home concept

Might Now Be a Good Time to Buy a House?

I asked ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude and they confidently spewed bucketloads of well-written but barely relevant prose. There is a better way to find out

All real estate is local but, despite bubbles, it is generally better to buy than rent.

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Female warehouse worker scanning a barcode on a package with a scanner. Logistics and inventory management in a modern distribution center

Elite Publisher Pulls Book Due to Fake Quote

The quote, in a New York University Press book, originates in a series of misrepresentations of something a Lehigh University biochemist had written

The challenge, moving on, is that better scholarship means listening to those who challenge conventional ideas instead of serially editing them.

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abstract holographic world globe with many connection points symbolizing social media and life for business wallpaper background. Generative AI

AI: A Boon or a Bane? Misunderstood, or Misused?

Pew Research finds that young people are losing faith in a glorious AI future. They have a point but...

When the young people inherit the world, they can start getting tough with misuse and abuse but first they should take the time to learn how it works.

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Woman Versus Robot In Office Job Takeover

Does AI Really Threaten Your Job? That Depends On Your Job

According to Robert J. Marks, jobs that AI won’t disrupt use the unique human attributes of understanding and creativity

Marks points out that model collapse means that AI can’t simply keep getting better by training itself until it becomes a superintelligence.

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new build data center, computing center in Eemshaven, Groningen, The Netherlands. hyperscaler.

Big Tech Data Centers Are the New Big Hate

The growing hostility is based on environment and employment concerns and cuts across party lines

Data centers will probably create jobs as well as eliminate them, which is usually what new technologies do, but environment concerns remain.

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old books background

It’s Time to Buy Old Books Before AI Destroys Them

This book destruction scheme is the brain child of technicians, people who lead tech companies and tech labs who are wholly committed to a technological view of the world

Before AI companies buy up all remaining physical copies of older, rare, out-of-print, obscure, or nearly forgotten books, we can buy our own copies.

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Meeting, training and planning with a finance CEO, manager or leader and team in the boardroom. Collaboration, workshop and presentation with a business man and staff talking about vision and mission

Colleges and Universities: Still on a Road to Nowhere

One cost-saving proposal has been to eliminate courses with ten or fewer students, irrespective of what the course is teaching

Significantly, no administrators who were contacted recommended reducing schools’ budget woes by reducing the number of administrators.

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Cute, retro robot with glowing eyes reads a book

More Books for the Bots

AI companies are buying (and destroying) rare books

AI companies are using physical books to train them for their large language models since these texts aren’t already ridden with AI-generated writing.

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an-open-book-with-pages-creatively-folded-to-form-a-heart-a-1999706244-stockpack-adobestock
An open book with pages creatively folded to form a heart, a symbol of knowledge, love, and storytelling, resting on a wooden surface with a blurred background of bookshelves.

Are Fictionbots Triumphing Over Writers?

At The Spectator, Geoff Bagwell tells us that AI is destined to destroy the creative writing industry as bots take writers’ jobs

Reading for entertainment alone will become increasingly rare. I expect we will return to a culture where people who read are mainly looking for new ideas.

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concept-image-to-explain-how-ai-hallucinations-occur-when-an-671664701-stockpack-adobestock
Concept image to explain how AI hallucinations occur when an AI model generates false or illogical information that isn't based on real data or events, but is presented as fact.

Plagiarism and Defamation—Two More Bad Things LLMs Are Good At

The authors’ and publishers’ copyright claims against the chatbot developers are only one of the legal problems the industry faces

The LLMs’ hallucinations could end up getting them severely restricted in Europe, depending on the outcome of a recent legal challenge for defamation.

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money-inside-shimmering-bubbles-floating-in-an-uncertain-fin-963296081-stockpack-adobestock
Money inside shimmering bubbles floating in an uncertain financial market Large space for text in center Stock Photo with copy space

Speculation in Large Language Models: The Worst Sort of Business

Speculators buy an asset because they expect the price to keep rising, not because they want the income generated by the asset

The inventions that changed our lives for the better were usually accompanied by speculation bubbles and busts. LLM firms will likely attract the same fate.

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a-hand-is-typing-on-a-laptop-keyboard-with-colorful-lines-an-966730739-stockpack-adobestock
A hand is typing on a laptop keyboard with colorful lines and numbers. Concept of creativity and innovation, as the hand is using the keyboard to input data or code

Are AI Developers As Smart As They Are Made Out To Be?

My confidence in the intelligence of AI developers was shaken by two recent events

Many commentators seem to have forgotten Goodhart’s Law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

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tree monument valley - usa

Is OpenAI Approaching the Valley of Death?

Overpromising is still a big problem; in any event, the fate of Netscape looms

OpenAI needs to show that ChatGPT is more than just the first publicly available LLM. It has not done that and maybe never will.

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ai-global-network-a-blue-vision-of-future-technology-stockpa-700652610-stockpack-adobestock
AI Global Network: A Blue Vision of Future Technology

The Generative AI Bubble Has Begun to Pop

From hype to hard realities in the age of artificial intelligence

Recently, talk of a bubble has increased as it has become clear that OpenAI, and likely other AI software companies, may never become profitable.

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businessman-use-artificial-intelligence-ai-technology-for-en-1581362027-stockpack-adobestock
Businessman use artificial intelligence AI technology for enhanced work efficiency data analysis and efficient tools, Unlocking work potential with AI solutions chatbot help solve work problems.

Straight Talk About AI From a Valley Tech Exec

Microsoft vice-president Uli Homann lays out what it can — and can’t — really do for you

In Homann’s view, AI is best seen as “autocomplete with ambition.” But that doesn’t mean it can’t be quite useful.

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protecting-balance-between-percentage-and-house-model-stockp-211320042-stockpack-adobestock
Protecting Balance Between Percentage And House Model

Home Ownership: Madness Over 30-Year Mortgages

It is tempting to put borrowing and investment decisions in separate mental buckets, but they are intimately related

When considering a mortgage, the correct comparison is not total payments but the return on the borrowed money versus the loan’s annual percentage rate.

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Close-up of a silicon wafer on a circuit board.

George Gilder: Wafer Scale Tech Will Have Smartphone’s Impact

However, in his COSM 2025 fireside chat with bestselling author Andrew Mayne, he conceded that it is a disruptive technology and many are hesitant to make the leap

Mayne noted that many college students today are more entrepreneurial-minded than in the past. They’re turning their anxiety about the future into productivity.

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city-skyline-shrouded-in-a-thick-layer-of-fog-elevated-aeria-1622244505-stockpack-adobestock
City skyline, shrouded in a thick layer of fog. Elevated aerial view reveals numerous high-rise buildings emerging from a dense cloud cover. A clear, pale blue sky is visible above the clouds

A Lack of Transparency Threatens AI — and the American Economy

Even the Wall Street Journal does not appear to understand the nature of the looming problems

AI software startups should be required to release audited numbers so that we can at least understand the current state of the AI economy.

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the-skill-to-dissect-complex-data-recognize-patterns-and-mak-1563298424-stockpack-adobestock
The skill to dissect complex data, recognize patterns, and make logical decisions based on relationships and cause-effect.

Illusions: No, Large Language Models Do Not Understand

A recent New Yorker article is mistaken about this. For one thing, the LLMs have trouble distinguishing between causation and mere correlation

A real-world example of such struggles is the poor performance, in general, of AI-powered mutual funds.

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spacecraft orbiting the Moon with Earth glowing in the background. Stunning view of space exploration, lunar surface, and advanced satellite technology in outer space

Space travel: The future is slowly becoming everyday reality

Catch the vibe at COSM 2025. Oh, and we’ll also be talking about the national debt…

Relativity Space likes to call itself a “customer-centric rocket company.” When we hear a tag line like that, we know times have changed.

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