Category: Semafor

Students won’t learn without exercising their brains, “in the same way that we do not become fit by watching sports but by doing sports,” wrote an OECD researcher in a recent report. Students who refrain from using AI perform better academically than those who use it, according to the report, ...

Meta’s new AI assistant Muse could be the first experience a lot of people have with the power of AI that can actually do things for you, rather than just answer questions. Think of it like a computer sitting on Meta’s servers that connects to and can control your email, ...

Chinese tech companies are pushing to integrate AI and coding tools into smart glasses as a global debate builds over the devices’ privacy and security implications. Alibaba Cloud announced a glasses edition of its AI coding platform last week, while Tencent is bringing its office agent to co-branded Rokid frames. ...

Singapore increased its prime minister’s salary to $2.8 million, part of its longstanding strategy to boost talent and reduce corruption. For comparison, the UK’s premier earns $230,000 and the US president $400,000. Singapore’s first prime minister argued in 1955 that low pay meant top candidates rarely joined politics and faced ...

An Anthropic researcher quit, warning that the rush to “self-improving superintelligence [is] gambling with our lives.” Jacob Coxon, formerly of OpenAI, said Anthropic — believing itself the only responsible AI lab — was as a result racing to get there first, while OpenAI had not “internalized the civilizational stakes.” “Things ...

Trump administration officials expressed worries about Chinese firms they said undermined Washington’s agenda, comments that come weeks before a planned meeting between the countries’ leaders. The US Treasury secretary warned that “nothing else would matter” if China were to win the AI race, highlighting Washington’s angst that Beijing may be ...

The US-Canada trade war intensified, with Washington moving to ban a raft of goods from its northern neighbour after Ottawa imposed retaliatory tariffs on its biggest trading partner. The moves follow escalating rhetoric between the pair’s leaders, though a senior Trump administration official said the countries would try to negotiate ...

The News Kenya’s crackdown on foreign small-scale traders is exposing a tension at the heart of President William Ruto’s economic agenda in trying to protect jobs for Kenyans while keeping the country open to overseas capital and regional trade. Hundreds of Burundians crowded their embassy in Nairobi this week seeking ...

The News New Hampshire’s premier Senate race is on after party leaders secured their top choices in what’s shaping up to be one of the tightest contests in the entire country come November. Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas will face former Republican Sen. John E. Sununu after Pappas easily defeated progressive ...

The Trump administration is moving to ban Canadian imports like alcohol, whey, and motorcycles in the latest escalation of the countries’ trade war. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has spoken with Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc in recent days, a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday, and the countries will ...