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Google’s ‘Bard’ set for next stage

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:28:44 GMT

Google announced Tuesday it’s allowing more people to interact with ” Bard,” the artificially intelligent chatbot the company is building to counter Microsoft’s early lead in a pivotal battleground of technology.In Bard’s next stage, Google is opening a waitlist to use an AI tool that’s similar to the ChatGPT technology Microsoft began deploying in its Bing search engine to much fanfare last month. And last week, Microsoft embedded more AI-powered technology in its word processing, spreadsheet and slide presentation programs with a new feature called Copilot.Until now, Bard had only been available to a small group of “trusted testers” hand-picked by Google. The Mountain View, California, company, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., isn’t saying how many people will be given access to Bard in the next step of the technology’s development.Initial applicants will be limited to the U.S. and the U.K. before Google offers Bard in mo...

Patriots honor retired S Devin McCourty with family-style send-off

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:28:44 GMT

FOXBORO — In his opening remarks, Patriots owner Robert Kraft skipped the man of the hour and turned to his brother.Standing before a few hundred seated attendees, Kraft thanked Jason McCourty for his pass deflection that saved a touchdown in Super Bowl LIII. Never mind Devin, the newly retired 13-year veteran sitting to Kraft’s right, whose presence Tuesday had gathered former teammates and coaches, friends and media on the third floor of the Patriots Hall of Fame.Then, Kraft called on Dr. Michelle McCourty, Devin’s wife, and handed her flowers. Moments later, it was Devin’s mother, Phyllis, being honored.Finally, it was Devin’s turn — and he wouldn’t have had it any other way.“I think my time, from beginning to end here, has been a testament of truly caring about people. People first caring about me enough to encourage me,” he said.McCourty’s retirement ceremony was a family affair from start to finish, an hour-long celebration that ...

Dolphins Deep Dive: Have offseason additions solidified Miami’s defense?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:28:44 GMT

The South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Chris Perkins and David Furones discuss if the Miami Dolphins defense is now solidified behind the additions of defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and star cornerback Jalen Ramsey. ()

‘A few’ Boston school students taken to hospital after consuming edibles, district says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:28:44 GMT

The Boston Public School District says it’s “deeply concerned” after several students ended up in the hospital after eating pot edibles.“I am writing to inform you that today a few students ingested what appeared to be a cannabis-infused food item, otherwise commonly known as an edible,” Henderson K-12 Inclusion School head Stephanie Sibley wrote in a letter to families on Tuesday.She wrote that the investigation into what happened at her school remains ongoing.“School staff immediately notified BPS Safety Services and Boston Police of the incident,” she wrote. “The families of all students involved were immediately notified along with the school nurse. Boston EMS was also notified of the incident, and the students were taken to a local hospital for further medical care as a precaution.”She noted that drugs are prohibited on school grounds and “School staff will conduct searches as outlined in the district’s student search ...

Teen held in Texas school shooting that left 1 dead, 1 hurt

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:28:44 GMT

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — A 15-year-old arrested in a fatal shooting outside a Dallas-area high school will remain in custody following a Tuesday detention hearing, the boy’s lawyer said.The Monday shooting on a high school campus in the suburb of Arlington left one student dead from a gunshot wound and another injured by shrapnel. The early-morning gunfire prompted officials at Lamar High School to lock the building down for hours, although police said they arrested a student on a capital murder charge stemming from the shooting within minutes.Lisa Herrick, a court-appointed attorney for the boy, said that after questioning, a state judge Tuesday found there was probable cause for the teen’s arrest. The judge ordered he remain at a juvenile detention for the next 10 days after which his custody will be re-evaluated, Herrick said. Herrick said prosecutors are yet to formally charge the boy, but that in addition to the capital murder charge Arlington police referred a terro...

US ‘concerned’ by Mexican seizure of Alabama company’s port

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:28:44 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. State Department said Tuesday it was “concerned about the fair treatment of our companies in Mexico” after Mexican police seized a cargo terminal owned by an Alabama-based company. Mexico’s seizure of the Caribbean cargo port stretched into its second week Tuesday. Police are holding the port and have apparently used it to unload cargo from a Mexican cement and aggregates company, Cemex.The Alabama company, Vulcan Materials, said Tuesday that police and prosecutors still had not presented any legal paperwork to justify the seizure. The State Department said that “cases like these have the potential to impact our ability to achieve our shared vision for improving livelihoods in one of Mexico’s most economically disadvantaged regions. It also impacts Mexico’s efforts to attract future investments.”The office of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has not responded to requests to comment on the issue. The president has been publicly sparring with Vul...

Springsteen, Kaling, Louis-Dreyfus among 22 honored by Biden

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:28:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden welcomed a high-wattage collection of singers, authors, artists and humanitarians to the White House on Tuesday to present them with medals — and then stole the show himself with a quip about seeking reelection.Bruce Springsteen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mindy Kaling and Gladys Knight were among the 22 people and organizations being honored. When author Colson Whitehead’s award was announced, Biden noted that the author of “The Underground Railroad” and “The Nickel Boys” has already won back-to-back Pulitzer Prizes. The president, who is expected to announce for reelection this spring, quickly picked up on that and joked that he was looking “for a back-to-back myself,” drawing a laugh from the audience.It was a feel-good event in the East Room, as the honorees stepped forward to receive their awards one by one. Louis-Dreyfus, who channeled Biden’s resume when she starred in “Veep,” jokingly sagged under the weight when the president placed the medal...

Fox, Dominion face off over airing of false election claims

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:28:44 GMT

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Fox News and a voting machine company that claims the conservative network defamed it by amplifying baseless allegations of fraud following the 2020 presidential election faced off in a courtroom Tuesday during a key hearing over whether journalists have a responsibility to be cautious with explosive and implausible allegations.Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems argued that Fox recklessly repeated false accusations from supporters of former President Donald Trump that its machines and the software used were responsible for Trump’s 2020 election loss. Documents released during the lawsuit have shown that top Fox executives and personalities didn’t believe the claims but aired them anyway.“There was a deliberate decision by those responsible for the broadcasts … to let the story be out there,” Dominion attorney Rodney Smolla said, adding that Fox News was desperate to win back viewers infuriated that the network had correctly called Arizona, a key...

Data shows big drop in Ontario Mpox cases in 2022, Toronto Public Health urges 2nd vaccine doses

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:28:44 GMT

As Ontario continues to see a low number of new Mpox cases in 2023, Toronto Public Health officials are urging people who got a first dose of Imvamune but not their second to make an appointment to do so.“It’s not gone … we’re still seeing some transmission although it’s quite low,” Dr. Rita Shahin, Toronto’s associate medical officer of health, said during a recent interview with CityNews.“The vaccine, although it’s not 100 per cent effective, really reduces the severity of the disease for individuals.”According to the latest Public Health Ontario surveillance report, there have been 703 confirmed Mpox cases to date in the province and more than 73 per cent of those cases were confirmed by Toronto Public Health.The report said 20 people were hospitalized and two of those individuals had to be admitted to an intensive care unit. No one in Canada has died of Mpox, but Shahin noted Mpox can be life-threatening to people with ...

Number of monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico drops 22%

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:28:44 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The number of monarch butterflies wintering in the mountains of central Mexico dropped 22% from the previous year, and the number of trees lost from their favored wintering grounds tripled.Frost and “extreme temperatures” in the United States may have played a role in the butterfly’s decline during the most recent winter season, said Humberto Peña, director of Mexico’s nature reserves.Monarchs east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada overwinter in the fir forests of the western state of Michoacan, west of Mexico City. The total area they occupied this past winter dropped to 5.4 acres (2.21 hectares), from 7 acres (2.84 hectares) a year earlier.The annual butterfly count doesn’t calculate the individual number of butterflies, but rather the number of acres they cover when they clump together on tree boughs.Gloria Tavera, conservation director of Mexico’s Commission for National Protected Areas, said the area of forest cover appropriate for the bu...