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Archive for the ‘finance’ category

Mar 14, 2024

$100M universal basic income bill advances in state House committee

Posted by in categories: economics, finance

A universal basic income pilot program that would sprinkle $100 million across the state in the form of no less than $500 monthly cash payments to certain low-income Minnesotans — including illegal immigrants — advanced in a state House committee on Tuesday.

Rep. Athena Hollins, DFL-St. Paul, introduced HF2666 last year. The bill didn’t receive a hearing amidst a historic legislative session where Democrats spent down a $17.5 billion surplus and increased the state budget by more than 38 percent. But with news earlier this month that the state has a projected $3.7 billion surplus, Hollins’ bill received a hearing in the House Children and Families Committee.

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Mar 12, 2024

How do neural networks learn? A mathematical formula explains how they detect relevant patterns

Posted by in categories: finance, health, mathematics, robotics/AI

Neural networks have been powering breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, including the large language models that are now being used in a wide range of applications, from finance, to human resources to health care. But these networks remain a black box whose inner workings engineers and scientists struggle to understand.

Mar 12, 2024

Researchers explore quantum computing’s ability to speed solutions for financial sector

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, computing, finance, mathematics, quantum physics

The work, facilitated by the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE) and led by a team that includes UD, Argonne, JPMorgan Chase and University of Chicago scientists, lays groundwork for future applications—and highlights the need for cross-sector collaboration.


The third category, stochastic modeling, is used across the sciences to predict the spread of disease, the evolution of a chemical reaction, or weather patterns. The mathematical technique models complex processes by making random changes to a variable and observing how the process responds to the changes.

The method is used in finance, for instance, to describe the evolution of stock prices and interest rates. With the power of quantum computing behind it, stochastic modeling can provide faster and more accurate predictions about the market.

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Mar 12, 2024

Wells Fargo Abruptly Terminating Customers’ Bank Accounts, Say Attorneys General in 16 States, Demanding Immediate Freeze on Lender’s Alleged Debanking Practices

Posted by in category: finance

More than a dozen state attorneys general (AGs) are accusing banking titan Wells Fargo of abruptly terminating customers’ accounts without warning.

In a letter addressed to Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf, 16 Republican AGs across the country accuse the trillion-dollar lender of debanking customers in a political and discriminatory manner.

The AGs say Wells Fargo has started a new trend that looks at clients’ political views as a basis for retaining banking access.

Mar 11, 2024

Let’s Support Enhanced Athletes

Posted by in categories: entertainment, finance

Here’s my latest Opinion piece for Newsweek. It discusses the panel I chaired at the House of Lords, UK Parliament supporting enhanced athletes & the Enhanced Games!


Antagonists of the Enhanced Games say it will be dangerous. Some insist athletes will overdose and possibly die while competing. D’Souza said these fears are overblown. The Enhanced Games will also have some regulations, including pre-competition tests that show an athlete is healthy to compete, regardless of what they’re on.

Many athletes don’t seem to mind the risks. That’s partially because they’re being offered large financial sums to compete. Magnussen was offered $1.5 million dollars to try to break the 50-meter freestyle world record, and he appeared quite happy with that sizable amount of money. Furthermore, many athletes have already been taking enhancements, so now they’d just be out in the open about it.

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Mar 9, 2024

The AI Takeover In Cinema: How Movie Studios Use Artificial Intelligence

Posted by in categories: entertainment, finance, information science, media & arts, robotics/AI

The film industry, always at the forefront of technological innovation, is increasingly embracing artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize movie production, distribution, and marketing. From script analysis to post-production, Already AI is reshaping how movies are made and consumed. Let’s explore the current applications of AI in movie studios and speculates on future uses, highlighting real examples and the transformative impact of these technologies.

AI’s infiltration into the movie industry begins at the scriptwriting stage. Tools like ScriptBook use natural language processing to analyze scripts, predict box office success, and offer insights into plot and character development. For instance, 20th Century Fox employed AI to analyze the script of Logan, which helped in making informed decisions about the movie’s plot and themes. Consider, in pre-production, AI has also aided in casting and location scouting. Warner Bros. partnered with Cinelytic to use AI for casting decisions, evaluating an actor’s market value to predict a film’s financial success. For example, let’s look at location scouting. AI algorithms can sift through thousands of hours of footage to identify suitable filming locations, streamlining what was once a time-consuming process.

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Mar 9, 2024

Multiverse raises $27M for quantum software targeting LLM leviathans

Posted by in categories: business, cosmology, finance, quantum physics, robotics/AI

We’re still years away from seeing physical quantum computers break into the market with any scale and reliability, but don’t give up on deep tech just yet. The market for high-level quantum computer science — which applies quantum principles to manage complex computations in areas like finance and artificial intelligence — appears to be quickening its pace.

In the latest development, a startup out of San Sebastian, Spain, called Multiverse Computing has raised €25 million (or $27 million) in an equity funding round led by Columbus Venture Partners. The funding values the startup at €100 million ($108 million), and it will be used in two main areas. The startup plans to continue building out its existing business working with startups in verticals like manufacturing and finance, and it wants to forge new efforts to work more closely with AI companies building and operating large language models.

In both cases, the pitch is the same, said CEO Enrique Lizaso Olmos: “optimization.”

Mar 8, 2024

Tesla FSD v12 drives like a teenager!

Posted by in categories: business, finance, security

The Rebellionaire Road Rally has made its way down to Austin, TX. This time we’re joined by Farzad (@farzyness) to test out Tesla FSD v12 on the streets of the greater Austin area. This is part 2 of the journey with Farzad joining in the car adding helpful commentary.

#Tesla #rebellionaire.

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Mar 7, 2024

How open source voting machines could boost trust in US elections

Posted by in categories: finance, futurism

The first was to continue with a legacy vendor. Three companies — Dominion, ES&S, and Hart InterCivic — control roughly 90 percent of the U.S. voting technology market. All three are privately held, meaning they’re required to reveal little about their financial workings and they’re also committed to keeping their source code from becoming fully public.

The second future was to gamble on VotingWorks, a nonprofit with only 17 employees and voting machine contracts in just five small counties, all in Mississippi. The company has taken the opposite approach to the Big Three. Its financial statements are posted on its website, and every line of code powering its machines is published on GitHub, available for anyone to inspect.

Mar 3, 2024

Inside the Frozen Zoo, where scientists put disappearing species on ice: ‘It’s banking hope’

Posted by in categories: existential risks, finance

At a San Diego laboratory, four women do the painstaking work of preserving cells amid a growing extinction crisis.

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