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PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.
AI Bot ChatGPT Stuns Academics With Essay-Writing Skills (Maria)
The author writes, “Professors, programmers, and journalists could all be out of a job in just a few years, after the latest chatbot from the Elon Musk-founded OpenAI foundation stunned onlookers with its writing ability, proficiency at complex tasks, and ease of use. The system, called ChatGPT, is the latest evolution of the GPT family of text-generating AIs. … In the days since it was released, academics have generated responses to exam queries that they say would result in full marks if submitted by an undergraduate, and programmers have used the tool to solve coding challenges in obscure programming languages in a matter of seconds — before writing limericks explaining the functionality.”
DeSantis 2024 Prospects Prompt Florida Lawmakers to Review Law (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may need some help from the state Legislature if he proceeds with a highly anticipated bid for the Republican presidential nomination. A ‘resign to run’ law requires state officeholders to commit to leave their positions if they run for federal office. The measure, which has been on and off the books over the past several decades, was reinstated in 2018. But Republican leaders in the GOP-dominated Legislature have expressed openness to changing or rescinding the law when they gather again in March.”
US Gun Death Rates Hit Highest Levels in Decades, Study Says (Sean)
The author writes, “The U.S. gun death rate last year hit its highest mark in nearly three decades, and the rate among women has been growing faster than that of men, according to a study published [in November]. The increase among women — most dramatically, in Black women — is playing a tragic and under-recognized role in a tally that skews overwhelmingly male, the researchers said. … The research is one of the most comprehensive analyses of U.S. gun deaths in years, said David Hemenway, director of the Harvard University’s Injury Control Research Center.”
Latvia Hosted Russian Journalists in Exile. Then Their Loyalties Were Questioned. (Russ)
From The New York Times: “The outbreak of the Ukraine war left journalists at Russia’s most prominent independent television channel with a stark choice: risk arrest because of a new government ban on their work, stop reporting or leave the country. And so journalists at the station, TV Rain, joined hundreds of Russian peers in exile. Eventually, they settled in neighboring Latvia, where they continued to counter the Kremlin’s propaganda and denounce its aggression to millions of viewers back home. Now, though, a correspondent’s unscripted call to provide unspecified aid to Russian soldiers has engulfed TV Rain in the biggest crisis of its turbulent 12-year history, with Latvian and Ukrainian commentators accusing the station of supporting Russia’s war effort.”
Major Break Coming in the JFK Assassination Story (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “Many Americans wonder why the CIA is still concealing records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which happened nearly 60 years ago. We now have the answer. The CIA is hiding something terribly embarrassing, if not incriminating, about its role in the JFK story. In mid-1963, senior Agency officials approved a covert operation that used Lee Harvey Oswald for intelligence purposes, three months before Oswald allegedly shot and killed the president in Dallas on November 22, 1963. The CIA hid this operation from the Warren Commission in 1964, from the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978, and from the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) in 1998. The explosive story is told in 44 JFK records that the CIA has ‘denied in full’ to the public.”
Another Vertical Farm Comes to Saudi Arabia (Mili)
From Al-Monitor: “Saudi Arabia will soon receive a new vertical farm. The Saudi agriculture technology company Mowreq and YesHealth Group, another agrotech firm based in Taiwan, established a joint venture today to develop a network of vertical farms throughout Saudi Arabia. They will start by building a vertical farm in the capital, Riyadh. The venture, named Vertical Farms Company, aims for the farm to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2023, they said in a press release. What it means: Vertical farming is the process of growing food in vertically stacked layers in an indoor space.”
‘Not Sure What It Is:’ Hurricanes Unearth Large Mystery Object on Florida Beach (Dana)
From ClickOrlando: “Officials in Volusia County are at a loss trying to figure out what kind of structure was unearthed on the beach after hurricanes Ian and Nicole. The long wooden object was found poking out of the sand during low tide after the storms caused large amounts of erosion.”
