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Trump backers battle online over skilled immigrantsThe Winnipeg Police Service is seeking a budget boost to hire 72 additional officers as it argues a surge in emergency calls warrants more resources. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * The Winnipeg Police Service is seeking a budget boost to hire 72 additional officers as it argues a surge in emergency calls warrants more resources. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? The Winnipeg Police Service is seeking a budget boost to hire 72 additional officers as it argues a surge in emergency calls warrants more resources. “We made it known that we need police officers on the street. The city has (grown)... We have the same amount of cars (for) the last 20 years, 25 years. We need more cars out there,” said Art Stannard, interim chief, on Friday. In the summer, the service reached a record backlog of around 440 calls in its service queue, said Stannard. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Acting WPS chief Art Stannard said he’d like 72 new hires in addition to officers the province previously promised to fund. While colder weather has been paired with lower seasonal demand since then, the need for more officers remains, he said. Stannard said he’d like 72 new hires in addition to officers the province previously promised to fund. “This is just for responding to calls in the city of Winnipeg,” he said. The interim chief said he suspects the staffing request won’t be fully granted, due to the city’s budget constraints. However, he hopes at least some new hires will be funded when the city releases its preliminary budget on Wednesday. Winnipeg Police Board chairman Markus Chambers said he’d also like to see more police officers added to the city’s complement to reflect Winnipeg’s growth. “We need to right-size the department to ensure that we’re responding adequately and effectively to calls for service,” said Chambers. Mayor Scott Gillingham expressed concern about the number of police in Winnipeg per capita. Gillingham’s office noted that figure dropped to 16.8 per 10,000 residents in 2023, from 20.3 per 10,000 in 2014. “Consistently, I have been saying that we’re seeing an increase in our population, there’s increased pressure on our services and the delivery of services, and right now we’re not seeing the increase in revenues related to the growth as well. So, the budget will come out Wednesday and I’ll look forward to it then,” said Gillingham, following Friday’s Winnipeg Police Board meeting. The mayor refused to confirm whether he will seek a property tax hike greater than the 3.5 per cent annual increase he campaigned on in 2022. However, Gillingham noted his mayoral campaign also included a plan to secure a new funding deal from the province. “We need more revenue to continue to deliver the services the citizens of Winnipeg require, as our population continues to grow and the calls for services, especially emergency services, continue to climb. So, we have not yet got that new funding model from the province of Manitoba, so we need to raise more revenue,” said Gillingham. The mayor has not publicly asked for an exact form of growth revenue, but has suggested the province could provide the city a portion of PST revenue. On Friday, Premier Wab Kinew stressed his government has been generous with the city, noting it committed $10 million toward an upcoming $20-million repair of pipes involved with a major Fort Garry sewage spill. It will also provide $16.8 million more to municipalities next year, when a One Manitoba Growth Revenue Fund and operating grant increases are combined. The premier said millions more will be provided to support firefighting, policing and recreation. “If you add everything together, I feel confident in saying that no one has done more for the City of Winnipeg than our team has in terms of the municipal-provincial relationship,” said Kinew. The premier added he has a “great relationship” with Winnipeg’s mayor but stressed the province has financially “done our part.” Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Gillingham could not be reached for an interview following the premier’s comments. In a written statement, he acknowledged the provincial support to date. “We appreciate that this government has been open to conversation and has provided some additional support following years of municipal funding freezes, rapid population growth, inflation, and the challenges of a pandemic. Next week’s budget will show how we’re making the most of the resources available from all levels of government — and where more help is still required,” the statement said. joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca X: @joyanne_pursaga Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the before joining the in early 2020. . Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about , and . Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support. Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the before joining the in early 2020. . Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about , and . Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support. Advertisement Advertisement
A Stanford University in a federal court case in Minnesota for submitting a sworn declaration that contained made-up information has blamed an artificial intelligence chatbot. And the bot generated more errors than the one highlighted by the plaintiffs in the case, professor Jeff Hancock wrote in an apologetic court filing, saying he did not intend to mislead the court or any lawyers. “I express my sincere regret for any confusion this may have caused,” Hancock wrote. Lawyers for a YouTuber and Minnesota state legislator suing to overturn a Minnesota law said in a court filing last month that Hancock’s expert-witness declaration contained a reference to a study, by authors Huang, Zhang, Wang, that did not exist. They believed Hancock had used a chatbot in preparing the 12-page document, and called for the submission to be thrown out because it might contain more, undiscovered AI fabrications. It did: After the lawyers called out Hancock, he found two other AI “hallucinations” in his declaration, according to his filing in Minnesota District Court. The professor, founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab, was brought into the case by Minnesota’s attorney general as an expert defense witness in a lawsuit by the state legislator and the satirist YouTuber. The lawmaker and the social-media influencer are seeking a court order declaring unconstitutional a state law criminalizing election-related, AI-generated “deepfake” photos, video and sound. Hancock’s legal imbroglio illustrates one of the most common , a technology that has since San Francisco’s OpenAI released its in November 2022. The AI chatbots and image generators often produce errors known as hallucinations, which in text can involve misinformation, and in images, absurdities like six-fingered hands. In his regretful filing with the court, Hancock — who studies AI’s effects on misinformation and trust — detailed how his use of OpenAI’s ChatGPT to produce his expert submission led to the errors. Hancock confessed that in addition to the fake study by Huang, Zhang, Wang, he had also included in his declaration “a nonexistent 2023 article by De keersmaecker & Roets,” plus four “incorrect” authors for another study. Seeking to bolster his credibility with “specifics” of his expertise, Hancock claimed in the filing that he co-wrote “the foundational piece” on communication mediated by AI. “I have published extensively on misinformation in particular, including the psychological dynamics of misinformation, its prevalence, and possible solutions and interventions,” Hancock wrote. He used ChatGPT 4.0 to help find and summarize articles for his submission, but the errors likely got in later when he was drafting the document, Hancock wrote in the filing. He had inserted the word “cite” into the text he gave the chatbot, to remind himself to add academic citations to points he was making, he wrote. “The response from GPT-4o, then, was to generate a citation, which is where I believe the hallucinated citations came from,” Hancock wrote, adding that he believed the chatbot also made up the four incorrect authors. Related Articles Hancock had declared under penalty of perjury that he “identified the academic, scientific, and other materials referenced” in his expert submission, the YouTuber and legislator said in their Nov. 16 filing. That filing also questioned Hancock’s reliability as an expert witness. Hancock, in apologizing to the court, asserted that the three errors, “do not impact any of the scientific evidence or opinions” he presented as an expert. The judge in the case has set a Dec. 17 hearing to determine whether Hancock’s expert declaration should be thrown out, and whether the Minnesota attorney general can file a corrected version of the submission. Stanford, where students can be for using a chatbot to “ ” without permission from their instructor, did not immediately respond to questions about whether Hancock would face disciplinary measures. Hancock did not immediately respond to similar questions. Hancock is not the first to submit a court filing containing AI-generated nonsense. Last year, lawyers Steven A. Schwartz and Peter LoDuca were fined $5,000 each in federal court in New York for submitting a personal-injury lawsuit filing that contained fake past court cases invented by ChatGPT to back up their arguments. “I did not comprehend that ChatGPT could fabricate cases,” Schwartz told the judge.OTTAWA - Dave Cameron and his players once again found themselves in an uncomfortable position. Coming off a stunning, embarrassing loss to Latvia some 48 hours earlier at the world junior hockey championship, Canada led another of the sport’s lesser lights by a single goal late in regulation Sunday. The tournament hosts would get the job done in the end. It wasn’t pretty. Oliver Bonk, Caden Price and Mathieu Cataford, into the empty net, scored as the wobbly Canadians picked up an unconvincing 3-0 victory over Germany. “We’re snake-bitten,” Cameron, at his third world juniors as the country’s head coach, said of the roster’s toothless attack. “We’re getting chances. That’s all you can do ... it’ll break.” Carter George made 25 saves to register the goaltender’s second straight shutout for Canada, which was coming off Friday’s 3-2 upset loss to Latvia in a shootout. “I just want to go out there and do my part to get this team a win,” said George, who took a shot at the empty net that dribbled wide. “We all pitch into the system.” Nico Pertuch stopped 33 shots for Germany, which dropped its Group A opener at the men’s under-20 tournament 10-4 to the United States before falling 3-1 to Finland. Canada, which entered with a 17-0 record all-time and a combined 107-26 score against Germany at the world juniors, went more than 120 minutes against a pair of hockey minnows without scoring a goal at 5-on-5. “It gets a little tense there when it was 1-0 with five minutes left,” said defenceman Tanner Molendyk. “But I thought we handled it well.” “A little tighter than maybe we would have expected,” added fellow blueliner Sam Dickinson. Despite another sub-par performance, the victory sets up a mouth-watering New Year’s Eve matchup against the U.S. for first place in the pool after the Americans fell 4-3 to the Finns in overtime earlier Sunday. Canada suffered one of the worst defeats in the program’s history when Latvia — outscored 41-4 in four previous meetings at the event — shocked the hockey world. And while the plucky Europeans were full marks for their victory, the Canadians were largely disjointed and surrendered the middle of the ice for long stretches despite firing 57 shots on goal. There was more of the same Sunday through the two periods. “It’s a quick turnaround, maybe, from (the Latvia loss),” said Canadian forward Berkly Catton. “That hurt, but we’ve got to be ready.” Cameron made a couple of changes to his lineup — one out of necessity and another for tactical reasons. With star defenceman Matthew Schaefer, who could go No. 1 at the 2025 NHL draft, out of the world juniors after suffering an upper-body injury Friday, Vancouver Canucks prospect Sawyer Mynio drew in. Cameron also sat forward Porter Martone for Carson Rehkopf. Canada opened the scoring on the power play, which also had a new look after going 1-for-7 through two games, when Bonk scored from his normal bumper position in the slot at 9:40 of the first period. “Great feeling,” said the Ottawa native and son of former NHLer Radek Bonk. “Fans have been awesome.” Dickinson then chimed a one-timer off the post on another man advantage before George, who was in goal for Canada’s 4-0 opener against Finland, made a couple of stops on the penalty kill inside a red-clad Canadian Tire Centre. “He’s been unbelievable,” Catton said of the netminder. “He held us in that game when we weren’t playing great. He’s been the heart and soul of our team.” Petruch made a big save off Tanner Howe in the second before also denying Calum Ritchie from the slot on a power play, but the Canadians again looked out of sorts against a decidedly inferior opponent on paper. “You need different clubs in your bag to win this tournament,” Cameron said. “Right now our defence and our goaltending are leading the pack. They’re the clubs we’re using the most. “The offence in this group’s going to get going.” Catton hit another post for Canada early in the third as a group with 11 first-round NHL draft picks finally started to flex its muscles. Molendyk then also found iron against Germany, set to meet Latvia in a crucial Monday matchup at the bottom of the Group A standings. “It was a lot better,” Bonk said of the overall effort. “We didn’t score as much as we should have or wanted to. It happens, but the goals will come.” Price finally broke the 5-on-5 goose egg with 4:58 left in regulation on a shot that caromed off the end boards, Pertuch and in before Cataford fired into the empty net on another nervy night for the 20-time gold medallists. “Win a hockey game,” Catton said of the feeling on the bench. “That’s all that really matters — 1-0, 3-0, 10-0 — it’s all the same. “We need the wins and we got it.” Canada’s biggest rival is now on deck. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 29, 2024. Read more on the World Junior Hockey Championship at thestar.com
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Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, right, and Pixel 9 Pro smartphones displayed during the Made By Google launch ... [+] event in Mountain View, California, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. Alphabet Inc.'s Google is rolling out upgraded smartphones, watches and earbuds, aiming to take on Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. and offer more ways to use artificial intelligence. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg Best Buy has matched Google’s Christmas Pixel 9 deal in an early January sale. The retailer has discounted the latest Pixel 9 series and slashed the prices of the 2023 Pixel 8 range. These straight money-off deals have been combined with surprisingly generous trade-in prices. These prices match Google’s Christmas sale that launched in early December . One key difference is Best Buy has also dropped prices for the Pixel 8 range, whereas Google is still charging full whack for the 2023 flagship. Google Pixel 9: Surprisingly generous trade in prices Interestingly, Best Buy is also running a surprisingly generous trade-in promotion. For example, the company offering $395 for the Pixel 6 Pro. Typically, retailer trade-in valuations are poor in comparison to the huge figures that manufacturers are happy to pay, with Amazon’s valuations particularly paltry . In recent sale, Amazon offered to pay out $5, yes $5, for the Samsung Galaxy S8, or $35 for the Google Pixel 5. In comparison, Best Buy will give you $200 for the latter. Dark Web Facial ID Farm Warning—Hackers Build Identity Fraud Database In Whiplash Maneuver, Court Rules Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Reporting Requirements Are On Hold Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Clues And Answers For Friday, December 27 Right now, Samsung will give you $500 for a Google Pixel 1 when buying the Galaxy Z Fold 6. Best Buy still can’t match those numbers, but almost $400 for the Pixel 6 Pro, or $200 for the now-defunct Pixel 5, are solid prices. Buying a brand new Pixel 8 for under $500 is a respectable deal because the device isn’t wildly different from the Google Pixel 9 range. The Pixel 8 has six years of Android updates and security patches left, takes some of the best still photography on the market, has access to almost all of Google’s AI tool suite (you will need the Pro version to access all features) and some of the Pixel 9’s exclusive features are migrating to the Pixel 8 series .
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