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NEW YORK (AP) — As the International Rescue Committee copes with dramatic increases in displaced people in recent years, the refugee aid organization has looked for efficiencies wherever it can — including using artificial intelligence. Since 2015, the IRC has invested in Signpost — a portfolio of mobile apps and social media channels that answer questions in different languages for people in dangerous situations. The Signpost project, which includes many other organizations, has reached 18 million people so far, but IRC wants to significantly increase its reach by using AI tools — if they can do so safely. Conflict, climate emergencies and economic hardship have driven up demand for humanitarian assistance, with more than 117 million people forcibly displaced in 2024, according to the United Nations refugee agency. The turn to artificial intelligence technologies is in part driven by the massive gap between needs and resources. To meet its goal of reaching half of displaced people within three years, the IRC is testing a network of AI chatbots to see if they can increase the capacity of their humanitarian officers and the local organizations that directly serve people through Signpost. For now, the pilot project operates in El Salvador, Kenya, Greece and Italy and responds in 11 languages. It draws on a combination of large language models from some of the biggest technology companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. The chatbot response system also uses customer service software from Zendesk and receives other support from Google and Cisco Systems. If they decide the tools work, the IRC wants to extend the technical infrastructure to other nonprofit humanitarian organizations at no cost. They hope to create shared technology resources that less technically focused organizations could use without having to negotiate directly with tech companies or manage the risks of deployment. “We’re trying to really be clear about where the legitimate concerns are but lean into the optimism of the opportunities and not also allow the populations we serve to be left behind in solutions that have the potential to scale in a way that human to human or other technology can’t," said Jeannie Annan, International Rescue Committee’s Chief Research and Innovation Officer. The responses and information that Signpost chatbots deliver are vetted by local organizations to be up to date and sensitive to the precarious circumstances people could be in. An example query that IRC shared is of a woman from El Salvador traveling through Mexico to the United States with her son who is looking for shelter and for services for her child. The bot provides a list of providers in the area where she is. More complex or sensitive queries are escalated for humans to respond. The most important potential downside of these tools would be that they don't work. For example, what if the situation on the ground changes and the chatbot doesn’t know? It could provide information that's not just wrong, but dangerous. A second issue is that these tools can amass a valuable honeypot of data about vulnerable people that hostile actors could target. What if a hacker succeeds in accessing data with personal information or if that data is accidentally shared with an oppressive government? IRC said it's agreed with the tech providers that none of their AI models will be trained on the data that the IRC, the local organizations or the people they are serving are generating. They've also worked to anonymize the data, including removing personal information and location. As part of the Signpost.AI project, IRC is also testing tools like a digital automated tutor and maps that can integrate many different types of data to help prepare for and respond to crises. Cathy Petrozzino, who works for the not-for-profit research and development company MITRE, said AI tools do have high potential, but also high risks. To use these tools responsibly, she said, organizations should ask themselves, does the technology work? Is it fair? Are data and privacy protected? She also emphasized that organizations need to convene a range of people to help govern and design the initiative — not just technical experts, but people with deep knowledge of the context, legal experts, and representatives from the groups that will use the tools. “There are many good models sitting in the AI graveyard,” she said, “because they weren’t worked out in conjunction and collaboration with the user community.” For any system that has potentially life-changing impacts, Petrozzino said, groups should bring in outside experts to independently assess their methodologies. Designers of AI tools need to consider the other systems it will interact with, she said, and they need to plan to monitor the model over time. Consulting with displaced people or others that humanitarian organizations serve may increase the time and effort needed to design these tools, but not having their input raises many safety and ethical problems, said Helen McElhinney, executive director of CDAC Network. It can also unlock local knowledge. People receiving services from humanitarian organizations should be told if an AI model will analyze any information they hand over, she said, even if the intention is to help the organization respond better. That requires meaningful and informed consent, she said. They should also know if an AI model is making life-changing decisions about resource allocation and where accountability for those decisions lies, she said. Degan Ali, CEO of Adeso, a nonprofit in Somalia and Kenya, has long been an advocate for changing the power dynamics in international development to give more money and control to local organizations. She asked how IRC and others pursuing these technologies would overcome access issues, pointing to the week-long power outages caused by Hurricane Helene in the U.S. Chatbots won't help when there's no device, internet or electricity, she said. Ali also warned that few local organizations have the capacity to attend big humanitarian conferences where the ethics of AI are debated. Few have staff both senior enough and knowledgeable enough to really engage with these discussions, she said, though they understand the potential power and impact these technologies may have. “We must be extraordinarily careful not to replicate power imbalances and biases through technology,” Ali said. “The most complex questions are always going to require local, contextual and lived experience to answer in a meaningful way.” The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP’s text archives. Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy .big fish casino home page 。

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Republican U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky has secured the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which wields broad jurisdiction over issues affecting the daily lives of Americans. With the GOP set to take unified control of Congress and the White House next year, Guthrie said he's ready to work on the agenda set forth by President-elect Donald Trump and House Republicans. Guthrie's new role puts him at the forefront of some of the nation's biggest policy discussions. The Kentucky congressman will lead a committee with jurisdiction over the country’s health care system, energy and environmental policies, consumer safety, and telecommunications and technology innovation. “We must work together to restore America’s energy dominance and lower energy prices, protect children’s online safety and ensure America remains the world leader in technological innovation, and protect access to life-saving treatments while lowering health care costs,” Guthrie said late Monday. House Speaker Mike Johnson said the committee will be in “good hands” under Guthrie’s leadership, saying the Kentuckian has the experience and know-how needed to “hit the ground running.” The Kentucky Democratic Party took a dig at Guthrie, saying, in a statement, that while he "may have a new title, Kentuckians can only expect to see more of his out-of-touch agenda at work.” Guthrie's rise to the chairmanship adds to the Kentucky delegation's clout in Congress. Another Kentucky Republican, U.S. Rep. James Comer, will continue as chairman of the House Oversight Committee. Many of Trump's priorities align with the committee's jurisdiction, including his push for government efficiency, Comer said Tuesday while outlining his goals for the committee. "We will advance solutions to make the federal government more efficient, effective, transparent and accountable to the American people,” Comer said. The delegation's influence could expand more. Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky is in the running to chair the House Financial Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over the financial sector. Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, a congressional mainstay from Kentucky for decades, will remain a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. He is a former chairman of the committee. “The general election was a mandate from the American people to lower costs that are crippling family budgets and secure our borders," Rogers said Tuesday. “We must also maintain our commitment to law enforcement and fighting the fentanyl scourge, as we work to make our nation safer.” U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky will continue his push for limited government and fiscal restraint. The lone Democrat in Kentucky's delegation, U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, will be a vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. McGarvey, who represents a Louisville-area district, said he will be part of a progressive pushback against "an increasingly extreme Republican majority.” Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell will lead a subcommittee overseeing defense spending as he takes on new roles after relinquishing his long-running post as Senate Republican leader. The role dovetails with his belief that America needs a bulked-up military to deter threats from its adversaries. Kentucky's senior senator also will become chairman of the Senate Rules Committee. That will put McConnell at the center of weighty topics, namely federal elections and voting rights as well as the procedures of the Senate, including the debate around the filibuster. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul will lead the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The new role will put the Kentuckian — a limited-government advocate and longtime skeptic of surveillance programs — in charge of a committee with broad jurisdiction over government operations, including the Department of Homeland Security.The Northvolt facility in Vasteras, Sweden, on Sept. 29, 2021. Helena Soderpalm/Reuters Europe’s last great hope to roll majestically into the global car battery business, Northvolt, has crashed. Another European wannabe tech giant has been humbled. China wins. On Thursday, the nominally Swedish company – it was backed by a broad range of investors and lenders, from Germany’s Volkswagen to Canada’s pension funds – filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States. What was Europe’s best-funded startup, one that was to be an industry champion, could not live up to its own hype. Northvolt had raised some US$15-billion from investors and governments, yet found itself desperately short of cash in recent months, making the bankruptcy filing inevitable. It will try to keep its echo-chamber main factory in northern Sweden open while it hunts for fresh survival loans – a few bucks have arrived already. The odds do not look encouraging. “Northvolt’s liquidity picture has become dire,” the company said in its bankruptcy court petition. Northvolt was founded by two former Tesla executives in 2016, when the electric-vehicle business was pretty much a zero in Europe. But the ex-Tesla boys, aware that Tesla itself was destined for greatness under the hard-charging magician Elon Musk, evidently determined that European automakers would soon plunge headfirst into the EV pool and enjoy having a homegrown supply of battery materials. The idea proved more grandiose than realistic. Over the years, Northvolt was hobbled by severe production problems, a shortage of funding and skittish customers, a few of whom lost patience with the low output. Last summer, BMW cancelled its US$2.15-billion order for Northvolt battery cells. An overambitious and costly expansion strategy, including plans for a Canadian plant, was responsible for much of the rot. Northvolt chief executive officer Peter Carlsson, who resigned on Friday, told the media, “I should have pulled the brakes earlier on the expansion path to make sure the core engine was moving according to plan.” The subsequent upheaval in the European car business did not help. European EV sales are going in reverse as high prices, range anxiety, lack of charging points, waning EV purchase subsidies and a thin range of models that appeal to young drivers – they want iPhones on wheels – repel buyers. Europe has a sorry history of competing with the Americans and the Chinese on the tech front. In his September report on European competitiveness, or lack thereof, former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi said that no European Union company with a market value of more than €100-billion (about $145-billion) has been set up from scratch in the past half century. The six American companies worth more than €1-trillion (about $1.45-trillion) were all started over the same period. “Europe is stuck in a static industrial structure,” he said. Europe has seen this wretched playbook before. Its once-ambitious photovoltaic industry was destroyed by low-priced Chinese solar products. European consumer electronics all but vanished too. European semi-conductor companies, with the exception of ASML of the Netherlands, are relatively small (the American AI chip maker Nvidia has a stock-market value of US$3.6-trillion ($5-trillion), well north of the combined value of all the FTSE 100 companies in London). The hydrogen-fuel industry is going nowhere fast. And now Europe’s homegrown battery industry is dying. There are battery component plants in the EU, but they are mostly Chinese. One of the biggest, worth €7.3-billion ($10.6-billion), is under construction by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL) in Hungary. China’s plants are heavily subsidized and their technology and production efficiency is well ahead of European factories. Europe simply can’t compete in this industry – as the bankruptcy of Northvolt shows. China, less so South Korea (LG) and Japan (Panasonic), own the show. The cost of Chinese batteries is falling fast, just as the Chinese solar panels did two decades ago and Chinese EVs are today. BloombergNEF says the average cost of lithium iron phosphate batteries (the ones that need no cobalt and that are gaining market share) has fallen by half in the past year to US$53 per kilowatt-hour. Not long ago, US$100 was considered virtually unattainable. The European battery industry may just as well give up. Prices of Chinese batteries and their components are unbeatable, and China dominates the supply of the critical metals, including nickel, graphite and lithium, as well. China has become The Wall. Breaching its defences is nearly impossible. The Europeans would be foolhardy to drop more billions into battery plants, though they may out of conceit or because naive governments or investors will keep throwing money at them. Herbert Diess, the Austrian who was boss of Volkswagen until 2022, has more or less said that the European battery companies are spinning their wheels. “We should do what we can do best, and we should have China making what they can do cheapest and in good quality,” he told a BloombergNEF event. The Northvolt dream is dead. European carmakers will be happy to buy cheap Chinese batteries, as they are now, for their EVs. The key question is whether European EVs are doomed too as the Chinese come on strong. Northvolt’s fate is a warning that is about as subtle as a high-speed car crash.Xiaomi Pad 7 India to launch in January 10, to be available on Amazon

In the final weeks of President Joe Biden’s administration, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is announcing a jobs giveaway for newly arrived migrants with work permits. On Tuesday, Mayorkas announced a final rule from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that will allow millions of migrants, many of whom have been released into the U.S. interior by the Biden administration, to keep their work permits for up to 540 days when they seek a renewal. Migrants previously could renew their work permits for 180 days. For years, Democratic mayors had lobbied DHS to extend such automatic employment authorization for migrants. The rule will go into effect on Jan. 13, 2025. Mayorkas said in a statement the move is meant to help “businesses fill” American jobs with more migrants: Increasing the automatic extension period for certain employment authorization documents will help eliminate red tape that burdens employers , ensure hundreds of thousands of individuals eligible for employment can continue to contribute to our communities, and further strengthen our nation’s robust economy. [Emphasis added] Likewise, USCIS Director Ur Jaddou said the rule will “help U.S. employers better retain their workers and help prevent workers with timely-filed [work permit] renewal applications from experiencing lapses in their employment authorization and employment authorization documentation through no fault of their own.” At a hearing last week, Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R-CA) scolded Jaddou for the rule — noting that inflation has continuously outpaced U.S. wages and foreign workers have netted nearly all of the nation’s job growth. “Now we learn that the agency intends to increase temporary work permits from 180 days to 540 days,” McClintock said. “If anyone wonders why real wages for working families have declined under this administration, look no further than the agency before us today.” Indeed, in the last year, more than a million foreign-born workers have secured American jobs while nearly 800,000 native-born Americans have dropped out of the workforce. In July of this year, a Pew Research Center study found that as of 2022, more than 30 million legal immigrants and illegal aliens were holding American jobs — a 20-percent increase over the last 15 years. During the same period, the number of native-born Americans who have been added to the workforce has increased by less than 10 percent. John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here .New Market Trends Unveiled: Should Investors Be Worried? Discover What Analysts Say

U.S. stock indexes drifted lower in the runup to the highlight of the week for the market, the latest update on inflation. The S & P 500 slipped 0.3% Tuesday and marked its first back-to-back losses in three weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite also fell 0.3%. Oracle dragged on the market after reporting weaker growth than analysts expected. Treasury yields rose in the bond market ahead of Wednesday’s inflation report, which will be among the final big pieces of data before the Federal Reserve’s meeting on interest rates next week. On Tuesday: The S & P 500 fell 17.94 points, or 0.3%, to 6,034.91. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 154.10 points, or 0.3%, to 44,247.83. The Nasdaq composite fell 49.45 points, or 0.3%, to 19,687.24. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 10.06 points, or 0.4%, to 2,382.77. For the week: The S & P 500 is down 55.36 points, or 0.9%. The Dow is down 394.69 points, or 0.9%. The Nasdaq is down 172.53 points, or 0.9%. The Russell 2000 is down 26.22 points, or 1.1%. For the year: The S & P 500 is up 1,265.08 points, or 26.5%. The Dow is up 6,558.29 points, or 17.4%. The Nasdaq is up 4,675.89 points, or 31.1%. The Russell 2000 is up 355.70 points, or 17.5%.

Mercantile bank director Kaminski sells $12,400 in stock