Latest news with #researcher
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
China's Coal Pipeline Risks Creating Glut, Blowing Climate Goals
China's proposed coal mine developments risk creating an oversupply and derailing climate goals, according to Global Energy Monitor. More than 450 sites are in development across China, with nearly 40% under construction or in test operation, according to the California-based researcher, which promotes clean energy use. If they are all built, their combined capacity of 1.35 billion tons a year would surpass that operating in Indonesia and Australia, the biggest exporters of the power-generation and steelmaking fuel.
Fox News
3 days ago
- Fox News
New study suggests ‘restorative justice' is failing NYC students
Education behavioral researcher Jennifer Weber discusses New York City's discipline policy for students and more on 'Fox News Live.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
13 Times You Thought You Set A Boundary But Accidentally Built A Wall Instead
Setting boundaries is crucial for maintaining healthy relationships and personal well-being. However, it's easy to misinterpret the line between a healthy boundary and an emotional wall. These walls can unintentionally isolate you from others, causing more harm than good. Let's explore those moments when you thought you were setting a boundary but ended up building a wall instead. 1. Saying "No" To Everything You've finally embraced the power of saying "no," and it feels liberating. However, you've started saying it to almost every request without considering the context. You're trying to protect your time and energy, but now, people hesitate to ask you for anything. Dr. Brené Brown, a renowned researcher, emphasizes that while setting boundaries is essential, being overly rigid can lead to isolation. Finding a balance where you can say "yes" to opportunities that align with your values is key to maintaining relationships. The danger in saying "no" too often is that it can become a reflex rather than a thoughtful decision. When you reject everything, it sends a message that you are unavailable, potentially cutting off supportive connections. The boundary morphs into a wall, preventing meaningful interactions. People begin to perceive you as detached, and opportunities for growth are missed. It's important to evaluate each request individually rather than defaulting to a negative response every time. 2. Ignoring Texts And Calls In the age of constant connectivity, the barrage of notifications can be overwhelming. Ignoring texts and calls becomes your method of coping, a way to reclaim your time and space. Initially, this feels like a boundary that allows you to focus on what matters. However, over time, this habit can alienate the people who genuinely care about you. They may feel neglected and undervalued, thinking you don't prioritize their presence in your life. While it's reasonable to take time for yourself, completely shutting off communication creates unintended barriers. You miss out on spontaneous conversations and the chance to share in your friends' lives. People may start to assume that you're uninterested in maintaining a connection. This "boundary" could lead to misunderstandings or lost friendships. Balance is key—you can be selective about when to respond without disappearing entirely. 3. Being Overly Private Everyone deserves a level of privacy, but keeping everything about yourself under wraps can have unintended consequences. You might think that being private protects you from vulnerability, but it can turn into a barrier that keeps others from truly knowing you. According to Dr. Harriet Lerner, an expert in relationships, being overly private can hinder intimacy and trust, essential components of strong relationships. Sharing bits of your life can create connections and understanding with others. When you keep too much to yourself, people might see you as secretive or untrustworthy. This can make it difficult for others to approach you or feel comfortable sharing their own experiences. It becomes a wall that prevents authentic interactions and keeps relationships superficial. A healthy boundary involves selective sharing that fosters trust and connection, rather than hiding behind a cloak of privacy. Open up a little more, and you might find deeper, more fulfilling relationships. 4. Declining Social Invitations There's a certain peace in choosing solitude over social events, especially when you're often overwhelmed by crowds. Turning down invitations can feel like a form of self-care, a way to recharge without the pressure of socializing. However, consistently rejecting invitations can signal disinterest in maintaining relationships. It may come across as aloofness or disconnection, leading friends to stop inviting you altogether. The intention might be to protect your peace, but it can inadvertently build walls that separate you from others. Social events are opportunities for connection and shared experiences, essential for nurturing relationships. When you always opt out, you miss out on these bonding moments. Instead of outright refusal, consider attending selectively or for shorter durations. This way, you maintain your social ties without compromising your need for downtime. 5. Always Keeping Conversations Surface-Level Engaging in small talk can feel safe; it's a way to participate without diving into anything too personal. However, keeping every conversation at surface level can prevent genuine connections. People might perceive you as indifferent or shallow, which can limit the depth of the relationships you form. A study by Dr. Matthias Mehl from the University of Arizona found that more substantive conversations lead to greater happiness and connection between individuals. By avoiding deeper topics, you miss the opportunity to truly understand and be understood by the people around you. This can result in relationships that feel superficial and unfulfilling, as if there's an invisible barrier between you and others. Being open to discussing more meaningful subjects can demonstrate your interest in the people you're with. It can transform a boundary meant to protect you into a bridge that fosters closer relationships. 6. Having Strict Schedules Having a structured schedule can be an effective way to manage your time and commitments. It provides a sense of control and predictability in a chaotic world. But when your schedule becomes inflexible, it might start to prevent spontaneous interactions. People might feel like they have to book an appointment just to see you, making them hesitant to reach out. Your well-intended boundary of time management turns into a wall that blocks unforeseen opportunities. This wall can create a distance between you and your loved ones, making them feel like they're not a priority. It may also cause you to miss out on impromptu moments that bring joy and variety to life. While having a routine is beneficial, consider building in some flexibility to accommodate unexpected plans or visits. Balancing structure with spontaneity keeps your schedule from becoming a barrier to your social life. 7. Limiting Emotional Expression It's understandable to want to protect yourself from emotional hurt by limiting how much you express. But when you consistently keep your emotions in check, it can create a wall between you and those who care about you. According to psychologist Dr. Susan David, emotional agility is vital for sustaining healthy relationships. By not expressing your feelings, you miss out on the chance for empathy and support from others. Keeping your emotions bottled up may lead others to view you as emotionally unavailable. This can make it hard for people to connect with you on a deeper level, as they may feel unsure about how you truly feel. Your boundary becomes a wall, keeping you isolated from the emotional richness of relationships. Instead, try sharing your emotions in a balanced way, allowing others to understand and support you in times of need. 8. Setting High Expectations Having high standards, especially in relationships, can be a way to protect yourself from disappointment. However, when these expectations are set too high, they can turn into a wall that no one can climb over. People in your life may feel like they constantly fall short, leading to frustration and resentment. Your well-intentioned boundary meant to filter out negativity could end up isolating you instead. When expectations are unrealistic, they become barriers to authentic connections. It's important to distinguish between healthy standards and perfectionism. The latter can lead to a lonely existence where no one feels good enough to be in your life. By setting realistic expectations, you make room for human error and the beauty of imperfection. This approach fosters acceptance and deeper, more enduring relationships. 9. Avoiding Conflict At All Costs Avoiding conflict is a common way to maintain peace in relationships. But when you steer clear of any disagreement, it can lead to unresolved issues and resentment. This avoidance becomes a wall that prevents open communication and growth within relationships. While the intention is to keep things smooth, it can stifle honesty and authenticity between you and others. By not addressing conflicts, you miss the opportunity to address misunderstandings and strengthen bonds. Over time, this wall of avoidance can lead to distance and dissatisfaction in relationships. It's important to approach conflicts as opportunities for constructive dialogue and problem-solving. Facing disagreements head-on can transform a boundary meant to keep peace into a path for stronger connections. 10. Being Self-Sufficient To A Fault Being self-sufficient can feel empowering and can be a way to maintain control over your life. But when you never ask for help, it can create a wall that keeps others at a distance. Friends and family may feel unnecessary or undervalued, as if you don't need them in your life. This self-imposed boundary can lead to isolation and a lack of support when you truly need it. Constantly relying on yourself can prevent you from experiencing the benefits of community and shared responsibilities. It sends a message that you're closed off to collaboration or support. Being open to assistance can transform this wall into a bridge, allowing others to feel involved in your life. Accepting help doesn't mean you're weak; it shows strength in vulnerability and fosters deeper connections. 11. Keeping A Stiff Upper Lip Projecting a strong, unflappable exterior can be a way to protect yourself from appearing vulnerable. However, when you never let your guard down, it can create a barrier preventing others from connecting with you emotionally. People might see you as unapproachable or emotionally cold, which can deter them from forming a closer relationship with you. Your boundary of projecting strength evolves into a wall that distances you from meaningful interactions. When you always keep a stiff upper lip, it can send a message that you don't trust others enough to share your true self. This can result in superficial relationships lacking emotional depth or understanding. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable at times can show others that you trust and value their presence in your life. This can transform a protective boundary into a bridge for deeper connections and mutual support. 12. Making Decisions Without Input Making decisions independently can be an empowering way to assert control over your life. However, when you always make choices without seeking input from others, it can alienate those who care about you. It sends a message that you don't trust their judgment or value their opinions. Your boundary of independence can become a wall that blocks collaboration and mutual decision-making in relationships. By excluding others from your decision-making process, you miss out on diverse perspectives and ideas that could enhance your choices. It can lead to feelings of exclusion or resentment among friends and family who want to support you. Instead of making decisions in isolation, consider involving those who are affected or who care about the outcome. This approach can transform an isolating boundary into an inclusive and supportive network for decision-making. 13. Criticizing More Than Complimenting Offering constructive criticism can be a way to maintain high standards and encourage improvement. However, when criticism outweighs compliments, it can create an environment where people feel undervalued. This balance can erect a wall, making interactions tense and unwelcoming. Your boundary of encouraging excellence can morph into a barrier that discourages and demotivates others. When criticism is constant, it can overshadow positive interactions and achievements, making your relationships feel one-sided. It's important to celebrate successes and acknowledge efforts to maintain a healthy balance. Compliments can serve as a bridge, fostering an environment of appreciation and motivation. By balancing critique with genuine praise, you can maintain a boundary that encourages growth without building a wall of negativity. Solve the daily Crossword
Geeky Gadgets
22-07-2025
- Business
- Geeky Gadgets
ChatGPT Agent : The Future of Work in One Versatile AI Tool
What if you could have a single AI tool that not only writes code, generates stunning visuals, and conducts deep research but also learns and improves with every task? Enter the ChatGPT Agent, a new innovation by OpenAI that redefines what it means to work smarter. Imagine consolidating multiple apps, tools, and platforms into one seamless interface that adapts to your needs while safeguarding your data. This isn't just another AI assistant—it's a versatile powerhouse designed to streamline workflows, amplify productivity, and tackle complex challenges across industries. But with such fantastic potential comes an equally pressing question: how do we balance innovation with responsibility? In this video, Prompt Engineering explores the ChatGPT Agent's innovative capabilities, from automating programming tasks to generating AI-driven visuals and conducting in-depth research. You'll discover how this all-in-one AI worker is reshaping professional landscapes, empowering users to achieve more while navigating the ethical and security considerations that come with advanced AI tools. Whether you're a developer, researcher, or creative professional, the ChatGPT Agent offers a glimpse into the future of work—one where technology doesn't just assist but actively collaborates. As we delve deeper, you'll see how this tool can unlock new possibilities while challenging us to rethink the way we approach productivity and innovation. Overview of ChatGPT Agent Key Features and Capabilities The ChatGPT Agent distinguishes itself as a multi-functional AI system that consolidates several advanced tools into a single, user-friendly interface. This integration eliminates the need for multiple specialized applications, streamlining workflows and improving efficiency. By using reinforcement learning, the agent continuously refines its capabilities, delivering increasingly precise and effective results. Some of its standout features include: Code execution: Automates programming tasks, including debugging, script optimization, and algorithm development. Automates programming tasks, including debugging, script optimization, and algorithm development. Image generation: Produces AI-driven visuals tailored for creative projects or professional use cases. Produces AI-driven visuals tailored for creative projects or professional use cases. Deep research: Conducts thorough investigations, making it invaluable for academic studies, market analysis, or professional inquiries. These tools operate within a secure sandbox environment, making sure that all activities remain isolated from external systems. This design allows you to explore the agent's potential while safeguarding sensitive data and maintaining control over its operations. Practical Applications and Performance The ChatGPT Agent excels in a variety of professional and technical domains, often outperforming earlier AI models in terms of speed and accuracy. Its ability to analyze large datasets, generate detailed reports, and assist in tasks like competitive programming or financial modeling makes it a valuable asset in industries such as data science, investment banking, and software development. Despite its impressive capabilities, the agent is not without limitations. While it handles structured and well-defined tasks effectively, it may struggle with more nuanced or creative challenges, such as editing highly complex spreadsheets or solving abstract problems. These limitations highlight the continued importance of human expertise in areas where AI tools are less proficient. By understanding these boundaries, you can better use the agent's strengths while compensating for its weaknesses. ChatGPT Agent Overview Watch this video on YouTube. Gain further expertise in ChatGPT Agent by checking out these recommendations. Security and Ethical Considerations Security is a foundational aspect of the ChatGPT Agent's design. Operating within a sandbox environment, the system ensures that tasks are executed securely and under your direct supervision. Before accessing sensitive data or performing critical actions, the agent requires your explicit consent, giving you full control over its operations. However, the use of such advanced AI tools also introduces potential risks. Granting the agent access to private accounts or confidential information could expose vulnerabilities, especially if proper safeguards are not in place. As a user, it is essential to weigh the convenience of the agent's capabilities against the potential risks to personal or organizational data. Vigilance, informed decision-making, and adherence to best practices are critical to mitigating these risks and making sure secure usage. Ethical considerations also play a significant role in the adoption of AI technologies like the ChatGPT Agent. Issues such as data privacy, bias in AI-generated outputs, and the potential misuse of its capabilities must be carefully addressed. By using the agent responsibly and within ethical guidelines, you can maximize its benefits while minimizing potential harm. Access and Future Developments The ChatGPT Agent is available to Pro, Plus, and Teams users, with varying levels of access depending on the subscription tier. Pro users, for instance, enjoy higher message limits, allowing more extensive interactions and greater flexibility. OpenAI has also announced plans to phase out the operator tool, replacing it with standalone features like deep research, which will further enhance the agent's functionality and usability. These developments reflect a broader effort to make advanced AI tools more accessible to a diverse range of users. However, they also underscore the importance of understanding the responsibilities that come with using such powerful technologies. As AI continues to evolve, staying informed about updates and best practices will be essential for using its full potential. AI's Role in Shaping the Future The ChatGPT Agent is part of a larger trend in artificial intelligence, where systems are increasingly designed for practical, real-world applications. Competing with tools like Google's Mariner, it exemplifies the rapid pace of innovation in the AI landscape. These advancements are transforming industries by allowing faster, more efficient workflows in areas such as programming, financial analysis, and creative content generation. However, the widespread adoption of AI technologies also presents challenges. Regulatory compliance, ethical considerations, and the need for user adaptation are critical factors that must be addressed to ensure responsible use. Successfully navigating these complexities will be key to unlocking the full potential of AI tools like the ChatGPT Agent while minimizing risks and unintended consequences. Balancing Innovation with Responsibility The ChatGPT Agent offers unparalleled convenience, empowering you to tackle complex tasks with greater efficiency and precision. Its integration of advanced tools into a single platform makes it a powerful resource for professionals and organizations alike. However, this convenience comes with responsibilities. As a user, you must remain vigilant about privacy, security, and ethical considerations to ensure that the agent is used effectively and responsibly. By understanding the agent's strengths and limitations, you can make informed decisions about how to incorporate it into your workflows. This balanced approach will enable you to harness the fantastic potential of AI while safeguarding against potential risks. The ChatGPT Agent represents a significant milestone in AI development, but its true value lies in how it is used to address real-world challenges and drive meaningful progress. Media Credit: Prompt Engineering Filed Under: AI, Top News Latest Geeky Gadgets Deals Disclosure: Some of our articles include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, Geeky Gadgets may earn an affiliate commission. Learn about our Disclosure Policy.
National Post
19-07-2025
- Science
- National Post
Colby Cosh: The lifelike nature of artificial intelligence
Article content On Tuesday a Harvard artificial-intelligence researcher, Keyon Vafa, published a short tweet-thread about a new paper looking at how some types of high-performing intelligence algorithms are behaving under the hood. If you're interested in the implications of AI progress, this paper is instructive even if you don't fully understand it, and, yes, that is tantamount to a confession on my part. (And, as the old joke goes, if you're not interested in the implications of AI progress, rest assured that AI progress is interested in you.) Article content Article content For academics like Vafa and his colleagues, AI has a pervasive 'black box' issue that is part of why it inspires fear and confusion. We have learned how to make computers mimic intelligence quite convincingly, and sooner than almost anyone imagined, by applying previously unfathomable amounts of brute computing power. But our ability to understand how these thinking objects are thinking is often limited. Article content Article content If you don't understand anything at all about the Vafa paper, the thing to notice about it is that it is fundamentally experimental. The research approach is oddly like a biologist's, like somebody who studies wombats by rounding up a bunch of wombats and observing wombat behaviour. The team 'teaches' an AI algorithm to perform intellectual task X to near-perfection by giving it verbal instructions and data (in plain English), and then has to figure out 'How did it actually do that?' using statistical inference. It's the choice of task X that makes this paper most intriguing. Anybody educated enough to still be reading a newspaper probably knows the basics of how the human understanding of planetary orbits evolved. In classical antiquity, the prevailing assumption was that the planets orbited the Earth in circular paths. Well before the birth of Jesus, astronomers were already good at predicting the movements of the planets on the basis of this false model. The planets sometimes apparently move backwards in the sky, so an unmodified 'fixed Earth' + 'perfectly circular paths' model couldn't do the job on its own: to make accurate predictions, astronomers had to add other circular motions-within-motions, called 'deferents' and 'epicycles,' to the basic circular-orbit picture. Article content Article content Well, fast-forward a dozen centuries, and along come Copernicus asking 'What if Earth isn't at the centre after all?'; Kepler asking 'What if the orbits aren't circular, but elliptical?'; and Newton, who got to the bottom of the whole thing by introducing the higher-level abstraction of gravitational force. Bye-bye epicycles. Article content None of these intellectual steps, mind you, added anything to anyone's practical ability to predict planetary motions. Copernicus's model took generations to be accepted for this reason (along with the theological/metaphysical objections to the Earth not being at the centre of the universe): it wasn't ostensibly as sophisticated or as powerful as the old reliable geocentric model. But you can't get to Newton, who found that the planets and earthbound objects are governed by the same elegant and universal laws of motion, without Copernicus and Kepler. Article content Which, in 2025, raises the question: could a computer do what Newton did? Vafa's research group fed orbital data to AIs and found that they could correctly behave like ancient astronomers: make dependable extrapolations about the future movements of real planets, including the Earth. This raises the question whether the algorithms in question generate their successful orbital forecasts by somehow inferring the existence of Newtonian force-abstractions. We know that 'false,' overfitted models and heuristics can work for practical purposes, but we would like AIs to be automated Newtons if we are going to live with them. We would like AIs to discover new laws and scientific principles of very high generality and robustness that we filthy meatbags haven't noticed yet.
