Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 13

UAE Becomes First Region to Experiment with Using AI to Write New Laws

Here’s a fascinating statistic about the recent state of AI regulation: “at least 69 countries have proposed over 1,000 AI-related policy initiatives globally, but these primarily focus on how to control AI rather than empower it.” What could empowered AI do for the future of government? The United Arab Emirates is the first nation to test the ability for AI tools to actually create legislation. What does a future where AI writes the laws look like? For many people, this is the opening to an epi...

Should You Be Polite to Chatbots? Research Says Yes. Sam Altman Says It Costs Millions in “Wasted” Computing Power

How polite are you when you ask ChatGPT a query? According to Sam Altman, the human propensity to be nice when asking technology for solutions is “wasting millions of dollars of computing power.” Some experts aren’t so sure. One suggested that being kind “helps generate respectful, collaborative outputs,” while another noted that “when it clocks politeness, it’s more likely to be polite back.” There is plenty of social research that does show this to be the case in social media interactions betw...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: True or False by Cindy L. Otis

This wonderfully useful book written by former CIA analyst Cindy L. Otis is actually meant for young adults to teach them about how to spot fake news and become more media literate. This was what initially intrigued me about the book. Among the necessary life skills that students rarely learn in school, I think media literacy has to be near the top. So a book that promises to teach that to young people immediately deserves praise and elevation. Beyond that, though, the stories and insights i...

Inside the Marketing Savvy of the World’s Lightest Whiskey Bottle

Claiming that a product is the world’s most ___________ is the most common marketing gateway to empty hyperbole that is sure to inspire plenty of eyerolling. There’s something a bit unusual, though, about Johnnie Walker’s latest announcement. For one thing, they offer these magic three words: “what we believe” in front of their claim. They go on in their product landing page to share that “according to our research, it is also believed to be the world’s lightest 700ml Scotch Whisky glass bottle ...

Earth Day, Environmental Hostility and The Blue Marble 50 Years Later

This past week was Earth Day and one of the efforts to commemorate the day was NASA recognizing the 50th anniversary of their iconic “blue marble” photo of the Earth by releasing a similar image taken fifty years later. How did they compare?

“In the 50 years that separates these two snapshots in time, one of the most striking differences is the visible reduction in the size of the Antarctic ice sheet. The Sahara Desert has also grown while the rainforest ‘is retreating further south … the dom...

The Complex Reality of “Girlbosses” In Space

This week the first all-female crew for a “manned” spaceflight headed to space—for ten minutes—on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. One of the passengers was pop singer Katy Perry who reportedly broke into song while on the flight (What a Wonderful World) and promptly kissed the ground when she landed safely back to Earth. Again, she was gone for ten minutes. Of course, the backlash was swift and fierce, which surprised some of the passengers. People online called it everything from a publicity ...

Tattoorism and the Elusive Quest for the Ultimate Souvenir

How do you remember a trip forever? Last year there was a feature story about “the rise of tattoo tourism” and how more Millennials and Gen Zers were planning vacations around visiting famous artists around the world and coming home with the ultimate souvenir. A boutique hotel in NY opened an in-house tattoo parlor and one hotel chain even had a program where they brought celebrity tattoo artists into the hotel so you could have a more exclusive experience and get inked in style and comfort. All...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr

It is perhaps odd to describe a book as both timely and urgent when it was first published more than 15 years ago … but that’s the thing that will probably strike you first about The Shallows. The scenarios and human behaviors it describes are chillingly accurate for right now. Deservedly selected as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize when it first came out, the book was an interesting read for me this week as I turned back to some of the pages because amidst many of the dated references to innov...

The Gardens of the Future Are on Display

Sometimes a garden show is about more than stopping to smell the roses. At the upcoming Chelsea Flower Show, some of the exhibits will help imagine what the future of gardens and open spaces could be. There’s a concept ADHD Garden that features a central reflection pool and “the plant selection has been chosen to provide a subliminal effect on the senses, inducing a sense of calm and rest from an overactive mind.” Another intriguing concept is the Peace of Mind Garden where the plantings are lai...

3 Powerful Talks from TED This Week That Are Already Available Live to Watch

The TED conference took place this past week and some of the talks have already been released. While most of the year the TED social channels repackage and release talks from past events, this is the one moment when you can actually watch talks close to when they were first presented live. Going through the site and watching some of the talks, here were three that stood out as important to watch along with some of my thoughts:

How would a robot butler actually work? In this fascinating li...