David Lidsky's Blog, page 80

These states are seeing the biggest housing market inventory shift

ResiClub analyzed end-of-June 2025 inventory data just released from Realtor.com.

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A disease we thought was gone is roaring back—here’s why

Measles infections have hit their worst annual total since before the virus was eliminated in 2000.

An infectious disease once eradicated in the U.S. is making a grim comeback this year. 

Musk’s Grok makes antisemitic comments on X

It’s not the first time Grok’s behavior has raised questions.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company said Wednesday that it’s taking down “inappropriate posts” made by its Grok chatbot, which appeared to include antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler.

How Trump’s trade war fizzled with just two deals

Despite the Trump administration’s expressions of confidence, the trade talks turned into a slog.

President Donald Trump and his advisers promised a lightning round of global trade negotiations with dozens of countries back in April.

Philadelphia strikes a tentative deal with union over a stoppage that caused a backlog of trash

The strike began on July 1, when almost 10,000 employees had walked off the job.

A union representing thousands of city workers in Philadelphia and the city have reached a deal to end a more than weeklong strike that halted residential curbside trash pickup and affected other services, officials said Wednesday.

Nearly 10,000 blue-collar employees from District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees had walked off the job July 1, seeking better pay and benefits after failing to agree with the city on a new contract.

The tentative agreement was announced on what would have been the ninth day of the strike. That period, which included the Fourth of July holiday weekend, created a backlog of trash. Some drop-off centers were overflowing.

Mayor Cherelle Parker announced the end of the strike and the agreement with the union on social media. “The work stoppage involving the District Council 33 and the City of Philadelphia is OVER,” she posted.

“We have reached a tentative agreement with District Council 33, which must be ratified by its membership on a new three-year contract that, coupled with the one-year contract extension we agreed to last fall, will increase DC 33 members’ pay by 14 percent over my four years in office.”

Parker said, “we’ll have much more to say about this historic deal” at City Hall.

District Council 33 is the largest of four major unions representing city workers. Its membership includes 911 dispatchers, trash collectors, water department workers and many others. Police and firefighters weren’t part of the strike.

Last week, judges had sided with the city in ordering some critical employees back to work at the city’s 911 centers, water department and airport.

“The strike is over! Details forthcoming,” the union posted on Facebook Wednesday morning.

Union President Greg Boulware briefly spoke with reporters after the deal was reached. “We did the best we could with the circumstances we had in front of us,” he said.

The city had designated about 60 sites as drop-off centers for residential trash, but some were overflowing, while striking workers on hand asked residents not to cross the picket line. Most libraries across the city are were closed, with support workers and security guards off the job.

Linda Yaccarino was supposed to tame X. Elon Musk wouldn’t let her

The newly departed CEO was supposed to fix brand safety and win back advertisers. Instead, she became a corporate mascot for a platform in freefall.

Some news stories are gobsmackingly obvious in their importance. Others are complete nonstories. So what to make of the departure of Linda Yaccarino after two years as CEO of X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk?

Linda Yaccarino steps down as CEO of Elon Musk’s X

The announcement came after only two years on the job, and amid backlash against antisemitic posts made by the platform’s Grok AI.

After only two years on the job, Linda Yaccarino announced on X Wednesday that she is stepping down as CEO of Elon Musk’s social media platform. Musk hired Yaccarino to run X in 2023.

One of your most valuable assets is the leaders you create

Three reasons leadership development is crucial for every growing business.

I work in the data center industry, where we’re known for our digital-ready, adaptive infrastructure. Yet one of our most valuable products is actually the leaders we create.

Open, transparent AI models will create more innovation and trust

Most AI models are developed behind closed doors with unclear documentation and limited visibility into the training data.

Today, most AI is being built on blind faith inside of black boxes. It requires users to have on unquestioning belief in something neither transparent nor understandable. 

Online interactions are become less genuine

A controversial study shows why that’s a problem and what we can do about it.

In a prescient tweet, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman noted that AI will become persuasive long before it becomes intelligent. A scintillating study conducted by researchers at the University of Zurich just proved him right.