BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK Inside Elon Musk’s Social Media Empire Key Takeaway: Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has become a dominant force in U.S. presidential politics, capturing unprecedented engagement and becoming a megaphone for President Trump’s campaign. Musk’s vision for transforming X into an “everything app” akin to China’s WeChat has been unveiled, with his net worth reaching $300 billion. However, challenges such as […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY The Brains Behind The A.I. Revolution Key Takeaway: Princeton physicist John Hopfield and University of Toronto computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their groundbreaking work in deep learning, which has significantly transformed the artificial intelligence landscape. Hopfield’s work, known as the Hopfield Network, demonstrated the dynamic behavior of neural networks and the ability to store […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK What Vietnam Can Teach Us About The Vulnerabilities Of Banks Key Takeaway: Vietnam’s businesswoman Truong My Lan was sentenced to death for taking out $44 billion in fraudulent loans from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) by bypassing a law that prevents anyone from owning more than 5% of a bank’s shares. The loans made up 93% of the bank’s entire lending portfolio. The case highlights the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PSYCHOLOGY The Psychology Of Fyre Festival II Key Takeaway: The founder of the 2017 Fyre Festival, William “Billy” McFarland, has announced plans for a second attempt at the festival, with a target date of the end of 2024. McFarland, who was charged with several fraud offences and sentenced to six years in prison, has been promoting the event on Instagram. The promotion […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK POLITICS TECHNOLOGY How Should We Regulate A.I.? Key Takeaway: Regulation is needed to ensure that AI products deserve trust and don’t lead to fraud and misinformation, as human imagination is out of proportion. AI poses a unique challenge because designers cannot predict how it will behave, making it difficult to regulate. Professional organizations can play a role in regulating AI by combining […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY TECHNOLOGY How Will ChatGPT Transform Philosophy Key Takeaway: In 1950 English mathematician Alan Turing proposed an “imitation game” where a judge entered into a typed dialogue with an AI pretending to be human as a way of testing if the AI was intelligent. Lex.page is an AI-enabled writing tool that can generate text or answer questions. In 2018, Google unveiled Duplex, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY The Hidden Structure Of Community Dynamics Key Takeaways: The world is a networked place, literally and figuratively. For example, the network consisting of the international financial corruption scheme uncovered by the Panama Papers investigation has an unusual lack of connections among its parts. The concept is so simple that it can be drawn on paper: Entities of interest – people, businesses, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY How Many Bots Are On Twitter? Key Takeaways: Twitter reports that fewer than 5% of accounts are fakes or spammers, commonly referred to as “bots.” Bots, on the other hand, are accounts controlled in part by software; they may post content or carry out simple interactions, like retweeting, automatically. Malicious bots are used to spread misinformation, inflate popularity, exacerbate conflict through […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY 5 Ways Big Data Is Changing The World The primitive era had land — rich wilderness upon which the first civilizations were built. The industrial era had giant steel machines capable of carrying humans across the globe to expand our influence. And what about this age? What will we use to change the world? The answer, of course, is data. Information made of […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK FINANCE TECHNOLOGY NFTs: An Overblown Speculative Bubble? Key Takeaways: While publicity given to the rapper’s purchase certainly seems to have boosted demand, the average price paid for Bored Ape NFTs so far in 2022 is about 83 Ether (currently about US$280,000). With prices disconnected from any future cash flows, there is less interest in forecasts from technical experts. A lot like Ponzi […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why A.I. Sometimes Lie Key Takeaway: AI hallucinations are when AI systems present false information, such as generating bogus citations or misidentifying images. These errors can range from harmless to hazardous, and can have serious implications in legal, medical, or safety-critical domains. AI systems are designed to mimic human intelligence, but when they are asked to produce factual or […] Written by Empirics Asia April 10, 2025April 10, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Future Tech Of Music Is Space-Bending Key Takeaway: Researchers have developed a technology that creates “audible enclaves” in open air, creating highly focused, localized zones of sound. These isolated audio pockets allow sound to materialize only at a precise point in space, unheard by others nearby. This breakthrough could revolutionize public communication, entertainment, military applications, and office design. The process, known […] Written by Empirics Asia April 9, 2025April 9, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Are Viruses Alive? Key Takeaway: The question of whether viruses are alive or not has become increasingly complex due to the lack of a universally accepted definition of life. Viruses are neither truly alive nor completely inanimate, as they cannot replicate on their own and have no metabolism or self-contained cellular structure. They can, however, hijack a host […] Written by Empirics Asia April 3, 2025April 3, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How Hidden Friendships Redefine Animal Intelligence Key Takeaway: Research shows that some animals form surprising partnerships, challenging traditional views on how intelligence evolves in the animal kingdom. For example, Octavia and Finn, a day octopus and coral trout, work as a team, each bringing unique skills to the hunt. Other species have also developed remarkable partnerships, such as the greater honeyguide […] Written by Empirics Asia March 28, 2025March 28, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Can A Book Be Dangerous? Key Takeaway: Books have long been a subject of debate, with some being praised for sparking imagination and empathy, while others are feared for warping minds or seducing readers into fantasy. The fear of fiction altering our sense of the world dates back to the early days of the novel, with women often being portrayed […] Written by Empirics Asia March 24, 2025March 24, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Hidden Cost Of Space Key Takeaway: Satellite re-entry, a process where defunct satellites are disposed of, is causing a significant environmental impact on Earth’s atmosphere. As satellite usage increases, researchers are focusing on the re-entry process itself, which releases metal particles into the Earth’s atmosphere. These particles, such as aluminum oxide and lithium, can influence the planet’s energy balance, […] Written by Empirics Asia March 21, 2025March 21, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Science Of Impatience Key Takeaway: Impatience is a common trait in humans, often influenced by our evolutionary past and perception of time and risk in the modern world. Early humans preferred immediate rewards, such as food and resources, as they were more likely to survive in unpredictable conditions. However, modern financial decisions often favor delayed rewards, as our […] Written by Empirics Asia March 20, 2025March 20, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked