~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (532)

1. David Brooks on AI (NYT).  And a new AI tool for diagnosis.  And what to do when you have to make a phone call in your second language.  And connect Chat to your 3-D printer.  And claims about Bing (speculative and unconfirmed).  And Google might activate? 2. On the military potential of balloons. 3. […] The post Friday assorted links appeared first on...

I will be doing a Conversation with him.  No need to suggest questions on foreign policy (this is the Conversation I want to have), what else? The post What should I ask Noam Chomsky? appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Bill Benzon. Did you know Einstein or Newton? ... by Big BuckIn reply to Michael Stack. What if living a nomadic...

The Canadian government has said it will stop issuing real return bonds, i.e. inflation indexed bonds. Real return bonds are extremely useful to anyone who wants a steady stream of income that keeps up with inflation—retirees, for example. A real return bond would also be ideal for funding an endowment such as a university chair […] The post Real Return Bonds–Not a Loony Idea...

Worth another link!  Here is one bit: In my opinion, the first priority for a Caribbean think tank or program should be to advocate for the implementation of dollarization, which involves the replacement of all existing Caribbean currencies with the United States Dollar (USD) as the sole currency. This idea is based on the numerous […] The post Rasheed Griffith on the need for...

One dialogue that is missing from the current GPT conversations is about where these technologies will be primarily implemented. There are two places GPTs can be used: Product-level: Implemented within products that companies buy Process-level: Implemented within processes of a company by an analyst – similar to how companies use data analysts today If the […] The post Where will the impact of ChatGPT...

This is pretty crazy: decades of computers and video games and the #1 game going viral is still chess. The Lindy effect is real. https://t.co/CYC3OMjMo5 — Nabeel Qureshi (@nabeelqu) February 2, 2023 Here is my 2018 Bloomberg column on chess being a killer app for the internet and due for a boom.  I think people […] The post Prophets of the Marginal Revolution, chess...

1. ChatGPT Plus now to sell for $20 a month, not $40 a month.  I view that as the result of high demand, not low demand (ever look at the book market and its prices).  And new LLM app for lawyers to use for contract review.  And David Rozado on ChatGPT moderation systems, tweet storm […] The post Thursday assorted links appeared first on...

The author is Philip J. Stern, and the subtitle is The Corporations that Built British Colonialism.  Too many history books run through various motions, whereas this one tries to explain “how things really were” for the interested reader. Here is one representative bit: As great as its ambitions were, at its origins the East India […] The post *Empire, Incorporated* appeared first on Marginal...

It is not the most likely scenario, but is nonetheless worth a ponder, as I outlined in my latest Bloomberg column: Consider a simple scenario involving output and money, much of which takes the form of credit expansion by banks and other intermediaries. In a well-functioning economy, money and output grow at roughly the same […] The post Is there any reheating scenario? appeared...

ChatGPT, the popular chatbot from OpenAI, is estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users in January, just two months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, according to a UBS study on Wednesday. Here is the full article, via Steven Kaufman. The post That was then, this is now appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Sandro....

Development stars of the Era of Globalization: pic.twitter.com/8VOKPpFTSA — Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 (@Noahpinion) January 27, 2023 And of course all be getting Noah Smith’s Substack… The post Recent economic development stars appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to JWatts. When was the last time China's military ... by Hazel MeadeWhy no measures of dispersion in the data? by rsmIn reply to mkt42....

I mentioned that a short while ago, and a few people wrote and asked me to explain.  The answer is simple: I have the Vietnam War and Pentagon Papers as formative political memories.  In those days, it was simply taken for granted that the government twisted the arm of news media.  It also never stopped, […] The post Why was I bored by the...

1. Massachusetts markets in everything? 2. When a class is turned into a dating device.  Solve for the equilibrium. 3. Start-up seeks to simplify and speed up drug trials (NYT). 4. Watch planets in orbit around another star. 5. Now that we have a longer-run perspective, it is worth reexamining the myth of austerity in […] The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on...

Staking income from tokens should not be taxed. Since staking income is generated by inflation it doesn’t create new wealth but simply lowers the total value of the token. Thus staking income is really just a transfer from non-stakers to stakers. Abraham Sutherland covers the law and the economics in Phantom Income and the Taxation of […] The post Staking “Income” Should Not be Taxed...

Who or what has superintelligence manipulating humans right now?  Babies and dogs are the obvious answers, cats for some.  Sex is a topic for another day. Let’s take dogs — how do they do it?  They co-evolved with humans, and they induced humans to be fond of them.  We put a lot of resources into […] The post The canine model of AGI appeared...

1. You use the word “token” more than you ought to, for reasons that have nothing to do with crypto. 2. If a friend says something incorrect, you tell them they are “hallucinating.” 3. You phrase your google queries like GPT queries, for instance using question marks. 4. “Please say more” is your new mantra.  […] The post Signs of encroaching mental GPT-dom appeared...

1. The Steph Curry practice story. 2. Forthcoming metascience event at AEI with myself, Heidi Williams, others.  And Cato job opportunities, including editing their new on-line magazine in the works. 3. The great Barett Strong has passed away, RIP. 4. International trade, value chains, and Austrian business cycle theory. 5. Russ Roberts on Jewish prayer. […] The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on...

International travel to the United States is well below pre-pandemic levels, hurting our tourism industries, and embarrassingly long times to get a visitor visa are probably part of the problem. Hat tip: Alec Stapp. The post Fewer Visitors to the US appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Nicolás. The Spanish travel visa free to the US, ... by HorheIn reply to...

Bryan Caplan asked me to read this book, and Alex Epstein was kind enough to provide me with a copy of it.  The subtitle is Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas — Not Less. My overall view is this: it is a good rebuttal to “the unrealistic ones,” who don’t […] The post Alex Epstein’s *Fossil Future* appeared first...

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. labor force participation declined significantly in 2020, slowly recovering in 2021 and 2022 — this has been referred to as the Great Resignation. The decline has been concentrated among older Americans. By 2022, the labor force participation of workers in their prime returned to its 2019 level, while older workers’ […] The post Did the Covid housing boom induce...

Here is one take from Nicola Morini Bianzino, written up by Sharon Goldman: “Knowledge companies tend to store knowledge in a very flat, two-dimensional way that makes it difficult to access, interact and have a dialogue with,” he told VentureBeat in an interview. “We tried 20, 30, 40 years ago to build expert systems. That […] The post Commercial applications for ChatGPT appeared first...

1. How children influence parents. 2. Do the Berman amendments prevent a TikTok ban? (WSJ) 3. Signature markets in everything. 4. Hypergamy in Norway yes. 5. Have CBO projections been too optimistic or too pessimistic? 6. Baidu to launch a ChatGPT-style service in March (Bloomberg). 7. A wearable cardiac ultrasound imager. The post Monday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsNice if...

On Christmas morning, Scarlett Doumato took a break from playing with her new toys, marched into the kitchen, returned with plastic bags and started collecting evidence — the half-eaten Oreo and a pair of munched-on carrots she’d left for Santa and his reindeer the night before. Scarlett, a 10-year-old from Cumberland, R.I., could see teeth […] The post This is actually quite a common...

Yale researchers have found that testing for the presence of a single immune system molecule on nasal swabs can help detect stealthy viruses not identified in standard tests, they report Jan. 1 in the journal Lancet Microbe. “Finding a dangerous new virus is like searching for a needle in a haystack,” said Ellen Foxman, associate professor of […] The post A possible health surveillance breakthrough appeared...