A library of snippets
xxx
Peter Scarfe and colleagues submitted AI-written answers to an online exam for a psychology course at a major British university. They found that 94% of the AI-written answers went undetected, and that the AI-written answers were awarded grades half a grade-boundary higher than those written by human students.
xxx
xxx
John Cairns, 61, of Huddersfield lost £3,250 after seeing a Facebook video purporting to be Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, advising people to invest in a new AI trading platform.
xxx
xxx
But while much of the discussion so far has been about getting work out of AI, some writers are wondering how they can get their work into AI — in the hopes of influencing what it has to say.
Take a post on LinkedIn by Ken Mandel, a marketing executive at transport and payments app Grab, that made the rounds last week:
“For over a century, advertising has been about human attention,” he wrote. But that changes if AIs, not humans, make purchasing decisions. If an AI agent is the one picking out your groceries for you, who does a marketer need to convince?
“In a world where agents (not humans) interact with brands, the game shifts from advertising to AI influence and optimisation,” Mandel mused. “Brands must ‘train’ AI agents to prefer their products in natural decision-making.”
xxx
xxx
The shipments are also the result of higher prices on the futures exchange in New York than in the cash market in London. The unusual arbitrage opportunity has incentivised traders to send the metal across the Atlantic.
From: Gold stockpiling in New York leads to London shortage.
xxx
xxx
resident Donald Trump announced Sunday that he has instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to halt the production of pennies, citing the high cost of producing one cent.
From: Trump instructs Treasury to halt penny production | CNN Business.
xxx
xxx
The wait to withdraw bullion stored in the Bank of England’s vaults has risen from a few days to between four and eight weeks, according to people familiar with the process, as the central bank struggles to keep up with demand.
From: Gold stockpiling in New York leads to London shortage.
xxx
xxx
Gold can’t go directly to the US from the London Bank of England vaults, because the bars stored there are usually 400-ounce, whereas NY delivery needs to be in 100-ounce or kilobars. So, London bullion is melted down and recast, often in Switzerland, and then loaded onto planes for the US. Gold exports from Switzerland to the US jumped in January to the highest level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The need to recast the bars is not the only friction. There are also insurance limits on how much gold can be carried per flight.
xxx
xxx
PYMNTS Intelligence research also found that a significant share of consumers are eager for VR to replicate the experience of brick-and-mortar shopping. Specifically, among the 95% of consumers who own or have access to at least one internet-connected device, one-third expressed a high level of interest in using VR technology to shop and buy retail products available in physical stores from their home or office.
From: How Big Tech’s XR Push Could Redefine Both Payments and AI.
xxx
xxx
On Thursday (Dec. 12), Google introduced a new Android operating system (OS) built for extended reality (XR) devices like headsets and glasses, citing “years of investment” that will “transform how you watch, work and explore.”
Extended reality (XR) — an umbrella term encompassing virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) — continues to redefine how digital and physical worlds interact.
Google’s XR OS was created in collaboration with Samsung and will first launch on headsets built by Samsung code-named “Project Moohan,” taken from the Korean word for “infinite.”
Project Moohan joins the ranks of multiple XR headsets already available to consumers and businesses, such as Meta’s Quest 3 headset and Orion augmented reality (AR) glasses, the Apple Vision Pro headset and other products such as the XREAL Air AR glasses.
On a fundamental level, the XR landscape presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for payments innovation. XR applications in gaming, eCommerce, healthcare, education, the workplace and beyond will all demand seamless and secure payment solutions that match the promise of these technologies.
From: How Big Tech’s XR Push Could Redefine Both Payments and AI.
xxx
xxx
In a February 5 post on X, Stripe co-founder and CEO Patrick Collison wrote: “We expected Bridge (go follow them at @stablecoin) to grow very quickly, and we’re nevertheless shocked at just how rapidly adoption is exploding. In the coming years, everyone programmatically moving money will likely want a stablecoin strategy.”
From: Stripe makes $1.1B crypto bet as it closes on Bridge acquisition | TechCrunch.
xxx
Snippings