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Overall, this paper introduces novel language modelling techniques that accommodate more diverse human preferences and demonstrates the potential for LLMs to assist humans in finding common ground with those holding different views.

From DeepMind & UCL Fine-tune a 70B Parameter LM to Generate Statements Agreeable to Humans with Diverse Opinions | Synced:

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“Regardless of their nationalities, three-quarters of the smugglers live in the UK. They are happier there. They rent houses under someone else’s name and drive cars without a licence.”

From Channel crossings: People smugglers are ‘settling in Britain, renting houses and investing profits in UK businesses’ | World News | Sky News:

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n 2022, stablecoin settlements reached $7Trillion but Tether accounted for 57% of the volume settled as USDC continued to grow.
To put things in perspective, in 2022 AMEX processed $1 trillion, Mastercard $2.2 Trillion and VISA $12Trillion. Already, Stablecoins have settled on-chain more than the Mastercard, American Express, and Discover networks.

From Stablecoin Showdown: The USD-Pegged Battlefield | by Efi Pylarinou | Feb, 2023 | Medium:

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In prime position in the charismatic church of St Helen’s Bishopsgate lie the remains of Sir Thomas Gresham, one of the most influential and enigmatic figures the City of London has ever produced.

Gresham, who lived from roughly 1519 until 1579, was hugely rich, with a palatial home in Bishopsgate where Tower 42 is today, yet he died heavily in debt. The story of his grave just about sums him up. Gresham manoeuvred to have his tomb located in what was his home parish church by promising an endowment to build a steeple – a promise Professor John Guy, one of his recent biographers, says “he never made good”.

From Vic Keegan: Sir Thomas Gresham, the City’s first “true wizard” of global finance – OnLondon:

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This is hardly a new perspective. Back in 2019, the security expert Brian Krebs put it plainly: Phone numbers stink for security and authentication. They stink because most of us have so much invested in these digits that they’ve become de facto identities. At the same time, when you lose control over a phone number — maybe it’s hijacked by fraudsters, you got separated or divorced, or you were way late on your phone bill payments — whoever inherits that number can then be you in a lot of places online.

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Tom Burton
Government editor
Feb 23, 2023 – 5.56pm

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Finance Minister Katy Gallagher is expected to advise state and territory digital ministers on Friday that the Commonwealth wants digital identity legislation to be introduced by the end of the year after the Albanese government pressed the go button on a national system.

From Federal government presses go for new digital identity system:

 

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Faroohar’s point is not new, but is told with unusual clarity and it comes at the right time. It is that the West should abandon globalization. Instead of it, the West should revert to trade blocs, in this case created between the nations sharing certain political values and geopolitical interests. It should use “friend-shoring”, the new term invented by Chrystia Freeland, the Canadian vice-Premier, whose recent talk at the Brookings Institution in Washington is quoted with approval by Rana Faroohar.

From Let’s go back to mercantilism and trade blocs!:

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The Federal Reserve always orders more 1-cent coins than any other denomination even though the latest available data shows that it costs the Mint 2.72 cents to make and distribute each one. Given that the Mint made 485.2 million Lincoln cents in January (representing 40% of the circulating-quality coins made in the month) that means that it made a loss of 485 * (2.72 – 1) cents. Or, to put it another way, the US Mint lost more than $8m making pointless coins that people throw in the trash because they can’t be bothered to count them up.

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As if the dual currency exchange is not enough to contend with, Argentina has around 15 different exchange rates, including a “soy dollar” for soy exports, a “Qatar dollar” for Argentine tourists travelling to the World Cup last year, and even the “Coldplay dollar”, a special exchange rate for paying foreign entertainers that made a name for itself when the band had a string of sellout concerts last year.

From Argentina diary: ‘Come armed with $100 bills’ | Financial Times:

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Closed loop payment systems are now a viable strategy for an increasing number of businesses.

That said, it’s still not easy to start a new closed loop payment system. Most of the companies exploring this are already at significant scale and are knitting together large pre-existing merchant and consumer user bases. For example, Square’s Cash App Pay connects Cash App’s ~50M+ consumers and Square’s ~5M+ merchants.

From Interchange is a burning platform – by Matt Brown:

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