Snippings

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Open AI is at 10 exaflops right now vs. 1000 for the human brain.  Probably going to equalize in five years.

From One look at our future – Marginal REVOLUTION.

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Although the financial services sector has grown over recent decades, it employs the same number of people and a smaller proportion of the UK workforce than it did 30 years ago (Hutton, 2022).

The industry has been a big adopter of new technology, with the result that it can produce more output with less labour. This means that financial services have one of the highest levels of labour productivity of any sector in the UK.

From How important is the City to the UK economy? – Economics Observatory:

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$4B OneCoin scam co-founder pleads guilty, faces 60 years jail

From $4B OneCoin scam co-founder pleads guilty, faces 60 years jail.

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Meanwhile, research just published by LINK shows nearly half (45%) of people have been somewhere where cash has not been accepted, or has been discouraged. In the past eight weeks, the locations where cash acceptance has been the most limited has been car parks, cafes and restaurants as well as on public transport.

With more consumers preferring to pay using contactless cards and digital payments, 47% of those affected said this caused them no inconvenience. However, 49% said being unable or being discouraged to pay in cash was inconvenient.

In terms of parts of the country where people have experienced instances of a lack of cash acceptance, perhaps unsurprisingly, London came out top as a location (55%).

From Ending the malign practice of push payment fraud:

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A sign says facial recognition is used as a security measure to ensure safety for guests and employees. Conlon says she posed no threat, but the guards still kicked her out with the explanation that they knew she was an attorney.

“They knew my name before I told them. They knew the firm I was associated with before I told them. And they told me I was not allowed to be there,” said Conlon.

Conlon is an associate with the New Jersey based law firm, Davis, Saperstein and Solomon, which for years has been involved in personal injury litigation against a restaurant venue now under the umbrella of MSG Entertainment.

“I don’t practice in New York. I’m not an attorney that works on any cases against MSG,” said Conlon.

But MSG said she was banned nonetheless — along with fellow attorneys in that firm and others.

“MSG instituted a straightforward policy that precludes attorneys pursuing active litigation against the Company from attending events at our venues until that litigation has been resolved.

From MSG’s Facial Recognition at Radio City Gets Girl Scout Mom Kicked Out – NBC New York:

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“The new Checkout.com-enabled SmartShop functionality will allow customers to pay for their shopping without having to visit a till. Instead, they will pay on-the-go via the Sainsbury’s SmartShop app on their smartphones, saving them time and creating a more flexible shopping experience.”

From Checkout.com lands major paytech deal with Sainsbury’s:

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Telling users to ‘avoid clicking bad links’ still isn’t working
Why organisations should avoid ‘blame and fear’, and instead use technical measures to manage the threat from phishing.

From Telling users to ‘avoid clicking bad links’ still isn’t… – NCSC.GOV.UK:

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Wells Fargo WFC 0.59%increase; green up pointing triangle & Co. reached a $3.7 billion deal with regulators to resolve allegations that its actions harmed over 16 million consumers.

The settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau includes a $1.7 billion penalty and over $2 billion in consumer restitution, the regulatory agency said Tuesday.

From Wells Fargo Reaches $3.7 Billion Deal With Regulators Over Consumer Banking – WSJ:

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General Sir Jim Hockenhull KBE ADC Gen, the U.K.’s Chief of Defence Intelligence a

Open source has also proved to be a force multiplier,

From How open-source intelligence has shaped the Russia-Ukraine war – GOV.UK.

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However, compared with investors in traditional investment accounts, the median crypto user is more likely to come from lower rungs of the income ladder and is more likely to be young and male. Crypto-assets may therefore merit a differentiated policy approach—compared with the existing architecture for traditional markets (e.g., stocks and bonds)—to effectively protect investors and the economy.

From The Dynamics and Demographics of U.S. Household Crypto-Asset Use.

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