1 Japan on brink of deflation (BBC) Annual core
consumer inflation in Japan, the world's third-largest economy, stopped rising
for the first time in nearly two years in February. The core consumer price
index (CPI) was flat from a year ago, stripping out the effect of last year's
sales tax increase in April. The last time the core CPI did not rise was in May
2013, when it was flat.
The latest figures are moving further away from the
Bank of Japan's (BOJ) inflation target of 2%.
Japan's economy came out of a recession in the fourth quarter of last
year, but its recovery remains fragile on sluggish household and business
spending. Economists said the data put more pressure on the central bank to
expand its monetary policy as falling oil prices keep inflation subdued.
The unemployment rate, however, fell to 3.5% in the
same time period - close to what economists see as full employment. Jasper
Koll, head of research at JP Morgan, viewed the data as "good
deflation" saying that the good news was prices in Japan were coming down
while wages were going up.
2 Worrying over a robot uprising (Marcus Gilmer in
San Francisco Chronicle) As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, it’s
no wonder that some of us are getting a little worried about just how advanced
it’s getting: when will AI outstrip our own? Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is now
expressing similar concern.
In a radio program, Musk discussed the advancements
in artificial intelligence over the years and expressed his own concern with
its growing power. Musk warned that once robots reached the stage of
“superintelligence,” they’ll simply overpower humans and keep them “like a pet
labrador if we’re lucky.”
Musk’s concerns echo those that Apple co-founder
Steve Wozniak made in a recent interview: Like people including Stephen Hawking
and Elon Musk have predicted, I agree that the future is scary and very bad for
people. If we build these devices to take care of everything for us, eventually
they’ll think faster than us and they’ll get rid of the slow humans to run
companies more efficiently.
Bill Gates expressed his concern earlier this year: I
am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence. First the machines
will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be
positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence
is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on
this and don’t understand why some people are not concerned.
Of course, the warnings require the usual grain of
salt. While expressing all those concerns, Musk seems pretty comfortable
pushing his own cars to the forefront of autonomous driving. And there are
plenty of smart people who say the fears are overblown.
3 Pilot on a suicidal mission (Khaleej Times) If the
testimony with reference to the Germanwings crash is to be believed, there
couldn’t be a more disgusting episode in the history of aviation. The very
belief that the co-pilot of the ill-fated flight wanted to deliberately destroy
the aircraft, and went ahead with his intentions, has opened a Pandora’s Box
over the scheme of things that would come under suspicion on each and every
flight.
As per stated records and bona fides available with
the German airline, Andreas Lubitz – the co-pilot, was no extremist and was a
promising professional. The biggest question, however, that should be asked is
that when the authorities kept on monitoring that there wasn’t any response
from the cockpit for more than 10 minutes, they should take extraordinary measures,
such as flying a sortie from the air force to ensure that nothing is terribly
wrong.
The findings from the Black Box, which proves that
the pilot was locked out and the co-pilot had his way till the aircraft
carrying 144 passengers and crew was doomed over the French Alps, raises
questions of security and safety in similar circumstances.
A crude question that could be posed is that if the
cockpit is taken over by hijackers or terrorists, there should be a parallel
ground contact system from the tail of the aircraft – and the crew and flight
commandoes should be aware of it. This question can lead to many discoveries
and a debate over its merits and demerits. But there is no harm in it. This
tragedy could have been avoided had there been some critical thinking
undertaken at the spot of time. Such deliberate-suicidal acts from the cabin
personnel fall in the gambit of crimes against humanity.
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