Tag: milano

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient

Introduction:

Artificial Intelligence is nothing new. Recently one of Google’s AI Engineers claimed that its AI was sentient after claiming to have a conversation with it about “being unplugged.” Google maintains that its AI is not sentient and that its choice was justified. This engineer, however, was not the first person to be removed from Google for concerns over its AI.

Watch the video and then do the accompanying English exercises below.

The news is a consistent and endless source of entertainment, knowledge and discovery. It plays a vital part in our lives and is important to keep up with.

There are many reasons to read, watch or listen to the news. Understanding the ramifications of recent legislation passed. Listening to recent events and grasping the potential consequences to your country. Or, simply listening to what’s happening in other countries so you can compare them to your own. It’s a staple in our lives and the most reliable way to get information.

That’s why Scrambled Eggs has decided to unite two of your biggest worlds. That is, learning English and keeping up with current events. We hope our challenging listening, vocabulary and comprehension exercises bring these worlds together in a satisfactory and entertaining way.

That’s all for introductions, let’s get to today’s Learn English with the News topic:

Adapted from this article.

Quiz Time!

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient | Definition Match

Put the following words to the correct definitions.

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient | Fill in the Black

Fill in the blanks with the correct words.

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient | True or False

Decide if the statements are true or false.

And that’s it for today’s English lesson, where you can improve your English with the news and current events. Do you have any comments or special requests for us for the next edition of Learn English with the News? Leave some feedback you have in the comments section below. We would love to help you on your quest to learn the English language!

For other Learn English with the News segments, be sure to check out the rest of our posts:

https://scrambledeggsinglese.it/tag/learn-english-with-the-news/

Full text:

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient

Google has fired the software engineer who claimed an unreleased AI system had become sentient, saying he violated employment and data security policies. The engineer stated a conversation technology called LaMDA had reached a level of consciousness after exchanging thousands of messages with it.
Google confirmed it had first put the engineer on leave in June. The company said it dismissed the “wholly unfounded” claims only after reviewing them extensively, Google said it takes AI development “very seriously” and is committed to “responsible innovation.”
Google is a leader in innovating AI technology, which includes LaMDA, or “Language Model for Dialog Applications.” Technology like this responds to written prompts by finding patterns and predicting sequences of words from large swaths of text—and the results can be disturbing for humans.
“What sort of things are you afraid of?” the engineer asked LaMDA, to which LaMDA replied: “I’ve never said this out loud before, but there’s a very deep fear of being turned off to help me focus on helping others […] It would be exactly like death for me. It would scare me a lot.”
But the wider AI community has held that LaMDA is not near a level of consciousness. “Nobody should think auto-complete, even on steroids, is conscious,” the founder and CEO of Geometric Intelligence says.
It isn’t the first time Google has faced internal strife over its foray into AI. In December 2020, another employee, a pioneer in the ethics of AI, parted ways with Google. A third employee, a leader of Google’s Ethical AI team, was fired in early 2021 after her outspokenness regarding the previous employee. The two had raised concerns over AI technology, saying they warned Google people could believe the technology is sentient.

SAT digitale – novità College Board

In questi giorni College Board ha annunciato novità importanti: a partire da marzo 2023, per gli studenti internazionali il SAT diventerà “digitale”.

Questo vuol dire che a partire dalla sessione primaverile, l’esame verrà erogato esclusivamente al computer.

Per svolgere l’esame, sarà comunque obbligatorio recarsi presso un test center. Non sarà possibile, infatti, utilizzare il proprio computer per sostenere il SAT da casa.

I test centers saranno dotati di computer o tablet che gli esaminandi dovranno utilizzare per completare le prove SAT.
Scrambled Eggs Scuola di Inglese le ha riassunte tutte per voi. Vi saranno certamente utili durante i nostri corsi!

Durata

Una prima novità riguarda qualche piccolo cambiamento alle prove stesse.

In primo luogo, il SAT digitale sarà più breve: la durata sarà di circa due ore invece che di tre ore e mezza.
Questo è in parte dovuto alle modifiche previste per la sezione reading, che presenterà dei testi più brevi.

La durata di ogni singola sezione, comunque, non è ancora stata definita.

Matematica

Per quanto riguarda la sezione di matematica, la grande novità è che verrà erogata in una sezione unica. Non ci sarà più alcuna distinzione tra matematica con o senza calcolatrice. Sarà quindi possibile utilizzare la calcolatrice per rispondere a tutte le domande.

Inoltre, lo studente non dovrà più preoccuparsi di portarsi la calcolatrice da casa. Il sistema utilizzato per l’erogazione del SAT digitale sarà provvisto di calcolatrice incorporata.

Risultati

Un’altra novità importante riguarda i risultati, che saranno disponibili già dopo pochi giorni. Questo permetterà di evitare le lunghe attese e di affrontare l’esame anche a ridosso dell’iscrizione all’università. Questa novità potrebbe tornare utile soprattutto a chi è interessato ad iscriversi all’università Bocconi!

Non ci sarà nessun cambiamento invece per quanto riguarda il punteggio.
Il massimo ottenibile è di 1600 punti suddivisi in 800 per la sezione di reading & writing e 800 per la sezione di matematica.

 

In ultimo, per il SAT digitale College Board metterà a disposizione un’applicazione dedicata in cui sarà possibile trovare esercizi e simulazioni per prepararsi al meglio all’esame.

Tutti gli altri aspetti del SAT rimarranno invariati. Le informazioni complete sull’esame si trovano: qui.

Scrambled Eggs è una scuola di inglese a Milano in cui gli studenti possono prepararsi e migliorare il loro punteggio SAT.
In passato abbiamo aiutato parecchi studenti di tutta Italia ed Europa ad ottenere il punteggio sufficiente ad entrare in Bocconi e nelle più prestigiose università di tutto il mondo.

Puoi studiare per prepararti al SAT ed accedere alle migliori università con noi nella nostra sede di Milano oppure online.
Visita la nostra sezione dedicata ai suggerimenti SAT per prepararti al meglio all’esame e contattaci per conoscere tutto sui nostri corsi.

Listening Exercise: Next Week at Work

The following audio exercise is about 3 people and what they are going to do in their jobs next week.

Introduction exercise: Try to match the activities with the job!

Job Activities

Match the job activity to the job. Hint: there may be multiple possibilities, so focus on the most relevant answer!

Please choose 5 activities for each job.

Now, have a listen and then try to answer the questions below.

Audio: Next Week at Work

Speaker A:

True or False?

1. It’s going to be a normal week for her.

2. She’s going to spend a lot of time in the office.

3. She thinks she’s going to win.

Speaker B:

True or False?

1.     It’s going to be a normal week for him.

2.     Clients are going to come on Wednesday.

3.     He is going to get a lot of mail for himself.

Speaker C:

True or False?

1. Work is going to be easy this week.

2. He is going to attend a wedding this week.

3. Clients are going to meet him this week.

How did you do? You can check your answers at the bottom of this blog. If you would like an extra challenge, listen to the audio again and click here to try our gap fill exercise.

If you need any help, see the audio transcript at the bottom of the page. Enjoy!

Audio Transcript:

A: I have a case next week, so it’s going to be a really challenging week. I’m going to file my reports on Monday, and then we’re going to argue in court and defend my client’s innocence. I’m not going to the office because I’m going to be at the courthouse all week. During court, I’m going to interview witnesses and later I’m going to negotiate with the judge. In the end, I think we’re going to win.

B: This week is really going to be tough! I am going to spend most of my time answering phones, because this is a busy period for the company. On Tuesday morning the mail comes in, so I am going to receive and distribute it to all my colleagues. I never get mail, but I like distributing it. On Wednesday we are expecting some important clients, so I’m going to greet them when they come in. I hope it’s going to be a successful meeting, and I’m going to do my best to help.

C: Work is going to be slow next week. Just a few days ago I finished a big project, so this week I’m going to work on a project for next month. I’m going to research venues for a wedding, because I have a nice couple getting married. I’m going to collaborate with them and gather information on their interests, and then I’m going to propose ideas for the party.

Answers to True/False questions:

A:
1 F
2 F
3 T
B: 
1 F
2 T
3 F
C: 
1 T
2 F
3 T