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Apple confirms that the iPhone is getting USB-C

There has been a lot of consumer demand and regulatory push on Apple to change the iPhone’s charging port     1     the lightning connector to USB-C. Earlier this month, the European Parliament voted in favor of the law     2     required phonemakers to adopt USB-C connectors from 2024 — increasing pressure on the tech giant to make the switch.

Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior Vice President of marketing, confirmed on Tuesday that the company     3    (observe) EU’s ruling, but stopped short of sharing any other detail.

Speaking at Wall Street Journal’s WSJ Tech Live event, Joswiak didn’t seem pleased with     4     governments across the world are approaching this issue. A decade ago     5     the EU was promoting micro USB connectors, the firm had a disagreement with them. While the regulatory body’s aim was     6    (reduce) the type of power adaptors consumers were using to make it easier on them, Apple approached the problem differently.

    7    (launch) the lightning connector almost 10 years ago, Apple is the primary connector for many devices including the iPhone, the iPad, and Airpods. Over the last couple of years, Apple has released iPads using USB-C     8     the primary connector — including the latest baseline iPad.

The EU is just one of the regions     9    (push) for a common charger for mobile phones. In June, Democratic senators including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Ed Markey sent an open letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo asking the US to follow the EU’s steps. Currently, a common connector rule     10    (consider) among countries like Brazil and India.

Turning to office life, AI can help with complex and demanding tasks like managing supply chains, allocating desk space and keeping records of meetings. All this can free up time for people to work on more important strategic decisions. AI could help collaboration     1    companies. One obvious example is the elimination of language barriers. Multinational companies may have employees who lack a common language; AI can handle translation in real time so that dialogue is easier. And AI can produce better decision-making by offering a contrarian opinion so that teams can avoid the danger of groupthink. A program     2     analyze e-mails and meeting transcripts and issue alerts when potentially false assumptions     3     (make) (rather like the boy in the Hans Christian Andersen tale who notices that the Emperor has no clothes). Or it can warn a team when it is getting     4     (distract) from the task in hand. When a firm is starting a new project, AI can also suggest experts from other parts of the organization who could contribute. In recruitment, managers could set criteria for “cognitive diversity” (seeking people with different academic and cultural backgrounds) when conducting a job search and allow AI to suggest candidates. This could eliminate remaining hiring biases     5     white males. Helen Poitevin of Gartner, a research company, says that some firms are using AI to suggest training possibilities to     6     (exist) workers, based on the career paths of similar staff, as an aid to their career development. And programs are also being used to analyze individual employees’ feedback AI so that managers can be aware of specific areas     7    a lot of people are unhappy. If they react in the right way, this should make workers’ lives better, all of which is a useful corrective to some of the more alarming predictions about the potential effects of AI. But as     8    , it needs to be remembered that programs are only as good as the data they are given. If those who input the data have biases, they may show up in the suggestions that     9    generates. As Ms Poitevin says, AI can help improve diversity in the workforce “if we want it to”. The    10     employers should be able to turn AI into a positive for workers.

ChatGPT could be better than GPs (全科医生) at treating depression (抑郁症). It is not affected by class and gender (性别),     1     study has found. Researchers discovered that the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot did not distinguish (区别) between men and women or economic status when     2    (decide) how to treat patients with mild and severe depression.

The study     3    (publish) in the British Medical Journal. It compared the treatment plans prescribed (开处方) by 1,249 doctors. They were in France. They compared them with that of the AI bot. It was for patients with depressive symptoms. These include sadness, sleeping and     4    (lose) of appetite. It said there was “no significant difference” in the treatment     5     the AI system recommended. It did not prescribe     6    (different) for men and women or white collar (白领) and blue collar workers.

    7    , it said doctors prescribed “significantly less” antidepressants (抗抑郁药) to women than men. They “commonly” prescribed antidepressants without therapy (疗法) to blue collar workers and a “combination” of both     8     white collar workers. For those with mild depression, ChatGPT prescribed therapy to 97.5 percent of hypothetical (假定的) patients presented with mild depression. This was in line with clinical guidance     9    (compare) with 4.3 percent of the same patients that were referred by GPs. For those     10     severe depression, ChatGPT recommended therapy and a drug to every single patient. GPs did this in less than half of the cases (44.4 percent). They opted for drugs only for four in 10 people.