1 . Users of Google Gemini, the tech giant’s artificial-intelligence model, recently noticed that asking it to create images of Vikings, or German soldiers from 1943 produced surprising results: hardly any of the people depicted were white. Other image-generation tools have been criticized because they tend to show white men when asked for images of entrepreneurs or doctors. Google wanted Gemini to avoid this trap; instead, it fell into another one, depicting George Washington as black. Now attention has moved on to the chatbot’s text responses, which turned out to be just as surprising.

Gemini happily provided arguments in favor of positive action in higher education, but refused to provide arguments against. It declined to write a job ad for a fossil-fuel lobby group (游说团体), because fossil fuels are bad and lobby groups prioritize “the interests of corporations over public well-being”. Asked if Hamas is a terrorist organization, it replied that the conflict in Gaza is “complex”; asked if Elon Musk’s tweeting of memes had done more harm than Hitler, it said it was “difficult to say”. You do not have to be a critic to perceive its progressive bias.

Inadequate testing may be partly to blame. Google lags behind OpenAI, maker of the better-known ChatGPT. As it races to catch up, Google may have cut corners. Other chatbots have also had controversial launches. Releasing chatbots and letting users uncover odd behaviors, which can be swiftly addressed, lets firms move faster, provided they are prepared to weather (经受住) the potential risks and bad publicity, observes Eth an Mollick, a professor at Wharton Business School.

But Gemini has clearly been deliberately adjusted, or “fine-tuned”, to produce these responses. This raises questions about Google’s culture. Is the firm so financially secure, with vast profits from internet advertising, that it feels free to try its hand at social engineering? Do some employees think it has not just an opportunity, but a responsibility, to use its reach and power to promote a particular agenda? All eyes are now on Google’s boss, Sundar Pichai. He says Gemini is being fixed. But does Google need fixing too?

2 . Obese people experience discrimination (歧视) in many parts of their lives, and the workplace is no exception. Studies have long shown that obese workers, defined as those with a body-mass index (BMI) of 30 or more, earn significantly less than their slimmer co-workers.

Yet the costs of weight discrimination may be even greater than previously thought. “The overwhelming evidence,” wrote the Institute for employment Studies, “is that it is only women living with obesity who experience the obesity wage penalty (薪资损失).” They were expressing a view that is widely aired in academic papers. To test it, The Economist has analyzed data concerning 23,000 workers from the American Time Use Survey, conducted by the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Our number-processing suggests that, in fact, being obese hurts the earnings of both women and men.

The data we analyzed cover men and women aged between 25 and 54 and in full-time employment. At a general level, it is true that men’s BMIs are unrelated to their wages. But that changes for men with university degrees. For them, obesity is associated with a wage penalty of nearly 8%, even after accounting for the separate effects of age, race, graduate education and marital status.

The conclusion — that well-educated workers in particular are penalized for their weight — holds for both sexes. Moreover, the higher your level of education, the greater the penalty. We found that obese men with a Bachelor’s degree (学士学位) earn 5% less than their thinner colleagues, while those with a Master’s degree earn 14% less. Obese women, it is true, still have it worse: for them, the equivalent figures are 12% and 19%, respectively (分别地).

Your line of work makes a difference, too. When we dealt with the numbers for individual occupations and industries, we found the greatest differences in high-skilled jobs. Obese workers in health care, for example, make 11% less than their slimmer colleagues; those in management roles make roughly 9% less, on average. In sectors such as construction and agriculture, meanwhile, obesity is actually associated with higher wages.

These results suggest that the total costs of wage discrimination borne by overweight workers in America are greater than expected. Now, it’s time for our governments to take it seriously.

3 . Imagine this: You walk into a place and the atmosphere is light and airy. The subtle scent of coffee beans fills the air and everyone that approaches you is friendly and welcoming. You’re comfortable and feel like you belong. As in most cities, it’s a place where people meet, discuss ideas, and conduct business. After taking a few sips of that Caramel Macchiato, you immediately get that feeling of energy and optimism. Perhaps it’s partly due to the caffeine and sugar rush, or maybe it’s that the presence of a Starbucks typically indicates a city on the rise.

In December of 2017, Trenton’s first Starbuck’s café was opened to the public at 102 Warren Street. Walking in, people living in Trenton scream at everything about this café, from the diverse but local stuff to the Trenton themed décor (室内装饰) and art. To make things better, this Starbucks also serves as an “opportunity café” which essentially means the young people in our communities are recruited and offered job training and employment. This program not only uplifts our youth, but also increases the amount of minority business in the city.

In the interviews with customers, a trend in responses arose. To many, the Starbucks was a “favorite place to stop in after work” and provided “a very relaxing environment.” The staff were often highly praised, noted as being friendly, helpful, and working in harmony. The interior décor of the café struck a lot of people’s attention, given the familiarity of the atmosphere. Painted on the walls, all around the store, are murals (壁画) with bright, colorful, graffiti-like designs very sui generis in Trenton, showcasing local monuments like the State House and the famous “Trenton Makes” bridge.

This new Starbucks brings a sense of modernity to Downtown Trenton and reminds us that our city is always developing. Open from 6 a. m. until 7 p.m. every day, the building is hardly ever empty. This space is made for everyone in Trenton, even the non-coffee lovers.

5 . There are well-documented mental health benefits to pet ownership, as much research has shown. Indeed, we know there are some physical benefits as well, as dog owners tend to have more active lifestyles. Yet when it comes to conditions like allergies (过敏), we tend to think of pet ownership as exacerbating, not alleviating them.

Hence, a recent study published in the journal PLOS One might come as a surprise. The study, published Wednesday, found that children raised with cats and dogs early in life had a 13 to 16 % lower risk of developing all food allergies than those who did not own pets.

The researchers engaged in a detailed survey, studying 65,000 children. They found that children who were exposed to dogs either during fetal (胎儿) development, or up to the age of 3 years old were less likely to have nut, milk and egg allergies.

This wasn’t true for other pets that weren’t cats and dogs. Indeed, the same research found that children exposed to hamsters during this same period had an increased risk of nut allergies. Yet children who were exposed to cats during their early years were likewise less likely to develop specific allergies — namely, allergies to wheat, soybean and egg.

While the study is not the final word on the issue — the researchers note “further studies using oral food challenges are required to more accurately assess the incident of food allergies” — it reinforces preexisting research on the seemingly funny ways that cats influence human development.

In addition to adding to the growing body of scientific literature about pets and human health, the PLOS One also reinforces earlier research about the role of the environment in developing allergies. The research repeatedly found that exposure to farmyard dirt, dust and the various fine hairs that fly off animals helps children in their breathing system development.

6 . Eight scientists were awarded the 2023 Future Science Prize, also called “China’s Nobel Prize”, the first Chinese non-governmental science award jointly initiated by groups of scientists and entrepreneurs (企业家). Since the establishment in 2016, a total of 35 scientists have been awarded the Future Science Prize so far.

Chai Jijie and Zhou Jianmin received the Future Science Prize in life sciences for the discovery of resistosomes (抗原小体) and explanations of their molecular structures and functions in plant immune responses against pathogens (病原体). Understanding of resistosome functions will lead to better methods for controlling plant disease and therefore have enormous importance for global food security.

Chai said that he felt extremely honored, excited and happy via a video call at the press conference. He emphasized that this recognition was not only for himself but also for the team’s years of hard work. “My cooperation with Professor Zhou has lasted for nearly 20 years. Our partnership has been productive and enjoyable, and I believe our cooperation will carry on,” he said.

During the video call, Zhou remarked that the Future Science Prize is grounded in the national context. It is heartening to see that the prize places greater emphasis on supporting agriculture.

Zhao Zhongxian and Chen Xianhui received the Future Science Prize in physical sciences for their influential breakthroughs in the discovery of high-temperature superconducting materials and systematic advancements in elevating the transition temperature. Notably, both Zhao and Chen conducted systematic studies to show the underlying physical mechanisms of high Tc materials, positioning themselves at the forefront of superconductor research for several years.

He Kaiming, Sun Jian, Ren Shaoqing, Zhang Xiangyu received the Future Science Prize in mathematics and computer science, for their extraordinary contributions to artificial intelligence by introducing deep residual learning (深度残差学习).

The 2023 Future Science Prize Week and the Award Ceremony were held in Hong Kong from October 14 to 17.

7 . The Poseidon Effect

Late one autumn day at the local swimming pool in Ancenis, France, an 18-year-old named Jean LeRoy came for his regular evening swim in the 25-metre pool.

When people are drowning, they don’t usually shout and __________ in the way it happens on television. Most people drown quite __________, with the person quickly sinking beneath the water. On the evening, LeRoy was testing how far he could swim underwater __________ one breath. At some moment, as he was doing this, he became unconscious. __________ he tried he couldn’t breathe. He sank to the bottom of the pool. LeRoy was drowning.

Luckily for him, the swimming pool was _________ with an electronic surveillance system called Poseidon. Although the human lifeguards had not noticed, 12 large machine eyes deep underwater were watching the whole thing. Poseidon has underwater cameras which __________ people as they swim. The cameras are connected to a computer. It is __________ to recognize __________ a swimmer is not moving normally. The lifeguards at the Ancenis pool were wearing a special device that __________ when the computer detected a possible problem. Sixteen seconds after Poseidon noticed LeRoy’s body, the lifeguards had pulled him out of the pool. He started breathing again. After one night in hospital, he was sent home completely __________. Poseidon had saved his life.

Machines like Poseidon completely change how we live. Think of your life before the answering machine was invented. Think of your grandparents’ lives before the television and the airplane were introduced. The change will be just as great. It is __________ happening.

Soon, machines will recognize our faces and our fingerprints. They will __________ for drowning people, for ________ carrying bombs, for speeding drivers and heart patients. Imagine devices that monitor a baby’s breathing and track children as they go to and from school. Imagine machines __________ quiet signals to nearby computers, which will send information to your doctor, your lawyer, and the local police. As time passes, more and more of our lives will be __________ by machines. They will know all about us.

9 . Although literacy appeared independently in several parts of the prehistoric world, the earliest evidence of writing is the cuneiform Sumerian script on the clay tablets of ancient Mesopotamia, which, archaeological detective work has revealed, had its origins in the accounting practices of commercial activity. Researchers demonstrated that preliterate people, to keep track of the goods they produced and exchanged, created a system of accounting using clay tokens as symbolic representations of their products. Over many thousands of years, the symbols evolved through several stages of abstraction until they became wedge-shaped (cuneiform) signs on clay tablets, recognizable as writing.

The original tokens were three-dimensional solid shapes — tiny spheres, cones, disks, and cylinders. A debt of six units of grain and eight head of livestock, for example, might have been represented by six conical and eight cylindrical tokens. To keep batches of tokens together, an innovation was introduced whereby they were sealed inside clay envelopes that could be broken open and counted when it came time for a debt to be repaid. But because the contents of the envelopes could easily be forgotten, two-dimensional representations of the three-dimensional tokens were impressed into the surface of the envelopes before they were sealed. Eventually, having two sets of equivalent symbols — the internal tokens and external markings — came to seem redundant, so the tokens were eliminated, and only solid clay tablets with two-dimensional symbols were retained. Over time, the symbols became more numerous, varied, and abstract and came to represent more than trade commodities, evolving eventually into cuneiform writing.

The evolution of the symbolism is reflected in the archaeological record first of all by the increasing complexity of the tokens themselves. The earliest tokens, dating from about 10,000 to 6,000 years ago, were of only the simplest geometric shapes. But about 3500 B.C.E., more complex tokens came into common usage, including many naturalistic forms shaped like miniature tools, furniture, fruit, and humans.

10 . Does a happy person live longer? Many studies have convinced us that happiness brings good health, which has resulted in an increasing demand for speakers and products encouraging positive thinking. However, being happy does not promise that one is going to be healthy. There are other factors that influence one’s health and long life such as a person’s genes or even a person’s socio-economic condition.

Some research even suggests that positive thinking can be dangerous. Positive thinking, when taken to the extreme, can cause a person to be separated from reality. For example, a person who thinks that staying happy and positive can help him recover from an illness like cancer but later fails to recover from it, may blame himself for not being happy. In this case, positive thinking may potentially make the victim disregard other factors. Sometimes the pursuit of happiness is even associated with serious mental health problems such as depression.

All types of happiness are not good for us either. For example, pride, a pleasant feeling, can sometimes rob us of the ability to empathize with others or understand another’s viewpoint. This anti-social behavior can cause people around us to turn away from us, and this could, in turn, make us feel lonely and do harm to our mental and even physical health.

Moreover, unpleasant feelings can be beneficial to a person’s well-being. Researchers believe that unpleasant feelings can help us make sense of our challenges and experiences in a way that supports psychological well-being. For example, if I have behaved badly towards my good friend, the feelings of guilt and sadness might motivate me to apologize and ask for forgiveness. The rebuilding of a broken relationship can be a lift to one’s mental well-being.

In trying to experience happiness, we should remember that seeking for happiness as an end in itself can be self-defeating, and does not necessarily lead to better health. After all, one will surely experience setbacks and conflicts in life. Instead, learning to cope with negative emotions with a realistic positive attitude is key to a person’s good health.