By Najia Houssari -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: The Lebanese Ministry of Environment launched a campaign on Sunday bearing the slogan “Clean up Your Country.” Municipalities, dozens of nongovernmental organizations and volunteers took part in the campaign that started from the Beirut waterfront. Environment Minister Nasser Yassin said: “It’s a message to prohibit throwing waste randomly. “It is also a way to affirm that the role of municipalities is crucial in cleaning up their cities, towns and forests, and to support them, in order to spread environmental awareness.” Dozens of young men, women and children gathered at the Beirut waterfront at 8 a.m., carrying bags and picking up the remains of glass bottles, papers, plastic bottles and tin cans, with their hands covered in protective gloves.

They also collected what had been left by passersby who had spent the night on the promenade, as well as trash thrown by people from their cars into the street and the sea. Yassin added: “Environmental awareness has decreased due to the ongoing chaos and the absence of deterrent measures. "Those who disregard the cleanliness of the recreational places they go to should be ashamed of themselves when they see young women and kids picking up their trash.”

by ED GRAHAM -- investors.com -- When OpenAI launched the generative AI chatbot ChatGPT for public use on Nov. 30, the S&P 500 was worth $5 trillion less than now, tech spending was deep in a post-pandemic hangover, and the economy appeared headed for recession or persistent high inflation. That single day provided just an inkling of generative AI's potential for transformative impact. The S&P 500 shot up more than 3% as tech stocks with artificial intelligence products rumbled. OpenAI investor Microsoft (MSFT) leapt 6%, and AI chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) climbed 8%. Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) also jumped 6% that day, and Meta Platforms (META) ran up nearly 8%. Now the tech hangover is giving way to a new "gold rush," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives argues. Ives thinks ChatGPT opened the door to another $1 trillion in artificial intelligence-related spending over the coming decade that wasn't on Wall Street's radar.

And the economic impact could prove even more far-reaching. Some analysts are even talking about a new Roaring '20s fueled by AI. Experts say generative AI could launch a surge in productivity after a 17-year slump. A productivity pickup couldn't come at a better time, as a worker shortage, an aging population and deglobalization fan inflationary pressures. "We are in desperate need of a new source of growth," Deutsche Bank economists wrote in a June 14 report. "Despite near-term pessimism, we remain enthusiastic about AI's potential to change the nature of our economies," they wrote, calling it "an immense source of optimism" as the decade progresses. The consensus is that generative AI will change the world. But productivity growth has sputtered through recent waves of new technology, including the Apple (AAPL) iPhone, cloud computing and robotics. Why should this time be different? And what might stand in the way of a productivity boom and S&P 500 bull run?

By Jose Antonio Lanz -- decrypt.co -- OpenAI has been privately testing a new iteration of its generative artificial intelligence (AI) imaging model over the past several months, and early samples leaked by YouTuber MattVidPro show it outperforming previous image generators. “Extremely exciting—this blows anything we've seen before out of the water, it's insane,” Matt said in a preview he posted to YouTube. “Midjourney cannot compete at this level—I don't even think Midjourney version six would be able to compete at this level.” Don't expect to try it out anytime soon, however. Access is extremely limited. The unpublished model is likely an upgrade of DALL-E 2 and is being tested through an invite-only preview inside ChatGPT-4. Matt said there are only around 400 people worldwide who have access to this new OpenAI image generator.

While limited, the image samples demonstrate the AI's advanced skills. It produced sharp images with lighting and reflections that mimic real photos. The model recreated detailed paintings down to visible brush strokes. It also recreated brand names like "Snickers" and logos of well-known brands like Subway flawlessly on generated products, and achieved reasonably good spelling in rendered text. While current image generators struggle with coherent hands, the examples showed realistic, properly proportioned hands. Backgrounds also appeared more convincing than competing AI systems. OpenAI apparently removed its safety filters to test the model's full potential. Users said it can generate violent content and nudity without hesitation. However, knowing OpenAI’s stance towards NSFW content, it’s highly unlikely that an official public version is released under such standards.

by MEE — The government of Saudi Arabia announced on Thursday the expansion of it’s e-visa system to include 12 more countries, …