by arstechnica.com -- BENJ EDWARDS -- According to The New York Times, AI pioneer Dr. Geoffrey Hinton has resigned from Google so he can "speak freely" about potential risks posed by AI. Hinton, who helped create some of the fundamental technology behind today's generative AI systems, fears that the tech industry's drive to develop AI products could result in dangerous consequences—from misinformation to job loss or even a threat to humanity. "Look at how it was five years ago and how it is now," the Times quoted Hinton as saying. "Take the difference and propagate it forwards. That’s scary."

The generative AI revolution has begun—how did we get here?

Hinton's résumé in artificial intelligence extends back to 1972, and his accomplishments have influenced current practices in generative AI. In 1987, Hinton, David Rumelhart, and Ronald J. Williams popularized backpropagation, a key technique for training neural networks that is used in today's generative AI models. In 2012, Hinton, Alex Krizhevsky, and Ilya Sutskever created AlexNet, which is commonly hailed as a breakthrough in machine vision and deep learning, and it arguably kickstarted our current era of generative AI. In 2018, Hinton won the Turing Award, which some call the "Nobel Prize of Computing," along with Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun.

By AFP – Agence France Presse — The United States on Monday called on Lebanon’s parliament to elect a new president, as …

By Najia Houssari — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Former Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Sunday that the continued presence of Syrian refugees …

 By Jamie Prentis / The National --  Some villages and towns are turning to solar panels to power water pumps but these are just local solutions to a nationwide problem. Adham Al Danaf, the mayor of Baalchmay, says the town's water woes are the result of Lebanon's electricity crisis. Jamie Prentis / The National Adham Al Danaf, the mayor of Baalchmay, says the town's water woes are the result of Lebanon's electricity crisis The Middle East and North Africa is one of the most water-scarce regions of the world. Already plagued with a lack of freshwater resources, climate change, population growth and poor management has exacerbated the issue and threatens to affect the lives of millions.

The National’s correspondents across the region spoke to the people most affected to understand the extent of the issue and where hope for change may lie. The thick maple tree in Baalchmay, a town carved into the hills of the Mount Lebanon region, almost acts as a dividing line on the road in the lower parts of the area. Perhaps about 200 years old, the tree is so broad that it is nearly as wide as the small cars passing by. Only metres away is a spring. It is said the proximity of the water nearby allowed the maple tree and its thick branches to grow to such an extent, and survive previous conflicts that hit the area. “In the past, the story goes that if you got a shovel and were just digging a little bit, water would come from the ground. That’s how rich the area was with water,” said Adham Al Danaf, the mayor of Baalchmay, a town of about 4,500 Lebanese residents and up to 3,000 refugees. “What we always say about the village is that it’s like the human body,” added Jamil Al Danaf, a water specialist at the municipality. “No matter where you take a small pin and poke it, blood comes out — that’s what water is in Baalchmay. Where ever you dig, you’re going to find water.”