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What does the crown prince of Saudi Arabia know that we don’t?

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Opinion by Douglas MacKinnon, opinion contributor -- theHill.com -- Back when I worked in the Pentagon, a colonel in my office would often ask, “How can so many people miss this blinding flash of the obvious?” That question now applies to a rising Saudi Arabia, but some choose to look away from the illuminating flash to deliberately focus on issues that distract from a global shift in power with direct implications for the United States. For instance, it has become common for some journalists and media outlets from the left to go after the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for “sportswashing.” The term refers to countries or regimes using sports to improve their tarnished reputations. Last week, CNBC jumped back onto that bandwagon with an article titled “Saudi crown prince says he will keep ‘sportswashing’ as criticism of the practice grows.”

The article is about an interview that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave to Fox News, which aired last week. CNBC focused on two quotes. The crown prince said, “Well, if sportswashing is going to increase my GDP by way of one percent, I will continue doing sportswashing.” He then continued, “I don’t care … I’m aiming for another one and a half percent. Call it whatever you want, we’re going to get that one and a half percent.” Perhaps, in an attempt to go after Saudi Arabia, the reporter and his editors did not notice the resignation and sarcasm in the voice of the crown prince. He and his government have been dealing with this accusation for a few years now. Critics from the left have long maintained that Saudi Arabia has been using its growing investments in the greater sports world as a way to gain political influence while mending the Kingdom’s reputation from human rights abuses, such as the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While many on the left seem fixated by that charge, what if it is as simple as the crown prince explained — that the sports investments being made by Saudi Arabia are sound business practices that are returning high profits to the Kingdom?

But, if CNBC truly is concerned about “sportswashing” being used as a cover for human rights abuses, then I would suggest they gaze inward at their parent company, while looking up the definition of the word “hypocrisy.” In February 2022, NBC and NBC sports broadcast the Winter Olympics from China, making tens of millions of dollars in profit. Are the reporters and editors from CNBC interested in the human rights abuses taking place in China? Such as the imprisoning, torture and killing of thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslims — including women and children — in forced labor camps in its Xinjiang province? Did CNBC, NBC and NBC Sports do any in-depth reporting on those atrocities while in the nation?

Would CNBC say China used NBC and NBC Sports as vehicles for “sportswashing”? This being the same China that FBI Director Christopher Wray warned of during a speech last year at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, saying, “the threat posed by the Chinese government here at home to our economic security and our freedoms reached a new level — more brazen, more damaging than ever before, and it’s vital — vital — that all of us focus on that threat together.” Was NBC focusing on that threat? Do Apple and other big tech companies focus on that threat as they collectively make billions of dollars in China? What about Hollywood? Are the studio heads there focusing on the threat posed to America from China while continually partnering with that nation? What about the many American colleges and universities taking hundreds of millions of dollars from China? When it comes to “sportswashing,” “entertainment-washing” and “business-washing,” some in the media either have tunnel vision or don’t want to investigate a nation that some see as the paymaster for more and more around the world.

To be sure, the killing of one journalist by anyone, or any government, is horrific. But assuming we all agree on that, what do we call the imprisonment, torture and killing of thousands of men, women and children in forced labor camps in China? As some in the media obsessively focus on the “sportswashing” being conducted by Saudi Arabia, I would submit that they are missing the much larger picture. The Kingdom is not only becoming one of the most powerful and influential nations in the world, but is moving away from the United States in some real ways in order to hedge its bets. The better question for some in the media might be: “What does the 38-year-old crown prince of Saudi Arabia see that others are missing when it comes to the positioning and security of his nation?”

Does he see a United States in decline? Does he see an ascending China as well as a surviving Russia? Does his nation represent the critical check on Iran amid growing Iranian attempts to destabilize the Middle East? Does Mohammed bin Salman see a growing partnership between his nation and Israel? Does the crown prince see a future for actual sustainable “green energy” while acknowledging that fossil fuels will power the world for the foreseeable future? More importantly, are more and more national and corporate leaders turning to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman because they now view Saudi Arabia — with the world’s fastest growing large economy — as a global powerhouse, based in large part upon the reforms he has instituted? And because of that success and others, do more and more leaders now see the crown prince as one of the most influential voices in the world?

Back in the late 1970s and early ’80s, one of the most famous commercials of all time aired regularly. It was for an investment firm with the slogan “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.” That same “the room goes instantly silent to hear the words of wisdom” is now taking place on the global stage. When Mohammed bin Salman speaks, some leaders seemingly do go silent to hear every word. Why? The world is changing. Power is shifting. Alliances are being created or reinvented, and Saudi Arabia and the crown prince are behind much of the change. It’s time to focus on the flash. Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.

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Is Consciousness Part of the Fabric of the Universe?

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By Dan Falk -- scientificamerican.com -- -- More than 400 years ago, Galileo showed that many everyday phenomena—such as a ball rolling down an incline or a chandelier gently swinging from a church ceiling—obey precise mathematical laws. For this insight, he is often hailed as the founder of modern science. But Galileo recognized that not everything was amenable to a quantitative approach. Such things as colors, tastes and smells “are no more than mere names,” Galileo declared, for “they reside only in consciousness.” These qualities aren’t really out there in the world, he asserted, but exist only in the minds of creatures that perceive them. “Hence if the living creature were removed,” he wrote, “all these qualities would be wiped away and annihilated.” Since Galileo’s time the physical sciences have leaped forward, explaining the workings of the tiniest quarks to the largest galaxy clusters. But explaining things that reside “only in consciousness”—the red of a sunset, say, or the bitter taste of a lemon—has proven far more difficult. Neuroscientists have identified a number of neural correlates of consciousness—brain states associated with specific mental states—but have not explained how matter forms minds in the first place. As philosopher David Chalmers asked: “How does the water of the brain turn into the wine of consciousness?” He famously dubbed this quandary the “hard problem” of consciousness.

Scholars recently gathered to debate the problem at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., during a two-day workshop focused on an idea known as panpsychism. The concept proposes that consciousness is a fundamental aspect of reality, like mass or electrical charge. The idea goes back to antiquity—Plato took it seriously—and has had some prominent supporters over the years, including psychologist William James and philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell. Lately it is seeing renewed interest, especially following the 2019 publication of philosopher Philip Goff’s book Galileo’s Error, which argues forcefully for the idea.

Everything you need to know about artificial wombs

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Artificial wombs for premature babies -- by Cassandra Willyard MIT Technology Review -- US Food and Drug Administration advisors met to discuss how to move research on artificial wombs from animals into humans. These medical devices are designed to give extremely premature infants a bit more time to develop in a womblike environment before entering the outside world. They have been tested with hundreds of lambs (and some piglets), but animal models can’t fully predict how the technology will work for humans. “The most challenging question to answer is how much unknown is acceptable,” said An Massaro, FDA’s lead neonatologist in the Office of Pediatric Therapeutics, at the committee meeting. That’s a question regulators will have to grapple with as this research moves out of the lab and into first-in-human trials.

What is an artificial womb?

An artificial womb is an experimental medical device intended to provide a womblike environment for extremely premature infants. In most of the technologies, the infant would float in a clear “biobag,” surrounded by fluid. The idea is that preemies could spend a few weeks continuing to develop in this device after birth, so that “when they’re transitioned from the device, they’re more capable of surviving and having fewer complications with conventional treatment,” says George Mychaliska, a pediatric surgeon at the University of Michigan. One of the main limiting factors for survival in extremely premature babies is lung development. Rather than breathing air, babies in an artificial womb would have their lungs filled with lab-made amniotic fluid, that mimics the amniotic fluid they would have hadjust like they would in utero. Neonatologists would insert tubes into blood vessels in the umbilical cord so that the infant’s blood could cycle through an artificial lung to pick up oxygen. The device closest to being ready to be tested in humans, called the EXTrauterine Environment for Newborn Development, or EXTEND, encases the baby in a container filled with lab-made amniotic fluid. It was invented by Alan Flake and Marcus Davey at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and is being developed by Vitara Biomedical.

Do graduate degrees pay off?

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By Cate Chapman, Editor at LinkedIn News -- The income of Americans with advanced degrees hasn’t kept pace with the price of obtaining the credentials. The difference between starting salaries for those with undergraduate and graduate degrees shrank to 22.5% in 2021 from 31.8% in 2017, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. That’s as the average price of tuition and fees for the more advanced degrees grew faster. The trend of employers paying less of a premium for graduate education reflects a shift toward a more skills-based appraisal of job candidates, writes Bloomberg. Graduate students accrue an average $57,000 in debt for the cost of their degrees, compared to $27,000 for undergraduates — for a medical or law school degree, debt averages $176,000.

French-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf to head Académie Française language watchdog

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By AFP -- The French-Lebanese writer, 74, becomes only the 33rd person to occupy the post of "perpetual secretary" since the body's founding under King Louis XIII in 1635. He takes over from Helene Carrere d'Encausse, who died last month having held the post since 1999. She did not designate a clear successor but Maalouf, who won France's most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, in 1993 for "The Rock of Tanios", was considered the obvious choice due to his highly active engagement in the institution since being elected in 2011. There was one other candidate, his close friend Jean-Christophe Rufin, though he only threw his hat in the ring at the last minute, fearing there was not enough of a democratic process, joking to one magazine this weekend that it was "like North Korea".

The academy is charged with setting the rules of the language to ensure it remains "pure, eloquent and capable of dealing with the arts and sciences". Lately, it most often gains notice as the bulwark against the entry of English words into French usage. Last year it railed against the common practice of using English-sounding terms in French ads and branding -- such as train operator SNCF's low-cost "Ouigo" (pronounced "we go") service -- or simple imports from English like "big data" and "drive-in". It became more assertive under Carrere d'Encausse, even threatening legal action against the government for including English translations on national identity cards. There are currently 35 members of the Academy -- known as "Immortals" in reference to their motto "A l'immortalite" ("To immortality"). Past members include such luminaries as Montesquieu, Voltaire and Victor Hugo.

Blockbuster report of OpenAI’s talks with iPhone designer Jony Ive about an AI hardware device suggests he ‘wants a front row seat’ for the AI revolution, top analyst says

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Fortune.com -- OpenAI continues to plan for the AI future it ushered in when it released its wildly popular ChatGPT chatbot last November, according to a blockbuster report in The Information. The company’s founder, emerging AI mogul Sam Altman, met with Jony Ive, the renowned designer of Apple products, to discuss building an AI hardware device, according to two people familiar with the conversations. The implications are massive: A next-generation consumer electronic that would ostensibly integrate AI into daily life? Even talks between the two point to a tech future dominated by artificial intelligence. The new technology has for now mostly been limited to software programs and machine learning algorithms. A successful collaboration, should it come to pass, would be one of the first mass market consumer devices featuring AI. Details on what this product might look like are limited. However, Ive’s presence alone instills confidence. “Jony Ive is one of the genius minds of this generation,” Dan Ives, managing partner of Wedbush Securities, told Fortune.

Ives (no relation to Ive) is an influential voice on Wall Street and has been forecasting a bright future for AI for months. In June, he wrote that the investing climate around AI is akin to a “1995 internet moment,” not, as some skeptics would argue, like 1999 just before the dotcom crash. The second, third, and fourth derivatives of this AI gold rush are just starting to evolve for the tech landscape,” Ives wrote at the time. “As we have covered the tech sector for decades and saw the dotcom bubble and burst firsthand, [we believe] this is the start of a fourth industrial revolution playing out across tech over the coming years that is still being underestimated by the Street in our opinion.”

OpenAI is reportedly raising funds at a valuation of $80 billion to $90 billion

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by Mary Ann Azevedo -- techcrunch -- OpenAI is in discussions to possibly sell shares in a move that would boost the company’s valuation from $29 billion to somewhere between $80 billion and $90 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the talks. Employees would be allowed to sell their existing shares rather than the company issuing new ones, The Wall Street Journal said. In April, OpenAI picked up just over $300 million in funding from backers such as Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive and K2 Global at a valuation of $29 billion. That was separate to a big investment from Microsoft announced earlier this year, which closed in January. The size of Microsoft’s investment was believed to be around $10 billion.

OpenAI’s wildly popular generative AI assistant, ChatGPT, has been one of the biggest technology success stories of recent times since its debut some nine months ago, allowing anyone to generate essays, poems and summaries from simple text-based prompts. This week TechCrunch also reported that ChatGPT is about to get a lot more interactive, with users also able to have a voice conversation with the chatbot. The artificial intelligence company, which is 49% owned by Microsoft, said in late August that it expected to reach $1 billion in revenue in 2023. TechCrunch has reached out to OpenAI for comment