06/04/24 - The News

Tuesday, June 4, 2024

Boy Meets World' star Trina McGee expecting 4th child, shocking fans

June 04, 2024 0



The actress shared the unexpected news on Instagram, requesting prayers for a safe delivery and announcing a temporary break from social media.









The announcement sparked surprise and excitement among fans, with many expressing shock at McGee's age. While numerous followers offered congratulations, others questioned how she was pregnant at 54.

McGee, who was married to actor Courtland Davis, has two children from that relationship and one from a previous relationship.

She has been married to her current husband, actor and producer Marcello Thedford, for 16 years.

Best known for her role as Shawn Hunter's love interest on "Boy Meets World," McGee reprise her role in the Disney Channel spinoff "Girl Meets World" in 2015. She also appeared in the 2023 Tubi movie "Classmates," directed by her former co-star Danielle Fishel.


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OpenAI employees warn of AI’s ‘serious risk’ and lack of oversight

June 04, 2024 0

A group of current and former OpenAI employees published an open letter Tuesday describing concerns about the artificial intelligence industry’s rapid advancement despite a lack of oversight and an absence of whistleblower protections for those who wish to speak up.



“AI companies have strong financial incentives to avoid effective oversight, and we do not believe bespoke structures of corporate governance are sufficient to change this,” the employees wrote in the open letter.

OpenAI, Google
Meta
 and other companies are at the helm of a generative AI arms race — a market that is predicted to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade — as companies in seemingly every industry rush to add AI-powered chatbots and agents to avoid being left behind by competitors.

The current and former employees wrote AI companies have “substantial non-public information” about what their technology can do, the extent of the safety measures they’ve put in place and the risk levels that technology has for different types of harm.

“We also understand the serious risks posed by these technologies,” they wrote, adding that the companies “currently have only weak obligations to share some of this information with governments, and none with civil society. We do not think they can all be relied upon to share it voluntarily.”

The letter also details the current and former employees’ concerns about insufficient whistleblower protections for the AI industry, stating that without effective government oversight, employees are in a relatively unique position to hold companies accountable.

“Broad confidentiality agreements block us from voicing our concerns, except to the very companies that may be failing to address these issues,” the signatories wrote. “Ordinary whistleblower protections are insufficient because they focus on illegal activity, whereas many of the risks we are concerned about are not yet regulated.”

The letter asks AI companies to commit to not entering or enforcing non-disparagement agreements; to create anonymous processes for current and former employees to voice concerns to a company’s board, regulators and others; to support a culture of open criticism; and to not retaliate against public whistleblowing if internal reporting processes fail.

Four anonymous OpenAI employees and seven former ones, including Daniel Kokotajlo, Jacob Hilton, William Saunders, Carroll Wainwright and Daniel Ziegler, signed the letter. Signatories also included Ramana Kumar, who formerly worked at Google DeepMind, and Neel Nanda, who currently works at Google DeepMind and formerly worked at Anthropic. Three famed computer scientists known for advancing the artificial intelligence field also endorsed the letter: Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio and Stuart Russell.

“We agree that rigorous debate is crucial given the significance of this technology and we’ll continue to engage with governments, civil society and other communities around the world,” an OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC, adding that the company has an anonymous integrity hotline, as well as a Safety and Security Committee led by members of the board and OpenAI leaders.

Microsoft declined to comment.

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Warren Buffett-backed Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy announced a joint venture on Tuesday

June 04, 2024 0

 Warren Buffett-backed Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy announced a joint venture on Tuesday to extract lithium from geothermal electricity production. OXY shares angled lower early Tuesday.



Occidental Petroleum and Berkshire Hathaway Energy Renewables agreed to test and deploy technology to extracting lithium from geothermal brine. Geothermal brine is the hot salty water pumped to the surface of the earth and used to produce electricity.

Under the joint venture, the technology from TerraLithium, a wholly owned subsidiary of Occidental, is being tested at BHE Renewables' Imperial Valley geothermal facility. Testing aims to determine whether it can produce lithium in an "environmentally safe manner."

BHE Renewables operates 10 geothermal power plants in California's Imperial Valley generating 345 megawatts of clean energy. These facilities process 50,000 gallons of "lithium-rich brine" per minute, according to the company.

If the test is successful, Buffett's BHE Renewables plans to build commercial lithium production facilities in California's Imperial Valley, the company reported Tuesday. There are also plans to expand beyond the Imperial Valley under the joint Occidental-BHE Renewables venture.

We are excited to be working with Occidental on this incredible opportunity to make the Imperial Valley a global leader in lithium production," BHE Renewables Chief Executive Alicia Knapp said in the press release Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in a 2021 report wrote that lithium extraction from geothermal brine could be a way to get "domestic lithium onto the market while producing electricity simultaneously, all with a minimal environmental footprint."

The DOE notes large lithium resources have been identified mainly in the Salton Sea, located in southern California's Imperial Valley region.

Warren Buffett: OXY Stock, Lithium And Geothermal

Occidental Petroleum stock fell 1.4% to 59.78 during market action on Tuesday. The stock declined 3% to 60.57 on Monday. Shares are down 15% since hitting a recent high of 71.19 on April 12. OXY is currently trading below its 200-day moving average, according to MarketSurge charts.

Oil stocks in general traded lower Monday and early Tuesday, as West Texas Intermediate oil prices eased to a four-month low, below $73 a barrel.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) substantially increased its stake in the international oil play over the past year, putting OXY among Buffett's top holdings. Berkshire Hathaway holds a 28% stake in Houston-based Occidental Petroleum, according to FactSet.

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy business and Occidental Petroleum teaming up on lithium production comes as Exxon Mobil (XOM) in late 2023 announced plans to begin producing lithium by 2027.

Exxon Mobil aims to become the leading lithium supplier for electric vehicles by 2030. The goal entails production of enough lithium to supply the manufacture of more than 1 million EVs per year.

Exxon set its first lithium production for 2027. Discussions with possible customers, including electric vehicle and battery manufacturers, are ongoing, the company in November 2023.

Occidental stock has a 30 Composite Rating out of 99. The Warren Buffett stock also has a 39 Relative Strength Rating and an 11 EPS Rating.

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