Environment groups are anything but ‘mute’ on the planning bill | Letters
George Monbiot is both right and wrong in his article on the planning and infrastructure bill (Wage war on nature to build new homes: that’s Labour’s offer, but it’s a con trick, 16 October).He is right that there is no choice to be made between nature and housing and that both are essential.He is right that the repeated demonisation of wildlife by some in government is both inaccurate and against the deepest instincts of the British public.He is right that the planning and infrastructure bill has been spun into this narrative and that parts of it represent a huge risk for nature.But he is wrong that environment NGOs have been “mute” in response.
Collectively and individually, we have repeatedly called out the bill publicly in the media and elsewhere, including the damaging part 3 proposals and the shambolic last-minute government amendments,We have compiled hundreds of briefings, evidence and research papers highlighting the dangers within the bill and opportunities to improve it, and urged action,We have worked with our indefatigable supporters, who have sent over 100,000 emails, letters and postcards to their MPs and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government,This work led to a large package of amendments that, while by no means perfect, improved part 3 of the bill, with the Office for Environmental Protection describing them as going “a long way towards addressing the issues we raised in our advice”,We have never stopped campaigning on the bill’s flaws and we will continue to challenge where this bill could harm nature in its final stages and in implementation.
With rumours of a second planning bill also on the horizon, we will continue to do everything in our power to galvanise our supporters and to stop the environmentally, economically and politically disastrous assault on the wild spaces we all cherish,Craig Bennett Chief executive, The Wildlife TrustsHilary McGrady Director-general, National TrustDr James Robinson Chief operating officer, RSPBRichard Benwell CEO, Wildlife and Countryside Link Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section,
Inside San Francisco’s new AI school: is this the future of US education?
In the world’s tech innovation epicenter, an “AI-powered” private school has made headlines for unabashedly embracing the technology.Alpha School San Francisco, which opened its doors to K-8 students this fall, is the newest outpost of a network of 14 nationwide private schools. Its learning model entails just two hours of focused academic work per day, during which the school says students can learn twice as fast as their counterparts in traditional schools – with the help of artificial intelligence.AI, Alpha says, is central to the school’s learning philosophy, brand and impact on students.Alpha is not alone in its efforts to incorporate AI into the classroom
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Are we living in a golden age of stupidity?
From brain-rotting videos to AI creep, every technological advance seems to make it harder to work, remember, think and function independently …Step into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab in Cambridge, US, and the future feels a little closer. Glass cabinets display prototypes of weird and wonderful creations, from tiny desktop robots to a surrealist sculpture created by an AI model prompted to design a tea set made from body parts. In the lobby, an AI waste-sorting assistant named Oscar can tell you where to put your used coffee cup. Five floors up, research scientist Nataliya Kosmyna has been working on wearable brain-computer interfaces she hopes will one day enable people who cannot speak, due to neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, to communicate using their minds.Kosmyna spends a lot of her time reading and analysing people’s brain states
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Parents will be able to block their children’s interactions with Meta’s AI character chatbots, as the tech company addresses concerns over inappropriate conversations.The social media company is adding new safeguards to its “teen accounts”, which are a default setting for under-18 users, by letting parents turn off their children’s chats with AI characters. These chatbots, which are created by users, are available on Facebook, Instagram and the Meta AI app.Parents will also be able to block specific AI characters if they don’t want to stop their children from interacting with chatbots altogether. They will also get “insights” into the topics their children are chatting about with AI characters, which Meta said would allow them to have “thoughtful” conversations with their children about AI interactions
AI chatbots are hurting children, Australian education minister warns as anti-bullying plan announced
A disturbing new trend of AI chatbots bullying children and even encouraging them to take their own lives has the Australian government very concerned.Speaking to media on Saturday, the federal education minister, Jason Clare, said artificial intelligence was “supercharging” bullying.“AI chatbots are now bullying kids. It’s not kids bullying kids, it’s AI bullying kids, humiliating them, hurting them, telling them they’re losers … telling them to kill themselves. I can’t think of anything more terrifying than that,” Clare said
UK MPs warn of repeat of 2024 riots unless online misinformation is tackled
Failures to properly tackle online misinformation mean it is “only a matter of time” before viral content triggers a repeat of the 2024 summer riots, MPs have warned.Chi Onwurah, the chair of the Commons science and technology select committee, said ministers seemed complacent about the threat and this was putting the public at risk.The committee said it was disappointed in the government’s response to its recent report warning social media companies’ business models contributed to disturbances after the Southport murders.Replying to the committee’s findings, the government rejected a call for legislation tackling generative artificial intelligence platforms and said it would not intervene directly in the online advertising market, which MPs claimed helped incentivise the creation of harmful material after the attack.Onwurah said the government agreed with most of its conclusions but had stopped short of backing its recommendations for action
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