If it’s only AI that’s keeping you up at night, maybe you’re doing OK | Letters
Reading Alexander Hurst’s column on the frictionless experience of life promised – or threatened – by AI algorithms, I was struck by how little I recognised the picture he painted of daily experience being stripped of the friction necessary to furnish it with meaning (To be human is to live with friction,That’s something AI boosters will never understand, 23 April),Rather, isn’t it the case that, bar the mega-rich, we’re all suffering from an excess of friction due to rising living costs, an avoidably dilapidated public realm, poor housing and innumerable related stresses?I belong to a volunteer group that twice a week cooks hot meals for homeless and destitute people in central Liverpool,The hot meal they collect from us may be the only relief they get that day from the constant, grinding analogue hassles of invisibility, illness, disrespect and material poverty: the only recognition they receive that a degree of comfort is a prerequisite for survival,The specific depredations of AI, created and encouraged by men without souls, seem so distant in these cases as to be nonexistent.
There’s no question that the acceleration of AI will only deepen these gaping structural inequalities, but if someone is kept awake at night less by the thought of people sleeping outdoors on cardboard than by AI’s threat to one’s experience of the Louvre, it makes you wonder how much, or how little, friction exists in their own daily life.Lynsey Hanley Liverpool I am disappointed by the responses of the professors of chemistry and thermodynamics who failed to answer Alexander Hurst’s question: “How fast do you have to strike a match to get it to light?” but instead talked of concepts.The correct answer is: “I’ll do the experiment” (ie get some students to do it as a project).Experimental data beats all mental hand-waving and is frequently quicker.It is then for the theoreticians to explain how their ideas do or not match the observations, and if necessary adapt their thought to get a better theory.
Martin PittLeeds I think I have the answer to Alexander Hurst’s question about the minimum speed at which you need to move a match when striking it for it to produce a flame.If it doesn’t work the first time, have another go, moving the match a bit quicker.If that still doesn’t work, buy a cigarette lighter.Michael BulleyChalon-sur-Saône, France
Claire’s to close remaining UK stores on Tuesday with more than 1,000 job losses
Jewellery and accessories chain Claire’s is closing its final UK stores on Monday with the loss of more than 1,000 jobs and ending three decades on British high streets.Sources said staff at Claire’s, which had 154 stores when it collapsed in January, had been asked to pack up the final stock and equipment with the remaining outlets to formally close after successive waves of closures in recent weeks.Administrators at Kroll confirmed that all remaining shops ceased trading on Monday and “all store employees have been advised of redundancy”.The move does not affect the retailer’s 356 concessions, including many in Asda stores, and its head office.Talks are thought to be continuing to find a new owner for the Claire’s brand in the UK with French entrepreneur Julien Jarjoura, who controls the brand in several mainland European countries
Shell to buy Canadian shale producer ARC Resources for $16.4bn
Shell has agreed to buy Canadian shale producer ARC Resources for $16.4bn, five years after Europe’s biggest gas and oil producer sold its US shale business.The deal, which includes $13.6bn in cash and shares and taking on ARC’s $2.8bn debt, would be Shell’s biggest acquisition since it bought BG Group a decade ago
Goldman raises oil price forecasts as Iran war deadlock continues; Shell buying Canada’s ARC in $13.6bn deal – as it happened
The deadlock in the Middle East confict has prompted Goldman Sachs to raise its oil price forecast.Goldman Sachs now estimate that Brent crude will trade at about $90 a barrrel in the last quarter of this year, up from an earlier projection of $80. US crude is forecast to average $83 in October-December, up from $75 before.Goldman blames “lower Persian Gulf production” for the upgrade, telling clients:double quotation markWe now assume a normalisation in Gulf exports by end-June (v mid-May prior) and a slower Gulf production recovery. The economic risks are larger than our crude base case alone suggests because of the net upside risks to oil prices, unusually high refined product prices, products shortages risks, and the unprecedented scale of the shock
What’s going on with Spirit Airlines and could the White House bail them out?
Soaring fuel prices are threatening air carriers around the world, and in the US the White House is scrambling to save the long-troubled Spirit Airlines.The carrier is in bankruptcy court and is quickly running out of cash. Reports last week suggested that the Trump administration was in talks to loan as much as $500m to the company as it teetered on the brink of liquidation. Then on Thursday, Donald Trump told reporters the federal government might buy the ailing airline.“We’re thinking about doing it, helping them out, meaning bailing them out, or buying it,” Trump said, adding that the government could “sell it for a profit” when oil prices come down
G7 central banks poised to hold borrowing costs amid concerns over prolonged Iran war
The world’s most powerful central banks are poised to hold borrowing costs unchanged this week amid growing concerns over the unfolding inflation shock from the Iran war.In a critical week for the global economy, each of the central banks in the G7 are expected to issue warnings over the risks from the Middle East war driving up prices for households and businesses.Financial markets are braced for signals from the central banks of the US, Canada, Japan, Britain and the eurozone on the prospects for interest rates amid concerns that a prolonged conflict could force them to keep borrowing costs higher for longer.“Another week of no fighting, no deal and no energy flows, another week that pressure on inflation and supply chains continues to build,” said Wei Yao, an analyst at the French bank Société Générale.“We will probably see all the major central banks sticking to the strategy of ‘keep clam but stay vigilant’
HSBC ‘reviewing’ private school perk for bankers in Hong Kong
HSBC is reportedly reviewing a perk that covers school fees for bankers in Hong Kong as part of a big overhaul of the bank under its chief executive, Georges Elhedery.Europe’s largest bank is considering whether to scrap the perk for new employees or make changes to total compensation, Bloomberg News reported. No decisions have been made yet.Hundreds of staff in Hong Kong – HSBC’s biggest market – benefit from the subsidy, which costs the lender tens of millions of dollars a year, and is not available in its other hubs around the world, reportedly leading to tension at its headquarters in London.It is also not offered to staff of Hang Seng Bank, which HSBC acquired in full in January for £10bn and delisted from the local stock exchange
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