The Daily Briefing highlights the news of the day and research that reveals the spirit of the day.
The Daily Briefing is a newsletter sent straight to your inbox every morning that provides biblical insight on today's news.
Top News
6. Anthropic CEO says AI industry needs to slow down for safety (ABC News)
“The CEO of Anthropic said Saturday the artificial-intelligence industry should slow its fast-moving development to give safety measures time to catch up. Without it, Dario Amodei warned AI could be capable within six to 12 months of leading a swarm that could take over the entire internet, among other risks. Amodei is one of the leading voices in AI, and he offered a plan in a post on his website to increase checks on the industry, one part of which he said Anthropic is undertaking by itself already. The others would require coordination among the broad industry and with governments around the world, including authoritarian ones.
“Top Republican and Democrat in the House agreed on Sunday that Congress should put guardrails in place. Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, urged caution in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” saying that the House could not hastily pass regulations and that lawmakers needed to ensure American companies remain competitive with Chinese A.I. firms. Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said that the House should take “decisive action.”
Paging Al Einstein. Back in 1939, Leo Szilard penned, and Albert Einstein signed, a 2-page letter warning Franklin D. Roosevelt – then the president of the US – that Nazi Germany might harness nuclear research to invent an atomic bomb. The letter warned that the German government could make “extremely powerful bombs” like the kind that were eventually deployed by the US at the end of the Second World War.
This illuminates the Politician’s Syllogism. “We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.” An individual or coalition identifies a problem. Often with more rashness than thoughtfulness, this individual or coalition then coalesces around some action to be seen as addressing the problem. Finally, there is the larger push to do said thing in order to address the stated problem. This could include rent control to improve housing affordability, diversity training to promote inclusivity, or, in this instance, government intervention in technological innovation.
Enter regulatory capture, a situation in which a government agency means to protect the public but instead serves the commercial or special interests of the industry it is supposed to regulate. New rules and compliance costs create high barriers to entry. Smaller competitors and start-ups cannot afford them, leaving market incumbents safe from disruption. George Will put it like this: “It is axiomatic: When an industry begs government to regulate it, assume that it is seeking protection from threats to the status quo with which it is comfortable.”
State intervention can be a good thing, such as when Joseph oversaw the famine relief program, but that isn’t always the case. King David ordered a national census to count the fighting men of Israel. This was less a standard government function and more the act of a leader motivated by military pride rather than divine instruction. The intervention was viewed as an act of self-reliance over faith. As a result, a plague struck the nation. As David demonstrated, even the best leaders fail. True leadership is found in the space between identifying a problem and discerning a prudential solution – that may or may not involve the state. (2 Sam. 24)
5. Contractor Blames Its Own Repairs, Not Vandals, for Reflecting Pool Failure (NY Times)
“The contractor that renovated the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has told the Trump administration that errors in its own work and flaws in the repair plan, not vandalism, caused the pool’s new blue liner to peel and break loose, according to government documents reviewed by The New York Times.
“The documents, which have not previously been reported, make clear that the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, found problems in both the design and the execution of the renovation. Atlantic blamed its own errors in a report dated Aug. 14 and then provided more detail on Sept. 2, the documents show. The Justice Department, which had charged several people with vandalizing the pool in early July, began moving to dismiss the cases on July 31.”
Why is it so hard to admit when you’re wrong? A recent survey found that a majority of Americans don’t like to admit when they are wrong for a combination of 3 reasons: they hate to feel and look weak; they have deep-seated insecurities; they have an extreme need for approval from others.
Having a willingness to admit when you’re wrong is known as intellectual humility. A study out of Brigham Young University found that such humility consists of having 2 sets of skills: social and growth. Relative to social, someone who has this humility has a commitment to sincerity, honesty, and thoughtfulness. Concerning growth, this person is open, curious, and self-aware. Essentially, this person not only wants to seek after the truth but to be truthful with others.
Whether it is Hillary’s emails or pool renovations, something is wrong because it transgresses a line – regardless of which side of the aisle crosses the line. Mistakes are inevitable; confession is biblical. David made a few mistakes during his life, but those mistakes made David into a man after God’s own heart. Adam Grant put it well: “Saying "I was wrong" isn't an admission of incompetence. It's a sign that you have the humility to recognize your mistakes and the integrity to learn from them. The faster you acknowledge when you’re wrong, the faster you can move toward being right.” (2 Sam. 11, Ps. 51, 53)
4. U.K. Parliament rejects bill to allow assisted dying for the terminally ill (WaPo)
“A push in Britain to legalize assisted dying collapsed Friday with an emotional House of Commons vote to reject a bill that would have allowed the terminally ill to seek help ending their lives.The defeat leaves Britain, at least for now, outside a growing list of European countries and 14 U.S. jurisdictions that allow some form of assisted suicide.
“Lawmakers voted 286 to 270 against advancing the Terminally Ill Adults bill, which would have made it legal for the patients meeting certain criteria to acquire and self-administer a fatal injection. The defeat marks a reversal from a Commons vote last year to approve the bill by a margin of 314 to 291, underscoring the emotional volatility of the issue. The previous bill was subsequently blocked by opponents in the House of Lords, Parliament’s unelected upper chamber, who ran out the clock with more than 1,200 proposed amendments.”
Canada is killing itself, according to Elaina Plott Calabro. Today, about one in 20 Canadians who die are euthanized. In The Atlantic, Calabro highlights the rapid expansion of euthanasia: at first limited to the sickest patients, who were already at the end of life, now broadened to make the practice available even to minors. This is the story of “an ideology in motion, of what happens when a nation enshrines a right before reckoning with the totality of its logic. If autonomy in death is sacrosanct, is there anyone who shouldn’t be helped to die?”
In First Things, Matthew Burdette notes that no doctor is needed to end a life, no permission is required to commit suicide, but this movement is driven by something deeper. It’s “a perverse expression of the need for recognition. People who wish to kill themselves also want their choice to be socially approved.”
Pro-life, for all of life… Stanley Hauerwas remarked: “I’d say, in 100 years, if Christians are people identified as those who do not kill their children or their elderly, we would have been doing something right.” People aren’t a liability to be managed but an asset to be treasured. You have burdens, but soul-bearers are never a burden. (Ps. 139, Pro. 31)
Cultural News
3. Chemical Storm vs. Backseat B.O.: The Battle Over Uber Air Fresheners (WSJ)
“Getting into an Uber or Lyft has become an assault on the nostrils. Drivers pack their cars with air fresheners—and not just the dangling kind. There are puck-shaped cans hiding under seats and ones that clip to air-conditioner vents, blowing “Very Cherry” and “Hawaiian Aloha” into riders’ faces. The back seat can be a special kind of h*ll in the winter or on hot summer days, when windows are up and the only oxygen is scented.
“Drivers are just trying to keep their cars smelling good between passengers, says Chris Gerace, who’s been driving for Uber and Lyft for a decade. Riders emit all kinds of smells: smoke, vomit, alcohol, strong perfumes. “Sometimes people fart,” he said.”
“The exchange inspired TV personality Jenny McCarthy to start a social-media campaign for fragrance-free Ubers, asking her millions of followers to share a video of her in the back seat covering her nose with her shirt. “I’m not asking drivers to stop caring about how their cars smell,” she said in an email. “I’m asking Uber to give passengers a choice.”
Faith Hill insisted a Mississippi Girl Don’t Change Her Ways but we sure hope she changes her clothes every now and then… Research tells us that the sense of smell affects about 75 percent of our daily emotions. It can influence mood, memory, and even mate choice. Smell can trigger memories and is 150,000 times more sensitive than vision.
You likely suffer from nose blindness. Also referred to as nose habituation, this refers to the temporary, naturally occurring adaptation of your body that leads to an inability to detect or distinguish common scents in your surroundings. Essentially, you aren’t aware of your own brand. We have a hard time detecting our own common household odors.
Faith Hill rightly observed that A Baby Changes Everything and the research clearly shows that your smell can change some things. In the Scriptures, godliness takes on a fragrant aroma while unrighteousness functions as a repugnant odor. Our actions should draw people toward us, not cause people to steer clear of us -- including in an Uber. (2 Sam. 10, 2 Cor. 2:14-15)
News You Can Use
2. Woman widowed by 9/11 co-founds school to keep her husband's memory alive
Watch it here. “A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.” (Pro. 22:1)
1. Why so many applied to this lighthouse keeper job
Watch it here. “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.” (Ps. 62:5)
