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You’ve probably heard AI is coming for many of our jobs. But how would you feel about getting a medical diagnosis from an AI doctor? Would you trust a verdict delivered by an AI judge? A new study of 10,000 people in 20 countries, including the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and China, found when it comes to artificial intelligence replacing human jobs, people are most concerned about AI replacing doctors and judges, and least concerned about AI replacing journalists. The findings, published in American Psychologist by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, focused on the study participants’ attitudes to AI taking over six occupations: doctors, judges, managers, caregivers, religious leaders, and journalists. Researchers looked at eight psychological traitswarmth, sincerity, tolerance, fairness, competence, determination, intelligence, and imaginationand assessed AIs potential to replicate these traits. The study’s findings suggest that when AI is introduced into a new job, people instinctively compare the human traits necessary for that job with AI’s ability to imitate them. The level of fear that study participants felt about AI taking certain jobs appeared to be directly linked to a “perceived mismatch between these human traits and AI’s capabilities.” For example, the prospect of AI-driven doctors and care workers elicited strong fears in some countries due to concerns about AIs lack of empathy and emotional understanding. But when researchers looked at widespread concerns about AI replacing human workers, they found people’s attitudes also varied widely among nations. For example, people in the U.S., India, and Saudi Arabia reported being most afraid of AI’s role in jobs, particularly of judges and doctors, reflecting concerns about fairness, transparency, and moral judgment. (AI-driven journalists were the least feared, likely because people feel that they retain autonomy over how they engage with the information provided by journalists.) However, people in China, Japan, and Turkey were least afraid of artificial intelligence overall. And other studies have found that people in China place less importance on controlling AI and more on connecting with AI compared to European Americans. They’ve also found that 47% of North Americans are worried about harmful AI, while only 25% of Southeast Asians and 11% of East Asians have similar feelings. That is due, at least in part, to different countries having different traditions of depicting AI as benevolent or malicious, as well as different historical interactions with intelligent machines. It’s also affected by people in countries having been exposed to different governmental policies about AI.
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E-Commerce
You can find plastic containers storing food in just about every grocery store. But a new study makes a strong case for never eating out of a plastic container, especially those meant to be heated, ever again. The new study, published in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, found that eating out of plastic containers, even for a short period of time, is alarmingly dangerous for heart health. The research demonstrated that particles from plastic containers were able to leach into food products, and those particles had a clear, and very fast-moving impact on changes that lead to heart failure. The study was performed in two parts. The first polled 3,000 people on their plastic exposure and heart disease status. The second part studied rats after they ingested water that had been boiled in plastic containers. In the first part of the study, researchers found a strong correlation between people who had more exposure to plastic, such as eating out of plastic containers, and a risk for developing congestive heart failure. The subjects with higher plastic exposure were 13% more likely to develop the heart condition. In part two of the study, researchers studied rat’s feces after ingesting the water for a three-month period. They found that both their gut biome had been altered and their heart tissue was damaged. The water was boiled for different intervals: one minute, five minutes, and 15 minutes. But it didn’t seem to matter how long the water had been boiled, either. Even the shorter exposure time heeded the negative results for the rats. “The results indicated that ingestion of these leachates altered the intestinal microenvironment, affected gut microbiota composition, and modified gut microbiota metabolites, particularly those linked to inflammation and oxidative stress,” the study found. “Additionally, this exposure resulted in damage to the heart muscle tissue of the rats, alongside increased markers of myocardial injury, inflammation, and oxidative stress.” Past studies have raised concerns about the risks that come with plastic containers. Plastics contain endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) like bisphenol A (BPA), phthalates (PAEs) and plasticizers, which are linked to higher CVD risk,” the study researchers cited from an earlier study. However, the new study, which showed just how quickly heart health can be impacted by plastic exposure has the study authors advising to be vigilant about avoiding eating from plastic containers. The authors say more research is needed but noted in the study that in order “to prevent ongoing harm from plastic products to human health, it is essential to avoid using plastic containers for high-temperature food, reduce the use of plastic products in daily life, and implement timely plastic pollution control measures.”
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E-Commerce
Wikipedia has faced political threats for years, but this time, it may be at a breaking point. Republicans have ramped up attacks against Wikipedia as yet another “woke” institution. Leaked documents from The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank that, show a plan for exposing specific Wikipedia editors. In January, Elon Musk, the billionaire-turned-government-efficiency-czar, called the online library an extension of legacy media propaganda. (He also once offered to pay $1 billion for the site if it changed its name to Dickipedia.) Conservatives have long accused Wikipedia of political prejudice. (And it’s not just staunch Republicans: Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger, who has never publicly identified himself as a Republican, turned on the digital library almost immediately after leaving in 2002, claiming it had a top-down left-wing bias.) In 2006, critic Andrew Schlafly even founded his own iteration of the site, Conservapedia. That conversation of bias continued for the following 20 years, and conservative think tanks have continually pumped out reports about Wikipedias supposed liberal tilt. Musk is in the middle of the latest controversy But those were complaints, not attacks. Now, Musk and the MAGA movement could effectively kill Wikipedia. This cycle started with Musks inauguration arm-raise, which his Wikipedia page said was compared to a Nazi salute, but added that Musk denied any meaning behind the gesture. That particular entry sent Musk into a tirade on his social media platform X, first posting about Wikipedia as propaganda, and later saying that we should defund it. (Wikipedia is supported by individual and corporate donationsnot federal funds.) Wikipedias cofounder Jimmy Wales shot back: I think Elon is unhappy that Wikipedia is not for sale. While Musk is the public face of the latest crusade, there’s been plenty of behind-the-scenes discussion about Wikipedia. According to documents obtained by Forward, The Heritage Foundation aims to target not just Wikipedia, but the sites editors. These individual contributors often work under online pseudonyms but, using strategies like digital fingerprinting and edit-tracking, The Heritage Foundation seems to promote finding these editors’ real-life identities. It’s still unclear how The Heritage Foundation would use the information tracked, but the idea of being targeted itself could spook editors off the platform. These threats have Wikimedia executives worried. According to 404 Media, the leaders hosted a series of calls in the past few weeks about their ongoing political struggles, with Wales saying that he’s “keeping an eye on the rising noise of criticism from Elon Musk and others.” Considering that The Heritage Foundation was behind Project 2025the legislative blueprint that has made its way into the White House during Trump’s second termtheir fears may be justified. Wikipedia at the center of language politics The left has gotten in some jabs against Wikipedia, too. Liberals have struggled with the site’s glacial conversations around potential edits to sensitive subjects. Should Ernest Hemingways trans daughter be referred to as Gloria or their birth name, Gregory? Should the term “squaw,” which the federal government deemed derogatory, be removed from the names of notable locations? These conversations can take weeks. Pro-Palestine activists have also been frustrated with the sites language surrounding Israel. Our politics has centralized around language. The left and the right have spent years squabbling over just which words are appropriatebut now, under Trump, the right is turning that fight into legislative shutdowns. Any site that traffics in words is under threat, from the online databases that Trump has shut down to the trans terminology Trump scrubbed from the Stonewall Monument. The culture wars have come for our public information sources. And Wikipedia is on the chopping block.
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E-Commerce
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