The model powering ChatGPT and other large language models exhibit a form of "covert racism" against speakers of African American English (AAE), according to a new study published in the journal Nature. This hidden bias, which researchers refer to as "dialect prejudice," persists even when race is not explicitly mentioned, raising concerns about the potential for AI to perpetuate and amplify real-world discrimination. "In our experiments, we avoided overt mentions of race but drew from the...

Majority Of Americans Can No Longer Afford An Average House Housing affordability in the United States has taken a sharp turn for the worse in recent years, as house prices surged to historical highs during and after the pandemic and mortgage rates have risen steeply over the past three years, as the Fed tried to rein in inflation. It all began with a surge in demand for houses during the Covid-19 pandemic, when many Americans, flush with cash from government stimulus checks, reevaluated their...

French prosecutors told CNN they have requested more information from Switzerland over allegations that Telegram founder Pavel Durov conducted “acts of violence” against one of his children. Irina Bolgar, the former partner of the Russian-born billionaire and the child’s mother, made the claims against Durov. She filed a legal complaint in a court in Geneva, Switzerland, in March 2023. Bolgar told CNN she had a relationship with Durov between early 2013 and 2022 and that they had three children...

Ten months after a man’s wife passed away, he finally got the courage to read a letter she left him, which contained a devastating admission. The 4-year-old son they had together may not be his.“My ‘darling’ wife passed away 10 months ago,” the man wrote on Reddit’s Off My Chest forum. “She wrote a letter for me before she died, but I couldn’t bring myself to read it until now. She told me how sorry she was that she didn’t have the guts to tell me this to my face when she was alive.”In the letter, the wife revealed that there was a “good chance” that the son he thought was his wasn’t his biological child. A few weeks before their wedding day, the wife got drunk at her bachelorette party and had a one-night stand with another man. Soon after that night, she became pregnant but was unsure who the father was.The man was torn whether or not to have the paternity test done. The child had only one parent in this world, and he would have to take care of him regardless. He also thought it was cowardly that his former wife would wait until she was no longer around to share the truth with him.“So she thought she’d rather drop this bomb on my life when I could no longer confront her about it,” the man wrote. “Now that my son would only have one parent looking out for him, and she’d have no idea how I would even react. Maybe I should not have got the paternity test done. Maybe it might be better to live in ignorance. But I just had to know.”The man took the paternity test and learned he wasn’t the child’s biological father.“I’m devastated. This doesn’t change how I feel about my son,” he wrote. “He’s my whole world and he’s innocent. But boy, does it hurt. There’s so much going on in my head right now. I haven’t stopped crying. Thank god my son is at my parents' place for the day. I’d hate for him to see me like this.”Facing a pain nearly too much for him to bear, the only outlet he had at the moment was reaching out to Reddit to find some solace. “I just needed to let this all out. Don’t have it in me to tell anyone in my life about this right now,” he wrote.The commenters send him hundreds of messages of support to get him through the shock of first learning the truth about his family.The most popular message was straightforward and honest. "All your feelings are valid, a lot of people will react with some kind of toxic positivity to things like these. Your feelings are valid. Each and everyone," femunndsmarka wrote.Another commenter added that someday, his son will appreciate how he stepped up and did what was right in a very trying circumstance. “He is going to find out the truth one day. Imagine how much more he will love you knowing you didn’t leave him, even though he wasn’t yours,” ImNotGoodatThis6969.Another commenter provided valuable insight from the son’s perspective."As an adopted child, I just want to thank you on behalf of your son. I deeply believe it changes nothing, family is not about blood, its about who you love, want to have by your side, and care for the most. Sending hugs, strength and gratitude," Mariuuq wrote.The father at the heart of this story is understandably devastated because his life was upended almost overnight. But the hope in the story is that his trials also taught him a powerful truth—his love for his son goes much deeper than blood.This article originally appeared on 9.28.23

Many people dream of somehow being able to pay their parents back for the sacrifices made for them during childhood. Whether that’s something physical, like paying off their mortgage, or simply being the best version of ourselves to make them absolutely proud. For Lindsay Moore, it was finding a “prized possession” her dad once gave up to help the family, and returning it to him once again.Moore still vividly remembers being only seven years old when she saw her father walk into a comic book store to sell a Dan Marino rookie football card from his first season with the Miami Dolphins.In a now-viral TikTok, Moore’s father is seen reliving this memory as he holds onto a Christmas bag and a family member reads a card out loud."Money was tight, so you were selling your most prized possession – at least I viewed it as that," Moore wrote. "I felt your sacrifice and it taught me that I would do whatever necessary to ensure my future family never needed anything. It was a lesson that has stuck with me since that moment." It was also the moment she became “determined” to pay her father back. Cut to thirty years later, and her father is her Secret Santa. It was the perfect opportunity to fulfill that promise."I will never be able to fully repay that debt," her note continued. "Seven-year-old me would be so elated to see that I finally fulfilled that promise I made to myself. Thank you for everything." As he listened, Moore’s dad began tearing up. Sure enough, he opened his gift to see it was the cherished card he sold all those years ago. The video concludes as Moore and her father enjoy a warm embrace. @lindseyswagmom Im not crying, you’re crying ♬ original sound - Lindsey Moore The sweet exchange certainly struck a chord online. “When he started crying I LOST IT,” one person wrote. Another added, “Something about bringing a grown man to tears always gets me.” A few parents shared their own stories of sacrificing prized possessions. “As someone who has sold his prized Gretzky rookie to provide for his kids, I appreciate and respect this a lot,” commented one person. “Just had to sell my signature MacKinnon jersey to pay bills. Sucked so much but kid comes first,” echoed another.On the flip side, some shared their one experience of getting to repay their parents. One wrote:“I got to do this for my mom last year. She won a [Dolce & Gabbana] purse one year at work and sold it to buy my prom dress and never thought twice. She never [got] name brand anything. So this year I took her to get her very first name brand fancy hand bag or her picking, my treat.” But perhaps the best comment belonged to this person, who astutely pointed out: “The card wasn't the real gift to him. It was hearing his impact on you. Priceless.” We might not all get to reclaim what our parents sacrificed. And that’s okay. There are so many other ways to share just how much of a positive impact they made on our lives. Even saying how much we appreciate them can be an invaluable reward. Yes. Really. This article originally appeared on 12.23.23

Reading is a fundamental tool of learning for most people, which is why it's one of the first things kids learn in school and why nations set literacy goals.But even those of us who are able to read fluently might sometimes struggle with the act of reading itself. Perhaps we don't read as quickly as we wish we could or maybe our minds wander as our eyes move across the words. Sometimes we get to the end of a paragraph and realize we didn't retain anything we just read. People with focus or attention issues can struggle with reading, despite having no actual reading disabilities. It can be extremely frustrating to want to read something and have no issues with understanding the material, yet be unable to keep your mind engaged with the text long enough to get "into" what you're reading.But what if there were a font that could help you stay focused? That could help you not only read faster but better retain what you've just read?That's what the creators of Bionic Reading claim is possible with their font tool."Bionic Reading revises texts so that the most concise parts of words are highlighted," the Swiss company's website reads. "This guides the eye over the text and the brain remembers previously learned words more quickly."Give it a try:The gist is that our eyes don't need to focus on the entire word because our brains can fill in the rest for us. By bolding the first part of the word, we're more quickly able to move from word to word. "Bionic Reading aims to play a supporting role in the absorption of volume text," states the website. "We see technological progress as an opportunity for all those who want to increase the pleasure of reading in a noisy and hectic world in a focused way and without distraction."While there are no studies cited on this method of reading, there are plenty of anecdotes about it being helpful. The example shared by @WhattheADHD on Twitter got people's attention and many people responded with enthusiasm at how much easier the bionic reading text was for them to read. "This is amazing! I have ADHD and I didn’t even realize that I was having trouble fixating when I read," wrote one person. "My eye latches right on to the bold face. Can’t wait to try reading a book again. It’s been all audiobooks for a while.""It's incredible how reading this feels like finally unlocking 100% of your brain," wrote another. However, not everyone was impressed or thrilled with the sample. Some people said that they had a harder time reading the bionic text or that it distracted or slowed them down. Both positive and negative responses came from a diverse pool of people. Some who described themselves as neurodivergent said that they loved it and some said it was harder. The same went for people who said they were neurotypical, so it's hard to say who this tool may specifically help the most. Everyone's brains work differently, and different people will find different things helpful. Bionic reading might be a game-changer for some, but it's not the only tool of its kind. There are speed-reading programs that train you to stop reading each word and allow your brain to read visually instead of auditorily. There are also various methods of making reading easier by adjusting how your eyes move across the text. For instance, check out this "space reading" technique:Bionic Reading has a free text converter on its website that you can use to try out its font changes. A YouTube clip from the company also shows possibilities for how the font can be adjusted to individual preferences, making more or less of the initial letters bolded. And again, if this doesn't work for you, then it's probably not made for you. For people who struggle with reading, something like Bionic Reading could make a huge difference. Three cheers for technology being used to help people overcome difficulties and make learning easier and more efficient.This article originally appeared on 5.30.22.

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