Podcast Summary
Mint Mobile discounts unlimited premium plan, The Economist shares podcast success stories, and Nagorno Karabakh faces humanitarian crisis: Mint Mobile offers $15/month unlimited premium plan for new customers, The Economist highlights award-winning podcasts and announces new service, Nagorno Karabakh faces food shortages amid escalating tensions
Mint Mobile is offering a significant discount on their unlimited premium wireless plan, bringing it down to just $15 a month for new customers for the next three months, with a one-time fee of $45. This reverse auction-style pricing strategy is aimed at helping consumers navigate inflation. Meanwhile, in the world of technology and podcasting, The Economist reflects on its 16-year history in the medium, sharing success stories like Money Talks, which has won multiple awards for its business and finance reporting, and Babbage, which has covered advances in AI since before the recent chat GPT frenzy. The Economist also shares updates on their own podcasting journey, announcing the launch of a new podcast service coming next month. In international news, the region of Nagorno Karabakh is facing a humanitarian crisis due to a blockade, with many at risk of starvation, and tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan continuing to escalate.
The Economist Introduces Paid Subscription Model for Some Podcasts: The Economist is introducing a paid subscription model for some of its podcasts, called Economist Podcast Plus, to fund ambitious plans and provide high-quality journalism for €24 per year, less than a monthly cup of coffee.
The Economist is introducing a paid subscription model for some of its podcasts, called Economist Podcast Plus. This move comes as the publication seeks to fund its ambitious plans for podcasting and provide high-quality journalism to its listeners at a fair price. While some podcasts, such as The Intelligence, will remain free, subscribers will have access to a wider range of podcasts, including specialist shows and new series, for a special launch price of €24 per year, which is less than the cost of a cup of coffee per month. The Economist believes that the quality of its podcast journalism will encourage subscribers to pay for access, despite the abundance of free content elsewhere. The publication has seen a significant increase in podcast audience over the past three years, and it aims to continue producing top-notch journalism in this medium.
The Economist shifts towards a subscription-based podcast model: The Economist is confidently moving towards a subscription-based model for its podcasts, offering exclusive content and benefits for subscribers, including new series and in-depth reporting.
The Economist, with over 5 million monthly podcast listeners, is confidently moving towards a subscription-based model for its podcasts, following the success of its written journalism. This shift is expected to provide listeners with even more high-quality content, including new series like "Boss Class" and "Weekend Intelligence," as well as exclusive access for existing subscribers. These offerings aim to provide in-depth reporting and interviews, offering value beyond the free podcasts. To access these additional benefits, both new and existing subscribers can sign up on The Economist's website, with an introductory offer of a few dollars or pounds a month. This move towards a subscription model is a natural progression for The Economist, as they believe their podcasts are worth paying for and are an essential part of their journalism.
Exclusive tools, insights, and solutions from partnerships: Effective partnerships can provide businesses with valuable resources and solutions, while diplomacy is crucial for resolving conflicts and ensuring civilians' well-being
In today's business landscape, having the right partnerships can make all the difference. As highlighted in the discussion about Bank of America, businesses, regardless of size or location, can benefit from exclusive digital tools, valuable insights, and powerful solutions that help them capitalize on opportunities. On a different note, the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno Karabakh region has led to a humanitarian crisis, with a blockade imposed by Azerbaijan causing starvation in the region. The blockade is a hard bargaining tool used by Azerbaijan to push for ultimate control of the region and its ethnically Armenian population. The situation underscores the importance of diplomacy and finding peaceful solutions to conflicts, especially when the lives and well-being of civilians are at stake.
Humanitarian Crisis Escalates in Nagorno-Karabakh due to Azerbaijani Blockade: The blockade imposed by Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh has led to a severe humanitarian crisis, with food, fuel, and medicine becoming scarce, and diplomatic negotiations stalled due to disagreements over road openings and trust issues.
The ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region has reached a critical point due to a blockade imposed by Azerbaijan. The blockade has led to a severe humanitarian crisis in the region, with food, fuel, and medicine becoming scarce. The Armenians, who control the region, are unwilling to cede control due to fears of forced displacement and lack of trust in Azerbaijani assurances of equal rights. Diplomatic negotiations have stalled, with disagreements over the sequencing of opening roads into the region. The situation has become increasingly dire, with reports of deaths and sicknesses due to malnutrition and lack of access to critical medical care. The international community, including the EU and Russia, are trying to broker a deal, but trust remains a major issue.
Political instability in Nagorno Karabakh: Computer scientist Douglas Leonard aimed to teach computers to understand human context, but disambiguation proved a major challenge, requiring going back to the start of a sentence for clarity.
The situation in Nagorno Karabakh remains uncertain and tense, with no independent journalists or foreigners allowed in since 2020. Indications suggest internal power struggles among the political elite regarding acceptance of Azerbaijani aid. The recent resignation of the de facto president further complicates matters. Regarding the unrelated anecdote about Douglas Leonard and his experience with a trash truck, the key takeaway is Leonard's long-standing effort to teach computers to think more like humans. He developed a system called psych, which involved feeding the machine simple rules about the world. The main challenge he faced was disambiguation, or determining the meaning of words in context. This required going back to the beginning of a sentence and ensuring clarity. Leonard and his team estimated it would take decades to train a computer to think in this way.
Douglas Leonard's rule-based AI system Psyche and its potential to augment human intelligence: Douglas Leonard's AI, Psyche, may not have been sentient but it aimed to enhance human intelligence by offering arguments and understanding emotions, inspiring future generations to view pre-AI generations as less advanced.
The development of artificial intelligence (AI) is a complex and ongoing process. One researcher, Douglas Leonard, had dedicated thousands of person-years to creating a rule-based AI system called Psyche. However, he was faced with the rising popularity of machine learning, which uses vast amounts of data for computers to find their own rules and patterns. Leonard was determined to continue his work, believing that combining both approaches could lead to an AI that is both fast and subtle. He was inspired by the novels of Isaac Asimov and aimed to create an AI that could enhance human intelligence and creativity. While Leonard's AI, Psyche, could offer arguments and understand human emotions, its main value to him was its potential to augment human intelligence, leading future generations to view pre-AI generations as less advanced. Leonard's creation may not have been sentient, but he saw it as a tool to make humans smarter and more creative. The ongoing debate between rule-based and machine learning approaches to AI highlights the complexity and evolving nature of this field.
Discussions on AI concerns and Economist Podcast Plus: AI researcher Mustafa Suleiman discusses societal concerns in machine learning, Economist launches a new podcast subscription, and businesses can benefit from partnering with Bank of America.
In the latest episode of The Intelligence, Mustafa Suleiman, a leading researcher, discussed the concerns societies should have regarding the new age of AI. This conversation took place in the context of machine learning, both supervised and unsupervised. The Economist is launching a new subscription, Economist Podcast Plus, next month, which will give subscribers access to their full suite of podcasts, including weekly specialist shows and a new weekend show. For those who aren't Economist subscribers yet, they can sign up before October 17th for a year-long subscription at half the price. In other news, businesses, whether local or global, could benefit significantly from partnering with Bank of America. This partnership offers exclusive digital tools, award-winning insights, and powerful business solutions to help businesses capitalize on opportunities quickly.
