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The Canadian Press – Sep 25, 2023 / 6:13 am | Story: 448595

The Associated Press – Sep 25, 2023 / 6:11 am | Story: 448594

Photo: The Canadian Press

Oil prices have risen, meaning drivers are paying more for gasoline and truckers and farmers more for diesel.

The increase also complicates the global fight against inflation and feeds Russia’s war chest. That poses problems for politicians as well as the people having to spend more to get to work, transport the world’s goods or harvest fields.

Here are things to know about the recent increase — and where prices might be going:

Above all, Saudi Arabia’s decision to cut back how much oil it sends to global markets has pushed prices higher.

The world’s second-largest oil supplier has slashed production by 1 million barrels a day since July and decided this month to extend the cut through the end of the year.

Russia, Saudi Arabia’s ally in the OPEC+ oil producers’ coalition, also extended its own cut of 300,000 barrels a month through 2023.

Simply, tighter supply means higher prices.

International benchmark Brent oil traded at just under $94 per barrel Monday, up from $90 before the extension on Sept. 5 and from $74 before the Saudi cut was first announced. U.S. oil traded at around $90.50, up from $68 before the Saudi cut.

Some analysts think oil could hit $100 a barrel based on robust demand and limited supply. But that’s far from the only view.

Oil prices can be volatile, and while they might briefly top $100 in the coming months, they’re unlikely to stay there, said Jorge Leon, senior vice president for oil markets at Rystad Energy. He foresees prices in the low $90s on average in the last three months of the year.

That’s still high historically, he said, supported by “resilient” demand for fuel to drive and fly.

The Saudi cuts were a unilateral move outside the framework of the OPEC+ alliance, meaning the kingdom can make changes as needed to quickly respond to shifting market conditions.

Leon said the Saudis will review the cuts each month — and could add barrels back if prices spike to levels that could seriously worsen inflation in countries buying oil. Excessive price increases could mean central banks worldwide hike interest rates further or keep them higher for longer.

“I don’t think it will be clever for the Saudis to push that hard,” Leon said. “The last thing you want to do is fuel inflation again with much higher oil prices. That’s going to kill economic growth, and lower growth is going to mean lower oil demand at the end of the day.”

A big question is demand for fuel, which is picking up along with rebounding travel following the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. A robust U.S. economy increases demand for oil — and the price — while weak growth in China and Europe has the opposite effect.

“We see the upside potential for the oil price as being virtually used up and if anything envisage setback potential in view of the weak economy,” said Thu Lan Nguyen, Commerzbank head of commodities research who foresees oil at $85 per barrel by year’s end. “The oil price is only likely to climb more lastingly once the economic outlook begins to brighten, which should be the case next year.”

Another factor is financial speculation, and it appears investors are piling into the oil market with bets that prices will rise.

“Much of the price surge beyond $85 per barrel is due to a flood of speculative money, while fundamentally there is still plenty of oil in the world to meet demand for now,” said Gary Peach, oil markets analyst at Energy Intelligence.

Plus, more Iranian oil may come on the market as the U.S. “turns a blind eye” on enforcing sanctions to keep prices from rising further, Leon said. That could add 200,000 to 300,000 barrels a day.

Costlier oil feeds through to higher prices for gasoline and diesel, especially in the U.S., where roughly half the pump price reflects the cost of crude — the rest is marketing, taxes and other costs.

Crude is a smaller share of gasoline and diesel prices in Europe because fuel taxes are much higher there.

Average U.S. pump prices are still well below the record $5 per gallon seen in summer 2022. But at $3.85 per gallon, they’re still up 15 cents from a year ago. Oil costs are keeping gas prices high even as driving demand drops with the end of summer vacations and plentiful gasoline stocks, according to auto club AAA.

Diesel prices have risen as well, along with higher oil costs and refineries facing shortages of the specific kinds of crude best for making diesel. Refineries also are choosing to produce jet fuel instead, chasing profits as air travel rebounds. A gallon of diesel cost $4.58 last week, up from $4.34 a month ago.

That hurts farmers, who use a lot of diesel, and adds to the price of consumer goods transported by truck, which is pretty much everything.

Diesel supplies got even tighter Friday after Russia said it would halt the export of refined oil products to hold down fuel prices at home.

Oil is Russia’s main moneymaker, so higher prices help the Kremlin pay for its invasion of Ukraine and weather sweeping Western sanctions aimed at crushing its wartime economy.

The recent rise in oil prices, along with a cutback in the discount that sanctions forced Russia to offer Asian customers, means Moscow will earn “significantly more revenue from those exports,” said Benjamin Hilgenstock, senior economist at the Kyiv School of Economics.

The additional revenue could reach an estimated $17 billion this year and $33 billion next year, he said in an online talk hosted by the Brussels-based European Policy Center.

Russia has lost some $100 billion in oil revenue following a European Union import ban and a $60-per-barrel price cap imposed by the Group of Seven major economies, which bars Western insurers and shippers from handling oil priced above that level.

Russia, however, has increasingly found ways around the cap, including using a fleet of ghost tankers masking their ownership and origin of the crude they carry.

Any additional export earnings help support Russia’s currency and what it can import — including weapons components.

U.S. President Joe Biden has faced criticism from Republican lawmakers to encourage more oil drilling and scrap his support for electric vehicles.

But that criticism largely overlooks the rise in U.S. oil production over the past year. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that oil production averaged 12.8 million barrels a day in June, up 1 million barrels from 12 months ago, close to the levels achieved before the pandemic began in 2020.

Biden has said he considers oil production essential to keep the economy going as a bridge to a future with EVs and renewable energy.

Still, the White House views the oil market worldwide as being undersupplied, in line with recent OPEC data that indicates there will likely be a worldwide shortfall of 3 million barrels a day. The administration is also in touch with domestic and international producers on longtime supply needs, trying to ensure that the risk of higher oil prices does not disrupt economic growth.

The Canadian Press – Sep 25, 2023 / 6:07 am | Story: 448593

Unifor says the pattern has been set with the ratification by workers of a new contract at Ford Motor Co. of Canada.

The union says it will now choose either General Motors or Stellantis as the next target company in its contract talks with the big U.S. auto companies.

The Ford deal is expected to serve as a blueprint for those negotiations.

Unifor announced Sunday that workers voted 54 per cent in favour of the new three-year collective agreement at Ford.

The deal includes wage hikes, pension and benefit improvements and special EV transition measures for workers at Ford’s assembly plant in Oakville, Ont.

It also adds two new paid holidays.

Jennifer Peltz, The Associated Press – Sep 24, 2023 / 9:37 pm | Story: 448577

Photo: The Canadian Press

Spain’s President Pedro Sanchez, addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023, at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Just a few years ago, artificial intelligence got barely a mention at the U.N. General Assembly’s convocation of world leaders.

But after the release of ChatGPT last fall turbocharged both excitement and anxieties about AI, it’s been a sizzling topic this year at diplomacy’s biggest yearly gathering.

Presidents, premiers, monarchs and cabinet ministers convened as governments at various levels are mulling or have already passed AI regulation. Industry heavy-hitters acknowledge guardrails are needed but want to protect the technology’s envisioned benefits. Outsiders and even some insiders warn that there also are potentially catastrophic risks, and everyone says there’s no time to lose.

And many eyes are on the United Nations as perhaps the only place to tackle the issue at scale.

The world body has some unique attributes to offer, including unmatched breadth and a track record of brokering pacts on global issues, and it’s set to launch an AI advisory board this fall.

“Having a convergence, a common understanding of the risks, that would be a very important outcome,” U.N. tech policy chief Amandeep Gill said in an interview. He added that it would be very valuable to reach a common understanding on what kind of governance works, or might, to minimize risks and maximize opportunities for good.

A CONVERSATION THAT IS GAINING MOMENTUM

As recently as 2017, only three speakers brought up AI at the assembly meeting’s equivalent of a main stage, the “ General Debate.” This year, more than 20 speakers did so, representing countries from Namibia to North Macedonia, Argentina to East Timor.

Secretary-General António Guterres teased plans to appoint members this month to the advisory board, with preliminary recommendations due by year’s end — warp speed, by U.N. standards.

Lesotho’s premier, Sam Matekane, worried about threats to privacy and safety, Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal about potential misuse of AI, and Icelandic Foreign Minister Thórdís Kolbrún R. Gylfadóttir about the technology “becoming a tool of destruction.” Britain hyped its upcoming “AI Safety Summit,” while Spain pitched itself as an eager host for a potential international agency for AI and Israel touted its technological chops as a prospective developer of helpful AI.

Days after U.S. senators discussed AI behind closed doors with tech bigwigs and skeptics, President Joe Biden said Washington is working “to make sure we govern this technology — not the other way around, having it govern us.”

And with the General Assembly as a center of gravity, there were so many AI-policy panel discussions and get-togethers around New York last week that attendees sometimes raced from one to another.

“The most important meetings that we are having are the meetings at the U.N. — because it is the only body that is inclusive, that brings all of us here,” Omar Al-Olama, the United Arab Emirates’ minister for artificial intelligence, said at a U.N.-sponsored event featuring four high-ranking officials from various countries. It drew such interest that a half-dozen of their counterparts offered comments from the audience.

Tech industry players have made sure they’re in the mix during the U.N.’s big week, too.

“What’s really encouraging is that there’s so much global interest in how to get this right — and the U.N. is in a position to help harmonize all the conversations” and work to ensure all voices get heard, says James Manyika, a senior vice president at Google. The tech giant helped develop a new, artificial intelligence-enabled U.N. site for searching data and tracking progress on the world body’s key goals.

LOTS OF PEOPLE TALKING, BUT PERHAPS A SLOW PROCESS

But if the United Nations has advantages, it also has the challenges of a big-tent, consensus-seeking ethos that often moves slowly. Plus its members are governments, while AI is being driven by an array of private companies.

Still, a global issue needs a global forum, and “the U.N. is absolutely a place to have these conversations,” says Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, a political risk advisory firm.

Even if governments aren’t developers, Gill notes that they can “influence the direction that AI takes.”

“It’s not only about regulating against misuse and harm, making sure that democracy is not undermined, the rule of law is not undermined, but it’s also about promoting a diverse and inclusive innovation ecosystem” and fostering public investments in research and workforce training where there aren’t a lot of deep-pocketed tech companies doing so, he said.

The United Nations will have to navigate territory that some national governments and blocs, including the European Union and the Group of 20 industrialized nations, already are staking out with summits, declarations and in some cases regulations of their own.

Ideas differ about what a potential global AI body should be: perhaps an expert assessment and fact-establishing panel, akin to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or a watchdog like the International Atomic Energy Agency? A standard-setting entity similar to the U.N.’s maritime and civil aviation agencies? Or something else?

There’s also the question of how to engender innovation and hoped-for breakthroughs — in medicine, disaster prediction, energy efficiency and more — without exacerbating inequities and misinformation or, worse, enabling runaway-robot calamity. That sci-fi scenario started sounding a lot less far-fetched when hundreds of tech leaders and scientists, including the CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, issued a warning in May about “the risk of extinction from AI.”

An OpenAI exec-turned-competitor then told the U.N. Security Council in July that artificial intelligence poses “potential threats to international peace, security and global stability” because of its unpredictability and possible misuse.

Yet there are distinctly divergent vantage points on where the risks and opportunities lie.

“For countries like Nigeria and the Global South, the biggest issue is: What are we going to do with this amazing technology? Are we going to get the opportunity to use it to uplift our people and our economies equally and on the same pace as the West?” Nigeria’s communications minister, Olatunbosun Tijani, asked at an AI discussion hosted by the New York Public Library. He suggested that “even the conversation on governance has been led from the West.”

Chilean Science Minister Aisén Etcheverry believes AI could allow for a digital do-over, a chance to narrow gaps that earlier tech opened in access, inclusion and wealth.

AN INTRICATE PATH FORWARD, BUT WITH CLEAR UPSIDES

But it will take more than improving telecommunications infrastructure. Countries that got left behind before need to have “the language, culture, the different histories that we come from, represented in the development of artificial intelligence,” Etcheverry said at the U.N.-sponsored side event.

Gill, who’s from India, shares those concerns. Dialogue about AI needs to expand beyond a “promise and peril” dichotomy to “a more nuanced understanding where access to opportunity, the empowerment dimension of it … is also front and center,” he said.

Even before the U.N. advisory board sets a detailed agenda, plenty of suggestions were volunteered amid the curated conversations around the General Assembly. Work on global minimum standards for AI. Align the various regulatory and enforcement endeavors around the globe. Look at setting up AI registries, validation and certification. Focus on regulating uses rather than the technology itself. Craft a “rapid-response mechanism” in case dreaded possibilities come to pass.

From Dr. Rose Nakasi’s vantage point, though, there was a clear view of the upsides of AI.

The Ugandan computer scientist and her colleagues at Makerere University’s AI Lab are using the technology to streamline microscopic analysis of blood samples, the gold-standard method for diagnosing malaria.

Their work is aimed at countries without enough pathologists, especially in rural areas. A magnifying eyepiece, produced by 3D printing, fits cellphone cameras and takes photos of microscope slides; AI image analysis then picks out and identifies pathogens. Google’s charitable arm recently gave the lab $1.5 million.

AI is “an enabler” of human activity, Nakasi said between attending General Assembly-related events.

“We can’t be able to just leave it to do each and every thing on its own,” she said. “But once it is well regulated, where we have it as a support tool, I believe it can do a lot.”

Kelvin Chan, The Associated Press – Sep 24, 2023 / 6:55 am | Story: 448461

Photo: The Canadian Press

Employees of German startup OroraTech stand in front of a screen showing wildfires in Canada and the United States via satellites in Munich, Germany on Sept. 13, 2023.

Wildfires fuelled by climate change have ravaged communities from Maui to the Mediterranean this summer, killing many people, exhausting firefighters and fuelling demand for new solutions. Enter artificial intelligence.

Firefighters and startups are using AI-enabled cameras to scan the horizon for signs of smoke. A German company is building a constellation of satellites to detect fires from space. And Microsoft is using AI models to predict where the next blaze could be sparked.

With wildfires becoming larger and more intense as the world warms, firefighters, utilities and governments are scrambling to get ahead of the flames by tapping into the latest AI technology — which has stirred both fear and excitement for its potential to transform life. While increasingly stretched first responders hope AI offers them a leg up, humans are still needed to check that the tech is accurate.

California’s main firefighting agency this summer started testing an AI system that looks for smoke from more than 1,000 mountaintop camera feeds and is now expanding it statewide.

The system is designed to find “abnormalities” and alert emergency command centers, where staffers will confirm whether it’s indeed smoke or something else in the air.

“The beauty of this is that it immediately pops up on the screen and those dispatchers or call takers are able to interrogate that screen” and determine whether to send a crew, said Phillip SeLegue, staff chief of intelligence for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The cameras, part of a network that workers previously had to watch, provide billions of bytes of data for the AI system to digest. While humans still need to confirm any smoke sightings, the system helps reduce fatigue among staffers typically monitoring multiple screens and cameras, alerting them to look only when there’s possible fire or smoke, SeLegue said.

It’s already helped. A battalion chief got a smoke alert in the middle of the night, confirmed it on his cellphone and called a command center in San Diego to scramble first responders to the remote area.

The dispatchers said that if they hadn’t been alerted, the fire would have been much larger because it likely wouldn’t have been noticed until the next morning, SeLegue said.

San Francisco startup Pano AI takes a similar approach, mounting cameras on cell towers that scan for smoke and alert customers, including fire departments, utility companies and ski resorts.

The cameras use computer vision machine learning, a type of AI.

“They’re trained very specifically to detect smoke or not, and we train them with images of smoke and images of not smoke,” CEO Sonia Kastner said.

The images are combined with feeds from government weather satellites that scan for hotspots, along with other data sources, such as social media posts.

The technology gets around one of the main problems in the traditional way of detecting wildfires — relying on 911 calls from passers-by that need confirmation from staffers before crews and water-dropping planes can be deployed.

“Generally, only one in 20 of these 911 calls are actually a wildfire. Even during fire season, it might be a cloud or fog or a barbecue,” Kastner said.

Pano AI’s systems do still rely on final confirmation, with managers playing a time lapse of the camera feed to ensure it’s smoke rising.

For fighting forest fires, “technology is becoming really essential,” said Larry Bekkedahl, senior vice president of energy delivery at Portland General Electric, Oregon’s largest utility and a Pano AI customer.

Utility companies sometimes play a role in sparking wildfires, when their power lines are knocked down by wind or struck by falling trees. Hawaii’s electric utility acknowledged that its power lines started a devastating blaze in Maui this summer after apparently being downed by high winds.

PGE, which provides electricity to 51 cities in Oregon, has deployed 26 Pano AI cameras, and Bekkedahl said they have helped speed up response and coordination with emergency services.

Previously, fire departments were “running around looking for stuff and not even really knowing exactly where it’s at,” he said. The cameras help detect fires quicker and get teams on the ground faster, shaving up to two hours off response times.

“That’s significant in terms of how fast that fire can can spread and grow,” Bekkedahl said.

Using AI to detect smoke from fires “is relatively easy,” said Juan Lavista Ferres, chief data scientist at Microsoft.

“What is not easy is to have enough cameras that cover enough places,” he said, pointing to vast, remote areas in northern Canada that have burned this summer.

Ferres’ team at Microsoft has been developing AI models to predict where fires are likely to start. They have fed the model with maps of areas that burned previously, along with climate and geospatial data.

The system has its limitations — it can’t predict random events like a lightning strike. But it can sift through historical weather and climate data to identify patterns, such as areas that are typically drier. Even a road, which indicates people are nearby, is a risk factor, Ferres said.

“It’s not going to get it all perfectly right,” he said. “But what it can do is it can build a probability map (based on) what happened in the past.”

The technology, which Microsoft plans to offer as an open source tool, can help first responders trying to figure out where to focus their limited resources, Ferres said.

Another company is looking to the heavens for a solution. German startup OroraTech analyzes satellite images with artificial intelligence.

Taking advantage of advances in camera, satellite and AI technology, OroraTech has launched two mini satellites about the size of a shoebox into low orbit, about 550 kilometres above Earth’s surface. The Munich-based company has ambitions to send up eight more next year and eventually put 100 into space.

As wildfires swept central Chile this year, OroraTech said it provided thermal images at night when aerial drones are used less frequently.

Weeks after OroraTech launched its second satellite, it detected a fire near the community of Keg River in northern Alberta, where flames burned remote stretches of boreal forest repeatedly this summer.

“There are algorithms on the satellite, very efficient ones to detect fires even faster,” CEO Thomas Gruebler said.

The AI also takes into account vegetation and humidity levels to identify flare-ups that could spawn devastating megafires. The technology could help thinly stretched firefighting agencies direct resources to blazes with the potential to cause the most damage.

“Because we know exactly where the fires are, we can see how the fires will propagate,” Gruebler said. “So, which fire will be the big fire in one day and which will stop on their own.”

Maddie Burakoff And Laura Ungar, The Associated Press – Sep 24, 2023 / 6:35 am | Story: 448459

Photo: The Canadian Press

For much of history, Homo sapiens lived alongside other kinds of ancient humans and even mated with some of them. 

What does it mean to be human?

For a long time, the answer seemed clear. Our species, Homo sapiens — with our complex thoughts and deep emotions — were the only true humans to ever walk the Earth. Earlier forms, like the Neanderthals, were thought to be just steps along the path of evolution, who died out because we were better versions.

That picture is now changing.

In recent years, researchers have gained the power to pull DNA from ancient hominins, including our early ancestors and other relatives who walked on two legs. Ancient DNA technology has revolutionized the way we study human history and has quickly taken off, with a constant stream of studies exploring the genes of long-ago people.

Along with more fossils and artifacts, the DNA findings are pointing us to a challenging idea: We’re not so special. For most of human history we shared the planet with other kinds of early humans, and those now-extinct groups were a lot like us.

“We can see them as being fully human. But, interestingly, a different kind of human,” said Chris Stringer, a human evolution expert at London’s Natural History Museum. “A different way to be human.”

What’s more, humans had close — even intimate — interactions with some of these other groups, including Neanderthals, Denisovans and “ghost populations” we only know from DNA.

“It’s a unique time in human history when there are only one of us,” Stringer said.

A WORLD WITH MANY HOMININS

Scientists now know that after H. sapiens first showed up in Africa around 300,000 years ago, they overlapped with a whole cast of other hominins, explained Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program.

Neanderthals were hanging out in Europe. Homo heidelbergensis and Homo naledi were living in Africa. The short-statured Homo floresiensis, sometimes known as the “Hobbit,” was living in Indonesia, while the long-legged Homo erectus was loping around Asia.

Scientists started to realize all these hominins weren’t our direct ancestors. Instead, they were more like our cousins: lineages that split off from a common source and headed in different directions.

Archaeological finds have shown some of them had complex behaviors. Neanderthals painted cave walls, Homo heidelbergensis hunted large animals like rhinos and hippos, and some scientists think even the small-brained Homo naledi was burying its dead in South African cave systems. A study last week found early humans were building structures with wood before H. sapiens evolved.

Researcher also wondered: If these other kinds of humans were not so different, did our ancestors have sex with them?

For some, the mixing was hard to imagine. Many argued that as H. sapiens ventured out of Africa, they replaced other groups without mating. Archaeologist John Shea of New York’s Stony Brook University said he used to think of Neanderthals and H. sapiens as rivals, believing “if they bumped into each other, they’d probably kill each other.”

DNA REVEALS ANCIENT SECRETS

But DNA has revealed there were other interactions, ones that changed who we are today.

In 2010, the Swedish geneticist Svante Paabo and his team pieced a tricky puzzle together. They were able to assemble fragments of ancient DNA into a full Neanderthal genome, a feat that was long thought to be impossible and won Paabo a Nobel Prize last year.

This ability to read ancient DNA revolutionized the field, and it is constantly improving.

For example, when scientists applied these techniques to a pinky bone and some huge molars found in a Siberian cave, they found genes that didn’t match anything seen before, said Bence Viola, an anthropologist at the University of Toronto who was part of the research team that made the discovery. It was a new species of hominin, now known as Denisovans, who were the first human cousins identified only by their DNA.

Armed with these Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes, scientists could compare them to people today and look for chunks of DNA that match. When they did, they found clear signs of crossover.

THE NEW HUMAN STORY

The DNA evidence showed that H. sapiens mated with groups including Neanderthals and Denisovans. It even revealed evidence of other “ghost populations” — groups who are part of our genetic code, but whose fossils we haven’t found yet.

It’s hard to pin down exactly when and where these interactions happened. Our ancestors seem to have mixed with the Neanderthals soon after leaving Africa and heading into Europe. They probably bumped into the Denisovans in parts of East and Southeast Asia.

“They didn’t have a map, they didn’t know where they were going,” the Smithsonian’s Potts said. “But looking over the next hillside into the next valley, (they) ran into populations of people that looked a bit different from themselves, but mated, exchanged genes.”

So even though Neanderthals did look distinct from H. sapiens — from their bigger noses to their shorter limbs — it wasn’t enough to create a “wall” between the groups, Shea said.

“They probably thought, ‘Oh, these guys look a little bit different,’” Shea said. “‘Their skin color’s a little different. Their faces look a little different. But they’re cool guys, let’s go try to talk to them.’”

COMPLEX NEANDERTHALS

The idea that modern humans, and particularly white humans, were the pinnacle of evolution came from a time of “colonialism and elitism,” said Janet Young, curator of physical anthropology at the Canadian Museum of History.

One Neanderthal painting, created to reflect the vision of a eugenics advocate, made its way through decades of textbooks and museum displays.

The new findings have completely upended the idea that earlier, more ape-like creatures started standing up straighter and getting more complex until they reached their peak form in H. sapiens, Young said. Along with the genetic evidence, other archaeological finds have shown Neanderthals had complex behaviors around hunting, cooking, using tools and even making art.

Still, even though we now know our ancient human cousins were like us — and make up part of who we are now — the idea of ape-like cave men has been hard to dislodge.

Artist John Gurche is trying. He specializes in creating lifelike models of ancient humans for museums, including the Smithsonian and the American Museum of Natural History, in hopes of helping public perception catch up to the science.

Skulls and sculptures gazed out from the shelves of his studio earlier this year as he worked on a Neanderthal head, punching pieces of hair into the silicone skin.

Bringing the new view to the public hasn’t been easy, Gurche said: “This caveman image is very persistent.”

For Gurche, getting the science right is crucial. He has worked on dissections of humans and apes to understand their anatomy, but also hopes to bring out emotion in his portrayals.

“These were once living, breathing individuals. And they felt grief and joy and pain,” Gurche said. “They’re not in some fairyland; they’re not some fantasy creatures. They were alive.”

MANY CONNECTIONS STILL TO BE FOUND

Scientists can’t get useful genetic information out of every fossil they find, especially if it’s really old or in the wrong climate. They haven’t been able to gather much ancient DNA from Africa, where H. sapiens first evolved, because it has been degraded by heat and moisture.

Still, many are hopeful that as DNA technology keeps advancing, we’ll be able to push further into the past and get ancient genomes from more parts of the world, adding more brushstrokes to our picture of human history.

Because even though we were the only ones to survive, the other extinct groups played a key role in our history, and our present. They are part of a common humanity connecting every person, said Mary Prendergast, a Rice University archeologist.

“If you look at the fossil record, the archeological record, the genetic record,” she said, “you see that we share far more in common than what divides us.”

David Koenig, The Associated Press – Sep 23, 2023 / 11:35 am | Story: 448384

Photo: The Canadian Press

UAW members cheer as employees walkout from the General Motors’ Fort Worth Parts Distribution Center, on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, in Roanoke, Texas. 

Even after escalating its strike against Detroit automakers on Friday, the United Auto Workers union still has plenty of leverage in its effort to force the companies to agree to significant increases in pay and benefits.

Only about 12% of the union’s membership is so far taking part in the walkout. The UAW could, if it chose to, vastly expand the number of strikers who could hit assembly plants and parts facilities of General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, the owner of the Jeep and Ram brands.

Yet the UAW’s emerging strategy also carries potentially significant risks for the union. By expanding its strike on Friday from three large auto assembly plants to all 38 parts distribution centers of GM and Ford, the UAW risks angering people who might be unable to have their vehicles repaired at service centers that lack parts.

The union’s thinking appears to be that by striking both vehicle production and parts facilities, it will force the automakers to negotiate a relatively quick end to the strike, now in its second week. To do so, though, some analysts say the union might have to act even more aggressively.

“We believe the next step for UAW is the more nuclear option — going for a much more widespread strike on the core plants in and around Detroit,” said Daniel Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities. “That was would be a torpedo.”

All three companies said that talks with the union continued on Saturday, though officials said they expected no major announcements.

The union began its walkout two weeks ago by striking three assembly plants — one each at GM, Ford and Stellantis. In expanding the strike on Friday, the UAW struck only the parts-distribution centers of GM and Stellantis. Ford was spared from the latest walkouts because of progress that company has made in negotiations with the union, said UAW President Shawn Fain.

Striking the parts centers is designed to turn up pressure on the companies by hurting dealers who service vehicles made by GM and Stellantis, the successor to Fiat Chrysler. Service shops are a profit center for dealers, so the strategy could prove effective. Millions of motorists depend on those shops to maintain and repair their cars and trucks.

“It severely hits the dealerships, and it hurts the customers who purchased those very expensive vehicles in good faith,” said Art Wheaton, a labor expert at Cornell University. “You just told all your customers, ‘Hey we can’t fix those $50,000 to $70,000 cars we just sold you because we can’t get you the parts.’ ”

The union has declined to discuss its strike strategy publicly. Fain has said repeatedly that a critical part of its plan is to keep the companies guessing about the UAW’s next move. Indeed, the union has shown unusual discipline in sticking to its talking points.

On a picket line Friday, Fain was asked whether striking against the spare-parts centers would hurt — and potentially alienate — consumers.

“What has hurt the consumers in the long run is the fact the companies have raised prices on vehicles 35% in the last four years,” he shot back. “It’s not because of our wages. Our wages went up 6%, the CEO pay went up 40%. “

Selling parts and performing service is highly profitable for car dealers. AutoNation reported a gross profit margin of 46% from service shops at its dealerships last year.

To make up for the loss of striking workers, the companies are weighing their options, including staffing the parts warehouses with salaried workers.

“We have contingency plans for various scenarios and are prepared to do what is best for our business and customers,” said David Barnas, a GM spokesman. “We are evaluating if and when to enact those plans.”

Similarly, Jodi Tinson, a Stellantis spokeswoman, said, “We have a contingency plan in place to ensure we are fulfilling our commitments to our dealers and our customers.” She declined to provide additional details.

In negotiating with the companies, the union is pointing to the carmakers’ huge recent profits and high CEO pay as it seeks wage increases of about 36% over four years. The companies have offered a little over half that amount.

The companies have said they cannot afford to meet the union’s demands because they need to invest profits in a costly transition from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles. They have dismissed out of hand some of the demands, including 40 hours’ pay for a 32-hour work week.

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press – Sep 22, 2023 / 11:18 am | Story: 448228

Artificial intelligence and increased automation can help lessen the load for workers at a time when Canada faces a labour shortage in the construction and manufacturing sector.

That’s one of the messages being shared at this year’s Canadian Manufacturing Technology Show taking place in Toronto next Monday to Thursday. The annual event is put on by SME, formerly the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, which represents various players in North America’s manufacturing industry.

Combatting misconceptions about AI is one of the challenges facing the industry, especially as new technology becomes increasingly necessary, said Julie Pike, senior director of event strategy for SME.

“The human level to resist change is always there,” she said, noting that some in the industry often fear new technology is being ushered in to replace jobs rather than alleviate their workloads.

“As organizations set up technologies that allow systems that are normally produced by humans to be more streamlined, we can free up human capital,” said Pike.

“We can free up our time and resources to grow those areas further so you do have a job.”

Last year, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters’ annual labour survey showed that labour and skills shortages resulted in nearly $13 billion of economic losses. Sixty-two per cent of the 563 manufacturers surveyed said they have lost or turned down contracts due to a lack of workers, resulting in $7.2 billion in lost sales.

A separate report released in June by KPMG Canada found nine in 10 Canadian construction companies are dealing with a shortage of skilled labour or trades amid unprecedented demand.

The survey of 275 construction companies found digital technology was widely viewed as a solution to addressing those shortages. But respondents said Canada’s construction industry has been slow to adopt new digital technologies, with nearly three-quarters feeling the sector lags behind other countries in that regard.

“A large portion of our organizations are small-to-medium-sized companies and they’re really in varying stages on this pursuit of adapting and adopting (AI) into their processes and operations that will ultimately help them from an efficiency side, cost savings, improvements and the like,” said Pike.

She pointed to the story of Massimiliano Moruzzi, one of this year’s keynote speakers at the conference and CEO of intelligent automation startup Xaba.

The Toronto-based company, launched last year, uses an AI platform to enable the creation of a fully functional robotic car chassis that understands the properties of carbon fibre and is capable of calculating and controlling the material’s variables on its own.

Using industrial AI software, he said robots designed by Xaba can take on tasks such as welding, drilling, assembling and additive manufacturing — eliminating the need for extra programming expenses and time-consuming trial-and-error efforts.

“A big missing point in the automation industry, in the AI bridging to the automation … was the lack of a synthetic brain,” he said.

“We’ve developed a synthetic brain for the automation industry — for robotics and machines as well. We built the robot at Xaba and then we built the brain of the robot. We saw the machine responding completely differently to us. In essence, we saw the machine unlocking capacity.”

Moruzzi said the technology is different from existing AI solutions as it allows real people to work with a machine “that can talk to you and use its own knowledge to help solve the business challenges you face” — as opposed to performing tasks in place of a human.

“Current mechanization is … removing the job. You have robots that are spreading the jam on your bread, like a human does today,” he said.

“That’s the problem that we have. They are not creating jobs, they are not creating anything new. They’re creating something that we have already known for ages. We have to go away from that.”

Pike said industry leaders are focusing on educating their peers on how AI can help them at a time when there are simply not enough workers available to handle every task that companies need to get done.

“The truth is it’s hard to build and fly the plane or drive the car at the same time,” she said.

“So how do we help manufacturers and industry at large adapt and continue to be productive at the same time?”