Philosophy Eats AI

Generating sustainable business value with AI demands critical thinking about the disparate philosophies determining AI development, training, deployment, and use. Michael Schrage and David Kiron January 16, 2025 Reading Time: 32 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images In 2011, coder-turned-venture-investor Marc Andreessen famously declared, “Software is eating the world”…

The EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement: Is it time to revive talks on a Canada-Mercosur Agreement?

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:12 mins read

Context Reports out of Washington indicate that the United States is poised to impose “universal” tariffs (that is, tariffs on imports from all its trading partners) on health care and other “critical” goods on the basis of “national security”. This would or could – the situation remains “fluid/uncertain”, as reported…

Video AI Enhancing Physical Security While Preserving Privacy: Battery Leads Coram AI’s Series A

  • Post category:Battery Ventures
  • Reading time:5 mins read

Physical security is a universal requirement for all organizations, which in the U.S. alone deploy an estimated 85 million security cameras to monitor their premises against threats and crime.  Yet almost all the exabytes of video data generated by these cameras serve no purpose: They vastly exceed the attentive capacity…

Navigating the new geopolitical uncertainty

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:13 mins read

Business leaders today confront a changing world order: intensifying regional conflicts, rising instability, and potential shifts in trade relationships and policy. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Cindy Levy and Shubham Singhal, global coleaders of McKinsey’s geopolitics work, speak with global editorial director Lucia Rahilly about how leaders can orient…

Sarah Soule appointed dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business

Sarah A. Soule, a scholar of organizational behavior who has held multiple leadership roles at Stanford, will be the next dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford Provost Jenny Martinez announced today.Soule, the Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior, has been a member of the GSB faculty since 2008…

Second Circuit Revives New York Reproductive Health Bias Law’s Notice Requirement for Employee Handbooks

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:5 mins read

Quick Hits The Second Circuit has revived a requirement that New York employers include in employee handbooks a notice informing employees of their right to be free from discrimination or retaliation based on their [the employees’] or their dependents’ reproductive health decisions. The ruling also revived a First Amendment challenge…

Canada’s first deep geological repository site is selected

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:6 mins read

On Nov. 28, 2024, the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) announced that the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation (WLON) and the township of Ignace in the province of Ontario were selected as host communities for a repository to be constructed on Revell Lake. The NWMO began its search in 2010 and initially…

Managing Emotions at Work After the Inauguration

  • Post category:Civility Partners
  • Reading time:5 mins read

Next week marks the presidential inauguration, a time that often stirs strong emotions in the workplace. Excitement, disappointment, frustration, or even anxiety can find their way into daily interactions. Employees may consciously or unconsciously bring their political wins or losses into the office, and if left unchecked, these emotions can…

A fitness agenda for government: Cultivating organizational health in the US public sector

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:11 mins read

Government agencies often undertake complex missions that can have a large impact on society. Whether they involve modernizing infrastructure or establishing nationwide health programs, such missions could be described as “big, hairy, audacious goals”—the term coined by management experts Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book Built to Last.…

Indian farmers’ optimism is driving interest in new products

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:3 mins read

Indian farmers expect better near-term prospects following a year of steady output and multiple years of market and weather-related disruptions. About three-quarters of farmers (76 percent) say they anticipate higher profits over the next two years, with more than 65 percent citing improved yields and higher crop prices as catalysts.…

Cambridge leads governmental project to understand impact of smartphones and social media on young people

The work has been commissioned by the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology after a review by the UK Chief Medical Officer in 2019 found the evidence base around the links to children’s mental health were insufficient to provide strong conclusions suitable to inform policy.The project – led…

Analytical AI: A Better Way to Identify the Right AI Projects

The allure of generative AI is undeniable, but it should not eclipse the proven capabilities of analytical AI. Consider a better way to ideate on the best AI projects for your organization. Pedro Amorim, Teresa Bianchi de Aguiar, Luís Guimarães, Bernardo Almada-Lobo, and Bruno Teixeira January 15, 2025 Reading Time:…

Firms that use AI systems for any purpose: It’s time to make a to-do list

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:8 mins read

Through the publication of CSA Staff Notice and Consultation 11-348 Applicability of Canadian Securities Laws and the Use of Artificial Intelligence Systems in Capital Markets (the AI Staff Notice), the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) have put registered firms on notice that using AI in virtually any fashion may trigger additional…

The Lessons for CEOs in the Turmoil at the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times

This commentary originally appeared in Chief Executive. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, like Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, faced staff revolts, prominent resignations and thousands of readers canceling their subscriptions when his paper suddenly decided to drop political endorsements.‌ CEOs do make bold choices and reverse prior positions as…

Poised for take-off: Hyperscaling the United Kingdom’s climate tech

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:17 mins read

By the numbers, the United Kingdom’s start-up technology ecosystem has a lot to be proud of. By value, it is the largest in Europe, employing over three million people and surpassing $1 trillion in valuation in 2024. Much of start-up technology investment in the United Kingdom goes to climate technology…

The Global Health Network reaches 1 million members

Every day, millions suffer from preventable and treatable diseases that disproportionately affect underserved communities. At the same time, the threat of the next global outbreak looms large. The Global Health Network is transforming how these challenges are met by empowering all levels of healthcare workers with the skills, tools, and…

Reform the justice system to save democracy, says David Sklansky

When he was a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles in the 1990s, Stanford Law School Professor David Sklansky often participated in the selection of juries. “I would hear potential jurors talk about their views about criminal justice, the police, and about crime in their neighborhoods, and I was repeatedly struck…

Not a United Front: How the Nordic Countries Are Promoting the Collective Security Agenda for the Baltic Sea and Arctic Regions Within NATO

The events of February 2022 provoked a sharp change in rhetoric among the authorities of the Nordic states and pushed two countries that had not previously planned to join the alliance to take more decisive action. Thus, it can be said that from their point of view, NATO has become…

Frequently Asked Questions About the New Jersey Data Protection Act, Effective January 15, 2025

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:4 mins read

Quick Hits The New Jersey Data Protection Act (NJDPA) takes effect on January 15, 2025, as New Jersey joins eighteen other states with comprehensive data privacy laws. The NJDPA defines a “consumer” as a New Jersey resident acting in an individual or household context, excluding those acting in commercial or…

New interpretation of the Canada Health Act

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:7 mins read

Introduction On Jan. 10, 2025, the federal Minister of Health released long-awaited guidance on the delivery of insured health care services pursuant to the Canada Health Act (the CHA). The Honourable Mark Holland, Federal Minister of Health (the Minister), issued a letter clarifying the Government’s position that patients should not…

Exploring an uncertain future with the help of scenarios

15 January 2025By Matteo Ciccarelli, Matthieu Darracq Pariès, Bettina Landau and João SousaCentral banks project future developments based on past data patterns and a set of assumptions. Crises can change economic structures, complicating this forecasting. The ECB Blog explains how scenario, risk and sensitivity analyses address the new uncertainty.We use…

Last starlight for ground-breaking Gaia

Launched on 19 December 2013, Gaia’s fuel tank is now approaching empty – it uses about a dozen grams of cold gas per day to keep it spinning with pinpoint precision. But this is far from the end of the mission. Technology tests are scheduled for the weeks ahead before…

New Year, New Penalties: OSHA and USEPA Increase Penalties

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:3 mins read

Seyfarth Synopsis: The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) have published their 2025 increases to civil penalties. We have blogged previously about the annual adjustments to the maximum civil penalty dollar amounts for OSHA and EPA violations. The agencies have now finalized the 2024…

Trump and Fear: the new alliance between mercantilism and geopolitics

  • Post category:Credit Agricole
  • Reading time:10 mins read

Transactions vs. manipulation The first stage is media manipulation: what little protest Western governments have raised has been weak. There is a mix of explanations for this apparent apathy, the first of which is outright shock. At the heart of the Trump playbook (as demonstrated by many things Trump has…

As dengue cases rise, research points to a simple solution: trash cleanup

As cases of dengue fever skyrocketed globally this past year, new findings by Stanford researchers and their international collaborators underscore the importance of one measure that can significantly reduce disease risk: cleaning up trash. Dengue fever is a viral illness spread through mosquito bites. While cases can be asymptomatic, many people…

FTC Announces 2025 Hart-Scott-Rodino Act Thresholds and Filing Fees

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:3 mins read

On January 10, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the 2025 threshold for applying the size-of-parties test of the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act will increase from $119.5 million to $126.4 million. Deals that exceed this $126.4 million threshold may need to be reported to the FTC and U.S. Department of…

FAQs Provide Details on Workforce Demographic Reporting for Massachusetts Employers

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:4 mins read

Quick Hits Massachusetts issued new FAQs containing details for employers on how they can meet their obligations when reporting wage data pursuant to the state’s new pay transparency law. Employers in Massachusetts will need to submit workforce demographic information to the state each year under a new law. Covered employers…

What’s in the Price?

  • Post category:INSEAD Knowledge
  • Reading time:7 mins read

“Am I too late?” This is the question that plagues traders trying to make gains from “novel” information. After all, there is always a chance that the signal that they are about to trade on has already been priced in by the market. When speculators contemplate trading based on a particular…

BMI, blood pressure and physical activity levels in childhood linked to brain differences

Obesity, hypertension (high blood pressure) and physical inactivity are known to be cardiovascular risk factors for dementia in middle age but, so far, little is known about these links between heart and brain health much earlier in life.Researchers led by a team at the University of Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry,…

The State of Luxury: How to navigate a slowdown

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:7 mins read

Over the past five years, the luxury industry experienced a period of exceptional value creation. Between 2019 and 2023, unprecedented demand for personal luxury goods—fashion, leather goods, watches, and jewelry among them—combined with a deep well of supply allowed the sector to achieve a 5 percent compound annual growth rate.…

The ‘value now’ consumer: Making sense of US consumer sentiment and spending

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:14 mins read

In McKinsey’s latest ConsumerWise research, consumers report feeling more optimistic about the US economy than they have all year. Even so, US consumer optimism overall is still lower than prepandemic levels, and more than half of consumers (53 percent) report mixed feelings or being pessimistic about the state of the economy.For…

Turbocharging Organizational Learning With GenAI

Topics How to Maximize the Business Value of Generative AI The promise of generative AI is value — higher revenue, streamlined efficiencies, and more innovative decision-making. Achieving this value isn’t easy. Maximizing it is even harder. This MIT SMR Executive Guide offers expert insights into the strategies needed to get…

Oxford researchers develop blood test to enable early detection of multiple cancers

Named TriOx, this innovative test analyses multiple features of DNA in the blood to identify subtle signs of cancer, which could offer a fast, sensitive and minimally invasive alternative to current detection methods.The study, published in Nature Communications, showed that TriOx accurately detected cancer (including in its early stages) across…

The Art of Delegation

  • Post category:INSEAD Knowledge
  • Reading time:8 mins read

Consider this man. He takes daily post-lunch naps and frequently dozes off in a lounge chair after dinner. He spends his afternoons at home rather than at the office, tending to his garden and golfing. He spends months away from work on vacation. He prides himself on avoiding “hustling”. “I’m…

Charting the path to patients

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:16 mins read

Life sciences is on the cusp of a new era of innovation. The convergence of breakthrough technologies, widespread access to data, and deeper insights into complex biological systems is revolutionizing how the industry approaches R&D. For instance, venture capital funding for machine-learning-enabled drug discovery surged more than sevenfold from 2019…

External innovation: Biopharma dealmaking to boost R&D productivity

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:12 mins read

The competition among biopharmaceutical companies for externally sourced assets is heating up. Despite recent successes delivering innovative therapies at a faster pace and achieving solid returns for shareholders, demand persists across a range of unmet needs. And yet, companies are increasingly pursuing the same disease areas and targets. This “herding”…

Building a shared vision for pharma R&D–supplier partnerships

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:9 mins read

Innovation is flourishing in the biopharmaceutical industry. Over the past decade, the volume of Phase I candidates in the drug development pipeline has grown by 60 percent, promising potential breakthroughs in treating a wide range of diseases. At the same time, there has been a noticeable shift across the industry…

Yuhki Yamashita on ‘user love’ as the fuel for product-led growth

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:16 mins read

In this episode of McKinsey on Building Products, McKinsey partner Rikki Singh sits down with Yuhki Yamashita, chief product officer at Figma, a company that provides collaborative online design tools. With a career in product and design at companies of all sizes, Yamashita has an approach to product development that…

Michael Froman on the business implications of geopolitics

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:11 mins read

Power politics. Wars. Trade battles. Climate change. Pandemics. Geopolitics is increasingly influencing how businesses operate, pushing senior leaders to look well beyond the walls of the corner office. Council on Foreign Relations president Michael Froman has spent his career bridging these worlds, from senior positions in the administrations of Presidents…