The tyranny of simple genetic testing?

https://www.bespacific.com/genetic-discrimination-is-coming-for-us-all/

Genetic Discrimination Is Coming for Us All

The Atlantic: [unpaywalled] “Insurers are refusing to cover Americans whose DNA reveals health risks. It’s perfectly legal… Studies have shown that people seek out additional insurance when they have increased genetic odds of becoming ill or dying. “Life insurers carefully evaluate each applicant’s health, determining premiums and coverage based on life expectancy,” Jan Graeber, a senior health actuary for the American Council of Life Insurers, said in a statement. “This process ensures fairness for both current and future policyholders while supporting the company’s long-term financial stability.” But it also means people might avoid seeking out potentially lifesaving health information. Research has consistently found that concerns about discrimination are one of the most cited reasons that people avoid taking DNA tests… In aggregate, such information can be valuable to companies, Nicholas Papageorge, a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University, told me. Insurers want to sell policies at as high a price as possible while also reducing their exposure; knowing even a little bit more about someone’s odds of one day developing a debilitating or deadly disease might help one company win out over the competition. As long as the predictions embedded in polygenic risk scores come true at least a small percentage of the time, they could help insurers make more targeted decisions about who to cover and what to charge them. As we learn more about what genes mean for everyone’s health, insurance companies could use that information to dictate coverage for ever more people…”

I want to blow this up to wall size…

https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/hype-cycle-for-artificial-intelligence

Explore Beyond GenAI on the 2024 Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence

Generative AI (GenAI) receives much of the hype when it comes to artificial intelligence. However, the technology has yet to deliver on its anticipated business value for most organizations.

The hype surrounding GenAI can cause AI leaders to struggle to identify strong use cases, unnecessarily increasing complexity and the potential for failure. Organizations looking for worthy AI investments must consider a wider range of AI innovations — many of which are highlighted in the 2024 Gartner Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence.

Language continues to devolve.

https://www.bespacific.com/punctuation-is-dead-because-the-iphone-keyboard-killed-it/

Punctuation is dead because the iPhone keyboard killed it

“Apple sacrificed commas and periods at the altar of simplified keyboard design. Android Authority’s Rita El Khoury argues that the decline in punctuation use and capitalization in social media writing, especially among younger generations, can largely be attributed to the iPhone keyboard. “By hiding the comma and period behind a symbol switch, the iPhone keyboard encourages the biggest grammar fiends to be lazy and skip punctuation,” writes El Khoury. She continues: Pundits will say that it’s just an extra tap to add a period (double-tap the space bar) or a comma (switch to the characters layout and tap comma), but it’s one extra tap too many. When you’re firing off replies and messages at a rapid rate, the jarring pause while the keyboard switches to symbols and then switches back to letters is just too annoying, especially if you’re doing it multiple times in one message. I hate pausing mid-sentence so much that I will sacrifice a comma at the altar of speed. […]  The real problem, at the end of the day, is that iPhones — not Android phones — are popular among Gen Z buyers, especially in the US — a market with a huge online presence and influence. Add that most smartphone users tend to stick to default apps on their phones, so most of them end up with the default iPhone keyboard instead of looking at better (albeit often even slower) alternatives. And it’s that same keyboard that’s encouraging them to be lazy instead of making it easier to add punctuation.  So yes, I blame the iPhone for killing the period and slaughtering the comma, and I think both of those are great offenders in the death of the capital letter. But trends are cyclical, and if the cassette player can make a comeback, so can the comma. Who knows, maybe in a year or two, writing like a five-year-old will be passe, too, and it’ll be trendy to use proper grammar again.”