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Category: Activities (Page 15 of 50)
Activities are gatherings that occur on a regular schedule, usually weekly, to enjoy a specific pastime.
On November 30, 2022 Open AI released a user- friendly application called ChatGPT. It
took the world by storm—within 5 days it had 1 million users and within two months that
number had exploded to 100 million. It was the fastest diffusion of a new technology in
history. Known as ”Generative AI” it can generate impressive content on almost any
subject at any level of expertise and answer almost any question with confidence in a
user- friendly way. This technology is sometimes wrong but never in doubt. Its rapid
acceptance by the public has set off an arms race among the big tech companies
(Microsoft, Google, Baidu, Alibaba, Meta) to incorporate this technology into their
products.
As an indication of its expertise and versatility ChatGPT has passed bar exams, medical
school exams and the Wharton MBA final exam.
But it also has problems: it cannot distinguish truth from falsehood, it displays bias and
never reveals its sources. Once these problems are resolved, the impact of this
technology on different kinds of jobs is likely to be enormous, potentially reducing the
marginal cost of labor to zero.
Sunil Saksena will lead a discussion on this emerging technology and whether society is
adequately prepared for this revolution.
To try ChatGPT, click this link and select “Try ChatGPT” to register.
https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/
Cathie Wood’s (ARK’s) just published research report which includes a section on AI can be downloaded via this link.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chatgpt-heralds-an-intellectual-revolution-enlightenment-artificial-intelligence-homo-technicus-technology-cognition-morality-philosophy-774331c6?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/21/podcasts/generative-ai-is-here-who-should-control-it.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Generative A.I. Is Here. Who Should Control It?
Generative A.I. Is Here. Who Should Control It?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/science/artificial-intelligence-ai-gpt3.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Meet GPT-3. It Has Learned to Code (and Blog and Argue).
Meet GPT-3. It Has Learned to Code (and Blog and Argue).
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/technology/microsoft-openai-chatgpt.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Microsoft Bets Big on the Creator of ChatGPT in Race to Dominate A.I.
Microsoft Bets Big on the Creator of ChatGPT in Race to Dominate A.I.
Without Consciousness, AIs Will Be Sociopaths
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/15/opinion/ai-chatgpt-lobbying-democracy.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
How ChatGPT Hijacks Democracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/technology/chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-universities.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach
https://www.axios.com/2023/01/18/chatgpt-ai-health-care-doctors
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GYeJC31JcM0
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/technology/chatgpt-openai-artificial-intelligence.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
How ChatGPT Kicked Off an A.I. Arms Race
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/technology/microsoft-bing-openai-artificial-intelligence.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Bing (Yes, Bing) Just Made Search Interesting Again
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/technology/ai-chatbots-disinformation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Disinformation Researchers Raise Alarms About A.I. Chatbots
AI Boom Could Make Google, Microsoft More Powerful
URBAN HIKE
STAMFORD CT
FEBRUARY 23, 2023
10:30 AM
We will meet at 10:30 in the parking lot for Harbor Point on the northwest corner of Washington and Atlantic Streets in Stamford.
(See directions below) The lot is quite large and free.
Our urban tour will take us along the West Branch of the Rippowam River past the many new apartment and office buildings looking across the river mouth at the Crab Shell and Prime Restaurants on the opposite shore. We will continue into Kosciusko Park and walk the perimeter of the park past Shippan on the opposite shore. Leaving the park we will again pass through more of the new construction and have lunch in one of the restaurants there. Our total hike will be about 2.5 miles which should take us a little less than 90 minutes.
DIRECTIONS-Since the parking lot does not have an address, the route to follow is to take I-95 south to Exit 7. Turn left onto Canal Street and then right onto Dock at the first light. Follow Dock to Atlantic and turn left. Straight ahead on Atlantic to Washington. Turn right on Washington then a quick left into the lot.
Guests and dogs on a leash are welcome!
Dave McCollum and Bob Plunkett
Recap:
The temperature was 38 degrees and a light mist was falling at 10:30 in the morning but 22 hardy DMAers and guests gathered in the Harbor Point parking lot for a hour and a half walking tour of the new South End. The area bounded by the east and west branches of the Rippowam River (“South End”) in Stamford has been redeveloped over the past several years into an impressive complex of apartments, restaurants, other retail and offices. We toured much of that new area and hiked around Kosciusko Park for a total of 2.2 miles in a little under 1.5 hours.
We paused to pose for Marilyn Parker to take the group photo but otherwise kept walking, talking and looking at the scenery.
Sixteen hikers stayed on for a burger lunch at Bareburger Restaurant which set up a long table for us. A delightful way to spend a late February morning!
Dave McCollum
Bob Plunkett
On April 12, we will turn to the world of international art. In January 1939, Pablo Picasso was renowned in Europe but disdained by many in the United States. One year later, Americans across the country were clamoring to see his art. How did the controversial leader of the Paris avant-garde break through to the heart of American culture?
The answer begins a generation earlier, when a renegade Irish American lawyer named John Quinn set out to build the greatest collection of Picassos in existence. His dream of a museum to house them died with him, until it was rediscovered by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., a cultural visionary who, at the age of 27, became the director of New York’s new Museum of Modern Art.
Barr and Quinn’s shared goal would be thwarted in the years to come—by popular hostility, by the Depression, by Parisian intrigues, and by Picasso himself. It would take Hitler’s campaign against Jews and modern art, and Barr’s fraught alliance with Paul Rosenberg, Picasso’s persecuted art dealer, to get Picasso’s most important paintings out of Europe. Mounted in the shadow of war, the groundbreaking exhibition Picasso: Forty Years of His Art would launch Picasso in America, define MoMA as we know it, and shift the focus of the art world from Paris to New York.
Picasso’s War is the never-before-told story about how a single exhibition, a decade in the making, irrevocably changed American taste, and in doing so saved dozens of the twentieth century’s most enduring artworks from the Nazis. Through a deft combination of new scholarship and vivid storytelling, Hugh Eakin shows how two men and their obsession with Picasso changed the art world forever.
On March 8 at 1:30. we will discuss a first-rate drama of mobilization and diplomacy “not unlike that of war.” When fifteen years of struggle by Suez veteran Ferdinand de Lesseps to build a canal through the Panamanian isthmus collapsed through tropical disease, logistical barriers, and financial disgrace, two Americans managed literally superlative accomplishments: moving billions of cubic yards of dirt, harnessing one of the world’s most savage rivers, developing an unprecedented lock and electrical system, and, not least, defeating the Anopheles mosquito. In an open, vigorous style, author David McCullough contrasts the manic-depressive attitudes of French and American populations and leaders toward the canal with the cool perseverance of his two heroes: the engineer John Stevens, a former common laborer who took charge of the collapsing canal project and realized that the problem was not digging but transportation; and Dr. William Gorges, who conquered malaria and yellow fever in a region where hospital rooms used to literally shake from patients’ chills.
Ironically, it was the often jingoistic “Manifest Destiny” rhetoric and the medical experience of the brutal Spanish-American War that provided Congressional backing and scientific leads for the Panama task. A further twist was the origin of the Panamanian republic which permitted the canal to go through: French adventurer Phillippe Bunau-Varilla executed a coup against Colombia in 1903 for “the greater glory of France,” then, according to McCullough, promptly put the new nation and its treasury under the wardship of the U.S. State Department and the House of Morgan, respectively. Meanwhile, viewing the French example, Congress so feared possible graft in Panama that it threw horrific red tape around the canal project. But Stevens was able to recruit the greatest engineering minds of the period – and the book is able to recapture their breakthroughs.
Free Tax Return Preparation for DMA Members: DMA’s Pat Gentile, Charles Hurty and Bert von Stuelpnagel are involved with SimplifyCT, a non-profit corporation founded as a no cost, full-service, organization to prepare and file federal and state taxes. This group of more than 50 volunteers, under the auspices of the IRS has, for many years,
helped its clients to prepare and file tax returns via both on-site personal counseling and virtually through a secure internet site.
A couple of years ago, Pat Gentile has spoken at a DMA Wednesday morning meeting about the mission and accomplishments of this organization. During the most recent counseling year more than 1,100 returns were prepared and filed at the Darien Library alone with total refunds exceeding $1.6 million, more than 25% of which arose from
credits such as for Child Care, Education and Earned Income.
While this tax preparation service is focused on seniors and low-to-moderate income households, there are no limitations on either income or age. The service is offered free of charge to all DMA members, their families and most of those filing a regular 1040 return. All counselors are fully IRS-Certified volunteers…They will guide you professionally through the maze of the many tax law changes and the substantial government benefits which have recently become law, and will prepare your Federal and State tax returns “soup to nuts.”
Local on-site counseling will be available at the Darien Library on Mondays (1:00 pm – 7:00 pm), and Fridays and Saturdays (9:00 am – 4:00 pm) starting January 23, 2023 and ending April 18, 2023. There are also a large number of service hours at the New Canaan, Norwalk and South Norwalk Libraries, and at other locations.
Appointments are required and can be made by calling (860) 590-8910 or registering through SimplifyCT’s web site ( https://simplifyct.org/ ). The virtual option can also be accessed by these means.
For any questions, text DMA member Bert von Stuelpnagel at (203) 550 -8535 or
bvonstuelpnagel@yahoo.com .
Hiking: Monday, January 30, 2023, at 10:30 a.m.: Sherwood Island State Park, Sherwood Island Connector, Westport CT
We will be walking about 3 miles through Sherwood Island State Park on mostly hard and gravel paths. Very little up and down. We will meet in the Pavilion parking lot at 10:30 AM. The Park hugs the Sound shoreline and is often quite windy. Dogs are permitted on a leash and, as always, bring anyone with you who would enjoy a one hour plus walk in a beautiful setting. We will have an optional lunch after at The Little Barn restaurant in Westport.
HISTORY
Sherwood Island State Park is the oldest state park in Connecticut dating to 1914. The island itself was first settled by Daniel Sherwood in1787 where he built a grist mill. Over the next 70 years the land was farmed by many others but around 1860 the property became known as “Sherwood’s Island”.
After the Connecticut State Park Commission was formed in 1911 the search for suitable shorefront property to buy was on. The first piece of the existing park was purchased in 1914 making this the oldest state park. The park officially opened in 1932 but not until 1950 did the Army Corps of Engineers build the jetties and extend the beaches. The Pavilion opened in 1959 and a 911 Memorial was added in 2002.
DIRECTIONS
This one is easy! Take Exit 18 off I-95 (Sherwood Island connector) and turn right towards the Sound. The road goes directly into the park. Keep straight onto the wide roundabout and take the exit marked “Pavilion Parking”. We’ll meet at the front of that lot up towards the Pavilion.
Contacts:
Recap:
Well, the third time was certainly the charm for our “hike” today at Sherwood Island! After two postponements due to rain, a baker’s dozen DMAers and guests (plus two dogs) enjoyed sunny skies and mild temperatures as we walked a little over 3 miles in an hour and a half.
The initial portion of the hike took us along the beach west before turning inland onto a loop trail through a section of forest. The trail then turns north along a field with open views of the salt marsh and finally back south towards the beach. A moving 911 Memorial sits on a point of beach facing Ground Zero where we paused to reflect and take a group photo. The remainder of the hike was eastward along the beach until we turned and headed back to the parking lot.
Following the hike, seven of us enjoyed a lunch at The Little Barn in Westport.
For our February hike we are planning a walking tour of the South End of Stamford including Kosciusko Park. Details forthcoming.
Dave McCollum
“Kissinger analyses the lives of six…leaders through the distinctive strategies of statecraft, which he believes they embodied. After the Second World War, Konrad Adenauer brought defeated and morally bankrupt Germany back into the community of nations by what Kissinger calls ‘the strategy of humility.’ Charles de Gaulle set France beside the victorious Allies and renewed its historic grandeur by ‘the strategy of will.’ During the Cold War, Richard Nixon gave geostrategic advantage to the United States by ‘the strategy of equilibrium.’ After twenty-five years of conflict, Anwar Sadat brought a vision of peace to the Middle East by a ‘strategy of transcendence.’ Against the odds, Lee Kuan Yew created a powerhouse city-state, Singapore, by ‘the strategy of excellence.’ And, though Britain was known as ‘the sick man of Europe’ when Margaret Thatcher came to power, she renewed her country’s morale and international position by ‘the strategy of conviction.'” —
Emmy award-winning International journalist Forrest Sawyer will moderate our discussion. One year ago, Russia invaded Ukraine, expecting to control the country in just days. Instead, Vladimir Putin has committed the greatest military blunder since Hitler’s defeat at Stalingrad. With NATO’s assistance, Ukraine is now on offense. Can Russia be defeated? Could the war spread, involving NATO and even nuclear weapons, or is a negotiated settlement possible? Most critically, how will the war’s end impact a world already on the brink? Join us for this important discussion
Putin’s Brain and the Ukrainian Disaster. What does the Russian Leader Really Want?
“HIKING” GREENWICH POINT PARK
MONDAY DECEMBER 12, 2022
10:30
We will be walking around Greenwich Point starting at 10:30 am.
NOTE THAT THIS START TIME IS ONE HALF HOUR LATER THAN OTHER HIKES. We will be walking about 3 miles over flat, mostly paved or packed gravel paths, which should take us about an hour and a half.
Greenwich Point is a 147 acre property owned by the Town of Greenwich which bought the property in 1945. The peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water, was the private estate of J. Kennedy Tod who purchased the property in the 1880s. Greenwich Point offers spectacular views of Manhattan and the Greenwich shoreline. It is a beautiful place to walk and only available to non-Greenwich residents (without a substantial fee) during the months of December-April.
We will assemble in the first parking lot on the right after you pass the gatehouse. Greenwich Point can be windy and cold so layer up! Dogs on a leash are permitted and, as always, bring guests.
We will have an optional lunch at a restaurant TBD.
DIRECTIONS: Google Greenwich Point Park for guidance
Contacts:
Dave McCollum
Bob Plunkett
