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Azerbaijan – Armenia: Can the South Caucasus Become a Region of Peace?

The multidirectional geopolitical interests of regional and external players, which directly influence the difficult socio-political transformations in the region, keep us from being optimistic about the rapid transformation of the South Caucasus into a zone of peace – even if some document on the normalisation of relations between Baku and Yerevan has formally acquired legal status, Andrei Areshev writes. In September 2023, Azerbaijan restored military and administrative control over the…

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AI data drop: The 11-by-11 tipping point

Since we first introduced Copilot to our earliest customers, we’ve been closely studying how people are using AI at work—what’s going well, where there are challenges, and what early behaviors can teach us about adopting and rolling out AI broadly. And we want to share what we’re learning with leaders who are looking to drive AI adoption with their own people. Up first: the findings we call “the 11-by-11 tipping…

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Investment market update: February 2024

While many economies are still struggling with high inflation there are signs that the pace is starting to slow, which could pave the way for interest rate cuts later this year. To reflect this, the OECD has lifted its 2024 global growth forecast by 0.3%, when compared to the end of 2023, to 2.9%. However, the international organisation warned that central banks should ensure underlying price pressures were “fully contained”…

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Hope and optimism on the rise among young people

Overall, this year’s #BeeWell survey results, which analysed data on young people from across all 14 Local Authorities in Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton, found that young people are generally satisfied with their lives. However, there are noteworthy inequalities in life satisfaction, mental wellbeing and emotional difficulties across gender and sexuality. 41.2% of young people who identify as lesbian or gay reported a high level of…

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Clinical trial underway to treat ultra-rare genetic disease with possible link to leader of mutiny on the Bounty

A clinical trial to look at repurposing the UK-licensed medicine deferiprone for patients with the ultra-rare genetic disease neuroferritinopathy has launched today at the University of Cambridge.Neuroferritinopathy is a progressive and incurable brain disorder caused by changes in a gene that produces a specific protein - ferritin light chain protein. This change leads to the build-up of iron in the brain. The disease usually appears in middle-aged adults and causes…

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Why it’s Getting Harder for Some Women to Report Harassment

The United Nations Women found that about 1 in every 3 women has been sexually harassed at work. 3 out of 4 of them never report it to a manager, HR or anyone else. Imagine a world where every woman is treated with the respect and dignity she deserves. Unfortunately, our reality falls short of this ideal.  Instead, women face a multitude of challenges, ranging from verbal abuse to physical…

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Dead Ends of Madness

Alas, the world is on fire. And this fire is only growing. For some reason, it seems that we don’t have enough firefighters. But there are plenty of arsonists. When we look at what is happening in the modern world and reflect on the behaviour of its various elites, it seems that a significant proportion of them are in a state of permanent madness or hysteria, leading to the inability…

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Global Economics Intelligence executive summary, February 2024

Consumers remain upbeat as retail sales in the main economies show steady growth, despite elevated prices (Exhibit 1). Growing sentiment in the US saw the Consumer Confidence Index (Conference Board) rise to 114.8 in January, up from a revised 108.0 in December. By contrast, consumer confidence in Brazil dropped to its lowest level since May 2023 but is still 5.0 points higher than in January 2023. US retail and food…

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‘Invisible assistant’ takes notes for clinicians

Stanford Medicine integrates AI-powered listening technology that takes notes for health care providers, allowing them to spend more time with patients and less time on administrative tasks. - By Hanae Armitage Technology that listens to conversations and takes notes allows allows health care providers to focus on the patient rather than on documentation. Clinicians at Stanford Health Care will soon have access to an AI-powered app that can securely listen…

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Return-to-Office Mandates: How to Lose Your Best Performers

Topics Column Our expert columnists offer opinion and analysis on important issues facing modern businesses and managers. More in this series subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Recent return-to-office (RTO) mandates like those at UPS and Boeing have a simple message: Come back to the office five days a week. CEOs cite productivity as a core reason for these proclamations, even in the face of employee resistance.…

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Upcoming Client Webinar: Charting the Course: AI’s Influence on Legal Practice and IP Protection

On Wednesday, March 20, Seyfarth attorneys Rebecca Woods, Owen Wolfe, Lauren Leipold, and Puya Partow-Navid will present and Ken Wilton will moderate, the first session of the 2024 Commercial Litigation Outlook webinar series: Charting the Course: AI’s Influence on Legal Practice and IP Protection. Time of the event:1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern About the Program Our esteemed panel of experts will explore the intricate intersections of AI technology, legal…

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A worrying 2 in 5 wealthy individuals have fallen victim to a financial scam

A recent survey reported by Professional Adviser revealed that 2 in 5 wealthy individuals have been the victim of financial crime. Of the 2,000 people with assets worth more than £250,000 who were surveyed, 41% of them reported they had been scammed, with more than a third saying they had fallen victim in the last six months. 20% of the victims lost money through investment scams, while 15% were defrauded…

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CEOs: Consult an Attorney Prior to Amending a “Choice of Law” Provision in a Contract

Most laws in our country don’t tend to differ much between states. In fact, it’s probably accurate to say that a majority of states’ substantive laws don’t differ much at all even though sometimes it may not seem that way because of what the media tends to highlight. On the other hand, there are a few circumstances where states stand on opposite sides of the spectrum on a particular issue.…

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Fish fed to farmed salmon should be part of our diet, too, study suggests

Scientists found that farmed salmon production leads to an overall loss of essential dietary nutrients. They say that eating more wild ‘feed’ species directly could benefit our health while reducing aquaculture demand for finite marine resources.Researchers analysed the flow of nutrients from the edible species of wild fish used as feed, to the farmed salmon they were fed to. They found a decrease in six out of nine nutrients in…

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Bringing AI to the Masses

This conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, which features some of the most impactful builders in the field of AI discussing and debating where we are, where we’re going, and the big open questions in AI. Find more content from our AI Revolution series on www.a16z.com/AIRevolution. CEO of Quora Adam D’Angelo discusses how building infrastructure for creators can democratize AI with a16z general partner David George. [01:07] Social networks…

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Is AI a Savior or a Peril—or Both?

The wizardry of ChatGPT captured the world’s attention when it was released in 2022 and became the most successful product launch in history. Since then, AI companies and startups have attracted billions in new investments, and the technology has continued to dazzle. Consumer-facing AI programs can now compose love ballads—or fabricate realistic video of cowboys riding unicorns and shooting water pistols—from simple text prompts. There are uncountable reasons to be…

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Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind and Inflection co-founder, joins Microsoft to lead Copilot

Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer, shared the below communication today with Microsoft employees. I want to share an exciting and important organizational update today. We are in Year 2 of the AI platform shift and must ensure we have the capability and capacity to boldly innovate. There is no franchise value in our industry and the work and product innovation we drive at this moment will define the next decade…

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UK Introduces Export Controls for Emerging Technologies

On 12 March 2024, the UK Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU) announced that UK export control regulations would be amended to introduce new controls on the export of emerging technologies and provide a number of technical updates. Implemented through the Export Control (Amendment) Regulations 2024, the amendments are set to come into force on 1 April 2024. The Export Control Order 2008 The regulations introduce new export controls on military…

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Seizing opportunities amid the agtech capital drought

As the agriculture technology (agtech) industry adapts to a new normal in fundraising—and a vastly different macroeconomic climate than in years past—investment opportunities are slowly starting to emerge. Instead of waiting on the sidelines for conditions to stabilize, strategic companies and financial investors can use this limited window of opportunity to make bold moves and gain a competitive advantage.Over the past few years, the agtech industry has faced a major…

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Alternatives to the Dollar: Financial Settlement Mechanisms for a Multipolar World

ROn March 18, 2024, the Valdai Club hosted and expert discussion dedicated to financial settlements within the BRICS. Moderator Ivan Timofeev recalled that, according to the final declaration of the 2023 BRICS summit, the relevant departments of the member countries had to work out possible mechanisms for financial settlements. The talk was about creating a system that was not hostile to the West, but functional and protected from politicisation by…

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Diverse Teams Thrive With Four Elements of Belonging

Learn how to better support neurodiversity, as explained in this excerpt from the forthcoming book The Canary Code. Ludmila N. Praslova March 19, 2024 Reading Time: 12 min  subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Jessica is an ace data analyst; her mind excels at seeing connections that others miss. For many years, she delivered outstanding work and supported her company with system improvement suggestions. And then her…

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March Madness—a Sports Fan’s Dream, a Nightmare for Employee Productivity

Quick Hits The NCAA March Madness men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments can be a distraction for employees that harms overall productivity. The rise of online sports betting has the potential to further increase the distraction of March Madness and raise concerns with gambling regulations and employer policies. From office pools to streaming games at work, employers are tasked with navigating the legal landscape to ensure compliance and maintain a…

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Microsoft open sources Retina, a cloud-native container networking observability platform

The Microsoft Azure Container Networking team is excited to announce Retina, a cloud-native container networking observability platform that enables Kubernetes users, admins, and developers to visualize, observe, debug, and analyze Kubernetes’ workload traffic irrespective of Container Network Interface (CNI), operating system (OS), and cloud. We are excited to release Retina as an open-source repository that helps with DevOps and SecOps related networking cases for your Kubernetes clusters and we invite…

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When It Comes to Climate Regulation, Energy Companies Take a More Nuanced View

Common wisdom holds that oil and gas companies, electric utilities, and other industries known for their large carbon emissions generally oppose clean energy policies. Now, a study of corporate advocacy spanning 30 years reveals that many companies are more flexible than previously thought. When confronted with political, policy, and market conditions that necessitate change, well-known companies like Duke Energy, Exelon, and Dominion Resources have in fact supported climate-friendly regulation when…

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Why We Need Co-Conspirators

In our day-to-day work at the Tuck Initiative on Workplace Inclusion, we speak with a lot of leaders across industries about just how much the modern workplace has changed in the past few years. Whether it’s a conversation about return-to-office policies, “quiet quitting,” the impact of generative AI, or employee burnout, it’s clear that leaders are navigating a lot that’s new. But for us, we’re deeply invested in a truly…

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Customer Data Can Reveal Revenue Fraud at Supplier Firms

Revenue fraud—when a company artificially inflates its revenue to meet investors’ expectations—can wreak havoc on financial markets, which rely on accurate information to function properly. In recent years, scholars have attempted to improve fraud detection methods by using machine learning, statistics, and even vocal emotion analysis software, which analyzes the speech of corporate executives on earnings calls. Yale School of Management Professor X. Frank Zhang and two co-authors have a…

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Cooley Recognized for Three Deals of the Year in China

Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai – March 19, 2024 – Cooley was honored for its work on three Deals of the Year in 2023 by China Business Law Journal (CBLJ). The publication noted the firm for deals across three practice areas – including mergers & acquisitions, private equity financing, and life sciences partnering and licensing. Each year, CBLJ recognizes the best Chinese and international law firms in various practice area…

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Taxes in the Age of Chatbots

ChatGPT, a language program based on artificial intelligence, is currently causing quite a stir. The software delivers answers, poems or programming codes in the blink of an eye. It stands for a new type of hardware and software that not only replace humans in simple tasks but can also increasingly take over complex activities such as writing high-quality text (excluding this one, of course). In unprecedented fashion we are being…

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Embrace agility in subscription business to boost customer lifetime value

In part six of our Drive to Subscribe series, we look at the benefits of incorporating agility in subscription business models and how to do so.In today’s digital age, the subscription economy is booming. Digital subscription companies boast a market cap of $14 trillion and the markets are continuously growing. The subscription box market will reach $105.4 billion by 2032, eCommerce subscriptions are set to reach $904 Billion by 2026…

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3 Organizations that are Combating Technology-Facilitated Abuse

The reach of technology is astonishingly broad. It’s awesome how it brings us all closer, but when it’s not handled well, it can cause some serious problems too. From monitoring phone conversations to tracking someone’s every move through GPS, access to emails, texts, and even altering messages in transit, technology can be quite invasive. Moreover, technology can go as far as activating webcams on personal devices or turning on cell…

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Better together: Process and task mining, a powerful AI combo

How do you create a superior customer experience while also improving cost efficiency, productivity, and employee experience? The tension between service and cost is a perennial challenge for organizations, and it becomes particularly acute during periods of economic uncertainty. Many companies are finding themselves in such a period right now. But today’s business leaders have advantages that their predecessors did not. The rapid evolution of AI technologies has redefined operational…

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Beyond Narcissism: How Leaders Can Avoid the Hubris Trap

Throughout history, leaders have been seduced by success, leading them down a path of hubris. This ancient Greek term, literally translating to "excess", describes a state of exaggerated self-belief andarrogance.An extreme example is Xerxes, king of the Persian Empire. Feeling invincible from past triumphs, Xerxes sought to conquer Greece. However, when a storm destroyed his bridge across the Hellespont, derailing his plans, he reacted outlandishly. Xerxes had the engineers who built…

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The human side of generative AI: Creating a path to productivity

Ever since OpenAI’s ChatGPT exploded into public view in late 2022, the possibilities of generative AI (gen AI) have captured imaginations throughout the business world. When it comes to crafting an effective talent strategy, organizations have focused mostly on how gen AI can increase productivity levels. This is understandable, given the trillions in value at stake. However, it may not be the most strategic approach. To match the right talent…

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How AT&T Employees Turned Process Gripes Into $230 Million Saved

AT&T found a way to help workers kill outdated processes and tools that wasted time, energy, and money — one drop at a time. Here’s how the approach works. Jeremy Legg March 18, 2024 Reading Time: 8 min  Kevin Foley/MIT SMR; Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR An $8 expense — rejected because of a travel policy technicality — led to my own first “raindrop.” That term is unique to AT&T, but the…

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The Quest to Understand and Predict Behavior

The son of a German immigrant, Tuck associate professor Dan Feiler grew up in inner-city Pittsburgh and attended a Christian elementary school, a middle school with a Jewish plurality, and a high school that was majority Black. He frequently navigated varied and sometimes unfamiliar social environments, observing social cues and trying to make sense of norms new-to-him. Quickly he learned that cultural stereotypes didn’t offer much wisdom, as he experienced a…

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Lower Prices or More Domestic Jobs? The Tradeoff in Corporate Mergers

In 2006, the two largest U.S.-based manufacturers of laundry appliances became one: Whirlpool purchased its close competitor Maytag for $1.4 billion, outbidding the Chinese company, Haier. Before the merger could go through, the Department of Justice reviewed the proposal to determine if it would run afoul of the Sherman Antitrust Act and the subsequent Supreme Court caselaw that interpreted it. The main question the DoJ needed to answer was whether…

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The Brave Leader’s Edge: Vulnerability in Leadership

How many times have you cried in front of your team? How many times have you admitted to not having all the answers or feeling unsure about the direction ahead? In the traditional realm of leadership, these instances might have been considered taboo or signs of weakness. Leadership often conjures images of authority, strength, and unwavering confidence. However, things are changing. Vulnerability, previously avoided in leadership circles, is now being…

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Financial Settlements Within the BRICS Framework: Moving Forward, Despite Problems

The creation of new financial mechanisms through BRICS is one of the most promising fields for the development of the association. In the final declaration of the BRICS countries after the 2023 Summit, financial policy was given quite a lot of attention. In particular, it was stated that the BRICS Payment Task Force (BPTF) needs to prepare a report on payment mechanisms, including those based on cross-border payment systems. The…

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What has productivity got to do with HR?

The exodus of workers during Covid and the record high numbers of economically inactive have contributed to the UK’s 1.26 million vacancies and an understandable perception that the employment market is now employee-led. The increased demand for voluntary home working, which follows the enforced experience of it during the pandemic, is contributing to employers’ perception that they must compete for talent by offering not only financial inducements, but different working…

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Following the Money: Forensic Accounting Tracing Methods, Best Practices

Most accountants are familiar with the first in, first out (FIFO) and last in, first out (LIFO) inventory pricing methodologies. These are also two of the most common tracing methods for forensic accounting, among other methods such as the lowest intermediate balance rule (LIBR) and pro rata method. With various viable options, how do you know which approach is best for tracing ill-gotten gains? Jordan Sandberg JordanSandberg@hka.com I worked on…

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