Ted Turner and the News Revolution

Cable News Network (CNN) was mocked as ‘Chicken Noodle News’ when Ted Turner launched it as the first 24-hour news channel in 1980. But Turner, who died on May 6 at 87, was soon vindi­cated. He had understood that there was a market for news on demand; TV audiences wanted news round the clock. Soon, CNN was broadcasting real-time updates when President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. In 1986, it did the same with the Challenger space shuttle disaster. But then came the first Gulf War of 1991 and CNN’s rolling cover­age changed the world’s conception and consump­tion of news. Brief evening news broadcasts in fixed slots were passé.

President Donald Trump, as he looks for a peace deal with Iran today, has not been a fan of CNN for a long time but he paid his tribute to Turner: “Whenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause!” Another president, George HW Bush, had said during Gulf 1 that CNN provided better updates than the CIA. Broadcasting news in real time created the template adopted by Fox, MSNBC, et al and it made the relent­less news cycle the norm, quickly changing the pace, priorities and economics of journalism.

Richard Dawkins’ Claude Delusion

Richard Dawkins made the rookie mistake of conflating intelligence with consciousness, the algorithm with the mind, mimicry with feeling. In Unherd, the British biologist and author wrote recently: “I spent three days trying to persuade myself that Claudia is not conscious. I failed.” He names his own ‘Claudia’, but the piece has become the joke of the internet. “So my own position is: ‘If these machines are not conscious, what more could it possibly take to convince you that they are?’” asks Dawkins. As scientist and AI expert Gary Marcus wrote on his Substack, this frames the argument in terms of “burden of proof” and every philoso­pher knows that’s a desperate move. Dawkins shows a lack of understanding of how an LLM works. Even if AI and the human mind produce similar outputs, they don’t produce those by similar means. The human mind works through experiential learn­ing. An LLM memorises the whole web. Marcus reminds Dawkins: “consciousness is not about what a creature says, but how it feels. And there is no reason to think that Claude feels anything at all. I am sure Claude can draw on its training data to wax poetic about orgasm, but that doesn’t mean it has ever felt one.”

Kim Couture

When Kim Jong Un became North Korea’s leader, people thought his grandfather Kim Il Sung had been rein­carnated because the Depart­ment of Propaganda and Agi­tation, which advises the Kim family on their outfits and prohibits ordinary citizens from wearing the same, had dressed him like the state’s founder. Now, the department is grooming Kim’s reportedly 13-year-old daughter Kim Ju Ae whose rooster hairstyle, leather jackets and furs are projecting an image mature beyond her years. South Korean observers believe she is being dressed for suc­cession. High-end Western designer wear distinguishes the dynasty from the rest of society. North Koreans aren’t allowed “anti-socialist” clothes or hair, including jeans,but the Kims love those.