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Tyler Cowen: Artificial Intelligence is about to transform childhood. Are we ready?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:57 GMT

With the introduction of GPT-4 and Claude, AI has taken another big step forward.GPT-4 is human-level or better at many hard tasks, a huge improvement over GPT-3.5, which was released only a few months ago. Yet amid the debate over these advances, there has been very little discussion of one of the most profound effects of AI large language models: how they will reshape childhood.In the future, every middle-class kid will grow up with a personalized AI assistant — so long as the parents are OK with that.As for the children, most of them will be willing if not downright eager. When I was 4 years old, I had an imaginary friend who lived under the refrigerator, called (ironically) Bing Bing. I would talk to him and report his opinions to my parents and sister.In the near future, such friends will be quite real, albeit automated, and they will talk back to our children as directly as we wish. Having an AI service for your child will be as normal as having a pet, except the AI serv...

St. Louis and MoDOT crews increase pothole patrol amid spring weather

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:57 GMT

ST. LOUIS - With the start of warmer weather, potholes that formed in the winter are becoming bigger and deeper. The city and MoDOT plan to keep up with demand across the St. Louis region.Recent roller coaster weather has allowed potholes to expand."In springtime, they pop up more often, much like daffodils,” said Tom Blair, district engineer for MoDOT.To keep up with demand, the Missouri Department of Transportation planned to increase crews. They said a milder winter has freed up some money in the budget to use on projects such as fixing potholes. Top story: Search for missing St. Charles woman leads to abandoned car "You'll also see a lot of our crews out there do road sweeping, shoulder sweeping,” Blair said. “Sort of like that spring cleanup, like we all want to do on our yard, that's what MoDOT has to do in the spring; we prioritize all that spring cleanup stuff, which includes filling potholes."In 2022, St. Louis officials said they had filled more than 6,000 potholes. Cur...

Missouri Attorney General's plan to restrict gender-affirming care for minors draws criticism   

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:57 GMT

ST. LOUIS - Reaction to a plan by Missouri Attorney Andrew Bailey to restrict gender-affirming care is drawing sharp criticisms from advocates for transgender youth. “These kids are fabulous kids, and there is nothing that I would like better than for them to just be themselves,” said Susan Halla, executive director of TransParent, a national organization that provides support for the families of transgender and gender-nonconforming youth. Bailey’s office shared details of his plan on Monday. Planned Parenthood was among the organizations calling Bailey’s claims false and harmful and insisting gender-affirming care is safe, effective, and life-saving. The ACLU of Missouri believes Bailey is outside his authority to implement the restrictions and has called them reckless and dangerous.  Top story: Search for missing St. Charles woman leads to abandoned car The news comes following an allegation from a former employee at the Washington University Transgender Cen...

Daycare re-opens after more than a year of changes following child left alone

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:57 GMT

FLORISSANT, Mo. - A daycare facility in St. Louis County just reopened under a probationary license. The Tendercare Learning Center on New Halls Ferry has been closed since December 2021, when Missouri’s Office of Childhood suspended its license for reportedly leaving a toddler outside for nearly four hours.“It should never happen,” said Steve Fleddermann, the facility’s attorney, as he explained what went wrong. “The teacher did a headcount, and that’s not enough, because, as children will do, by the time they actually filed in, the line starts moving the child decides to go back and stay outside.”A 2-year-old child was documented by regulators as being out alone in a fenced-in playground from 10:33 a.m. until 3:23 p.m. on that day in December. It was unseasonably warm, with temperatures reportedly in the low 50s. Top story: Search for missing St. Charles woman leads to abandoned car “Fortunately, there was no injury in this case, but that’s not to say there couldn’t have been,”...

Contact 2 cleans up car wash membership mess

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:57 GMT

ST. LOUIS – As winter turns to spring, it’s prime time to get the grime off your vehicle. Brian Byrd says he was surprised to find he was still paying for his last trip to the Zips Car Wash on South Kingshighway, months after he last pulled off the lot.“I happened to notice there was a $20 debit from Zips and I thought, I hadn’t been to Zips in months,” he said. “So, I went back and looked at some of the other previous statements, and sure enough, they’d been hitting me for about six months.”Bryd tells us the charges totaled $120. He says he didn’t sign up for a monthly membership.“The interface, I noticed, was a little confusing. I thought I had just purchased one car wash, turns out it ended up being a membership. Full-on membership,” he said. “The thing that was kind of odd is I never got an email or any kind of confirmation, anything like that, that a membership had started.” Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. ...

Avs wallop unrecognizable Chicago Blackhawks, 5-0, without Cale Makar, out with lower-body injury

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:57 GMT

The Chicago Blackhawks look unrecognizable, even from the team that delivered a gut check to Colorado’s season in January. The Avalanche have looked unbeatable since then.Against a shell of the Blackhawks’ former selves, the Avs sailed to a 5-0 win Monday night at Ball Arena behind Alexandar Georgiev’s 26-save shutout, his fifth of the season.Colorado (41-22-6) was gasping to stay above .500 and keep up in the playoff race after a 3-2 loss Jan. 12 at United Center. It was the end of a 1-6-1 stretch coming out of the holiday break. At the 40-game mark, the Avs were 20-17-3.They have the best record in the NHL (21-5-3) since that day.The Blackhawks were already tanking at that point. But they truly accelerated (or decelerated) between Avalanche matchups, trading Patrick Kane, Max Domi, Sam Lafferty and Jake McCabe before the deadline.And Jack Johnson to Colorado. Acquired in an exchange of depth defensemen — Andreas Englund is injured and didn’t play for ...

Women’s basketball: CU Buffs stun Duke to advance to Sweet 16

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:57 GMT

DURHAM, N.C. – There are easier ways to get from Boulder to Seattle, but for the Colorado women’s basketball team, a detour through North Carolina has made the journey sweet.On Monday night, the sixth-seeded Buffaloes stunned third-seeded Duke, 61-53 in overtime at Cameron Indoor Stadium in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.The Buffs (25-8) have advanced to the Sweet 16 for the seventh time in program history and for the first time since 2003. They will face second-seeded Iowa on Friday in Seattle.This is the first time CU has advanced to the Sweet 16 from the road. The previous six times, the Buffs won games in Boulder to get to this point.To do it, the Buffs dominated in overtime, outscoring the Blue Devils 11-3 in the extra period.Quay Miller finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds for CU, just the 13th double-double in the NCAA Tournament in CU history. Jaylyn Sherrod had 14 points and Aaronette Vonleh finished with 12 points.Vonleh scored back-to-back layups to give the B...

Shohei Ohtani, Japan rally late, edge Mexico 6-5 to reach WBC final

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:57 GMT

MIAMI — Shohei Ohtani sparked a ninth-inning rally with a leadoff double, and Munetaka Murakami hit a walk-off, two-run double to lift Japan over Mexico 6-5 Monday night and into the World Baseball Classic final.Yu Darvish is set to start when Japan faces the defending champion United States in Tuesday night’s championship game — Japan has won the tournament twice, Team USA has done it once. Merrill Kelly is likely to start for the U.S. side.Ohtani went 2 for 4. The Los Angeles Angels star scored in the seventh when Masataka Yoshida hit a tying, three-run homer off reliever JoJo Romero.Ohtani’s double off Giovanny Gallegos was his fourth of the tournament. After Ohtani got the rally started, Yoshida walked to bring up Murakami.Related ArticlesMLB | Rockies spring training report: Bud Black unconcerned with closer Daniel Bard’s World Baseball Classic struggles MLB | Rockies, outfielder Jurickson Profar agree to one-year deal, source says ...

Abducted SF toddler found in Daly City

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:57 GMT

DALY CITY, Calif. (KRON) -- A young boy reported missing Friday evening in San Francisco was found on Monday in Daly City, the San Francisco Police Department said. Two-year-old Caspian Tamulevich was found with his mother, Chelsea, who does not have custody rights over Caspian. SFPD first learned of Caspian's disappearance Friday at about 6:54 p.m. An employee at a residential facility on the 200 block of Ashbury Street said Chelsea Tamulevich left the facility with Caspian at about 5:30 p.m. Suspect identified, accused of stabbing pregnant woman and children in Antioch On Monday, Daly City police officers located Chelsea and Caspian on the 2800 block of Geneva Avenue, SFPD said. Both appeared to be in good health. Police said a court order did not give Chelsea custody rights over Caspian, and she was not allowed to leave the facility with him. She was listed as a child abduction suspect by SFPD.KRON ON is streaming news live now.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bo...

Julius Randle scores 57 points, ties 3rd-highest for Knicks

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:57 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Maybe someday Julius Randle will savor one of the best offensive nights in Knicks history.Not on Monday. Not when it came in a losing effort.And not when he blamed himself for the crucial rebound that got away.Randle scored 57 points, matching the third-highest total in franchise history, but New York lost 140-134 to the Minnesota Timberwolves.“I’m such a results-driven person, I try to focus on the process a little bit more and taking the necessary steps to get better and build as a team,” Randle said. “So hopefully I will be able to. Tonight, probably not. I’m a little upset about the loss.”Randle tied Richie Guerin behind the only two 60-point games in Knicks history, Carmelo Anthony’s 62 on Jan. 24, 2014, and Bernard King’s 60 on Christmas Day in 1984.Randle had 52 through three quarters, already surpassing his previous best of 46 points.The All-Star forward poured in a team-record 26 points in the third quarter, bringing the Knicks back into the game. The ...