Things To Do In SW Florida

MIAMI (AP) — Caregivers at a South Florida ocean park are taking steps to prepare Lolita, an orca whale held captive for more than a half-century, for a possible return to her home waters in Washington’s Puget Sound.

But the move isn’t a done deal, and veterinarians and trainers told WPLG in Miami this week that they’re working with Lolita to make sure she’s strong enough to survive the journey and to acclimate to her new home.

Animal rights activists have been fighting for years to have Lolita — also known as Tokitae, or Toki — freed from her tank at the Miami Seaquarium. The park’s owner, The Dolphin Company, and the nonprofit Friends of Toki announced a plan in March to possibly move the 57-year-old orca to a natural sea pen, with the financial backing of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay.

Jessica Comolli, the director of the Miami Seaquarium’s animal health department, said Lolita is doing great. The orca has had two health scares since 2020 but has recovered.

Lolita retired from performing last spring as a condition of the park’s new exhibitor’s license with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She’s not been publicly displayed since. The Dolphin Company CEO Eduardo Albor said they’ve invested more than $500,000 to improve Lolita’s water quality after taking over the Seaquarium last year. read more

A Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse is being eyed for Regency Village Drive near Walt Disney World, Orange County documents show.

The Texas-based chain, founded in Brazil in 1979, serves fire-roasted meat carved tableside. There was no opening date for the restaurant, and a representative for the company said there was no definitive information to share about a future Orlando restaurant.

Fogo de Chão, which filed to go public in 2021, already has an Orlando restaurant at 8282 International Drive near Icon Park and Universal Orlando Resort.

The new restaurant is planned for 11513 Regency Village Drive at the Vineland Pointe shopping center, documents show.

It is just across Interstate 4 from the O-Town West development and the only White Castle in Florida.

Staff writer Dustin Wyatt contributed to this report. 

Here’s an easy prediction about how artificial intelligence will impact work over the next 25 years: It won’t look anything like Skynet.

Although references to “The Terminator” movie franchise’s world-conquering and human-hating AI are everywhere in the discussion of programs like ChatGPT or Midjourney, self-aware computer programs are squarely in the realm of fiction.

“(Artificial intelligence) doesn’t have any agency. We are controlling it and changing the algorithms all the time,” said Anima Anandkumar, a professor of computing and mathematical sciences at Caltech.

The “artificial intelligence” technologies available today — and into the future, barring an unforeseen sudden breakthrough — are programs that predict what to generate based on the patterns in their existing data sets.

They’re essentially much more sophisticated versions of the software that suggests words while typing a text message on a smart phone. As anyone who’s ever allowed their smartphone to suggest whole sentences that way knows, the results can sometimes seem eerily human, but are more likely to produce nonsense. read more

René Bennett | Bankrate.com (TNS)

While not a bank in the traditional sense, Oportun — formerly known as Digit — is offering a new way for consumers to do their banking that integrates artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Customers link their bills and credit cards, and Oportun’s algorithms determine how much should be allocated to each expense category when a deposit is made.

This type of fintech account is part of a new trend in the financial industry where banking companies are using advanced technology to make daily money decisions on their customers’ behalf. That includes setting aside money to pay bills, tracking savings goal progress and paying down debt.

The fintechs offering solutions to consumers’ budgeting challenges fill a gap that traditional banks have yet to tackle. But while the fintech industry poses a challenge to traditional banking, there are some areas where it falls short of consumers’ needs.

What consumers want from banking services

The reality of traditional banking is that it doesn’t always deliver on everything consumers are looking for. A study by Galileo found that of the 65% of consumers who primarily use a traditional bank account, only about two-thirds (66%) are satisfied with their bank. read more