Things To Do In SW Florida

Michael Hiltzik | (TNS) Los Angeles Times

Of all the technologies that have created buzz over the last few years, by far the buzziest is what’s known as artificial intelligence — AI for short.

It’s buzzy because the chatbots and data crunchers it has produced have startled users with their human-like dialogues and test-taking skills, and also because its critics, and even some of its proponents, have raised the specter of devices that can take over human endeavors and threaten human existence.

That’s what makes a new book by Bloomberg columnist Parmy Olson so exquisitely timely. “Supremacy: AI, Chat GPT, and the Race That Will Change the World” covers the corporate maneuvering underlying the development of AI in its current iteration, which is chiefly a battle between Google, the owner of the laboratory DeepMind, and Microsoft, a key investor in OpenAI, a prominent merchandiser of the technology.

Olson deserves praise for the remarkable journalistic accomplishment of chronicling a business battle while it is still taking place — indeed, still in its infancy. For all the timeliness of “Supremacy,” the question may be whether it has arrived too soon. How the battle will shake out is unknown, as is whether the current iterations of AI are genuinely world-changing, as her subtitle asserts, or destined to fizzle out. read more

Gov. Ron DeSantis said the Legislature would step in before the end of the year to help condominium owners facing financial turmoil as a result of new building safety regulations that go into effect Jan. 1.

“At some point over the next three and a half months, something will be done,” he said at a roundtable meeting with local condo owners in Pinellas Park on Thursday.

Still, the governor would not commit to calling a special session himself. And last month, Republican leaders rejected calls to reconvene the Legislature early to tackle the condo issue.

The new rules, passed in the wake of the deadly Surfside building collapse, require certain condo associations to inspect their buildings and come up with plans to pay for necessary repairs.

Though legislators hoped this would prevent future engineering failures, condo owners say in the short term it has led to unwieldy special assessments that threaten to price out low-income and senior residents.

Earle Cooper, a Bellaire condo owner who spoke at the roundtable, said his building needs around $3.69 million in repairs. That could cost individual residents anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000. read more

TALLAHASSEE — Hurricane Debby caused up to $263.2 million in estimated losses to crops and farm animals when the Category 1 rainmaker swept through North Florida last month.

Preliminary findings by the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, known as UF/IFAS, could mean the agricultural damages from Debby were close to losses from Hurricane Idalia, a Category 3 storm that roared across the same rural region nearly a year earlier.

“There always are impacts to agriculture of these types of events,” Christa Court, UF/IFAS economic impact analysis program director, said Thursday during a call with reporters. “Hurricane Debby was not quite as intense as Hurricane Idalia, which might still be somewhat fresh on people’s minds. But it’s still a reminder that there’s a lot of production of agriculture out in Florida.”

UF/IFAS found Debby affected more than 2.2 million acres of agricultural land in the state, with two-thirds of the land used for livestock grazing. It resulted in an estimated $93.7 million to $263.2 million in losses, with the loss amount expected to be narrowed in the coming months. read more

Health care

Dr. Beatrice Bratu, gastroenterologist, has joined AdventHealth Medical Group in Volusia County.

Dr. Hasson Zulfiqar, gastroenterologist, has joined AdventHealth Medical Group in Volusia County.

Dr. Natalia Cavin, nephrologist, has joined AdventHealth Medical Group in Volusia County.

Dr. Mark Duber, orthopedic surgeon, has joined AdventHealth Medical Group in Volusia County.

Dr. Frank Velez, general surgeon, has joined AdventHealth Medical Group in Volusia County.

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