Metaglossia: The Translation World

"Paris Olympics 2024: Most important terminologies and their meanings which will make you sound like an expert

FP Sports • July 25, 2024, 11:06:57 IST

We have made up a glossary of important terminology that could come in handy for anyone keen on following the Paris Olympics.

Sakshi Malik won wrestling bronze at Rio Olympics 2016 through the repechage round. PTI

The wait is nearly over and the start of the 2024 Paris Olympics is just officially a day away. In India, cricket might be the “religion” but when it comes to the season of Olympics, it’s a different atmosphere altogether with fans across the country and the globe backing their favourite and biggest sporting stars.

There will be 32 sporting disciplines that will take place in Paris and some other parts of France across the next two weeks. While for some it can be challenging to catch up with events happening simultaneously, others who are relatively new to following the Olympics or do not follow the sport much can have a difficult time understanding the game.

 

But fret not. We have made up a glossary of important terminology that could come in handy for anyone keen on following the Paris Olympics. Let’s take a quick look at some of them here:

Heats: Heats is a term that is used in track and field, swimming, rowing, and canoeing events. Heats is nothing but the first round of a race. Due to the limited number of athletes who can race at a time, athletes are divided into groups across multiple heats to determine who progresses to the next round. The heats are followed by semi-finals and final.

Repechage: Repechage is a term that is commonly used in wrestling. However, wrestling is not the only sport where the term repechage is used. It’s used in some track events as well as well as in rowing events. The word comes from the French term ‘repecher’, which can roughly be translated into ‘to rescue’.

If a wrestler suffers defeat to an opponent who qualifies for the gold medal bout, the losing wrestler qualifies for the repechage round to remain in contention for a bronze medal. As for the number of repechage rounds an athlete will have to fight to win bronze, it will be based on the round in which they lost their first match. For example, if the wrestler suffered a loss in the semi-final then he or she will directly play the bronze medal bout. If he or she loses in the quarter-finals, then the athlete has to fight two bouts, and so on.

 

PC: Hockey fans might be familiar with this term. PC in hockey stands for penalty corners. Harmanpreet Singh is usually someone who takes penalty corners for India in men’s hockey. A penalty corner usually takes place when the defending side commits a foul inside the penalty area. The penalty area is also called a “D”.

In a penalty corner, the attacker stands at the backline, with a minimum 10 metres distance away from the goalpost. No other player is allowed within five metres of the attacker, who is also called the pusher. Once the umpire’s whistle is sounded, the pusher has to hit the ball towards his teammates, who will be waiting at the edge of the penalty circle.

Harmanpreet is usually India’s designated dragflicker, and once one of his teammates manages to trap the ball, Harmanpreet will aim to find the back of the net. Defenders, who wear protection, have their task cut out around this time given that they charge towards the attacker in a bid to save the goal. Penalty corners usually make the difference in a match and can even create defining moments in the contest.

RSC: RSC is an abbreviation for Referee Stops Contest. As the name suggests, it’s completely the referee’s decision when he stops a contest in boxing. If the referee feels that a boxer, who is on the verge of defeat and has taken a heavy toll on his body, cannot proceed further, then the referee immediately ends the bout, declaring a comprehensive victory for the winner. This is similar to technical knockout (TKO) in pro boxing.

Dressage: Dressage is a term used in equestrian events. The horse and its rider are needed to complete a series of movements that are pre-determined within a standard route. The judges then analyse the equestrian riders based on the obstacles surpassed as well as the accuracy. Proper coordination between the horse and the rider, as well as agility and technique, are important aspects of dressage. Anush Agarwalla is the lone Indian taking part in equestrian at the Pars Olympics.

Ippon: Tulika Mann will be India’s only athlete taking part in judo. Should she pin her opponent for 20 seconds, force her opponent into submission via a joint loke or a choke, or even throw her opponent on the back, then that bout immediately concludes and Tulika will emerge victorious with a 10-0 win. This is called a victory by ippon. This is something that is also used in karate and jujitsu, but among the three forms of Japanese martial arts, only Judo features at the Olympics.

Velodrome: Velodrome is the term that is used to define an indoor cycling track that is used for track cycling competitions.

BMX Track: BMX stands for Bicycle Motocross, and a BMX track is specially designed for BMX racing, with obstacles, jumps, and banked turns in place.

Mountain bike course: Mountain bike races are held on a trail system which like BMX racing includes several obstacles and terrains in place.

Synchronised swimming pools: Synchronised swimming events are held in these pools with speakers underwater and different kinds of depths.

Fencing hall: A designated room to hold fencing events that includes fencing strips and other equipments for competitions.

Equestrian Center: This is a venue for all equestrian events, which are, dressage, show jumping and eventing."

#metaglossia_mundus: https://www.firstpost.com/sports/olympics-2024-repechage-heats-pc-dresage-ippon-most-important-terminology-paris-games-13796693.html#google_vignette

 

24-Jul-2024 10:05 AM EDT, by  BYLINE: Angelita Faller

Dr. Angela Hunter, professor of English at UA Little Rock, is on cloud nine after learning that her years of hard work translating the unpublished work of 18th-century French philosopher Louise Dupin have been recognized as one of the most outstanding works of French-to-English translation.

Hunter and her co-author, Dr. Rebecca Wilkin of Pacific Lutheran University, were selected for the 37th Annual French-American Foundation Translation Prize in Nonfiction for their co-translation of “Louise Dupin’s Work on Women: Selections.” They received their award, which comes with a $10,000 prize, at The Strand Bookstore in New York City June 18.

“I am so thrilled and shocked to have received this award,” Hunter said. “When we found out that we were one of the finalists, we didn’t have too much hope that we would win the big award because there are some exciting and interesting texts in the finals. It was a great and welcome surprise to find out that we won.”

The French-American Foundation Translation Prize, funded by the Florence Gould Foundation, honors the best of French-to-English translation. In keeping with the foundation's mission to strengthen ties between the United States and France, the prize has established itself as a valuable element of intellectual and cultural exchange between both countries, promoting French literature in the U.S. and providing greater visibility to translators and their craft. 

The French-American Foundation noted that the 2023-24 cycle was one of their most competitive to date. The foundation’s jury of literary professionals spent five months reviewing submissions, which were judged on a wide range of criteria, including accuracy in conveying the sense of the original work, awareness of stylistic, linguistic, and cultural nuance, and the level of difficulty of the translation itself. Hunter and Wilkin were selected from more than 80 submissions.

Their goal is to bring Dupin’s most important intellectual contributions to a wider audience at a time when interest in early female philosophers is on the rise. 

“Most of her correspondence was destroyed after her death, so we may never know what persuaded her not to complete and publish her work,” Hunter said. “The image of her has been portrayed as a beautiful, gracious woman, a friend to many philosophers and artists, and a great conversationalist. It’s very important to me that she is recognized as a thinker in her own right and not just as a featured friend and employer of Jean-Jaques Rousseau, who used his time in her employ to expand his own knowledge base and even borrowed ideas from Dupin.”

Hunter and Wilkin haven’t finished their translations of Dupin’s manuscripts and are hoping to release further translations as part of a digital archive project or a special edition of a journal. Meanwhile, Hunter’s research on Dupin has inspired her in a new way.

“I’ve been researching Louise Dupin for more than a dozen years, and now I’ve shifted gears,” Hunter said. “I’m working on a creative historical fiction project set in an 18th-century salon in Paris. Louise Dupin’s salon is the centerpiece of this historical fiction project.”

 Hunter has found Dupin to be an interesting historical figure who has only been recognized in recent years for her contributions to philosophy and feminism. Dupin is primarily known for holding an important literary salon in Paris that encouraged many of the academic elites of the time and for her friendship with philosopher Jean-Jaques Rousseau, who served as a secretary in her household from 1745 to 1751. 

Hunter and Wilkin received a $133,333 Scholarly Translations and Editions grant from the National Endowment for Humanities in 2020 to publish this edition of Dupin’s unpublished treatise. Oxford University Press published the book in July 2023. It is described as the French Enlightenment’s most in-depth feminist analysis of inequality and its most neglected one. 

“For much of the time since her death, she was recognized more as a salon holder, a beautiful woman who was well known and had a lot of connections among enlightened intellectuals,” Hunter said. “She wrote this large work of feminist philosophy, but she did not end up fully completing it, nor did she publish it in her lifetime.”

Since Rousseau became a well-known philosopher, Dupin’s manuscript was sold widely and held in many different collections. Prior to the publication of this translated book (and a French edition that was published in 2022), researchers would have had to look through more than 10 archives in three different countries to read Dupin’s work.

“Since Rousseau was her secretary for this project, his handwriting is on many of the manuscript pages,” Hunter said. “The pages were sold at auction in the 1950s and dispersed all over. Her work is a really strong, powerful feminist critique of science, history, inheritance, law, and sexism. She made a strong argument for total equality between men and women. The fact that she is finally coming to light as a philosopher in her own right is very exciting.”"

#metaglossia_mundus: https://d.newswise.com/articles/professor-recognized-with-prestigious-translation-award-for-book-on-french-philosopher-louise-dupin

"Coarticulation is a type of speech variation where sounds take on phonetic properties of adjacent sounds. Listeners generally display perceptual compensation, attributing coarticulatory variation to its source. Mandarin Chinese lexical tones are coarticulated based on surrounding tones. We tested how L1-Mandarin and naive listeners compensate for tonal coarticulation using a paired discrimination task. L1 listeners showed greater perceptual sensitivity to tonal differences than tone-naive listeners. Yet, both L1 and tone-naive listeners showed differences in sensitivity to differently-coarticulated versions of the rising tone presented in the same tonal context. In different tonal contexts, both groups showed similar patterns of perceptual compensation for tonal coarticulation. Thus, although L1 and naive Mandarin listeners show different sensitivities to tonal variation, they display similar compensatory patterns for tonal coarticulation.

 

1 Introduction

Coarticulation is a phenomenon whereby speech sounds are affected by gestural overlap with nearby speech sounds. This may occur with adjacent speech sounds, as in vowel nasalization in English syllables with a nasal coda (Zellou, 2017) - it may also occur across syllables, as in vowel-to-vowel coarticulation, where the production of a vowel may be influenced by a following vowel, even if there is an intervening consonant (Magen, 1997).

Coarticulation also occurs with lexical tones, where preceding and following tones may influence both a tone’s relative pitch height and its contour. Tonal coarticulation has been examined in various languages, including Vietnamese (Brunelle, 2009), Thai (Gandour et al., 1994), and Mandarin Chinese (Shen, 1990; Xu, 1997). Tonal coarticulation in these languages shows strong assimilatory carryover effects (Gandour et al., 1994; Xu, 1997; Brunelle, 2009), while Thai and Mandarin also show some weaker dissimilatory anticipatory effects in tonal coarticulation for certain tones (Gandour et al., 1994; Xu, 1997).

Standard Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language with four tones plus one neutral tone (Cheng, 2011). Three of the four are contour tones: a rising tone (T2), a falling tone (T4), and a falling-rising tone (T3). The actual realization of these tones in connected speech is influenced by a variety of factors, including tone sandhi and tonal coarticulation. For example, T3 is usually only realized as a falling-rising tone in isolated or final contexts. T3 sandhi effects occur where T3 becomes T2 before a second T3, and where T3 often becomes a low-falling tone in all other contexts (Chen, 2000). As for tonal coarticulation in Mandarin, tones display an assimilatory carryover effect, where the pitch height of the offset of one tone influences the pitch height of the onset of the next tone, such that a tone will have a higher onset if it is preceded by a tone with a high offset (Shen, 1990; Xu, 1997). In addition, a small dissimilatory anticipatory effect can also be seen where the maximum f0 of a tone increases when preceding a tone with low onset, and decreases when preceding a tone with high onset (Xu, 1997; Zhang and Xie, 2020). Thus, a rising tone that occurs after a low-falling tone and before a high tone will have a lower onset (assimilatory carryover effect) and a slightly lower offset/maximum f0 (dissimilatory anticipatory effect).

In general, coarticulated rising and falling tones in Mandarin share the same contour shapes as variants produced in isolation. However, in some contexts, variants may occur where the direction of the pitch contour is flattened or even slightly reversed. In a continuous (or “compatible”) context, the offset of the preceding tone is at a similar pitch height to the onset of the next tone. For example, if a rising tone, which has a low onset and high offset, is preceded by a low-falling tone and followed by a high tone, said rising tone will be realized in its canonical form because the pitch onset and offset of the tonal heights in the neighboring syllables match. On the other hand, if a rising tone is preceded by a high tone and followed by a low-falling tone, this context is discontinuous (or “conflicting”) because there is a mismatch between the pitch offset and onset of the tonal patterns at each syllable boundary and that of the target vowel. In discontinuous contexts, Mandarin contour tones are coarticulated such that the pitch contour can be realized as entirely flattened or even pushed slightly in the opposite direction. This may result in a rising tone realized with a flattened or “downward gliding” pitch, especially in fast speech (see Figure 3 in Xu, 1994).

When it comes to perception of these variants, when Xu (1994) presented these flattened tonal variants to L1 listeners in isolation, listeners performed below chance at correctly identifying the underlying tone, often identifying flattened T2 or T4 as a high tone. However, when these variants were presented in context, L1 listeners were easily able to identify the underlying tone (Xu, 1994). Thus, while tonal coarticulation leads to a great deal of variation in how, e.g., a rising tone will be realized across contexts, this context-dependent tonal variation does not reduce word intelligibility for native Mandarin listeners in connected speech.

What can account for this? On the one hand, listeners have been shown to ascribe coarticulatory effects in the signal to their sources. For instance, L1 English listeners may hear the vowels in the words “bad” and “band” as the same, even though they are phonetically different due to nasalization, because they ascribe the coarticulatory variation as stemming from the final consonant (Kawasaki, 1986). This perceived similarity of acoustically different sounds occurring in different contexts is known as perceptual compensation for coarticulation. Full perceptual compensation for coarticulation involves listeners neutralizing all context-related acoustic details and retaining only the invariant linguistic information (Fowler, 2006).

On the other hand, perceptual compensation for coarticulation is often only partial, with listeners perceptually attributing differences in acoustic detail to differences in context, but retaining that acoustic detail as well. For example, listeners show partial perceptual compensation for vowel nasality (Beddor and Krakow, 1999; Zellou et al., 2020). In fact, tonal coarticulatory information can indicate prosodic boundaries, and as such has been shown to be used by native listeners in speech segmentation (Lai and Kuang, 2016; Guo and Ou, 2019). Furthermore, cross-linguistic studies of segmental coarticulation effects have shown that listeners are able to use coarticulatory variation to perceive invariant linguistic information (Beddor, 2009). For example, native American English listeners look more quickly and accurately at images depicting the word “bent” when hearing coarticulatory nasalization on the vowel alone, indicating that coarticulation is not fully subtracted, but rather provides early and informative perceptual cues about upcoming segmental information (Beddor et al., 2013; Zellou, 2022). Like produced patterns of coarticulation, perceptual compensation for coarticulation is language-specific; for example, L1 Thai and L1 English speakers show different patterns of perceptual compensation for vowel nasality in American English due to differences in patterns of produced coarticulatory vowel nasality across these languages (Beddor and Krakow, 1999). And, many researchers have come to similar conclusions, that perceptual compensation for coarticulation exhibits language-specific patterns (Beddor et al., 2002; Darcy et al., 2007; Han et al., 2012).

While there is a substantial body of work on the perception of segmental coarticulation effects across languages, less is known about L1- or L2- (or, as in this study, naive-) listener perceptual compensation of tonal coarticulation. Xu (1994) found evidence for perceptual compensation for tonal coarticulation by L1 Mandarin listeners. While flattened T2 was correctly perceived as T2 when occurring in the original (discontinuous) context, flattened T2 was perceived predominantly as a high tone when presented in isolation, demonstrating the effect of context in accurate tone perception. Similarly, when flattened T2 was spliced into a continuous context (for example, T3-T2-T1), the flattened T2 was most often perceived as a falling tone. Thus, L1 Mandarin speakers use perceptual cues in the context to identify a target tone, demonstrating perceptual compensation for tonal coarticulation (Xu, 1994).

To our knowledge, no study has investigated L2 or tone-naive compensation for tonal coarticulation. In general, L2 tone perception is challenging, especially for those with no L1 tone language experience (Pelzl, 2019). However, even without L1 tone categories, learners may draw on experience from intonation and prosody in their L1. L1 English-L2 Mandarin tone acquisition has been analyzed in terms of two models of L2 phonological acquisition: the Speech Learning Model (SLM; Flege, 1995; Hao, 2014) and the Perceptual Assimilation Model for Suprasegmentals (PAM-S; So and Best, 2008, 2010). The SLM predicts acquisition of L2 sounds based on similarity to L1 sounds: sounds that are the same will be easily and quickly acquired, sounds that are different will be slow to acquire, and sounds that are similar will be initially easy but may never be fully acquired (Flege, 1995). PAM-S predicts discriminability of L2 contrasts based on assimilation of L2 sounds into L1 categories (Best, 1994). L1 English speakers do assimilate Mandarin tones into English prosodic categories (So and Best, 2008), and these assimilation patterns can predict naive listeners’ ability to discriminate Mandarin tones (So and Best, 2010). However, neither the SLM nor PAM-S predicts how or whether learners will perceptually compensate for tonal coarticulation.

This gap in cross-language work on perceptual compensation of tonal coarticulation is addressed in this study, which uses a forced-choice discrimination task [as opposed to a tone identification task as in Xu (1994)] to permit comparison of perceptual compensation across groups that have differing levels of tone experience.

The present study asks the following question: How do tone-native (L1 Mandarin) and tone-naive (L1 English) listeners compensate for tonal coarticulation in Mandarin? Learning to compensate for tonal coarticulation may be challenging for tone-naive listeners, as well as for L2 learners who do not speak a tonal language. In particular, while all languages use suprasegmental features like pitch in production, there are systematic differences in how pitch is realized in tonal vs. non-tonal languages; for instance intonation pitch contours in English are more variable across and within speakers than lexical tonal contours (Michaud and Vaissière, 2015). This might mean that English listeners are less sensitive to differences in context-specific lexical tone patterns in Mandarin. Moreover, much research shows that L2 speakers of Mandarin are more accurate at tonal identification when tones appear in isolation rather than in disyllabic, trisyllabic, or sentential context (Xu, 1997; He and Wayland, 2013; Yang, 2015). Thus, it could be that part of L2 and tone-naive listeners’ difficulties identifying tones in connected speech stems from the difficulty of perceptually compensating for the tonal coarticulation that occurs in multi-word contexts. Thus, the results from the current study could have applications for learning a second language that uses lexical tones.

On the other hand, tone-naive listeners have been shown to be sensitive to phonetic variation of tone contours (e.g., Hallé et al., 2004), though that study only looked at tone presented in monosyllabic contexts. Additionally, tone-naive listeners may be more sensitive than L1 listeners to small within-tone variations in contour even when the fluctuations are due to coarticulation, perhaps because L1 listeners perceive these variants as phonologically the same (Stagray and Downs, 1993). Leading models of L2 phonological acquisition [e.g., PAM-S (So and Best, 2010, 2014); and SLM (Flege, 1995)] do not account for how perceptual compensatory patterns transfer during second language learning. The current study can speak to this gap..."

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2024.1392022/full

"Current healthcare systems are like living creatures. They are highly complex, multi-faceted, and dynamic. They must constantly change and adapt; they are like a melting pot, brimming with both rich and diverse cultures from all corners of the world. Beyond just nationality, these systems can include many languages, religious beliefs, socioeconomic backgrounds, and unique health practices. The tides of globalization, multicultural societies, migration, and international collaboration are continuously reshaping how healthcare providers are educated and how healthcare is delivered in an equitable, inclusive, and fair manner. To keep pace with, and within, these highly vibrant socio-cultural frameworks, Cross-Cultural Medical Education is needed to educate healthcare professionals. This education is essential to create professionals who are not just skilled, but who are also culturally savvy and able provide fair and equal care to patients from all sorts of backgrounds. It provides professionals with foundational knowledge to navigate the complex landscape of diverse patient populations. Cross-Cultural Medical Education is thus of paramount importance to satisfy the need for effective cross-cultural communication and understanding in patient care preferences, ultimately leading to improved health outcomes.

 

Healthcare settings now mirror the rich and diverse cultures of the world, transcending geographical and cultural boundaries. Extending beyond just nationality, this diversity encompasses lingual diversity, religious beliefs, socioeconomic backgrounds, and health practices. The diversity in healthcare systems is fostered by complex, multi-faceted, and dynamic interplay between globalization, multicultural societies, migration, and international collaboration. A plethora of empirical studies delineates the impacts of sociocultural factors, race, and ethnicity on health and clinical care (Hill et al., 1990; Berger, 1998). Therefore, Cross-Cultural Medical Education is needed to ensure culturally competent and skilled healthcare professionals are available to provide equitable patient care to patients with diverse religious, ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic backgrounds, and perspectives. The unique health-related beliefs and norms of a patient are shaped by these factors. These factors shape traditions and habits that can significantly impact the recognition of symptoms, thresholds for seeking care, health behaviors, adherence to treatment and preventive measures and medications, and communication preferences (Denoba et al., 1998; Betancourt et al., 1999; Coleman-Miller, 2000; Einbinder and Schulman, 2000; Flores, 2000; Gornick, 2000; Williams and Rucker, 2000). Consequently, sociocultural differences between patient and provider must be acknowledged and addressed in medical education to provide future physicians the skills and knowledge to successfully navigate the complex landscape of diverse patient populations and to be able to provide effective care to patients.

Failing to address these cultural differences can lead to misunderstandings, medical errors including misdiagnoses, and suboptimal treatment outcomes. Empirical evidence shows that patient dissatisfaction, distrust, poor adherence, and poorer health outcomes are most likely to occur when the cultural diversity of patients and providers are ignored and not communicated during the medical encounter (Betancourt et al., 1999; Cooper-Patrick et al., 1999; Langer, 1999; Morales et al., 1999; Stewart et al., 1999; Flores, 2000). Patient satisfaction, adherence to treatment, and overall health outcomes are improved with culturally tailored care that respects patients’ cultural values and beliefs (Betancourt et al., 2003; Beach et al., 2005).

According to Betancourt (2003), three key factors inspired the emergence of Cross-Cultural Medical Education: The need for preparing providers to be able to provide healthcare for a growing, diverse population (Zweifler and Gonzalez, 1998), to help to eliminate the pervasive racial/ethnic disparities in medical care seen today 9, and the standards put forward by accreditation bodies for medical training (i.e., the Liaison Committee on Medical Education) that require cross-cultural curricula as part of undergraduate medical education (Liaison Committee on Medical Education, n.d.).

There is another important issue that must be addressed that underscores the necessity of Cross-Cultural Medical Education in addition to these three factors. It is the recognition that healthcare providers themselves bring their own cultural backgrounds into their encounters with the healthcare system, with their colleagues, and with their patients (Betancourt, 2003). This aspect of cultural transaction is often overlooked, however, providers’ personal beliefs, values, and biases can significantly influence their interactions and decision-making processes. As such, current cross-cultural education must be extended to comprehensively address these influences. In other words, it is not only the culture of the patient that matters; the provider’s “culture” is equally important. Historical factors for patient mistrust, provider bias, and their impacts on physicians’ decision-making have also been documented (Betancourt, 2003). Failure to take sociocultural factors into account may lead to stereotyping, and, in the worst cases, biased or discriminatory treatment of patients based on race, culture, language proficiency, or social status. Training that encourages self-reflection and awareness of one’s own cultural identity can be incorporated to ensure healthcare providers can become more empathetic and effective in their practice. This approach involves exercises and techniques that promote self-reflection, including understanding one’s culture, biases, tendency to stereotype, and appreciation for diverse health values, beliefs, and behaviors. Examples from this training include having open conversations exploring the impacts of racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, and other types of discrimination in healthcare; determining whether providers have ever dealt with feeling “different” in some way and how they have dealt with that; attempting to identify—using patient descriptors or vignettes—hidden biases the student may have based on subconscious stereotypes; determining the student’s reaction to different visuals of patients of different races/ethnicities; and discussing ways in which individuals in the students’ families have interacted with the healthcare system (Betancourt, 2003; Betancourt et al., 2003; Liaison Committee on Medical Education, 2020; Liaison Committee on Medical Education, n.d.). By integrating these elements into Cross-Cultural Medical Education, future healthcare professionals can be better prepared to navigate their own cultural influences and those of their patients, leading to more equitable and effective healthcare outcomes.

Medical schools have adopted various approaches to integrate cross-cultural education into their curricula. For instance, these schools have dedicated standalone courses on cultural competence, covering topics such as cultural awareness, communication skills, and addressing health disparities among different ethnic and socioeconomic groups (Betancourt, 2003; Liaison Committee on Medical Education, 2020). Cultural content has also been integrated across various medical disciplines, to emphasize that cultural considerations are not isolated concepts, but they are integral to every facet of healthcare delivery (Betancourt et al., 2003). Another promising approach is the exposure of students to culturally diverse patient cases by utilizing simulation and case-based learning that allows students to engage in real-world scenarios involving diverse patients. This approach has shown it fosters critical thinking and empathy in students while they navigate complex cross-cultural dynamics. It encourages students to apply their cultural knowledge to make informed decisions and provide patient-centered care (Dogra et al., 2009).

However, while the integration of cross-cultural education into medical curricula has been deemed a necessity to foster healthcare delivery, the success of its implementation faces several challenges and barriers. First, well-validated and applicable faculty training and development are needed to adequately train and equip faculty members with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to aid students in navigating diverse cultural scenarios and to guide them through the complexities of culturally diverse and sensitive healthcare (Dogra et al., 2009). This need calls for comprehensive faculty development programs that emphasize cultural awareness, communication skills, and an understanding of the psycho-social determinants of health affecting diverse populations (Betancourt, 2003). Second, developing and implementing cross-cultural educational courses, materials, and training often requires additional financial resources, including funding for curriculum development and integration, cultural exchange experiences, and technology to facilitate cross-cultural interactions. Third, the integration of cross-cultural education may cause resistance to change within academic institutions. Faculty members, administrators, and even students may harbor implicit cultural biases that can impede their willingness to acknowledge and appreciate diverse values, norms, or perspectives. A multifaceted approach is required to addressing these biases, including educational campaigns to raise awareness, diversity and inclusion training, and fostering open dialogues and exchanges about cultural stereotypes and prejudices (Chapman et al., 2018). Finally, the development of valid and reliable assessment tools that capture the nuances of cultural competence is an essential companion to this infusion of cross-cultural education. Traditional assessment methods, such as written exams, may not effectively evaluate a student’s ability to interact with culturally diverse patients in real-world healthcare settings. Objective structured clinical examinations with cross-cultural scenarios, standardized patient interactions, and reflective portfolios are some strategies employed to evaluate students’ cultural sensitivity, communication skills, and patient-centered care (Luo et al., 2021).

Addressing these challenges are key to further enhancing the effectiveness of Cross-Cultural Medical Education. As healthcare systems evolve so must cross-cultural medical education. Therefore, faculty development programs should include interactive workshops, seminars, and cultural immersion experiences to keep paste with changes in the sociocultural environment for healthcare systems and to deepen educators’ understanding of diverse patient backgrounds and adjust and improve their teaching methods. Certainly, the economic burden of educating culturally aware and sensitive educators must be addressed by pursuing financial support to be sought through grants, partnerships with cultural organizations, and government funding. Academic institutions should address and overcome resistance to change by implementing continuous diversity and inclusion training, along with creating platforms for open dialogue and discussions on implicit biases and cultural stereotypes. Innovative assessment tools that go beyond traditional methods should be developed, including technology-driven simulations and real-time feedback from culturally diverse standardized patients.

Despite these challenges, the field of healthcare will continue to be confronted with a pressing need to adapt and ensure equitable patient care for individuals from numerous backgrounds. It is essential for healthcare professionals to be proficient in culturally sensitive care to navigate the complex landscape of diverse patient populations. Medical educators must remain committed to incorporating feedback, evolving best practices, and innovative teaching strategies to ensure that future healthcare professionals are well-equipped to provide high-quality, culturally competent care to all patients, thereby improving overall health outcomes and achieving health equity. Cross-Cultural Medical Education has now become of paramount importance, an imperative, to satisfy the need for effective cross-cultural communication and understanding in patient care..."

#metaglossia_mundus: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1326723/full

 

"This study investigates the correlation between textual ideology and the English translations of political discourse. It focuses on how the translation shifts of modality relate to the socio-political and socio-cultural context of Chinese political discourse using the modality system of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as the theoretical framework. Three main types of translation shifts between should and will, and their corresponding items are identified. First, the addition of modal items should and will in the TTs; second, downgrading the modality value of Chinese modality items to the lower-valued should and will in the TTs; third, upgrading the modality value of Chinese modality items to a higher-valued will in the TTs. The study attributes these findings to van Dijk’s ideological square model and the variable of tenor (the social distance between the speaker and the addresses and the social distance between the official translators of Chinese political discourse and the international audience..."

#metaglossia_mundus: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-024-03302-z

 

"..."According to information at our disposal, the school alerted the Tshwane South District about a planned protest by a group of learners triggered by alleged racial connotations, micro-aggressions and complaints about black learners which were ventilated through a WhatsApp Group comprised of white learners," he said.

Mabona said the conversations between white learners in the WhatsApp groups allegedly downplayed the concerns raised by black learners.

"Similar commentary about a black hair protest by learners that reportedly took place at the school in 2016 was also made in the group chat," he added.

The GDE has launched and investigation into the allegations, especially against school employees.

Gauteng Education MEC, Matome Chiloane said a school environment where racism and discrimination are prevalent, whether covert or subtle, compromises the right to education in a safe and equitable environment for all learners.

“Indeed, action must be taken against any conduct that threatens order and discipline at our institutions, especially conduct that undermines the dignity of learners. We will continue to monitor the situation closely,” Chiloane said.

It is not the first time that the school has been hit with racism allegations. In 2016, a report was released detailing racist incidents at the school. At the time, it was reported that learners protested, claiming the school did not allow them to have their natural hair or speak in African languages.

IOL has reached out to Pretoria High School for Girls for comment, and the story will be updated.

IOL News"

#metaglossia_mundus: https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/12-learners-suspended-after-fresh-racism-allegations-rock-prestigious-pretoria-girls-school/ar-BB1qx2uJ?apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1

 

"Benjamen Emuk  July 25, 2024Running under the theme French Language as a Driver to Sustainable Development in the Digital Age, the on-going conference is in the attendance of hundreds of French teachers from over 30 African countries and beyond as they gather to discuss workable ideas that aid the development of the French language beyond just a communication tool but as a business enabler not only in Francophone countries but also in Anglophone ones as it has become a widely spoken language with over 350 million speakers worldwide and 79.9 million mother tongue speakers.

 

Spoken across 29 countries in the world, the French language has just ceased to be a language for just fun but rather a vital communication tool for business all over the world.

Speaking at the event, Dr. Agatha Tumwine, the Congress Convener, who also doubles as the President of French Teachers in Africa and the Indian Ocean, stated the uniqueness brought about by the event, which, among others, includes presenting an opportunity to improve technology, which eventually elevates the way people do business.

 

“This event is a testament to the unique opportunity that French language and technology can play in developing different economies as well as enhancing the flow of communication, and we are delighted to have it in Uganda, which has never been the case before.”

 

Dr. Agatha added that “digital technology is transforming the way of leveraging the French language and other languages, which has eased the way of learning and doing business in the world.”

 

Reflecting on the 10th Congress held in Dakar, Senegal, held under the theme To innovate to serve better, the conference, according to organizers, saw most of the action points discussed put into use, and this year’s is only a continuation of the previous one.

While addressing the guests, the deputy French Ambassador to Uganda, representing the French Ambassador to Uganda, H.E. Xavier Sticker, explained the need for such conferences, which aid in addressing challenges poised for development, unity, and transformation in and beyond Francophone economies.

“French is nowadays seen as a leading communications tool, hence a great contributor to the unity, peace, and co-existence of different groups, for example, in Uganda, among the refugees and the different communities they live in. Uganda is blessed to host such a noble event, and it will only go down in its history as having hosted it.”

The event is anticipated to cover topics including the Kenya Education System: How the education ministry and universities responded to the COVID-19 challenges and the lessons learned by teachers from the University of Nairobi, Teaching French differently with new forms of expression for young people, French within Tanzania amid multilingualism: challenges and prospects, digital citizenship in an interconnected world, emerging countries, and a new balance of power, among others."

https://chimpreports.com/uganda-hosts-11th-congress-of-teachers-of-french-in-africa-and-indian-ocean-commission/

#metaglossia_mundus

"Le 9ème Congrès panafricain de Lomé : un élan pour le renouveau

Lomé se prépare à accueillir, du 29 octobre au 2 novembre 2024, le 9ème Congrès panafricain. Un événement majeur qui…

PUBLIÉ PAR HELENE SOUROU  le: 25 juillet 2024

Lomé se prépare à accueillir, du 29 octobre au 2 novembre 2024, le 9ème Congrès panafricain. Un événement majeur qui réunira des dirigeants politiques, des experts, des acteurs de la société civile et des représentants de la diaspora africaine pour discuter des défis et des opportunités du continent.

Lors d’un point de presse organisé le 23 juillet dernier, les organisateurs ont présenté les progrès notables accomplis. En effet, les six conférences régionales préparatoires, tenues à travers l’Afrique, ont facilité la collecte des aspirations et des propositions de divers participants. Par ailleurs, de l’Afrique australe, qui a privilégié la science et la technologie, jusqu’à l’Afrique de l’Est, mettant l’accent sur les langues africaines, les discussions ont été enrichissantes et diversifiées.

Le thème central du congrès, « Renouveau du panafricanisme et rôle de l’Afrique dans la réforme des institutions multilatérales », témoigne de l’ambition de l’événement. Il s’agit de donner un nouvel élan à l’unité africaine, de renforcer la coopération entre les pays du continent et de faire entendre la voix de l’Afrique sur la scène internationale.

Le 9ème Congrès : Parmi les principaux enjeux abordés lors de ces conférences, on retrouve :

• Le renforcement de l’unité africaine et la promotion de la coopération Sud-Sud.
• La mobilisation des ressources pour financer les projets de développement en Afrique.
• La réforme des institutions multilatérales afin de mieux répondre aux besoins du continent.
• La valorisation des cultures et des langues africaines .
• La gestion des migrations et la protection des droits des diasporas africaines.

En août prochain, Bahia au Brésil accueillera la dernière conférence préparatoire, un événement crucial qui réunira les représentants de la diaspora africaine pour débattre activement de leur contribution essentielle au développement du continent. Par ailleurs, le Togo, en tant que pays organisateur de ce 9ème Congrès panafricain, s’engage fermement à en garantir le succès. Sous l’égide du Président Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, le gouvernement togolais déploie tous les efforts et mobilise les ressources nécessaires pour assurer un déroulement impeccable de cette rencontre d’envergure.

Ensuite, les conclusions tirées des diverses conférences précédentes seront compilées et exposées avec précision lors du Congrès de Lomé. Ces délibérations constitueront le socle sur lequel s’élaborera une stratégie détaillée, une feuille de route visionnaire pour le futur de l’Afrique.

Enfin, le 9ème Congrès panafricain de Lomé se profile à l’horizon comme un tournant décisif pour le continent. Il offrira une plateforme inédite pour repenser les défis du panafricanisme et esquisser le visage d’une Afrique unie, florissante et influente sur la scène mondiale. Cet événement marquera sans doute un jalon historique, en catalysant les aspirations communes et en forgeant un avenir prometteur pour l’Afrique et sa diaspora."

#metaglossia_mundus: https://www.journaldutogo.com/le-9eme-congres-panafricain-de-lome-un-elan-pour-le-renouveau/

 

"Meta AI now supports seven languages including French, German, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, with more on the way.

byOyinebiladou Omemu

Updated July 25, 2024

 

Ever wished your tech assistant could understand you in more languages and help you better in creativity? Well, Meta AI is making that come to reality. Now available in 22 countries, including Argentina, Chile, and Mexico, Meta AI has become more multilingual and smarter than ever.

Meta AI supports seven languages including French, German, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, with more on the way, making it accessible to a broader user base. This will enable more interactions across its family of apps including WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook, where Meta AI is now available.

Apart from the expanded language support, Meta AI is also getting new tools and features. The company has announced that has started testing “Imagine me” prompts in beta for users in the US.  The feature will allow you to generate images of yourself or objects in different scenarios and situations as per your preference and will be able to share these images with your contacts.

Additionally, you'd get customization capabilities which will enable you to add or remove objects from a generated image, change them and edit them by stating a new command to the effect. If you initially said “Imagine a dog in space” to generate an image of a dog in space, and you want a cat instead, all you have to do is create a new prompt “Change the dog to a cat” to make the changes.

Meta’s AI integration of the Llama 405B model further gives it the ability to handle other complex tasks like math problem-solving and coding with ease. If you need help with your homework or debugging your code, Meta AI can provide you with assistance.

And it doesn’t stop there. Meta AI is also rolling out on Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and Meta Quest in experimental mode in the US, allowing for hands-free control and real-time information updates. Now you can pack for a trip and ask your assistant for outfit advice while wearing your VR headset, and get a visual representation of outfit ideas.

Meta AI is evolving at lightning speed, with updates every two weeks to keep improving user experience for its over 3 billion monthly active users across all its social media platforms.

byOyinebiladou Omemu

Updated July 25, 2024"

#metaglossia_mundus: https://www.techloy.com/meta-ai-enhances-multilingual-support-introduces-new-creative-tools/

 

"Discover if large language models can boost engagement at the expense of novelty, examining their impact on creativity and storytelling dynamics.

July 25, 2024 By  Gaurav Roy

Securities.io is not an investment adviser, and this does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, or trading advice. Securities.io does not recommend that any security should be bought, sold, or held by you. Conduct your own due diligence and consult a financial adviser before making any investment decisions.

Artificial Intelligence is one of the biggest trends of this decade. Its ability to automate repetitive tasks, reduce human error, make unbiased and quick decisions, and be available 24/7 makes AI extremely beneficial across sectors. 

Given these benefits, it is projected that by 2025, AI will eliminate 85 million jobs while creating 97 million new ones. 

As AI permeates our daily lives, a growing worry has been whether AI, one day, will replace humans. Well, when you hear and read about AI passing bar exams and achieving a better score than human experts on benchmarks like Massive Multitask Language Understanding, it makes sense that people are wondering about artificial intelligence replacing human intelligence and leaving us obsolete.

While AI usage has risen significantly, with ChatGPT alone having 180.5 million registered users and 100 million users actively using it, this may be too soon to be excited or fearful. This may especially be true when it comes to creativity.

Creativity is a fundamental feature of being human, but it has actually been a challenge for AI. However, with the help of generative AI, stories can be made more creative and enjoyable.

Besides enhancing the content by providing potential starting points and helping overcome writer's block, generative AI can also restrict the variability of a writer's own ideas from the start.

So, while it has been seen that humans can increase quality and improve productivity with the help of AI, little is known about the impact of technology on fundamental human behavior—the ability of humans to be creative.

To find the answer to this question, the latest study focused specifically on the role of AI in affecting creative output through short fiction. 

In its study, to understand how the tech affects the participants' ability to produce this particular type of creative written output, the researchers didn't introduce financial incentives but provided guidance to authors to write a story on a random topic with instructions on its length and the target audience.

Creativity is core to innovation and human expression and is usually evaluated based on two main factors: novelty and usefulness. So, for assessment, the study used the novelty index, which captured the story's originality, and the usefulness index, which captured the story's appropriateness for its audience, the feasibility of being developed into a complete book, and the likelihood of a publisher developing the book.

The two-phase study on written creative output was conducted online. In the first phase of the pre-registered experiment, 293 participants were asked to write a short, eight-sentence story for a teenage and young adult audience.

These participants for the experiment were chosen from the Prolific platform and filtered for being based in the UK with an approval rating of at least 95% from between 100 and 1,000,000 prior submissions. What's notable here is that writers weren't chosen based on their writing skills or creativity. 

Participants were then randomly segregated into three conditions — human-only with no mention of or access to generative AI, human with one GenAI idea condition with an option to call upon OpenAI's GPT-4 LLM to get a three-sentence starting idea, and human with five GenAI ideas can get up to five different ideas. 

In the 2nd phase of the study, a separate group of 600 participants were assigned to evaluate the stories. Much like the writing participants, the evaluator participants were picked off of Prolific, reside in the UK, have an approval rating of at least 95%, and had not previously participated in the writer study. The evaluators represented “regular” readers and were not selected based on prior experience in the publishing industry.

Each evaluator was given six randomly selected stories without being informed which condition they belonged to. 

Professionalizing the Story with Increased Novelty and Usefulness

The new study, published in the journal Science Advances, was conducted by Professor Oliver Hauser from the University of Exeter Business School and Professor Anil Doshi from the UCL School of Management.

The study found that having access to ideas generated by AI resulted in stories being evaluated as more enjoyable, creative, and better written. 

So, AI technology has been found to improve a writer's creativity by enhancing the rarity and usefulness of stories' ideas. The study found that AI “professionalizes” stories, which tend to have plot twists and are less boring.

To better understand just how the greater availability of generative AI ideas affects the enhancement of creativity, the study looked into the two generative AI conditions separately. Across the two generative AI conditions, the vast majority (at 88.4%) of participants used AI to get at least one initial story idea. 

Out of the 100 writers who got one idea from generative AI, 82 of them chose to generate one idea using AI. Meanwhile, a whopping 94.89% (i.e., 93 writers) out of 98 participants in the Human with Five GenAI ideas category chose to do so.

Additionally, participants called upon the AI for ideas more than once on an average of 2.55 times, and 24.5% of participants requested a maximum of five ideas from generative AI. Interestingly, the study didn't “observe any differences in how generative AI was accessed based on the inherent creativity of the writer.”

The study found that having access to one idea from the AI leads to “somewhat greater creativity,“ but the most benefit came from having access to five generative AI ideas.

So, in terms of novelty, writers with just one AI idea experienced an increase of 5.4% over writers with no AI access. Meanwhile, writers with five GenAI ideas exhibited an increase of 8.1% in novelty over those without any AI access.

The most notable difference, however, came in the usefulness of the story. So, those with access to only one AI idea saw it to be 3.7% higher than those with no access. As for those with access to five AI ideas, the usefulness of their stories rose by 9% over those with no access at all and 5.1% with only one AI idea.

According to the study results, “having access to more AI ideas leads to more creative storytelling.”

The study also looked into evaluators' emotional responses to the stories. This was based on reader interest, which included not just how well the story was written but also whether it was funny and enjoyable, the degree of plot twists, and whether the content altered the reader's expectations about future stories.

What the study found was that AI helped make stories more enjoyable and the more the AI ideas, the more likely the plot twists. 

Overall, relative to human-only stories, stories written by those having access to up to five AI ideas were considered to be better written, less boring, and have more of an effect on the evaluator's expectations of future stories. However, where they lack is in the fun element, with stories from five AI ideas not being evaluated as funnier than those with no AI access.

Bridging the Gap between Less Creative Writers and Those with High Creativity

With AI on the rise, it's crucial that we understand just how it helps humans, and the latest study does just that.

Conducted by researchers from the University of Exeter Business School, Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, and the UCL School of Management, the study found that using AI can actually put less creative people on the same level as those who are highly creative. However, those who are already very creative don't really have much use of this technology. 

Among the most inherently creative writers, those with high-divergent association task (DAT) writers, there has been little effect of having access to AI ideas on their story's creativity. DAT is a trait measure of creativity, and each participant was asked to complete it.

Across all conditions, the study found that high-DAT writers' stories were evaluated relatively highly for novelty and usefulness, as well as for how well the story was written and how enjoyable it was. Having access to generative AI does not affect high-DAT writers' already good performance.

Those who are inherently less creative, however, were able to improve their creativity and particular emotional characteristics with the help of AI. Among low-DAT writers, those with access to just one AI had their story's novelty improved by 6.3% in comparison to a 10.7% increase for those with five AI ideas. As for usefulness, the jump was 5.5% and 11.5% for one and five generative AI ideas, respectively.

Furthermore, for low-DAT writers with one AI idea, there was an increase of up to 26.6% in how well the story was written, a 22.6% jump in enjoyment, and a 15.2 decrease in the story's boringness. These improvements put low-DAT writers' stories on par with high-DAT writers.

The study further evaluated the objective aspects of the story, which is just how similar or different the stories are. It was found that AI is not as powerful in providing distinctiveness. The generative AI-enabled stories have been more similar to each other than stories by humans alone. So, “writers in the two generative AI conditions are anchored to some extent on the generative AI idea presented to them.”

This points to the new and advanced technology's ability to help increase individual creativity, but this comes at the risk of losing collective novelty. The study stated:

“This dynamic resembles a social dilemma: With generative AI, writers are individually better off, but collectively, a narrower scope of novel content is produced.”

The study further made additional observations, including AI helps less able writers, hence effectively equalizing the stories' assessment and eliminating any advantage or disadvantage based on the writers' inherent creativity. Also, there's no evidence of AI's ability to push the upper bound of creativity beyond what creative humans are capable of on their own.

After disclosing to the evaluators whether the writer got AI ideas and the ideas themselves, the study collected additional outcomes that it says can inspire future directions of research. These outcomes included evaluators imposing an ownership penalty of at least 25% on writers who got AI ideas. 

Most evaluators also indicated that content creators, on whose work the models are based, should be compensated and that the use of AI should be disclosed in publications that employ it. Nevertheless, the majority of evaluators considered the use of AI in story writing to be ethical and a ‘creative act.'

Talking about the study's limitations, the authors pointed to length, medium, and output type in addition to writers having no interaction with the AI model or prompt variations. 

So, Can AI Really Replace Humans?

With this study, the researchers have made an attempt to understand the impact of AI on something that has both economic and purely expressive value. 

Ever since the popularity and adoption of generative AI solutions like Chatgpt, there has been a growing chatter about AI replacing human labor in the not-so-distant future. As we have been seeing, generative AI can create new content in text, images, audio, and video in a fraction of the time it takes humans to produce the same content. 

However, as this study has found, the ‘horse race' between human and AI-generated ideas may not be decidedly in favor of AI. Those with less innate talent will surely benefit from it, but for those who already possess high creativity, AI does not appear to be of much use. That said, AI might still be useful to them in other ways.

As the paper noted, the study used a sample of “typical“ participants used in academic studies and did not consider unusually creative individuals or professional writers, an important population segment that remains understudied. The effects of artificial intelligence on this segment can be transformative in other ways, “potentially offering efficiency gains or improved speed of execution.“ Still, less creative individuals are expected to see the largest impact and get the most out of generative AI.

Moreover, the increase in individual creativity comes at the risk of losing collective novelty, which raises the question of whether the stories inspired and enhanced by AI will be able to have sufficient variation in their outputs. 

If publications embrace this content, the study says, the produced stories would become more similar and less unique. This “downward spiral“ will mean individuals will be incentivized to increasingly use AI in the future, which will further reduce the collective novelty of stories. It noted:

“Our results suggest that despite the enhancement effect that generative AI had on individual creativity, there may be a cautionary note if generative AI were adopted more widely for creative tasks.“

As a rapidly evolving technology, generative AI‘s full potential is far from being explored. One day, AI will be able to think, learn, perceive, reason, and solve problems like humans.

While that future may one day be a possibility, it might not be coming for decades yet. Still, with technology already enhancing human creativity, further advancements may see future creative possibilities extend far beyond our imagination.

The Rise of Autonomous Vehicles – Perception Key to Adoption

Gaurav Roy

Gaurav started trading cryptocurrencies in 2017 and has fallen in love with the crypto space ever since. His interest in everything crypto turned him into a writer specializing in cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Soon he found himself working with crypto companies and media outlets. He is also a big-time Batman fan."

https://www.securities.io/creativity-at-the-expense-of-novelty-are-large-language-models-llms-engagement-equalizers/

 

"Shivam Nalawade, Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a personal AI assistant that understands you, no matter what language you speak? Or to create stunning images of yourself in fantastical scenarios with just a few words? These possibilities are becoming a reality because of meta-AI, which is completely changing how humans communicate with AI on many platforms.

 

Meta AI: Breaking Language Barriers

Meta is significantly expanding access to its AI assistant, making it available in 22 countries, with Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Cameroon being the latest additions. But that’s not all – Meta AI is breaking down language barriers by introducing support for French, German, Hindi (including Romanized script), Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, with more languages on the horizon.

With this multilingual feature, users may communicate with Meta AI in their favorite language on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and meta.ai. Whether you’re chatting with friends, seeking information, or looking for creative inspiration, Meta AI is there to assist you in your native tongue.

Unleashing Creativity with “Imagine Me”

The “Imagine me” prompts are one of the most intriguing new features; they are presently being rolled out in US beta. With this innovative technology, users can visualize themselves in completely different situations. Do you want to see yourself as a rock star or a superhero? Simply type “Imagine me” in your Meta AI chat, followed by your desired scenario, like “Imagine me surfing” or “Imagine me as royalty.”

This feature uses Meta’s state-of-the-art personalization model to create images based on a photo of you and your prompt. It’s not just a fun tool – it’s a new way to express yourself and entertain your friends in group chats.

Enhanced Image Creation and Editing

Additionally, Meta AI is offering new features for creative editing. Users can now add or remove objects, make changes, and edit specific parts of an image while keeping the rest intact. If you made a picture of a cat snorkeling in a goldfish bowl, for example, and then decided you would rather have a corgi, you can tell the AI to “Change the cat to a corgi.”

An “Edit with AI” button will be available the following month, enabling you to further refine your AI-generated photos. Furthermore, Meta is introducing the capability to produce AI-generated graphics directly in Facebook stories, feeds, comments, and messages; this feature will soon be extended to additional locations across Meta’s apps and in more languages.

Advanced Problem-Solving with Llama 405B

For those seeking help with more complex questions, Meta is offering access to its most advanced open-source model, Llama 405B, within Meta AI on WhatsApp and meta.ai. This powerful model excels in areas like math and coding, providing step-by-step explanations for math problems, debugging support for code, and expert instruction on complex technical and scientific concepts.

 

 

 

Imagine creating a brand-new game from scratch or adding a distinctive twist to an old favorite by fusing Meta AI’s proficiency with coding with its capacity to create images. The possibilities are endless, and you can even insert yourself into the game you’ve created!

Meta AI in Virtual and Augmented Reality

While most of these updates focus on Meta’s apps and web platforms, it’s worth noting that Meta AI is also making waves in the world of VR and AR. It’s already available on Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and is set to roll out on Meta Quest in the US and Canada next month in experimental mode.

On Quest, Meta AI will replace the current Voice Commands, allowing for hands-free control of the headset, real-time information updates, and even the ability to ask questions about your physical surroundings using Vision in Passthrough mode.

The Future of AI Interaction

As Meta continues to expand and enhance its AI capabilities, we’re witnessing a transformation in how we interact with technology. From breaking down language barriers to unleashing creativity and solving complex problems, Meta AI is paving the way for more intuitive, helpful, and personalized AI experiences.

 

Whether you’re a content creator looking for inspiration, a student needing help with tough math problems, or simply someone who wants to explore the possibilities of AI, Meta’s latest advancements offer something for everyone. As these technologies continue to evolve, we can expect even more innovative features and applications in the future.

Are you ready to explore the world of possibilities with Meta AI? With its expanded language support and creative tools, there’s never been a better time to dive in and see what this powerful AI assistant can do for you.

FAQ

Q1: How can I start using Meta AI for my business?

A1: Meta AI’s capabilities are gradually being integrated into Meta’s platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Keep an eye out for new AI-powered tools and features in these platforms’ business suites.

Q2: Is Meta AI available in all countries?

A2: While Meta aims for global accessibility, availability may vary depending on regional regulations and technological infrastructure. Check Meta’s official announcements for specific information about your region.

Q3: How does Meta ensure the responsible use of its AI technology?

A3: Meta has established an AI ethics team and adheres to principles of fairness, transparency, and privacy in AI development. They also collaborate with external experts and policymakers to address potential risks and ethical concerns.

Q4: Can Meta AI completely replace human creativity and language skills?

A4: While Meta AI is a powerful tool, it’s designed to augment human capabilities rather than replace them. Human oversight, creativity, and cultural understanding remain crucial in content creation and communication.

Q5: How does Meta AI compare to other language models like GPT-3?

A5: While both are advanced language models, Meta AI focuses more on multimodal capabilities and integration with social media platforms. It also emphasizes multilingual abilities and creative tools for visual content.

Featured Image Source: Yandex

Shivam Nalawade

Shivam Nalawade is a passionate writer with a keen eye for emerging technologies and industry trends. His articles dive deep into the latest innovations, offering readers insightful analysis and forward-thinking perspectives. From AI breakthroughs to sustainable tech, Shivam's work captures the pulse of the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Follow his writing to stay ahead of the curve in the ever-changing world of technology."

https://itmunch.com/meta-ai-global-expansion-multilingual-problem-solving/

#metaglossia_mundus

"'Teacup,' the series adaptation of Robert R. McCammon's horror fiction novel 'Stinger,' changes '90% of the book': 'It's a very different version.'

Teacup, Peacock's series adaptation of Robert R. McCammon's horror fiction novel Stinger, "will be a very different" version from the source material, according to showrunner and executive producer Ian McCulloch.

 

McCulloch stopped by Entertainment Weekly's 2024 Comic-Con studio alongside fellow EP James Wan and stars Yvonne Strahovski (who plays Maggie Chenowith), Scott Speedman (James Chenowith), and Chaske Spencer (Ruben Shanley) to tease the series, sharing that his version "changes 90% of the book."

"And for some reason they went, 'Oh, great,'" McCulloch quips about Wan and his production company Atomic Monster, who approached him to tackle the adaptation.

"It’s a very different version," McCulloch, best known as a producer on Yellowstone, says. "The book’s a very big book. It’s got a lot of set pieces, a lot of characters. What I wanted to do was take all that away and keep the ideas of the book."

McCulloch adds, "I wanted to make something where even if you read the book, you don’t know what’s gonna happen. Part of that was making a minimalist story. It was a maximalist piece of fiction. I made it very grounded. Instead of a town, it's three families, instead of a large area it's one secluded farm."

McCulloch wanted to keep his version "grounded so that when things start to go wrong or go supernatural, we’re starting from a level of very relatable human characters at ground level," he says.

 

Teacup will debut with two new episodes on Peacock on Oct. 10, which the showrunner and stars announced during a Comic-Con panel on Thursday. Per the streamer, the series will follow  "a disparate group of people in rural Georgia who must come together in the face of a mysterious threat in order to survive.”

 

Just how scary will the horror series be? "At the end of the day it's a drama," Wan tells EW, but there's also "some pretty creepy messed up things in this."

Speedman says he had to "convince" McCulloch to let him be part of the project, while Strahovski admits she was initially "a little on the fence about doing something that was a genre piece, an ongoing series." However, "I read it and I was like, oh, this is different," Strahovski says of the "classy vision.""

#metaglossia_mundus: https://ew.com/comic-con-2024-teacup-series-different-from-book-stinger-8684198

 

"Call for Arabic Interpreters (Individual and Company) - OSC Institute

Organization

• Organisation of Southern Cooperation

Posted

24 Jul 2024 

 

Closing date

4 Aug 2024

The Organisation of Southern Cooperation (OSC) was established on 29 January 2020 by countries and organisations from across the Global South at the International Summit on Balanced and Inclusive Education – III ForumBIE 2030 – held in the Republic of Djibouti.

As the first intergovernmental organisation of and by the Greater South, the OSC acts as an instrument of intellectual, technical and financial cooperation and solidarity between its Member States as well as its Associate Members in the pursuit of a Third Way of Development – from the South, for Humanity.

About the Institute

The OSC Institute is the Organisation of Southern Cooperation’s capacity-building arm, designed to provide short- and long-term training programmes aimed at building capacities of Member States around balanced and inclusive education, transdisciplinary research, endogenous technology development and transformative economic development. The launch of the Institute took place on 29th January 2024 at the Headquarters of Addis Ababa.

The Institute is aiming to start its second batch of 2-months intensive training in Balanced and Inclusive Education in July 2024.

Objective of 2024 BIE Capacity-Building Programme

The two-month intensive capacity-building programme is focused on achieving the vision and commitments made in the Universal Declaration of Balanced and Inclusive Education (UDBIE) through system-transformation. More precisely, the objective of the programme is to build and reinforce national capacities in Member States to contribute to a Third Way of Development. In particular, the training programme is meant:

• To develop capacities of Ministries of Education in curricula, pedagogy, and assessment transformation aligned with the core principles of BIE;
• To provide needed tools, frameworks, approaches, and instruments to participants to propose and implement transformation in areas of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment;

Who is the Programme for?

• To enable participants to understand the theoretical and pedagogical underpinnings of Balanced and Inclusive Education (BIE);
• To support participants to analyse their education systems through the lenses of BIE; and
• To provide skills and tools for nationally-led systemic educational transformation.

Venue and Modalities for Participation in the Training Programme

• The two-month intensive capacity-building programme shall be conducted at the OSC Institute set up in the Headquarters of the OSC in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Assignment

• This role is open to both individual consultants and company consultants.
• Interpreters-translators in Arabic are required for the entire duration of the training to undertake simultaneous interpretation as well as translation of materials using the zoom interpretation app.

The interpreters-translators would be responsible for:

• Providing interpretation services during the course of the training of plenary as well as group sessions (9 am to 5 pm with breaks )
• Translating teaching - learning materials with respect to the modules as well as the materials generated during the training as well as other relevant materials/ presentations.

Experience and qualification required

• Professional degree in interpretation or translation from a reputed Institute
• Broad understanding of educational concepts. Theories and approaches
• 4 years of experience in translation and interpretation in international organisations

How to apply

Application Details:

• Qualified and interested candidates can apply for this position by sending their resume and cover letter to HRE@osc.int and CCing h.benounane@osc.int , o.harzallah@osc.int with the subject line "Arabic Interpreter - OSC Institute."
• Female applicants are highly encouraged to apply.
• Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled
• Note: This assignment is to be delivered at the OSC headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Eligible candidates must be based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia."

#metaglossia_mundus: https://reliefweb.int/job/4080126/call-arabic-interpreters-individual-and-company-osc-institute

 

July 23, 2024 "LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansans whose native language is Marshallese now have interpreters available at the Benton County Disaster Recovery Center in Bentonville.

Residents in Baxter, Benton, Boone, Fulton, Greene, Madison, Marion and Randolph counties affected by the strong storms and tornadoes of May 24-27 may seek FEMA assistance at any disaster recovery center. No appointment is needed to visit a center.

The Benton County center where the Marshallese interpreter will be available is located at:

Northwest Arkansas Community College

Becky Paneitz Student Center, SC 108, 1211 SE Eagle Way, Bentonville, AR 72712

Parking available at 1202 Water Tower Road in the adjacent multi-level parking garage on levels 2 and 3.

The Baxter County center is located at:

Food Bank of North Central Arkansas 1042 Highland Circle, Mountain Home, AR 72653

The centers operate Monday-Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and close Sundays.

You do not have to visit a center to apply for FEMA disaster assistance. The quickest way to apply is by going online at disasterassistance.gov/.

Additional options when applying include:

• Download the FEMA App for mobile devices 
• Call the FEMA helpline at 800-621-3362 between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. Help is available in most languages. If you use a relay service, such as video relay (VRS), captioned telephone or other service, give FEMA your number for that service.
• To view an accessible video about how to apply visit: Three Ways to Register for FEMA Disaster Assistance - YouTube.

For the latest information visit fema.gov/disaster/4788. Follow the FEMA Region 6 X account at X.com/FEMARegion6 or on Facebook at facebook.com/FEMARegion6."

#metaglossia_mundus: https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20240724/marshallese-interpreters-available-benton-county-disaster-recovery-center

 

"By Yuvraj Malik  July 26, 20241:13 AM GMT+1Updated 2 hours ago

 

July 25 (Reuters) - OpenAI is venturing into a territory long dominated by Google with the selective launch of SearchGPT, an artificial intelligence-powered search engine with real-time access to information from the internet.

The move, announced on Thursday, also places the AI giant in competition with its largest backer Microsoft's (MSFT.O), opens new tab Bing search and emerging services such as Perplexity — a search-focused AI chatbot firm backed by Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab founder Jeff Bezos and semiconductor giant Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab.

 

Shares of Google's parent company Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab ended 3% lower on Thursday after OpenAI's announcement.

OpenAI said it has opened sign-ups for the new tool, which is currently in the prototype stage and is being tested with a small group of users and publishers. The company plans to integrate the best features from the search tool into ChatGPT in the future.

"AI-powered search tools from OpenAI and Perplexity re-affirm search as a content engagement model but pressure Google to be better at its own game," Canaccord Genuity analyst Kingsley Crane said.

 

Google dominates the search engine market with a 91.1% share as of June, according to web analytics firm Statcounter.

SearchGPT will provide summarized search results with source links in response to user queries, OpenAI said in a blog post. Users will also be able to ask follow-up questions and receive contextual responses.

The company will give publishers access to tools for managing how their content appears in SearchGPT results. News Corp (NWSA.O), opens new tab and The Atlantic are publishing partners for SearchGPT.

SearchGPT signals a closer collaboration between publishers and OpenAI, following content licensing agreements with major organizations like Associated Press, News Corp and Axel Springer.

"Newer AI-powered search providers could face challenges of their own, with Perplexity already facing pending legal action from publishers like Wired and Forbes, and Condé Nast," said Crane.

Major search engines have been trying to integrate AI into search since ChatGPT first launched in November 2022. Microsoft, through its early investment, adopted OpenAI technology for its Bing search engine, while Google rolled out AI-powered summaries for the wider public at its developer conference in May.

Google did not respond to a Reuters query on the potential impact of SearchGPT on its business.

Reuters had earlier reported on OpenAI's plans around AI search in May."

#metaglossia_mundus: https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/openai-announces-ai-powered-search-tool-searchgpt-2024-07-25/

 

A phrase popularised by Love Island joins more than 3,200 other entries relating to online gaming, parcel thefts and more

#metaglossia_mundus: https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jul/25/the-ick-boop-and-chefs-kiss-added-to-cambridge-dictionary

 

"The English-Russian-Turkmen explanatory dictionary of terms in geology, seismology and geophysics has been published in Turkmenistan. The dictionary includes over 2,000 scientific terms related to various geological, seismological and geophysical disciplines. It provides access to international literature and scientific research for students and researchers.

The dictionary was developed as part of the project "Strengthening National Capacity for Seismic Risk Assessment, Prevention and Response to Potential Earthquakes," implemented by the Institute of Seismology and Atmospheric Physics of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme.

By providing terms in three languages, the dictionary facilitates communication and knowledge exchange among specialists, promoting cooperation between local and international experts, and ensuring successful research in the field of seismology.

Aijahan Ataballyeva"

#metaglossia_mundus: https://turkmenistan.gov.tm/en/post/85913/glossary-terms-geology-seismology-and-geophysics-published

 

"The lexicographer will take up the post on 1 October following approval from cabinet on Wednesday

Duncan Roberts

25/07/2024

Lexicographer Alexandre Ecker is to head up the Zenter fir d’Lëtzebuerger Sprooch, the centre for the promotion of the Luxembourg language.

The government on Wednesday approved his appointment on the recommendation of culture minister Eric Thill.

Ecker will succeed Luc Marteling, who left the post after five years to become head of information at RTL. Pierre Reding, the Commissioner for the Luxembourgish Language, has been serving as the interim head of the language centre since May.

Ecker, who has studied at universities across Europe including Paris-Sorbonne, the University of Lille 1 Sciences and Technology, Aix-Marseilles University and St. Martin’s College in London, is one of the few lexicographers in Luxembourg and has been an architect of the Luxembourg online dictionary - lod.lu - which gets over a million hits a year."

#metaglossia_mundus: https://www.luxtimes.lu/luxembourg/alexandre-ecker-appointed-director-of-luxembourg-language-centre/16573398.html

 

He is alleged to have demanded the transfer of an early childhood development teacher who did not speak Ndebele, the mother tongue of the area.

By Harriet Chikandiwa |

This was said during debate on a motion on legislation to promote the development of previously marginalised languages.

BY HARRIET CHIKANDIWA

LAWMAKERS have emphasised the importance of teaching local languages in schools to promote inclusivity, comprehension and national unity.

This was said during debate on a motion on legislation to promote the development of previously marginalised languages.

Bubi legislator Elizabeth Masuku said teaching local languages was crucial for inclusivity.

“When these languages are integrated into the education system, we create an environment whereby every child feels seen and valued.”

 

 

She added: “It acknowledges the linguistic diversity that characterises our nation and transforms it into strength rather than a hindrance. Furthermore, understanding and retaining concepts is often more efficient when taught in one’s native language.”

Rushinga legislator Barbra Thompson (youth quota) said promoting local languages fostered national unity.

“Promoting and teaching local languages is a cornerstone for inclusivity in a diverse society,” she said.

Beitbridge East legislator Sithabiswe Moyo said teaching local languages was important for culture preservation.

 

“If children are raised without knowing their mother language, they will fail even to understand the principles of our culture . . . If the teacher cannot understand Venda, it is very impossible for him or her to teach the children to reach a level where they can understand.”

President Emmerson Mnangagwa recently fired Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development deputy minister Simelisizwe Sibanda over his remarks against the deployment of a non-Ndebele-speaking teacher to a local school in his Bubi constituency.

He is alleged to have demanded the transfer of an early childhood development teacher who did not speak Ndebele, the mother tongue of the area.

#metaglossia_mundus

"Lawmakers have underscored the importance of teaching local languages in schools to foster inclusivity, comprehension, and national unity. During a debate on promoting the development of previously marginalized languages, several legislators voiced their support for integrating local languages into the education system.

Bubi legislator Elizabeth Masuku highlighted the significance of teaching local languages for inclusivity, stating, "When these languages are integrated into the education system, we create an environment whereby every child feels seen and valued." She also noted that understanding and retaining concepts is more efficient when taught in one's native language.

 

Rushinga legislator Barbra Thompson emphasized that promoting local languages fosters national unity, calling it a cornerstone for inclusivity in a diverse society.

Beitbridge East legislator Sithabiswe Moyo stressed the importance of local languages for cultural preservation, arguing that children raised without knowledge of their mother language would struggle to understand their cultural principles.

The discussion comes in the wake of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's recent dismissal of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science, and Technology Development deputy minister Simelisizwe Sibanda. Sibanda was fired for his remarks against the deployment of a non-Ndebele-speaking teacher to a school in his Bubi constituency, demanding the transfer of an early childhood development teacher who did not speak Ndebele, the area's mother tongue."

#metaglossia_mundus: https://bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-national-byo-244035.html

 

"Graduate student aims to update large gaps in research on argot of Irish Travelers

Tracing roots of hidden language of an outsider minority

Graduate student aims to update large gaps in research on argot of Irish Travelers

Eileen O’Grady

Harvard Staff Writer

July 25, 2024 

The origins of the ethnic language of Irish Travelers, a traditionally nomadic minority, have long been a mystery. Some linguists believe it has ancient Celtic roots, others that it was fabricated by medieval poets or monks, while still others think it’s only some 300 years old, coinciding with the rise of English in Ireland. 

Oisín Ó Muirthile finds all these explanations lacking.

“We have this vast range of potential time depth that, for me, was intriguing,” said Ó Muirthile, a Ph.D. candidate studying Celtic languages and literatures and linguistics. He spent the last 10 months based in Dublin on a Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, researching the roots of the language known as the Gammon or the Cant by its speakers, and called Shelta by academics.

His interest was sparked by the significant lack of updated research. “In terms of linguistic investigations, there haven’t been a lot; maybe a handful,” Ó Muirthile said. “That really intrigued me, academically. I had never encountered this big of a gap that I might be able to contribute to.” But he also hopes his work will prove useful to the Travelers, who fear the erosion of interest in the language among younger generations.

 

Gammon/Cant is largely a spoken language with little written record (nothing definitively older than 1882) and no conventional spelling system, according to Ó Muirthile.

Ó Muirthile, a native of County Limerick who is fluent in modern Irish, explored archives at the National Folklore Collection at University College Dublin, the School of Scottish Studies Archives at the University of Edinburgh, the Museum of English Rural Life, and the National Library of Ireland. He also continues to meet with Travelers to discuss modern usage in order to gather a corpus, or text dataset, for analysis.

The process isn’t easy. Gammon/Cant is largely a spoken language with little written record (nothing definitively older than 1882) and no conventional spelling system, according to Ó Muirthile. This is partly intentional, as it is essentially an argot, the private language of a closed outsider community that faced suspicion and bias for centuries.

Ó Muirthile’s source materials are mostly manuscript notes in near-illegible handwriting and crackling field recordings from the 1950s. Another issue, he noted, is that most early collectors were unfamiliar with both Gammon/Cant and Irish, leading to many errors in their documentation.

The vocabulary is largely of Irish Gaelic origin with sounds reordered — what linguists call metathesis, Ó Muirthile explained. For example, the word cailín (“girl” in Irish) is laicín or lackeen in Gammon/Cant, while doras (“door” in Irish) is rodas or ruddus.

Today, the syntactic structure resembles English. For example, someone might say, “The lackeen’s at the ruddus,” meaning “The girl is at the door.” Even so, Gammon/Cant has developed its own unique and distinct character that varies widely among speakers.

Ó Muirthile’s research leads him to believe the language’s origins are “certainly centuries old, likely post-medieval,” though precisely how old is still unclear. Still, he is comfortable discounting monks or poets as the source.

“There’s an idea that you’d need formal literary training to come up with such a complex system. I don’t think there’s any evidence of that,” Ó Muirthile said. “The attested forms I think are quite easily explained with the phonetic form, without recourse to writing.”

 

Members of the community have increasingly expressed the need for language preservation, though most advocacy groups are focused on more urgent issues such as health, accommodation, poverty, and education.

He also doesn’t believe the use of English grammatical structure suggests the language is relatively modern. Instead, he believes this aspect evolved due to increased English usage among Irish Travelers in the 18th and 19th centuries, similar to the impact on modern Irish.

Today, most Travelers don’t travel due to anti-nomadic laws and instead live largely stationary lives, which many consider forced cultural assimilation. Ó Muirthile described overt ethnic discrimination and social ostracization they routinely face from wider Irish society. 

Members of the community have increasingly expressed the need for language preservation, though most advocacy groups are focused on more urgent issues such as health, accommodation, poverty, and education, Ó Muirthile said. 

“Some have reported drop-off in language acquisition among the youngest generation, which every Traveler I’ve spoken to says is a shame,” Ó Muirthile said. “The language, of course, is very important but at the end of the day, you need to be alive to have your language.”

Ó Muirthile has been focusing on the densest parts of archival research with the hope of making the information available for future Traveler researchers. Due to the private nature of the community, Ó Muirthile is undecided whether to make public the corpus he has created, but he hopes to make it available to the group after he completes his dissertation.

“Compiling these things and presenting [them] in an academic form is obviously important for academic research, but it doesn’t necessarily translate well into accessible literature,” Ó Muirthile said. “I will continue to discuss with Travelers how it might be turned into something more useful for the community."

#metaglossia_mundus: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2024/07/tracing-roots-of-hidden-language-of-an-outsider-minority/

 

Apply for the Junior Research Fellowships in English and European Languages role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.

Junior Research Fellowships in English and European Languages

University of Oxford - St Edmund Hall

Location: Oxford Salary: Not Specified Hours: Full Time Contract Type: Fixed-Term/Contract

Placed On: 24th July 2024 Closes: 2nd September 2024

The College proposes to elect two suitable candidates to Junior Research Fellowships in English or European Languages, tenable from 1 October 2024.

Selection Criteria

Candidates should be in possession of a fellowship, or similar personal academic support, obtained in open competition from a major UK or international academic organisation such as a Research Council, a Charity or Trust, the British Academy, the Royal Society, or the University of Oxford. Being a named researcher on a research grant held by a senior member of the University does not qualify as personal academic support.

In the present round, applications will be considered from those working in a field relating to the study of literature: candidates must have an association with a department or faculty of the Humanities Division of the University of Oxford.

Applicants must normally have received the degree of PhD or equivalent by 1 October 2024.

The College will not normally elect someone who has previously held a similar appointment.

Holders of these Fellowships are entitled to an Academic Allowance (presently set at £1,850 per annum).

Junior Research Fellows are members of the Senior Common Room and will be entitled to full dining rights when the College kitchen is open, but are not Governing Body members.

Opportunities to undertake teaching or other duties within the College may be possible, with the agreement of the Governing Body.

Fellows will be expected to play a full part in the intellectual and social life of the College, for example by attending College functions such as lectures and seminars with undergraduates or postgraduates.

They will also each act as an advisor to around five St Edmund Hall graduate students.

View Further Particulars Here

Application Process

Applications should be sent by email to recruitment@seh.ox.ac.uk not later than noon BST on Monday, 2 September 2024.

Applications should include:

1. A full CV, detailing career, education and qualifications, teaching experience and research in progress or planned, publications, prizes or awards;
2. A cover sheet, with the names and contact details of two referees who can speak with detailed knowledge about the candidate (see ‘referees’ below).
3. A statement no longer than 300 words, stating how holding such a Fellowship will benefit both the applicant and St Edmund Hall.

It is expected that interviews will be held online during the week commencing 23 September 2024.

Referees

You are advised to contact your referees before applying, to ensure that they are aware of your application and the requirements for the post, and to confirm that they would be content to write a reference for you for this post if asked to do so, in the event that you are shortlisted.

Your application should include for each referee their name, position, relationship to you, postal address, email address and contact telephone number.  Shortlisted candidates will be asked to contact their referees and ask them to submit a reference directly to us.

Queries about the post should be directed to the Senior Tutor, Dr Robert Wilkins: robert.wilkins@seh.ox.ac.uk.

In making this appointment, the College wishes to promote equality of opportunity. Applications for this post are particularly welcome from women, disabled, and black and ethnic minority candidates, who are under-represented in academic posts in Oxford.

Applicants are asked to consider completing the online Equal Opportunity Monitoring Form.  Submission of this form is voluntary and does not form part of the selection process, but it would be appreciated if you complete it at the same time as your application to assist us with our equal opportunity monitoring. 

#metaglossia_mundus:  https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DIW739/junior-research-fellowships-in-english-and-european-languages

 

Meta, on Tuesday, launched its largest-ever open-source AI model Llama 3.1 405B, and claims to have closed the performance gap with top closed-source models such as Open AIs GPT-4o and Anthropics Claude 3.5 Sonnet. The latest iteration of Llama, which has 405 billion parameters, was trained on a massive 15 trillion tokens using 16,000 of Nvidias ultra-expensive H100 GPUs.

 

By Himanshi Lohchab  Synopsis

Meta, on Tuesday, launched its largest-ever open-source AI model Llama 3.1 405B, and claims to have closed the performance gap with top closed-source models such as Open AI’s GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet. The latest iteration of Llama, which has 405 billion parameters, was trained on a massive 15 trillion tokens using 16,000 of Nvidia’s ultra-expensive H100 GPUs.

Synthetic data generation capabilities of Meta’s largest open-source artificial intelligence model Llama 3.1 will augment the efforts of Indian startups, which may be encountering a paucity of real-world quality data available in local languages, a senior executive said.

“We think of Llama as this general base model, that companies and developers like (Indian AI startup) Sarvam should be able to customise to bring the nuances of language and culture,” Ragavan Srinivasan, vice president - product management at Meta, told ET.

It is hard for a general-purpose large language model to bring that nuance, but it can generate synthetic data which can be fine-tuned to deeply understand the nuance of Hindi or Kannada or Marathi.

...

Until date, all versions of Llama have recorded 300 million downloads globally, the company said. Srinivasan said India is among the top 3-4 markets for Meta models.

Meanwhile, the Meta AI assistant for consumer use is rivalling the popularity of ChatGPT. Chief executive Mark Zuckerburg wrote that within months of launch Meta AI assistant is set to cross ChatGPT’s usage by 2024 end.

But experts feel that is not an easy task.

“ChatGPT continues to be the most popular conversational AI chatbot due to its higher accuracy, multi-modality and extensibility,” said Arun Chandrasekaran, distinguished vice president, analyst at Gartner. “While the usage of Meta AI may grow within the apps (such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook), OpenAI still has a huge mindshare and impressive paid customer base as a general purpose and versatile chatbot.”

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/artificial-intelligence/llama-will-augment-indian-startups-work-on-indic-language-models-meta-executive/articleshow/112002262.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

 

#metaglossia_mundus

"Besides Hindi and Hindi-romanised script, Meta AI is now available in other languages such as French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish

ByBizz Buzz|25 July 2024 7:58 AM IST New Delhi: Tech giant Meta on Wednesday announced that its artificial intelligence assistant Meta AI is now available in seven new languages including Hindi, and has become more creative and smarter. Besides Hindi and Hindi-romanised script, Meta AI is now available in other languages such as French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Users can interact with Meta AI across WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook in these new languages.

The company said it will soon add more languages. 

he company, led by Mark Zuckerberg, also introduced new creative tools to make it easier to help users turn their ideas and imagination into images.

In addition, for the first time, it has been added to seven new countries in Latin America.

"We're expanding access to Meta AI -- the assistant in our apps and devices -- and introducing new features to help you with answers, ideas, and inspiration. Meta AI is now available in 22 countries, with the newest today in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Cameroon," the company said in a statement.

https://www.bizzbuzz.news/technology/meta-ai-now-available-in-7-new-languages-1331146?infinitescroll=1"

#metaglossia_mundus

"Emojipedia® is a registered trademark of Zedge, Inc; Apple® is a registered trademark of Apple Inc; Microsoft® and Windows® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; Google® and Android™ are registered trademarks or trademarks of Google Inc in the United States and/or other countries."

#metaglossia_mundus