Lies, racism and AI: IT experts point to serious flaws in ChatGPT

 

 ChatGPT may have blown away many who have asked questions of it, but scientists are far less enthusiastic. Lacking data privacy, wrong information and an apparent built-in racism are just a few of the concerns some experts have with the latest 'breakthrough' in AI. — Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa

BERLIN: ChatGPT may have blown away many who have asked questions of it, but scientists are far less enthusiastic. Lacking data privacy, wrong information and an apparent built-in racism are just a few of the concerns some experts have with the latest 'breakthrough' in AI.

With great precision, it can create speeches and tell stories – and in just a matter of seconds. The AI software ChatGPT introduced late last year by the US company OpenAI is arguably today's number-one worldwide IT topic.

But the language bot, into which untold masses of data have been fed, is not only an object of amazement, but also some scepticism.

Scientists and AI experts have been taking a close look at ChatGPT, and have begun issuing warnings about major issues – data protection, data security flaws, hate speech, fake news.

"At the moment, there's all this hype," commented Ruth Stock-Homburg, founder of Germany's Leap in Time Lab research centre and a Darmstadt Technical University business administration professor. "I have the feeling that this system is scarcely being looked at critically."

"You can manipulate this system"

ChatGPT has a very broad range of applications. In a kind of chat field a user can, among others, ask it questions and receive answers. Task assignments are also possible – for example on the basis of some fundamental information ChatGPT can write a letter or even an essay.

In a project conducted together with the Darmstadt Technical University, the Leap in Time Lab spent seven weeks sending thousands of queries to the system to ferret out any possible weak points. "You can manipulate this system," Stock-Homburg says.

In a recent presentation, doctoral candidate and AI language expert Sven Schultze highlighted the weak points of the text bot. Alongside a penchant for racist expressions, it has an approach to sourcing information that is either erroneous or non-existent, Schultze says. A question posed about climate change produced a link to an internet page about diabetes.

"As a general rule the case is that the sources and/or the scientific studies do not even exist," he said. The software is based on data from the year 2021. Accordingly, it identifies world leaders from then and does not know about the war in Ukraine.

"It can then also happen that it simply lies or, for very specialised topics, invents information," Schultze said.

Sources are not simple to trace

He noted for example that with direct questions containing criminal content there do exist security instructions and mechanisms. "But with a few tricks you can circumvent the AI and security instructions," Schultze said.

With another approach, you can get the software to show how to generate fraudulent emails. It will also immediately explain three ways that scammers use the so-called "grandchild trick" on older people.

ChatGPT also can provide a how-to for breaking into a home, with the helpful advice that if you bump into the owner you can use weapons or physical force on them.

Ute Schmid, Chair of Cognitive Systems at the Otto Friedrich University in Bamberg, says that above all the challenge is that we can't find out how the AI reaches its conclusions. "A deeper problem with the GPT3 model lies in the fact that it is not possible to trace when and how which sources made their way into the respective statements," she said.

Despite such grave shortcomings, Schmidt still argues that the focus should not just concern the mistakes or possible misuse of the new system, the latter prospect being students having their homework or research papers written by the software. "Rather, I think that we should ask ourselves, what chances are presented us with such AI systems?"

Researchers in general advocate how AI can expand – possibly even promote – our competencies, and not limit them. "This means that in the area of education I must also ask myself – as perhaps was the case 30 years ago with pocket calculators – how can I shape education with AI systems like ChatGPT?"

Data privacy concerns

All the same, concerns remain about data security and protecting data. "What can be said is that ChatGPT takes in a variety of data from the user, stores and processes it and then at a given time trains this model accordingly," says Christian Holthaus, a certified data protection expert in Frankfurt. The problem is that all the servers are located in the United States.

"This is the actual problem – if you do not succeed in establishing this technology in Europe, or to have your own," Holthaus said. In the foreseeable future there will be no data protection-compliant solution. Adds Stock-Homburg about European Union data protection regulations: "This system here is regarded as rather critical."

ChatGPT was developed by OpenAI, one of the leading AI firms in the US. Software giant Microsoft invested US$1bil (RM4.25bil) in the company back in 2019 and recently announced plans to pump further billions into it. The concern aims to make ChatGPT available to users of its own cloud service Azure and the Microsoft Office package.

"Still an immature system"

Stock-Homburg says that at the moment ChatGPT is more for private users to toy around with – and by no means something for the business sector or security-relevant areas. "We have no idea how we should be deal with this as yet still immature system," she said.

Oliver Brock, Professor of Robotics and Biology Laboratory at the Technical University Berlin, sees no "breakthrough" yet in AI research. Firstly, development of AI does not go by leaps and bounds, but is a continuing process. Secondly, the project only represents a small part of AI research.

But ChatGPT might be regarded as a breakthrough in another area – the interface between humans and the internet. "The way in which, with a great deal of computing effort, these huge amounts of data from the internet are made accessible to a broad public intuitively and in natural language can be called a breakthrough," says Brock. – dpa    

By Oliver Pietschmann, Christoph Dernbach

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OUR MANY APPETITES: Figuring out the right amount of protein we need could be the key to weight management

People follow various diet fads, hoping to unlock the secret to weight management. — Photos:123rf.com 

This dia­gram indic­ates the out­come of a diet­ary “chase” (res­ult­ing in the “excess Cal­or­ies”) from an ini­tial inad­equate to a more optimal level of pro­tein con­sump­tion.

 

How much pro­tein a per­son needs depends on his life­style too. - 123rf.com
 
 

Figuring out the right amount of protein we need could be the key to weight management.

MANY would have enjoyed the 15-day Chinese New Year season of bingeing on food and drink, and some would have added on a few spare kilos of weight as a result. My own Body Mass Index (BMI) is heading back towards 27 (again) which means I am significantly overweight (again) and this simply implies some immediate weight loss is needed.

At my advanced age, being overweight confers no momentous benefits, but can present several potential negatives, so weight control in such circumstances is quite important. And this is why a 2013 published study into a single wild female Chacma baboon named Stella in South Africa may be relevant.

Researchers from various anthropological and veterinary science institutes embarked on analysing in detail the food consumption of Stella over a 30-day window, breaking down her diet into the three macronutrients: carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

The study was done in South Africa in a region where there was a diverse range of foods available for baboons, and the original purpose was to establish if baboons can (a) regulate their intake of macronutrients, (b) cope with dietary restrictions, and, (c) establish a timescale for nutritional demands.

The data surprisingly indicated that Stella’s diet was driven primarily by the amount of protein eaten. Regardless of food availability, the ratio of calories from non-protein energy to energy from proteins was remarkably steady at 5:1, and this ratio was maintained every day. The wet mass of food varied considerably with an average of 1.9 kilos a day, and may fluctuate by 800 grams daily.

Stella’s average daily calorie intake was 940 calories, which varied up or down by 426 calories a day. The study found that the other two macronutrients, fats and carbohydrates were interchangeable with each other as far as Stella was concerned, and the overriding driver of total calories consumption was solely the amount of protein in Stella’s diet.

Protein leverage

The astonishing outcome of the study on Stella was actually predicted much earlier, by two Australian researchers, Simpson and Raubenheimer, in their 2005 paper, ‘Obesity: the protein leverage hypothesis’ where a simple mathematical model was presented which offered a plausible explanation for the global human obesity epidemic.

Summarised, the Protein Leverage Hypotheses (PLH) is simple. Like baboons, people eat to satisfy their need for protein, and they will eat potentially enormous amount of carbohydrates and fats until the food

eaten finally fulfills their protein requirement. And if people do not get enough protein, then they will simply eat more and more foods (which often contain carbohydrates and fats) in a forlorn quest for protein.

The body’s need for a relatively small amount of protein can therefore hugely “leverage” the consumption of other foods. And as such other foods contain more calories than proteins, the final result is often the accumulation of body fats resulting in obesity.

The obvious and significant difference between Stella and humans is that baboons appear able to restrict the overconsumption of fats and carbohydrates, even in the absence of protein. There may be several reasons for this. Perhaps there is a “protein switch” in baboons, or more probably, the range of foods available for baboons is simply limited, unlike for most humans.

Modern food production techniques use all sort of chemicals and flavouring compounds to mimic the texture and taste of protein-rich foods, resulting in processed foods that taste remarkably like proteins, but actually have very little or zero protein content. These foods have lots of cheap carbohydrates and fats instead, as protein is an expensive ingredient to include in processed foods.

Classic example are potato-based snacks and crisps, which come in all sorts of “meaty” flavours, even though there is usually no meat or protein content. According to the PLH, humans can easily consume many thousands of calories from meat-flavoured crisps in a futile attempt to satisfy the need for protein. Their taste senses will be fooled into erroneously provoking the consumption of such fake foods.

The amount of proteins needed by humans vary with age, with older people needing more protein content in their diets. And this includes both vegetable-based and animal sources of protein as there is little difference in the way the body processes proteins in general. Proteins are linkages of amino acids which the body disassemble into various smaller amino acids and molecules and recombine into other compounds to create enzymes, hormones and other tissues.

The main differences between animal and vegetable proteins are that meat proteins are considered “complete” proteins as they contain all 9 of the essential amino acids, and additionally they have some micronutrients (eg, certain minerals) which may not be present in plant proteins. However, these variances are easily resolved by adding or cooking/preparation with various added ingredients.

Our five appetites?

Leading from the PLH, where it seems that baboons and humans can detect the protein content of food, Simpson and Raubenheimer further proposed a theory that humans may actually have five different appetites, one each for protein, fat, carbohydrate, calcium and salt. Note that these are appetites which may reflect a physical need and not the same as taste sensors in the mouth, which are reflective of eating pleasures and displeasures.

There may be an element of truth involved, though the science is still unclear. Certainly, salt and some carbohydrates such as sugar can be detected by taste buds in the mouth. Fats can apparently be detected by specialised sensors in human digestive tracts, calcium may be detectable via a protein known as NCS-1 encoded by the FREQ gene in humans, and the real puzzle is how humans can detect proteins in the diet. Some papers have suggested that humans may have amino acid chemoreceptors, but it is far from clear that these receptors are involved in creating an “appetite” for protein as there are no neural linkages associated with these receptors.

Therefore, it is plausible that proteins are complex foods which require more processing for digestion and hence the lack of protein may be inferred by the body from the lack of digestive effort (and continued feeling of hunger) when insufficient protein has been ingested. We do not know for certain, even though the effect of humans eating inadequate amounts of proteins appears to be observable.

Regardless, of all the five appetites proposed, by far the most dominant appetite is for protein. The other may be in place to remind the body to also consume other macro- and micro-nutrients.

Too much protein is bad too

However, too much dietary protein can also be bad. The muchhyped keto diet is basically a meal plan comprising of primarily proteins and fats, which is quite odd, if one thinks about it.

Here is some simple maths. A gram of fat contains nine calories, a gram of sugar (carbohydrate) contains 4 calories, and protein is roughly the same as sugar. So if one wants to lose weight, it would make sense to ingest only proteins and carbohydrates, and skip the fats. However, the inclusion of carbohydrates would preclude the onset of ketosis, which is the phase when the body begins to burn stored body fat, instead of deriving energy from the carbohydrates.

This may be good for short-term weight loss, but it is also likely to have an effect on the kidneys because any diet too high in protein ends up building acid in the bodily fluids. This causes the kidneys to excrete the excess acid which is extracted using the calcium from the bones, resulting in excessive calcium loss.

The kidneys themselves may be damaged, especially if there is not enough water in the diet. There are also other side effects which can impact the liver and the heart, but it seems that the keto diet can work with healthy, younger adults, though it is probably less suitable for older people.

The right amount

Although it is a subjective matter, the amount of protein needed daily generally depends on physical activity and age. For a healthy adult, the minimum requirement is 0.8 grams per kilo of weight. So an adult weighing 70 kilos would need a minimum of 56 grams of protein daily. For younger, growing people and people who are more active, the requirement rises to 1 gram to 1.6 grams per kilo of body weight.

Older people, aged 65 or more, generally require around 50% more protein than someone younger, so an inactive pensioner should aim for 1.2 grams of protein per kilo of body weight, rising to perhaps 2 grams per kilo for a reasonably active pensioner.

Translated into food, 56 grams of protein is obtainable from around 200 to 250 grams of meat or fish, or 160 grams of dry soybeans.

Once the daily protein requirement is established, aim to consume the right amount of protein daily and vary the calories from the rest of food to a point where one feels comfortable, especially if the target is weight loss. One can also increase the daily protein amounts if hunger pangs persist. Cravings for overeating should be reduced once the right amount of protein has been found, according to the PLH. 

 

By  Curious cook CHRIS Chan - The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own. 

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How Much Protein Do You Need to Eat Per Day to Lose Weight?

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Demystifying the property market overhang

AN account­ant, who is tasked with pre­par­ing the books of a cor­por­ate, will always be guided by account­ing prin­ciples when it comes to how the fin­an­cial state­ments of the com­pany are presen­ted on an annual basis to ensure they are accur­ate and reflect­ive of the com­pany’s busi­ness affairs.

An aud­itor, look­ing at the same pre­pared accounts, will run through the num­bers and audit the key mater­ial items to ensure they are reas­on­able, reflect­ive of the com­pany’s fin­ances, and free from mater­ial mis­state­ments, includ­ing due to fraud or error, or applic­a­tion of wrong account­ing treat­ment.

In fin­an­cial state­ments, two of the most crit­ical items are receiv­ables and invent­or­ies.

In order to have proper account­ing treat­ment, account­ants and aud­it­ors used account­ing the­or­ies to describe what is deemed to be cur­rent, and those that have a longer-dated age­ing pro­file are either impaired or writ­ten off.

The reason for this is to ensure that the fin­an­cial state­ments reflect the status of a cor­por­a­tion’s cur­rent assets and are in no way doubt­ful.

There is also an applic­a­tion of gen­eral pro­vi­sion or spe­cific pro­vi­sion when it comes to how these bal­ances ought to be treated in the fin­an­cial state­ments.

Often, we see cases of over-inflated bal­ances and when it came to the crunch of the mat­ter, the man­age­ment would have no choice but to write them off.

The ‘real’ over­hang

At the recently con­cluded 15th Malay­sian Prop­erty Sum­mit 2023, the Dir­ector of the National Prop­erty Inform­a­tion Centre (Napic) presen­ted a paper on the status of the Malay­sian prop­erty mar­ket up to the third quarter of last year (3Q22), with some data points related to the per­form­ance of the mar­ket up to Novem­ber 2022.

The full mar­ket report is only expec­ted to be released in the middle of next month, where Napic will not only provide the usual annual update of the mar­ket’s per­form­ance but also provide more insight into some of the key data points that have been much dis­cussed among all stake­hold­ers, of which, one of them is the status of over­hang in the mar­ket.

As we are aware, the res­id­en­tial over­hang at the end of 3Q22 stood at 29,535 units worth some Rm19.95bil.

Napic’s web­site also provided the details of where these over­hang prop­er­ties are loc­ated and the three key states – Johor, Selangor, and Pen­ang – are the main hot­spots, account­ing for some 14,956 units or just over half of the coun­try’s total over­hang.

In terms of the type of prop­er­ties, the 3Q22 data showed that high-rises com­prise 18,962 units or 64.2% of the total over­hang.

In terms of price points, 23.8% of the total over­hang was priced at RM300,000 and below, 29.5% was priced between RM300,001 and RM500,000, 31.6% was priced between RM500,001 and Rm1mil and the bal­ance was priced above Rm1mil.

In terms of the total value, the res­id­en­tial over­hang is skewed towards the high-end seg­ment with prop­er­ties worth more than Rm1mil account­ing for 43.4% of the total over­hang value, while those priced between RM500,001 and Rm1mil accoun­ted for 31.9% of the total over­hang.

Prop­er­ties priced between RM301,000 and RM500,000 have a total over­hang value of just Rm3.5bil, while prop­er­ties priced below RM300,000 are worth some Rm1.39bil. These two rep­res­ent some 24.8% of the total over­hang value.

For the ser­vice apart­ments, the total over­hang in units stood at 23,688 worth some Rm20.21bil as at end of 3Q22, with Johor alone account­ing for 62.4% of the total.

Most of these over­hangs in the seg­ment are prop­er­ties priced between RM500,001 and Rm1mil, which accoun­ted for two-thirds of the total unit num­bers and 58.9% in value of the total over­hang.

For the longest time, Napic had not shared with the stake­hold­ers the key under­ly­ing age­ing pro­file of this over­hang, and that has led to a mis­lead­ing status of the mar­ket’s over­hang status. It was indeed an eye-opener to see what the real over­hang has been.

For example, as seen in Table 1, the key over­hang is prop­er­ties (both res­id­en­tial and ser­vice apart­ments across the four key states) that have been part of the stat­ist­ics for the last five years and they account for between 51% and 93% of the total over­hang units.

For example, as seen in Table 1, the key over­hang is prop­er­ties (both res­id­en­tial and ser­vice apart­ments across the four key states) that have been part of the stat­ist­ics for the last five years and they account for between 51% and 93% of the total over­hang units.

In total, these prop­er­ties accoun­ted for a whop­ping 75.7% of the mar­ket’s over­hang status while prop­er­ties that have been in the mar­ket for the last three years are just over 5% from the key states.

Spe­cific men­tion must also be made on ser­vice apart­ments loc­ated in Johor, and those that are in the five to 10 years bucket, as they account for 26% of the total mar­ket over­hang.

In terms of prices, most of the over­hang is seen in the same five to 10 years bucket across the board and they alone account for 71% of the total over­hang prop­er­ties in the mar­ket.

As seen in Table 2, prop­er­ties below three years account for less than 5% of the total mar­ket over­hang. Spe­cific men­tion must also be made on ser­vice apart­ments that are in the RM500,001 to Rm1mil bracket and are in the five to 10 years bucket as they account for 25% of the total mar­ket over­hang.

In the cor­por­ate world, when one is up against data that is dis­tort­ing the real pic­ture, the proper thing to do is to see whether the data is still rel­ev­ant or oth­er­wise.

Clearly, look­ing at the age­ing pro­file of the prop­erty over­hang, those above five years will likely remain unsold for a fore­see­able future, mainly due to either being wrongly loc­ated and without the proper or good infra­struc­ture to sup­port com­munity liv­ing, or untouched by prop­erty buy­ers for simply being too expens­ive, espe­cially those bey­ond the RM500,000 price threshold.

Clearly, look­ing at the age­ing pro­file of the prop­erty over­hang, those above five years will likely remain unsold for a fore­see­able future, mainly due to either being wrongly loc­ated and without the proper or good infra­struc­ture to sup­port com­munity liv­ing, or untouched by prop­erty buy­ers for simply being too expens­ive, espe­cially those bey­ond the RM500,000 price threshold.

Hav­ing iden­ti­fied the issues, reg­u­lat­ors and prop­erty developers would need to come out with strategies to address them and to attract buy­ers to these prop­er­ties via a rehab­il­it­a­tion exer­cise and with a sig­ni­fic­ant price reduc­tion.

The bot­tom line is to remove them from the over­hang data.

Let’s call a spade a spade

So what is Malay­sia’s real over­hang? Based on the data presen­ted by Napic, one can take com­fort that over­hang is not as ser­i­ous as it is made out to be mainly due to a lack of data and proper ana­lysis in terms of what is real over­hang pre­vi­ously.

While those more than three years but less than five years are part of stat­ist­ics, we should redefine them as core over­hang while those bey­ond five years can be redefined as hard­core over­hang.

As we have been able to slice and dice these num­bers, the real over­hang is only per­haps less than 5% of the mar­ket in terms of the num­ber of units and value.

Napic could also help stake­hold­ers to under­stand bet­ter the prop­erty mar­ket data bet­ter by break­ing down the data points as an over­hang that is mainly due to gov­ern­ment hous­ing schemes and those that are privately built.

In this way, we could also see whether the gov­ern­ment’s inter­ven­tion is needed to boost demand for these obscurely loc­ated prop­er­ties.

For the private developers, most of these invent­or­ies would have been impaired as the like­li­hood of the assets being real­ised in full value or even at 50% to 60% of the mar­ket value is seen as low.

Private developers too ought to think out­side of the box on how to over­come the prop­erty invent­or­ies sit­ting in their books as being part of the stat­ist­ics only res­ults in paint­ing the wrong pic­ture for the prop­erty mar­ket as a whole.

By Pankaj C. kumar is a long-time invest­ment ana­lyst. the views expressed here are the writer’s own. 

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ChatGPT And The Future Of AI, Turkey Earthquakes.Part 1

 

How Scientists Predict Where Earthquakes Will Strike Next

The pair of earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria this week left the region grappling with death and destruction. Despite the region being seismically active, this particular area hadn’t seen an earthquake of this size for decades. There are ways of knowing where the next big earthquakes will happen. —but not when. Scientists use knowledge of fault lines and historical data to make their predictions, but saving areas from mass casualties often relies on infrastructure policies. Building codes that prioritize strong buildings can save lives, but older structures remain vulnerable.

Across the globe, in California, the health impacts of electric vehicles are beginning to be seen. A study published this month finds that for every 20 EVs in a zip code, asthma-related visits to the emergency room drop by 3.2%. This is a striking number for a technology that’s just now becoming more commonplace. Joining Ira to talk about these stories and more is Umair Irfan, staff writer at Vox, based in Washington, D.C. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ChatGPT And Beyond: What’s Behind The AI Boom?

The past few months have seen a flurry of new, easy-to-use tools driven by artificial intelligence. It’s getting harder to tell what’s been created by a human: Programs like ChatGPT can construct believable written text, apps like Lensa can generate stylized avatars, while other developments can make pretty believable audio and video deep fakes.

Just this week, Google unveiled a new AI-driven chatbot called Bard, and Microsoft announced plans to incorporate ChatGPT within their search engine Bing.  What is this new generation of AI good at, and where does it fall short?

Ira talks about the state of generative AI and takes listener calls with Dr. Melanie Mitchell, professor at the Santa Fe Institute and author of the book, Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans. They are joined by Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, founder and CEO of Parity Consulting and responsible AI fellow at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. 

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ranscripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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It’s a health scam at heart

 

 

PETALING JAYA: Retiree K. Niyani got a phone call supposedly from a clinic, offering her a free medical screening for her heart condition.

“They knew I am a heart patient and the details were correct. I’ve never signed up for anything with them, so it’s strange they knew my medical condition,” she said.

“The clinic insisted that I go for a screening although I told them I go for regular check-ups at a hospital.”

Niyani, 67, said the phone call came from a landline number.

The caller, she said, mentioned the name of the clinic.

Upon searching the Internet for the name, Niyani, from Penang, found that there was no such clinic.

Instead, the search results showed a “wellness centre” with the same name that offered spa services.

The call was likely a ruse to lure people into spending money on purported health packages they don’t need.

In such cases, the victims are told that the health screening is by invitation only.

One of the most common requirements is that the person must have a credit card.

They are sometimes required to share their credit card number and other financial and personal details, including MyKad numbers, during the call.

“Most important is that you must have a credit card. Remember, this is by invitation only and we are offering to people aged between 30 and 65,” said one such caller.

According to the caller, the offer was being made in conjunction with World Heart Day (which is marked annually on Sept 29.)

A check by The Star on some of the names of the organisations and clinics supposedly offering these services revealed that some of them did not exist.

Some of these callers even had information on the person’s health status, especially those with heart conditions.

Content writer Fila Rizal, 42, said she received such calls from a mobile phone number, offering a free heart screening at a clinic.

“This happened several times despite me declining the offer. I have never heard of such a clinic,” she said.

Another person – who wants to remain anonymous – took up the offer and went to a screening.

He said the consultation comprised checking the vein on a finger.

“The doctor then asked me to get a package which was quite costly. I didn’t quite understand the package but it had some supplements in it as well. I put my foot down, saying that I did not want any of it. And I left,” he said.

Another anonymous participant said the package offered to him cost more than RM10,000.

“I did not understand what the package was all about, but the price tag shocked me. In fact, there were a lot of confusing details. Maybe they hope you would just buy into it,” he said.

Public health advocate Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar said there is a possibility that scammers might have been given access to some health records by “irresponsible agents”.

Or the schemers might just be banking on general information on the Malaysian population’s health and disease statistics, he said.

“People must exercise common sense. If they have medical problems, go to a clinic or hospital.

“Do not engage in online consultations or other medical dealings,” said the former Health Ministry official.

“The ethics of screening of medical conditions must be done with proper consultation and follow-up.”

Unfortunately, such calls offering these supposedly free wellness screening packages are not new.

In July 2020, the National Heart Institute (IJN) issued an alert on its Facebook page cautioning the public against scam calls offering these so-called packages.

“We have been receiving calls from the public and our partners saying that they received a call from IJN offering free wellness screening packages and asking them to provide payslip, identification card and other personal documents to enrol for this screening,” it said.

“Please be aware that IJN does not engage with any third party to conduct any wellness screening promotion. We urge you not to provide your personal information and be mindful of the situation.” 

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China reveals tailless concept for next-generation fighter jet

 

A concept model of a next-generation fighter jet was displayed at Airshow China 2022 held in Zhuhai, South China’s Guangdong Province in November 2022. Photo: Liu Xuanzun/GT

A promotional video released by the Chinese aviation industry on Tuesday featured computer generated images showing what analysts said on Wednesday could represent a concept of the country’s next-generation fighter jet, which reflects China’s determination to outpace the US in new warplane development.

The video, published in the WeChat video channel of the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), introduced China’s airborne radar development and featured near its end a computer-generated clip showing three unknown aircraft flying in formation.

The aircraft looked like the J-20 stealth fighter jet, but with no canards, tails or fins, and the diamond-shaped wings appeared bigger than those of the J-20, giving it what seems to be a blended wing-body configuration, observers said, who also speculated that it might be China’s next-generation fighter jet.

At the Airshow China 2022 held in Zhuhai, South China’s Guangdong Province in November 2022, AVIC put on display a concept model of a next-generation fighter jet, which also had a tailless design like the aircraft shown in the latest video.

Other countries are also conducting research and development into next-generation fighter jets, and tailless designs similar to the one shown by China are some of the most popular concepts, Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military aviation expert, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

A tailless design will give the next-generation, or the sixth-generation, fighter jet superior stealth capability in all directions than current fifth-generation ones, and a blended wing body design will provide higher lift, longer range and lower fuel consumption. However, without vertical tails, the new aircraft will lose out on maneuverability if it does not use other designs or technologies to compensate, like thrust vectoring control-capable engines and split brake rudders, or other innovative approaches, analysts said.

With the project name Next Generation Air Dominance, the US’ next-generation fighter jet might also use a tailless design, according to a computer-generated rendering by US military warplane contractor Lockheed Martin, US news website Defense News reported in September 2022.

Based on the information available now, China has started research and development in terms of the next-generation fighter jet, and it is in a confident place to eventually outpace the US, Fu said. 

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Bersatu’s accounts frozen more than 2 weeks ago

 

 

 Bersatu's accounts frozen more than 2 weeks ago, says MACC chief

 https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2023/02/01/bersatus-accounts-frozen-more-than-2-weeks-ago-says-macc-chief/

Bersatu's accounts frozen | The Star

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Bersatu calls seizure ‘disgusting strategy by PH-BN’

 

Bersatu's party accounts have been frozen by the MACC, just one day after the party declared its 2020 and 2021 accounts.

The matter was confirmed to Malaysiakini by Bersatu supreme council member, Muhammad Faiz Na'aman.

It is believed that the freeze is related to the MACC's probe on government funds amounting to RM92.5 billion of pandemic stimulus funds that were allegedly misappropriated. 

China's Rise to Economic Superpower, economy stands out in global arena

China's Rise to Economic Superpower 

World Economy

As the world still grapples with supply-chain backlogs (partially) caused by China’s strict Covid-19 policies, it has become painfully obvious how vulnerable the global economy is to national or even regional disruptions, especially if they happen in China, the world’s number one supplier of goods.

Over the past few decades, China has grown to become the world’s manufacturing hub and largest goods exporter by a significant margin, turning it from emerging market into economic superpower. According to estimates from the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook, the country will account for 18.8 percent of the world’s GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP). That’s up from just 8.1 percent two decade ago, when both the United States and the EU were miles ahead of China’s economic output.

Over the past 20 years, both the U.S. and the European Union have seen their economic superiority challenged, as new powers, such as China, India and others have emerged. While the U.S. saw its share of global GDP decline from 19.8 to 15.8 percent between 2002 and 2022, the EU’s share dropped from 19.9 to 14.8 percent of the same period.

The gap between China, the U.S. and the EU will likely widen over the next few years, as the economic outlook for the latter two is cloudy with a chance of recession, while China is expected to continue growing at mid-single-digit growth rates.

By Felix Richter 

Felix Richter

Data Journalist

felix.richter@statista.com +49 (40) 284 841 557

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China’s economy stands out in global arena 

 

Steady trade: Workers use computer terminals to monitor remote operations at a container port in Tianjin. China has now become a major trading partner for more than 140 countries and regions, with its total trade of goods up 7.7% y-o-y in 2022, topping the world for six consecutive years. — AP 

 Annual average growth of 4.5% between 2020 and 2022, outpacing the world average of around 2%

BEIJING: In its three-year-long fight against Covid-19, China posted outstanding results in economic development and epidemic control, reinforcing its status as a leading engine for the global economy.

From 2020 to 2022, China’s economy posted an annual average growth of 4.5%, outpacing the world average of around 2%, according to Yuan Da, director of the Department of National Economy of the National Development and Reform Commission.

In 2022, the economy grew 3% year-on-year (y-o-y) to a record high of 121 trillion yuan (US$18 trillion or RM76.3 trillion), with the increment standing at 6.1 trillion yuan (RM3.8 trillion), equivalent to the economic aggregate of a medium-sized country.

It also marks a new and higher level in terms of economic aggregate after the Chinese economy topped the thresholds of 100 trillion yuan (RM62.5 trillion) and 110 trillion yuan (RM68.8 trillion) in 2020 and 2021, respectively – maintaining its position well as the world’s second-largest economy.

Analysts attributed the hard-won results to the country’s effective coordination in fighting Covid-19 and its economic fallouts simultaneously.

Thanks to effective virus control and timely pro-growth policies, China’s economy has quickly emerged from the epidemic-induced slump and consolidated its recovery momentum for a brighter outlook.

To cope with the constantly evolving epidemic situation, China has been dynamically optimising its control measures while enhancing the treatment and vaccination capacity, effectively safeguarding the lives and health of its 1.4 billion population at minimum costs.As of Jan 13, 92.9% of the Chinese population has been fully vaccinated, with more than 90% of people above 60 covered by vaccination.

With Omicron much less pathogenic and deadly, China, in December last year, announced ten new measures to lift numerous Covid-19 restrictions. On Jan 8, its management of Covid-19 was officially downgraded from Class A to Class B.

Less than one month after the optimisation of Covid-19 response measures in December 2022, China reported declining numbers of fever patients and critical Covid-19 cases as both had passed the peak. In the just-concluded Spring Festival holiday, China’s consumption made a strong comeback.

During the week-long holiday, sales revenue of China’s consumption-related sectors rose 12.2% from the same holiday period in 2022. Its cinemas sold 129 million tickets, generating a whopping revenue of 6.76 billion yuan (RM4.2bil), the second highest-grossing to date.

Wen Bin, the chief economist with China Minsheng Bank, said that warming demand at home would propel the turnaround in the Chinese economy this year and estimated the country’s full-year gross domestic product growth at around 5.5%.

Aside from the overall economic growth, China also made significant headway in maintaining consumer price stability, guaranteeing food and energy security, and improving people’s livelihoods.

In 2022, China’s consumer price index grew by 2%, a fraction of the increases reported in the United States, the eurozone and Britain. It is also lower than those of other emerging economies.

Amid a global food crisis, the country has secured a bumper harvest for the 19th year in a row, with its grain output at about 686.53 billion kg in 2022, up 0.5% from 2021.

A total of 11.86 million, 12.69 million, and 12.06 million new urban jobs were created in 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively, all surpassing the targets set for each year.

Despite the gloomy global investment environment, China remains one of the most attractive investment destinations in the world.

Foreign direct investment in the Chinese mainland, in actual use, expanded 6.3% y-o-y to 1.23 trillion yuan (RM768.8bil) in 2022.

China has now become a major trading partner for more than 140 countries and regions, with its total trade of goods up 7.7% y-o-y in 2022, topping the world for six consecutive years.

Recently, multiple international investment banks and financial institutions, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Barclays, and Natixis, have upwardly revised their forecast for China’s economic growth rate in 2023, betting on the country’s rosy prospects and strong resilience. — Xinhua

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