The  “priceless heritage” of “historic and beautiful” churches in England is in danger “as never before”, the chair of the National Churches Trust (NCT), Sir Philip Rutnam, has warned this week.

He was referring to the fact that 53 churches, chapels, and meeting houses had been added this year to Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register, announced last week.

Sir Philip said that the situation could get worse in the coming months if the Government chose not to renew the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme, which is due to expire on 31 March 2025 (News, 25 October). Under the terms of the scheme, established in 2001, VAT on eligible repairs or alterations costing more than £1000 to a listed place of worship can be reclaimed.

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The “priceless heritage” of “historic and beautiful” churches in England is in danger “as never before”, the chair of the National Churches Trust (NCT), Sir Philip Rutnam, has warned this week https://t.co/Q59Y4X8A3d

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 18, 2024

The AI revolution is about to spread way beyond chatbots.

From new plastic-eating bacteria and new cancer cures to autonomous helper robots and self-driving cars, the generative-AI technology that gained prominence as the engine of ChatGPT is poised to change our lives in ways that make talking bots look like mere distractions.

While we tend to equate the current artificial-intelligence boom with computers that can write, talk, code and make pictures, most of those forms of expression are built on an underlying technology called a “transformer” that has far broader applications. 

First announced in a 2017 paper from Google researchers, transformers are a kind of AI algorithm that lets computers understand the underlying structure of any heap of data—be it words, driving data, or the amino acids in a protein—so that it can generate its own similar output.

The transformer paved the way for OpenAI to launch ChatGPT two years ago, and a range of companies are now working on how to use the innovation in new ways, from Waymo and its robot taxis to a biology startup called EvolutionaryScale, whose AI systems are designing new protein molecules. 

The applications of this breakthrough are so broad that in the seven years since the Google research was published, it has been cited in other scientific papers more than 140,000 times.

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This is a great article by @mims about how transformers, the key innovation powering LLMs like ChatGPT, are poised to transform robotics and other fields.https://t.co/4v3wqyUj95

— Erik Brynjolfsson (@erikbryn) November 18, 2024

The Archbishop of York is under pressure to step down over his handling of child abuse cases in the Church of England.

The Most Rev Stephen Cottrell faced calls to resign on Sunday from a survivor who said he is perpetuating a Church “cover-up” and a former abuse inquiry leader whose work was prematurely disbanded by the Archbishops’ Council last year.

Rev Matthew Ineson, 56, a retired vicar who was abused at 16 by a Bradford priest, said the Archbishop of York failed to hold clergy accountable for mishandling his case.

He said: “Until there is a complete clean sweep at the top, nothing is going to change.”

The demands follow the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, last week, who was forced to quit over his failure to act on concerns over child abuse committed by evangelical Christian John Smyth.

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The Most Rev Stephen Cottrell is perpetuating Church ‘cover-up’, claims sexual abuse survivor https://t.co/TkaI22T3ck

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) November 18, 2024

Dr. Adam Rodman, an expert in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, confidently expected that chatbots built to use artificial intelligence would help doctors diagnose illnesses.

He was wrong.

Instead, in a study Dr. Rodman helped design, doctors who were given ChatGPT-4 along with conventional resources did only slightly better than doctors who did not have access to the bot. And, to the researchers’ surprise, ChatGPT alone outperformed the doctors.

“I was shocked,” Dr. Rodman said.

The chatbot, from the company OpenAI, scored an average of 90 percent when diagnosing a medical condition from a case report and explaining its reasoning. Doctors randomly assigned to use the chatbot got an average score of 76 percent. Those randomly assigned not to use it had an average score of 74 percent.

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Interesting small-scale study on accuracy of diagnosing illness:

– Human doctors: 74%
– Human doctors using ChatGPT: 76%
– ChatGPT alone: 90%

Takeaway seems like vast potential for AI to help with diagnosis, but need better human <> AI teamwork:https://t.co/evE1jurR3U

— Greg Brockman (@gdb) November 18, 2024

O God of peace, by whose grace the abbess Hilda was endowed with gifts of justice, prudence, and strength to rule as a wise mother over the nuns and monks of her household: Raise up these gifts in us, that we, following her example and prayers, might build up one another in love to the benefit of thy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

17 November is the feast of St Hilda, abbess of Whitby, who died on this day in 680. Bede says 'her wisdom was so great that even kings and princes sought her counsel', and 'all who knew her called her Mother, because of her distinctive piety and grace.' pic.twitter.com/kwMAbOASyd

— Eleanor Parker (@ClerkofOxford) November 17, 2024

Stir up, O Lord, the wills of your faithful people, that bringing forth in abundance the fruit of good works, they may be abundantly rewarded when our Savior Jesus Christ comes to restore all things; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Happy National Hiking Day!

Hiking is a great way to immerse yourself in the beauty of nature. Whether you hike solo for some peaceful reflection or hit the trail with friends for a memorable adventure, the benefits are endless.

Photo at @RockCreekNPS by Grace Hassler pic.twitter.com/xowZh9QvIn

— US Department of the Interior (@Interior) November 17, 2024

“There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Laz′arus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Laz′arus in his bosom. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Laz′arus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Laz′arus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.’”

–Luke 16:19-31

#Sunrise on Monday at the Tidal Basin in #DC! @capitalweather @GoNatureForward @StormHour pic.twitter.com/IpWyJlx5Ui

— Jeanne Stuart McVey (@RiverGirl707) November 18, 2024