File photo of an unpicked tomato.
Image: Toony.
Old Main street Market located in Chandler, Texas (US).
Image: Paul Budd.
File photo of an abandoned farmhouse located in Andrews, Texas.
Image: Billy Hathorn.


          • Items here are not published articles. Please be advised. They are helld here as formatting examples only.--Bddpaux (talk) 19:03, 31 December 2024 (UTC)

Some citizens of the US state of Texas have expressed a range of feelings over heavy rains seen across much of the state this summer. The city of Tyler and surrounding area have seen at least eight days of rain thus far in June. This, following 4 consecutive summers where drought conditions racked much of the state's farms.

Dale Barnes manages a produce stand found at Old Main Street Market in the city of Chandler. On Saturday, he told Wikinews that many local growers have complained of recent heavy rains damaging crops by causing "rot or mildew." However, Barnes stated most farmers selling at the market are presently selling 60 - 80% of what their farms will produce for the entire season. The same day, a Tyler man said, "I'm not a farmer, but this rain has been making my yard grow so fast, I can barely keep it mowed."

Rice farmers in the southern part of the state have praised recent rainfall, reducing the heavy expense of irrigation. Lake Sam Rayburn, a reservoir upon which many Texans depend is presently full, for the first time in five years. All week central Texas farmers and ranchers have been praising above average rainfall for this time of year. Some are even expecting record crops thanks to the recent rains. Robert Fleming, a rancher in central Texas told reporters he expects his corn crop this year to be "record breaking" due to heavy rains. A representative from the Texas Farm Bureau told reporters that farmers attitudes around the state are positive. He added, "Rain will do that."


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Wikinews
This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.
 
Wikinews
This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.



I want to dig into this business at a later date

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Sunday, December 15, 2024

 

Image: OpenAI.

On Saturday, police said Suchir Balaji, 26, was found dead in his apartment in San Francisco, California, United States when they arrived there to conduct a "well-being check". Balaji was known as a whistleblower of the artificial intelligence company OpenAI after publicly denouncing its business practices during the development its chatbot software application ChatGPT.

San Francisco's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled his death a suicide. Police said they found no evidence of foul play.

OpenAI is an artificial intelligence company.

His death was confirmed by OpenAI. A spokesperson for the company said it was "devastated" by the news of Balaji's passing.

Balaji studied computer science at the University of California in Berkeley. He spent four years employed as a researcher for OpenAI, and left the company in August after becoming disallusioned with its business practices.

Balaji was publicly critical of OpenAI's business practices, alleging the company violated US copyright law in order to develop ChatGPT. Furthermore, he charged that ChatGPT would render many people and firms commercially unviable by utilizing their content to make improvements to OpenAI's artoficial intelligence systems.

In an October story published by the New York Times, Balaji expressed these concerns regarding OpenAI, and was quoted saying "If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company."

OpenAI was involved in legal matters relating to data-sharing, as North American news publishers filed lawsuits against the company, alleging illegal use of their articles for software training. The company argued that the software was "grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles that are fair for creators and support innovation", and defended its business practices by contending that its software models are "trained on publicly available data."

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