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With just a little more than two months to go before the 2022 midterm elections, one issue is emerging as a top turnout driver. And if Democrats do the historically unimaginable in November, staving off what was predicted to be an off-year Republican bloodbath, we can likely trace the root cause back to one fateful night in the spring of 2022.

On May 2 at 8:32 p.m., Politico published a leaked draft of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization that would overturn Roe v. Wade and nearly 50 years of what was considered law of the land.

That moment, followed by the courts final overturning of Roe in June, changed the political landscape for both parties in a midterm election year that was looking likely to be like any other, in which the party in power is punished at the ballot box.

And there were plenty of reasons for voters to want to punish Democrats even forgetting all the nonsensical, conspiratorial, own-the-libs reasons animating the MAGA-world crowd.

Record-high gas and consumer goods prices, inflation, supply-chain stagnation, a looming recession, an immigration crisis at the southern border, a bungled Afghanistan pullout, and several big-ticket legislative losses had President Joe Bidens approval rating at a measly 35% in January.

Fast-forward to now, when Bidens approval is at 44% his highest in a year and mostly due to rising support among independents.

While he can certainly thank lower gas prices and some other political wins, including passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, for the boost, the overturning of Roe v. Wade and subsequent attempts to effectively ban abortions in numerous states is benefiting Democrats all over the country, and in some cases for the first time.

In Michigan, Democrats are leading in the gubernatorial race, and a new poll finds that abortion is the top issue voters are contemplating.

In Georgia, a recent poll found that more than half of voters do not support the states new abortion law banning most abortions around six weeks of pregnancy, and Democrats there are hoping the issue can bring them over the finish line.

In California, abortion is emerging as a driving issue, as a whopping 81% of voters list it as very important, a full quarter higher than the national rate.

In Texas Texas! Democratic gubernatorial nominee Beto ORourkes first ads of the general election cycle focus on his states archaic abortion restrictions. One ad features a damning poll showing only 13% of Texas voters said they supported no exceptions in cases of rape.

And for the first time, abortion is among the top five issues of concern to Latino voters, according to a new poll, with more than 70% saying abortion should be legal, regardless of their personal beliefs.

All of this coincides, unsurprisingly, with an improvement in the Democrats odds of keeping the Senate. FiveThirtyEights predictor now gives them a 64% chance, up from 50% a few weeks ago.

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For all the giddiness among many right-wing lawmakers and personalities at the courts decision to overturn Roe, it was clear from the get-go that this would be bad for Republicans. Thats because, unlike many other hot-button issues, American support for access to legal abortion has remained practically unchanged for decades.

From 1976, when Gallup first started polling abortion, to 2022, a comfortable majority of Americans have agreed abortion should be legal, with some restrictions.

That group was at 54% in 1976 and is now at 50%, 46 years later. In between, it reached as high as 61% and as low as 48%, but always remained the dominant opinion.

In contrast, the number of Americans who believe abortion should be illegal in all circumstances has decreased, from 22% in 1976 to 13% in 2022. That group has remained the minority since 1978.

And the number of Americans who believe abortion should be legal with no restrictions went up, from 21% in 1976 to 35% in 2022.

So, the majority of Americans have not changed their views on abortion, and where they have, theyve grown more comfortable with it, not less.

The courts overturning of Roe left Republicans with two choices: support the ruling and risk losing moderates, independents and even some Republican voters, or oppose it and risk losing a minority of American voters who have no other party to support. Republicans chose the former.

Now theyre tied to a very unpopular decision and in some cases are responsible for implementing it in states like Texas and Georgia.

Theres no doubt in my mind that Democrats can beat the odds and keep the Senate and maybe even the House in a year they were supposed to lose both. And if they do, Republicans can yet again blame Donald Trump, and his three Supreme Court appointees.

S.E. Cupp is the host of S.E. Cupp Unfiltered on CNN.

2022 S.E. Cupp. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Here is the Democrats' real November abortion advantage | Column - Tampa Bay Times

In May 1997, the chess supercomputer Deep Blue sensationally won a full-fledged match against world champion Garry Kasparov, who was almost in his prime. Okay, said many experts at the time. Chess is cool, but there are also much more tactically sophisticated games where a person can show their imagination, inaccessible to a computer. For example, Go.

Almost twenty years later, in March 2016, the AlphaGo program defeated one of the best Go masters on the planet, Lee Sedol, with a score of 4: 1 in games. Three years later, he left the sport, admitting that computer algorithms had become so superior to humans that competition with people simply lost its meaning.

Well, said then the participants in the discussions about the possibilities of artificial intelligence. After all, its just a game where there is a given set of rules and conditions, within which the computer surpasses the human mind. But there are also some areas of activity where unbridled fantasy is needed, accessible only to people. For example, in fine art You are here for now

More info: Twitter

Image credits: GenelJumalon

Or rather, you were here. On August 26, the Colorado State Fair started in Pueblo, which also included a fine arts competition. The Digital Arts award was won by local designer Jason Allens Thtre Dopra Spatial, one of three entries he submitted to the contest. Really beautiful and impressive painting, for sure.

Image credits: discord

Image credits: discord

Thunder struck a few days later when Allen tweeted that the picture was actually generated using Midjourney, a commercial neural network for generating images from a given text description, which runs on the basis of the Discord messenger and is available to literally everyone.

Image credits: discord

Allen, with the help of Midjourney, generated several hundred images, choosing three of them that he liked the most. Then the man slightly processed each of the paintings using Adobe Photoshop, enlarged it in size using another neural network Gigapixel AI, and then printed it on canvas and sent to the competition.

Image credits: eldritch48

Of course, Allen did a lot of preparatory work, because in order to get a really effective and beautiful artwork, you need to experiment with the choice of prompts for Midjourney. In the end try it yourself we guarantee that on the first attempt, you will not get a masterpiece. Yes, and with the tenth, twentieth and more as well.

Image credits: macrubs

Allen states that he noted that AI was used while creating the artwork, labelling it as Jayson Allen via Midjourney. However, according to Cal Duran and Dagny McKinley, the judges of the fine arts competition, they were not warned that they were evaluating the work of a neural network, and not a human being, and were judging, first of all, how the art tells a story. And the official list of winners doesnt say anything about Midjourney either. In any case, out of twenty-one entries submitted to the contest, they chose the one that was generated by artificial intelligence.

Image credits: l_unchtime

And here the question really arises how far can AI be considered the author of the work, because, in Allens own words, he really spent a lot of time to find the right description for the neural network. And anyone who has ever worked with something like Midjourney will agree. Of course, if you write the famous Draw me a sheep from The Little Prince in the prompt, the result will not be as primitive as in the famous book, but it will not win the fine art contest either.

Image credits: arvalis

In any case, there are two points of view here. One of them calls to consider AI just a tool for the human creator the way the camera became almost two hundred years ago. And indeed, then, at the beginning of the 19th century, many critics said that technology would bring death to art after all, no artist reproduces reality the way a photo camera does.

Image credits: The_Galactabee

But years have passed and we see that photography, on the contrary, gave art a new impetus in the form of impressionism, surrealism, suprematism, and many other trends that arose, as if by coincidence, just after photography began its triumphant march around the world. As for photographers, arent Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton or Henri Cartier-Bresson considered great artists?

Image credits: JanbluTheDerg

Image credits: fluxophile

On the other hand, who can be considered, for example, the author of the great fresco The Last Judgment? Michelangelo, who painted it, or the Pope, who told the artist in detail his own vision of the painting? From this point of view, of course, the author is AI and the discussion about its capabilities is entering a new round.

Image credits: CityofStPete (not the actual photo)

We must say that the participants of this discussion on Twitter also shared their opinions. For example, artist Genel Jumalon believes that AI is just a useful tool for the creator, but in this case, you should simply inform the judges of the competition about the use of the neural network. Going forward, Genel believes AI-created work should be separated into a special competitive category.

Image credits: GenelJumalon

Image credits: SaphireShear

Image credits: JohnM5991

Image credits: aetheredgefilm

Image credits: ichibanhomo

Other people think its just like winning a footrace using a car, and human and computer art should not be confused anyway. In any case, with the development of artificial intelligence, more and more questions will arise, and humanity will sooner or later have to create a new paradigm of its co-existence.

Image credits: Gunzales76

Image credits: Lofren

Image credits: OmniMorpho

Image credits: RemmingThe

Image credits: shortnocturnal

Image credits: ChrisShehanArt

Were pretty sure youve got something to say on this topic as well, so please feel free to express your point of view in the comments. Be that as it may, one thing you can be absolutely sure of is that this very post was 100 percent written by a human!

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This AI-Generated Artwork Won 1st Place At Fine Arts Contest And Enraged Artists - Bored Panda

The discussion about AI production, creation, and human/AI interaction seems to never stop. When a more digital world arrives, how will AI evolve as important productivity? AI technology company & blockchain game company rct AI recently published a new DRL model based on training AI in Axie Infinity to achieve the best performance of AI in blockchain games. This RL-based AI algorithm for large-scale action space, ACAR, has achieved a double improvement in efficiency and winning rate in a large number of simulated battle data, which has surpassed real players level. Some even call it Alpha Go in blockchain games.

The emergence of ACAR (Action Clustering using Action Representation) will upgrade or innovate the use space and development direction of AI in blockchain games. It will provide more research and application directions for the improvement of man vs machine battle computing power, the construction of an immersive virtual world, and the deep interaction of users. The paper on the ACAR algorithm of rct AI Towards Modern Card Games with Large-Scale Action Spaces Through Action Representation was selected for the IEEE Conference on Games, CoG 2022, and was invited to give an oral presentation.

In the last few years, the advent of AlphaGo and AlphaGoZero has made people realize that reinforcement learning is an algorithm that can perform as well as or even better than humans in games of chance. Traditional card and chess games have always been the classic direction of AI research. Popular topics include Texas Holdem, Mahjong, and Doudizhu. These games all contain the intractable problem of huge and complex action space. In addition, AI also needs to find out the most beneficial strategy for itself in the current game based on the opponents game strategy and play style.

rct AI has always insisted on Future web3 with AI, and it brings the AI battle research of card games to the blockchain game directly. This time, rct AI chose the most popular card battle blockchain game Axie Infinity as the research object, because it not only contains the above-mentioned huge and complex action space (the action space combination of all cards is around 10^23), and the nature of the game of chance, but also contains a huge number of card groups. (There are more than ten popular card groups in the whole game, at least dozens of card groups in total, and hundreds of cards with different effects).

Since it is impossible to add prior knowledge of human strategies to all decks before training, the opponents card groups will not be the same in different games. This adds another challenge to the learning of the DRL (Deep Reinforcement Learning) model.

In continuous experiments, rct AI proposes a more efficient and general RL-based AI algorithm ACAR to solve the above problems. First of all, the team introduced a pre-trained embedding function to solve the huge action space in this problem. Through the battle with different opponents, the final effect of the executed action is used to learn the representation of different combined actions to achieve the effect of efficiently exploring the action space. After having the embedding function for action representation, the team can not only use the evaluation network Q to evaluate the output actions in the Policy network in the subsequent RL training, but also use the embedding function to reduce the dimension of the current network output action, and then use Q to evaluate the adjacent actions of the reduced dimensionality action to select the optimal action in the current state.

The RL training combines the Embedding function, and finally in a large number of simulated battle data, the rct AI algorithm not only outperforms the other two Baseline algorithms in most decks (the average winning rate is 5% and 7% higher), but also the response efficiency is also completely better than the other two algorithms (only 43% and 39% of the average time consumed in the other 2 algorithm).

The launch of this research result has attracted widespread attention in the industry, opening up a new blue ocean for the application of AI in the field of web3 games. According to statistics from SupraOracles, the overall market value of web3 games has exceeded 40 billion US dollars.

This research allows us to predict that, at least in blockchain games, AIs participation in the economic cycle will bring true sustainability and stability, and completely liberate the liquidity of digital assets in the game.

First of all, for game projects, the number, type, and combat power of game players will be expanded. In web3 itself, virtual identities and digital citizens cannot be avoided. rct AI has given it more capabilities that are comparable to or even surpass those of humans, allowing these AI-powered players to enrich the game ecosystem with high quality and efficiency, to help game projects achieve their goals at different stages in terms of user volume and types, project revenue, data retention, and product co-creation.

Secondly, for players, under the current mainstream game financial system of P2EP&E, a double upgrade of game experience and revenue will be achieved. On the one hand, users will have extensive and ever-changing gameplay, and will no longer face the trouble that other users levels are too different from their own. AI virtual humans can equally participate in various gameplays with human players, bringing players a more personalized intelligent interactive experience. On the other hand, AI-powered players can collaborate and divide labor with real players. While real players can deploy strategies, AI-powered players can yield farming, which will improve the efficiency of game battles, thereby providing the benefits of more stable automation projects.

Previously, people in the industry were thinking, when a more digital world arrives, how will AI evolve as an important productive force, what role will it play, and will the interaction between humans and AI produce new variables? We have to admit that AI can help humans explore the potential of web3, and this is no longer simply stimulated by the collision of people.

Since its establishment, rct AI has been committed to using artificial intelligence to provide complete solutions for the game industry and to create a true metaverse with artificial intelligence-generated content. The team has brought core technologies and innovative products into various industries and launched Chaos Box, Morpheus Cloud, etc. so that dynamic and personalized interactive digital content can be generated in real-time in multiple scenarios of different types. The gameplay, plot generation, NPC personalization, character dialogue, and other aspects are comprehensively intelligent, helping to create a truly dynamic and intelligent game ecology.

The papers recognized by the worlds leading academic conferences in gaming and artificial intelligence were all done by algorithm engineers on the Deterrence team, rct AIs decentralized virtual being platform.So far, rct AI has successfully established a mature web3 business ecosystem, including the self-reproducing virtual being NFT Nwa Nuwa released by rct AI and artist Song Ting; Delysium, the worlds first playable AAA MMORPG web3 game; and Soularis, jointly launched with Chinas leading virtual being ecosystem NEXT GENERATION Culture to create a virtual society where users and AI avatars coexist and digital identities and assets are interoperable.

Relying on solid technology barriers and cutting-edge ecological business layout, rct AI has accumulated a lot of experience in the fields of technology, games, entertainment, and metaverse at home and abroad, reaching more than 200 million users.

rct AI was incubated by Y Combinator W19 with investors including Galaxy Interactive, Makers Fund, Star Saga, Y2Z Ventures, Springwind Ventures, Zonff Partners, and others.

rct AI is providing AI solutions to the game industry and building the true Metaverse with AI generated content on blockchain. By using cutting-edge technologies, especially deep learning and reinforcement learning, rct AI creates a truly dynamic and intelligent user experience both on the consumers side and productions side.

rct AI believes the next generation of gaming experiences will be more open-world, more immersive, and more intelligent. The interaction between human players and the virtual world will be more dynamic and multiplex.

However, with traditional technology and workflow, its impossible to go even further. To realize this vision, rct AI is helping designers and game developers create a truly dynamic and intelligent gaming experience with various products and solutions to the industry.

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The Libyan state has insisted that a decision by a Maltese court to release in its favour over 94 million held in Bank of Valletta accounts must stand and that an appeal filed by the heirs of deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi ought to be thrown out.

The appeal was filed by Maltese lawyer Louis Cassar Pullicino on behalf of the Gaddafi heirs lawyer, Charilos Oikonomopoulos, and Gaddafis widow, Safiya Ferkash Mohammed.

The legal battle started a year after Gaddafis violent overthrow and death in 2011.

Gaddafis son Mutassim was found to be the owner of a Maltese-registered company with BOV accounts.

Upon his death in Misurata, on October 20, 2011, at the height of the uprising against his fathers regime, credit cards issued by BOV were found in his possession.

The Libyan government has always viewed the funds, held under a Maltese company called Capital Resources Limited, as illicit gains.

It holds that according to Libyan law, as an army officer Mutassim was precluded from drawing benefits from any business interests. Moreover, he had failed to submit a full declaration of assets.

Litigation was taken up in the Maltese courts, with Libya accusing BOV of failing to carry out proper due diligence checks that should have prevented Mutassim from opening accounts in the first place.

The Gaddafi heirs argued that the money constituted private funds, not pilfered from the Libyan state.

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However, Mr Justice Neville Camilleri last June ordered that the funds be released in favour of the Libyan state.

In his reply to the Gaddafi heirs appeal, lawyer Shaheryar Ghaznavi, representing the Libyan state, rubbished their claims that the Maltese courts lacked jurisdiction and the case was time barred.

He insisted that Mutassim had breached Libyan law and that the courts decision to repatriate the funds to Libya was correct.

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Libya insists it should receive 94 million held in BOV accounts - Times of Malta

Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee in Pennsylvanias gubernatorial race, received backing from eight GOP figures this week in his race against State Senator Doug Mastriano, a far-right Republican backed by Donald Trump who has touched off tensions within the GOP around where the party should be headed without Trump in office. This weeks endorsements came just less than two months after an additional nine current and former Pennsylvania Republican officials threw their support behind Shapiro, the states attorney general.

James Schultz, a former associate White House counsel under Trump, explained his support for Shapiro in a Monday op-ed for Philadelphia magazine, noting that Mastriano led a baseless campaign to overturn Pennsylvanias 2020 election results. Because some in our state GOP leadership have put self-preservation over principled conservatism, were stuck with a conspiracy theorist candidate, wrote Schultz. But by no means must we stick by Doug Mastriano. Im a proud Republican. Im backing Josh Shapiro. In a statement, Shapiro promised to continue bringing Republicans and Democrats together if elected, adding that he was proud to receive the endorsement of these Republican leaders who are putting our commonwealth ahead of partisan politics in order to come together and move Pennsylvania forward.

Other names on Shapiros new roster of Republican supporters include Michael Chertoff, the former secretary of homeland security during George W. Bushs second term; David Heckler, a former district attorney; Mario Civera, the former Delaware County Council chairman; and four former state lawmakers. Like Schultz, Chertoff singled out Mastrianos voter-fraud conspiracy theories in his endorsement of Shapiro. Although I am a long-standing Republican, I am deeply troubled by Doug Mastrianos embrace of dangerous extremism, Chertoff told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, urging Americans to support candidates who will defend our democracy, no matter which party they claim. Josh Shapiro, on the other hand, is a staunch defender of our democratic institutions and will lead Pennsylvania with honor and integrity, Chertoff added. I am proud to support his campaign for governor.

Mastrianos controversial views go beyond just the 2020 election. The winner of a 2019 special election for State Senate, Mastriano has called legal abortion a barbaric holocaust and argued that the separation of church and state, as outlined in the US Constitution, is a myth. Reuters also recently reported that Mastriano donned a Confederate uniform in a 2014 faculty photo at the Army War College.

Mastriano, a retired military officer, was put on the MAGA map in March 2020 while live streaming Facebook diatribes against COVID-19 lockdowns, according to The New York Times. A video he took in April of that year ended up amassing more than 850,000 views. Several months later, Mastriano propelled himself into Trumps orbit after attending aStop the Steal rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and he eventually partook in an alternate-elector plot designed to subvert Joe Bidens win in the 2020 election.

After Republicans in the State Senate rebuked the scheme, Mastriano warned them of his influence amongst their voting bloc. I have more followers on Facebook alone than all 49 other senators combined, he said during an appearance on a local conservative podcast, per the Times. That any colleague or fellow Republican would think that it would be a good idea to throw me under the bus with that kind of reachI mean, theyre just not very smart people. Since launching his gubernatorial campaign, Mastriano has by and large shunned mainstream outlets, relying almost exclusively on social media platformsincluding Gab, a far-right site that he recently distanced himself fromand friendly media figures to promote his candidacy.

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More Republicans Are Running Away From Mastriano as He Digs In on Election-Fraud Lies - Vanity Fair