Fetterman to spend ‘weeks’ in hospital over depression: aide

 Sen. John Fetterman will likely need to be hospitalized for at least “a few weeks” as he receives inpatient treatment for clinical depression in Washington, DC, a senior aide said Friday.

It’s been hard for staffers to tell whether the 53-year-old Pennsylvania Democrat has been unresponsive in recent weeks due to hearing loss from the stroke he suffered in May — or because he’s in the throes of despair, the aide told NBC.

“[He’s] not hearing you or is he sort of crippled by his depression and social anxiety,” said the aide — adding that staffers were surprised by the severity of his depression.

The potential weeks-long mental health treatment won’t impact Fetterman’s ability to do his job in the future and his resignation is “not even on the table in any sense,” the aide insisted.

Fetterman’s office announced Thursday that he had checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after a stint at George Washington University Hospital last week for lightheadedness and other health problems.

Sen. John Fetterman will likely spend at least “a few weeks” getting inpatient treatment for depression.

REUTERS

Fetterman had suffered from weight loss and lack of appetite in past weeks — and it will reportedly now take weeks for doctors to get Fetterman’s medication right.

Updates on Fetterman’s condition came as politicians across party lines applauded him for having the courage to seek help.

“Mental illness is real & serious, and I hope that he gets the care he needs. Regardless of which side of the political aisle you’re on, please respect his family’s request for privacy,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted Friday.

The lawmaker checked himself into a hospital this week.

REUTERS

Rep. Ritchie Torres  (D-NY) offered words of encouragement, saying he too had been treated for depression.

“I admire Senator John Fetterman for openly seeking treatment for depression at Walter Reed,” Torres tweeted. “Back in 2010, I was hospitalized for depression. I would not be alive, let alone in Congress, were it not for mental health care. Millions of Americans are rooting for you, Senator.”

Meanwhile, President Biden praised Fetterman’s treatment as “brave and important.”

“John, Gisele – Jill and I are thinking about your family today. Millions of people struggle with depression every day, often in private. Getting the care you need is brave and important. We’re grateful to you for leading by example,” Biden tweeted Friday.

https://nypost.com/2023/02/17/sen-john-fetterman-to-spend-weeks-in-hospital-for-depression/

Biden mocked for shooting down potential $12 hobby balloon

 Republicans, conservatives and others have mocked the Biden administration’s decision to use a $400,000 missile to shoot down what may turn out to be a $12 hobby balloon last weekend, with some calling it an expensive way to eliminate a “kids’ science project.”

The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade told Aviation Week that one of its tracked balloons vanished on Feb. 11 — around the same time President Biden gave orders to shoot down a mystery object over Canada’s Yukon Territory.

While the White House hasn’t yet confirmed the Illinois enthusiast club’s fears that its balloon was destroyed, the revelation triggered prompt jeering on social media.

“To be fair, Biden is providing is [sic] powerful deterrence for any high school science clubs that might try to invade America….,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted.

“President Biden needs to tell the American people whether this is true,” Cruz added in a follow-up tweet.

Former President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Don Jr., also chimed in, tweeting: “Biden shot down some kids’ science project with a $400k sidewinder missile!”

Republicans and conservatives have mocked the Biden administration for shooting down the balloon.

AFP via Getty Images

The remnants of a large balloon drift toward the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of South Carolina.

AP

The younger Trump added that Biden had admitted that the three unidentified objects taken out by the military after the shoot-down of a Chinese spy balloon were likely just being used for “research or recreation.”

Former Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) called the ordeal the “Great Balloon Panic of 2023.”

“RIP to the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade’s ~$80 ham radio transmitter balloon, likely the victim of friendly fire by a $143,000,000 USAF F-22 firing a $485,000 AIM-9X Sidewinder missile during the Great Balloon Panic of 2023,” he said in a tweet.

The GOP says the balloon is a “$12 hobby lobby” balloon.

Meanwhile, left-wing journalist Max Blumenthal suggested Biden’s take-down orders were to “prove his manhood.”

“An F-22, which costs $85,000 an hour to fly, used a $450,000 missile to take down a $12 hobby balloon belonging to the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, all so Biden could prove his manhood to [Rep.] Majorie [sic] Taylor Greene,” he tweeted.

Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk added: “Biden let an actual Chinese spy balloon cross 2,000 miles of American airspace untouched. Now he fakes being tough by shooting down a $12 science project from the (I kid you not) ‘Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade.'”

Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, “Biden shot down some kids’ science project with a $400K sidewinder missile!”

The Brigade had said its Pico Balloon — a silver-coated, cylindrically shaped object — reported its last position at 38,910 feet off the west coast of Alaska on Feb. 10.

By the following day, the balloon — based on its projected path — would have been over the central part of Canada’s Yukon Territory, which was around the same time an Air Force F-22 shot down an unidentified object in the same area.

The enthusiast group — which is dedicated to creating, releasing and tracking homemade balloons — declared its K9YO device “missing in action” on Saturday.

Former Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) called the ordeal the “Great Balloon Panic of 2023.”

The group’s balloon was equipped with a small GPS transmitter and an antenna, allowing the group to track it via ham radio.

Such balloons usually float around until they’re brought down by bad weather or damaged.

In addition to Saturday’s takedown, the US downed airborne objects over Alaska on Friday and Lake Huron on Sunday.

Ted Cruz took to Twitter to comment on the situation.

Biden finally addressed the unprecedented military action on Thursday, telling Americans there was no evidence that the three unidentified flying objects were nefarious.

“We don’t yet know exactly what these three objects were,” he said.

“But nothing, nothing right now suggests they were related to China’s spy balloon program, or that they were surveillance vehicles from any other country.”

Authorities are still trying to recover the debris from the three recently downed objects. Late Thursday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it had suspended the search for the balloon shot down over Lake Huron.

https://nypost.com/2023/02/17/gop-mocks-biden-for-shooting-down-possible-12-hobby-balloon/

AI will take over ‘clerical white collar work’: IBM chief

 It’s a bad day to be a paper pusher.

Artificial intelligence is on a rapidly aggressive pace to take over “clerical white collar work,” IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said.

Amid the explosion of language-based AI ChatGPT, a “marketing moment” Krishna called “incredible” during an interview with the Financial Times, he also forecasted what sort of jobs the tech will likely be displacing.

Fields like customer service, human resources, and positions within finance and health care could all see automation — not years from now but in the current day, according to Krishna.

“I think [practical AI use] is here and now,” he told the outlet. “We do have a shortage of labor in the real world and that’s because of a demographic issue that the world is facing . . . the United States is now sitting at 3.4% unemployment, the lowest in 60 years. So maybe we can find tools that replace some portions of labor, and it’s a good thing this time.”  

IBM chairman Arvind Krishna says AI will soon replace jobs across several fields.

Bloomberg via Getty Images
For health care and finance, it is the “regulatory work” that Krishna, whose company partnered with McDonald’s in 2021 to automate drive-thrus, says no longer needs to be done by people.

“A big chunk of that could get automated using these techniques,” he said.

Pengcheng Shi, an associate dean in the department of computing and information sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology, previously told The Post in detail what sort of white collar finance could be phased out from AI as well.

“I definitely think [it will impact] the trading side, but even [at] an investment bank, people [are] hired out of college and spend two, three years to work like robots and do Excel modeling — you can get AI to do that,” Shi said. “Much, much faster.”

Krishna — whose company is responsible for the supercomputer Deep Blue that defeated Garry Kasparov in a 1997 chess match and Watson, a machine which won “Jeopardy!” in 2010 — also said that “further out,” AI will likely be capable of managing “things in like drug discovery or in trying to finish up chemistry.”

As for human resources, Krishna says that AI could do “90%” of data processing needed for “promoting people, hiring people, moving people” while the final judgment calls are still left in human hands.

“There are hundreds of such processes inside every enterprise, so I do think clerical white collar work is going to be able to be replaced by this.”

AI taking over customer service could also get clients “a much better answer at maybe around half the current cost,” according to Krishna. “Over time, it can get even lower than half, but it can take half out pretty quickly.”

Both Shi and Chinmay Hegde, a computer science and electrical engineering associate professor at New York University, warn that other industries are threatened by the emergence of such powerful — and now highly public — AI.

They include education, graphic design, software engineering, and parts of journalism, such as copywriting, according to the professors.

“This is not crying wolf,” Shi said. “The wolf is at the door.”

https://nypost.com/2023/02/17/ai-will-take-over-clerical-white-collar-work-ibm-chief/