Saskatchewan preparing for first step in its provincial reopening plan this weekend

Public servants and elections

We currently are in the midst of elections, mostly on the municipal level. Voters are reviewing policies and promises in anticipation of new programs and commitments that hopefully will enhance their daily life.

While those seeking political office live in anxiety during this time as they await their electoral fate, so too do many civil servants as election results will also determine their futures.

It is these civil servants who we rarely think of at election time.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My side-by-side duplex neighbour sings loud, horrible duets with his girlfriend. She sings in a screechy soprano, and he bangs on the piano, and attempts to “harmonize” with her.

It’s just painful. We can hear them clearly through our cheap walls. For some reason, they get inspired late at night. Then they can go for up to an hour “singing” together. It’s endless when you’re trying to go to sleep and have to work in the morning. We figure they must be hitting the bottle.

I end up having to bang on the wall and swear at the top of my lungs to shut them up. Last night the guy banged back, and yelled through the wall, “What’s your problem, you idiot? Why don’t you come over here!”

Should I go see them? My girlfriend wants me to shut down their singing for good, no matter what it takes.

An Edmonton man accused of defrauding several Winnipeg seniors in so-called grandparent scams has also been charged for allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage girl in the city.

Winnipeg Police Service financial crime investigators were alerted after three city residents, all in their 80s, were defrauded of more than $37,000 in August after receiving calls from someone posing as a grandchild who claimed to need cash to pay for bail, police said Tuesday.

The first victim received several phone calls between Aug. 17 and 22 from a caller who claimed the victim’s grandson had been arrested and needed cash bail. The victim agreed to pay and handed over cash and gold and silver coins to a man who showed up at their door four separate times.

On Aug. 18, another adult received a call from someone claiming to be their grandson who needed cash for bail and the victim obliged, paying a man who went to their home to pick up money.

It is now perhaps axiomatic to declare that artificial intelligence will revolutionize the world, as researchers and industry insiders are projecting the novel technology to become the greatest technological breakthrough in human history.

There has been a flurry of discussion in both our local and international contexts — and with good cause. We must remain steadfast to ensure our youth, local workforces, and environment are not negatively impacted by this burgeoning technology.

I wish to accentuate, however, a somewhat neglected area of public discussion around AI developments. Specifically, we urgently need to re-evaluate the ethos of humanity, particularly cognizant of the emergence of this digitally superintelligent species.

If artificial superintelligence (ASI) is ultimately achieved, leading academics theorize that these digital agents will be sentient, conscious, and astronomically more intelligent and powerful than us. In fact, numerous scholars believe AI to already possess some level of consciousness in its current iteration. This position is held by eminent evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, for example.