Paul Thomas Anderson wins at 78th Directors Guild Awards for ‘One Battle After Another’

Time for AI guardrails is right now

The genie is most definitely out of the bottle.

And while there’s little chance of putting it back in, we should be very concerned that the people who released it from the bottle are now frantically warning us that it has become disinclined to do their — or our — bidding and seems instead to be increasingly intent on following its own whims and granting wishes to itself.

The figurative genie, in this case, is artificial intelligence, or AI, and in recent weeks many of the tech geniuses responsible for its development and introduction into the digital-information realm have begun asking the U.S. government and even the United Nations to impose limits on the pace and breadth of its growth.

Their fear is that, as AI very quickly continues to advance and develops the ability to make independent decisions and essentially think for itself, it will cease to be a tool controlled by its creators and instead will become a species unto itself that might eventually decide it’s better off without humans continually messing things up.

Retired guidance counsellor defends explicit 2025 sex-ed presentation to high school football team in disciplinary hearing

Gus Watanabe, a former employee of Oak Park High School in Winnipeg, was the subject of a public disciplinary hearing on Thursday.

Paul Thomas Anderson wins at 78th Directors Guild Awards for ‘One Battle After Another’

NEW YORK (AP) — Paul Thomas Anderson won the top prize at the 78th Directors Guild Awards, putting the “One Battle After Another” filmmaker on course to potentially win his first Oscar.

The DGA Awards, held Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, is among the most reliable Academy Awards precursors. In the last 10 years, nine DGA winners have gone on to win best director at the Oscars. In the guild’s nearly eight-decade history, only eight times has the guild not predicted the Oscar winner.

The award adds to a virtual awards-season sweep for “One Battle After Another,” which has won with critics groups, the Gotham Awards and the Golden Globes. It’s considered the favorite for best picture at the March 15 Oscars. Academy voting begins Feb. 26.

The other nominees were Ryan Coogler (“Sinners”), Guillermo Del Toro (“Frankenstein”), Josh Safdie (“Marty Supreme”) and Chloé Zhao (“Hamnet”).

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: Avoid shopping (except food and gas) and important decisions after 9 p.m. The moon is in Gemini.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Your mind is focused, giving you common sense and practical ideas. This is an excellent day to sign up for a course or learn something new. Don’t hesitate to listen to the advice of someone older or more experienced because after all, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Gillingham talks trash, pledges big bin boost

Scott Gillingham says he would add hundreds of locked garbage bins downtown to prevent unsightly trash piles if re-elected as mayor.

Gillingham led a program that added about 120 locked garbage bins along Portage Avenue and Main Street last fall, after trash was repeatedly strewn around the area. If he wins a second term, he plans to add at least 200 more of the receptacles.

A look at how one locked Main Street recycle/garbage bin in front of city hall fared offers an example of the bins’ success so far, he said.

“Every day, you would see the lids up, and people had been rifling through it, or someone left the lid up and the wind picked up the garbage and (spread) it everywhere. It’s much more difficult now. Once the garbage is in, the garbage stays in,” said Gillingham.

Manitoba man accused of killing five family members dismisses lawyers for second time

WINNIPEG - A Manitoba man accused of killing his three young children, their mother and a teen relative has parted ways with his lawyers for the second time this year. 

Ryan Manoakeesick, who is charged with five counts of first-degree murder, is seeking new counsel because of a breakdown in the  relationship with his lawyers.

"We were hopeful that we would be able to maintain that solicitor-client relationship in good standing with Mr. Manoakeesick. But ultimately his latest instructions to us are inconsistent with the last set of instructions of this week," Crystal Antila, one of the lawyers, told Court of King's Bench Justice Candace Grammond on Thursday.

"And at this point he also wishes to explore the opportunity to find other counsel."