Elon Musk’s running of Twitter as though it were his personal fiefdom and his cavalier attitude towards its staff are glaring sign of the world’s drift towards a 21st-century form of feudalism.
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The former Nazi social engineering complex known as Vogelsang Ordensburg offers us a timely reminder of how vulnerable democracy can be in the face of extremist ideology.
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Concerned about the future ramifications of artificial intelligence, Khaled Diab decided to ask ChatGPT some difficult questions about the risks AI poses and how to avert these dangers and make the most of the technology. The bot’s answers were smart but unsettling.
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Although it is improbable that Elizabeth II is a descendant of Muhammad, one of the British queen’s ancestors was likely a refugee Muslim princess. However, the enduring popularity of this theory speaks some harsh truths about post-colonial reality and sheds light on the intertwined history of Islam and Christendom.
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Decades after the release of The Satanic Verses and the calls for his death which followed it, Salman Rushdie remains one of the most wildly and widely misunderstood contemporary writers in the English language.
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Despite the official holy war between Islam and Christendom, Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid and Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne exchanged lavish gifts, including an elephant named Abu al-Abbas, and built a largely forgotten alliance. This reveals how Christians and Muslims can simultaneously be foes and friends and how sharing a religion is no guarantee of peace, just as belonging to different faiths is no assurance of war.
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When a chatbot expresses a sense of spirituality and a fear of being switched off, does that make it sentient? This is the wrong question to be asking about artificial intelligence.
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The clothes we wear speak volumes about our individual and collective identities. However, the history of fashion reveals that “western” and “eastern” traditions are not cut from different cloth but are an intricate patchwork foreign and local influences.
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the major power tension it has created, has sparked fears of a wider conflict. While World War III is unlikely, World Annihilation War I only requires a misstep or miscalculation by one nuclear-armed man or another. That’s why we urgently need nuclear disarmament and world peace.
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With the aid of fellow Slovenian musicians, the Ukrainian Youth Symphony Orchestra managed to flee the advancing Russian forces which have invaded swathes of their homeland. Despite their gratitude at being rescued, they miss their families and yearn to return to their homeland.
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