Art and the Homeless

... CNBC is reporting today that customers bank is working with openai to implement ai loan writing agents Customers Bank and OpenAI have announced a multiyear strategic partnership to automate commercial banking operations, with a specific focus on AI-driven lending agents. Under this collaboration, OpenAI engineers will be embedded at the bank to co-create custom AI solutions rather than using off-the-shelf tools.  The initiative targets a significant reduction in operational timelines, aiming to shrink the commercial loan closing process from 30–45 days to approximately seven days and reduce complex account onboarding from over a day to under 20 minutes. These AI agents are designed to handle document collection, credit memorandum preparation, and legal negotiations autonomously, allowing bankers to focus on client relationships and deal structuring.  Customers Bank, which already has 75% of its staff using OpenAI-powered tools, expects to roll out these AI agents across le...

The other day, I stumbled upon a story that felt less like news and more like a prophecy. Phys.org reported on a breakthrough where chemists can now design complex molecules simply by speaking to an AI. A voice prompt like "design a synthesis route for this compound" is no longer science fiction; it is a reality where artificial intelligence acts as a reasoning engine, guiding the creation of new materials step-by-step. It was a fascinating glimpse into the future of science, but as I read it, my mind drifted from the molecular level to the macro level of how we consume information. If AI can help a chemist visualize and construct a molecule through a simple conversation, imagine what it can do for the way we read the news. We are standing on the precipice of a revolution that will transform the passive, ad-saturated news aggregator of today into an interactive, social, and deeply engaging dialogue. The era of "scrolling and clicking" is ending; the era of "ask...

... some of the headlines reporting under the general topic of Anthropic's Claude code performance say you weren't imagining it Claude really did get worse or for example Anthropic's Claude is pumping out vulnerable code cyber experts warn Anthropic confirmed that Claude Code’s performance genuinely degraded in early 2026 due to three specific engineering missteps, rather than a regression in the underlying model or intentional "nerfing." The company’s post-mortem revealed that default reasoning effort was lowered from high to medium to reduce UI latency, a caching bug wiped the model's reasoning history on every turn, and a system prompt capped response lengths at 25 words between tool calls. All three issues were resolved in version v2.1.116 released on April 20, 2026.  Regarding security, cybersecurity experts warned that Claude’s code output became significantly less secure during this period. Analyses by Veracode found that Opus 4.7 introduced vulnerabili...

... search the available data for discussion of the question is it superstition or faith to keep a copy of the Quran in the car's glove compartment as protection from evil Quran in Car: Superstition or Faith Based on Islamic scholarly rulings, keeping a copy of the Quran in a car for the specific purpose of protection is considered a superstition (bid'ah) and is prohibited. - Prohibition for Protection: Scholars such as Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-Uthaymeen and Shaykh Abd al-Azeez ibn Baaz explicitly state that placing the Mus-haf (Quran) in cars to ward off the evil eye or danger is an innovation (bid'ah) with no basis in the practice of the Prophet or the Companions. - Distinction in Intent: The practice is permissible only if the intention is to facilitate reading the Quran for spiritual guidance, not to use the physical book as a talisman or amulet for protection. - Superstition vs. Faith: Believing that the physical presence of the Quran wards off evil is viewed as ...

... news update on the 425 million Capital One refund Capital One has reached a $425 million settlement with customers over claims that the bank misled savers by keeping them in lower-interest 360 Savings accounts while promoting higher rates on similarly named 360 Performance Savings accounts.  Eligibility and Payout Details - Who Qualifies: Current and former account holders who had a 360 Savings account at any time between September 18, 2019, and June 16, 2025.  - Automatic Payments: Eligible customers do not need to file a claim; payments are issued automatically to the primary account holder. - Payment Method: Checks will be mailed to the last known address for amounts of $5 or more. The option for electronic transfer closed on March 30, 2026. - Timing: Payouts are expected to begin arriving within the next one to two months following the April 2026 court approval.  Background and Changes The settlement resolves a lawsuit alleging Capital One failed to clearly inform...

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