We are drowning in numbers, and we no longer understand what they mean. Every day, headlines bombard us with figures meant to inform: billions in spending, trillions in debt, percentages signaling growth or decline. But for most of us, these numbers blur together. They register as “large” or “small,” but almost never as real. And that is more than a math problem. It is a civic one.
INFORMS has awarded Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) its 2026 Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Advanced Analytics, Operations Research and Management Science, for reengineering how global cloud infrastructure is planned and delivered, applying advanced analytics and AI to orchestrate complex fulfillment decisions across its rapidly expanding data center network.
In the rush to adopt artificial intelligence, many employers are now requiring that employees use AI tools. As you’re using AI, be intentional and selective. It’s critical that you know yourself. Research published in Management Science found that AI is most valuable for people who understand their own abilities and limitations. Assess yourself, so you can factor this into your process for incorporating AI into your work.
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Deceptive videos and images created using generative AI could sway elections, crash stock markets and ruin reputations. Researchers are developing methods to limit their harm.
Latest inflation numbers: Not very good news as inflation seems to be supply-side, so it is much harder to control. Gas prices will also negatively affect the price of food even more for the next quarter at least. This means that interest rates will remain high for a while, possibly even into 2025. Also, deflation is not a bad thing if it is transitory and aimed at first necessity goods, as opposed to affecting consumption in the long run.
In the UK, NHS workers ranging from nurses to junior doctors went on strike in 2023 to express their grievances about their pay. These localised and staggered strikes have caused inconvenience, but they did not affect the UK economy significantly. However, the coordinated United Auto Workers (UAW) strike in the US, which began on September 15, is much larger in terms of scale and scope.
As the United Auto Workers strike continues, it will have a cascading effect from the auto makers to their upstream suppliers providing EV batteries and other components.
The United Auto Workers (UAW), which launched an intermittent strike at Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis manufacturing plants, has expanded the action to 38 locations in 20 states. Automotive manufacturers, which have been struggling with electronics supplies since 2020, could face another disruption to their supply chain as the labor dispute continues.
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