Questões de Inglês

Think you actually own all those movies you’ve been buying digitally? Think again

    A possible class-action lawsuit against Amazon Prime, one of the world’s biggest platforms for streaming film and television, has raised an odd question: what does it mean to buy something?

    The proposed lawsuit, which was filed last week in federal court and first reported by the Hollywood Reporter, alleges that Prime’s practice of offering users the chance to “buy” (as opposed to “rent”) content is inherently deceptive. The suit argues that buying something implies perpetual possession – but that Amazon, like many other streaming services, is really just selling its customers viewing licenses that can be revoked at any time, in keeping with fine print that most customers do not read or understand.

    Regardless of whether the lawsuit is ultimately successful, it speaks to a real problem in an age when people access films, television series, music and video games through fickle online platforms: impermanence. The advent of streaming promised a world of digital riches in which we could access libraries of our favorite content whenever we wanted. It hasn’t exactly worked out that way.

    Many movie fans are already familiar with a certain scenario. Let’s say that you are seized, this Friday night, by an urge to rewatch one of your favorite films, Double Indemnity. (You are a popular and sociable person – charismatic, attractive, with many friends – but feel under the weather this weekend.) If you are especially prudent, you own the film on a physical format – such as a Criterion Collection Blu-ray – but if not, you just type watch double indemnity 1944 into a search engine and see what comes up.

    Given that beloved older films and television shows are increasingly difficult to find on streaming platforms, you will be relieved to see the film listed on any of the services you subscribe to, such as Netflix, Hulu or HBO Max. When you click on the links, however, there is a high chance that one of those dreaded landing pages appears: “REMIND ME WHEN THIS IS AVAILABLE” or “THIS TITLE IS NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE IN YOUR COUNTRY.”

    There are ways to watch the film that don’t involve paying, but let’s say that you’re a scrupulously honest person. Fortunately, Amazon Prime has Double Indemnity available on demand: you can rent the movie, for 48 hours of playback, for $3.79 – or “buy” it for $14.99. The second option is more expensive, but if it is truly one of your favorite movies you may decide to buy it so you can watch it again whenever you want. And in just a couple of clicks – faster than Barbara Stanwyck can light a cigarette in the darkened living room of a California villa – the Paramount logo is blooming on your television screen. Not bad, right?

    The problem is that you aren’t downloading the movie, to own and watch forever; you’re just getting access to it on Amazon’s servers – a right that only lasts as long as Amazon also has access to the film, which depends on capricious licensing agreements that vary from title to title. A month or five years from now, that license may expire – and the movie will disappear from your Amazon library. Yet the $14.99 you paid does not reappear in your pocket.

    If you’re a film buff, like me, you may already have heard of things like this happening. In 2018, users of iTunes who had purchased titles for their digital libraries were unhappy to learn that the company had deleted some of them without telling them. Last year, customers of Funimation, an anime streaming service that was acquired by another company, discovered that the titles they had purchased from Funimation would not be ported over to the new platform. Video game and music fans have reported similar frustrations.

    If online chatter is any indication, a class-action lawsuit against Prime would have some takers. Reacting to the news of the suit, someone on Reddit described buying the director’s cut of Aliens from Prime; after watching it for 10 years, “I went to my purchased movies in the Amazon app and it is now gone. No explanation and no recourse.”

    “Happened to me,” another person wrote. “Bought the original Battlestar Galactica series. Now it’s gone.”

    (Amazon did not respond to my request for comment at the time of publication.)

    Disappointment with streaming’s limitations are a major reason that many pop culture fans have, in recent years, returned to a format long thought dying: physical media. Like vinyl records, which have had an unexpected renaissance, film discs and other seemingly old-school technologies have been embraced in recent years by a small but passionate segment of film and TV buffs. Earlier this year, the first new physical video store in many years opened in New York.

    In particular, movie fans have rediscovered Blu-rays, which debuted in 2006 as a higher-definition successor to DVDs, as well as their new and even higher-definition sibling, the 4K UHD, which has become the gold-standard for “home cinema” enthusiasts. I’m one of those physical-media fans. I have about 400 movies on disc, mostly Blu-rays, hidden in a cabinet beneath my TV. In the age of streaming, some of my friends think I’m deranged.

    But the films look great, don’t need the internet to watch and – most importantly – never disappear.

From: https://www.theguardian.com/2025/aug/27/

The problem with artificial intelligence? It's neither artificial, nor intelligent.

 Elon Musk and Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak have recently signed a letter calling for a six-month moratorium on the development of AI systems. The goal is to give society time to adapt to what the signatories describe as an "AI summer," which they believe will ultimately benefit humanity, as long as the right guardrails are put in place. These guardrails include rigorously audited safety protocols.

 It is a laudable goal, but there is an even better way to spend these six months: retiring the hackneyed label of "artificial intelligence" from public debate.

 [...]

 However, many critics have pointed out that intelligence is not just about pattern-matching. Equally important is the ability to draw generalisations. Marcel Duchamp's 1917 work of art Fountain is a prime example of this. Before Duchamp's piece, a urinal was just a urinal. But, with a change of perspective, Duchamp turned it into a work of art. At that moment, he was generalising about art.

 [...]

 Human intelligence is not one-dimensional. It rests on what the 20th-century Chilean psychoanalyst Ignacio Matte Blanco called bi-logic: a fusion of the static and timeless logic of formal reasoning and the contextual and highly dynamic logic of emotion. The former searches for differences; the latter is quick to erase them. Marcel Duchamp's mind knew that the urinal belonged in a bathroom; his heart didn't. Bi-logic explains how we regroup mundane things in novel and insightful ways. We all do this – not just Duchamp.

 AI will never get there because machines cannot have a sense (rather than mere knowledge) of the past, the present and the future; of history, injury or nostalgia. Without that, there’s no emotion, depriving bi-logic of one of its components. Thus, machines remain trapped in the singular formal logic.

 [...]

 But the reason why tools like ChatGPT can do anything even remotely creative is because their training sets were produced by actually existing humans, with their complex emotions, anxieties and all. If we want such creativity to persist, we should also be funding the production of art, fiction and history – not just data centres and machine learning.

 That's not at all where things point now. The ultimate risk of not retiring terms such as "artificial intelligence" is that they will render the creative work of intelligence invisible, while making the world more predictable and dumb.

 So, instead of spending six months auditing the algorithms while we wait for the "AI summer," we might as well go and reread Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. That will do so much more to increase the intelligence in our world.

Fonte: MOROZOV, Evgeny. The problem with artificial intelligence? It's neither artificial nor intelligent. The Guardian. 30 mar 2023. Disponível em: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/30/artificial-intelligence-chatgpt-human-mind

 The voluminous literature dealing with the idea of human progress is decidedly a mixed bag. While some of these writings are impressive and even inspiring, many of them are superficial, perhaps even ridiculous, in their reiteration (especially during the nineteenth century) of the comforting prospect that every day in every way we are growing better and better,

 This kind of foolishness is manifested especially in discussions of such matters as economic, political, and moral progress, and of progress in art.[...]

 From time to time, there seems to be real and measurable improvement in these areas. At other times the opposite seems equally to be the case. Thus the fervent belief of writers like the French sociophilosopher Auguste Comte in the inevitability of progress in all fields of human endeavor must be viewed as insupportable. We cannot accept it any longer, even if we once thought it was true.

 Progress in human knowledge is another matter. Here it is possible to argue cogently that progress is in the nature of things. "Not only does each individual progress from day to day", wrote French philosopher, mathematician, and mystic Blaise Pascal, "but mankind as a whole constantly progresses... in proportion as the universe grows older." The essence of man as a rational being, as a later historian would put it, is that he develops his potential capacities by accumulating the experience of past generations.

 Just as in our individual lives we learn more and more from day to day and from year to year because we remember some at least of what we have learned and add our new knowledge to it, so in the history of the race the collective memory retains at least some knowledge from the past to which is added every new discovery.

 The memories of individuals fail and the persons die, but the memory of the race is eternal, or at least it can be expected to endure as long as human beings continue to write books and read them, or – which becomes more and more common – store up their knowledge in other mediums for the use of future generations.

Fonte: VAN DOREN, Charles. A History of Knowledge. Past, Present and Future. New York. The Random House Publishing Group, 1991, p. XV–XVI.

Leia o texto a seguir para responder à questão

9 ways AI is helping tackle climate change

[01]    The use of artificial intelligence (AI) can
contribute to the fight against climate change.

    Almost 4 billion people already live in areas
highly vulnerable to climate change, according to

[05] the World Health Organization.

    Here are nine ways AI is already helping to
tackle climate change.

1. Icebergs are melting – AI knows where and
how fast

[10]    AI has been trained to measure changes in
icebergs 10,000 times faster than a human could
do it

    This will help scientists understand how much
meltwater icebergs release into the ocean – a 

[15] process accelerating as climate change warms
the atmosphere.

     Scientists at the University of Leeds in the United
Kingdom say their AI can map large Antarctic
icebergs in satellite images in just one-hundredth 

[20] of a second, reports the European Space Agency.

2. Mapping deforestation with AI

    AI, satellite images and ecology expertise are
also being used to map the impact of deforestation
on the climate crisis.

[25]    Space Intelligence, a company based in
Edinburgh, Scotland, says it is working in more than
30 countries and has mapped more than 1 million
hectares of land from space using satellite data.
    The company’s technology remotely measures

[30] metrics, such as deforestation rates and how much
carbon is stored in a forest.

3. AI is helping communities facing climate risks in Africa 

    In Africa, AI is being used in a United Nations

[35] project to help communities vulnerable to climate
change in Burundi, Chad and Sudan.
    The IKI Project uses AI technology to help predict
weather patterns, so communities and authorities
can better plan how to adapt to climate change and

[40] mitigate its impact. 

    This includes improving access to clean energy,
implementing proper waste management systems
and encouraging reforestation. 

4. Using AI to recycle more waste

[45]    Another AI system is helping to tackle climate
change by making waste management more efficient.
    Waste is a big producer of methane and is
responsible for 16% of global greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions, according to the United States 

[50] Environmental Protection Agency.

    Greyparrot, a software startup based in London,
United Kingdom, has developed an AI system that
analyzes waste processing and recycling facilities to
help them recover and recycle more waste material.
[55]    The company tracked 32 billion waste items
across 67 waste categories in 2022, and says it
identifies 86 tonnes of material on average that
could be recovered but is being sent to landfill.

5. AI is cleaning up the ocean

[60]    In the Netherlands, an environmental
organization called The Ocean Cleanup is using AI
and other technologies to help clear plastic pollution
from the ocean.
    AI that detects objects is helping the organization
[65] create detailed maps of ocean litter in remote
locations. The ocean waste can then be gathered
and removed, which is more efficient than previous
cleanup methods using trawlers and aeroplanes.
    Plastic pollution contributes to climate change by
[70] emitting GHGs and harming nature.

6. AI helps predict climate disasters

    In São Paulo, Brazil, a company called Sipremo is
using AI to predict where and when climate disasters
will occur, and what type of climate disasters they
[75] will be.

    The aim is to help businesses and governments
better prepare for climate change and the growing
challenges for communities that come with it.
    The company works in industries including
[80] insurance, energy, logistics and sport, where its
analysis of disaster conditions and factors such as
air quality can inform decisions on whether to delay
or suspend events.

7. A wish list of AI climate tools

[85]    Google DeepMind, Google’s AI research laboratory,
says it is applying AI to help fight climate change in
a number of areas.

    This includes building a complete wish list of
datasets that would advance global AI solutions for
[90] climate change. Google DeepMind is working on this
with Climate Change AI, a non-profit organization
set up by volunteers from academia and industry
who see a key role for machine learning in
combating climate change.
[95]    Other Google AI tools are focused on improving
weather forecasting and increasing the value of
wind energy by better predicting the output from
a wind farm.

8. How AI can help industry decarbonize

[100]    AI is being used to help companies in the metal
and mining, oil, and gas industries to decarbonize
their operations.
    Eugenie.ai, based in California, United States,
has developed an emissions-tracking platform that
[105] combines satellite imagery with data from machines
and processes.
    AI then analyzes this data to help companies
track, trace and reduce their emissions by 20-30%.
Industrial sectors generate around 30% of
[110] greenhouse gas emissions globally.

9. Reforesting hills in Brazil using drones

    AI-powered computers are pairing up with
drones in Brazil to reforest the hills around the
coastal city of Rio de Janeiro, Reuters reports. The
[115] computers define the targets and number of seeds
to be dropped.
    The initiative, which launched in January 2024, is a
partnership between Rio’s city hall and start-up Morfo,
and aims to grow seeds in hard-to-reach areas.
[120]    A single drone can disperse 180 seed capsules
per minute, which is 100 times faster than using
human hands for traditional reforestation, according
to the local government.

The potential of AI in the future

[125]    In the future, generative AI could be used in
contexts such as drug design, architecture and
engineering, the Forum says.
    AI can also be used to improve agriculture and
reduce its environmental impact by processing data
[130] from sensors placed on crops.
    The technologies listed in the report can be used
to help tackle global challenges like the climate
crisis – but more innovation is needed, the authors
point out.

Fonte: MASTERSON, V. 9 ways AI is helping tackle climate change. World Economic Forum, Emerging Technologies. 12 fev., 2024. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 20 ago. 2024. (Adaptado).

Leia o texto a seguir para responder à questão

9 ways AI is helping tackle climate change

[01]    The use of artificial intelligence (AI) can
contribute to the fight against climate change.

    Almost 4 billion people already live in areas
highly vulnerable to climate change, according to

[05] the World Health Organization.

    Here are nine ways AI is already helping to
tackle climate change.

1. Icebergs are melting – AI knows where and
how fast

[10]    AI has been trained to measure changes in
icebergs 10,000 times faster than a human could
do it

    This will help scientists understand how much
meltwater icebergs release into the ocean – a 

[15] process accelerating as climate change warms
the atmosphere.

     Scientists at the University of Leeds in the United
Kingdom say their AI can map large Antarctic
icebergs in satellite images in just one-hundredth 

[20] of a second, reports the European Space Agency.

2. Mapping deforestation with AI

    AI, satellite images and ecology expertise are
also being used to map the impact of deforestation
on the climate crisis.

[25]    Space Intelligence, a company based in
Edinburgh, Scotland, says it is working in more than
30 countries and has mapped more than 1 million
hectares of land from space using satellite data.
    The company’s technology remotely measures

[30] metrics, such as deforestation rates and how much
carbon is stored in a forest.

3. AI is helping communities facing climate risks in Africa 

    In Africa, AI is being used in a United Nations

[35] project to help communities vulnerable to climate
change in Burundi, Chad and Sudan.
    The IKI Project uses AI technology to help predict
weather patterns, so communities and authorities
can better plan how to adapt to climate change and

[40] mitigate its impact. 

    This includes improving access to clean energy,
implementing proper waste management systems
and encouraging reforestation. 

4. Using AI to recycle more waste

[45]    Another AI system is helping to tackle climate
change by making waste management more efficient.
    Waste is a big producer of methane and is
responsible for 16% of global greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions, according to the United States 

[50] Environmental Protection Agency.

    Greyparrot, a software startup based in London,
United Kingdom, has developed an AI system that
analyzes waste processing and recycling facilities to
help them recover and recycle more waste material.
[55]    The company tracked 32 billion waste items
across 67 waste categories in 2022, and says it
identifies 86 tonnes of material on average that
could be recovered but is being sent to landfill.

5. AI is cleaning up the ocean

[60]    In the Netherlands, an environmental
organization called The Ocean Cleanup is using AI
and other technologies to help clear plastic pollution
from the ocean.
    AI that detects objects is helping the organization
[65] create detailed maps of ocean litter in remote
locations. The ocean waste can then be gathered
and removed, which is more efficient than previous
cleanup methods using trawlers and aeroplanes.
    Plastic pollution contributes to climate change by
[70] emitting GHGs and harming nature.

6. AI helps predict climate disasters

    In São Paulo, Brazil, a company called Sipremo is
using AI to predict where and when climate disasters
will occur, and what type of climate disasters they
[75] will be.

    The aim is to help businesses and governments
better prepare for climate change and the growing
challenges for communities that come with it.
    The company works in industries including
[80] insurance, energy, logistics and sport, where its
analysis of disaster conditions and factors such as
air quality can inform decisions on whether to delay
or suspend events.

7. A wish list of AI climate tools

[85]    Google DeepMind, Google’s AI research laboratory,
says it is applying AI to help fight climate change in
a number of areas.

    This includes building a complete wish list of
datasets that would advance global AI solutions for
[90] climate change. Google DeepMind is working on this
with Climate Change AI, a non-profit organization
set up by volunteers from academia and industry
who see a key role for machine learning in
combating climate change.
[95]    Other Google AI tools are focused on improving
weather forecasting and increasing the value of
wind energy by better predicting the output from
a wind farm.

8. How AI can help industry decarbonize

[100]    AI is being used to help companies in the metal
and mining, oil, and gas industries to decarbonize
their operations.
    Eugenie.ai, based in California, United States,
has developed an emissions-tracking platform that
[105] combines satellite imagery with data from machines
and processes.
    AI then analyzes this data to help companies
track, trace and reduce their emissions by 20-30%.
Industrial sectors generate around 30% of
[110] greenhouse gas emissions globally.

9. Reforesting hills in Brazil using drones

    AI-powered computers are pairing up with
drones in Brazil to reforest the hills around the
coastal city of Rio de Janeiro, Reuters reports. The
[115] computers define the targets and number of seeds
to be dropped.
    The initiative, which launched in January 2024, is a
partnership between Rio’s city hall and start-up Morfo,
and aims to grow seeds in hard-to-reach areas.
[120]    A single drone can disperse 180 seed capsules
per minute, which is 100 times faster than using
human hands for traditional reforestation, according
to the local government.

The potential of AI in the future

[125]    In the future, generative AI could be used in
contexts such as drug design, architecture and
engineering, the Forum says.
    AI can also be used to improve agriculture and
reduce its environmental impact by processing data
[130] from sensors placed on crops.
    The technologies listed in the report can be used
to help tackle global challenges like the climate
crisis – but more innovation is needed, the authors
point out.

Fonte: MASTERSON, V. 9 ways AI is helping tackle climate change. World Economic Forum, Emerging Technologies. 12 fev., 2024. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 20 ago. 2024. (Adaptado).

Leia o texto a seguir para responder à questão

9 ways AI is helping tackle climate change

[01]    The use of artificial intelligence (AI) can
contribute to the fight against climate change.

    Almost 4 billion people already live in areas
highly vulnerable to climate change, according to

[05] the World Health Organization.

    Here are nine ways AI is already helping to
tackle climate change.

1. Icebergs are melting – AI knows where and
how fast

[10]    AI has been trained to measure changes in
icebergs 10,000 times faster than a human could
do it

    This will help scientists understand how much
meltwater icebergs release into the ocean – a 

[15] process accelerating as climate change warms
the atmosphere.

     Scientists at the University of Leeds in the United
Kingdom say their AI can map large Antarctic
icebergs in satellite images in just one-hundredth 

[20] of a second, reports the European Space Agency.

2. Mapping deforestation with AI

    AI, satellite images and ecology expertise are
also being used to map the impact of deforestation
on the climate crisis.

[25]    Space Intelligence, a company based in
Edinburgh, Scotland, says it is working in more than
30 countries and has mapped more than 1 million
hectares of land from space using satellite data.
    The company’s technology remotely measures

[30] metrics, such as deforestation rates and how much
carbon is stored in a forest.

3. AI is helping communities facing climate risks in Africa 

    In Africa, AI is being used in a United Nations

[35] project to help communities vulnerable to climate
change in Burundi, Chad and Sudan.
    The IKI Project uses AI technology to help predict
weather patterns, so communities and authorities
can better plan how to adapt to climate change and

[40] mitigate its impact. 

    This includes improving access to clean energy,
implementing proper waste management systems
and encouraging reforestation. 

4. Using AI to recycle more waste

[45]    Another AI system is helping to tackle climate
change by making waste management more efficient.
    Waste is a big producer of methane and is
responsible for 16% of global greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions, according to the United States 

[50] Environmental Protection Agency.

    Greyparrot, a software startup based in London,
United Kingdom, has developed an AI system that
analyzes waste processing and recycling facilities to
help them recover and recycle more waste material.
[55]    The company tracked 32 billion waste items
across 67 waste categories in 2022, and says it
identifies 86 tonnes of material on average that
could be recovered but is being sent to landfill.

5. AI is cleaning up the ocean

[60]    In the Netherlands, an environmental
organization called The Ocean Cleanup is using AI
and other technologies to help clear plastic pollution
from the ocean.
    AI that detects objects is helping the organization
[65] create detailed maps of ocean litter in remote
locations. The ocean waste can then be gathered
and removed, which is more efficient than previous
cleanup methods using trawlers and aeroplanes.
    Plastic pollution contributes to climate change by
[70] emitting GHGs and harming nature.

6. AI helps predict climate disasters

    In São Paulo, Brazil, a company called Sipremo is
using AI to predict where and when climate disasters
will occur, and what type of climate disasters they
[75] will be.

    The aim is to help businesses and governments
better prepare for climate change and the growing
challenges for communities that come with it.
    The company works in industries including
[80] insurance, energy, logistics and sport, where its
analysis of disaster conditions and factors such as
air quality can inform decisions on whether to delay
or suspend events.

7. A wish list of AI climate tools

[85]    Google DeepMind, Google’s AI research laboratory,
says it is applying AI to help fight climate change in
a number of areas.

    This includes building a complete wish list of
datasets that would advance global AI solutions for
[90] climate change. Google DeepMind is working on this
with Climate Change AI, a non-profit organization
set up by volunteers from academia and industry
who see a key role for machine learning in
combating climate change.
[95]    Other Google AI tools are focused on improving
weather forecasting and increasing the value of
wind energy by better predicting the output from
a wind farm.

8. How AI can help industry decarbonize

[100]    AI is being used to help companies in the metal
and mining, oil, and gas industries to decarbonize
their operations.
    Eugenie.ai, based in California, United States,
has developed an emissions-tracking platform that
[105] combines satellite imagery with data from machines
and processes.
    AI then analyzes this data to help companies
track, trace and reduce their emissions by 20-30%.
Industrial sectors generate around 30% of
[110] greenhouse gas emissions globally.

9. Reforesting hills in Brazil using drones

    AI-powered computers are pairing up with
drones in Brazil to reforest the hills around the
coastal city of Rio de Janeiro, Reuters reports. The
[115] computers define the targets and number of seeds
to be dropped.
    The initiative, which launched in January 2024, is a
partnership between Rio’s city hall and start-up Morfo,
and aims to grow seeds in hard-to-reach areas.
[120]    A single drone can disperse 180 seed capsules
per minute, which is 100 times faster than using
human hands for traditional reforestation, according
to the local government.

The potential of AI in the future

[125]    In the future, generative AI could be used in
contexts such as drug design, architecture and
engineering, the Forum says.
    AI can also be used to improve agriculture and
reduce its environmental impact by processing data
[130] from sensors placed on crops.
    The technologies listed in the report can be used
to help tackle global challenges like the climate
crisis – but more innovation is needed, the authors
point out.

Fonte: MASTERSON, V. 9 ways AI is helping tackle climate change. World Economic Forum, Emerging Technologies. 12 fev., 2024. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 20 ago. 2024. (Adaptado).