Aris Anagnos - GreekReporter.com

ChatGPT Successors: Humanoid Robots, AI lawyers, AI-driven science

July 4, 2023

ChatGPT AI technologies — New cutting-edge AI technologies are on the way. Credit: Flickr/ CC BY 2.0.

There are several AI technologies waiting in the wings of next-level ChatGPT, including humanoid robots, AI lawyers, and AI-driven science.

By Fabian Stephany and Johann Laux

In the evolving relationship between technology and society, humans have shown themselves to be incredibly adaptable. What once left us breathless, soon becomes integrated into our everyday lives.

The astonishing functionalities of large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT were, just a few months ago, the epitome of cutting-edge AI. They are now on course to be mere add-ons and plugins to our text editors and search engines.

We’ll soon find ourselves relying on their capabilities, and seamlessly incorporating them into our routines.

Yet, this rapid acclimatization leaves us with a lingering question: what’s next? As our expectations shift, we are left wondering about the next innovation that will capture our imagination.

People will try to achieve all kinds of smart – and not-so-smart – things with AI. Many ideas will fail, others will have a lasting impact.

Our crystal ball is not much better than yours, but we can try to think about what’s coming next in a structured way. For AI to have a lasting impact, it needs to be not only technologically feasible, but also economically viable, and normatively acceptable – in other words, it complies with the values that society demands we conform to.

AI technologies waiting in the wings of next-level ChatGPT

There are some AI technologies waiting on the sidelines right now that hold promise. The four we think are waiting in the wings are next-level GPT, humanoid robots, AI lawyers, and AI-driven science.

Our choices appear ready from a technological point of view, but whether they satisfy all three of the criteria we’ve mentioned is another matter. We chose these four because they were the ones that kept coming up in our investigations into progress in AI technologies.

1. AI legal help

The startup company DoNotPay claims to have built a legal chatbot – built on LLM technology – that can advise defendants in court.

The company recently said it would let its AI system help two defendants fight speeding tickets in real-time. Connected via an earpiece, the AI can listen to proceedings and whisper legal arguments into the ear of the defendant, who then repeats them out loud to the judge.

After criticism and a lawsuit for practicing law without a license, the startup postponed the AI’s courtroom debut. The potential for the technology will thus not be decided by technological or economic constraints but by the authority of the legal system.

Lawyers are well-paid professionals and the costs of litigation are high, so the economic potential for automation is huge. However, the US legal system currently seems to oppose robots representing humans in court.

2. AI scientific support

Scientists are increasingly turning to AI for insights. Machine learning, where an AI system improves at what it does over time, is being employed to identify patterns in data. This enables the systems to propose novel scientific hypotheses – proposed explanations for phenomena in nature. These may even be capable of surpassing human assumptions and biases.

For example, researchers at the University of Liverpool used a machine learning system called a neural network to rank chemical combinations for battery materials, guiding their experiments and saving time.

The complexity of neural networks means that there are gaps in our understanding of how they actually make decisions – the so-called black box problem. Nevertheless, there are techniques that can shed light on the logic behind their answers and this can lead to unexpected discoveries.

While AI cannot currently formulate hypotheses independently, it can inspire scientists to approach problems from new perspectives.

3. AutoGPT

We will soon see more new versions of AI chatbots based on the latest LLM technology, known as GPT-4. We’ll see AI that can handle different types of data, such as images and speech, as well as text. These are called multimodal systems.

But let’s gaze a little further into the future. Auto-GPT, an advanced AI tool released by Significant Gravitas, is already making waves in the tech industry.

Auto-GPT is given a general goal, such as planning a birthday party, and splits it into sub-tasks which it then completes by itself, without human input. This sets it apart from ChatGPT.

Auto-GPT incorporates AI agents, or systems, that make decisions based on predetermined rules and goals. Despite installation limitations, such an functionality problems when used with Windows, Auto-GPT shows great potential in various applications.

4. Humanoid Robots

Humanoid robots – those that look and move like us – have significantly advanced since the first Darpa Robotics Challenge in 2015, a contest where teams built robots to perform a series of complex tasks set by the organizers. These included getting out of a car, opening a door and drilling a hole in a wall. Many struggled to achieve the objectives.

However, startups are now developing “humanoids” capable of doing tasks like these and being used in warehouses and factories.

Advancements in AI fields such as computer vision, as well as in power-dense batteries which provide short bursts of high current, have enabled robots to navigate complex environments, maintaining balance dynamically – in real time.

Figure AI, a company building humanoid robots for warehouse work, has already secured US$70 million (£55 million) in investment funding.

Other companies, including 1X, Apptronik and Tesla, are also investing in humanoid robots, which indicates that the field is maturing. Humanoid robots offer advantages over other robots in tasks requiring navigation, maneuverability, and adaptability because in part, they will be operating in environments that have been built around human needs.

Taking the long view

The long-term success of these four will depend on more than just computation power.

Humanoid robots could fail to gain traction if their production and maintenance costs outweigh their benefits. AI lawyers and chatbot assistants might possess remarkable efficiency. However, their adoption might be halted if their decision-making conflicts with society’s “moral compass” or if laws don’t agree with their use.

Striking a balance between cost-effectiveness and society’s values is crucial for ensuring these technologies can truly flourish.

Fabian Stephany is a Lecturer, University of Oxford and Johann Laux is a Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford.

The article was published in The Conversation and is republished under a Creative Commons License.

July 4, 2004: When Greece’s Football Win Stunned the World

Tasos Kokkinidis

July 4, 2023

July 4, 2004: When Greece’s Football Win Stunned the World

Greece Euro 2004 — Greece lifts the Euro 2004 Cup in one of the biggest upsets in world football ever.

On July 4, 2004 Greece won Euro 2004, the primary European football competition, in one of the greatest shocks in the history of football.

Unfancied Greece, to the surprise of pretty much everybody, beat hosts Portugal 1-0 in the final.

A team expected to bow out in the group stages defeated three top-seeded teams en route to lifting the cup; the Greek fans quite rightly describe it as a magical summer.

And at the head of it all, as the arch-strategist plotting this most unlikely course to success, was coach Otto Rehhagel, a German guaranteed his place among the Gods of Greek sport forever.

The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship was rich in surprises and upsets: Germany, Spain, and Italy were eliminated in the group stage while defending champion France was knocked out in the quarter-finals by Greece.

Portugal recovered from an opening defeat against Greece to reach the final, eliminating England and the Netherlands along the way. For the first time in a major European football tournament, the last match featured the same teams as the opening match.

Greece’s march to glory in Euro 2004

Greece in Group shocked the footballing world, defeating the hosts, Portugal, 2–1 in the opening game of the Euro 2004. Giorgos Karagounis put the Greeks ahead after only seven minutes, and Angelos Basinas made it 2–0 from the penalty spot at the 51-minutes mark. A stoppage-time goal by Cristiano Ronaldo proved no more than a consolation.

Greece then drew with Spain before losing to Russia in their last group stage game.

Despite the loss, Greece qualified from Group A. The big upsets really started when defending champions France—complete with Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry—were beaten in the last eight by Angelos Charisteas’ powerful second-half header.

It was a performance that was a template for Greek glory. Frustrate, lead, defend with discipline and win.

The highly fancied Czech Republic suffered a similar fate in the semi-final when they lost to Traianos Dellas’ “silver goal” in extra time in Porto.

Even then, the legions following the host nation and 63,000 inside Lisbon’s Stadium of Light believed Sunday, July 4th was to be their own day of destiny. It was not.

The final was a repeat of the opening game of the tournament, and Portugal was hoping to avenge its defeat. Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo and company attacked and dominated possession but once again, sturdy defending and goalkeeping from Greece kept the hosts off the scoreboard.

Just before the one-hour mark, Greece earned a corner kick from which Angelos Charisteas scored. And even the most frantic finale in front of passionate home support could not break the resistance Rehhagel had diligently striven for in the Greek team.

Greece won the match 1–0 and were crowned European champions, a title that they were given a 150–1 chance of winning before the tournament. All of Greece’s wins in the knockout stage came in an identical manner: a 1–0 win, with the goal being a header off a cross from the right wing. Portugal became the first host nation to lose in a European Championship final.

Greece in ecstasy over Euro 2004 triumph

Celebrations took place all over Greece and the world. The Greek diaspora came together and celebrated through the night in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Fireworks lit up the night sky over Athens almost as soon as the final whistle sounded half a continent away in Lisbon, as flag-draped Athenians poured onto the streets of the capital, hailing the 1-0 victory over Portugal as the best possible augury for the Athens Olympics that followed in August 2004.

A report published on July 5th in the British Guardian summed up the mood: “As the players celebrated on the pitch, and Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis jumped for joy inside the stadium, cannon fire echoed over the Acropolis and the streets of Athens filled with horn-honking jubilants.”

The Guardian reported that: “All ages and sections of society joined in, with blue-rinse pensioners thronging alongside fresh-faced enthusiasts and even Orthodox priests. Policemen went along with the carnival mood, honking motorcycle horns and cheerleading, as the crowds chanted ‘Greece, Greece, raise the cup, raise the cup.'”

Players were eulogized across the country, and Charisteas even reportedly had his home village renamed after him.

“[Football has] managed to unite the country, something politics wasn’t able to do,” said Rehhagel.

Along with a string of other seminal dates in the long history of Greece, 2004 will go down as another point in time that all Greeks who were living at the time will never forget.

It was a date that, when alluded to in the vicinity of Greeks, takes them back to the almost impossible victory that they indeed witnessed on that fateful day. That most unlikely football win against the highest of all odds was a triumph of the modern Greek spirit.

Film director Chris André Marks, along with producer Shani Hinton, with executive producer Ronald L. Chez, has created a new documentary titled King Otto, chronicling this greatest of all football victories for Greece.

Marks was asked in a recent interview with Greek Reporter what exactly it was that prompted him to create the documentary and what, in his opinion, this enormous comeback victory meant for the Greeks.

“Apart from being Greek and wanting to champion Greek stories, I wanted to make this film because I love the theme of the underdog and enjoy stories of outsiders who defy seemingly insurmountable odds to upset the establishment,” he replies.

“The summer of 2004,” Marks explains, “was widely considered by many Greeks to be the peak before the subsequent crash, so it was an opportunity to look to the past for inspiration, something we do often in Greece.”

Israel Launches Largest Military Operation in the West Bank Since 2002

Alexander Gale

July 3, 2023

Israel Launches Largest Military Operation in the West Bank Since 2002

Soldiers from the IDF pictured in 2010. Credit: Israeli Defense Forces / CC BY 2.0

Israel has initiated an extensive military campaign targeting Palestinian militants within the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. It has been described as the largest-scale military operation conducted by Israel since 2002.

Operations were initiated with drone strikes followed by the deployment of ground forces. Since then, firefights and street battles have reportedly been taking place across the area of operations.

According to Palestinian officials, eight Palestinians have lost their lives, and over 50 individuals have sustained injuries.

Israel initiates military operations in Jenin, West Bank

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated, “We have initiated an extensive counterterrorism effort in the region encompassing the city of Jenin and the Jenin Camp, targeting terrorist infrastructure.”

The IDF reportedly carried out at least 10 airstrikes, with hundreds of soldiers focusing on what they described as a militant “command and control” center, in addition to sites involved in the manufacturing of weapons and explosives.

According to another statement by the IDF “Over the last few hours, exchanges of fire between Israeli security forces and Palestinian gunmen took place in the Jenin Camp at a mosque that is affiliated with terrorist organizations in the area.”

“Following ISA and IDF intelligence, IDF soldiers searched the underground floor of the mosque, in which armed assailants had barricaded themselves,” the statement continued. “The soldiers are currently confiscating and neutralizing the weapons.”

Palestinian reactions

Palestinian National Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has said the “heroic Jenin camp” is “resistant to the occupation and its invasions”

Additionally, a spokesman for the Palestinian National Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, called the Israeli military operation “a new war crime against our defenseless people.”

Hamas has also weighed in on the issue. Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy head Hamas’ political bureau, said “To our heroes in the West Bank, from the south to the north: this is your day, young men. Fight with all the weapons, all your anger, and with any means possible to defend our honor in Jenin.”

Hamas governs the Gaza Strip, a small Palestinian coastal enclave, while the Palestinian National Authority is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises power over parts of the West Bank. The Palestinian National Authority, which is officially called the State of Palestine, lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2006.

International reactions

The US, which is Israel’s most important ally has voiced support for the ongoing military operation.

“We have seen the reports and are monitoring the situation closely,” said a spokesperson from the White House. “We support Israel’s security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups.”

The UK has urged caution. “While we support Israel’s right to self-defense, the protection of civilians must be prioritized,” a spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said. “In any military operation, we would urge the Israel Defence Forces to demonstrate restraint in its operations and for all parties to avoid further escalation in the West Bank and Gaza.”

Conversely, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, and the Arab League have condemned the Israeli military operation.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani denounced the assault on Jenin as a “reckless crime and a prominent measure of state terrorism,” emphasizing that “the Zionist entity will be defeated this time as well.”

The Egyptian foreign affairs ministry took a similar stance and issued a statement affirming the country’s “complete rejection of the repeated Israeli attacks and incursions against Palestinian cities, resulting in innocent civilian casualties due to the use of excessive and indiscriminate force, and a flagrant violation of the provisions of international law and international legitimacy, especially the International humanitarian law that imposes clear and concise commitments.”

Did Ancient Phoenicia Really Exist?

History

Caleb Howells

July 3, 2023

Map of Canaan, also called Phoenicia. Credit: Philip Lea, 1692, cc-by-sa 2.0

The Phoenicians were, for a long time, significant rivals to the Greeks in dominating Mediterranean trade. Interestingly, they shared quite a few similarities to the ancient Greeks. But what do we actually know about them? Did a place called Phoenicia even really exist?

Where Did The Phoenicians Live?

The homeland of the Phoenicians was in the Levant. Originally, they lived in the entire region where Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon now are. Their northern border was marked by ancient Syria. Their homeland was called Phoenicia. Some of the major Phoenician cities in this area were Byblos, Tyre, Sidon and Arwad.

However, the Phoenicians did not just live in this area. Like the Greeks, the Phoenicians were a seafaring nation, so they unsurprisingly established colonies in various locations. By far their most famous colony was Carthage, which later became one of Rome’s main rivals. This colony managed to remain independent for quite some time after the Phoenician homeland had been conquered by other nations.

The Phoenicians also established colonies in Spain. The most famous example is Gadir, modern-day Cádiz. So we can see that, just like the Greeks, many Phoenicians lived far outside their homeland, Phoenicia.

Did a Place Called ‘Phoenicia’ Really Exist?

Some modern sources claim that there was not really any location in antiquity called ‘Phoenicia’. The basis behind this claim is that the Phoenicians did not form a unified country. There was never a single king ruling over all the Phoenician cities.

This is another way in which the Phoenicians were like the Greeks. They had various city-states dotted across the landscape. Each city-state had its own king, and sometimes these city-states would fight each other. On the other hand, sometimes they would form alliances against a common enemy.

However, does this really mean that we can say that ‘Phoenicia’ did not really exist? By the same logic, ‘Greece’ did not really exist in antiquity, since it was composed of independent city-states (until Alexander the Great united them all under one leader). Of course, no one would make that claim about Greece.

Therefore, it is absolutely proper to use ‘Phoenicia’ in the sense of the territory in the Levant dominated by Phoenician city-states.

Did the Phoenicians View Themselves as a Single Nationality?

However, would the Phoenicians themselves have had any concept of a location called Phoenicia, or was this just a concept held by outsiders? The answer to this largely depends on how the Phoenicians viewed themselves.

Some scholars today claim that the Phoenicians did not view themselves as a single nationality. This theory is largely based on the fact that Phoenicia was divided into numerous city-states instead of a single government.

However, the same was true of Greece, yet we know that they absolutely had a concept of ‘Greeks’ in contrast to ‘non-Greeks’. Therefore, there is no reason at all why the same could not have applied to the inhabitants of Phoenicia.

What Did the People of Phoenicia Call Themselves?

Another piece of evidence used to support the theory that the Phoenicians did not view themselves as a single nationality is the supposed lack of an endonym. This is the term for what a population calls itself. Supposedly, the Phoenicians did not have a term to call themselves. Rather, they just referred to themselves by the name of the specific city-state they belonged to.

For example, someone from Tyre would call themselves a ‘Tyrian’, someone from Sidon would call themselves a ‘Sidonian’, and so on. There is evidence of this naming practice. However, does that mean that the inhabitants of Phoenicia did not also have a sense of collective identity?

Once again, we can compare Phoenicia to Greece to assess this theory. In Greece, people would often refer to themselves by the city-state they came from (such as ‘a Spartan’ or ‘a Theban’). Nonetheless, as we have already seen, they definitely had a sense of collective identity as well.

In fact, there is direct evidence that the Phoenicians did use an endonym for themselves. Augustine of Hippo, who lived in Carthage in the fourth century AD, records that the common people there called themselves ‘Chanani’, which comes directly from the word ‘Canaanites’.

Bronze Age Phoenicia

The people who lived in Phoenicia in the Bronze Age were originally called Canaanites. The ancient Israelite writers of the Bible used this term for the people of that land, which they called Canaan. This same term was used in the Amarna Letters, which were letters sent by city-states in Phoenicia to Egypt in the 14th century BC.

This shows that, at least as early as the 14th century BC, the people of Phoenicia referred to their land as Canaan, and thus, they were Canaanites. They absolutely did have an endonym to refer to their land and their nationality.

In ancient Berytus (modern-day Beirut), the people there in the second century BC struck coins with this same term, ‘Canaan’, written on them. And all the way over in Carthage, as we have seen, the Phoenician-descendants continued to call themselves Canaanites as late as the fourth century AD.

Canaan, or Phoenicia, Really Did Exist

The term ‘Phoenicians’ is simply the Greek term for the Canaanites. Therefore, the place name ‘Phoenicia’ is simply the Greek equivalent of ‘Canaan’ (although by the time the Greeks started using that term, Canaan had lost a lot of its southern territory to the Israelites).

The evidence is clear that the Phoenicians did have a collective term to refer to themselves, showing that they had a concept of a single nationality. They were Canaanites, in contrast to non-Canaanites. As shown by the Amarna Letters, they referred to their land as Canaan. Although it was made up of independent city-states, Canaan as a single entity was absolutely a concept that they already had back then.

Since the word ‘Phoenicia’ is simply what the Greeks called this territory, it is definitely correct to say that Phoenicia really did exist.

Harvard Professor Claims to Have Discovered Alien Life in the Pacific Ocean

Space
World

Alexander Gale

July 3, 2023

Harvard Professor Claims to Have Discovered Alien Life in the Pacific Ocean

Spherules under the microscope, obtained during Professor Avi Loeb’s Pacific Ocean expedition. Credit: Avi Loeb / Medium

A Harvard professor thinks that he may have discovered evidence of alien life in the Pacific Ocean.

Professor Avi Loeb recently concluded a $1.5 million expedition searching for indications of an enigmatic meteor called IM1. This meteor crashed near the Papua New Guinea coastline in 2014 and is speculated to originate from interstellar space.

During that expedition, Harvard’s Professor Loeb, who is no stranger to controversies regarding his views on extraterrestrial life, found evidence of what he thinks may have been a part of an alien spacecraft, or at the very least, something of extraterrestrial origin.

Expedition to find the IM1 interstellar meteor

The IM1 meteor caught Professor Loeb and his research team’s attention in 2019 when they were browsing through NASA’s open catalog of meteors. IM1 captured attention due to its remarkable velocity, surpassing that of 95 percent of nearby stars Additionally, it detonated at a significantly lower altitude in the Earth’s atmosphere compared to the majority of meteors.

“The object was tougher than all (272) other space rocks recorded in the same NASA catalogue, it was an outlier of material strength,” Prof Loeb said during an interview with The Independent.

On board the expedition vessel Silver Star, Professor Loeb’s team of scientists embarked on June 14th towards the projected landing area of the meteor, situated approximately 84 kilometers north of Manus Island in the Pacific Ocean.

Has a Harvard professor just found evidence of an alien life?

Once there, a team of deep-sea explorers utilized a magnetic sled deployed from the expedition vessel, Silver Star, to retrieve 50 minuscule spherules (molten droplets) from a depth of 2 kilometers beneath the Pacific Ocean’s surface.

Spherules are generated during the explosive disintegration of meteors and asteroids and have been discovered at various impact locations worldwide. Described as “tiny metallic pearls,” these spherules were so diminutive that they posed challenges in retrieval even with tweezers, according to Professor Loeb.

Upon analysis using fluorescent X-Ray, the research team concluded that the spherules were highly likely to be composed of a steel and titanium alloy known as S5, or shock-resisting steel. Professor Loeb stated that the strength of S5 steel surpasses that of iron meteorites.

Having examined the spherules under a microscope, the professor Loeb remarked that they were “beautiful,” adding that “One of them looked like Earth, many of them look like gold.” The Harvard professor even thinks that they constitute evidence for alien life.

“The fundamental question is obvious: was this first recognized interstellar object from 2014 manufactured by a technological civilization?” he wrote on Medium. “Upon our return, we could produce an alloy in the laboratory that has the same composition as we infer for the spherules and analyze the resulting material properties.”

Apple Becomes First $3 Trillion Company

Tasos Kokkinidis

July 3, 2023

Apple market value — Apple unveiled the latest iPhone model in early June. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Apple became the first company in the world to reach a market value of $3 trillion, buoyed by hopes over its expansion in new markets, Reuters reported on Monday.

The iPhone maker’s advance was among the most eye-catching in a month marked by investor interest in the potential of artificial intelligence, with share buyers also particularly favoring companies with strong balance sheets and cash flows.

Apple’s most recent quarterly report in May showing its revenue and profits beat analysts’ expectations, and its track record of stock buybacks reinforced its reputation as a safe investment during global economic uncertainty, says Reuters.

The news comes as Apple is currently gearing up to launch the iOS 16.6 update, as they have recently introduced the iOS 16.6 Public Beta 4 for iPhone users. This upcoming release is expected to primarily focus on bug fixes and security patches, but it will also bring some significant updates for iPhone users.

Apple’s market value is at $3.05 trillion

According to a chart by Reuters, Apple’s market value is at 3.05 trillion. Microsoft is in second place with a market value of 2.53 billion followed by Saudi Arabian Oil on 2.08 billion.

Electric car maker Tesla Inc witnessed a 28% jump in its market capitalization in June and occupies the ninth place in the chart, one place below Meta, according to Reuters.

Apple, headquartered in Cupertino, California, is the fourth-largest personal computer vendor by unit sales and the second-largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world.

It is considered one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Alphabet (parent company of Google), Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft.

Apple launched Apple Vision Pro

Last month Apple unveiled Apple Vision Pro, its first spatial computer. According to the tech company, it “seamlessly blends digital content with the physical world”. Starting prices for the product will be $3,499 and it will be available early next year.

The Apple Vision Pro features VisionOS, billed as the “world’s first spatial operating system,” which will reportedly enable users to interact with apps and digital content as if present in their physical space.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, presented the new technology as an evolutionary step toward spatial computing, which will be as consequential as prior advances to personal and mobile computing. Apple says that the new technology will bring users “extraordinary new experiences”.

The tech giant said the new spatial computer “creates an infinite canvas for apps that scales beyond the boundaries of a traditional display and introduces a fully three-dimensional user interface controlled by the most natural and intuitive inputs possible — a user’s eyes, hands, and voice.”

New Greek Parliament Sworn In Following Mitsotakis’ Triumph

Tasos Kokkinidis

July 3, 2023

New Greek Parliament Sworn In Following Mitsotakis’ Triumph

The members of the Greek Parliament elected in the general elections of June 25 were sworn in on Monday, in a celebratory opening session in the presence of President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

The 300 members of parliament were inducted during a religious ceremony after the June 25 elections returned conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to power for a second four-year term in a landslide victory, crushing the left-wing opposition SYRIZA and prompting opposition leader Alexis Tsipras to announce his resignation.

Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party (ND) now holds a comfortable parliamentary majority, with 158 seats compared to SYRIZA’s 48.

Three far-right parties and one representing the far left reached the 3% minimum threshold for parliamentary seats.

The biggest surprise of the Greek elections was the performance of a new ultra-right formation called the Spartans which got 4.64 percent of the vote and gained 12 seats in the new Parliament.

The grouping was catapulted from relative obscurity after support from Ilias Kasiadiaris, the frontman of the now-banned Golden Dawn far-right party. His own party was barred from the elections and he endorsed the Spartans from jail.

The Spartans are among three fringe parties of the right and one of the left that gained parliamentary representation after Sunday’s elections.

Greek Solution, a nationalist, pro-Russia party formed by former journalist and TV salesman Kyriakos Velopoulos, got 4.47 percent of the vote and will be represented in Parliament with 12 MPs.

Niki, or Victory party which emphasizes Orthodox Christian traditions got 3.71 percent and 10 MPs.

On the left of the political spectrum, the newcomer is Plefsi Eleftherias, or Passage to Freedom, which got 3.17 percent and 8 MPs. Its leader Zoe Konstantopoulou, a leftist firebrand, was the parliament speaker under SYRIZA.

Greek Parliament to elect President and vote for Government

The new parliament will reconvene on Tuesday for the election of the Parliament president and the presidium, based on the proposals of the parliamentary groups and parliamentary rules. The ruling ND party has proposed the previous parliament president, Konstantinos Tasoulas.

A three-day debate on the policy statement of the new government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis will begin on Thursday, July 6. This will conclude with a vote on Saturday, July 8, in which the new government will ask parliament for a vote of confidence.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will start the debate, followed by members of the new government, the presidents of the parliamentary groups, parliamentary spokespersons and MPs from all parties.

The debate will culminate in a roll-call vote held at midnight on the third day of the debate, at the latest, and is carried with an absolute majority of MPs present, which cannot, however, be less than two-fifths (120 MPs) of the plenum.

Video of Waiter Wading into the Water to Serve Goes Viral in Greece

Tasos Kokkinidis

July 3, 2023

Video of Waiter Wading into the Water to Serve Goes Viral in Greece

Video of the waiter standing chest-deep in the sea have sparked a lot of discussion on social media. Video screenshot/ Facebook/Christos Kanlis

A video of a waiter wading above his waist into the water to serve customers has gone viral in Greece and has led to a chorus of criticism over labor rights in the country.

The video shows a young waiter holding a tray in his hand almost forced to swim in order to serve customers of the beach bar in Agia Marina, Rhodes who were sitting on floating structures in the sea.

The beach of Agia Marina is a popular resort and is located on the northeast coast of the Greek island, about 4 km south of the capital city of Rhodes.

“Era of slavery is over,” minister says about the waiter in Greece

Minister of Labor, Adonis Georgiadis condemned the beach bar which allowed such a practice.

“The incident, as caught on camera, is disgusting. We should all understand that the era of slavery is over, and workers are not slaves. Workers are people with respected rights and we are here to ensure their rights. And any businessman who pretends to forget it will suffer the consequences of the law without any mercy.”

“I want to be clear. I want us to have tourism, all under the condition of full respect for workers’ rights”, Georgiadis stressed.

The business was fined for illegally occupying space within the sea area with overlying constructions, following an inspection ordered by the shipping and island policy ministry.

Speaking on MEGA TV, the owner of the beach bar said that it was an “isolated incident” posted on social media by a competitor.

He added that the young waiter, who has been employed in his business for the last five years has not complained. He gets 3,000 euros a month to do his job, he stressed.

“His suit is waterproof, but I know the video was posted by a fake competitor profile who wanted to harm me and tarnish my business. The Coast Guard conducted a number of inspections on my property and found nothing illegal,” he maintained.

“The inspectors asked the workers if I force them to go into the sea and they told them that they do it for a better tip,” he added.

Employees back business owner

Employees issued a statement backing their boss and refuting claims of medieval working conditions.

“The incident that was caught on camera is not representative,” they said. “We are aware that there are competent authorities so we can stand up for our rights if necessary…We categorically state that our working conditions are not ‘medieval’, as some people are saying,” the statement reads.

World’s First Fully Electric Flying Car Approved in the US

Tasos Kokkinidis

July 3, 2023

World’s First Fully Electric Flying Car Approved in the US

A California company building a flying electric car is now taking preorders after it got approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Alef Aeronautics’ flying car has been given a Special Airworthiness Certification meaning the company will be allowed to road/air test the car, the company said in a news release.

The fully-electric vehicle (with a hydrogen option for a higher price) is a low-speed vehicle that can be driven up to 200 miles on public roads and fits into a regular garage, but it can also launch vertically into the air with a flying range of 110 miles, according to Alef’s website.

The company’s “Model A” car “can fly forward above the obstacles until a desired destination is reached,” the San Mateo-based company says.

“The driver and the cabin are stabilized by a unique gimbaled rotating cabin design.”

Electric flying car avoids traffic

Alef touts the car’s ability to avoid traffic, and fly in any direction while giving a “cinematic 180 plus degree view for safe and enjoyable flight.”

Customers can preorder the vehicle, which can seat up to two people and is expected to cost around $300,000.

An FAA spokesperson told Fox Business it “issued a Special Airworthiness Certificate for the Armada Model Zero aircraft on June 12, 2023. This certificate allows the aircraft to be used for limited purposes, including exhibition, research and development. This is not the first aircraft of its kind for which the FAA has issued a Special Airworthiness Certificate.”

Alef first unveiled the car last October, and said it has already taken a “strong” number of preorders from people and businesses.

The FAA is working on policies for the takeoff and landing of electric vehicles, the company said.

“We’re excited to receive this certification from the FAA,” Alef CEO Jim Dukhovny, who co-founded the company in 2015, said in a statement.

Dukhovny and co-founders Constantine Kisly, Pavel Markin and Oleg Petrovwere were first inspired to try to create a flying car in 2015, when they realized it was the same year Marty McFly drove one in “Back to the Future II,” the website says.

“During one of the Science Fiction lectures, Jim Dukhovny talked about how flying cars are finally possible in 2015,” the website says. “But he lacked technical skills to take on such a complicated task by himself.”

The four met at a café and set out to design a flying car.

Dukhovny added that the certification “allows us to move closer to bringing people an environmentally friendly and faster commute, saving individuals and companies hours each week. This is a one small step for planes, one giant step for cars.”

Another flying car unveiled recently in Dubai

Last October the electric flying car XPENG X2 conducted its first public flight at Skydive Dubai.

XPENG X2 is under XPENG AEROHT, the largest flying car company in Asia, an affiliate of XPENG.

They displayed their first flight after completing the specific operations risk assessment and achieving a special flying permit from the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA).

First “Green” Museum in Greece at Plato Academy in Athens

Greek News

Alexander Gale

July 3, 2023

First “Green” Museum in Greece at Plato Academy in Athens

Plato's Academy green museum in Athens — Model of the Museum at Plato’s Academy in Athens which will be Greece’s first “green museum”. Credit: Ministry of Culture

Greece’s first “green museum” will be embedded within the Plato Academy in Athens. The museum will engage with the surrounding landscape, seamlessly blending with the existing terrain to create a harmonious integration that combines architectural elements with the natural topography.

In August 2022, Athens municipality launched a competition for a new archaeological museum in Plato Academy Park, aiming to create Greece’s first green museum.

Tsolakis Architects won the competition with a design that embraces the contrast between the urban cityscape and the enclosed park, harmoniously blending the two elements together.

Greece’s first green museum to open in Athens

The Ministry of Culture and the City of Athens first unveiled plans for the creation of a green museum earlier this year in March. The winning design retains some of the open-plan ideas of the academy, incorporating greenery and public spaces.

According to the latest report on the project, the design by Tsolakis Architects “supports the innovation of the specific museum, as it highlights the topography, urban planning, and public archeology, creatively integrating both the axes of the landscape and the urban planning of the city, while incorporating the archeological findings within the space.”

The design is said to take into account that the Greek capital is “a living organism” and features “alternation between closed and open spaces.” Visitors will be able to admire the interior of the museum from a myriad of different angles and perspectives.

City officials previously explained that the project aims to reflect the spirit of the location – Plato’s Academy. Consequently, the architectural design for the museum is open-plan and has long-term sustainability in mind.

Plato’s Academy

Plato’s Academy, or simply, ”The Academy,” was a famous school in ancient Athens founded by Plato in 387 BC, located on the northwestern outskirts of Athens, outside the city walls. The site acquired its name from the legendary hero Academos.

Plato is the one figure who must receive the credit for giving birth to this unique institution. He first acquired the land on which the Academy was eventually built and began holding informal gatherings there to discuss philosophical issues with some of his friends.

The gatherings included thinkers such as Theaetetus of Sunium, Archytas of Tarentum, Leodamas of Thasos, and Neoclides. These meetings and discussions continued for years but it was not until Eudoxus of Cnidos arrived in the mid-380s BC that Akademeia was recognized as a formal Academy.

Plato’s Academy was not an educational institution as we know it in modern times, but because it had the characteristics of a school and covered a wide variety of topics such as philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, politics, physics and more, it is considered to be the first university in the entire world.

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