Tourism in Mongolia, Matthew Perry Overdose, Chatbot privacy
Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30 minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Mario Ritter junior.
This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower, and we use words and phrases, especially written for people learning English. On today's program, you will hear stories from John Russell and ,Caty Weaver. Later, Bryan Lynn presents this week's Technology Report.
We close the show with a visit to another of America's national parks. This week, we head east to the state of Florida's Biscayne National Park. But first. Mongolia, with its beautiful land and open spaces, is hoping to get more foreign visitors. Like most countries, Mongolia's tourism industry was hurt by the Covid 19 pandemic.
It has launched a Welcome to Mongolia campaign to gain more visitors. The government has added flights and simplified the visa process, offering visa free visits for many countries. At least 437,000 foreign visitors came in the first seven months of this year, up 25% over the same period last year.
That total includes increasing numbers from Europe, the United States and Japan. Visitors from South Korea nearly doubled, thanks in part to the fact that the flight between the countries is under four hours. However, Mongolia's government is still short of its goal of 1 million visitors per year from 2023 to 2025.
The country has a population of 3.3 million people. About half of them live in the capital, Ulan Bator. As a result, there is plenty of open space for adventure tourists to explore, said Ashima Piazzaj, who works for a tour company.
The company offers adventures including horseback trips and camping trips. With the possibility of staying in girls, the traditional homes still used by Mongolia's herders, there is little chance of running across private property. So a few places are off limits, she said. You don't need to open a gate, you don't need to have permission from anyone. That's huge, said sitting in front of a map of Mongolia. We are kind of like the last truly nomad culture on the whole planet, she added.
Lonely planet travel guide publisher named Mongolia its top destination in its best in travel 2024 report. The pope's visit to Mongolia last year also helped to bring attention to the country. Its breakdancers became stars at last year's Asian Games, and some local bands have developed a global following, like The Who. A band that mixes traditional Mongolian instruments and throat singing with modern rock. Most people know little about Mongolia. American tourist Michael John said he knew some of the history about Genghis Khan.
He had also seen a documentary on eagles used by hunters before deciding to stop in Ulan Bator as part of a longer vacation. It was a great opportunity to learn more, the 40 year old said. Tourism represented 7.2% of Mongolia's gross domestic product, and 7.6% of its employment in 2019, before the industry collapsed because of the Covid 19 pandemic.
The world Bank says, but the organization noted chances for substantial growth for Mongolia with diverse nature and stunning sceneries and sports and adventure tourism possibilities. Mongolia tourism advertisements bring attention to all of those interests. The ads show beautiful frozen lakes in winter, the northern lights and events like reindeer sledding and riding. Camel racing and hiking Mongol Diane offers rides on camels, traditional archery, and the opportunity to have eagles trained for hunting. Stand on a visitor's arm. We want to show tourists coming from other countries that we have such a way of life in Mongolia, he said.
Waiting for tourists by a big statue of Genghis Khan on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, outside the lively capital. Getting around can be difficult in summer as the land becomes wet. There are limited roads and buildings, a shortage of places to stay and a lack of skilled labor. In some areas. It is also easy for foreigners to get lost with few signs in English, said Dutch tourist Jasper Koning.
Nevertheless, he said he was thoroughly enjoying his trip. The weather is super. The scenery is more than super.
It's clean, the people are friendly, he said. I'm John Russell. An investigation into the death of American actor Matthew Perry has led to criminal charges against five people.
Perry, a star of the popular television series friends, died suddenly in October. He was 54. Doctors who examined his body after death said Perry died from an overdose of the powerful drug ketamine. Ketamine is a powerful anesthetic. The drug is often used to put people into a deep sleep for medical operations, also called surgery. The treatment is called general anesthesia.
A doctor can inject the drug into a muscle, or through a liquid flow directly into a patient's veins. The drug's chemistry is similar to the recreational drug called PCP. Some people use ketamine recreationally for its euphoric effects.
It can cause hallucinations and can affect breathing and the heart. The United States Food and Drug Administration, or FDA approved ketamine for use only for general anesthesia. However, American doctors are free to prescribe drugs for treatments other than those approved by the FDA. This is known as off label use.
Ketamine use has seen a huge fast rise in recent years as a treatment for pain and mental health disorders, including depression and anxiety. Perry was using it to treat depression. His usual doctors were treating him with what is called ketamine infusion therapy. However, investigators say the actor turned to other sources when his doctors refused to give him as much as he wanted.
Last week, government lawyers said Perry got ketamine illegally through a group that included two doctors, Perry's assistant and a woman they identified as the ketamine queen. Perry's assistant injected the actor with ketamine, including several times on the day Perry died. Emergency medical workers also sometimes use ketamine to sedate people who appear to be out of control, aggressive, or a threat to themselves or others. Some states and agencies around the country have begun to reconsider this use of ketamine because of the drug's health risks. In 2019, an American court found two emergency medical workers guilty in the overdose killing of a teenager in Colorado.
The medical team injected the man with a deadly amount of ketamine during a police operation. An Associated Press investigation found that generally use of ketamine and similar drugs as a police or security tool has spread quietly across the nation over the last 15 years. I'm ,Caty Weaver. Operators of artificial intelligence, AI chat bot tools have made it clear that users requests can be saved and used to further develop the AI systems. But what if a user does not want that? Some tools permit users to request that personal information used in chat bot requests not be saved or used to develop or train AI systems.
Technology experts say it could be too late for users who have already provided information to these tools to have the data removed. But the Associated Press is offering the following advice for users who want to increase their privacy. Protect ones Google saves chat bot interactions known as conversations, with its Gemini tool. The company says it uses the data to train its machine learning systems, but the company does give users a way to limit the information captured and to remove past conversations. For users 18 or older, requests are kept for 18 months, although this can be changed in user settings, as human workers are sometimes used by Google to examine some user conversations as part of efforts to improve Gemini's systems in general.
Google warns Gemini users not to enter any sensitive information. They do not want human workers to see. Gemini users can change or opt out of these default settings from the main Gemini website page.
Users should find and click on the activity button toward the bottom left of the page. From there, they can click the turn off button next to the heading Gemini app's activity. Users then have the chance to block future conversations from being saved. They can also choose to have all previous conversations removed. Whether a user chooses to turn their activity off or leave it on.
Google notes that all conversation runs with Gemini are saved for 72 hours to provide the service and process any feedback. Meta has an AI chat bot used across its social media services Facebook, WhatsApp and Insta gram. The company says its AI models are trained on information shared by users, including social media posts and photos. Meta says it does not train its AI systems on private messages sent by users to friends or family.
Not everyone can opt out of this policy. People in the 27 nation European Union and Britain, both of which have strong privacy rules, can. This process can be completed from Meta's main privacy center.
Click other policies and articles from the list near the bottom on the left side, then click the part related to AI. Users can then find a link to a form to opt out. People in the United States and other countries without national data privacy laws do not have this ability. Matters Privacy center does link to a form where users can request that their data captured by third parties not be used to develop and improve AI at meta. But the company says these requests are examined before being acted upon and might be rejected based on local laws.
With Microsoft's Copilot chat bot, personal users cannot opt out of having their data used to develop the country's AI models. The best a user can do is to remove conversations with the chat bot by going to Microsoft Accounts, settings and Privacy page. Find the drop down choice called Copilot Interaction History or Copilot Activity history, to find the button to remove the history. Users of OpenAI's chat GPT service can make privacy changes from the tools settings page, find the data controls settings and remove the choice called improve the model for everyone. If a user does not have an account, they can click on the small question mark at the bottom right of the page, then click settings to see the same choice.
To opt out of AI training. OpenAI explains on its Data Controls Help page that when users opt out, their conversations will still appear in the history but will not be used for training. The company says these temporary conversations will be kept for 30 days. Anthropic is an AI research company based in San Francisco. The company says its cloud AI tool is not trained on personal data. However, users can request permission for specific conversations to be used in training or not.
Users can do this by giving the conversation a thumbs up or thumbs down, or by emailing the company. I'm Bryan Lynn. Now, Bryan Lynn is here to talk more about his technology report.
Thanks for being here, Bryan. Of course. Ashley. Thanks for having me. This week, your report provides some privacy guidance for users of chat bot tools.
One thing we learned from the report is that some of these systems make it quite easy to change privacy settings, while others offer no chance at all. Correct? Yes. That's right. There really are major differences in privacy policies.
Among the most widely used chat bots and it will be interesting to see how important these protections will be to individuals moving forward. It could certainly hurt the business of some companies not offering them eventually if privacy concerns remain important to their users. Some experts have noted that companies unwilling to offer more privacy choices might need to be forced into doing so one day with new US legislative measures. such laws have already been enacted in Europe, but could also come to the US. Okay.
Thanks again for joining me on today's podcast, Bryan, and thank you for your report. You're welcome. Ashley. Thank you for having me. Do you and our national parks journey? We head to southern Florida. Here you will find blue green seas, marine wildlife and islands that hold thousands of years of human history. Welcome to Biscayne National Park.
Biscayne is not very far from the lights, noise and excitement of downtown Miami, but it has a very different atmosphere from the big city. Biscayne National Park was established as a national monument in 1968. It became a national park in 1980. That year, its size also increased. The park now covers more than 70,000 hectares.
It includes the northern part of the world famous Florida Keys. Keys are low lying islands or reefs. If you enjoy water, Biscayne is the park for you. 95% of the park is water. Many kinds of animals live within the park. Some of them are threatened or endangered.
You will find the huge, gentle West Indian manatee, the last gentle American crocodile. Several kinds of sea turtles and more than 500 species of fish. Four ecosystems come together here, which is what makes the park so diverse.
The blending ecosystems create what is called edge communities. These edge communities support a huge array of wildlife. The underwater diversity is what attracts most people to Biscayne National Park. Many visitors come here to snorkel or scuba dive in Biscayne, clear and warm waters. Human history at Biscayne begins more than 10,000 years ago. Scientists say evidence of the area's earliest people is mostly underwater now.
As water levels have risen over time, within the last 3000 years, people began to settle in the area range. Scientists continue to learn about these people by examining the big hills of shells they left behind. The shells contain other waste, too, including early tools and housewares. As the population grew, it divided into two separate cultures.
The groups began making pottery and created trade networks. These Native Americans are called the hasta. The to hasta depended on the rich food source of this sea to survive if they were not centered on farming, which requires huge amounts of time. So the time hasta had more time than other natives for art and religion. Very complex social structures developed as a result.
European explorers began arriving in the area in the early 1500s. They brought with them diseases like smallpox and measles. Over time, these diseases killed huge numbers of Florida's natives.
Early explorers arrived in the area on ships. Debris, the reefs and rough waters made it difficult for ship captains. Biscayne waters contain more than 50 shipwrecks. Scuba divers today can explore six of them. Among them is the Earl King, which sank in 1891. It was built in 1865.
Earl King was mostly used to transport goods, but it also carried wealthy passengers. In its first few years of service. It was used for trading between China and Australia.
The ship hit a long reef as it sailed to New Orleans from England in 1891. Its machinery and other parts were saved. But Earl King itself sank to the seafloor. Another shipwreck that scuba divers can explore is the Lugano. The British steamship sank in 1913 at the time of its sinking. It was the largest ship ever to wreck in the Florida Keys.
It was traveling to Havana, Cuba, carrying goods and more than 100 passengers. Most of them were Spaniards immigrating to Cuba. High winds and heavy seas sent the ship far off course. A collision with Long Reef damaged the ship. Much of the cargo and all of the passengers were safely removed.
The captain and crew remained aboard. Many people tried to remove the water from Lugano and repair it. But after several weeks they abandoned their efforts. Today the Lugano remains on Long Reef, almost eight meters below water.
Many visitors to Biscayne National Park choose to explore underwater. Guides lead snorkeling and scuba diving trips. These give visitors the chance to get up close to the park's underwater wildlife, as well as its shipwreck. Visitors can also explore the park on a boat.
Canoeing and kayaking are great ways to enjoy Biscayne. Mangrove forests. Mangroves are little trees that grow in coastal waters. Many people take a kayak or canoe around the islands and lagoons at Elliott Quay. Visitors can set up camp and sleep in the wild at Boca Chita Key.
Visitors can explore a lighthouse. The lighthouse has become a symbol of Biscayne National Park. It was built in the 1930s by Mark Honeywell, one of the island's former owners. The dock, at the top of the 20 meter tall lighthouse provides beautiful views of the ocean and the nearby islands.
The top of the lighthouse also offers views of Miami beaches, famous skyline. But visitors to Biscayne National Park probably are not there to see skyscrapers and city lights. The beauty in Biscayne is quiet waters, rustling mangroves and, if you're lucky, a visit with a manatee. I'm ,Caty Weaver. And I'm Ashley Thompson. And that's our program for today.
Join us again tomorrow to keep learning English through stories from around the world. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Mario Ritter Jr.
2024-08-24 03:30
