Top Tweets for #ITMATters

André Rieu conducting a large orchestra and choir in an outdoor evening performance of “Nearer, My God, to Thee” before a massive crowd is deeply moving. The hymn’s spiritual origins make the performance even more powerful. Sarah Flower Adams wrote the lyrics in 1841, inspired by Jacob’s dream of a ladder reaching heaven in Genesis 28. She wrote them while nursing her seriously ill sister. The words were later paired with Lowell Mason’s popular tune, “Bethany”. Adams, a Unitarian poet who died at the age of 43, built the hymn around themes of pilgrimage, suffering and drawing closer to God. Its enduring place in cultural memory was strengthened by accounts that it was played during the sinking of the Titanic. It remains one of the most profound hymns ever written.

🚨 OBAMA ON AI: "If we are thinking about AI just in terms of how do we cure cancer or get better energy, you can do that without having agentic AI and having it just roaming free in the internet. The reason you are doing that is because you have to market a product that people will pay money for. That’s a misalignment between what our society needs and the commercial imperatives that these companies are facing, not because necessarily they’re trying to do bad things, but because they’ve got to justify these valuations. So, that’s one more reason why it is really important for us to have a competent government and a serious bipartisan conversation around this issue, and we have to do it fast. And I would encourage voters to pay attention to this. If somebody does not have a serious plan for how to deal with this, then they’re not meeting the moment, and you should probably look for somebody else."