Daily Prelims Notes 19 February 2024

Daily Prelims Notes

19 February 2024

Table Of Contents

1. What are IPCC’s assessment reports?
2. Ultradian rhythms: the cycles of life
3. Extraction of raw materials could rise 60% by 2060 – and making mining ‘greener’ won’t stop the damage
4. Central Asian Flyway recognised to protect over 600 migratory bird species
5. After PAC nod, hike in reporting limits for Ministries’ spending proposed
6. Efforts on to get UNESCO tag for ‘Paruveta Utsavam’ of Ahobilam
7. What our ancestors’ genomes can tell us about modern health
8. Why OpenAI’s new video generator, Sora, is making a splash
9. Why have fresh protests erupted in Senegal?

1. What are IPCC’s assessment reports?

Subject: Environment

Section: Climate change

Context:

• Since 1988, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has produced six assessment reports, three special reports, and methodology reports that provide guidelines for estimating greenhouse gas emissions and removal.

Details:

• Three reports from the IPCC’s sixth assessment cycle (AR6) were published in 2021-2022.
• These documents — prepared by scientists from the 195 countries that are part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) — examine the science, consequences, adaptation, and vulnerability as well as the mitigation aspects of climate change.
• Over the years, these reports have substantiated the fact that the planet is warming and that humans bear primary responsibility.

What did the report say?

• The recent report, known as the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), highlighted the urgent need to limit the global average surface temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as targeted by the Paris Agreement.
• It noted that the window for achieving this goal is closing rapidly and that we are nearing the limits of adaptation.
• The report offered strategies for slowing warming and enhancing resilience and adaptation in both natural and human-made systems.
• Following AR6, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began its seventh assessment cycle (AR7) by electing a new bureau.

What will the AR7 cycle produce?

• During the AR7 cycle discussions in Turkey, the IPCC Bureau decided to produce a comprehensive set of reports, including full assessment and synthesis reports, methodology reports, and a single special report.
• The full assessment reports will consist of contributions from three Working Groups and a synthesis report, following the format of previous cycles.
• The decision took into account the availability of new literature, the need for climate model simulations, engagement with under-represented communities, and the workload on the IPCC’s technical support unit and authors.
• Two methodology reports will focus on short-lived climate forcers, such as methane, and carbon removal techniques.
• Additionally, technical guidelines on impacts and adaptation will be revised. Despite suggestions from countries to cover 28 topics in special reports, the bureau opted to produce just one special report specifically addressing climate change and cities.

Timeline for the reports:

• Member countries proposed that the IPCC assessment reports for the AR7 cycle be completed by 2028 to align with the Global Stocktake (GST), but the bureau has yet to decide on a release date.
• Concerns were raised that a shortened cycle might undermine the quality of the reports due to potential limitations in publishing new research and completing comprehensive climate modelling.
• Additionally, a constrained timeline could hinder effective engagement with under-represented countries.
• A final decision on the timeline for the assessment reports is expected to be made at the 61st session of the IPCC.

Source: TH

2. Ultradian rhythms: the cycles of life

Subject: Environment

Section: Climate change

Ultradian rhythm:

• Life on Earth is sustained by various biological cycles, among which the ultradian rhythm is a key cyclic process observed in all living organisms, from single-celled entities to humans.
• Unlike circadian rhythms that operate on a 24-hour cycle, like the sleep-wake pattern, ultradian rhythms occur more frequently, within less than a 24-hour period.
  • Ultradian rhythm refers to cycles with a period shorter than a day but longer than an hour.
• These rhythms are responsible for governing essential physiological functions such as heartbeat, breathing, hormonal releases, and brain-wave activity, thus playing a crucial role in maintaining the health and well-being of organisms.
• A well-known example of an ultradian rhythm is the sleep cycle, which involves alternating periods of rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep throughout the night.
• Each cycle lasts about 90 minutes, with REM sleep associated with dreaming and non-REM sleep being important for physical restoration and memory consolidation.
• Moreover, ultradian rhythms regulate the pulsatile secretion of hormones like growth hormone, cortisol, and insulin, which are vital for metabolism regulation, energy levels, and stress response management.

Source: TH

3. Extraction of raw materials could rise 60% by 2060 – and making mining ‘greener’ won’t stop the damage

Subject: Environment

Section: Sustainable development and Agri

Context:

• The upcoming Global Resources Outlook report by the UN International Resource Panel paints a critical picture of the escalating global consumption of raw materials.

Details of the report:

• Since 1970, consumption has increased fourfold and is projected to rise by another 60% by 2060.
• The report highlights that the mass of human-made products, or the technosphere, now outweighs the biosphere—the total mass of all life on Earth.
• This shift, marking the 2020s as the era when human creations surpassed natural life in weight, has profound implications for global heating, ocean acidification, and the acceleration of species extinction.
• The mining sector’s expansion requires vast land annexation, significantly increased energy consumption since the 1970s, and contributes to ecological degradation.
• As material demand continues to rise, the declining quality of ores and the need for more intensive extraction methods signal an unsustainable trajectory.
• This process not only generates wealth for a few but also designates numerous regions, especially in developing countries, as sacrificial zones, bearing the environmental and social costs of material consumption.

Critical raw materials:

• The “critical” and “strategic,” raw materials are characterized by their scarcity, geographical concentration, and essential nature for military applications and technological competitiveness among major global powers.
• These critical raw materials are also vital for the green transition, with the EU highlighting nickel’s importance for battery production.
• The shift towards renewable energy and electric vehicles significantly increases the demand for minerals. For instance, a wind turbine requires nine times the mineral inputs of a conventional gas-fired power plant, and an electric vehicle needs six to ten times the minerals of a traditional car.

Urban mining:

• Urban mining involves recovering minerals from waste, such as household electronics, construction debris, sewage, and incinerator ash.
• Despite the potential benefits, the use of secondary materials is declining, with recycling rates for most minerals remaining alarmingly low, often below one per cent.
• The economic model currently favors extractive mining due to its cost-effectiveness and simplicity, especially in developing countries where land is cheaper.
• Extractive mining’s capital-intensive nature contrasts with urban mining’s labor-intensive requirements and the need for complex regulation of waste streams.
• Urban mining’s growth is hindered by governmental reluctance to shift taxation from labor to the use of non-renewable resources.
• Without significant regulatory and tax reforms, efforts towards a circular economy could inadvertently fuel economic growth, increase energy consumption, and exacerbate environmental damage.
• Therefore, urban mining and circular economy initiatives are not inherently “green” and their effectiveness is heavily dependent on the surrounding political-economic framework.

Is “degrowth” the answer?

• The concept of “degrowth” is gaining traction as a response to the limitations of engineering solutions and green growth strategies in addressing the environmental crisis.
• Degrowth does not advocate for a universal contraction of economic activities but emphasizes the need for a significant and equitable reduction in the global consumption of materials and energy to restore a sustainable balance between society and nature.
• These adjustments suggest that the current unsustainable forecasts for material usage by 2060 could be significantly lowered, highlighting degrowth as a viable path to sustainability.

Source: DTE

4. Central Asian Flyway recognised to protect over 600 migratory bird species

Subject: Environment

Section: Int Conventions

Context:

• The Fourteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP 14) saw the adoption of the Initiative for the Central Asian Flyway, a proposal led by India and supported by BirdLife International along with 30 other governments ranging from Russian Siberia to the Maldives.

Details about the initiative:

• This initiative under the CMS aims to restore and maintain the favourable conservation status of migratory species populations and enhance their ecological connectivity across the flyway.
• BirdLife International highlighted the concerning decline in populations of over 240 species of migratory birds within the Central Asian Flyway, noting that 48 of these species are classified as Globally Threatened or Near Threatened.
• Migratory birds such as the White Stork in Uzbekistan, the Black-Necked Crane in Bhutan, and the Steppe Eagle in Kazakhstan hold significant cultural importance for the local communities.
• The initiative will serve as a platform for capacity building, knowledge sharing, research, and coordination among all countries within the flyway to conserve migratory bird populations.
• Major threats to these migratory birds, such as habitat loss, overexploitation, illegal killing, and the dangers posed by the rapid development of energy infrastructure, which can lead to collisions and electrocutions.
• The initiative commits to developing and enforcing a Programme of Work that aligns with the resolutions, decisions, and plans agreed upon by the CMS to address these challenges.

About Central Asian Flyway (CAF):

• Central Asian Flyway (CAF) covers a large area of Eurasia between the Arctic and Indian Oceans.
• This flyway comprises several important migration routes of birds.
• Including India, there are 30 countries under the Central Asian Flyway.
  • The Central Asian Flyway consists of the following countries: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Georgia, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, the Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom (British Indian Ocean Territory), Uzbekistan and Yemen.
• At the 13th meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP) to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), held at Gandhinagar in February 2020, a resolution (UNEP/CMS/Resolution 12.11 (Rev.COP13) and Decision 13.46 were adopted  initer-alia providing for establishing, by COP14, under the umbrella of CMS an institutional framework, under the leadership of India with the aim to agree on conservation action for migratory birds.
• With a view to fulfil its commitment, India is organizing two-day online meeting on 6th -7th October 2021 with CAF Range Countries, anchored in the Wildlife Institute of India.
• Approximately one in five of the world’s 11,000 bird species migrate, some covering enormous distances.
• Conserving migratory birds requires cooperation and coordination along the entire flyway between countries and across national boundaries.

Source: DTE

5. After PAC nod, hike in reporting limits for Ministries’ spending proposed

Subject: Polity

Section: Parliament

Context:

• After a gap of about 18 years, the government is set to revise its financial limits for ‘New Service’ and ‘New Instruments of Service’ after getting approval from Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC). 

More on news:

• The approval, which has come in line with expansion in GDP growth and the Budget size, has fixed the reporting limit for ‘New Instrument of Service’, to up to 20 per cent of the original appropriation or up to Rs 100 crore, whichever is higher.
• Approval from Parliament would be mandatory for amounts exceeding 20 percent of the original appropriation or above 100 crores, whichever is higher, subject to savings within the same section of the grant.
• The Ministry said it intends to simplify the process in such a way that it becomes very easy to adopt by the Ministries and it will be very easy for the PAC to find deviations. 
• This would speed up the process of decision making for the government and also perhaps improve the pace of scheme implementation.
• During the last 50 years, the first such change occurred in 1970. 
• Then subsequently in the 1980s , the third one was in 2005. This is the fourth time the PAC has prepared this report.

About Finance Ministry Proposal:

• The panel has approved the Finance Ministry’s proposal to raise the reporting limit for new policy-related expenditure by ministries/departments to above Rs 50 crore but not exceeding Rs 100 crore along with mandating prior approval of Parliament for spending over Rs 100 crore.
• This proposal for revision in the financial limits, which has just been the fourth such instance since Independence, is aimed at minimizing the frequency of Supplementary Demands for Grants presented to Parliament during a financial year.
• The last such revision had come into effect in 2006. 

Reasons for such a step:

• Due to the low financial limits for new policy-related expenditure earlier, there has been a reported increase in the number of supplementary proposals from the ministries/departments.
• The time taken in seeking Parliament’s approval would then cause delay in execution of projects.

About New Service (NS) and New Instrument of Service (NIS):

• New Service (NS) refers to expenditure arising out of a new policy decision, not brought to the notice of Parliament earlier, including a new activity or a new investment. 
• New Instrument of Service (NIS) refers to relatively large expenditure arising out of important expansion of an existing policy. 
• The financial limits for ‘New Service/New Instrument of Service’ are applied whenever the expenditure is incurred on account of the expansion of an existing policy.
• The proposed amendments intend to encourage the Ministries to meticulously estimate their budgetary requirements. 
• The necessity for the upward revision arises due to a surge in supplementary proposals from the Ministries/Departments seeking prior approval from Parliament, causing delays in execution of projects/schemes/programmes despite availability of savings.
• With an expected growth of GDP in the range of 6-7 per cent year-on-year, the size of the Budget is anticipated to grow substantially in the next decade too and thus, required an upward revision in the financial limits.

Other Key Takeaways:

• According to the report, a substantial growth in budget size has diminished the delegated powers of the ministries leading to voluminous proposal(s) being forwarded, for reporting/approval of the Parliament.
• The limits were very low between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 2.5 crore and the value differed across nearly 50 items of expenditure.
• The PAC and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) have been pointing to the growing instances of unnecessary supplementary, re-appropriations not adhering to the NS/NIS limits; and re-appropriations without reporting to Parliament or without obtaining prior approval of the Finance Ministry.
• In a separate report titled ‘Excesses over Voted Grants and Charged Appropriations (2019-20)’, which was also tabled in Parliament earlier this month, the PAC had raised concerns over excess expenditure, ranging between 10.04 per cent to 79.77 per cent, incurred during FY 2019-20 for grants/appropriations even after obtaining high amounts of supplementary grants by the ministries/departments to meet their additional requirements.

About Public Accounts Committee(PAC)

• The PAC is the oldest parliamentary committee in Indian legislative affairs and has been crucial in upholding the principle of accountability as it exercises oversight of public expenditure.
• The Public Accounts Committee examines the value for money of Government projects, programmes and service delivery.
• Drawing on the work of the National Audit Office the Committee holds government officials to account for the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of public spending.
• This Committee scrutinizes the value for money—the economy, efficiency and effectiveness—of public spending and generally holds the government and its civil servants to account for the delivery of public services.
• The Public Accounts Committee was introduced in 1921 after its first mention in the Government of India Act, 1919 also called Montford Reforms. 
• It has existed in the Indian Constitution since then.
• PAC is one of the parliamentary committees that examine the annual audit reports of CAG which the President lays before the Parliament of India. Those three reports submitted by CAG are:
  • Audit report on appropriation accounts
  • Audit report on finance accounts
  • Audit report on public undertakings
• The financial committee has 22 members. 
• All the members are taken from the Indian Parliament. Out of 22 members, 15 are elected from Lok Sabha (Lower House) and 7 members are elected from Rajya Sabha (Upper House.)

6. Efforts on to get UNESCO tag for ‘Paruveta Utsavam’ of Ahobilam

Subject: History

Section: Art and culture

Context:

• The Indian National Trust is making efforts for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) to get the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to declare the annual ‘Parveta Utsavam’ of Ahobilam as an ‘intangible cultural heritage’.

More on news:

• The Kurnool District Gazetteers, published by Government Press in 1881, records several beliefs of the Chenchu tribes, including their reverence to Ahobila Narasimha as their brother-in-law and inviting him home for Makar Sankranti.
• According to folklore, Lord Vishnu, upon his incarnation as a man-lion (Narasimha) in Ahobilam, married Maha Lakshmi, born as a tribal girl Chenchulakshmi.
• The Chenchu tribals give a ceremonial reception to the deity of Lord Narasimha Swamy arriving from the Ahobilam temple to their hamlet, as part of the ‘Paruveta Utsavam’ in Nandyal district.

About Paruveta Utsavam:

• The annual mock hunting festival conducted at the Sri Narasimha Swamy temple stands as a symbol of communal harmony where the deity from the sanctum sanctorum of the temple is taken to the 32 Chenchu tribal hamlets around Ahobilam for 40 days.
• Annually ‘Paruveta’ (mock hunting festival), is celebrated at the Sri Narasimha Swamy temple in Ahobilam.
• The matter of UNESCO’s recognition of the centuries-old festival is currently being reviewed by Sangeet Natak Academy, the nodal agency.
• Even the Pancharatra Agama (doctrine of temple worship) mentions Paruveta as ‘Mrugayotsava’ and specifies certain parameters for conducting this event.
• Ahobilam Paruveta utsavam is unique as it is celebrated for about 40 days.
• No other temple celebrates a festival for such a long duration.
• Ahobilam Paruveta utsavam is celebrated by all sections of people irrespective of their caste.
• For instance Vadla Kammara community makes the Palanquin, Chenchus collect honey, Linen and sacred mango leaves from forests, Devotees from Mala Community recite Vachanas.
• It is a festival of communal harmony as devotees from other religious communities like muslims also offer prayers to the lord.
• The Ayakattu honors are similar to the Ayagar system of administration of Kakatiya period which was continued during Vijayanagara Rayas.
• Business worth of some lakhs of rupees takes place during this festival which is the chief source of income for the poor.
• Chenchus are emotionally connected with this festival.
• Veedhinatakams, Harikatha and Burra katha are performed in every village narrating the story of the marriage of Chenchu Lakshmi with Ahobila Narasimha.

About Narasimha Deeksha:

• Paruveta is commonly observed in many temples during Vijayadashami or Sankranti.
•  It is conducted for a ‘mandala’ (forty days).
• Chenchus take ‘Narasimha Deeksha’ by wearing yellow robes and ‘Tulasi Mala’ and observe celibacy during this period.
• Sankranti festival is celebrated on the day the deity reaches their hamlet.

Tribal link:

• By ‘Guru Parampara’, the temple is governed by the 600-year-old Ahobila Mutt, which encouraged this tribal festival to spread Srivaishnavism among the folk tribes.
• The tribal link to Lord Vishnu is confirmed in Vasanthika Parinayam, a Sanskrit drama written by the Mutt’s 7th Jeeyar (pontiff), several centuries ago.

About Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH)

• INTACH was founded in 1984 in New Delhi
• It aims to create a membership organization to stimulate and spearhead heritage awareness and conservation in India
• It is a non-profit charitable organization registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860
• The INTACH Logo, based on the anthropomorphic copper figure from Shahabad, Uttar Pradesh, belonging to the enigmatic Copper Hoards of the Ganga Valley

About Chenchus:

• The Chenchus, also called ‘Chenchuvaru’ or ‘Chenchwar’ are numerically the smallest Scheduled Tribe of Odisha.
• The Chenchus are a Dravidian tribe, a designated Scheduled Tribe in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Odisha.
• They are an aboriginal semi-nomadic tribe of the central hill religions of Andhra Pradesh. 
• Their traditional way of life has been based on hunting and food gathering.
• Many Chenchus live in the sparse and deciduous Nallamala forest of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
• The Chenchus are referred to as one of the Primitive Tribal Groups that are still dependent on forests and do not cultivate land but hunt for a living.

7. What our ancestors’ genomes can tell us about modern health

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Biotech

Context:

• Researchers recently use sequences of ancestral DNA to understand genetic diseases that affected ancient humans and onto the medicines and tools that early human communities used.
• Ancient DNA (aDNA) studies along with cutting-edge genomic techniques can provide unprecedented insights into the genetic makeup(profile) of our ancestors by extraction and analysis of ancient skeletal remains’ DNA.
• Ancestral DNA studies provides information about the genetic diversity and population dynamics of ancient communities, their migration patterns, interactions, and adaptations to local environments and diseases confronted and how the afflictions shaped human evolution.
• Researchers can understand pathogens spreaded in the distant past and trace their origins and evolutionary trajectories.
• By reconstructing the genomes of lifeforms-emergence, spread, and adaptation of infectious diseases throughout human history can be traced.
• Such study enrich our knowledge of evolutionary history and have implications for modern healthcare.
• Teach about the diseases to which our genes have rendered us susceptible as well as how health
• disparities arose between different populations.

Examples:

Common genetic diseases are the result of chromosomal abnormalities i.e. chromosome number changes (extra copies or deletions of entire chromosomes)– resulting in different clinical syndrome .

Ex: Down’s syndrome is caused by an extra chromosome 21. Klinefelter’s syndrome due to an extra X chromosome.

Turner syndrome by the loss of one of the two X chromosomes in women.

Ancestral DNA and a disease’s history:

• Chromosomal karyotyping is a method to visualise the complete set of chromosomes in a cell, and is among the best techniques to diagnose such abnormalities.
• However, karyotyping requires live cells, a laborious method to culture and stain them.
• But due advances, scientist use whole-genome sequencing data from fragmented and/or degraded DNA to understand chromosomal abnormalities in a DNA as well.
• For example, Francis Crick Institute in London researchers published evidence of some of the earliest known instances of Turner syndrome, Kinefelter’s syndrome, and Down’s syndrome in aDNA dating from the Iron age in Britain.
• Similarly, a research group from Italy, Germany, and the U.S studied DNA isolated from 22 mummified individuals from a variety of geographical regions and time periods-17 samples from 3600 BC ancient Egypt and others of (1500-1900) AD from Bolivia, Peru, Switzerland, and Australia, an interesting analysis of genetic variants associated with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in modern humans and their link with ancient humans were carried out.
• In all, the scientists said they cardiovascular disease has been widespread in human populations for at least 5,000 years. Thus, established link between ancient and modern health.

Linking ancestral DNA to diets

• Insights into the lifestyles of ancient humans can also be gleaned from their genetic remains.
• Microbes from pitch of the birch tree (ancient humans extensively used birch pitch to repair stone tools and possibly fix arrowheads) reveal information about the oral health of the individuals who chewed it.
• DNA analysis of chewed pitch by scientists from Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Turkey identified sort of imbalance of microbial species observed in people with inflamed gums (periodontitis).
• Scientist also matched DNA with a number of plant and animal species, hinting at the ancient people’s diet.

What else can ancestral DNA reveal?

• Provide big clues about the creation and development of stone tools.
• Research: (In the 1930s, in a cave in Ranis, Germany – (around 50,000 years ago- when modern humans, neanderthals, and Denisovans coexisted) identified a number of ancient stone tools.)
• Archaeologists re-excavated the cave more recently and found several bones remains.
• Through high-throughput sequencing, DNA sequences unequivocally pointed in the direction of Homo sapiens.
• Also, by radiocarbon dating, the samples were found to be some 45,000 years old.

8. Why OpenAI’s new video generator, Sora, is making a splash

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Awareness in IT and Computers

What is Sora:

• Sora (Japanese) means sky, an imagery of ‘limitless creative potential’.
• OpenAI (CEO-Sam Altman) has created the video creation artificial intelligence (AI) model (Sora) that can create near flawless one-minute-long videos based on text prompt.
• Sora is trained on videos and images of various durations, resolutions, and aspect ratios to generate crisp, clear, cinematic, high-resolution and photorealistic output.
• This new diffusion-based AI model is built on the foundation of transformer architecture, similar to large language models like ChatGPT.

Comparison with others –

• Sora’s achievement dwarfs Meta’s Make-a-Video and Google’s Lumiere text-to-video
• Unlike the output from Meta’s, Google’s, or other earlier AI video tools, Sora provides studio-grade final product.

What can it do?

• It can create images and videos with near-accuracy on a given subject.
• It can construct a video from an image and fill gaps in existing video clips.
• What is Diffusion model ?
• Diffusion models are named after the physical diffusion process in which molecules move from high concentration to low-concentration zones.
• Diffusion models are used to generate high-quality images and videos.
• In machine learning, these models generate new data by reversing the diffusion process. These add noise to data and then reverse the visual data back to its original state by filtering out the noise.

Working principle of Sora:

• According to OpenAI, Sora works by- “turning videos into patches by first compressing videos into a lower-dimensional latent space and subsequently decomposing the representation into spacetime patches.”
• When a user sends prompts to Sora, it creates a video by stitching together compressed patches of visual data.

Patches vs Tokens:

• Patches is to Sora what tokens is to ChatGPT.
• Tokens unify diverse modalities of text like code, data, and natural languages.
• Similarly, patches unify videos by compressing them — a form of tokenisation for visual data.

How good is Sora’s output?

• It is a top-class AI-based image generator and photorealistic can stun at first look
• But a closer look reveals there is work to be done in object tracking.
• While OpenAI claims Sora can handle occlusion (a term in computer vision for objects disappearing when two or more of them come too close to each other).
• But the text-to-video model does suffer from this limitation to an extent. For instance, in one of the clips shared by the Microsoft-backed company, people in the background disappear when the focus moves past a couple walking.
• The AI model needs to understand space and time better.

Present status:

• Sora is not available to the public yet. OpenAI plans to start sharing the model with third-party testers to receive feedback to improve the model.
• Some experts are of the view that more systemic glitches will surface as more people gain access to the tool.

Can occlusion be remedied?

• While AI researchers are looking to solve the object tracking problem. some AI experts predict it will be hard to set it right. They note that the fault stem from how the system builds reality.
• Sora’s weird physics glitches are in some ways akin to LLM “hallucinations”, artefacts from

decompression and lossy compression.

• That means more data is not going to solve the problem, and generative AI-based models are not going to understand or function as per the physical laws of nature.

What about the training data?

• OpenAI’s achievement through Sora is monumental and it will disrupt video creation and gaming industries.
• The video generation tool was trained on data from game engines, movies, documentaries, YouTube videos, and possibly videos scraped from every corner of the web.
• But this data could possibly include copyrighted work. Unless OpenAI shares this information, it will be hard to know.
• The unauthorised material scraped from the web to train AI violates copyright law is yet to be addressed by the courts.
• Tech firms claim they are protected by the copyright’s fair use doctrine and lawsuits against them will stifle a growing AI industry.

What about misinformation?

• Photorealistic video generation capabilities are worrying considering the burgeoning misuse of generative AI tools to spread misinformation.
• To counter this OpenAI took the red-teaming route ahead of its public launch.
• Sora already has a filter that will block prompt requests that mention violent, sexual, or hateful language, as well as images of well-known personalities.
• A second filter will check frames of generated videos and block content that violates the company’s safety guidelines.
• OpenAI has also said Sora uses a fake-image detector developed for

9. Why have fresh protests erupted in Senegal?

Subject: IR

Section: Places in news

Context:

• Senegal’s President Maky Sall postponed Presidential elections due on February 25 on grounds of a dispute between the National Assembly (parliament) and the Constitutional Council over the manner of selection of candidates resetting the next election for December 15.
• Protests have emerged across the country especially in Dakar, capital of Senegal. Opposition leaders were dragged out by riot police.

What is the background to the current crisis?

• The current unrest is worst in decade, according to Amnesty International.
• The clashes occurred due to a two-year prison sentence slapped on the leading opposition candidate
• Ousmane Sonko who targeted the country’s elites for corruption and resisted the influence of the former colonial power France.
• In January this year, the Constitutional Council barred Mr. Sall (convicted in a trial for immoral behaviour against a woman) from the Presidential race.
• Still Sall is attempting third term for election.

What has been Senegal’s recent democratic record?

• Sall’s retrograde decision to defer elections marks a break with the country’s periodic and smooth transfer of power witnessed for decades under a multi-party democratic system.
• Unlike all of its neighbours, Senegal has never undergone a military coup or a civil war since it gained independence from France in 1960.
• Senegel is viewed as beacon of democracy in a region, increasingly under the grip of military takeovers.
• Moreover, President Sall has been instrumental in pushing military dictators in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to facilitate a timely transfer of power to elected governments.
• In early 2017, Senegalese troops successfully forced out Yahya Jammeh in the Gambia, after he refused to step down after losing elections.

Pattern of elections:

• Senegal situation highlights misrule, [similar to Guinea (President Alpha Condé’s controversial re-election for a third term in 2020)- ended up in a coup the following year].
• Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are already under military rule. So, Dakar has abandoned this regional role at a juncture due to various west African nations under military rule.
• The return of military dictatorships in African countries has been a recurrent theme in the 2020s after a serious regression after 1960s independence.

Way ahead:

The big powers must reconsider their traditional role In the region as a whole.

Daily Mapping

Avdiivka

Why in news?

• Russia claimed the capture of the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka after Ukraine withdrew.
• The full control of Avdiivka after the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces in the biggest gain for Moscow since the fall of Bakhmutlast May.