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Indian Politician Ajit Pawar Killed in Plane Crash; UK Government Launches AI Training Initiative Amid Industry Warnings
Mumbai, India – Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra state in India, died Wednesday in a plane crash at the airport in Baramati, his constituency, according to BBC World. Pawar and four others were killed when the chartered plane they were traveling in crashed. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences, calling Pawar's death "shocking and saddening" and praised his service. India's civil aviation minister stated that visibility was poor at the time of the crash, and an investigation has been launched by the aviation regulator.
In other news, the UK government has launched a series of free AI training courses for adults, aiming to reach 10 million workers by 2030, BBC Technology reported. The courses are designed to help people learn how to use AI in the workplace, offering advice on prompting chatbots and using them for administrative tasks. The government is calling it the most ambitious training scheme since the launch of the Open University in 1971.
However, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) cautioned that workers will need more than basic chatbot prompting skills to adapt to the growth of AI, according to BBC Technology.
The AI sector is expected to experience both successes and failures, according to Chuck Robbins, chairman and chief executive of Cisco Systems. Robbins told the BBC that AI would be "bigger than the internet," but the current market is likely a bubble, and some companies "won't make it." He also noted that AI will change or eliminate some jobs, particularly in customer service. Cisco, a leading technology company, provides IT infrastructure that enables the use of AI.
Meanwhile, in the United States, state and local governments have been borrowing heavily to finance public projects. According to the New York Times, borrowing in the municipal bond market surpassed $500 billion last year, breaking the $498 billion record set in 2024. The municipal bond market is now worth well over $4 trillion. Mike Bartolotta told the New York Times, "People really don't understand how big this market is and how it impacts a lot of things that everybody does every day."
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