Daily Business Report: June 15, 2023
California professors test out AI in the
classroom, even as cheating debate continues
By Rocky Walker | CalMatters
This spring, as debates were raging on college campuses about the proper role of generative AI in higher education, Diablo Valley College adjunct professor Frako Loden created an assignment to see how students in her American Cinema class interacted with ChatGPT.
For their final opinion piece of the semester, they were to pick a discussion question about the 1950’s movie “A Place in the Sun,” insert it into ChatGPT as a prompt, and then grade the response themselves. The AI got key details of the plot wrong in some cases, Loden said.
In the film, for example, protagonist George takes his girlfriend to a lake and she falls in and accidentally drowns, but ChatGPT says that he purposely killed her there. “That may be a subtle point, but it really does figure at the end when you evaluate his character,” said Loden, “ChatGPT kind of runs rough over that and suggests that he was planning it from the start and that he’s an evil dude.”
Loden’s assignment illustrates not only the limitations of ChatGPT — Loden said she found in her own research that many details of movie plots it gives are not only false, but “ideologically loaded” and “maybe even racist” — but how professors are increasingly experimenting with its use in the classroom. California’s public higher education systems have not yet created a formal policy regarding the use of generative AI, which can create images and text that are nearly indistinguishable from those made by humans.
Illustration generated via artificial intelligence program Midjourney, and finalized with Adobe Photoshop (Beta)
SD Council votes 5-4 to approve ‘Unsafe
Camping’ law to ban homeless tents
By City News Service
After hearing hours of public comment, the San Diego City Council late Tuesday night voted 5-4 in favor of the Unsafe Camping Ordinance that would prohibit tent encampments in all public spaces throughout the city if shelter beds are available.
Mayor Todd Gloria has pushed hard for proposed the ordinance introduced by City Councilman Stephen Whitburn, including asking the public to sign a petition and speaking on the issue at news conferences.
The proposal would also ban tent encampments at all times in certain sensitive areas — parks, canyons and near schools, transit stations and homeless shelters — regardless of shelter capacity.
Along with Whitburn, City Council members Jennifer Campbell, Raul Campillo, Joe LaCava and Marni Von Wilpert voted yes. Council President Sean Elo-Rivera and colleagues Kent Lee, Monica Montgomery Steppe and Vivian Moreno voted against the proposal.
Cymbiotika to sponsor San Diego Open
WTA 500 women’s tennis tournament
The San Diego Open WTA 500 women’s professional tennis tournament, which debuted last year, will return this year with a new name as San Diego-based Cymbiotika, an innovative health and wellness brand, is the event’s new title sponsor.
The 2023 Cymbiotika San Diego Open Presented by ResMed, featuring the world’s top women’s professional tennis players, will be played Saturday, Sept. 9 through Saturday, Sept. 16 at Barnes Tennis Center, 4490 W Point Loma Blvd.
ResMed Inc., the tournament’s presenting sponsor, is a San Diego-based medical equipment company and a leader in sleep apnea, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and out-of-hospital care software.
The WTA 500 tournament will offer $780,637 in prize money and will have a 28-player singles draw and 16-team doubles draw. Qualifying rounds are scheduled to be played Sept. 9-10 with main draw matches starting Sept. 11 and concluding with the singles and doubles final on Sept. 16. Tickets are scheduled to go on sale in July.
Andy La Dow appointed managing principal
of Cushman & Wakefield’s San Diego operations
Cushman & Wakefield has named Andy La Dow as managing principal of its operations in San Diego. La Dow brings over three decades of brokerage and leadership experience to the role and will oversee the strategic business growth of Cushman & Wakefield’s advisory business in San Diego.
He will report to Matt Chatham, Cushman & Wakefield’s regional president.
Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, La Dow served as Colliers’ regional managing director for San Diego County, where he oversaw all brokerage operations for the firm’s offices in the county.
He returns to Cushman & Wakefield after having worked as a partner with the firm’s predecessor firms during 2003 to 2015.
La Dow had strong brokerage production experience providing client solutions on complex, high-value corporate offices lease, purchase, and build-to-suit transactions. He has received numerous Top Producer awards throughout his career. He is also currently a board member with NAIOP.
Four-legged robot traverses tricky
terrains thanks to improved 3D vision
By Liezel Labios
Researchers led by the University of California San Diego have developed a new model that trains four-legged robots to see more clearly in 3D. The advance enabled a robot to autonomously cross challenging terrain with ease—including stairs, rocky ground and gap-filled paths—while clearing obstacles in its way.
The researchers will present their work at the 2023 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), which will take place from June 18 to 22 in Vancouver, Canada.
“By providing the robot with a better understanding of its surroundings in 3D, it can be deployed in more complex environments in the real world,” said study senior author Xiaolong Wang, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.
The robot is equipped with a forward-facing depth camera on its head. The camera is tilted downwards at an angle that gives it a good view of both the scene in front of it and the terrain beneath it.
County supervisors approve new
$848 million Mental Health Services plan
County supervisors approved a new three-year, $848 million Mental Health Services Act plan Tuesday that will increase spending for programs to help children, youth, families, adults and older adults who suffer serious mental illness or crises. The new three-year plan will spend $274.8 million in the 2023-24 fiscal year, the county’s largest sum ever and 20 percent more than 2022-23. That spending would increase to $286.6 million in fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26.
General Atomics engineers honored by American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
SAN DIEGO — Three senior engineers from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. — Leon Alvarez, James McPherson and Walter von Klein — were honored with awards from the San Diego section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in the areas of outstanding aerospace engineering and engineering management. Alvarez is technical director for the company’s Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) Group.
McPherson is program manager for U.S. Marine Corps programs. Von Klein is the company’s engineering director for flight technologies and advanced programs.
Realty Income declares 121st common
stock monthly dividend increase
SAN DIEGO — Realty Income Corporation announced its board of directors has declared an increase in the company’s common stock monthly cash dividend to $0.2555 per share from $0.2550 per share. The dividend is payable on July 14, 2023, to stockholders of record as of July 3, 2023. This is the 121st dividend increase since Realty Income’s listing on the NYSE in 1994. The ex-dividend date for June’s dividend is June 30, 2023.
Crowe PR promotes
Natalia Barclay and Haley Walker
SAN DIEGO — Crowe PR, a national public relations and digital marketing agency, announced the promotion of Natalia Barclay to senior director of integrated public relations and marketing, overseeing Crowe’s client services organization, and Haley Walker to director of integrated marketing to spearhead the company’s consumer goods business unit. The company also announced its continued growth in key markets, including New York, Los Angeles and Nashville, with hires across public relations, influencer marketing and social media.
Gretel now available in AWS Marketplace
SAN DIEGO — Gretel, a leading multimodal synthetic data generation platform, is now available to purchase in AWS Marketplace, a digital catalog with thousands of software listings from independent software vendors that make it easy to find, test, buy, and deploy software that runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS). As businesses move quickly to incorporate large language models into their services and scale generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications, the demand for data that is safe, accurate, and timely has never been higher.
Marki Microwave expands amplifier portfolio
SAN DIEGO — International Microwave Symposium – Marki Microwave, innovator in the radio frequency and microwave industry for over 30 years, announced the expansion of its core amplifier product portfolio, advancing technology for critical subblocks of the radio frequency (RF) chain. The offering supplies key components for a complete RF subsystem, designed and tested with the same unparalleled combination of rigor and performance capability the company is known for. Marki Microwave has invested heavily in design resources and expertise to cover high frequency operation, packaging and integration for the entire signal chain.
MEI Pharma announces departure of CFO
and appointment of Justin File as successor
SAN DIEGO — MEI Pharma Inc., a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on advancing new therapies for cancer, announced that, consistent with the company’s succession planning, Brian Drazba’s tenure as chief financial officer will end no later than Sept. 1, 2023, and the company has hired Justin (Jay) File as his successor. File joined the company on June 12, 2023 as executive vice president, finance and will be appointed chief financial officer upon Mr. Drazba’s departure. File has 30 years of experience in accounting and finance, working in both public and private companies.
Disguise signs multi-year licensing pact
for horror survival game Poppy Playtime
POWAY —Disguise Inc., the leading costume division of toy and consumer products manufacturer JAKKS Pacific, Inc, announced, in partnership with Mob Entertainment, a new multi-year licensing agreement for North America and EMEA to design, develop and manufacture costumes and costume accessories for the episodic horror survival game, Poppy Playtime, starting in fall 2023. Poppy Playtime, developed by Mob Entertainment, is a chilling episodic horror survival game that immerses players in a sinister tale.
Trestle Biotherapeutics wins
prestigious KidneyW Prize
SAN DIEGO — Trestle Biotherapeutics received a $1 million prize from the KidneyX Innovation Accelerator through the organization’s Artificial Kidney Prize program. Trestle is one of eight Artificial Kidney Prize Phase 2 winners. Trestle was recognized for its innovative approach in developing bioengineered kidney tissues for patients living with kidney failure through the integration of cutting-edge techniques in stem cell biology and 3D biofabrication. The San Diego company is developing a functional, stem cell-based tissue designed to be administered to kidney failure patients to restore a level of renal function sufficient to eliminate kidney dialysis dependency.
TrueCare receives $2 million grant
to expand access to maternal health care
SAN MARCOS — TrueCare, a community-based health center serving San Diego and Riverside counties, has been awarded a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to impact maternal and newborn health outcomes through a new doula program. Adding a doula program to TrueCare’s wellness services reinforces the organization’s mission of providing comprehensive, affordable, and culturally sensitive health care options. Additional information on TrueCare’s doula program will be released in summer 2023.
