Prelims Focus- 12th December 2023

1.Red Sprite

Context: The astronaut from the European Space Agency takes pictures of red sprites from the ISS Cupola observatory.

Details:

• The red lightning, also known as a transient luminous event, only lasts for a very short time and can be seen above thunder clouds. 
• It occurs at a high altitude and is not often visible from Earth. 
• The Thor-Davis ISS experiment will study this phenomenon and its impact on greenhouse gas levels, which could affect global warming. 
• The experiment will capture images of storms from the International Space Station.

2.Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR)

Recent news

• Solar fencing has been installed to protect the four soft release centres in Palamu Tiger Reserve.

About:

• The Palamau Tiger Reserve is a wildlife reserve in Jharkhand, India that was established in 1973 as part of Project Tiger. 
• It was one of the first nine tiger reserves created in the country under this project and is the only one in Jharkhand. 
• It is also a part of the Betla National Park and Palamau Wildlife Sanctuary.

3.YUVAi Initiative

In News: “YUVAi- Youth for Unnati and Vikas with AI” will feature prominently  at the upcoming GPAI (Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence) summit.

• It is a collaborative project of National e-Government Department (NeGD), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India and Intel India. 
• YUVAI aims to promote a deeper understanding of artificial intelligence, provide 8-12 AI skills to first grade students  across the country and empower them to become human-centered AI designers and users.

4.Operation Storm Makers II

In News: The international criminal police organization (Interpol), has conducted ‘Operation Storm Makers II’.

• • Operation Storm Makers II brought together law enforcement agencies from 27 countries in Asia and other regions to combat human trafficking and migrant smuggling.  

• Interpol 

• • Interpol is an intergovernmental organization that stands for International Criminal Police Organization.  
  • Background: It was founded in 1923 at the International Police Congress in Vienna as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC). In 1956, the ICPC adopted the name Interpol.  
  • Members: It has 196 member states including India.  Headquarters: Lyon, France 
  • Mandate: It connects police officers around the world – both technically and personally. It is the world’s largest and only organization with the mandate and technical infrastructure to share police data globally. 
  • India joined Interpol in 1949.  
  • CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) is India’s nodal law enforcement agency that coordinates investigations on behalf of Interpol member states.

5.ELIZA Effect

In News: Eliza was one of the first computer programs that simulated a conversation with a human like today’s chatbots.

• It refers to the phenomenon where people believe that computer programs or similar systems have become capable of human emotions or actions because  they respond to user input.  
• It is named after a  computer program from the 1960s that also responded to users, albeit with very simple sentences that repeated their original words.  
• This program was awarded by MIT Professor Joseph Weizenbaum. Example: A user receiving responses from ChatGPT may believe that they are having a meaningful or mutually beneficial interaction that is somehow comparable to a human conversation, rather than seeing ChatGPT as a large language model that simply produces data.  
• This is an example of the ELIZA effect. ChatGPT can now talk to users, making chat conversations more personal.

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