April 12, 2024
In recent years, there has been a notable shift towards artificial intelligence (AI) systems focused on language. They have outpaced advancements in other sectors like image recognition, gaming, and biology.
This is shown in the chart, which shows the number of AI systems considered notable by Epoch researchers.
The shift is primarily due to technical advancements in AI algorithms, particularly the introduction of “transformers” around 2017. As shown in the chart, the rapid development of language-based AI systems began around this time.
Transformers have radically changed natural language processing by evaluating chunks of text — “tokens” — instead of focusing on one word at a time. For example, by considering the whole sentence "The bank can ensure your money is safe", transformers can quickly discern that "bank" refers to a financial institution, not the side of a river.
This capability has significantly enhanced AI's ability in complex language tasks, improving machine translation and text generation, and making interactions more intuitive and effective.
Related topic pages:
Yesterday
Fish stocks have a “maximum sustainable yield” — this is the point at which you can catch the largest amount of fish without affecting their total population over the long term. In other words, it means catching as many fish as possible without shrinking the population.
A fish is defined as “overexploited” if it is caught faster than the maximum sustainable yield.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimates that around one-third of the world’s assessed fish stocks are overexploited. This chart shows that this share has increased over time.
Many regions have formal assessments of fish stocks and catch rates to provide updated estimates of overfishing. However, many fish stocks across Africa, Asia, and South America are not frequently and rigorously assessed. To get global estimates, the UN FAO combines these formal assessments with expert opinion and extrapolations based on what national and regional-level data is available.
The UN FAO’s report — The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024 — provides more detailed breakdowns of which species are overexploited or fished sustainably.
Explore more data and research on overfishing →
October 31
When asked where public spending should be reduced most, around 60% of people in the UK suggest cutting foreign aid.
However, people overestimate how much the UK spends on aid: last year’s UK Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses show that overseas aid amounted to £5.1 billion — just about 74 pounds per person.
As the chart shows, this is a tiny part of public spending, making up only 0.5% of the total budget.
To put this in perspective, the UK spends much more on other areas: over eight times as much on public order and safety, ten times more on defense, and forty times more on each of the two biggest expenses: health and welfare.
Spending is not much higher if we also consider funds dedicated to supporting refugees in the UK itself.
This situation is not specific to 2023: the UK’s foreign aid spending has been at similar levels for decades and is in line with what other wealthy countries spend. Compared to the size of its budget and economy, foreign aid is a relatively small expense.
Explore spending on foreign aid in the UK and other countries →
October 30
Homelessness is defined differently around the world, making it difficult to compare the issue across countries.
The map shows the forms of homelessness included in country statistics, as recorded by the Institute of Global Homelessness.
Sources distinguish three broad forms of homelessness: people with no accommodation who sleep in the streets or public spaces; people in temporary accommodation, such as emergency shelters; and people in severely inadequate housing, such as tents or slums.
Country statistics vary in which forms they include, with some countries focusing on just one type while others cover multiple combinations. Many sources do not provide enough details to know which forms of homelessness they refer to.
Despite these challenges, the data on homelessness has recently improved. The Institute of Global Homelessness has collected data on the completeness of national statistics, and the OECD has worked on making the statistics of their members comparable by using the same definitions of homelessness across them.
Learn more about the challenges of measuring homelessness →
October 29
In recent years, migration has prevented population decline among high-income countries.
The World Bank defines high-income countries as those with a gross national income (GNI) per capita of over $14,000 in 2023. It includes countries like the United States, Chile, and Poland.
The chart shows annual population growth with and without migration in these countries.
The green line, which includes migration, shows that populations in high-income countries are still growing.
What would this have looked like without migration? The blue line gives you the answer — it shows the annual population growth only considering births and deaths in the country. It has been falling for decades and went negative in 2020.
Note that these figures apply to high-income countries as a group; in some countries, such as Italy or Japan, the total population is shrinking, even when considering migration. This data comes from the World Population Prospects dataset published by the United Nations.
Explore more data on population growth →
October 28
Life expectancy at birth dropped significantly across the world in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, rates are now returning to pre-pandemic levels. The chart shows this rebound, based on the latest estimates from the UN’s World Population Prospects.
Global life expectancy in 2022 matched the 2019 figure at 72.6 years. And it increased again in 2023, to 73.2 years.
Explore more insights from the latest revision of the UN’s population statistics →
October 25
Japan closed down most of its nuclear plants after the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in 2011, and nuclear production dropped dramatically.
You can see this in the chart above, which shows the electricity mix of Japan since 1985. It’s based on data from the Energy Institute.
Fossil fuel plants — notably coal — were ramped up to keep the lights on. But some nuclear plants have come back online, which is why you see nuclear production start to rise again.
Read our article on the death toll of the Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters →
October 24
People tend to think there are more immigrants in their country than there really are.
In the United States, for example, the average person believes that 33% of people were not born there. However, official estimates from government agencies show that the figure is just 15% — less than half as many.
In Japan, people guess that 10% of the population are immigrants, but the accurate figure is around 2%. For every 5 immigrants people think exist, there is only one in reality.
As the chart shows, this mismatch is common everywhere. The data comes from the 2023 Ipsos Perils of Perception report.
Explore the immigrant population share for all countries →
Receive an email from us when we publish a Daily Data Insight (every weekday).
By subscribing you are agreeing to the terms of our privacy policy.
Our World in Data is free and accessible for everyone.
Help us do this work by making a donation.