A sculpture of a milky sea monster described as a “unique algivorous cow from the abyss of the Saguenay fjord” won first place in this year’s World Snow Sculpting Championship, which was held Wednesday through Saturday in Lowell Park in downtown Stillwater.

A team of three women from Quebec called the FjordWitches – Fanny-Fay Tremblay-Girard, Joelle Gagnon and Marie-Claude-Paris-Tanguay – won the $4,000 prize.

Team Fjordwitches, from left, Joelle Gagnon, Marie-Claude Paris-Tanguaya and team captain Fanny Fay Trembley-Girard, won $4,000 on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024, for their sculpture entitled “FJCOWRD, la vachoune de mer, a milky sea monster.” (Courtesy of Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce)

They beat out 11 other teams to take home top honors with “FJCOWRD, la vachoune de mer,” a sculpture of a milky sea monster whose “salty fresh cream is the secret ingredient for making the best poetic aurora borealis tasted cheese in North America,” according to the team’s description posted on the event’s website.

Sculptors had 64 hours to carve their pieces out of 10-by-10-by-10-foot blocks. Spectators were allowed to watch the entire process, visit with the teams and vote for their favorite. The sculpture with the most spectator votes — Pok-Ta-Pok: The Ball Game from Team Colima from Mexico — won “The People’s Choice Award” and $1,000.

The second-place winner was Team Izmit from Turkey, and the third-place winner was Team North Dakota. They won $2,000 and $1,000, respectively.

The sculptures will remain up for viewing in Lowell Park as long as weather permits and as long as it is confirmed safe by city officials in Stillwater, said Robin Anthony, executive director of the Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce.

Viewing is accessible during park hours, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Night viewing will be accompanied by lights through Sunday, she said.

For more information, go to worldsnowsculptingstillwatermn.com.

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Most students have a favorite teacher. In the future, could that teacher be … a chatbot? The answer depends in part on whether AI succeeds in becoming the next great educational technology innovation, or joins the long list of ed-tech disappointments.

Two kinds of AI-driven education are likely to take off, and they will have very different effects. Both approaches have real promise, but neither will make everyone happy.

The first category will resemble learning platforms such as Khan Academy, Duolingo, GPT-4, and many other services. Over time, these sources will become more multimedia, quicker in response, deeper in their answers, and better at creating quizzes, exercises and other feedback. For those with a highly individualized learning style — preferring videos to text, say, or wanting lessons slower or faster — the AIs will oblige. The price will be relatively low; Khan Academy currently is free and GPT-4 costs $20 a month, and those markets will become more competitive.

For those who want it, they will be able to access a kind of universal tutor as envisioned by Neal Stephenson in his novel “The Diamond Age.” But how many people will really want to go this route? My guess is that it will be a clear minority of the population, well below 50%, whether at younger or older age groups.

To see why, consider other current options, such as watching YouTube to master scientific or mathematical knowledge (usually free), reading old editions of textbooks (cheap on Amazon), or hiring an expert tutor (more expensive). None of those approaches is currently very popular. People may resort to these services if their education requires it, but otherwise they are not taking advantage of these opportunities even when they are free. They will go to their graves not knowing about entanglement problems in quantum mechanics.

Chatbots will probably make education more fun, but for most people there is a limit to just how fun instruction can be. These kinds of AIs will appeal to the infovores, but most people still will prefer interacting with friends and family — a known and usually cheap source of fun, not unlike listening to music or daydreaming. Educational chatbots won’t be more fun and fulfilling than what you would choose to do with that time on your own.

Experience with YouTube, which most people use, is the best reason to be optimistic about the future of AI tutoring bots. Yet a lot of people use YouTube for fairly specific purposes: to answer how-to questions (reboot their iPad, fix a flat tire, etc.), to watch and listen to music, or just to hear people talking for fun (PewDiePie).

All of which is to say: These kinds of AI chatbots might replace teachers to some degree, and give more individualized feedback. But they won’t significantly increase the total time spent learning.

There is, however, another way AI education could go — and it may end up far more widespread, even if it makes some people uneasy. Imagine a chatbot programmed to be your child’s friend. It would be exactly the kind of friend your kid wants, even (you hope) the kind of friend your kid needs. Your child might talk with this chatbot for hours each day.

Over time, these chatbots would indeed teach children valuable things, including about math and science. But it would happen slowly, subtly. When I was in high school, I had two close (human) friends with whom I often talked economics. We learned a lot from each other, but we were friends first and foremost, and the conversations grew out of that. As it turns out, all three of us ended up becoming professional economists.

This could be the path the most popular and effective AI chatbots follow: the “friendship first” model. Under that scenario, an AI chatbot doesn’t have to be more fun than spending time with friends, because it is itself a kind of friend. Through a kind of osmosis, the child could grow interested in some topics raised by the AI chatbot, and the chatbot could feed the child more information and inspiration in those areas. But friendship would still come first.

Many parents will undoubtedly find it weird for their children to be so close to chatbots. Some may even forbid any relationship at all, as they do now with a human they deem a bad influence. Nevertheless, the friendship-first model is the most promising formula for AI-driven education. And the larger question may be not whether it will work, but how comfortable parents are with it.

Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, a professor of economics at George Mason University and host of the Marginal Revolution blog.

The Chicago Bears are working on a deal to hire Shane Waldron as their new offensive coordinator, multiple league sources confirmed Monday morning.

Waldron has been the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator for the last three seasons and helped quarterback Geno Smith to a comeback season in 2022. Before that, Waldron spent four seasons with the Los Angeles Rams as the passing game coordinator, quarterbacks coach and tight ends coach.

He is well-respected inside league circles as a young, energetic coach on the rise and a strong teacher with a creative mind and — especially important to the Bears — three seasons of play-calling experience.

NFL Network first reported the Bears are planning to hire Waldron.

The Bears reportedly interviewed at least nine candidates for the opening, including San Francisco 49ers passing game coordinator Klint Kubiak, former Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman, former Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Thomas Brown and former Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury.

Waldron would replace offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, whom coach Matt Eberflus fired earlier this month after two seasons at the helm of the Bears offense. In the search for Getsy’s replacement, Eberflus emphasized his desire to find a new offensive coordinator who is a “great teacher.”

“That’s important because you know he has to coach the coaches to coach the position, and I think that’s the No. 1 trait of any great coach,” Eberflus said. “You have to be able to have the innovation to really look at the players you have and be able to help enhance and put those guys in position to succeed and to get explosive (plays) and to move the ball down the field.”

Waldron would take over a Bears offense that has major decisions ahead this offseason at quarterback. General manager Ryan Poles must decide whether to use the No. 1 draft pick to select a quarterback — potentially USC’s Caleb Williams — or to stick with Justin Fields, the Bears starter for the last three seasons.

Poles said he expected to ask candidates for their plans to coach different kinds of quarterbacks.

“I love it because what are you going to do for these four different types of quarterbacks,” Poles said. “I want to hear that, and I think it’s really important to hear the versatility and adaptability in their teaching, in the way they implement a plan, scheme, adjust. It actually makes it pretty dynamic in terms of the interview process.”

Waldron called plays in 2021 for a Seahawks offense piloted by Russell Wilson. In 2022, after Wilson was traded to the Denver Broncos, the Seahawks pivoted to Smith and won nine games while earning a wild-card berth.

Smith, in his 10th NFL season, was honored as the league’s Comeback Player of the Year after throwing for 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns. Both marks would be single-season franchise records for the Bears.

This season the Seahawks ranked 21st in total offense (322.9 yards per game) and 14th in passing (230 ypg). They averaged 21.4 points, ranked 17th. That was down from 2022, when they averaged 351.5 yards (13th) and 23.9 points (ninth).

The Seahawks staff is looking for new jobs after the organization and coach Pete Carroll parted ways after a 14-year union.

In addition to working closely with Wilson and Smith, Waldron worked with quarterback Jared Goff for three seasons with the Rams.

Waldron served as an offensive assistant with the New England Patriots (2008-09) and Washington (2016) and worked in operations with the Patriots early in his career. He also has coached in college, high school and the UFL.

Waldron and the Bears must hire assistants to coach the quarterbacks, wide receivers and running backs after the team dismissed Andrew Janocko, Tyke Tolbert and Omar Young earlier this month. Offensive line coach Chris Morgan and tight ends coach Jim Dray remain on the staff.

More Bears news

Bears Q&A: Did GM Ryan Poles miss a chance at a big-name coach? How desirable are the coordinator openings?
Column: Keeping Jaylon Johnson is paramount for the Bears — but will they make him the NFL’s highest-paid cornerback?
5 player decisions besides QB facing the Bears, including Jaylon Johnson’s contract and Darnell Mooney’s future
Bears GM Ryan Poles staying ‘open-minded’ as he evaluates whether to keep Justin Fields or draft a QB at No. 1
Caleb Williams declares for the NFL draft — and the Bears, picking No. 1, ‘can’t be scared of the unknown,’ analyst says
Column: How can GM Ryan Poles fix the cycle that has plagued the Bears forever? Pick the right quarterback.
Bears President Kevin Warren says building a ‘magnificent’ downtown stadium remains a possibility
Bears part ways with senior VP and general counsel Cliff Stein after nearly 22 years with the organization

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Before his team started the second half of the season against the New York Islanders last week, Wild general manager Bill Guerin acknowledged that he needs to see something positive from the current roster before it breaks for All-Star week.

“Yeah,” he said. “That’s where we are.”

So far, so good.

While it’s a small sample size, the Wild have won 3 of 4 since those marching orders, including a 2-1 East Coast road trip that ended with consecutive victories over the Florida Panthers, second in the Eastern Conference, and Carolina Hurricanes (fifth).

The bottom line? Guerin, facing the likelihood that he would start shedding veterans for draft picks before the March 8 trade deadline, has climbed back on the fence. The Wild have made up three points in the Western Conference standings in those four games, now six behind Nashville for the eighth and final playoff spot with a head-to-head meeting Thursday at the X.

The Wild have shown they can beat the NHL’s best; they’re 4-0 against the top two teams in the East, and 1-1 against second-place Vancouver in the West, which tempts one to call them streaky. The reality is, the Wild aren’t streaky; they’ve had one good run all season, 11-3-0 immediately after John Hynes replaced Dean Evason as head coach on Nov. 28.

If they were streaky, the Wild would have more than 45 points, tied for seventh-worst in hockey. The question that will be answered shortly is whether they’re hiding something better beneath those 45 points, tied for seventh-worst in hockey.

The Wild have a great chance to show that this week with three home games against middling opposition: Washington on Tuesday, the Predators on Thursday and Anaheim — one of the NHL’s two worst teams — in an 8 p.m. puck drop Saturday on Hockey Day in Minnesota. It is the biggest homestand of the season. Win out, and Guerin might not simply keep impending free-agent veterans such as Marc-Andre Fleury, Zach Bogosian and Pat Maroon, he might try to trade for a veteran defenseman to replace captain Jared Spurgeon, out for the season with hip and back injuries.

Otherwise, the Wild are fairly healthy. Although Fleury is sidelined by an upper body injury after being run by Florida’s William Lockwood on Friday, and Freddy Gaudreau and Connor Dewar are on injured reserve, they’re all expected back. Further, the Wild have Jonas Brodin, Kirill Kaprizov and Filip Gustavsson together in the lineup and playing well.

It’s perhaps no coincidence that since Brodin returned for the Islanders game, the Wild are 3-1-0. In fact, in the 10 games he has played under Hynes, the Wild are 7-3-0. Even with Spurgeon out, his presence gives the Wild three solid blue line pairs, and two very good ones. When he and Spurgeon were both out, the defense was something of a disaster — and the Wild were 1-5-0.

Kaprizov, too, is having something of a midseason renaissance since recovering from an upper body injury suffered Dec. 30 at Winnipeg — five goals and 13 points in five games since. He had his third career hat trick in Sunday’s 5-2 victory at Carolina and was named the NHL’s first star of the week on Monday.

“If we’re going to make the playoffs, we need to be a lot better than we’ve been,” Guerin said. “Our core guys, our big players, have to be better and produce at more key times.”

The Wild haven’t lost a game in which Kaprizov scores a goal since a 3-2 loss on Nov. 24 (9-0-0). Another good sign: Since returning on Jan. 13, Kaprizov is averaging 4.2 shots a game; in his previous 14 games, he was averaging 2.8.

The Wild still have five teams to leap for a playoff spot, but they’re within two points of the four teams in ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th place. If they want to make the postseason, or at least convince Guerin not to cut bait.

This team might not be out of time, but it’s just about out of second chances.

“I still believe in this group, and I know people are going to say I’m crazy, but I do,” he said last week. “And I think we’ve shown that when we are healthy, and when we are doing what we’re supposed to be doing, we’re a good team. So we’re going to have to really put our minds to it and try to get it done.”