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European chemical firms, hit hard by Iran war, to report falling Q1 earnings
European chemical companies are expected to report weaker first-quarter results, shedding light on how deep the impact from the war in the Middle East has been on an industry largely seen as one of the most exposed to it.
JAXA's 22-Year Bet on Frozen Comet Samples: What a Multi-Decade Mission Timeline Means for Planetary Science Funding
In the world of planetary science, a decade-long mission is considered ambitious. JAXA, Japan’s space agency, is now weighing something far more audacious: a sample return mission that wouldn’t deliver its cargo until the late 2040s, more than 22 years from the earliest planning stages. The proposed Next Generation Small-Body Return (NGSR) mission to comet […]
KFF: US: Global health funding in the FY 2027 President’s budget request
The proposed budget includes significant reductions in and restructuring of global health funding, including the elimination of some programs and activities.
Xbox Showcase Reportedly Coming Next Week, Metro 2039 May Be Revealed
NateTheHate provides an update on when players can expect the next Xbox Games Showcase. Supposedly, it's coming next week
Doctors expose ‘buffalo hump’ as potential sign of hidden health conditions
A "buffalo hump" — a fatty bulge at the base of the neck — can sometimes signal underlying medical conditions, experts say. Causes range from poor posture to hormonal disorders.
CVS Health Corporation (CVS): Legal Clarity and Core Strengths Support the Bull Case
CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS) is one of the undervalued large cap stocks to buy. On March 25, UBS analyst Kevin Caliendo reiterated a Buy rating and $97 price target on CVS Health Corporation (NYSE:CVS). Caliendo said that CVS’s proposed settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over insulin pricing could lift a major cloud that […]
Bill calls for mental health assessments be made available for all Virginia 6-12th graders
A proposed law would ask that mental health assessments be made available for all sixth-12th grade public school students in Virginia.
How to Limit The Health Risks Posed by Polluted Air
By Carole Tanzer Miller HealthDay ReporterSUNDAY, April 12, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Air pollution just isn’t what it used to be. While levels of lead and sulfur dioxide have dropped due to environmental regulations, other threats to air quality persist. Particle pollution, ozone and wildfire smoke ...
Kansas City small business needs uniform tobacco regulation across Missouri
When every municipality can impose its own rules, store owners are at the mercy of whichever way the political winds are blowing. | Opinion
New clinic brings at-home health care to La Plata, San Juan counties
HERMOSA – The practice of a doctor traveling to a patient’s home to deliver care – as opposed to the patient traveling to a medical campus or visiting a doctor in an office – is largely bygone. Accord...
iPhone Fold’s Crease-Less Display Longevity Claims Will Be Scrutinized As OPPO Find N6’s Real-World Use Exposes Its Exaggerated Marketing
An OPPO Find N6 owner exposes the device’s false crease-less claims after a month of use, bringing pressure on Apple and its iPhone Fold
Fury dominates Makhmudov and calls out Joshua next
Tyson Fury marks his return to the heavyweight mix with a composed points win over Arslanbek Makhmudo, before immediately turning ringside to call out Anthony Joshua.
State floats major mental health funding shift that could jeopardize North Bay mobile crisis teams
The proposed shift would shoulder counties with as much as $130 million annually to sustain the programs. For many, it would open a gap they can’t fill.
2026 Greenville Heart Walk shines spotlight on survivors and heart health
“The purpose, the meaning of this Heart Walk is just community.”
Federal judges say White House ballroom construction can continue, for now
President Donald Trump has claimed that a building pause poses a risk to national security.
ENTERTAINMENT: WAC hosts Australian Chamber Orchestra
The Australian Chamber Orchestra is premiering “Horizon,” a new work it commissioned from Pulitzer- and Grammy-winning composer John Luther Adams, on its current tour. It includes an 8 p.m. concert Saturday at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center
Rhode Island Marijuana Business License Lottery Blocked By Federal Judge Amid Challenge To Residency Rules
“Knowing the Act was facing legal challenges…CCC continued forward with its plan to implement the Act and its licensing scheme. The resulting fall-out will be, to be blunt, self-inflicted.” By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Currant Nearly 100 applicants vying for 20 new cannabis retail licenses that were supposed to be awarded via lottery as soon […]
'Not about politics': Miami Beach unveils repurposed rainbow crosswalk installation
Pride is back on display in Miami Beach, as city leaders unveiled a new installation repurposing the bricks from the former Ocean Drive rainbow crosswalk.
'iPhone Ultra' Will Solve Two Key Problems
Apple reportedly plans to unveil a foldable iPhone in September, and the device will supposedly solve two problems with foldable smartphones. In case you missed it, a leaker on Chinese social media platform Weibo recently claimed that the foldable iPhone will be named "iPhone Ultra". According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the device will have improved screen quality and overall durability compared to competing foldables.
“AI polls” are fake polls
A few weeks after Donald Trump’s second presidential win, I took the train up from London (where I was living at the time) to Oxford to attend a conference on polls and forecasts of the 2024 election. Most of the attendees were pollsters or academics, but I also watched presentations from Aaru and Electric Twin, two companies that do what is interchangeably called synthetic sampling, silicon sampling, or synthetic audiences. Stripped of startup jargon, that means they use large language models (LLMs) to simulate responses to public opinion polls by having AI agents take on the role of survey respondents. I had already heard of Aaru thanks to some articles with eye-catching headlines like “No people, no problem: AI chatbots predict elections better than humans” in the months leading up to Election Day. The founders were making some big, some might even say far-fetched claims, such as: “within two years, we will simulate the entire globe — from the way crops are grown in Ukraine to how that impacts production of oil in Iraq, trade through the strait of Malacca, and elections for the mayor of Baltimore.” When Semafor asked Aaru’s cofounders — Cameron Fink and Ned Koh — about my boss, they said “we respect all those who came before us.” Nate (as he so often does) shared his thoughts on Twitter: Fink and Koh were relatively good-natured about this back-and-forth when we spoke at Oxford. They even offered to mail me one of the t-shirts featuring Nate’s quote they apparently had made. I never took them up on the offer, which I now somewhat regret. These synthetic sampling companies fell off my radar for a while, but they do still exist. In fact, Aaru recently received a $1 billion valuation. Is what they’re doing anywhere close to the most important frontier in AI development? Not by a longshot, especially when Anthropic just developed a model so adept at exploiting software vulnerabilities that it’s only being released to 40 companies. Still, silicon sampling is increasingly finding its way into public polling. Axios reported in March that “a majority of people trust their own doctors and nurses” based on findings from Aaru — without mentioning that the “people” in that sentence were actually LLMs. Around the same time, the Public Sentiment Institute “boosted” their online sample of 373 real survey respondents with 114 AI agents.1 (Spoiler alert: even the co-founder of Electric Twin doesn’t think that’s a particularly defensible approach.) Polling companies like Qualtrics and Ipsos are also developing synthetic data panels. So, what should we make of these … “polls”? Let’s get one thing out of the way: whatever they are, they’re not polls in the way that term is usually defined. Subscribe You can’t replace polls with AI On one hand, using LLMs to essentially make up fake survey respondents sort of sounds like the dumbest idea ever, one that will at best imperfectly replicate real polls while introducing all sorts of biases. On the other hand, with LLMs improving at a remarkable, perhaps even alarming rate, maybe that means I’m a dinosaur at the ripe old age of 24 because I still want to rely on polls that talk to actual people. I’m not going to argue that synthetic samples are completely useless. In fact, as I’ll return to later, there is evidence that some techniques can replicate topline survey results quickly and cheaply. But the marketing from certain companies can be slightly optimistic. “No traditional poll will exist by the time the next general election occurs,” said Fink in 2024. We’re just 206 days away from the midterms, and based on the fact that I still have to collect a bunch of polls every day, I’d say he should have run that prediction by a sample of AI agents before the interview.2 To see why synthetic samples can’t replace polls, here’s a quick primer on how they work. The simplest version of these models involves taking a LLM (like ChatGPT or Claude), giving it a demographic profile (e.g., a white, college-educated woman who lives in Utah and makes $70k a year), and then asking it to respond to a survey question. You repeat that process a few thousand times using different demographic profiles and end up with a sample of synthetic survey responses. The actual models used by private companies are more sophisticated than this, usually because they incorporate more hypothesized demographic characteristics for each agent and provide them with extra information. Aaru, for example, feeds agents a diet of news and information they’d be likely to consume, while Electric Twin incorporates their customers’ proprietary data about the audience they’re trying to replicate. The way Ben Warner, the co-founder of Electric Twin, explained it to me was “we have a large amount of data on […] for instance, 5,000 people. Can we make an accurate prediction of how they would respond to another question?” Still, it should be obvious why synthetic samples can’t replace polls. Polling is fundamentally a data collection process. We might use surveys to make predictions by feeding them into election forecasts, but the main purpose of a poll isn’t prediction, it’s gathering new data about what people think and how they feel. Silicon sampling, on the other hand, produces no new data. It’s simply a model: you input LLM training data, demographic prompts, and a bunch of other information, and it spits out a prediction for what a poll would say. We love models here, but models aren’t polls. That difference is an important philosophical sticking point for most pollsters I talk to. “I think politics should stay away from [synthetic sampling], because we’re trying to […] represent the voice of the people,” said Natalie Jackson, a vice president at GQR Insights. Democratic pollster John Hagner told me: “I think I’m just incredibly skeptical of this idea. I don’t think it’s research. At that point, you’re asking the machine to tell you what you already believe.” Hagner has seen some presentations of early synthetic sampling experiments, but so far, “if it’s being used in a campaign, people are keeping it incredibly quiet.”3 But Eli, I hear you saying, aren’t polls themselves increasingly governed by modeling decisions? Indeed they are: pollsters’ choices on which sampling method to use, how to define their likely voter models, and how to weight their samples can and do lead to dramatic differences in the results they publish. Aaru even referenced these limitations in the methodology statement included with that maternal mortality “poll” — although I’m using the term “methodology statement” loosely here, because it doesn’t really explain how the model works at all. We can ignore the (frankly preposterous) implication that synthetic sampling isn’t subject to a separate set of biases. The important point is that there’s still a meaningful difference between using weighting and other statistical techniques on actual polling data and using a model to predict what a poll would say. The latter is far closer to election forecasts or techniques like MRP — potentially useful models, but not a replacement for polls.4 To be fair, other synthetic sampling companies are perfectly happy with the distinction between polls and models. Warner compared polling and synthetic sampling to different tools in a toolbox. “The mistake I think we make is we think that these new tools should either work in exactly the same way or somehow replace these old tools,” he said. “Rather than thinking of it as, okay, so we’ve always had the hammer, we’ve always had the screwdriver, now we’ve got a saw. But don’t use a saw to try [to] do the job of a hammer.” A quick comment from Nate Eli didn’t ask me for a comment — rather rude of him, don’t you think? But since I’m editing this story, I figured I’d add a few quick thoughts rather than putting words in his mouth. Beyond the frequently misleading marketing, what bothers me about the AI “poll” hype is that as AI tools make statistical inference cheaper and/or better (note that these are not synonyms) that actually increases the comparative value of collecting original data. You might be able to train a model to make a reasonable estimate of what some hard-to-reach poll respondent would say — say, a young Black man who voted for Trump. (Such a person checks a number of boxes for a voter who is usually hard to reach in surveys.) Indeed, this is closely related to what models like the Silver Bulletin forecast already do. They essentially smooth out the kinks in noisy survey data by making inferences based on past voting patterns or national polls or surveys of other states. But you don’t actually know what these voters think unless you’re reaching them directly. If there’s a shift in opinion among this subgroup, you’re not going to detect it. So if I were running a campaign, I’d invest more in going the extra mile to find a representative sample of those voters. And then I’d hire some smart quants — or Claude? — to figure out the implications for campaign strategy based on proprietary data that my competitors didn’t have access to. -Nate Silver Are these models any good? If synthetic surveys are just a new type of model, the next obvious question is whether the models are at least accurate. The answer very much depends on who you ask. On one end of the spectrum, you have the maximalist argument that synthetic sampling is more accurate than actual polls. “It’s an incredibly challenging problem to go to someone and say ‘hey, we’re going to be more accurate at predicting human behavior than you, even when you talk to your customers directly’,” Koh recently told CNBC. In his view, synthetic sampling isn’t a saw to polling’s hammer, it’s “magic.” There’s certainly evidence that synthetic samples can replicate certain survey toplines. But if Aaru does have any examples of their approach outperforming the polls, they’re keeping those to themselves.5 Aaru’s 2024 election model, for example, had Kamala Harris leading in Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on November 4th. And although they’ve since taken down their forecast page, they gave Harris a 50.5 percent chance of winning the race on November 2nd.6 After the election, Fink told Semafor he was happy enough with those results because they were “within margin of error,” a term that is completely meaningless when applied to a “sample” of AI agents. And of course, Aaru says their models have improved since 2024, so supposedly now they’d be more accurate than the polls? Still, their stronger argument is on cost: “We are significantly faster and cheaper than traditional polling, and still more accurate,” said Fink. The first two claims are undeniably true, but the third brings us to the opposite end of the spectrum. Both Jackson and Hagner are skeptical that these models are reliable for anything beyond replicating common survey toplines. “I just […] don’t think the machines are what we want when we’re looking for nuanced views. My example on this is people in Arizona and Nevada in 2024 who voted for Trump and voted for expanding abortion in their states on ballot initiatives,” said Jackson. Hagner identified another issue. Maybe the synthetic respondents, like sycophantic LLMs, are inhuman in one important way: they’re too nice. “The reports that have come through at the meetings that I’ve been at are that the early experiments on this, they cannot get respondents to be as racist or sexist or, frankly, as negative as human respondents,” he said. Academic research mostly agrees on this point. While there are some papers that show promising results when using LLMs to replicate polling data, most show that LLMs suffer from various quirks like producing too few “don’t know” responses and can seriously overpredict the favorability of politicians like Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. They also seem to struggle with too little variation between demographic subgroups, so the difference in predicted opinion between Democrats and Republicans, for example, is too small. When I asked Warner about these studies, his response to these papers was that just because academics can’t get synthetic sampling to work doesn’t mean that the technique doesn’t work in general. “Actually, the argument is, okay, yours does not [work]. That does not mean […] for this complex set of machinery, which uses a lot of investment, a lot of time, a lot of money, you can’t get it to work.” Cards on the table, I’m somewhat sympathetic to this argument because academics aren’t exactly great at making election forecasts. Usually, the people with skin in the game are the most accurate. Warner’s argument is that the approach Electric Twin takes — which includes, for example, making multiple predictions for each synthetic respondent using different models and prompts and subsequently averaging those to get a final prediction in a sort of ensemble forecast — produces better results than the simpler academic models. Warner shared a comparison between his method and the method from a recent academic paper with me, and Electric Twin was indeed able to get more accurate replication. But even still, he acknowledged that synthetic sampling “is not a crystal ball.” “If you asked me, do I think using other data sources will be more accurate than asking somebody who they will vote for, I would probably say no. But if you asked me ‘would your system be useful for our turnout modeling today?’ I would say yes.” For better or worse, it looks like the method is already getting more popular in the market research world. Most of the clients Aaru touts these days are businesses like EY and McDonald’s. And AI will probably begin to pop up in other parts of the political polling process. Pollsters are already using it to code open-ended survey responses, and some firms, like YouGov, are testing using LLMs to ask survey respondents questions. More worryingly, one danger to actual polls is that AI agents can be used to infiltrate online surveys. Most online polls use various checks to prevent that from happening, but there’s conflicting evidence on how effective those filters are and how prevalent AI agents currently are in online panels. If those agents ever become impossible to detect, it might spell the end of online polling, but the solution isn’t to replace all of your respondents with ChatGPT. Silver Bulletin is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a subscriber. Subscribe 1 That particular poll obviously doesn’t meet Silver Bulletin standards for aggregation. But we exclude all Public Sentiment Institute polls from our averages because we classify them as an amateur polling firm. 2 You could argue that Fink meant the next presidential election, but (a) I’m also confident we’ll still have real polls in 2028 and (b) in that case he should have asked an LLM to define “general election.” 3 Quick caveat: that’s reporting from a Democratic pollster. It’s possible that Republicans are more willing to use AI in political campaigns. 4 Indeed, Silver Bulletin does not include “polls” produced by MRP in our forecasts or averages, and we think it’s extremely misleading when their practitioners describe them in a way that suggests original data had been collected among a large number of states or Congressional districts. 5 A recent report from Aaru and EY did show two examples of a synthetic estimate being closer than a survey to a real-world benchmark — but I’d take those findings with a grain of salt because the report reads more like an ad and didn’t involve any sort of prediction being made ahead of time. 6 For comparison, our odds for Harris on the same day were 48.2 percent.
Trump administration unveils renderings of its proposed gold-accented arch
Designs for a towering, gold-accented triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery were revealed by the White House on Friday – providing more insight into the latest iteration of President Donald Trump’s desire to mold the physical footprint of Washington, DC, into his own vision.
Update on Proposed Dissolution of SBE Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF) -
On Friday, April 3, 2026, it was reported that interim leadership at the National Science Foundation announced during an internal all-staff meeting that they would preemptively start making moves to dissolve the SBE Directorate in [...]
A New Case Exposed the Clever Workaround the FBI Uses to Read 'Secure' Messages on iPhones
Law enforcement used Apple's push notifications database to gather messages sent through Signal, and convict defendants for terrorism activities.
Harry Cohen banks $144K in Q1 for re-election, but he might wind up unopposed
Cohen's opponent doesn't live in the district.
URI’s Biomechanics Day event exposes younger students to high-tech science, promotes STEM fields
KINGSTON, R.I. — April 10, 2026 — High school and middle school students from around the state got a hands-on experience with the high-tech equipment used by the University of Rhode Island College of Health Sciences during URI’s annual celebration of National Biomechanics Day in Mackal Field House on April 8. More than 500 students […]
MHA Submits Comments on Proposed Behavioral Health Medicaid Policy
The MHA recently submitted comments to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on proposed policy 2553-BH, which addresses reimbursement for specialty behavioral health services based on service location.
Scientists think dark matter might come in two forms
A mysterious glow of gamma rays at the center of the Milky Way has long hinted at dark matter, but the lack of similar signals in smaller dwarf galaxies has cast doubt on that idea. Now, researchers propose a bold twist: dark matter might not be a single particle at all, but a mix of two different types that must interact with each other to produce detectable signals.
Gravitational waves may be hidden in the light atoms emit
Scientists have proposed a surprising new way to detect gravitational waves—by observing how they change the light emitted by atoms. These waves can subtly shift photon frequencies in different directions, leaving behind a detectable signature. The effect doesn’t change how much light atoms emit, which is why it’s gone unnoticed until now. If confirmed, this approach could lead to ultra-compact detectors using cold-atom systems.
A Big, Moving Party for Better Lung Health
Peggy shares her experience with the Trek Across Maine and how one bike ride has expanded into a lifelong purpose.
Group behind transgender school sports referendum opposes drafted ballot question wording
The group 'Protect Girls Sports in Maine' is taking issue with how ballot question is worded, arguing it is "not dutifully faithful to the proposed legislative text and has departed from the most critical language."
Google rolls out Gmail end-to-end encryption on mobile devices
Google says Gmail end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is now available on all Android and iOS devices, allowing enterprise users to read and compose emails without additional tools.
How the White House tried – and failed – to push a candidate out of a Republican state Senate primary in Indiana
With Trump’s sights set on unseating Indiana lawmakers who opposed his redistricting effort, his aides and allies feared a third candidate could play spoiler in one race.
Sports Playbook for Business: Leading with Speed, Clarity, and Purpose
Novo Nordisks Aleksandar Ciric writes that leaders can apply sports principles such as speed of action, clarity, and responsiveness to be successful in life sciences.
Trump’s tenuous Iran exit plan isn't healing Republican rifts exposed by the war
President Donald Trump's efforts to exit the war in Iran are causing tension within the Republican Party | 830 WCCO
Trump’s tenuous Iran exit plan isn't healing Republican rifts exposed by the war
President Donald Trump's efforts to exit the war in Iran are causing tension within the Republican Party | KMBZ
Philadelphia could reshape how it disposes trash as Chester residents raise health concerns
‘Showing the upside to Down syndrome’: Columbia woman’s business giving back and inspiring others
Jewelry can hold meaning far beyond what meets the eye. For Columbia creator Lucy Graham, each bracelet and necklace is made with a purpose: showing “the upside to Down Syndrome.”
Sacramento crematorium plan faces scrutiny as neighbors raise health concerns
Supreme Court blocks candidate after alleged GOP infiltration scheme exposed
The Supreme Court rejected a progressive candidate's bid to enter Ohio's Republican primary after he allegedly misrepresented party affiliation.
IT rules: India proposes new digital rules to regulate news and political posts on social media
The changes will give government more power over news-related posts shared by podcasters and influencers.
New Charter Allows RFK Jr. to Reclaim Vaccine Policy Despite Court Ruling
The charter, published on Thursday, alters the makeup and purpose of the panel, opening the door for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reclaim his revision of national vaccine policy.
Restaurant, entertainment venue proposed for Whitestown
A family-family friendly restaurant and entertainment venue with duckpin bowling and golf simulators might be coming to Whitestown.
Nancy Guthrie Update: Detective Believes Captor ‘Underestimated’ Her Health, Had to ‘Dispose’ of Her
It’s been over two months since Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, went missing, and a detective believes whoever took her underestimated the 84-year-old’s health. During the Tuesday, April 7, ...
EPA Proposes to Gut Federal Coal Ash Cleanup Requirements and Health Protections
Earthjustice will sue to stop the EPA from rewriting the rules for coal power companies’ toxic sludge
Democrats grow bolder on talk about removing Trump from office after his Iran threats
While President Donald Trump eventually pulled back on his threat and agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran, Democrats face growing demands to oppose the Republican president in the strongest possible terms.
US software stocks fall as Anthropic's new AI model revives disruption fears
U.S. software shares tumbled on Thursday after Anthropic held back the wide release of a powerful AI model over concerns it could expose hidden cybersecurity vulnerabilities, deepening investor fears about the threat to traditional software firms.
Business group opposes plan to replace MO income tax with sales tax
A top Missouri business group opposes a Republican plan to replace income tax with sales taxes, arguing the state is already competitive.
Ohio Republican lawmakers proposed major new sports betting restrictions
Three Ohio Republican lawmakers are introducing legislation to place “guardrails” on the state’s sports betting system, including stopping online/phone gambling, limits on wagers, banning the use of credit for betting, and limiting advertisement.
Pose-based embodied interaction for digital Dunhuang dance heritage
npj Heritage Science - Pose-based embodied interaction for digital Dunhuang dance heritage
Hawaiʻi weighs shorter probation, lighter punishment for drugs
The proposed changes come after criminal justice stakeholders from across the state took an extensive look at the state’s penal code in a effort to address concerns and outdated practices
Ohio legislation would require in-person sports betting, ban parlays and prop bets
Republicans in the Ohio Statehouse have proposed a pair of bills that would limit which kinds of sports bets could be placed and would eliminate mobile betting, requiring all wagers to be placed in…
RFK Jr. says he's launching a podcast to expose 'lies' that have made Americans sick
The show will launch next week and feature Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine crusader who has reshaped the country’s health policy, in conversation with doctors, scientists and agency staff.
Sweeping limits on sports betting proposed at Ohio Statehouse
A new proposal at the Statehouse aims to significantly change how sports betting operates across Ohio.Lawmakers on Wednesday announced the “Save Ohio Sports Act
RFK Jr. is launching a podcast to expose ‘lies’ that have made Americans sick
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is launching a new podcast that he says will begin “a new era of radical transparency in government,” according to a teaser video first obtained by The Associated Press.
iPhone Ultra's Price Range Revealed
Apple reportedly plans to unveil its long-awaited foldable iPhone in September, and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has revealed the device's supposed price range. Apple's foldable iPhone is rumored to be named iPhone Ultra In a report this week, Gurman said the foldable iPhone is expected to "cross the $2,000 threshold" in the U.S., although it is unclear if he is referring to the starting price or if only some configurations will surpass that price point.
Craig Reedie, Who Fought Doping in Global Sport, Dies at 84
He led the World Anti-Doping Agency when Russia’s state-sponsored doping system was exposed a decade ago. He received blowback for the agency’s response.
Microsoft Mocked for Terms of Service That Admit Copilot Is for “Entertainment Purposes Only”
Microsoft admitting in its own Copilot terms of service that the tool should only be used for "entertainment purposes only."
Form Bio: The Operating System for Science
Ben Lamm (left) and George Church (right) pose in front of a woolly mammoth. By Futurist Thomas Frey When Colossal Biosciences launched in 2021, one of the first things Ben Lamm did was sit down with his team and map out all the software they would need to actually do the work. The list came […]
Half of US States Are Now in Revolt Over Money in Politics
Idaho became the 25th state Wednesday to formally urge Congress to propose a constitutional amendment that allows federal and state legislative bodies to have greater authority over the flow of money in US politics.
What A Florida Birth Case Reveals About Post-Dobbs Maternal Healthcare
Should a judge decide a mother's birth plan? The case of a Florida woman in active labor exposes how post-Dobbs healthcare is eroding patient autonomy.
If Vermont is going to scale up primary care, health advocates say this one funding priority is crucial
The House-approved budget for next fiscal year gives scholarship and loan repayment programs more money than the governor originally proposed, but many worry it will not be enough.
Where's the business exodus from NYC Mamdani critics promised?
New data offers a promising sign for Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who proposed various tax hikes during his New York City mayoral campaign.
Viewpoint: FP10 should remain open, excellent and secure
Europe is right to worry about research security. Foreign interference is real. So is the misuse of sensitive knowledge. Universities working in sensitive areas such as AI, quantum, semiconductors and advanced materials cannot afford to ignore the geopolitical environment around them.But Europe is in danger of drawing the wrong conclusion, one that would increase, not reduce, its strategic vulnerabilities.If the EU applies an “EU preference” logic to the next Framework Programme for research and innovation (FP10), it will weaken one of its greatest strategic assets: a research system built on openness, excellence and international collaboration. In the name of security, Europe could end up advancing science more slowly, innovating less effectively and making itself less attractive to global talent and partners in advanced science and technology.That would be a serious mistake.The EU preference included in Article 10 of the proposed European Competitiveness Fund may make sense in some industrial or deployment contexts, but is far harder to justify when applied to collaborative research in advanced science and technology, where excellence and global connectivity are crucial. Research is not procurement. It does not thrive when isolated. It advances through access to the best ideas, the best people, the best facilities and the best data, wherever they are found. This is why FP10 should not simply absorb industrial policy logic by default. Doing so would risk importing instruments that are ill-suited to research and that ultimately increase vulnerability rather than resilience.For universities of science and technology, the issue is especially acute. These institutions sit at the frontier of knowledge and technology creation in the very fields Europe sees as critical for its future competitiveness and resilience. They know better than most that security risks are real. But they also know that openness and security are not opposites. In practice, they have to be made to work together. Research security is not about closing doors. It is about building resilience through collective responsibility, trust, proportionate safeguards and better governance. That is a fundamentally different approach from default restriction.The risks of non-collaborationThe real danger in the current debate is that Europe talks too much about the risks of collaboration and not enough about the risks of non-collaboration. Those risks are strategic too. Cut researchers off from international networks and Europe loses access to knowledge, data, infrastructures and talent. Slow down global collaboration in critical technologies and Europe slows down its own progress on cutting-edge science. Make participation rules unpredictable and Europe weakens its attractiveness to researchers and investors alike.In other words, over-restricting collaboration will create strategic vulnerabilities, particularly in advanced science and technologies.This point is often underestimated in policy discussions that frame openness mainly as a value to be defended. Europe’s scientific strength, technological development and long-term competitiveness depend on remaining connected to the best research ecosystems in the world. For a continent that wants to accelerate deep tech, strengthen industrial capacity and reduce strategic dependencies, weakening the excellence base would be self-defeating. That does not mean ignoring risk. Quite the opposite. Universities are already strengthening due diligence, internal governance, awareness-raising, screening procedures and compliance support. Across Europe, institutions are working to manage risks linked to foreign interference, sanctions, export controls and the misuse of research. The right response is not complacency. It is better risk management. But that means targeted, evidence-based and proportionate measures, not blunt top-down restrictions with wide spillover effects. In the daily reality of universities, openness and restriction often coexist. The real challenge is how to apply safeguards without sliding into securitisation that damages academic freedom, open science and international cooperation. Restrict partners, not nationsMore restrictive treatment of collaborators from European Economic Area members Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, or from Switzerland and the UK, is strategically very difficult to justify. These are deeply embedded partners in Europe’s research and innovation ecosystem. Beyond that, Europe should still resist default exclusion and instead rely on case-by-case assessment. The relevant question is not nationality in the abstract. It is the actual risk profile of a collaboration: the institution, the affiliations, the field, the knowledge involved, the intended use and the safeguards available. Screening should focus on institutions and affiliations rather than nationality alone. Related articlesParliament ‘misreads’ link between Horizon Europe and ECF, Commission official saysFrustration grows at governance gap in next Horizon EuropeIf EU preference logic is imported into research without careful calibration, the likely result is a chilling effect. Researchers may step back from legitimate and beneficial collaboration, even where risks are manageable. International partners may see Europe as less predictable. And Europe may end up undermining the very excellence base it needs to compete, scale up and lead in strategic technologies, thereby increasing its dependence on others.FP10 should do the opposite. It should remain open by default, with restrictions used only exceptionally, and then on the basis of clear evidence. It should integrate research security into open science and research integrity frameworks, not set them against each other. And it should recognise that academic freedom, scientific excellence and responsible international collaboration are not obstacles to Europe’s security, they are part of it. Europe needs stronger tools to protect itself. But it also needs the discipline to avoid measures that would weaken it and increase its strategic vulnerabilities in the process. In FP10, that means staying open, excellent and secure.Louise Drogoul is senior advisor for innovation and sustainability at the Cesaer university association.
Democratic opposition could stymy Trump's 2027 budget blueprint
Several Democrats said the proposed budget's cuts added to their concerns about cuts to non-defense programs that were passed into law in last year’s sweeping tax and spending law, known as the Big Beautiful Bill Act.
To Boost Military Budget, Trump Targets Popular Programs at Home
Amid the war with Iran, the president has proposed to scale back some of the very programs meant to ease families’ financial burdens.
Howard Stern's ex-assistant exposes 'immense pressure' and 'questionable business operations' in lawsuit
Donald Trump's 'Save College Sports' executive order lands with a shrug inside college football
Trump's "Save College Sports" executive order proposes transfer and eligibility limits and threatens funding penalties. College football GMs say it won't hold up in court.
Maine business community opposes millionaires’ tax
The proposal approved by Democrats on the budget committee includes a 2% tax on income over $1 million for single filers and on income over $1.5 million for married couples. It’s expected to impact about 2,600 filers and generate $150 million over the next two years.
Advocates Ready For NASA Science Funding Fight, Part II
Once again, the Trump administration has proposed an $18.8B NASA budget that would make large cuts to science and STEM missions. And—once again—advocates and lawmakers are saying they won’t stand idly by while programs are gutted.
Microsoft says Copilot AI is intended for 'entertainment purposes'
Microsoft's terms of service call Copilot entertainment-only, but the company has been pushing it as much more than that.
Affordability and Preventive Public Health Policy
Affordability pressures increasingly shape health risk in the United States, influencing both the upstream conditions that sustain health and the downstream ability to access health promoting resources. Financial stability is a key driver of health, affecting patterns of health, health care use, and the tradeoffs people must make among competing needs. The economic policy landscape aimed at improving financial security for Americans is expansive, complex, and often difficult to organize, making it challenging to discuss how different policies influence financial resilience and population health. We propose the Earn–Keep–Grow framework as a practical way to organize and guide discussion of these policies in population health research and policy decision-making.
The world’s “oldest octopus” was never an octopus
A famous “oldest octopus” fossil has been exposed as a case of mistaken identity. Advanced imaging revealed hidden teeth showing it was actually related to a nautilus, not an octopus. The confusion came from decay that altered its shape before fossilization. This discovery rewrites part of evolutionary history, pushing the true origin of octopuses much later in time.
White House Looking to Cut $3.4 Billion From NASA Science
The 2027 budget proposes to end major scientific initiatives in favor of crewed missions to the Moon and Mars.
Iowa's Miller-Meeks noncommittal on spending cuts to fund Iran war
US Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks says she would "look very carefully" at proposed spending cuts to fund the U.S. war with Iran while touting tax cuts.
Microsoft plans tweaks to Copilot terms claiming chatbot is for ‘entertainment purposes only’
Sharp-eyed users spotted Microsoft describing its Copilot AI as "for entertainment purposes only"
Some business owners in Old Town Fort Collins object to proposed paid parking
Seattle Parks and Recreation Releases Draft Outdoor Racquet Sports Strategy and Hosts Events to Gather Community Feedback
Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR) is excited to release the Draft Racket Sports Strategy. We invite the community to learn about the proposed approach to balance the needs of pickleball and tennis users in our park system and look forward to gathering community feedback. This strategy was developed in response to growing popularity of both […]
US health insurance shares jump as Trump administration boosts Medicare payments
UnitedHealth and Humana shares jump as subsidies for certain healthcare programmes to rise more than initially proposed
Governor signs bill expanding who can petition for weapons restrictions
Gov. Jared Polis on Monday signed a bill into law expanding who can ask a judge to temporarily restrict a person’s access to firearms. Established in 2019, 0Colorado’s extreme risk protection law (ERPO) initially allowed a family member or law enforcement officers to petition a court to prohibit an individual they believe poses an “imminent […]
McConnell weighs in on Trump's proposed defense budget
Sen. Mitch McConnell, who leads the appropriations subcommittee on defense, said he welcomed "the president’s request for significant growth"
Businesses in Northern Colorado's Old Town Fort Collins object to proposed paid parking
The City of Fort Collins in Northern Colorado continues to press forward with plans to bring back paid parking to Old Town, even as some residents and business owners object.
Microsoft: Copilot AI is for 'entertainment purposes only,' not 'important advice'
The company has baked its AI assistant into everything from Word to Windows, but it's apparently only for fun.
Microsoft says Copilot isn't just 'for entertainment purposes'
Microsoft said it will update the terms of use for Copilot after they went viral.
Microsoft says Copilot isn't just 'for entertainment purposes'
Microsoft said it will update the terms of use for Copilot after they went viral.
Do You Have Questions About a No-Bid Federal Contract? Tell Us Here.
The government is supposed to let many vendors compete for contracts, to get the best deal for taxpayers. We are looking at cases where it did not.
Lawmakers propose $10M for Barren County sports complex
House Bill 900 allocates the money for the 2027–2028 fiscal year through the Budget Reserve Trust Fund Account.
Deja vu: Trump proposes cutting NASA science funding by 47% again
The proposed budget would cut NASA's overall funding by 23% and nearly halve its science portfolio.
Mayor Wu proposes $4.9 billion budget as health care costs grow, federal funding dips
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is proposing a $4.9 billion budget for the next fiscal year, a 2% increase despite big jumps in health care costs and less federal funding.
AI Giant Anthropic Leans Into Life Sciences With $400M Coefficient Bio Catch
Anthropic in October last year iterated its Claude AI model to better cater to biopharma purposes. Sanofi, Novo Nordisk, AbbVie and others already use Claude in their operations.
KU researcher proposes strategies for political depolarization in, outside classroom
In two recent publications, a University of Kansas communication studies researcher prescribes constructive approaches to political polarization both in the classroom and in society more broadly.
Burcum: In walking away from a tanning ban for minors, FDA misses a chance to prevent melanoma
"How seriously are we supposed to take Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the guy who’s supposed to be making America healthy again, when he’s abandoning an opportunity to prevent a common, potentially deadly cancer for generations to come?" columnist Jill Burcum writes.
We students need mental health counselors not empty promises
'We' are the many Kentucky students drowning in mental health crisis, staring at a counselor’s door that, for all intents and purposes, is locked.
Hungary’s illiberal democracy
Viktor Orbán has led Hungary since 2010, and has remade its political institutions. But elections this month pose a major challenge
AI Sentience: How Michael Pollan Exposed Corruption in Consciousness Science
By David Stephen
Schematic Diagram of Semiartificial Photosynthesis
A semiartificial photosynthesis system composed of photocatalysts (purple), electron mediators (red), and biocatalysts (green) works together to convert carbon dioxide into useful substances using sunlight.
Trump’s 2027 budget proposes deep cuts to science programs
Domestic agencies would face $73 billion in cuts, including reduced funding for scientific research and health and environmental programs
Elementary Science Olympiad exposes Alabama students to high-level science competition
Nearly 250 elementary students gathered at Auburn University for the Elementary Science Olympiad, a day of hands-on competition and discovery. Through fast-paced challenges and collaborative problem-solving, students experienced what it means to think and work like scientists.
FDA warns 2 supplements sold at gas stations pose serious health risks
A new alert from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that consumers should avoid two supplement brands that could pose serious health problems.
Copilot is ‘for entertainment purposes only,’ according to Microsoft’s terms of service
AI skeptics aren’t the only ones warning users not to unthinkingly trust models’ outputs — that’s what the AI companies say themselves in their terms of service.