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MAGA Is Winning Its War Against U.S. Science
Source: NBER With all the other terrible news right now, you may not have noticed that Donald Trump is in the process of killing American science. OK, that’s an exaggeration — but not that much of an exaggeration. The Trump administration’s latest budget proposal calls for a gigantic increase in military spending combined with severe cuts to social programs. But as the chart above shows, it also calls for debilitating reductions in research funding. Furthermore, Trump appointees have already been strangling science by sharply reducing the rate at which research grants are approved. Here, for example, is the number of new grants approved by the National Science Foundation: Source: Nature Large numbers of existing grants have also been frozen or terminated, especially in the study of infectious diseases. Add to this a sharp drop in visas issued to foreign students, who often play a direct role in research and who help support academic departments that do research: Put all of this together, and much U.S. scientific research is set to come to a screeching halt — not a few years from now, but over the course of the next year or two. This new assault on U.S. science is taking place at a time when the role of American science in the world has already been greatly eroded. The chart below, based on research recently reported by the National Bureau of Economic Research, measures national strength in science by the share of publications in highly ranked journals. In the 1990s the United States had more such publications than the rest of the world combined. Since then we’ve dropped into third place — well behind China and slightly below the European Union. And this was before the Trump administration’s attack on science had time to take its full effect. Source Some erosion in U.S. scientific preeminence was inevitable given China’s growing sophistication and wealth. But we’ve also fallen behind Europe, even though everyone says that Europe is lagging economically and technologically. Claims about Europe’s underperformance are, in fact, dubious if one looks hard at the data. But it’s still striking to see America lagging. What’s going on? There are presumably multiple factors behind America’s scientific lag. But even before Trump II the growing hostility of the U.S. right to science surely had some negative effect. And since the rise of MAGA G.O.P. attitudes toward science in general have become overwhelmingly hostile. This is true even for the Republican rank and file: And while I haven’t been able to find good survey data, it’s obvious that the anti-science turn has been even more pronounced — and began earlier — among the Republican political elite. Chris Mooney published The Republican War on Science in 2005, and even then was describing a longstanding trend. Why have Republicans turned so anti-science? Part of the answer is that they believe that scientists don’t support them. And they’re right! A study of who scientists give money to shows that only a small percentage gave money to Republicans even 20 years ago, and that almost none of them donate to Republicans now: Social scientists have always been strongly pro-Democratic, while there used to be a significant number of physical, “hard” scientists supporting the GOP. But these days physicists are almost as uniformly Democratic, or at least non-Republican, as sociologists. Why are there almost no Republican scientists? It’s not a mystery. GOP political orthodoxy includes positions that are at odds with the scientific consensus on multiple issues, ranging from the validity of the theory of evolution, to the reality of climate change, to the efficacy and safety of vaccines. In each case the scientific consensus is solidly grounded in evidence. But even before the rise of MAGA the U.S. right was increasingly hostile to evidence-based policymaking — especially, of course, where the evidence is unfavorable to fossil fuel interests or quack medicine, both financial mainstays of right-wing politics. So scientists don’t support Republicans, and the feeling is mutual. Today’s Republican Party doesn’t like science or scientists. It doesn’t like having its preconceived views challenged by appeals to evidence. It knows that very few scientists are on its side electorally. In general, it sees scientific research as a threat to its grasp on political power. Add in MAGA’s combination of rabid anti-intellectualism and allergy to any hint of criticism, and one has the makings of a drastic anti-science turn in policy. “Ignorance is strength” might was well be an official MAGA motto. And as I said, we aren’t talking about something that will happen over the course of multiple years: The U.S. scientific enterprise is threatened with severe damage, even collapse, over just the next year. There are many reasons to find this prospect horrifying: Think of all the beneficial advances, affecting almost every part of life, that won’t happen because U.S. science — still crucial to the world — has been eviscerated. But think, also, of America’s international standing. Can a nation that has forfeited its role as a leader, or even a contender, in global science, still be a Great Power? No. MUSICAL CODA
Wisconsin Supreme Court race could give liberals control for years
The state’s high court, which liberals will control either way, could take up cases on abortion, redistricting and election disputes in coming years.
Google Photos finally adds a feature users have been demanding for years
Google Photos is finally rolling out variable video playback speeds on Android, allowing users to adjust speeds from 0.25x to 2x.
The Michigan Wolverines won a title by mastering college basketball’s new world. It might change the sport
Michigan, a team that has performed like a freight train in this NCAA tournament, won the national title – the Big Ten’s first in 26 years – by playing more like a bulldozer.
Lil Nas X granted mental health diversion that could lead to dropped charges in police assault case
A judge said the charges could be dismissed if the Grammy-winning artist completes a mental health diversion program and doesn't break the law for the next two years.
Pommel Horse Guy Didn’t Break Up Over Politics
Stephen Nedoroscik and his girlfriend of 10 years broke up over other issues.
Earthquake science unites threatened scholar with Cornell researchers
A team of geophysicists from Cornell, Cameroon and South Africa is using machine learning tools to unearth new information from earthquake data collected by Cornell 15 years ago – providing a lifeline for a scholar whose career was upended by conflict.
Woman, 70, Gets Intense Facelift After Life-Threatening Health Scare. Now She Looks 30 Years Younger (Exclusive)
A 70-year-old woman nearly died from a bilateral pulmonary embolism, which sparked her weight loss journey. She then underwent a dramatic plastic surgery transformation that "took off 30 years" from her appearance.
Kids will spring into science with April’s Parents’ Night Out at DHDC
From 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Friday, April 10, the Don Harrington Discovery Center is offering a chance for children ages 4-11 years old to crack into hands-on experiments while caregivers enjoy an evening to themselves.
Dr. Peggy Smith continues to serve teen health needs in Houston for more than 50 years
As Women's History Month comes to an end, ABC13 introduces a woman who's been passionate about teen health for more than 50 years.
Do major concert tours really skip Seattle? Myth or truth?
For years, Seattle fans have wondered if the city is an afterthought when music stars plan their tours. We asked a professional.
Grand Strand chef becomes a Masters chef every spring
Ervin Abbott is one of the few people at the Masters in Augusta this week that hopes everything he does is above par. For a week or so before and during the storied event, Abbott moves from his position as a culinary director for La Vida Hospitality which operates the Crooked Hammock Brewery and the Big Chill Restaurant in Barefoot Landing to executive chef at Augusta National, a position he has filled for the last three years.
LG killed its smartphones 5 years ago, but the ‘Rollable’ feels more real than ever [Video]
This past weekend was the 5-year anniversary of the death of LG’s smartphone business, and yet, we’re just now seeing...
Opening Doors to Opportunity: How Governors are Supporting Entrepreneurship
New businesses – including small businesses – are the backbone of the economy. They drive job growth, reduce poverty and strengthen GDP. Yet, the rate of new business formation in America has fallen by nearly half over 40+ years. It’s far more expensive to start a business in the U.S. than the U.K., China, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Sweden, […]
Lehigh Business in Top 100 for Research
Faculty members in the College of Business have had 32 papers in top-tier journals over the past two years.
Scientists Found ‘Supergenes’ That Turbo-Charge Evolution
It usually takes millions of years for new species to evolve, but not for fish in one African lake.
T-Mobile Arena turns 10 years old
Las Vegas' sports and entertainment hub prepares to host the NCAA Men's Frozen Four this week
These countries have the world's longest military service requirements
Dozens of countries have military conscription in 2026. See which nations have mandatory service that can reach two years or more.
Inside Project Nova, Firefox's biggest redesign in years
We sit down with Ajit Varma, the head of Firefox at Mozilla, to learn more about the Project Nova redesign, how Firefox will integrate AI, and the challenges and opportunities as a smaller browser maker.
Scientists found a “lost world” of animals that shouldn’t exist yet
A remarkable fossil discovery in southwest China is rewriting the story of how complex animal life began, showing that many key animal groups appeared millions of years earlier than scientists once believed. Dating back over 540 million years, the fossils reveal a surprisingly diverse and advanced ecosystem from the late Ediacaran period—before the famous Cambrian explosion. Among the finds are early relatives of starfish, worm-like creatures, and even ancestors of animals with backbones, suggesting that the roots of modern life were already taking shape.
“Why water is special” mystery finally solved.
POSTECH and Stockholm University observe water’s liquid-liquid critical point, published in Science, following the team’s 2017 and 2020 papers in the same journal. Ten years of persistent research leads to a discovery that could rewrite textbooks
What a Decades-long Study of Arsenic Poisoning Can Tell Us About Human Health
Columbia researchers have spent over twenty-five years promoting access to clean water in Bangladesh — and investigating the impacts of contaminated aquifers.
Facing Michigan’s ‘Monstars,’ UConn finds itself in the unlikely position of underdog
UConn is one of the most storied programs in college basketball. They’re facing a test in Michigan unlike anything they’ve seen in years.
Upstate flower business celebrates 70 years
FOX Carolina's Margaret-Ann Carter has the details.
Long Awaited Xbox Game Will Finally Be Playable For Free Next Month
Six years after announcement, it's almost here!
How the Voyager missions rewrote planetary science, tested the limits of 1970s engineering, and became humanity's longest-running experiment in institutional patience
In November 2026, Voyager 1 will become the first human-made object to reach one light-day from Earth. Nearly 49 years after launch, the twin Voyager missions remain the most productive space exploration program ever flown, and a case study in what happens when engineering resilience meets institutional patience.
Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe is ready to turn his activism into a political career
Chris Kluwe never imagined a life in politics, but after years of speaking out, he's now running for a California Assembly seat.
I'm still betting on AI after it shrank my business and staff
A marketing CEO of 17 years says AI boosted productivity but cut demand, forced layoffs, and changed pricing.
Ten To Leave SM Entertainment But Remain With NCT And WayV
After 10 years since his debut with NCT, Thai artist Ten exits exclusive contract with SM Entertainment, but will remain part of NCT and WayV.
‘Stop Texting’—Apple Changes iPhone After 15 Years
The FBI warned smartphone users to stop sending texts — here's what happens now.
After Gaza devastation, Israeli attacks on Lebanon's health care system feel familiar for many
SIDON, Lebanon (AP) — Two years ago, Dr. Mohammed Ziara watched Israel ravage Gaza's health care system, shelling hospitals, striking ambulances and forcing patients to evacuate.
On plant health and embracing new plant-breeding techniques in South Africa
The major challenge currently confronting South Africa’s agriculture is the spread of foot-and-mouth disease. For many farmers across the country, the most urgent tasks are both securing sufficient vaccines and rolling them out quickly in the coming months, particularly as the beef and dairy industries continue to suffer big losses. There is also pressure on sheep, goats, and other livestock to prevent the disease from spreading. As efforts to get the country through this monumental challenge continue, I believe it is important to sharpen our focus on the broader task at hand: strengthening biosecurity. This covers both animal and plant health. In recent years, we haven’t focused much on plant health, except a few times, such as when we had a goss’s wilt scare in the maize industry, a few cases of citrus black spot, or cases of sclerotinia in sunflower seeds. But the fact that South Africa managed to control the outbreaks of these particular diseases when they occurred a few years ago was due to organized agricultural and government scientific capabilities, and, most importantly, the availability of crop protection or agrochemicals necessary to address some of them. Therefore, as the animal health division in the Department of Agriculture focuses on the pressing challenge of the day, the foot-and-mouth disease, there is an opportunity for the plant health division to assess if they have all the requirements to tackle any outbreak that may occur on fruits, vegetables or crops in future. The challenge with crop diseases is that they can spread quickly and cause much more rapid damage in the field than we typically see with livestock. Therefore, speed is everything in ensuring the appropriate controls are available. I raise this as an important area, particularly given the drastic climate variation we observe across the country. The production conditions in some areas have changed noticeably over time, which may introduce new risks. The other essential part is ensuring that South Africa has access to the best crop protection technology available in the market. Many technology developers worldwide have operations in South Africa. Therefore, the Department of Agriculture, along with the Agricultural Research Council, must continuously interact with technology developers to assess the various crop protection technologies they are releasing globally and determine their suitability and need in South Africa. This will require a proactive approach from the government, unlike the current approach, in which technology developers typically approach regulators with new technologies. The government, recognising the food security risks, must take a proactive approach to ensure that South African farmers have access to the latest crop protection technologies, thereby safeguarding the country’s food security. Beyond crop protection, we must never forget that South Africa’s agriculture is key to ensuring that the country is the most food-secure country at the national level in sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa is also the only African country in the top-40 global agricultural exporters, having more than doubled since 1994 on the back of the adoption of high-yielding seed cultivars. South Africa has been the only African country to adopt a bold approach to embracing science and adopting genetically engineered seeds for grains and oilseeds in the early 2000s. Since then, we have seen crop yields improve noticeably, contributing to the gains we mentioned above. But ensuring that South Africa improves further is not a given. The key lies in South African regulators’ attitudes towards new technologies. We have to maintain a progressive approach and not give in to the politics of non-food and non-scientific voices that shout on the sidelines. Food security is national security, and the government must ensure we progress, leaning on science. Therefore, the registration of high-yielding new genomic techniques is required. South Africa cannot afford to fall behind the EU, the USA, South America, and many of its competitors in global agriculture. The Department of Agriculture’s crop science division must adopt a progress-and-science-embracing approach for the good of the country. Thanks for reading AgriView! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Subscribe Share
Politics and vulgarity are not a good mix
If you have sensed that our politicians are using more vulgarity in public discourse in the last 10 years, you are right. In the past, politicians have only occasionally used
AI That Forecasts Hurricanes Years Ahead: Inside BU Research
At Boston University, research is the driving force behind innovation that spans industries and shapes the future. BU empowers faculty and students to tackle complex global challenges, producing thousands of publications each year and fueling breakthroughs that extend far beyond campus. Learn more about the innovators whose work powers discoveries on and off campus. Boston […]
Teresa Guidice's Full Face Transformation Is Wild To See
"The Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Teresa Giudice has undergone a significant face transformation over the years, and it's a little jarring to see.
Train transfer hub linked to reduced healthcare spending
Researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University and Japan System Techniques Co., Ltd. evaluated the 2019 Osaka-Higashi Line station openings using a natural experiment and health insurance claims. While the overall rail-line effect was not significant, Shigino Station, a well-connected transfer hub, showed an estimated cumulative reduction of about JPY 62,500 per medically treated person over four years, highlighting that station connectivity and local context may determinewhether new stations deliver healthcare cost benefits.
The NASA Artemis 2.0 Smartwatch Runs Python And Lets Kids Code Their Own Wearable
NASA's Artemis II lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026, carrying four astronauts on humanity's first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canada's Jeremy Hansen are currently aboard the Orion spacecraft, preparing for a lunar flyby that will take them farther from Earth than
Deadly disease is coming back — doctors say they haven't seen it for ‘years and years’
‘Time for the next chapter’: Lehigh County sports bar bids farewell after 18 years
A longstanding spot for beers, burgers, sandwiches and sports viewing has ended operations in the Lehigh Valley.
The revolution in dinosaur science started 50 years ago—here's what we have learned
The study of dinosaurs has been through a revolution in recent decades. The story began half a century ago, when Robert McNeill Alexander, a professor of zoology at the University of Leeds, showed how ...
Mulligan's restaurant in Jensen Beach is closing after 23 years in business due to high rent costs
Mulligan's in Jensen Beach is closing on Easter Sunday after 23 years. The owner cited exorbitant rent costs as the reason for the closure.
Mulligan's restaurant in Jensen Beach is closing after 23 years in business due to high rent costs
Mulligan's in Jensen Beach is closing on Easter Sunday after 23 years. The owner cited exorbitant rent costs as the reason for the closure.
Suspected measles outbreak kills nearly 100 children in Bangladesh
Health ministry data show children aged six months to five years with suspected measles symptoms soared to 6,476.
Family returns to NYC 10 years after leaving to discover roots
Ten years after leaving, I took my kids back to where they were born, New York City, to remind them of their roots.
Orlando Sentinel 150: Entertainment wasn’t always equal for all
As the Orlando Sentinel looks back at 150 years of entertainment in Central Florida, there are reminders of the days of racial segregation.
The founder of a $2.5 million AI-powered legal business started work at her DA’s office at just 12 years old
Logan Brown, the founder of AI-powered law firm Soxton, lived out her “Legally Blonde” dreams through hometown court hearings as a preteen and attending Harvard Law School.
Google Changes Gmail After 22 Years—Why You Need A New Email Address
Google's upgrade means 2 billion Gmail users must now decide what to do next.
Google Changes Gmail After 22 Years—Why You Need A New Email Address
Google's upgrade means 2 billion Gmail users must now decide what to do next.
Waitrose employee sacked after stopping shoplifter from taking Easter eggs
Walker Smith, 54, who worked for retailer for 17 years, says he grabbed bag from thief before they escaped
COMMENTARY: Politics and vulgarity are not a good mix
If you have sensed that our politicians are using more vulgarity in public discourse in the last 10 years, you are right. In the past, politicians have only occasionally used slang or made a quick ...
New Mexico's court-mandated pathways to mental health care
Lawmakers have made changes in recent years to bolster the treatment system, but advocates say wide gaps render them insufficient.
Nearly launched LG Rollable smartphone reveals its innovative internals in teardown video
Even Samsung’s 2026 foldables pale in comparison. If LG had not decided to exit the smartphone business, we could have seen a first rollable smartphone as early as 2021, one that was already more innovative five years ago than anything the foldable phone segment has produced recently, as a teardown shows.
San Francisco's Caffe Trieste celebrates 70 years in business
Caffe Trieste, a landmark in San Francisco’s North Beach, celebrating 70 years in business Saturday.
San Francisco's Caffe Trieste celebrates 70 years in business
Caffe Trieste, a landmark in San Francisco’s North Beach, celebrating 70 years in business Saturday.
Manuel's El Burrito in Clearfield marks 50 years in business; operators hope for 50 more
Manuel's El Burrito in Clearfield held a small celebration on Tuesday to mark 50 years in business, making it among Utah's longest-lasting Mexican restaurants.
Microsoft spent years pushing Copilot, but now it says don’t rely on it
Microsoft says Copilot is for “entertainment purposes only,” despite deep integration into Office and Windows, sparking criticism over mixed messaging.
Sabres, Bills make Buffalo sports history not done in 26 years
What a time to be alive in Western New York.
I watched The Godfather again at 64 and cried — not because the movie changed, but because I finally understood that the films we watched in our twenties weren’t just entertainment, they were instruction manuals for masculinity, family, and honor that shaped every major decision I ever made
Last week, I found myself alone in my living room, remote in hand, scrolling through streaming options when The Godfather appeared on screen. It had been years since I’d watched it. Decades, really. Something made me click play, and three hours later, I was sitting there with tears streaming down my face. Not because Sonny […]
'Diff'rent Strokes' star Todd Bridges files for divorce from wife after 3 years of marriage
'Diff'rent Strokes' star Todd Bridges has filed for divorce from his wife, Bettijo B. Hirschi, after three years of marriage.
Hawaii’s best places to work to be recognized by Hawaii Business Magazine
Over the past 22 years, the Best Places to Work Program recognizes the best employers in the entire state.
Fossil site in China reveals bevy of complex creatures lived prior to the Cambrian explosion, including a 'Dune'-like sandworm
A site in southwestern China holds a wide array of strange life-forms that emerged prior to the Cambrian explosion, and it pushes back the origin of complex life by millions of years.
Bill Sniffin: Crazy Politics In Wyoming? Yes, I Have Had A Little Experience
Columnist Bill Sniffin writes, "I’ve watched statewide campaigns here for 56 years as a journalist and participated in two: my own run in 2002 and another…
The Band Really is Back Together
It’s been a loooong hiatus, but the prolonged pause is over: the original lineup of Triumph, has reunited for its first tour in 30 years.
YouTube’s Gaming Historian Steps Back After 15 Years
Saying he's lost the spark, the popular gaming chronicler has a parting gift of Kong
A massive arctic thaw is unleashing carbon frozen for thousands of years
A sweeping new study reveals that as Arctic permafrost thaws, it is dramatically reshaping rivers and releasing vast amounts of ancient carbon that had been locked away for thousands of years. By analyzing decades of high-resolution data across northern Alaska, scientists found that runoff is increasing, rivers are carrying more dissolved carbon, and the thawing season is stretching further into the fall. This carbon eventually reaches the ocean, where some of it turns into carbon dioxide, intensifying global warming.
Sussex Academy shows up strong at Science Olympiad
Building upon their successes last year, Sussex Academy students shined at the Delaware Science Olympiad held March 7 at the John Dickinson School. After a years-long hiatus, students relaunched a Science Olympiad team for last year's event, where...
The Sector That’s Hiring, 50 Years of Apple Products, Saying ‘No’ to an Inherited IRA | WSJ Weekend Reads for April 4
Plus, 50 years of Apple products, a scan for statin use and saying no to an inheritance
Fossils from China show complex life evolved millions of years earlier than once thought
Newfound fossils from China suggest that complex animals were around millions of years earlier than thought, among them possibly our vertebrate ancestors.
Woman saves money living in a 50-foot narrowboat she bought for $40K
Dottie Turnbull left her one-bedroom cottage and bought a narrowboat for about $40,000. Five years later, she says it saves her money every month.
Ye attempts a comeback with sold-out LA-area concert, support from Lauryn Hill
The artist formerly and possibly again known as Kanye West reveled in support from one of his musical idols, Lauryn Hill, as he staged a sold-out Southern California concert meant to mark a comeback from years of controversy.
Roma tracking Alajbegovic and Arribas ahead of summer
Roma are also looking to the future, with just eight games remaining before the end of the season. If, as seems likely, Paulo Dybala will say goodbye after four years, the Giallorossi have already ide...
Meteor impacts may have sparked life on Earth, scientists say
Asteroid impacts may have helped kick-start life on Earth by creating hot, chemical-rich environments ideal for early biology. These impact-generated hydrothermal systems could have lasted thousands of years—long enough for life’s building blocks to form. Scientists now think these environments may have been common on early Earth, making them a strong candidate for where life began. The idea could also guide the search for life on other worlds.
Genius RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 Player Makes Longest Rollercoaster Ever Built, Manipulates Guests Into Staying Just Happy Enough to Ride It for 1.947 x 10²²⁷ Years
A RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 superfan has created what is believed to be the longest rollercoaster ever built in the game — and it’s so long that even a googol can’t be used to describe how many years it takes to ride it.
Business Email Compromises: Current Legal Trends and Key Strategies
Businesses have for years suffered from a sophisticated, targeted cybercrime that exploits trust, human relationships, and our reliance on digital communication: the business email compromise (BEC).
Executive order aims to limit NCAA athletes to 5 years, 1 transfer
An executive order signed by President Donald Trump Friday limits NCAA athletes to a five year playing window and how often they can transfer between schools.
Dead by Daylight Devs Celebrate 10 Years of Eldritch Evil and Hope for Many, Many More
At the Game Developers Conference last month, I sat down with Behaviour's head of partnerships Mathieu Cote, and creative director Dave Richard, to talk to them about Dead by Daylight's tenth anniversary.
DI Sports picks | No. 3 Illinois’ Final Four matchup with No. 2 UConn
The waiting game is coming to an end for No. 3 Illinois as it prepares for its first Final Four appearance in 21 years on Saturday in a revenge game against No. 2 UConn. After two physical, hard-fought wins last week over the No. 2 Houston Cougars and the No. 9 Iowa Hawkeyes, the expectations...
Manchester’s SEE Science Center celebrates 40 years of education, outreach and fun
Since its inception in 1986, Manchester’s SEE Science Center has been about the community it calls home.
West's best winning streaks collide as Spurs visit Nuggets
San Antonio's first dynasty ended when Tim Duncan retired with five NBA titles over 19 seasons. Ten years later, the Spurs are hoping to build another one behind Victor Wembanyama.
OpenAI isn’t just buying a podcast
OpenAI’s out-of-the-blue acquisition of TBPN, the buzzy online talk show, stunned the worlds of media and technology. But it’s a continuation of a pattern that dates back a hundred years, to 1926, when RCA created NBC in part to sell radios.
Manchester’s SEE Science Center celebrates 40 years of education, outreach and fun
Adam Irvjo of Westerly, Rhode Island, and his son Grayson, 3, check out an interactive exhibit on pulleys at the SEE Science Center in Manchester on Tuesday.
Gemma 4 and what makes an open model succeed
Having written a lot of model release blog posts, there’s something much harder about reviewing open models when they drop relative to closed models, especially in 2026. In recent years, there were so few open models, so when Llama 3 was released most people were still doing research on Llama 2 and super happy to get an update. When Qwen 3 was released, the Llama 4 fiasco had just gone down, and a whole research community was emerging to study RL on Qwen 2.5 — it was a no brainer to upgrade. Today, when an open model releases, it’s competing with Qwen 3.5, Kimi K2.5, GLM 5, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-OSS, Arcee Large, Nemotron 3, Olmo 3, and others. The space is populated, but still feels full of hidden opportunity. The potential of open models feels like a dark matter, a potential we know is huge, but few clear recipes and examples for how to unlock it are out there. Agentic AI, OpenClaw, and everything brewing in that space is going to spur mass experimentation in open models to complement the likes of Claude and Codex, not replace them. Especially with open models, the benchmarks at release are an extremely incomplete story. In some ways this is exciting, as new open models have a much higher variance and ability to surprise, but it also points at some structural reasons that make building businesses and great AI experiences around open models harder than the closed alternatives. When a new Claude Opus or GPT drops, spending a few hours with them in my agentic workflows is genuinely a good vibe test. For open models, putting them through this test is a category error. Something else to be said about open models in the era of agents is that they get out of the debate of integration, harnesses, and tools and let us see close to the ground on what exactly is the ability of just a model. Of course, we can’t test some things like search abilities without some tool, but being able to measure exactly the pace of progress of the model alone is a welcome simplification to a systematically opaque AI space. Share The list of factors I’d use to assess a new open-weight model I’m considering investing in includes: Model performance (and size) — how this model performs on benchmarks I care about and how it compares to other models of a similar size. Country of origin — some businesses care deeply about provenance, and if a model was built in China or not. Model license — if a model needs legal approval for use, uptake will be slower at mid-sized and large companies. Tooling at release — many models release with half-broken, or at least substantially slower, implementations in popular software like vLLM, Transformers, SGLANG, etc due to pushing the envelope of architectures or tools. Model fine-tunability — how easy or hard it is to modify the given model to your use-case when you actually try and use it. The core problem is that some of these are immediately available at release, e.g. general performance, license, origin, etc. but others such as tooling take day(s) to week(s) to stabilize, and others are open research questions — with no group systematically monitoring fine-tunability. In the early era of open models, the days of Llama 2 or 3 and Qwen pre v3.5, the architectures were fairly simple and the models tended to work out of the box. Some of this was due to the extremely hard work of the Llama, Qwen, Mistral, etc. developer teams. Some is due to the new models being genuinely harder to work with. When it comes to something like Qwen 3.5 or Nemotron 3, with hybrid models (either gated delta net or mamba layers), the tooling is very rough at release. Things you would expect to “just work” often don’t. I’ve been following this area closely since we released Olmo Hybrid with a similar architecture, and Qwen 3.5 is just starting to work well in the various open-source tools that need to all play nice together for RL research. That’s 1.5 months after the release date! This is just to start really investing more into understanding the behavior of the models. Of course, others started working on these models sooner by investing more engineering resources or relying on partially closed software. The fully open and distributed ecosystem takes a long time to get going on some new models. All of this is lead-in for the most important question for open models — how easy is it to adapt to specific use-cases? This is a different problem for different model sizes. Large MoE open-weight models may be used by entities like Cursor who need complex capabilities in their domain, e.g. Composer 2 trained on Kimi K2.5. Other applications can be built on much smaller models, such as Chroma’s Context-1 model for agentic search, built on GPT-OSS 20B. The question of “which models are fine-tunable” is largely background knowledge known by engineers across the industry. There should be a thriving research area here to support the open ecosystem model. The first step is to understand characteristics of different base and post-trained models to understand what they look like. The second step is to tune pretraining recipes for open models so they’re more flexible. Interconnects AI is a reader-supported publication. Consider becoming a subscriber. Subscribe For The ATOM Project and other Interconnects endeavors, we’ve put in substantial effort to measuring adoption trends in the open ecosystem. Everything takes a long time to unfold after a model is first publicly available — and adaptability is why. What we know for sure now, when Qwen has been going from strength to strength with its releases, is that technical staff across the industry has gotten comfortable working with Qwen models. Countless research methods and datasets were made to work with Qwen. It’ll take patience for any other model family to get to this point — a patience I’m not sure many open model builders have. This takes us to Gemma 4, Google’s latest open models. Gemma 3 was released more than a year ago, in March of 2025, and is a bit underrated. Gemma 4 comes in 4 sizes for now, with a bigger, MoE model of over 100B total parameters rumored but not released yet. The models we have today come in sizes of ~5B dense, 8B dense, 26B total 4B active MoE, and 31B dense. I’m most excited that they’re finally adopting a standard Apache 2.0 open source license. This’ll massively boost adoption. The standard of better licenses for strong open-weight LLMs was set by mostly Chinese open model labs in the last 1-2 years, and now U.S. companies are following suit. I will personally be so happy if the horrible Llama licenses and Gemma terms of service were an ~18-month transient dynamic of the industry being nervous about releasing strong open models. The Gemma 4 scores look very solid, the small models have incredible benchmark scores (especially in general domains like LMArena) and the 31B model rivals the recent Qwen 3.5 27B, which is the leading member of that class. The ~30B size range is an important one, as it’s accessible both to researchers and to enterprises looking to deploy the model in real use-cases. Where the 7B model scale is the default for tinkering and research, a 30B model is the default for seeing if an open model can unlock substantial value in your specific workflow — a good mix of intelligence, low price, tractability for downstream training, etc. This takes us back to the above adoption criteria I mentioned for open models and the bigger question — do I think Gemma 4 will be an overwhelming success? Previous Gemma models have been plagued by tooling issues and poorer performance when being finetuned. Gemma 4’s success is going to be entirely determined by ease of use, to a point where a 5-10% swing on benchmarks wouldn’t matter at all. It’s strong enough, small enough, with the right license, and from the U.S., so many companies are going to slot it in. I’m cautiously optimistic that Gemma 4 is going to work better here. Winds are shifting for open models built in America. We saw GPT-OSS go through a bumpy launch to become an overwhelming success. There’s a collective energy around the likes of Reflection, Arcee, Nemotron, Gemma, Olmo, and peers that show substantial demand for building new stacks around open models. There’s capital to be spent on AI stacks across the economy by those who want more ownership of everything, including the model. After launching The ATOM Project 240 days ago, the conversation is shifting into the next stage. Summer of 2025 was a crisis moment where the U.S. AI scene realized it can’t wait and figure out open models after building AGI. The two markets will capture different areas and proceed in parallel. Now that more companies in the U.S. are releasing strong models, we need to improve the ecosystem so that these models are easy to use, understand, and build value around. It’s the hard work to build another inflection point in these adoption plots I’ve been updating consistently, but that’s the work to be done. Join me in it. More data coming soon! Here’s a sneak peek:
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