Over the last two weeks, in response to Executive Order 14035 , the National Science Foundation (NSF) has discontinued funding for research on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), as well as support for researchers from marginalized backgrounds. Executive Order 14168 ordered the NSF (and other federal agencies) to discontinue any research that focused on women, women in STEM, gender variation, and transsexual or transgender populations—and, oddly, transgenic mice .

Then, another round of cancellations targeted research on misinformation and disinformation, a subject (among others) that Republican Senator Ted Cruz views as advancing neo-Marxist perspectives and class warfare .

During the previous three years, I served as a program officer at the NSF Science of Science (SOS) program. We reviewed, recommended, and awarded competitive research grants on science communication, including research on science communication to the public, communication of public priorities to scientists, and citizen engagement and participation in science. Projects my team reviewed and funded on misinformation are among the many others at NSF that have now been canceled (see the growing list here ).

Read full article

Comments

Over the last two weeks, in response to Executive Order 14035 , the National Science Foundation (NSF) has discontinued funding for research on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), as well as support for researchers from marginalized backgrounds. Executive Order 14168 ordered the NSF (and other federal agencies) to discontinue any research that focused on women, women in STEM, gender variation, and transsexual or transgender populations—and, oddly, transgenic mice .

Then, another round of cancellations targeted research on misinformation and disinformation, a subject (among others) that Republican Senator Ted Cruz views as advancing neo-Marxist perspectives and class warfare .

During the previous three years, I served as a program officer at the NSF Science of Science (SOS) program. We reviewed, recommended, and awarded competitive research grants on science communication, including research on science communication to the public, communication of public priorities to scientists, and citizen engagement and participation in science. Projects my team reviewed and funded on misinformation are among the many others at NSF that have now been canceled (see the growing list here ).

Read full article

Comments

Over the last two weeks, in response to Executive Order 14035 , the National Science Foundation (NSF) has discontinued funding for research on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), as well as support for researchers from marginalized backgrounds. Executive Order 14168 ordered the NSF (and other federal agencies) to discontinue any research that focused on women, women in STEM, gender variation, and transsexual or transgender populations—and, oddly, transgenic mice .

Then, another round of cancellations targeted research on misinformation and disinformation, a subject (among others) that Republican Senator Ted Cruz views as advancing neo-Marxist perspectives and class warfare .

During the previous three years, I served as a program officer at the NSF Science of Science (SOS) program. We reviewed, recommended, and awarded competitive research grants on science communication, including research on science communication to the public, communication of public priorities to scientists, and citizen engagement and participation in science. Projects my team reviewed and funded on misinformation are among the many others at NSF that have now been canceled (see the growing list here ).

Read full article

Comments

A judge who may be the first to rule on whether AI training data is fair use appeared skeptical Thursday at a hearing where Meta faced off with book authors over the social media company's alleged copyright infringement.

Meta, like most AI companies, holds that training must be deemed fair use, or else the entire AI industry could face immense setbacks, wasting precious time negotiating data contracts while falling behind global rivals. Meta urged the court to rule that AI training is a transformative use that only references books to create an entirely new work that doesn't replicate authors' ideas or replace books in their markets.

At the hearing that followed after both sides requested summary judgment, however, Judge Vince Chhabria pushed back on Meta attorneys arguing that the company's Llama AI models posed no threat to authors in their markets, Reuters reported .

Read full article

Comments

A judge who may be the first to rule on whether AI training data is fair use appeared skeptical Thursday at a hearing where Meta faced off with book authors over the social media company's alleged copyright infringement.

Meta, like most AI companies, holds that training must be deemed fair use, or else the entire AI industry could face immense setbacks, wasting precious time negotiating data contracts while falling behind global rivals. Meta urged the court to rule that AI training is a transformative use that only references books to create an entirely new work that doesn't replicate authors' ideas or replace books in their markets.

At the hearing that followed after both sides requested summary judgment, however, Judge Vince Chhabria pushed back on Meta attorneys arguing that the company's Llama AI models posed no threat to authors in their markets, Reuters reported .

Read full article

Comments

A judge who may be the first to rule on whether AI training data is fair use appeared skeptical Thursday at a hearing where Meta faced off with book authors over the social media company's alleged copyright infringement.

Meta, like most AI companies, holds that training must be deemed fair use, or else the entire AI industry could face immense setbacks, wasting precious time negotiating data contracts while falling behind global rivals. Meta urged the court to rule that AI training is a transformative use that only references books to create an entirely new work that doesn't replicate authors' ideas or replace books in their markets.

At the hearing that followed after both sides requested summary judgment, however, Judge Vince Chhabria pushed back on Meta attorneys arguing that the company's Llama AI models posed no threat to authors in their markets, Reuters reported .

Read full article

Comments

Microsoft says it’s making passwordless logins the default means for signing in to new accounts, as the company helps drive an industry-wide push to transition away from passwords and the costly security problems they have created for companies and their users.

A key part of the “passwordless by default” initiative Microsoft announced on Thursday is encouraging the use of passkeys—the new alternative to passwords that Microsoft, Google, Apple, and a large roster of other companies are developing under the coordination of the FIDO Alliance.

Going forward, Microsoft will make passkeys the default means for new users to sign in. Existing users who have yet to enroll a passkey will be presented with a prompt to do so the next time they log in.

Read full article

Comments

Microsoft says it’s making passwordless logins the default means for signing in to new accounts, as the company helps drive an industry-wide push to transition away from passwords and the costly security problems they have created for companies and their users.

A key part of the “passwordless by default” initiative Microsoft announced on Thursday is encouraging the use of passkeys—the new alternative to passwords that Microsoft, Google, Apple, and a large roster of other companies are developing under the coordination of the FIDO Alliance.

Going forward, Microsoft will make passkeys the default means for new users to sign in. Existing users who have yet to enroll a passkey will be presented with a prompt to do so the next time they log in.

Read full article

Comments

Microsoft says it’s making passwordless logins the default means for signing in to new accounts, as the company helps drive an industry-wide push to transition away from passwords and the costly security problems they have created for companies and their users.

A key part of the “passwordless by default” initiative Microsoft announced on Thursday is encouraging the use of passkeys—the new alternative to passwords that Microsoft, Google, Apple, and a large roster of other companies are developing under the coordination of the FIDO Alliance.

Going forward, Microsoft will make passkeys the default means for new users to sign in. Existing users who have yet to enroll a passkey will be presented with a prompt to do so the next time they log in.

Read full article

Comments