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geomblog.bsky.social
Director, Center for Tech Responsibility@Brown. FAccT OG. AI Bill of Rights coauthor. Former tech advisor to President Biden @WHOSTP. He/him/his. Posts my own.
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Most of us in higher ed in the US are going to lose something over the next four years (opportunities, or funding, or time). But if we believe universities exist, in part, to preserve historical memory and create a space for dissent, our primary job right now is to fight and take the hit.

I woke up this morning thinking about Sarah and Yaron. Mostly, I want to scream. I can’t stop thinking about Yitzhak Rabin – specifically the speech he gave at the White House ceremony at which he signed the Declaration of Principles for Oslo in Sept 1993, before either Sarah or Yaron was born.

The House has passed the GOP's budget bill with the 10-year ban on state AI laws intact. If the provision survives reconciliation in the Senate, the California, Colorado, or any other state that sought to pass laws governing AI would be legally banned from doing so. This is what's behind the bill:

The US House of Representatives passed a 10-year moratorium on state AI regulations on Thursday, which if enacted would mark one of the most significant developments in federal tech policy in decades. But the provision faces uncertainty in the Senate, Justin Hendrix and Cristiano Lima-Strong report.

This is an interesting article for many reasons, but also because the sentiment of "what we had is broken and there's no going back, and we have to build something new" is what I'm feeling a lot about the research funding landscape, and research academia in general.

Quanta article on Ryan's space vs time result www.quantamagazine.o...

Many things worth pulling all the stops to fight with the reconciliation bill in the senate—one that should be very DOABLE is getting rid of the insane "no state or local regulation of AI/automated systems for 10 years". Per @kortizart.bsky.social, CALL YOUR SENATORS about this, wherever you are.

The leeway permitted by "automated decision systems" alone should terrify anyone regardless of their views about "AI".

Ilias Diakonikolas to receive the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award for algorithms to robustly estimate high-dimensional distributions. www.acm.org/media-ce...

The House Energy and Commerce Committee just kicked off a subcommittee hearing on AI regulation. The hearing frames the most pressing concern about AI as the U.S. "falling behind" in innovation but ignores the numerous, well-documented harms that AI causes.

This article addresses the legality of the moratorium in addition to why it's really a giveaway to the big tech companies that will be advantaged by it, rather than the people who will be subject to it.

I encourage you to read this. Not because it’s good—to be clear it’s piping hot horse shit—but because it spells out *exactly* how MAGA is twisting reality to obliterate our institutions. Several themes stand out to me…🧵🪡 www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-st...

I reviewed "These Strange New Minds: How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means" by Chris Summerfield. melaniemitchell.me/EssaysConten...

Re-upping this bc the bill cleared Budget committee. Among its many other bad problems, if this bill passes it will nuke all state laws regulating anything computerized. Not just tech sector laws. Contract, tort, property, and criminal laws too. It is hard to figure out what it doesn’t blow up.

A mathematician to boot!

Brett and Eddy make up TwoSet - a hilarious classical music pair - and they did an analysis of a tool that generates classical music. Reminds me of the whole "AI is just mid" argument search.app/MPHTM

There’s a real rearranging of the deck chairs on the Titanic vibe going on in academia right now.

This is easily one of the best magazine features I have ever read. It is funny, educational, comprehensive and detailed about multiple technical topics while staying accessible to a general reader. I wish I could nominate it for a National Magazine Award. It is well worth your time.

NSF just cancelled ALL grants to Harvard researchers. That’s right - physics, astronomy, bio, CAREER - ALL. Professors won’t get paid. Postdocs won’t get paid. PhD students won’t get paid. This is insane! If they can do this to Harvard, they can do this to your school.

The Trump administration has so far frozen about $11 billion in research funding. University leaders say no other source can fill the void.

“‘It’s sad,’ Gebru said. ‘My sense is that people are not fighting back and that they’re just kind of depressed about the situation and scared.’”

Announcing our keynote speakers for #FAccT2025! 🎉 Suresh Venkatasubramanian (Brown) Nathalie Smuha (KU Leuven) Kristian Lum (Google DeepMind) Molly Crockett (Princeton) And the plenary panel will be on “Pathways of Change and the Future of Responsible AI"

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...

Up to 26 tracked cases so far across the United States, Canada, the UK, and Israel! Thanks for the pointers from folks.

#sharegoodnewstoo

The essential thing to realize about this 10 year moratorium is that it’s a signal of intention. It’s not about how AI is used today. It’s about what they plan to do with AI next

Really good scoop from @almsnatalie.bsky.social. Solid addition to the news genre of "we all assumed this would be the case but did not have clear evidence until now."

rarely does one gotta hand it to sam altman but this is a solid troll

Amplifying all this because all of it needs to be amplified. #EdSky #HigherEd

My AI ethics & policy news spreadsheet recently celebrated its 2 year anniversary. It is up to almost 1800 entries! My goal for the summer is to have at least weekly updates to coincide with getting back to video news rounds-ups... which I can post here as well if folks like :) bit.ly/ai-ethics-news

Again: "the cloud" is now not just "somebody else's computer" but now also in a rogue state.

A powerful and important thread from a former White House tech policy leader

"a sweeping last-minute preemption provision tucked into a federal budget bill that would ban‼️ all state regulation on AI for the next decade. " Important Read 👇

This is one of the craziest AI episodes I’ve ever seen and I literally teach a whole class in part about when these things don’t work properly. None of the syllabus spent time on “well sometimes a deranged Afrikaner gets in there”

I am pleased to have this article, “The End of Rule of Law in America” in The Atlantic this morning. Thank you, Jeffrey Goldberg, @theatlantic.com, @washingtonweekpbs.social, @adriennelaf.bsky.social, @beccarosen.bsky.social

No one knows AI state regulation more than Suresh & @friedler.net. If they're raising the alarm, there's good reason to pay attention! In the absence of federal action, the states have led the way - what does it mean to completely block their ability to participate in any AI regulatory efforts?

Update: The TERRIBLE 10-Year Ban on State AI Regulations advanced House Committee. What does this mean? It means we BLAST the HELL out of their phones! Call your House Members AND Senators today! Called a few days ago? Call again! Tell them NO on 10-year State AI Regulation Ban! (Info in thread)

This is great news.

Insights from @geomblog.bsky.social on recent (lack of) AI legislation. Dr. Venkatasubramanian *deeply* understands the complex interplay of ethics, regulation, and technology, having worked in government and in academia on precisely these issues. I trust his views more than most.

Register to join this timely discussion on June 2, in person or on line, with @katecrawford.bsky.social @hofrench.bsky.social @tamigraph.bsky.social and @triofrancos.bsky.social, hosted by my Science, Technology, and Social Values Lab at the Institute for Advanced Study www.ias.edu/events/raree...

Great thread