When I launched Transformer a year ago, it was with a simple mission: provide decision-makers with the information and analysis needed to anticipate and steer the impacts of transformative AI.
Today, we're announcing an exciting new effort to achieve that: Transformer 2.0.
California SB 53, the watered-down successor of last year's fumbled AI safety bill, might actually stand a chance. It all comes down to whether Gov. Newsom values voters over tech billionaires.
I covered SB 53's home stretch @transformernews.bsky.social:
www.transformernews.ai/p/california...
Like the big tech of previous years, the AI industry has been lobbying hard against regulation. California's last attempt at passing legislation on AI failed, but its latest might just have a shot at becoming law. Read @celiaford.bsky.social dive: www.transformernews.ai/p/california...
How a securities fraud case broke animal welfare enforcement: a quick Q&A with @delcianna.bsky.social director of the Animal Law and Policy Institute at @vtlaw.bsky.social
By @celiaford.bsky.social
thereplacement.substack.com/p/research-f...
Hello, reporters, writers and commentators covering AI. I'm commissioning pieces for Transformer and I would love to hear from you! Feel free to send (brief) pitches to jasper@transformernews.ai. And if you're covering the beat and want to chat through what we're interested in, drop me a line!
Pleasantly surprised by how not-horrible the YouTube comments have been so far, but this callout was brutal and accurate.
It was an absolute honor to chat about ChatGPT and critical thinking with Manuel Rapalo on @aljazeera.com's The Take! TLDR; use your brain first. 🧠
Watch the video: youtu.be/qz_ZYa3oRSE
Or listen wherever you get your podcasts, if that's more the vibe! podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/i...
thank you for sharing (and for saying that!) 🥰
This newsletter was literally born yesterday. Help this resource grow by subscribing, supporting, and sharing tips, resources, and job opportunities! My dream is to build a community of scientists, students, policymakers, animal advocates, biotechies, and curious normies.
I'm on signal: @celia.08
Meet The Replacement: a bi-weekly newsletter on the global transition away from animal testing. ✨
Coverage of animal testing & research policy often flies under the radar, but it's more urgent than ever. I'm here to round up the news for you. 🫡
Please share widely!
thereplacement.substack.com
hahaha unfortunately i was behind the times with this and the rough drafts of history are already being written www.vox.com/future-perfe... by @celiaford.bsky.social
BREAKING: The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University has reneged on their commitment to host the @sciencewriters.org annual conference and withdrew their entire financial support.
The National Association of Science Writers is now looking for a new venue, sponsors, and partners.
Today, a broad coalition of scientific professional societies who represent over 92,000 scientists are speaking out against the politicization and demonization of Federally funded science and government scientist jobs.
It was an honor to help the Union of Concerned Scientists with this! 🧪🌎
10/ As one former principal investigator told me: "You have to strive to have an ethical identity. Otherwise, what are you doing? You might as well be working in a bowling alley."
9/ As science faces unprecedented attacks from this administration, we need to support the mental health of young researchers. The future depends on building a thoughtful, empathetic workforce, ensuring that discovery doesn't come at the expense of those who make it possible.
8/ This was the most challenging story I've ever written. There are so many things to hold at once: that animal testing is both necessary and ought not to be. That a career in science is worth pursuing, yet might break you. That we harm and heal, often in the same day.
7/ Viewing living creatures as tools for data collection can lead to serious psychological consequences, amplifying already-pervasive mental health challenges in academia. Scientists who question the status quo rarely inspire change. They're simply pushed out.
6/ After spending thousands of hours in the lab, I graduated in 2023 with a PhD, questionable data, zero publications, and an intense combination of guilt, rage, and burnout that I'm only just beginning to process. I spent the majority of my twenties dissociating to survive.
5/ No matter how you feel about animal research, experimenting on animals is hard, potentially traumatic work. Several former research assistants I spoke with, for example, were diagnosed with PTSD after spending months caring for, killing, and dissecting monkeys.
4/ Institutions teach researchers that expressing discomfort is akin to weakness—or worse, tantamount to dismissing the value of science altogether. Many scientists are afraid to speak openly because it might fuel distrust in science or invite attacks from animal rights activists.
3/ Young scientists enter labs hoping their work will justify these deaths. I spent years convincing myself that by recording brain activity in monkeys, I could uncover crucial information about mental health. I was uncomfortable, disconnected, and had frequent nightmares. I stayed anyway.
2/ Animal research is widespread, and has yielded critical medical breakthroughs we take for granted. Without lab animals, we wouldn't have polio vaccines, PrEP, or organ transplants.
But experiments often end with lab animals dying. And humans have to kill them.
1/ Today, @Vox published a piece that's very close to my heart. Science depends on animal testing, but the work comes at a steep psychological cost—one that too many researchers have been told to endure in silence.
www.vox.com/future-perfe...
Being a Vox Future Perfect Fellow is one of the best things that's ever happened to me. Now, it's time to pass the torch.
If you're an early-career writer thinking about how to make the world a better place, this is for you! (one year, remote + well-paid!)
job-boards.greenhouse.io/voxmedia/job...
Chilling read by @celiaford.bsky.social "As our mental security becomes less guaranteed, we’ll need to decide whether the convenience of controlling stuff with our minds is worth letting tech companies colonize our last truly private space." www.vox.com/future-perfe...
I do miss that beautiful time [two weeks ago] when we could post about science, instead of just sharing shit like "contact your district attorney asap if you want to retain your right to whisper 'the earth revolves around the sun' to yourself"
"A modern-day book burning," a "five-alarm fire": Groups decry the CDC taking data offline, and the CDC's advisory board demands answers, acknowledging it may be their last act.
“We all discussed that,” said one board member. “We expect to be fired.”
New from @statnews.com this evening:
BREAKING NEWS: CDC orders mass retraction and revision of submitted research across all science and medicine journals. Banned terms must be scrubbed.
Goes beyond MMWR +other CDC pubs. Applies to research already submitted to top medical journals.
Take a look.
open.substack.com/pub/insideme...
