AI and synthetic DNA could be a lethal combination Stronger gene-synthesis screening is vital to closing off AI’s ability to enable man-made pandemics

I wrote this for @transformernews.ai, a publication I admire a lot! Separately, I started a new role at Longview Philanthropy, as an AI Program Officer. I'm excited to move into active grant-making, and focus on the issue of our times

www.transformernews.ai/p/ai-and-syn...

Australia can lead progress, if we choose to

Recently, major AI industry players (incl. a16z, Meta, & OpenAI’s Greg Brockman) announced >$100M in spending on pro-AI super PACs. This is an attempt to copy a wildly successful strategy from the crypto industry, to intimidate politicians away from pursuing AI regulations.🧵

Kafka-land at UC Berkeley The 160 members of the university notified that their names were forwarded to the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights were not informed of any specific allegations against them.

A smart Judith Butler response to @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
www.thenation.com/article/soci...

How to end factory farming Factory farming is the greatest moral crisis we ignore, says farm animal welfare champion Lewis Bollard. He exposes the truth behind the "all natural" labels on your groceries and shows how technology...

We need to turn on the lights to stop the greatest moral atrocity of humanity www.ted.com/talks/lewis_...

No ‘Due Diligence’ by David Roodman? That’s a big miss, and maybe suggestive of the bias that comes from the expert having skin in the game

Eh, the ELIZA case from the 60s suggests that people don’t need good prose for psychological connection and attachment

Hard to estimate, but would be cool to see adjustments for counterfactuality. Like which breakthroughs would have been discovered months later by someone else vs. delayed by decades if the discoverer hadn’t succeeded

How can I repost something as hard as humanly possible

@happierlives.bsky.social , you might enjoy this finalist in an Australian art competition - it's a rendering of the World Happiness Report 2024, using a blending of each country's flag for the colour, and going left to right in global order of happiness www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/sulma...

Some very depressing forecasts on the impact of USAID cuts in the recent @asteriskmag.bsky.social special edition: asteriskmag.substack.com/p/forecast-...

Aus doesn’t have heavyweight influence or resources. ‘Progressive patriotism’ is the right path to global impact. Achieve ambitious policy to show other countries the way forward, away from authoritarianism. We are leaders against tobacco, we can be leaders everywhere www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

I also make my LLMs call me mr president

Some highlights from our 2024:

Our 2024 annual update is live! From launching a $100M pooled fund to tackle global lead poisoning, to expanding partnerships beyond Good Ventures, to watching our grantee David Baker win a Nobel Prize — it's been a milestone year as we enter our second decade.

Over 650 political scientists who have dedicated our lives to the study of democracy & government, have signed this letter enumerating our deep concerns about this administration’s actions that undermine the Constitution and the rule of law. Please share.
urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=htt...

"Where Law Ends Tyranny Begins"

Engraving on the exterior of the United States Department of Justice headquarters.

USAID Lifesaving Aid Remains Halted Despite Rubio’s Promise A new directive puts further exemptions on hold. Aid workers also say the U.S. government has made it impossible to pay partners around the world.

Even though Rubio promised life-saving aid wouldn't be interrupted, it has essentially been halted worldwide, interrupting HIV and TB treatment and threatening millions of lives. People are dying today because of these chaotic, inconsistent stop work orders. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/u...

Roughly 1,500 additional infants contract HIV every day this continues, completely avoidably.

Across reporting and opinion pages, the NYTimes coverage on the impact of the tragic dismantling of USAID has been impressive IMO.

While there's surely room for some productive reform, USAID represents some of the US gov's most effective spending. Thousands will needlessly die.

Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze Leaves Millions Without HIV Treatment President Trump’s pause on aid, and the gutting of the primary aid agency, could jeopardize the health of more than 20 million people worldwide, including 500,000 children, experts say.

Two weeks into President Trump’s sweeping freeze on foreign aid, HIV groups abroad have not received any funding, jeopardizing the health of more than 20 million people, including 500,000 children.

1/8 Really happy to share Open Phil’s new Request For Proposals to improve AI capability evaluations. It's been a big project for me and my colleague Catherine. Getting evaluations right is crucial — and we're ready to fund serious work to make that happen. 🧵

Be clear about what Trump and Musk’s aid axe will do: people will face terror and starve, many will die | Gordon Brown The decimation of USAid is already having a terrible effect in some of the poorest places on the planet. It damages America: it will harm us all, says Gordon Brown, the UN’s special envoy for global e...

Be clear about what Trump and Musk’s aid axe will do: people will face terror and starve, many will die
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

James Madison wrote of the necessity of the separation of powers:
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive & judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elected, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

You may have heard that Secretary Rubio issued a waiver so that life-saving HIV treatment could continue during the break-up of USAID.
It has not.

I'm usually a fan of Zeynep's work, but this piece gets things exactly backwards. Her core argument is that DeepSeek makes "nonsense" of US efforts to contain the spread of AI, which have largely involved restricting the types of AI chips China can access. 🧵

Opinion | There Is No Going Back The president’s opponents, whoever they are, cannot expect a return to the Constitution as it was.

Yeah so the Constitution isn’t really in effect right now

Trump Brazenly Defies Laws in Escalating Executive Power Grab (Gift Article) In the radical opening weeks of his second term, President Trump has appeared to feel little constraint by any need to show respect for the rule of law.

“We are well past euphemism about ‘pushing the limits,’ ‘stretching the envelope’ and the like,” said Peter M. Shane, who is a legal scholar in residence at NYU... The array of legal constraints Mr. Trump has violated, Mr. Shane added, amounts to “programmatic sabotage and rampant lawlessness.”