These documents are influencing the DOGE-sphere’s agenda
Reports from the US Government Accountability Office on improper federal payments in recent years are circulating on X and elsewhere online, and they seem to be a big influence on Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its supporters as the group pursues cost-cutting measures across the federal government.
The documents don’t offer a crystal ball into Musk’s plans, but they suggest a blueprint, or at least an indicator, of where his newly formed and largely unaccountable task force is looking to make cuts. Here’s what we know so far.
—James O’Donnell
Inside the race to archive the US government’s websites
Over the past three weeks, the new US presidential administration has taken down thousands of government web pages, as part of a push to remove information related to diversity and “gender ideology,” as well as scrutiny of various agencies’ practices.
But as government web pages go dark, a collection of organizations are trying to archive as much data and information as possible before it’s gone for good. The hope is to keep a record of what has been lost for scientists and historians to be able to use in the future. Read our story about what they’re doing, and why they’re doing it.
—Scott J Mulligan
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The Trump administration is slashing billions in biomedical research funding
The change, effective immediately, is sending shockwaves through academia. Expect lawsuits. (STAT $)
+ Scientists are also increasingly alarmed about the fact that federal health data is disappearing. (Undark)
+ A prominent US scientific society is facing a backlash from members after removing references to diversity on its website. (Nature)
2 Computing experts are seriously alarmed by DOGE’s behavior
The systems they’re tinkering with are immense, they are complex, and they are critical. (The Atlantic $)
+ Elon Musk, DOGE, and the Evil Housekeeper Problem. (MIT Technology Review)
+ A federal judge blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury records. (AP)
+ Secrecy is becoming one of DOGE’s defining traits. (NBC)
3 OpenAI’s agent can spend your money without your consent
All the reviews of Operator seem to indicate it’s been launched way before it’s ready. (WP $)
+ Anthropic’s chief scientist on 4 ways agents will be even better in 2025. (MIT Technology Review)
4 There’s a growing measles outbreak in one of Texas’ least vaccinated counties
The saddest thing about this is how totally avoidable it is. (Ars Technica)
+ To tackle vaccine hesitancy, first we should measure it. (MIT Technology Review)
5 The US Transportation Department suspended its EV charger program
Tesla is one of its biggest beneficiaries, so Musk can’t be too thrilled about this. (Insider $)
6 DeepMind’s AI can tackle math problems on a par with top human solvers
AlphaGeometry 2 can reportedly surpass the average gold medallist in the International Mathematical Olympiad. (Nature)
+ It’s a major step forward from even just one year ago. (MIT Technology Review)
7 What DeepSeek’s success tells us about China’s AI talent
Its top researchers are just as educated as in the US. But they operate under huge constraints. (NYT $)
+ How China stands to benefit from the US’s retreat from soft power. (New Yorker $)
8 Location-sharing is increasingly a deal-breaker in relationships
But is it really reducing people’s anxiety? Or is it fuelling it? (WSJ $)
9 Here’s an idea for how to make the Vision Pro even less appealing
Add crocs! (The Verge)
10 Inside the fraught US-Soviet hunt for extraterrestrial life
Now that’s a frontier of the Cold War you don’t hear as much about. (New Yorker $)
Quote of the day
“Red states have universities too.”
—An anonymous Trump official worries to the Washington Post about blowback after the sudden withdrawal of National Institutes of Health research funding.
The big story
Why can’t tech fix its gender problem?
August 2022
The tech sector is mostly a straight, white man’s world. But it wasn’t always this way. Software programming once was an almost entirely female profession. As recently as 1980, women held 70% of the programming jobs in Silicon Valley, but the ratio has since flipped entirely.
While many things contributed to the shift, from the educational pipeline to the tiresomely persistent fiction of tech as a gender-blind “meritocracy,” none explain it entirely. Here’s what really lies at the core of tech’s gender problem.
—Margaret O’Mara
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)+ You should probably say ‘no’ more. Here’s how to do it nicely.
+ Here’s how to keep a spider plant alive and well.
+ This ‘knitted camouflage’ series from artist Joseph Ford is irresistibly fun.
+ What birdsong can teach us about human language.
