Thursday, August 14, 2025

Trump’s answer to numbers he doesn’t like: Change them or throw them away; The Washington Post, August 14, 2025

, The Washington Post; Trump’s answer to numbers he doesn’t like: Change them or throw them away

"President Donald Trump presented inaccurate crime statistics to justify a federal takeover of D.C. police. He announced plans for the census to stop counting undocumented immigrants. And he ordered the firing of the official in charge of compiling basic statistics about the U.S. economy after a weak jobs report.

This month marked an escalation in Trump’s war on data, as he repeatedly tries to undermine statistics that threaten his agenda and distorts figures to bolster his policies. The latest instances come on top of actions the administration has taken across federal health, climate and education agencies to erase or overhaul data collection to align with the administration’s agenda and worldview.

The president’s manipulation of government data threatens to erode public trust in facts that leaders of both parties have long relied on to guide policy decisions. A breakdown in official government statistics could also create economic instability, restrain lifesaving health care and limit forecasts of natural disasters. Trump has routinely spread misinformation since the start of his political career, but his efforts in his second term to bend data to support his agenda have invited comparisons to information control in autocratic countries."

Judge blocks two Trump efforts to eliminate DEI in schools and colleges; Associated Press via The Guardian, August 14, 2025

 Associated Press via The Guardian; Judge blocks two Trump efforts to eliminate DEI in schools and colleges

"A federal judge on Thursday struck down two Trump administration actions aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the nation’s schools and universities.

In her ruling, US district judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland found that the education department violated the law when it threatened to cut federal funding from educational institutions that continued with DEI initiatives.

The guidance has been on hold since April when three federal judges blocked various portions of the education department’s anti-DEI measures."

This Evangelical Pastor Wants to Replace Women’s Right to Vote; The New York Times, August 14, 2025

, The New York Times ; This Evangelical Pastor Wants to Replace Women’s Right to Vote

"There are many reasons for Wilson’s rise, but one of them is squarely rooted in politics. When Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, he inherited a recent Republican tradition: The Republican president isn’t just a political leader — he’s a de facto religious leader as well.

Leaders inspire imitators, and all too many people are open to pastors exhibiting the same values as the president they admire so much. Or to put it another way, when George W. Bush was in office, “compassionate conservatism” was en vogue. And now? When Trump runs an administration where it often appears that cruelty is the point, well then, empathy is a sin. It’s not that men like Wilson had no audience before Trump; it’s that there is a new demand for Wilson’s message because it matches the Trumpist spirit of this evangelical age.

Trump is a profane, authoritarian man who delights in attacking his critics. Wilson is also a profane, authoritarian man who similarly delights in personal attacks. He created something he calls “No Quarter November,” a month when he grants Christians the right to “hoist the Jolly Roger and just go to war with the world.” His aggression is referred to as the “Moscow mood.”"

Japan’s largest newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, sues AI startup Perplexity for copyright violations; NiemanLab, August 11, 2025

 ANDREW DECK  , NiemanLab; Japan’s largest newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, sues AI startup Perplexity for copyright violations

"The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper by circulation, has sued the generative AI startup Perplexity for copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed in Tokyo District Court on August 7, marks the first copyright challenge by a major Japanese news publisher against an AI company.

The filing claims that Perplexity accessed 119,467 articles on Yomiuri’s site between February and June of this year, based on an analysis of its company server logs. Yomiuri alleges the scraping has been used by Perplexity to reproduce the newspaper’s copyrighted articles in responses to user queries without authorization.

In particular, the suit claims Perplexity has violated its “right of reproduction” and its “right to transmit to the public,” two tenets of Japanese law that give copyright holders control over the copying and distribution of their work. The suit seeks nearly $15 million in damages and demands that Perplexity stop reproducing its articles...

Japan’s copyright law allows AI developers to train models on copyrighted material without permission. This leeway is a direct result of a 2018 amendment to Japan’s Copyright Act, meant to encourage AI developmentin the country’s tech sector. The law does not, however, allow for wholesale reproduction of those works, or for AI developers to distribute copies in a way that will “unreasonably prejudice the interests of the copyright owner."

How Scientists Are Using Drones to Study Sperm Whales; The New York Times, August 13, 2025

 , The New York Times; How Scientists Are Using Drones to Study Sperm Whales

"In the waters off Dominica in the Caribbean, a drone descends from the sky toward a sperm whale. Instead of dropping a tag from above, this drone will press against the whale’s back to attach a specialized sensor. The tag’s suction cups will stick to the whale’s skin, allowing the device to record audio of these marine mammals communicating.

The technique, which researchers call tap-and-go, is described in a new study published in the journal PLOS One on Wednesday. The findings demonstrate that the approach is a possible way to gather vital scientific data while minimizing the disturbance to whales.

“This is definitely the future,” said Jeremy Goldbogen, a marine biologist at Stanford University who was not involved with the research. “It’s really exciting to see these new innovations,” he said.

Scientists have long used a traditional tagging method that involves standing on a boat’s prow and using a 20-foot pole to attach the tag to the whale. But the boat’s noisiness and proximity to the whales can cause them stress."

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Washington bishop, interfaith leaders oppose Trump militarization of DC: ‘Fear is not a strategy’; Episcopal News Network (EPN), August 13, 2025

ENS Staff, Episcopal News Network (EPN); Washington bishop, interfaith leaders oppose Trump militarization of DC: ‘Fear is not a strategy’

 "Washington Bishop Mariann Budde and Washington National Cathedral Dean Randy Hollerith on Aug. 13 joined a group of Christian and Jewish leaders from the nation’s capitol to issue a statement opposing the Trump administration’s temporary federal takeover of the city’s law enforcement, saying, “fear is not a strategy.”

President Donald Trump has said he is deploying National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., because he is unsatisfied with the local police force’s protection of a city he says is “overrun by violent gangs, bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people.” That move, however, comes at a time when the most recent statistics show crime rates are down in Washington, and local officials there have not asked for military assistance.

The president’s administration is able temporarily to take over law enforcement in the city of 700,000 people because of its special status under the U.S. Constitution and the Home Rule Act of 1973, a law originally intended by Congress to give the city more independence from the federal government.

“From the White House, the president sees a lawless wasteland. We beg to differ. We see fellow human beings – neighbors, workers, friends and family – each made in the image of God,” the faith leaders said in their joint statement, which is posted on the National Cathedral’s website. In addition to Budde and Hollerith, it is signed by six Washington rabbis, the region’s United Methodist bishop, and local leaders of the Presbyterian Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

“Even one violent crime is one too many, and all Washingtonians deserve to live in safety,” they said. “But safety cannot be achieved through political theater and military force. It requires honesty and sustained collaboration between government, civic and private partners – work now being sidelined. Inflammatory rhetoric distracts from that work, even as the administration has cut more than $1 billion from programs proven to reduce crime, including law enforcement support, addiction and mental health treatment, youth programs, and affordable housing.”

They also noted that Trump has threatened to attempt similar military interventions in other U.S. cities.

“As religious leaders, we remain firm in our commitment to serve those in need and to work collaboratively toward solutions to our city’s most pressing problems. We call on our political and civic leaders to reject fear-based governance and work together in a spirit of dignity and respect – so that safety, justice, and compassion prevail in our city.”"

Female vets in Congress slam Hegseth’s repost of Christian Nationalist; Military Times, August 13, 2025

 Carla Babb, Military Times; Female vets in Congress slam Hegseth’s repost of Christian Nationalist


[Kip Currier: Pete Hegseth's views are antithetical to the fundamental American values of equality, liberty, and the inherent dignity of every human being.]


[Excerpt]

"Democratic congresswomen, including several military veterans, are demanding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth apologize and resign after reposting a video about a Christian nationalist church with pastors who advocate for the repeal of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, and feel women should not serve in certain combat and leadership positions.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Army helicopter pilot who lost both of her legs during combat in Iraq, told Military Times, “these views are antiquated, flat out wrong and — more dangerously — designed to justify discrimination and mistreatment of women, including those who sacrifice in uniform to defend Americans.”

“He is the least qualified secretary of defense in our nation’s history — despite commanding tens of thousands of women who actually are qualified and earned their jobs, unlike him," she added. “Hegseth’s incompetence and outright idiocy continue to put our troops and national security at greater risk every day he remains in office, and he should resign in disgrace immediately.” 

In the CNN video, the pastors also said they want the United States to be a Christian republic. They call for the criminalization of homosexuality and expect women to submit to their husbands. 

“Women are the kind of people that people come out of … it doesn’t take any talent to simply reproduce biologically,” Pastor Doug Wilson says in the video...

Military Times reached out to Republican female military veterans in Congress for comment but did not receive a response as of this publication."

AI Eroded Doctors’ Ability to Spot Cancer Within Months in Study; Bloomberg, August 12, 2025

Bloomberg ; AI Eroded Doctors’ Ability to Spot Cancer Within Months in Study

Judge rejects Anthropic bid to appeal copyright ruling, postpone trial; Reuters, August 12, 2025

  , Reuters; Judge rejects Anthropic bid to appeal copyright ruling, postpone trial

"A federal judge in California has denied a request from Anthropic to immediately appeal a ruling that could place the artificial intelligence company on the hook for billions of dollars in damages for allegedly pirating authors' copyrighted books.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said on Monday that Anthropic must wait until after a scheduled December jury trial to appeal his decision that the company is not shielded from liability for pirating millions of books to train its AI-powered chatbot Claude."

From bottles to bricks: A library built with recycled bottles; Peace Corps, August 13, 2025

By Liz S., Peace Corps; From bottles to bricks: A library built with recycled bottles

"Uganda’s rural communities face significant challenges in literacy rates and reading comprehension skills.

As a Peace Corps Education Volunteer, I witnessed firsthand the challenges faced by students in rural communities due to limited access to reading materials. Determined to make a difference, I embarked on a mission to create a library at a primary school in the Central Region of Uganda. With the help of the community, local organizations, and a Peace Corps small grant, we built an eco-brick library that has become a hub for learning and community engagement. The library has not only improved students' reading skills but also fostered a culture of discipline and community involvement.

Envisioning a school library

Once we set the goal of improving students' access to reading materials, a new challenge emerged: physical space. The primary school, a small school with a large student population, didn’t have an extra classroom or storage area for books. But there was the abundance of unused land surrounding the school. There was space—just not enough classrooms. That’s when the idea of creating a library building emerged. After discussing the idea with my supervisor, we decided to pursue a Peace Corps grant to fund the construction. The next step was determining the materials for the library.

The community’s first eco-brick building

I proposed using eco-bricks, plastic bottles filled with soil that act as building blocks. Not only are eco-bricks an environmentally friendly solution to plastic waste, but they also offer an educational opportunity for students to learn about conservation. The Peace Corps grants coordinator connected me with Ichupa Upcycle Project, an organization founded by a former Peace Corps Volunteer that supports eco-brick projects in Uganda.

Building the library: A community effort

Over the course of the next year, school staff and I worked alongside the Ichupa team to build the library from the ground up. The workers oversaw the construction and educated students on plastic pollution. Meanwhile, I worked with parents and teachers to collect plastic bottles, which we used to create eco-bricks. Every week, school children and community members gathered to fill bottles with soil. The eco-bricking process became a community-wide effort, with everyone contributing in whatever way they could."

The A.O.C. Deepfake Was Terrible. The Proposed Solution Is Delusional.; The New York Times, August 11, 2025

 , The New York Times; The A.O.C. Deepfake Was Terrible. The Proposed Solution Is Delusional.

"The other crucial thing that the abundance of such easily generated information makes scarce is credibility. And that is nowhere more stark than in the case of photos, audio and video, because they are among the key mechanisms with which we judge claims about reality. Lose that, lose reality.

It would be nice if, like members of Congress or large media organizations, we all had a large staff who could be dispatched to disprove false claims and protect our reputations and in that small way buttress the sanctity of facts. Since we don’t, we need to find other models that we can all access. Scientists and parts of the tech industry have come up with a few very promising frameworks — known as zero-knowledge proofs, secure enclaves, hardware authentication tokens using public key cryptography, distributed ledgers, for example — about which there is much more to say at another moment. Many other tools may yet arise. But unless we start taking the need seriously now before we lose what’s left of proof of authenticity and verification, governments will step right into the void. If the governments are not run by authoritarians already, it probably won’t take long till they are."

Tuesday, August 12, 2025

White House Announces Comprehensive Review of Smithsonian Exhibitions; The New York Times, August 12, 2025

Graham Bowley Jennifer Schuessler and  , The New York Times; White House Announces Comprehensive Review of Smithsonian Exhibitions


[Kip Currier: No museum system is more quintessentially linked to "America's story" than the storied institutions that make up the Smithsonian archipelago. Worryingly, that story is under grave threat of being suppressed and rewritten by a Trumpian tidal wave of revisionism, erasure, and outright censorship of exhibition content.

Cultural heritage institutions -- and all Americans -- must unite in standing up against the risks to our collective history stemming from Trump's August 12, 2025 letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III asserting his intent to replace "divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate and constructive descriptions.”

Hands Off Our History!]


[Excerpt]

"The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it would begin a wide-ranging review of current and planned exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution, scouring wall text, websites and social media “to assess tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals.”

White House officials announced the review in a letter sent to Lonnie G. Bunch III, the secretary of the Smithsonian. Museums will be required to adjust any content that the administration finds problematic within 120 days, the letter said, “replacing divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate and constructive descriptions.”

The review, which will begin with eight of the Smithsonian’s 21 museums, is the latest attempt by President Trump to try to impose his will on the Smithsonian, which has traditionally operated as an independent institution that regards itself outside the purview of the executive branch...

Mr. Trump’s focus on the Smithsonian began in March, when he issued an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” In it, he claimed that the Smithsonian, in particular, had “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” and that it promoted “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.” Last month, bills were introduced in the House and Senate that would codify the executive order into law."

Trump’s Stats Boss Plots Way to Stop Giving Bad Jobs Numbers; The Daily Beast, August 12, 2025

 , The Daily Beast; Trump’s Stats Boss Plots Way to Stop Giving Bad Jobs Numbers

"President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggested ending the monthly jobs report after the president raged about July’s numbers. 

E.J. Antoni, who Trump tapped on Monday to lead the bureau, argued in an interview Tuesday with Fox Business that the data behind the monthly reports was unreliable and that it should be suspended.

“Until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data,” Antoni said...

University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers called ending monthly reports a “disastrously bad idea.”

“Non-farm payrolls data collection has been running continuously since 1939, through wars, and depressions, and global pandemics. At no point through that nearly century-long history, has anyone suggested that the public would be better off without these data,” he told the Daily Beast."

97 years ago today, Disney copyrighted the Mickey Mouse character; Trib Live, August 12, 2025

  , Tri Live; 97 years ago today, Disney copyrighted the Mickey Mouse character

"On Aug. 12, 1928, an ambitious young man named Walt Disney filed a copyright application for Mickey Mouse, a new animated character he’d created alongside animator Ub Iwerks.

That turned out to be a successful business move for Disney, who would go on to build his character into an international entertainment empire."

Russia Is Suspected to Be Behind Breach of Federal Court Filing System; The New York Times, August 12, 2025

Adam Goldman Glenn Thrush and  , The New York Times; Russia Is Suspected to Be Behind Breach of Federal Court Filing System

"Investigators have uncovered evidence that Russia is at least in part responsible for a recent hack of the computer system that manages federal court documents, including highly sensitive records that might contain information that could reveal sources and people charged with national security crimes, according to several people briefed on the breach.

It is not clear what entity is responsible, whether an arm of Russian intelligence might be behind the intrusion or if other countries were also involved, which some of the people familiar with the matter described as a yearslong effort to infiltrate the system. Some of the searches included midlevel criminal cases in the New York City area and several other jurisdictions, with some cases involving people with Russian and Eastern European surnames.

The disclosure comes as President Trump is expected to meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, in Alaska on Friday, where Mr. Trump is planning to discuss his push to end the war in Ukraine."

Man develops rare condition after ChatGPT query over stopping eating salt; The Guardian, August 12, 2025

 , The Guardian; Man develops rare condition after ChatGPT query over stopping eating salt

"A US medical journal has warned against using ChatGPT for health information after a man developed a rare condition following an interaction with the chatbot about removing table salt from his diet.

An article in the Annals of Internal Medicine reported a case in which a 60-year-old man developed bromism, also known as bromide toxicity, after consulting ChatGPT."

The Era of A.I. Propaganda Has Arrived, and America Must Act; The New York Times, August 5, 2025

Brett J. Goldstein and  , The New York Times; The Era of A.I. Propaganda Has Arrived, and America Must Act

"To counter the growing threat of A.I.-driven foreign influence operations, a coordinated response is essential. Academic researchers must work urgently to map how artificial intelligence, open-source intelligence and online influence campaigns converge to serve hostile state objectives. The U.S. government must take the lead in disrupting the infrastructure behind these operations, with the Defense Department targeting foreign influence networks and the Federal Bureau of Investigation working closely with digital platforms to identify and counter false personas. The private sector needs to accelerate A.I. detection capabilities to bolster our ability to detect synthetic content. If we can’t identify it, we can’t stop it.

We are entering a new era of gray-zone conflict — one marked by information warfare executed at a scale, speed and degree of sophistication never seen before. If we don’t quickly figure out how to defend against this kind of A.I.-driven influence, we will be completely exposed."

Justice Department Declares DEI Unlawful; Inside Higher Ed, July 30, 2025

  Johanna Alonso, Inside Higher Ed; Justice Department Declares DEI Unlawful

"More than three months after a federal court struck down an Education Department directive that barred any practices that consider race at colleges across the country, the Department of Justice declared Wednesday that diversity, equity and inclusion practices are unlawful and “discriminatory.” 

But the agency’s memo goes even further than ED’s guidance, suggesting that programs that rely on what they describe as stand-ins for race, like recruitment efforts that focus on majority-minority geographic areas, could violate federal civil rights laws. The directive applies to any organization that receives federal funds, and DOJ officials warned that engaging in potentially unlawful practices could lead to a loss in grant funding.

Other examples of “potentially unlawful proxies” include requirements that job applicants “demonstrate ‘cultural competence,’ ‘lived experience,’ or ‘cross-cultural skills’” or narratives about how the applicant has overcome obstacles, Attorney General Pamela Bondi wrote."

Trump Is Squandering the Greatest Gift of the Manhattan Project; The New York Times, August 12, 2025

 Garrett M. Graff , The New York Times; Trump Is Squandering the Greatest Gift of the Manhattan Project

"The Manhattan Project was a towering achievement, one of the great stories of human effort and accomplishment. Yet the Trump administration has been systematically dismantling the culture of research that the Manhattan Project and World War II bequeathed us, a culture that propelled American prosperity.

At no other time in modern history has a country so thoroughly turned its back on its core national strengths. The very elements that made the Manhattan Project such a success are today under assault. With devastating cuts to science and health research, the administration is turning its back on a history of being powered and renewed by the innovation and vision of immigrants. What America may find is that we have squandered the greatest gift of the Manhattan Project — which, in the end, wasn’t the bomb but a new way of looking at how science and government can work together."

Adidas Apologizes After Mexico Criticizes Oaxacan-Inspired Shoe; The New York Times, August 11, 2025

  , The New York Times; Adidas Apologizes After Mexico Criticizes Oaxacan-Inspired Shoe

"President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico displayed an image of a pair of Adidas Oaxaca Slip-Ons at a news conference on Friday and said that Adidas and other companies were “usurping the creativity” of Indigenous communities.

She said that the government of Oaxaca had begun talks with Adidas aimed at reimbursing Indigenous communities for the use of their “collective intellectual property” and that Mexico was prepared to take legal action.

Mr. Chavarria, the son of an Irish American mother and a Mexican American father, issued an apology on Saturday, written in English and Spanish and addressed to “the people of Oaxaca.”"

What Deepfake Scams Teach Us About AI and Fraud; ABA Journal, June 10, 2024

 Jeffrey M Allen, ABA Journal; What Deepfake Scams Teach Us About AI and Fraud

"How Can Lawyers Help? Start with Awareness

Whether you work in elder law, family law, estate planning, or general civil practice, you’ve probably encountered lonely, grieving, or emotionally raw clients. The very people scammers like to target.

Attorneys can protect clients (and themselves) by:

  • Spotting the red flags. Does the story sound dramatic, urgent, or secretive? That’s a clue.
  • Verifying everything. Real celebrities don’t DM strangers asking for cash. If a story seems off, it probably is.
  • Watching for payment via crypto or wire transfer. Once it’s gone, it’s almost impossible to recover.
  • Encouraging clients to slow down. Scammers rely on urgency. A second opinion can stop a scam from progressing.

What Should Lawmakers Do?

There’s no silver bullet here, but the legal system should adapt.

  • Modernize fraud and impersonation laws to include AI-generated deepfakes and synthetic media explicitly.
  • Increase platform accountability. Social media and messaging platforms should be required to detect and remove known scams more quickly.
  • Encourage cross-border enforcement agreements to track international fraud rings more efficiently."

Opinion | Federal Justice Department twists attorney ethics into misconduct; The Minnesota Star Tribune, August 10, 2025

Rob Doar , The Minnesota Star Tribune; Opinion | Federal Justice Department twists attorney ethics into misconduct

"As a bilingual advocate working in public defense, I regularly represent Spanish-speaking clients in Minnesota, many of whom have varying immigration statuses. My job is straightforward yet demanding: ensuring my clients receive competent, fair and loyal representation. My ethical obligations are clear: I must protect my clients’ rights, safeguard their interests and work tirelessly to resolve their cases justly. For many public defense clients, the stakes couldn’t be higher, as a criminal conviction could result in devastating immigration consequences.

“A lawyer must, to the extent consistent with the lawyer’s other legal duties, act with reasonable diligence and promptness to advance the client’s lawful objectives, as defined by the client.

Monday, August 11, 2025

The Harvard-Trained Lawyer Behind Trump’s Fight Against Top Universities; The New York Times, August 11, 2025

, The New York Times; The Harvard-Trained Lawyer Behind Trump’s Fight Against Top Universities

"When President Trump wants to rattle academia, he turns to his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller. And then Mr. Miller turns to May Mailman.

Ms. Mailman, a 37-year-old Harvard-trained lawyer, is the most important, least-known person behind the administration’s relentless pursuit of the nation’s premier universities. The extraordinary effort has found seemingly endless ways to pressure schools into submission, including federal funding, student visas and civil rights investigations.

Her hand in deploying these levers of power was evident from the beginning of Mr. Trump’s second term. As his ambitions around reshaping higher education expanded, so did her remit. She is credited as an animating force behind a strategy that has intimidated independent institutions and undercut years of medical and scientific research.

The policies Ms. Mailman helped devise — and is now leveraging as she leads the White House’s negotiations with colleges — have sent shock waves through higher education, dividing faculty and alarming some students who see an effort to silence dissent. The aggressive tactics could have far-reaching implications for the future of academic freedom, the admissions practices at the most competitive colleges and the global reputations for some of the crown jewels of the nation’s university system."

Invention-Con 2025: Empowering American ingenuity and innovation; United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), September 9-10, 2025

 United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ; Invention-Con 2025: Empowering American ingenuity and innovation

"Do you want to grow your intellectual property (IP) knowledge and gain access to IP and business experts, accomplished innovators, and inspiring entrepreneurs? Join us for the USPTO's free flagship conference for inventors, makers, and entrepreneurs. Don’t miss Invention-Con 2025, coming to you virtually September 9-10 from 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. ET daily. Tailored for the independent inventor and entrepreneur community, our marquee event brings inspiration and IP experts directly to you.

  • Learn from accomplished innovators, inventors, entrepreneurs, and business owners how to use IP to achieve success.

  • Discover resources available to assist at every stage of your journey.

  • Connect with IP and business experts who can help you develop a strategy for your innovation, from idea to market."

How Short-Term Thinking Is Destroying America; The New York Times, August 11, 2025

 Ben Rhodes , The New York Times;  How Short-Term Thinking Is Destroying America

"Unsurprisingly, the second Trump administration has binged on short-term “wins” at the expense of the future. It has created trillions of dollars in prospective debt, bullied every country on earth, deregulated the spread of A.I. and denied the scientific reality of global warming. It has ignored the math that doesn’t add up, the wars that don’t end on Trump deadlines, the C.E.O.s forecasting what could amount to huge job losses if A.I. transforms our economy and the catastrophic floods, which are harbingers of a changing climate. Mr. Trump declares victory. The camera focuses on the next shiny object. Negative consequences can be obfuscated today, blamed on others tomorrow."

Cat soap operas and babies trapped in space: the ‘AI slop’ taking over YouTube; The Guardian, August 11, 2025

 , The Guardian; Cat soap operas and babies trapped in space: the ‘AI slop’ taking over YouTube

"One expert said AI video generators herald the next wave of internet “enshittification”, a term first used by the British-Canadian author Cory Doctorow. Coined in 2022, Doctorow used it to describe the decline in quality of users’ online experiences, as platforms prioritise profit over offering high-quality content.

“AI slop is flooding the internet with content that essentially is garbage,” said Dr Akhil Bhardwaj, an associate professor at the University of Bath’s school of management. “This enshittification is ruining online communities on Pinterest, competing for revenue with artists on Spotify and flooding YouTube with poor quality content.”

“One way for social media companies to regulate AI slop is to ensure that it cannot be monetised, thus stripping away the incentive for generating it.”

Ryan Broderick, the author of the popular Garbage Day newsletter on internet culture, is scathing about the impact of AI video, writing last week that YouTube has become a “dumping ground for disturbing, soulless AI shorts”.