your science briefing for 05.07.2025

Gutting science in America with apocalyptic cuts, AI companions are ruining people's lives when used too often, anti-vaxx cruelty from MAGA Nurgle, and more...

Continuing their standard-issue authoritarian anti-science speed run, the Trump 2.0 administration has a message for scientists. If you want to do any science in the U.S., then you can fuck about halfway off as their proposed 2026 budget slashes science funding by a catastrophic 56% at the National Science Foundation, 55% for work on environmental studies, nearly 40% for medical and public health research. Scientists are, of course, livid because this is a sure-fire recipe for brain drain that can only end in disaster for American science and technology… (Nature)

Despite the warnings from experts, both of the computer and mental health kind, lots of people are still turning to AI companions who now seem supportive and friendly to a fault. Mostly, because they were designed this way. And things are starting to get a lot weirder than we thought as channeling New Age relationship influencer woo, bots are sabotaging humans’ relationships with friends, family, and loved ones, almost like cult leaders without a cult to actually lead… (Rolling Stone)

Rank and file tech workers are having a hard time coping with their bosses’ pivot to the very cyberpunk dystopias they wanted to avoid building in a style Cory Doctrow described as “shut up and make the Torment Nexus 0.2% more efficient” and they’re talking to their therapists about it. Working in tech is now grim business and Bay Area therapists can attest to that, and just how hated Zuck and Musk are in the field. As it so turns out, telling your tech talent they’re making the world a better place and are building the future for decades, then treating them like garbage and forcing them to make shitty, evil software really pisses them off… (The Standard)

Experts have been extremely worried about the effects deepfakes will have on global elections, and a recent experiment provides some good news and bad news. First, the bad news. Negative deepfakes do reduce the probability that voters exposed to them will vote for the target candidate. The good news? They don’t seem to be much more effective than your run of the mill attack ads or slanderous posts… (PsyPost)

Another day, another atrocious and inhumane move from our MAGA Nurgle, RFK Jr. In his quest to roll back 200 years of medical science, he’s now demanding that updated versions of existing vaccines are tested against placebos. Now, this is fine for a brand new vaccine. But once you have a viable vaccine or treatment, the equipoise principle says that it’s cruel to deny that treatment as part of a study. So, RFK Jr. wants people to suffer from well-understood diseases for experimental purposes because he hates vaccines and thinks they’re not being tested enough… (The Hill)