policy – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Removal of Russian coders spurs debate about Linux kernel’s politics

Chima Wisdom — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 17:22:46 +0000

A two-line comment about “various compliance requirements” spurred questions about sanctions policy and procedure on the Linux kernel mailing list.

Dr. Tristan Colonius, DVM — Chief Veterinary Officer & Deputy Director for Science Policy, CVM, FDA

Ira S. Pastor — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 11:24:06 +0000

Protecting Human And Animal Health — Dr. Tristan Colonius, DVM — Chief Veterinary Officer & Deputy Director for Science Policy, Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Dr. Tristan Colonius, DVM is the Chief Veterinary Officer and Deputy Director for Science Policy at FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM — https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary).

Dr. Colonius previously worked in various positions at FDA, including as Deputy Chief of Staff to Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf and as an International Policy Analyst.

During his career at FDA, Dr. Colonius has been working on numerous initiatives including the Animal and Veterinary Innovation Agenda, One Health, Intentional Genomic Alterations in animals, and zootechnical animal feed substances (ZAFS) among many other programs at CVM.

Prior to joining FDA, Dr. Colonius held positions in the US Senate and US Department of Agriculture.

Dr. Colonius came to the Hill as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology fellow in 2012 in Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s (NY) office and worked to help pass the Agricultural Act of 2014 (the “Farm Bill”) renewal.

Dr. Colonius then went to work for Senator Diane Feinstein, first as a Legislative Assistant and then as her Deputy Legislative Director. While in Senator Feinstein’s office, Dr. Colonius worked on disaster preparedness, climate resiliency, emerging public health threats, homeland security, federal science policy, and animal welfare/conservation.

Dr. Colonius holds a BA in Political Science and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Louisiana State University, as well as a Master of Public Administration from the University of Illinois.

Dr. Leonard Tender, Ph.D. — Biological Technologies Office, DARPA — Next Generation Biomanufacturing

Ira S. Pastor — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 22:22:50 +0000

Next Generation Biomanufacturing Technologies — Dr. Leonard Tender, Ph.D. — Biological Technologies Office, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — DARPA

Dr. Leonard Tender, Ph.D. is a Program Manager in the Biological Technologies Office at DARPA (https://www.darpa.mil/staff/dr-leonar…) where his research interests include developing new methods for user-defined control of biological processes, and climate and supply chain resilience.

Prior to coming to DARPA, Dr. Tender was a principal investigator and led the Laboratory for Molecular Interfaces in the Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. There, among other accomplishments, he facilitated numerous international collaborations with key external stakeholders in academia, industry, and government and his highly interdisciplinary research team, comprised of electrochemists, microbiologists, and engineers, is widely recognized for its many contributions to the field of microbial electrochemistry.

Dr. Tender earned a doctorate degree in analytical chemistry from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley; and served as a visiting scientist in the Stanford University Department of Chemistry.

Dr. Tender co-founded the International Society for Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology and is a recipient of the Arthur S. Flemming Award, which honors outstanding federal employees, by the George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration.

#DARPA #Biomanufacturing #QuantumBiology #QuantumComputing #NavalResearchLaboratory #MicrobialElectrochemistry #DefenseAdvancedResearchProjectsAgency #Bioelectronics #TissueRegeneration #UnderseaEnergy #BreathableArmors #EdibleMacronutrients #Lubricants #Adhesives #TacticalFibers #PotableWater #Plastic #OrbitalManufacturing #Extremophiles #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #Research

Noether’s razor: Learning Conserved Quantities

Cecile G. Tamura — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 16:24:01 +0000

Tycho F. A. van der Ouderaa, Mark van der Wilk, Pim de Haan Imperial College London, University of Oxford, & Cusp AI 2024.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.08087 https://github.com/tychovdo/noethers-razor

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Over-optimization in RL is well-known, but it even occurs when KL(policy || base model) is constrained fairly tightly

Cecile G. Tamura — Sat, 12 Oct 2024 04:25:09 +0000

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Looking back at President Jimmy Carter’s science policy

Omuterema Akhahenda — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 22:22:56 +0000

As President, Jimmy Carter established several science-related initiatives and policies.

Carter also sought to promote scientific research and development in a number of areas. He increased funding for basic science research in fields such as physics and chemistry, and established the National Commission on Excellence in Education to promote improvements in science and math education in American schools.

On top of that, Carter sought to address environmental issues through science policy. He established the Superfund program, which was created to clean up hazardous waste sites, and signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which protected millions of acres of land in Alaska.

Carter’s science policy emphasized the importance of science and technology in addressing pressing issues such as energy, the environment, and education.

Assessing China’s AI development and forecasting its future tech priorities

Dan Breeden — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 08:22:59 +0000

SUBJECT: Assessing China’s current AI development and forecasting its future technology priorities.

In July 2024, the Atlantic Council Global China Hub (AC GCH) and the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) convened experts and policymakers in the second of a two-part private workshop series to gather insights into China’s technology priorities today and in the future. Participants discussed Beijing’s posture on artificial intelligence (AI) development and deployment today, including the hurdles China’s AI industry faces amid US-China technology competition, as well as Beijing’s policy priorities over the next decade. This memo summarizes insights gathered during the workshop.

In today’s strategic competition between the United States and China, both countries seek to bolster their nations’ innovation ecosystems and enhance their ability to develop and deploy breakthrough technologies. The United States is committed to maintaining US technological leadership in the long term, as Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo demonstrated at the Reagan National Defense Forum in December 2023, when she stated that “America leads the world in artificial intelligence. America leads the world in advanced semiconductor design, period… e’re a couple years ahead of China. No way are we going to let them catch up. We cannot let them catch up.”

Will humans accept robots that can lie? Scientists find it depends on the lie

Saúl Morales Rodriguéz — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 10:46:25 +0000

Honesty is the best policy… most of the time. Social norms help humans understand when we need to tell the truth and when we shouldn’t, to spare someone’s feelings or avoid harm. But how do these norms apply to robots, which are increasingly working with humans? To understand whether humans can accept robots telling lies, scientists asked almost 500 participants to rate and justify different types of robot deception.

“I wanted to explore an understudied facet of robot ethics, to contribute to our understanding of mistrust towards emerging technologies and their developers,” said Andres Rosero, Ph.D. candidate at George Mason University and lead author of the study in Frontiers in Robotics and AI. “With the advent of generative AI, I felt it was important to begin examining possible cases in which anthropomorphic design and behavior sets could be utilized to manipulate users.”

Services for modeling the effects of nuclear weapons on agricultural systems

Saúl Morales Rodriguéz — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 14:23:45 +0000

This is a U.S. General Services Administration Federal Government computer system that is “FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY.” This system is subject to monitoring. Individuals found performing unauthorized activities are subject to disciplinary action including criminal prosecution.

This system contains Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). All individuals viewing, reproducing or disposing of this information are required to protect it in accordance with 32 CFR Part 2002 and GSA Order CIO 2103.2 CUI Policy.

Perception is everything, at least from a human perspective, and we behave accordingly as a society

Scott Bleackley — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 18:23:07 +0000

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