Tag: harvard

Harvard Professor Warns That AI Execs Are Pushing World Toward Factory Farming of Humans

We’re racing towards a future where AI enables the “factory farming of humans,” a Harvard professor warns — if tech elites get their way, at least.

In a new episode of The New York Time’s “Hard Fork” podcast, the historian Jill Lepore discusses her idea of an “artificial state” that’s supplanting the traditional nation state, and particular constitutional democracy, with one that erases human autonomy.

In this emerging world order, government is conducted “not by the consent of people but by machines that are making decisions,” she explained on the podcast. And those machines, of course, are owned by corporations.

We aren’t living in the artificial state quite yet, Lepore stresses, but it’s something that’s being built and realized around us. And crucially, it’s also a fantasy held by certain influential elites who believe their power should supersede the actual government and the voters who decide how it’s run.

“The rhetoric that comes out of this particular historical moment is really about the evanescence of modern liberal democracy, constitutional democracy,” she said. The elites pushing this rhetoric aren’t “interested in what the people want,” she added. “Because actually, what the people want is not to have AI and not to have data centers. So that’s the crisis.”

Lepore explores the idea in depth in her upcoming book “The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State.” She was inspired by a simple question: in our current world where you’re forced to talk to an AI to get answers, ranging from when you call in to ask about an appointment or talk to a company’s support chatbot on its website, “who decided this is a way we should be living?”

The artificial state is a sort of backsliding, in which more and more of the state’s functions are now being replaced by corporations that own and control our digital communications infrastructure. How we get our news, and information on elections and who to vote for, is all being mediated by these powerful groups — through technologies like the TV and radio, once, and now social media being the increasingly dominant medium.

The digital communication our lives are now structured around have a powerful isolating effect. In her 2024 piece for The New Yorker where she initially explored the idea that would later become her book, Lepore described the artificial state as the “factory farming of public life, the sorting and segmenting, the isolation and alienation, the destruction of human community.” 

The artificial state isn’t purely driven by AI, but it’s certainly being accelerated by it. People are asking ChatGPT about who to vote for, rather than talking to their neighbors, local officials, or experts. The political messages they’re seeing, meanwhile, are probably in part being written with AI. Decisions at every level are being made with the assistance of thinking machines. AI is also entrenching surveillance, processing the mountains of data that is being gathered on all of us.

One nefarious aspect of the pro-AI rhetoric coming out of Silicon Valley is that it frames AI as an inevitability. But Lepore argued that this brand of fatalism is a “bogus premise,” itself nestled on top of several more dubious propositions. One we hear endlessly is that regulation stifles innovation, so the government should take the handbrake off AI development. The other is that technology always advances democracy, which assures us that all of the very real threats to democracy AI poses in the present will magically sort themselves out.

Neither of those are true, Lepore says, and you have to look no further than how similar promises were made for technologies in the recent past. 

“So now, the AI people come back with the same argument that was made about the internet — the personal computer, the internet, and social media,” she said in the interview.

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‘Ghoulish’: Harvard paying $53 million for selling ‘heads, faces, brains and hands’ from corpses on black market

A court settlement has been reached in a “ghoulish class-action” lawsuit over the sale of body parts – from bodies donated for medical research – by a former morgue manager at Harvard.

And it has the school paying out $53 million to the families of the deceased.

A report from the New York Post explains a state court judge in Boston has preliminarily approved the deal in the legal action that resulted from the schemes of Cedric Lodge, the disgraced former Harvard morgue manager.

He was arrested back in 2023 and later was sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing and selling organs and body parts of cadavers donated to the school.

“As far back as 2018, Lodge had been stealing body parts — including ‘heads, faces, brains, skin and hands’ — which he’d then bring to his home in New Hampshire and sell with his wife, prosecutors said, shipping them to buyers in Pennsylvania and elsewhere,” the report explained.

His wife, Denise, was given a year in jail for her role.

School officials called Lodge’s actions “despicable abhorrent, and a flagrant betrayal of our values as a medical community.”

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House Committees Detail Harvard Ties With Chinese Entities In New Report

A report released by House committees on Aug. 13 alleged that Harvard University prioritized financial ties over American national security and received more than $600 million from China, the most of any U.S. university.

The report, released by the House Select Committee on China and the House Education and Workforce Committee, alleged that Harvard created a nonprofit called Harvard Global to circumvent federal requirements for disclosing foreign donations to higher education.

According to the report, Harvard Global initially stated on its website that it could serve as a “proposal applicant and awardee” for awards the university was unable to accept for legal or financial reasons. The nonprofit later removed the language after the committees sent Harvard a draft of the report.

“Harvard created an entity in a blatant attempt to get around federal foreign funding disclosure laws. That’s unacceptable, especially given Harvard’s history of failing to comply with these requirements,” Education and Workforce Committee chairman Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) said in a statement.

The committees identified 140 publications co-authored by Harvard-affiliated researchers and researchers affiliated with Chinese universities, including a “Seven Sons” university, the report stated.

The “Seven Sons of National Defense” is a group of elite Chinese universities directly subordinate to the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which regulates China’s defense sector.

The House committees alleged that Harvard-affiliated researchers have worked with “Chinese universities that, as a matter of policy, conduct extensive weapons research and development and hold top-secret security clearances with the PLA [People’s Liberation Army].”

The report cited a 2023 research paper on magnetic materials co-authored by a Harvard-affiliated researcher and a researcher at China’s National University of Defense Technology – which the U.S. government has placed on its entity list as a threat to American national security.

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REPORT: Harvard Tops List of American Universities Taking Money From Foreign Countries – Including China

When it comes to accepting cash from foreign countries, including China, Harvard tops the list of American universities.

This is a major concern. Some might even call it a national security issue. China steals millions in intellectual property from the United States every year and higher education gives them direct access.

At the end of Trump’s first term, Senate Republicans began to focus heavily on this issue. Now they are looking at it again and Senator Tom Cotton is leading the charge.

FOX News reports:

Harvard tops nation in foreign cash haul as Cotton demands probe into China funding

One Ivy League institution has taken in more money from foreign countries, including China, than any other university in the country.

The U.S. Department of Education has, for years, compiled a list of federally funded universities that have taken in funding from abroad. The Trump administration sought to revamp the agency’s online reporting portal, and, in doing so, it has shown that one institution, Harvard University, has scored more foreign funding than any other college in the country.

Harvard is in the crosshairs of Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., for its ties to China and other foreign nations because of the reams of outside cash the university has taken in. And the Senate Republican, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, wants Education Secretary Linda McMahon to open an investigation into China’s cash flow into higher education.

“I remain concerned that millions in additional transactions with sanctioned Chinese entities may not have been reported,” Cotton wrote. “Therefore, I encourage additional scrutiny of financial ties between American universities and Communist China.”…

Cotton noted that since the portal was relaunched in January, reporting data has shown that federally funded universities accepted more than $6.8 billion from “Communist China — including more than $300 million from sanctioned entities.”

Cotton is right to go after them for this.

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Trump admin taps fearless Harvard scientist to lead new Pentagon-probing UFO Council

A Harvard astronomer known for challenging the scientific establishment has been chosen by the Trump administration to lead a team of handpicked scientists that will analyze potential national security risks posed by unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).

Avi Loeb, a highly respected cosmologist who served as head of Harvard’s astronomy for nearly a decade, was appointed to helm the newly formed UAP Science Advisory Council. The panel will investigate origins of unidentified orbs and other mysterious objects reported by military officials in recent years.

Established to evaluate national security risks, the council will report to a higher-level UAP Governance Board overseen by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The initiative is part of a broader push by the Trump administration to increase transparency and declassify information regarding the highly debated issue.

Also selected for the council is Timothy Gallaudet, an oceanographer and retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral who has previously advocated for disclosure regarding recovered craft, and Ben Lamm, a billionaire tech entrepreneur.

The establishment of the council comes amidst bipartisan congressional pressure on the White House for further disclosure, fueled by arguments from Republican lawmakers that elements of the federal government have historically suppressed evidence of extraterrestrial encounters. Nonetheless, the Pentagon office tasked with investigating UAPs has asserted that no definitive evidence of alien life has been discovered.

Loeb says he approaches the matter from a practical perspective rather than buying into sweeping cover-up theories.

“My impression is the government is baffled by not being able to infer the nature of some of these objects,” he stated.

The Israeli-American researcher has long theorized that extraterrestrial technology could already be on Earth, first capturing widespread public attention in 2017. At the time, he proposed that ‘Oumuamua — an interstellar cookie-shaped object passing through our solar system — showed signs of being an artificial alien artifact rather than a standard space rock.

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Harvard Weighs Major Crackdown On “Grade Inflation”

Harvard faculty begin voting Tuesday on what may be the most aggressive effort in decades to curb grade inflation, a long-running issue that has also drawn attention from the White House as it pushes broader higher-ed reforms, according to Bloomberg.

The proposal would cap A grades in undergraduate classes at 20% of students, plus four additional students. The move comes after A grades surged at Harvard: about 60% of grades were A’s in the 2024–25 academic year, more than double the rate in 2006. After administrators pushed for stricter grading last fall, that number dropped to 53%. Faculty have one week to vote, with results expected May 20.

Supporters say grade inflation has made academic distinctions less meaningful. Last year, Harvard seniors needed a 3.989 GPA to earn summa cum laude, and an award traditionally given to one student ended in a 54-way tie. As professor Jason Furman said, “It’s fundamentally dishonest to give the best students in the class the same grade as someone in the bottom half.”

Bloomberg writes that students have strongly opposed the plan, arguing it would increase stress, discourage academic risk-taking, and push students toward easier courses. Nearly 85% of undergraduates surveyed by The Harvard Crimson opposed the proposal. Student leader Caleb Thompson said “people really are against this,” while senior Summer Tan said students are already seeking easier classes instead of more challenging ones.

Some faculty members agree. Scott Duke Kominers warned the policy could discourage ambitious students and make Harvard less attractive to top applicants.

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New robot ants work like real insects to build and dismantle on their own

It is based on “exbodied intelligence,” where coordination arises from interacting with the environment rather than complex internal programming.

Researchers at Harvard have developed a fleet of robotic ants that mimic the self-organizing behavior of social insects to build and dismantle structures without blueprints or central leadership.

Dubbed “RAnts”, these robotic ants have been designed by researchers from the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). 

These are simple, decentralized robots that can spontaneously organize to build — and just as easily destroy — complex structures.

Instead of chemical pheromones, these robots use light fields (photormones) to communicate.

“Our new study shows how simple, local rules can lead to the emergence of complex task completion that is self-organized and thus robust and adaptive,” said Professor L. Mahadevan, the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Physics at SEAS and FAS.

“We also introduce the concept of exbodied intelligence, where collective cognition arises not solely from individual agents, but from their ongoing interaction with an evolving environment,” Mahadevan added.

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Convicted Harvard Scientist Could Help China Make Super Soldiers

We’re living in the dumbest timeline. This week we learned that former chair of Harvard’s Chemistry Department Charles Lieber has defected to China. Now he could be helping the PLA make super soldiers. Cool cool cool.

Charles Lieber is a brilliant scientist. Fifteen years ago, Reuters named him the world’s top chemist.

But at some point he started working with China’s “thousand talents” program, the idea of which is to lull the big brains of the West into collaborative research that ultimately helps the CCP’s interests.

In 2021, Charles Lieber was convicted in the US for lying about his ties to China and hiding payments linked to the thousand talents program. His punishment was…just two days in prison, six months of house arrest, and a $50,000 fine.

Now, Lieber has resurfaced in Shenzhen, where he leads a state-backed high tech science lab.

This lab comes with cutting-edge nanofabrication tools, generous Chinese government funding, and even access to primate testing facilities. Harvard closed its primate testing facility a decade ago, due to ethical concerns. That’s why China is such an attractive place for scientists to work. No rules, baby! (Except to obey the CCP, obviously.)

The technology he’s working on in Shenzhen is brain-computer interfaces. My optimistic spin: These devices could help patients with ALS. My dystopian spin: The CCP will use this to create cognitively enhanced super soldiers.

This is the problem with collaborating with China on any research. All research becomes part of the CCP’s “military-civil fusion” strategy, where civilian breakthroughs can be used by the military. Your intentions don’t matter. The CCP is using you.

An example of this would be the NIH-funded gain-of-function research on coronaviruses in Wuhan. American scientists may have at first believed their research would help prevent the next global pandemic. Ha. Ha. Ha.

As for Charles Lieber, he may think that by defecting to China he can have a better life, and maybe he can even help make the world a better place. (We’re all the heroes of our own story.) But eventually, the CCP will use him, and toss him out with the trash. And it’ll be his own fault.

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Insanity: Harvard Students Call Grading Reform Racist

In the latest Harvard left wing insanity Campus Reform is reporting “Harvard University students have launched a petition opposing a proposed grading reform, arguing the policy could have racially disparate impacts.”

This immature petition urges Harvard to reject this policy that would limit the amount of top grades given.

Harvard has been at the center of liberal protests and chaos.

Organizers of the petition “claim the policy would “mirror and reinforce existing racial and socioeconomic hierarchies,” according to the petition’s description.”

The policy was originally introduced by Harvard in order to “address grade inflation.”

“Professors would limit “flat A” grades to about 20 percent of students in a class, though there would be no cap on A-minus grades.”

Nothing about this is racist except to people who see the whole world through race.

“The plan follows internal data showing that more than 60 percent of grades awarded in 2025 were A’s, compared to roughly one-third in 2010.”

Student organizers sent an absurd letter “described the proposal as “blatantly racist” and warned it could increase competition among students.”

Proponents of grading reform at Harvard argue the changes would restore high academic standards and that grading should reflect academic performance not race or demographics.

Wokeness is unAmerican and has been rejected by the American public. Apparently Harvard is still grappling with this.

DEI has been rejected and is on its way out.

Harvard has apparently not received the memo!

We will see if Harvard caves to the leftist unreasonable grading demands.

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Harvard Math Professor Martin Nowak Put on Leave After New Information About His Links to Epstein Surface

Ivy League university again reeling from Epstein ties.

Two days after Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers announced his resignation from Harvard, where he once presided, another luminary scholar from the elite university is reaping consequences from an extended association with late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Today (27), news arose that math professor Martin Nowak, a man once called Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘inside man’ at Harvard, has been put on leave.

This comes after his college bosses learned ‘additional information’ about his links to the convicted sex offender.

The New York Post reported:

“Nowak, who was gifted $6.5 million by Epstein to create the now-closed-down Program for Evolutionary Dynamics (PED), will be the subject of a fresh probe investigating whether he breached the university’s conduct policies, according to a letter first revealed by the Harvard Crimson on Wednesday.

Martin Nowak is now the subject of a fresh Harvard University probe over his links with Epstein.”

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