Jan 25 snowstorm timelapse. Total measured 16.0". Pawtucket, RI. #riwx

So what's to come? My best guess: using AI to make or sign off on NSF funding decisions. Or at least that's what Musk, Vought, DOGE, etc. want, unless some swift action among scientists, the public, and Congress happens. If you haven't already, recommend checking out #SaveNSF action toolkit here:

For #TidyTuesday this week, we're looking at data on terminations of NSF grants 📊 🎨 Using colour to highlight one category 📈 Transparency to highlight the important data ✍️ Annotations instead of a legend for transparency #RStats #ggplot2 #DataViz

#TidyTuesday week 18. Data: NSF Grant Terminations Under the Trump Administration. Code: github.com/rajodm/TidyT... #dataviz #rstats #ggplot2

- Cast controlled generation as an inference problem, with the LM as a prior and verifiers and scorers as likelihood - Use Sequential Monte Carlo to sample from the resulting posterior Library w/ tutorials for setting up your own controlled generation inference problems: github.com/genlm/genlm-...

GitHub - genlm/genlm-control: Controlled text generation with programmable constraints.

Controlled text generation with programmable constraints. - genlm/genlm-control

github.com

#ICLR2025 Oral How can we control LMs using diverse signals such as static analyses, test cases, and simulations? In our paper “Syntactic and Semantic Control of Large Language Models via Sequential Monte Carlo” (w/ @benlipkin.bsky.social, @alexlew.bsky.social, @xtimv.bsky.social) we:

I got an email yesterday afternoon that my NSF SPRF Postdoctoral Fellowship was terminated. My grant focused on testing interventions to address online misinformation and I was 8 months into a two year appointment.

Mike Wagner@prowag.bsky.social · last yr.

Friday Night Massacre of accurate information. A devastating day for the USA as tens of millions of dollars of grants seeking to combat the spread of false information were terminated. We have a federal govenrment that does not consider the verifiable truth a priority. www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...

New preprint on controlled generation from LMs! I'll be presenting at NENLP tomorrow 12:50-2:00pm Longer thread coming soon :)

I just realized that if the ‘gumbelmax trick’ (look it up) is defined by using argmax on Gumbels, and identical ‘expmin trick’ uses argmin on Exponentials, then using argmax on Betas (precisely equivalent to the previous two), gives what really should be called the ‘betamax trick’ 📹

If you're an NSF PI like me, you might be wondering: Will my grant be suspended or terminated next week? A few key things to know: First off, remember that NSF is **congressionally mandated** to evaluate broader impacts. And laws like CHIPS and Science supersede EOs. But also... 🧵 thread

Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈@davidimiller.bsky.social · 2y ago

Found this gem in an arcane NSF doc...key to know: The Constitution and law SUPERSEDES exec orders! "In the event of a conflict between policies issued at a lower tier versus policies issued at a higher tier, the higher tier policy will take precedence" nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/Resear...

Now the only way out is through.

Very bad for science, and scientists. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00365-z

Exclusive: how NSF is scouring research grants for violations of Trump’s orders

The US National Science Foundation has unfrozen grant funding, but it continues to scrutinize research projects, sowing turmoil.

nature.com

NSF froze payments to researchers. State AGs said it was unconstitutional for exec branch to pause congressionally mandated funds. Judge issued restraining order. Payments resumed. But some inconsistencies in what the NSF has said (thread): www.statnews.com/2025/02/02/n...

National Science Foundation restores payments after five-day pause, but worries over science funding persist

The NSF said on Sunday that its payment system was back on line, after it froze out researchers and sparked financial worries.

statnews.com

The best thing that scientists can do right this moment is organize with each other. Form networks, do coordinated communications: comms to the public, comms to media outlets, comms to Congress. That's the most urgent need. #philsci #scicomm #neuroskyence #evodevo #publichealth