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APS Statement on Disruptions to NSF Leadership
In April, the Administration dismissed all 22 seated National Science Board members—the independent, Congressionally mandated oversight body—leaving the National Science Foundation without its Board and a confirmed Director. APS sent a letter urging the Senate
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Anthropic Wants Claude to Be Moral. Is Religion Really the Answer?
In a public statement of its intentions for its Claude chatbot, the artificial intelligence company Anthropic has said that it wants Claude to be “a genuinely good, wise and virtuous agent.” The company raised the moral stakes this month, when it announced that its latest A.I. model, Claude Mythos Preview, poses too great a cybersecurity threat to be widely released. Behind the scenes, Anthropic has been trying to shore up the ethical foundations of its products, working with a Catholic priest and consulting with other prominent Christians to help foster Claude’s moral and spiritual development.
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Harvard Caps A’s as Selective Colleges Attack Grade Inflation
Faculty members at Harvard University voted in recent days to cap the number of top grades they are permitted to award to undergraduate students, in an attempt to reduce grade inflation at one of America’s most prestigious colleges. ... Steven Pinker, a Harvard psychology professor who has been outspoken about the problem of grade inflation, cheered the results. “Grade inflation forced a race to the bottom in which any professors who held the line with challenging material and standards would see their enrollments plummet,” Dr. Pinker said in an email.
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Pay Attention
NYU began holding commencement ceremonies here in Yankee Stadium in 2009. Since then, graduates have heard from prime ministers, presidents, Supreme Court justices, movie stars, civil-rights crusaders, and Taylor Swift. So I know what you’re all thinking: Finally, they brought in a social psychologist! Perhaps that’s why over the past few weeks, as I’ve thought about what I might say to all of you, I’ve felt grateful. I’ve felt excited. But most of all, I’ve felt a strong sense of responsibility. Because I am part of NYU. I love this university, and I love the students that I have the privilege to teach.
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New Content From Perspectives on Psychological Science
A sampling of recent content covering AI, socialization, inequality and more.
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How to Recover Your Shrinking Attention Span
... “I think there’s a huge disconnect between what we feel like is happening and what is actually happening,” says Monica Rosenberg, a psychologist at the University of Chicago in Illinois. “There is a whole flurry of people reporting that they feel like they can’t pay attention,” says Nilli Lavie, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London. “They say they are constantly distracted, their attention jumps from one thing to another, and they can’t concentrate.”
