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Submission + - How Jeffrey Epstein Ingratiated Himself With Top Microsoft Execs

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In How Jeffrey Epstein Ingratiated Himself With Top Microsoft Executives, the NY Times begins, "For more than two decades, the convicted sex offender developed a network at the tech giant, making him privy to [CEO] succession discussions and other business. [...] The files from the Justice Department show that he spent more than a decade developing a network of Microsoft executives, including Mr. Gates; Nathan Myhrvold, a former technology chief; Steven Sinofsky, who ran Microsoft’s Windows division; Linda Stone, a former technology research executive; Reid Hoffman, a Microsoft board member; and employees of Mr. Gates’s personal investment and charity funds. [...] Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s communications chief, said the company was disappointed to read emails between Mr. Epstein and “former Microsoft employees acting in their personal capacities.” Without mentioning a name, Mr. Shaw acknowledged the emails showed that a former executive — who was Mr. [Steven] Sinofsky — had shared confidential company business with Mr. Epstein."

Email released by the DOJ related to Microsoft included: 1. Epstein being tipped off to the announcement of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's planned resignation announcement in Aug. 2013 by a forwarded email from the President of bgC3 [aka Gates Ventures], a personal service company for Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, on a day that saw Microsoft stock soar 7%., 2. Epstein being given a heads up by a redacted sender about a rumored 2011 Bill Gates return to Microsoft that never panned out, 3. Epstein being told in a 2013 Steven Sinofsky email about Ballmer's desire to buy a phone company that included some other juicy insider tidbits (when Microsoft's Nokia purchase was announced the following year, Microsoft stock sank 6%). In other correspondence, Sinofsky — who headed Microsoft's Windows Division — thanked Epstein for his advice in negotiating a $14 million exit package from Microsoft and later forwarded Epstein old internal email from top execs discussing the poor sales of the Microsoft Surface tablet.

In one Microsoft-related Epstein email, former Harvard President Larry Summers — who recently announced he's giving up his Harvard teaching appointments — sent Epstein a terse two-word email dissing Melinda Gates' Women in Tech initiative. "I'm gagging," Summers wrote, attaching an article about Gates' efforts (a search didn't find any reply from Epstein). Summers came under fire in 2005 when he said that women lack natural ability in math in science. Summers earlier resigned his OpenAI Board seat amid fallout over his Epstein ties that came to light following the DOJ's release of documents last November, which included the revelation that Summers and his wife were invited to dine with Bill and Melinda Gates at Epstein's NYC mansion in 2013 , Melinda's one and only Epstein encounter. Interestingly, Microsoft President Brad Smith — who coincidentally helped negotiate Microsoft's $14M exit package for Epstein-advised Sinofsky — cautioned OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about naming Summers to the OpenAI Board in November 2023. “Your future would be decided by Larry [Summers],” Smith texted. “He’s smart but so mercurial [...] too risky.” The advice went unheeded, with Altman saying the choice of Summers was non-negotiable.

Submission + - Microsoft: Computer Programming Is Dying, Long Live AI Literacy!

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: On Tuesday, Microsoft GM of Education and Workforce Policy (and former Code.org Chief Academic Officer) Pat Yongpradit posted an obituary of sorts for coders. "Computer programmers and software developers are codified differently in the BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics] data," Yongpradit wrote. "The modern AI-infused world needs less computer programmers (coders) and more software developers (more holistic and higher level). So when folks say that there is less hiring of computer programmers, they are right. But there will be more hiring of software developers, especially those who have adopted an AI-forward mindset and skillset. [...] The number of just pure computer programming roles has already been declining due to reasons like outsourcing, AI will just accelerate the decline."

On Wednesday, Yongpradit's colleague Allyson Knox, Senior Director of Education and Workforce Policy at Microsoft, put another AI nail in the coder coffin, testifying before the House Committee on Education & the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education on Building an AI-ready America: Teaching in the Age of AI. "Thank you to Chairman Tim Walberg, Ranking Member Bobby Scott, Chair Kevin Kiley, Ranking Member Suzanne Bonamici and members of the Subcommittee for the opportunity to share Microsoft perspective and that of the educators and parents we hear from every day across the country," Knox wrote in a LinkedIn post. "Three themes continue to emerge throughout these discussions: 1. Educators want support to build AI literacy and critical thinking skills. 2. Schools need guidance and guardrails to ensure student data is protected and adults remain in control. 3. Teachers want classroom-ready tools, and a voice in shaping them. If we focus on these priorities, we can help ensure AI expands opportunity for every student across the United States."

Yongpradit and Knox report up to Microsoft President Brad Smith, who last July told Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi it was time for the tech-backed nonprofit to "switch hats" from coding to AI as Microsoft announced a new $4 billion initiative to advance AI education. Smith's thoughts on the extraordinary promise of AI in education were cited by Knox in her 2026 Congressional testimony. Interestingly, Knox argued for the importance of computer programming literacy in her 2013 Congressional testimony at a hearing on Our Nation of Builders: Training the Builders of the Future. "Congress needs to come up with fresh ideas on how we can continue to train the next generation of builders, programmers, manufacturers, technicians and entrepreneurs," said Rep. Lee Terry said to open the discussion.

So, are reports of computer programming's imminent death greatly exaggerated?

Submission + - CheatGPT: Teens Think AI Cheating Has Become a Regular Feature of Student Life

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In another case of life imitating the Simpsons ("Bart Gets Caught Using CheatGPT On His Homework"), nearly 60% of teenagers told Pew that students at their school used chatbots to cheat 'very often' or 'somewhat often', according to a report published Tuesday.

“We’re definitely seeing that the use of A.I. chatbots for help with schoolwork is becoming a common practice for teens,” said Colleen McClain, a senior researcher at Pew and a co-author of the study.

Among the teenagers surveyed, 47% said they had used chatbots for fun, while 42% said they used the tools to summarize content. A smaller group, 12%, said they had used bots for advice or emotional support. The results of the survey, the report said, indicate that teenagers think “cheating with A.I. has become a regular feature of student life.”

Submission + - NYT: 'AI Literacy' Is Trending in Schools. Here's Why.

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: "Computer literacy. Internet literacy. Social media literacy. Mobile literacy. Virtual reality literacy. Every few years," the NY Times reports in 'A.I. Literacy' Is Trending in Schools, "the tech industry introduces a new kind of product, then prods schools to teach millions of students how to use it. The pitch to train schoolchildren on the latest tech has stayed roughly the same since the introduction of personal computers in the late 1970s: improved learning and better career prospects. Since then, campaigns for a host of new tech literacies have come and gone — even as some of the promises failed to materialize. Now tech giants like Google, Microsoft and OpenAI are urging schools to teach the latest topic: A.I. literacy."

But as AI companies are urging teachers to prepare students for an 'A.I.-driven future,' what that means varies from school to school. Some, like Washington Park High School in Newark, are staking out a middle ground by treating AI as if it were a car and helping students develop rules for the road. Mike Taubman, a career explorations teacher who co-developed the school’s new literacy course, compared the class to preparing teenagers for their driver’s license exam. “Where do you want to go, and can A.I. help you get there?” Mr. Taubman asked. Students needed to learn to drive A.I. tools, analyze what’s under the hood, develop guidelines for personal use and design ideal safety policies, he said.

So, is "Are you steering the [AI] technology or is it steering you?" the new "Don’t just play on your phone, program it"?

Comment Re:Code.org finanicals show a decline (Score 1) 15

by theodp (#66004146) Attached to: Code.org President Steps Down Citing 'Upending' of CS By AI

FYI. Code.org opted to change its fiscal year from Dec. 31 to Aug. 31, so the two filings you looked at respectively cover 12 and 8 months. Also, revenue for nonprofits, especially those reliant on donations, is often seasonal, making this even more of an apples-to-oranges comparison. In any event, Code.org reported $75 million in assets at fiscal year-end in their latest public filing, so they weren't exactly looking for where their next dollar was coming from despite the negative net income for that year.

Submission + - Code.org President Steps Down, Citing 'Upending' of CS by AI

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Last July, as Microsoft pledged $4 billion to advance AI education in K-12 schools, Microsoft President Brad Smith told Code.org CEO and Founder Hadi Partovi (Smith's next-door neighbor) that it was time for the tech-backed nonprofit to "switch hats" from coding to AI, adding that "the last 12 years have been about the Hour of Code, but the future involves the Hour of AI."

On Friday, Code.org announced leadership changes to make it so. "Today, I want to share a significant update regarding the leadership of Code.org," Partovi wrote on LinkedIn. After 13 years of truly exceptional service, my co-founder, partner and friend Cameron Wilson [who Smith and Google.org Chief Maggie Johnson personally asked to join Code.org] is transitioning to an executive advisor role with the organization. [...] I am thrilled to announce that Karim Meghji will be stepping into the role of President & CEO. Having worked closely with Karim over the last 3.5 years as our CPO, I have complete confidence that he possesses the perfect balance of historical context and 'founder-level' energy to lead us into an AI-centric future. For the past two years, I have been operating primarily as Chairman while Cameron handled CEO responsibilities. With Karim’s appointment, my title will be updated to better reflect my contributions and commitment to this organization as Chairman of the Board."

In a separate LinkedIn post, Wilson explained why he was stepping down: "Our community is entering a new chapter as AI changes and upends computer science as a discipline and society at large. Code.org’s mission is still the same, however, we are starting a new chapter focused on ensuring students can thrive in the Age of AI. This new chapter will bring new opportunities, new problems to solve, and new communities to engage. As Code.org enters this new chapter I’ve made the decision to step down from leading Code.org, move into an Executive Advisor role."

The Code.org leadership changes come just weeks after the K-12 CS and newly AI-focused education nonprofit confirmed it had laid off about 14% of its staff, explaining it had "made the difficult decision to part ways with 18 colleagues as part of efforts to ensure our long-term sustainability [Code.org revenue]." January also saw Code.org Chief Academic Officer Pat Yongpradit jump to Microsoft where he now helps "lead Microsoft's global strategy to put people first in an age of AI by shaping education and workforce policy" as a member of Microsoft's Global Education and Workforce Policy team, which reports up to Microsoft President Brad Smith.

Submission + - AI Cooties: OpenAI, Anthropic CEOs Avoid Holding Hands at India AI Impact Summit

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In a scene straight out of HBO's Silicon Valley, CNBC and others report that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had an awkward moment on stage at the India AI Impact Summit on Thursday, choosing not to hold hands during a group photo of political and tech leaders as they stood alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and others. Both had been keynote speakers. Modi had lifted Altman and Pichai’s hands before an applauding crowd, with others following suit. However, Altman and Amodei, who were side by side, raised their fists instead of holding hands with one another.

The snub comes following Anthropic's Super Bowl commercials that poked fun at OpenAI’s plan to start testing ads for free users and ChatGPT Go subscribers in the U.S., raising the ire of Altman, who called the ads "clearly dishonest," adding: "I guess it’s on brand for Anthropic doublespeak to use a deceptive ad to critique theoretical deceptive ads that aren’t real, but a Super Bowl ad is not where I would expect it." Anthropic was founded in 2021 by a group of former OpenAI staff and researchers, including Amodei, who left the company after disagreements over its direction.

Adding to the HBO Silicon Valley-like atmosphere was billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who was scheduled to give a keynote alongside Altman and Amodei, but pulled out of the Summit hours before his planned keynote amid growing scrutiny over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The Gates Foundation said the decision was made after "careful consideration" and "to ensure the focus remains on the [summit's] key priorities", but did not elaborate.

Finally, an event that fellow Three-Comma Club member Russ Hanneman and aspiring members Gavin Belson and Erlich Bachman could bring their true selves to!

Submission + - Long Before Tech CEOs Turned to Layoffs to Cover AI Expenses, There Was WorldCom

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Jeopardy time. A. This company spurred CEOs to make huge speculative capital expenditures based on wild unverified claims of future demand, resulting in the layoffs of tens of thousands of workers to reduce the resulting expenses, harming their core businesses. Q. What is OpenAI?

Sorry, the correct response is, "What is WorldCom?" In 2002, WorldCom, the second largest long-distance company in the U.S., entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy after disclosing accounting fraud that eventually totaled $11 billion, the biggest ever at the time. CEO Bernard Ebbers was subsequently sentenced to 25 years in prison. CNBC reported that an employee of WorldCom’s Internet service provider UUNet set off a frenzy of speculative investment and infrastructure overbuild after he used Excel to create a best-case scenario model for the Internet’s growth that suggested in the best of all possible worlds, Internet traffic would double every 100 days, a scenario that would greatly benefit WorldCom, whose lines would carry it. Despite no evidence to support it, WorldCom’s lie became an immutable law and businesses around the world made important decisions based on the belief that traffic was doubling every 100 days.

"For some period of time I can recall that we were backfilling that expectation with laying cables, something like 2,200 miles of cable an hour,” AT&T CEO Michael Armstrong said. “Think of all the companies that went out of business that assumed that that was real.” Armstrong and former Sprint CEO Bill Esrey struggled for years to understand how WorldCom could beat them so handily. “We would look at the conduct of WorldCom in terms of their pricing, revenue growth, margins, in terms of their cost structure ... and the price leader almost every quarter was WorldCom,” Armstrong said. Added Esrey, “We couldn’t figure out how they were pricing as aggressively as they were. ... How could they be so efficient in their costs and expenses?”

AT&T and Sprint began cutting jobs to push down their costs to WorldCom’s level. “The market said what a marvelous management job WorldCom was doing and they would look over to AT&T and say, ‘these guys aren’t keeping up.’ So, my shareholders were hurt. We laid off tens of thousands of employees in an accelerated fashion [in a futile effort to match WorldCom's phantom profits] and I think the industry was hurt,” Armstrong says. “It just wrecked the whole industry,” says Esrey.

Submission + - Bill Introduced to Drop West Virginia's CS HS Graduation Requirement

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: West Virginia lawmakers on Tuesday introduced House Bill 5387, which would repeal the state's recently enacted mandatory stand-alone computer science graduation requirement and replace it with a new computer literacy proficiency requirement. Not too surprisingly, the Bill is being opposed by tech-backed nonprofit Code.org, which lobbied for the WV CS graduation requirement just last year. Code.org recently pivoted its mission to emphasize the importance of teaching AI education alongside traditional CS, teaming up with tech CEOs and leaders last year to launch a national campaign to mandate CS and AI courses as graduation requirements.

"It would basically turn the standalone computer science course requirement into a computer literacy proficiency requirement that's more focused on digital literacy," lamented Code.org as it discussed the Bill in a Wednesday conference call with members of the Code.org Advocacy Coalition, including reps from Microsoft's Education and Workforce Policy team. "It's mostly motivated by a variety of different issues coming from local superintendents concerned about, you know, teachers thinking that students don't need to learn how to code and other things. So, we are addressing all of those. We are talking with the chair and vice chair of the committee a week from today to try to see if we can nip this in the bud." Concerns were also raised on the call about how widespread the desire for more computing literacy proficiency (over CS) might be, as well as about legislators who are associating AI literacy more with digital literacy than CS.

The proposed move from a narrower CS focus to a broader goal of computer literacy proficiency in WV schools comes just months after the UK's Department for Education announced a similar curriculum pivot to broader digital literacy, abandoning the narrower 'rigorous CS' focus that was adopted more than a decade ago in response to a push by a 'grassroots' coalition that included Google, Microsoft, UK charities, and other organizations.

Comment Bloomberg: Waymo Seeking to Raise $16 Billion (Score 1) 3

Waymo seeking about $16 billion near $110 billion valuation: "While we don't comment on private financial matters, our trajectory is clear: With over 20 million trips completed, we are focused on the safety-led operational excellence and technological leadership required to meet the vast demand for autonomous mobility," Waymo said in a statement.

Submission + - Could a Crime Map Review Have Stopped Repeat Arsonist from Setting Woman Afire?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: In 1854, Dr. John Snow famously put cholera death data on a map to help readers see that reported deaths in Soho, London were in the vicinity of the Broad Street pump, which was the source of the contagion, as well as to shift from an understanding of cholera as airborne to waterborne. Snow's map certainly reinforces the value of putting data on a map to help readers see the patterns revealed, which is as important to contemporary thematic mapping as it always has been — geography and cartography were showcased during the Covid outbreak.

Such mapping techniques aren't just useful for infectious disease epidemiology, but it should be noted that the maps still need to be reviewed and analyzed, not just created. A sad reminder of this is the recent court appearance of Lawrence Reed, the man charged with setting a woman on fire on a Chicago Transit Authority subway train on Nov. 17. With more than half of her body burned, the victim — who reportedly remains in critical condition — got off the train and collapsed at the Clark/Lake CTA stop, just a few hundred feet away from Chicago's City Hall, which Reed was also later charged with trying to burn down just three days earlier on Nov. 14. In a press conference, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson suggested the Nov. 14th City Hall arson may have been political in nature ("this type of violence has no place in our politics"). Days later, he called the Nov.17th CTA fire attack horrific but isolated, but later recharacterized it as an 'absolute failure' of justice, mental health systems after reports broke of Reed's extensive criminal record ("This individual was charged with dozens of felonies over the past three decades," Johnson said. "He was clearly seriously mentally disturbed and was a danger to himself and to others. The system that we had failed to intervene.").

Incredibly, Reed's past felonies also included trying to burn down the State of Illinois' Thompson Center (now being rehabbed by its new owner, Google) — which is across the street from the site of the City Hall arson attack and houses the station where the CTA fire attack victim collapsed — on April 23, 2020 as Governor JB Pritzker was preparing to hold his daily COVID-19 press conference inside the building.

So, while it may be a little unfair to "armchair quarterback" the investigation into Reed's November 2025 arson crimes with the benefit of hindsight, one can't help but wonder: Would a simple review of a Chicago Crime map for historical arson crimes in the immediate vicinity of City Hall (map) right after the Nov. 14th arson have called out Reed's 2020 arson (map) at the State of Illinois Thompson Center and led to his apprehension before he got the chance to set afire the woman who collapsed at the subway station in the Thompson Center (map) three days later, especially since Reed's whereabouts were readily available from the electronic ankle monitor he was wearing while awaiting trial for another violent attack?

By the way, don't count on Copilot to automatically connect the map dots for crimes. An attempt to do so was initially stymied by Copilot's refusal to even acknowledge Reed had any connection to the horrific CTA arson attack.

Comment Re:Non story (Score 0) 3

A) Guess that's what the NHTSA investigation will determine (in this case, imagine there should be ample recorded data and video from Waymo to review). Depending on conditions, driving slower than the speed limit can be called for and not doing so can be deemed a violation under California's "Basic Speed Law."
 
B) Slower than a running person, perhaps, but a running person weighs several tons less a Waymo vehicle (classic physics demo). Physical therapists (and personal injury lawyers!) will tell you that even the slowest speed collisions can cause significant injuries.
 
Beyond the incident, I think the news here was Waymo's tone deaf PR offensive response. Back when I was a child, I was with a classmate who got knocked off his bike after being bumped by a car. I recall the driver was very comforting to my friend, not blaming him for being where he shouldn't have been and making her hit him. Nor did she later publish an article in a high-circulation newspaper boasting to the community that her driving skills were superior to theirs and suggesting that anyone else would have hurt the child considerably more. :-)

Submission + - Was Waymo Robotaxi Speeding Before It 'Made Contact with a Young Pedestrian'? 3

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: The self-congratulatory, yea-we-hit-the-kid-but-you-would-have-done-lots-worse tone of Waymo's blog post response to its Waymo robotaxi hitting a child near an elementary School in Santa Monica seemed a bit tone deaf, even more so as commenters pointed out and Google Maps images appeared to confirm that the posted speed limit around Grant Elementary School in Santa Monica is 15 mph (Google Maps link, screenshot) when children are present and Waymo self-reported that the robotaxi's speed was "approximately 17 mph" when it spotted the "young pedestrian" and "braked hard" to reduce the car's speed "to under 6 mph before contact was made." Waymo did not mention what the speed limit was in its self-described ‘transparent’ blog disclosure.

Not that going 17 mph in a 15 mph zone is the stuff of street drag racing, but it's at odds with the attaboy Waymo gave itself for softening the blow to the child as well as an earlier Waymo blog post that boasted "the Waymo Driver is always alert, respects speed limits."

From a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report on the incident: "NHTSA is aware that the incident occurred within two blocks of a Santa Monica, CA elementary school [a Jan. 23rd police call report puts the location as the 2400 block of Pearl St.] during normal school drop off hours; that there were other children, a crossing guard, and several double-parked vehicles in the vicinity; and that the child ran across the street from behind a double parked SUV towards the school and was struck by the Waymo AV. Waymo reported that the child sustained minor injuries. [...] ODI [Office of Defect Investigation] has opened this Preliminary Evaluation to investigate whether the Waymo AV exercised appropriate caution given, among other things, its proximity to the elementary school during drop off hours, and the presence of young pedestrians and other potential vulnerable road users. ODI expects that its investigation will examine the ADS’s intended behavior in school zones and neighboring areas, especially during normal school pick up/drop off times, including but not limited to its adherence to posted speed limits. ODI will also investigate Waymo's post-impact response."

Submission + - Grace Hopper Conference Seeks $1M Corporate Partnership Tier 'Title Sponsor'

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Among the corporate partnership opportunities listed in the Grace Hopper Celebration 2026 Prospectus is a new offering for a 'Title Sponsor', priced at a cool $1,000,000. So, what does a million bucks buy you? According to the prospectus: "Inclusion in all in-person and virtual event marketing including social, email and website * Booth space in Career Expo and Tech Expo * 3 Mainstage Sessions * Exclusive Platinum Event App Package * Logo on: Sidebar Navigation, Day-At-A-Glance Screen, Authentication Screen, Splash Screen * Interstitial Ad * 3D Map Booth Logo * Up to 90-second pre-recorded speaking opportunity to be shown at opening or closing session."

With more than 30,000 attendees and 600 speakers, GHC is the world's largest gathering for women in technology. It is run by the Anita Borg Institute For Women And Technology, which announced a reduction in force affecting a significant proportion of their workforce in 2024 amid downturns in corporate investments in DEI efforts and an overall reduction in giving and philanthropy.

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