On Thursday, the Laude Institute announced its first batch of Slingshots grants, aimed at "advancing the science and practice of artificial intelligence." Designed as an accelerator for researchers, the Slingshots program is meant to provide resources that would be unavailable in most academic settings, whether it's funding, compute power, or product and engineering support. In exchange, the recipients pledge to produce some final work product, whether it's a startup, an open-source codebase, or another type of artifact.
"There are a variety of very significant concerns that Americans have with higher education that are not unrelated to the topics the Trump administration cites or references as justifications for their crackdown," said Matt Baum, the Marvin Kalb Chair of Global Communications at the Harvard Kennedy School, a public policy professor and one of the survey researchers. Still, "the fact that Americans have these concerns doesn't necessarily translate to agreeing with the corrective measures the Trump administration is advocating and implementing."
Cornell has secured a 10-year, $10 million grant renewal to continue work aimed at spurring economic impact and job growth through applied research, development and commercialization of breakthrough technologies.
Anthropic's Economic Futures Program aims to address the economic impact of AI on labor markets and productivity, focusing on empirical research and data-driven policy development.
The Trump administration plans to cancel significant funding for grants aimed at studying environmental hazards for children in rural America, impacting vital research and solutions.