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Junior Achievement Business Luncheon Celebrates Local Business Leaders, Experian Scholarships
For nearly four decades, Junior Achievement of Arkansas has dedicated itself to the economic, planning and academic success of young
Invention Inspired by California Vacation Earned Him Millions
Roger Adams, creator of Heelys rolling footwear, dies at 71 of pancreatic cancer
Nalivka: New University of Idaho Meat Science and Innovation Center Will Play Vital Role in Meat Industry
The state-of-the-art facility marks a new era for Idaho’s 100% job-placement meat science program, bridging the gap between academic research and industry needs.
Whole Hog Politics: A Supreme Court vacancy could remake Senate midterms
[Watch Whole Hog Politics live: Join us today at 9 a.m. ET at TheHill.com as Chris Stirewalt and host Bill Sammon break down this week’s political news and answer questions from a live online audie…
Two scientists to receive 2026 Ralph L. Sacco Scholarships for Brain Health
DALLAS and MINNEAPOLIS, April 17, 2026 — The American Academy of Neurology and the American Heart Association have awarded the 2026 Ralph L. Sacco Scholarships for Brain Health to two neuroscientists, Sarah Kettlety, Ph.D., of Baltimore, Maryland, and...
Two inducted into Thomas Green Clemson Academy of Engineers and Scientists
Gary Mercer and Jim Kaplan receive college's highest honor, and Jie Huang, Thomas Kuckhoff and Toni Bloodworth Pence are honored as Outstanding Young Alumni.
Inside the CDC’s leadership vacuum: work at a ‘standstill’ and low morale as 80% of top posts remain vacant
Current and ex-officials at the CDC warn Americans’ health security in danger under RFK Jr’s direction
Grand Junction students gain real-world business experience through investor pitch event
Young Entrepreneurs Academy participants present months of work to local business leaders for feedback and funding
Grand Junction students gain real-world business experience through investor pitch event
Young Entrepreneurs Academy participants present months of work to local business leaders for feedback and funding
India's Wipro falls as weak forecast sparks growth concerns
Shares of Wipro dipped 2.9% on Friday after India's fourth-largest IT firm's revenue outlook for the ongoing quarter reinforced concerns around growth visibility and margin pressure.
Warriors to evaluate Steve Kerr's future carefully after season
The Golden State Warriors are expected to be patient in evaluating Steve Kerr's future with the team after the season.
Peltola posts massive campaign fundraising, but Republicans maintain cash advantage in Alaska congressional races
In the Senate race, Mary Peltola raised close to $9 million in funds, but has less cash on hand than Dan Sullivan.
Business of Entertainment Club set to host End of Year Showcase at Casa Cacao Sunday
Live music, digital galleries and student cinema will all be part of the Business of Entertainment Club’s End of Year Showcase Sunday at Casa Cacao, turning student artwork into a professional networking opportunity. The showcase will blend diverse artwork pieces as a manifestation of the club’s mission to cover every career in the entertainment industry. […]
Business of Entertainment Club set to host End of Year Showcase at Casa Cacao Sunday
Live music, digital galleries and student cinema will all be part of the Business of Entertainment Club’s End of Year Showcase Sunday at Casa Cacao, turning student artwork into a professional networking opportunity. The showcase will blend diverse artwork pieces as a manifestation of the club’s mission to cover every career in the entertainment industry. […]
Thomas and Chelsea Carballo to headline Michigan Medicine Women’s Health Luncheon
Thomas Carballo, iHeartMedia radio host of “Mojo in the Morning,” and his wife, Chelsea, will be the keynote speakers for Michigan Medicine’s fifth annual Women’s Health Luncheon: Creating a Brighter Future Together.
RFK Jr. defends proposed 12% health budget cut, measles response in House testimony
NASCAR Accused Of 'Losing The South' By Former Driver
A five-time NASCAR Cup Series winner made it abundantly clear this week that he's not pleased with the current product. This past Sunday's race at Bristol Motor Speedway averaged 1.945 million viewers on FS1, per Nielsen's data. That’s down 5% from last year, which would make it the least-watched ...
Netflix embraces vertical video with major mobile app update
The vertical video feed will help you find a new show to watch.
Caldwell University Students and Faculty Attend New Jersey Academy of Science Annual Meeting
Caldwell, NJ – Several Caldwell University students and faculty members attended the New Jersey Academy of Sciences (NJAS) Senior Program Annual Meeting on April 11, 2026, and multiple students won […]
UT San Antonio faculty recognized at Shine Academy conference - UT Health San Antonio
Several faculty members from The University of Texas at San Antonio were recognized for excellence and innovation in health science education at the 2026 Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., Academy of Health Science Innovation Annual Conference. The Shine Academy fosters excellence in health sciences education by recognizing outstanding educators and advancing innovation in the field. […]
Students showcase their skills at Lower Mills Science Fair
Students at Saint John Paul II Catholic Academy’s Lower Mills campus turned into scientists for the day on April 3, presenting their projects at the school’s annual STREAM Fair in the St. Gregory auditorium.
Democrats vow to block next Trump Supreme Court pick amid Alito speculation
Justice Samuel Alito hasn’t tipped his hat on retiring just yet, but Senate Democrats are already entrenched in opposing the confirmation of a successor that would deliver President Donald Trump his fourth lifetime appointment to the high court. Democrats need to first retake the majority and for a vacancy to arise. But with the party’s […]
NAS President Marcia McNutt to Deliver Annual State of the Science Address on June 2
National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt will discuss the status of the United States’ research enterprise, global leadership in science, and implications for economic competitiveness in the third State of the Science address, to be delivered on June 2 in Washington, D.C. (photo by Christopher Michel)
NAS President Marcia McNutt to Deliver Annual State the Science Address on June 2
National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt will discuss the status of the United States’ research enterprise, global leadership in science, and implications for economic competitiveness in the third State of the Science address, to be delivered on June 2 in Washington, D.C. (photo by Christopher Michel)
Iowa State Adds Women's Wrestling As 18th Varsity Program
AMES, Iowa - Women's wrestling will debut as Iowa State University's 18 th intercollegiate athletics program during the 2027-28 academic year, Endowed Cyclon...
Sunsoft's Upcoming Switch Game Has One Of The Most Ridiculous Titles Ever
Though this won't be new to light novel fans
James Franklin wanted to spite Penn State after firing. Here's why he didn't
USA TODAY Sports visited James Franklin at Virginia Tech to find out why ex-Penn State coach turned down $49 million vacation to rebuild in Blacksburg
Deloitte trims PTO, maternity leave, other benefits for some US staff
According to internal Deloitte documents seen by Business Insider, some staff will lose as many as 10 days of vacation annually.
WTC Health Programs aims to fill vacant jobs after pressure from NY delegation
The WTCHP serves about 140,000 people dealing with a variety of health issues tied to the 9/11 attacks.
Trump leans in on a major 2026 issue: possibly replacing Justices Alito and Thomas
A potential vacancy on the Supreme Court could be one the biggest political questions of 2026, for a host of reasons.
The 2026 International Academicians Hong Kong Forum Held in Hong Kong, Focusing on AI-Driven Innovation in Health and Higher Education
The 2026 International Academicians Hong Kong Forum, jointly organised by the International Alliance of Academicians (IAA) and the Hong Kong Association of Overseas-Returned Scholars (HKAORS), was successfully held in Hong Kong on April 14. As one of the major events of the Business of Innovation and Technology Week 2026, the Forum focused on two core themes: "Aging and Chronic Disease Management: Challenges and Innovations" and "AI and Innovation in Higher Education." It brought together more t
Tigres beat Seattle, Concacaf Champions Cup semi-final set
Tigres advance to the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals in a thrilling matchup that ended level with Seattle Sounders on aggregate (3-3). Guido Pizarro’s side took too many risks, because despite co...
LA Galaxy Embarrassed and Eliminated 3-0 At Home
Los Angeles, Calif. -- The LA Galaxy were overcome by a scarlet wave, both in the stands and on the field, as they fell 3-0 (2-7 on aggregate) at home to Liga MX champions, Toluca, in the second leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup Quarterfinal on Wednesday, April 15, 2026.
Steve Guttenberg broke into elderly couple's home and carried them out to save them from Palisades fire
Steve Guttenberg's tales of heroics during the 2025 Palisades fire continue, as the 'Police Academy' star opens up about breaking into an elderly couple's home and carrying them out during the blaze.
Environmental science expert speaks at EMU about connecting with nature
Eastern Mennonite University kicked off its Academic and Creative Excellence (ACE) Festival on campus Wednesday morning. The event gives students a chance to learn from classmates and showcase their own research, creative projects and more.
Former River City Science Academy Elementary employee arrested, accused of grooming a student
River City Science Academy teacher arrested, accused ‘grooming’ student using messages on Canva app
A River City Science Academy teacher was arrested Tuesday and charged with felony counts alleging he solicited a romantic relationship with a student and unlawfully used a communication device, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said.
How I Got My Career in Foreign Policy: Matthias Matthijs | Council on Foreign Relations
Matthias Matthijs’s career has spanned academia and think tanks. He sat down with CFR to discuss the benefits of observing European politics from afar, the importance of remaining open-minded in your career, and conducting dissertation research in London’s House of Lords tea room.
Carver Academy student takes 3rd in chemistry at state science fair
DOTHAN, Ala. (WDHN) — A student from Carver 9th Grade Academy in Dothan placed high in Alabama’s state science fair. Gabrielle Saffold earned third place in the senior division for chemistry and mater...
Want a say in local sports? County seeks advisory committee members
Montgomery County is in search of applicants to fill a number of vacancies on the Montgomery County Sports Advisory Committee.
Communicating About Measles for Health Professionals
Join our upcoming webinar to get the latest data, learn evidence-based communication approaches, and get practical tools to help professionals navigate conversations about measles vaccination, respond to concerns, and support informed decision-making.
Why I’m embracing the latest uncool thing in gaming
‘Unc’ is meant to disparage older players who favour slow-paced shooters and epic narrative games, but the industry should make games for all generations
Taute and Cooch Named to College Sports Communicators Academic All-America® Teams
Juniors Ada Taute and Abby Cooch of the Denison University women's basketball National Championship team have been named as Second and Third-Team Academic All-America® as selected by College Sports Communicators for the 2025-26 season.
Political science junior Maddie Hanes elected ASMSU President
The General Assembly of ASMSU elected Maddie Hanes as the President of the 63rd session, who will serve during the 2026-2027 school year in addition to Anna Burk, who will be the re-elected Vice President of Finance and Operations.
2025-26 Academic All-America® Woen's Basketball teams announced for all NCAA and NAIA divisions
Four CSC Academic All-America ® Team Member of the Year recipients including University of Connecticut’s Azzi Fudd, Olivia Reed Thyne from Colorado Mesa University, Carroll University’s Natalie Gricius, and Macy Sievers of Dordt University, highlight the 2025-26 CSC Women's Basketball Academic All-America® teams for NCAA Divisions I, II, III and the NAIA announced by College Sports Communicators.
Southern Boone sports approach midway point of spring season
Boys golf and track show out at meets, while baseball and girls soccer experience up and down weeks
Future Energy, Renewable Energy, Technology, InCites use case, web of science use case, research analytics
Perovskite solar cells are emerging as a transformative next-generation energy technology driven by rapid efficiency gains and global research competition. Based on a collaborative analysis between Sungkyunkwan University and Clarivate using Web of Science and InCites, this blog explores key research trends, leading countries and scholars, and the future trajectory of perovskite solar cells toward sustainable energy innovation.
Medical scans and chips: the hidden fallout of the Iran war for China
Four months ago, a dozen academics and researchers from China’s top oil and gas producers issued a warning buried in an academic journal: the nation’s quest for self-sufficiency had a critical weak spot.
Harrisburg appoints new business administrator; council concerned with his experience, hasty vote
Harrisburg has a new chief of staff. At a meeting Tuesday, City Council approved Antonio Megna as the new business administrator, a position that has been vacant since a legal battle between council and the mayor resulted in the former office-holder’s termination. Megna previously served as the special assistant to the business administrator for about […]
Productivity and Politics
Productivity is normally the dry and esoteric stuff of academic debates. But at present, productivity lies at the root of some of the most contentious political debates. If one reads the newly released Economic Report of the President, one will find that the administration is expecting real gross domestic product (GDP) to grow at an average rate […]
Scientists just solved a 160-million-year fossil mystery “I’ve never seen anything like it”
A rare fossil discovery is shedding light on the “missing years” of early sponge evolution. Scientists found a 550-million-year-old sponge that likely lacked hard skeletal parts, explaining why earlier fossils are so scarce. This supports the idea that the earliest sponges were soft-bodied and rarely preserved. The finding changes how researchers hunt for the origins of animal life.
New educational science space, Scitopia Chicago, planned for Washington Park
A bold concept on Chicago’s South Side aims to transform a long-vacant lot into a science destination — with teenagers at the center of it.
Justice Dept. Moves to Vacate Jan. 6 Convictions for Far-Right Extremists
Defending the convictions would likely have required administration officials to assert that far-right groups were acting on behalf of President Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.
DOJ moves to erase seditious conspiracy convictions of Oath Keepers, Proud Boys in Jan. 6 cases
In court filings, prosecutors asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate the convictions so that the government can permanently dismiss the indictments.
Pitt to offer online Infant Mental Health certificate
A new University of Pittsburgh academic program aims to address the mental health, growth and development needs of infants and toddlers amid a shortage of qualified, working professionals. Pitt has launched a new, online graduate certificate in Infant Mental Health. The 12-credit program kicks off this fall, said Robert Gallen,
First Horizon Bank Welcomes Benjamin Hymel as Business Banking Group Manager in Houma
/PRNewswire/ -- First Horizon Bank (NYSE: FHN or "First Horizon") is pleased to announce that Benjamin Hymel has joined its Acadiana Business Banking team as a...
Erewhon to open at LACMA's new David Geffen Galleries
Erewhon, Los Angeles' trendy health food cafe and retailer, will bring its signature smoothies, matcha and coffee to Los Angeles County Museum of Art's new David Geffen Galleries.
Hobbs Named Fellow of Indiana Academy of Science
Huntington University is a private, four-year, Christian school of the liberal arts in Indiana offering more than 70 bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs.
Prisco's Better-Than Team for 2026 NFL Draft: The 20 prospects he's higher on than scouts
R Mason Thomas headlines Prisco's list of 20 undervalued prospects
Zuby Ejiofor and Bryce Hopkins Named College Sports Communicators Academic All-Americans - St. John's University Athletics
QUEENS, N.Y.- St. John's men's basketball student-athletes Zuby Ejiofor and Bryce Hopkins have been named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) All-Ameri...
Ultimate science trip
Thirteen juniors and seniors, led by three Westminster Christian Academy science teachers, spent their spring break exploring Quito, Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands. The trip was an unforgettable hands-on journey
Millions of Floridians Will Bear the Brunt of Trump’s Health Cuts
Medicaid cutbacks and the end of enhanced Obamacare subsidies leave patients and hospitals in the state with difficult choices
Jan-Werner Müller awarded University professorship, reflects on democracy and academic freedom
Jan-Werner Müller, scholar of democratic theory and the history of political thought, was named Class of 1943 University Professor of Politics. He sat down with the ‘Prince’ to discuss his research, teaching, the role of political theory, and concerns about student engagement and academic freedom on campus.
NFL mock draft: Dallas Cowboys make trade with Arizona Cardinals
In the latest NFL.com mock draft, the Cardinals trade the third pick for picks Nos. 12 and 20.
High school sports results for Monday, April 13, 2026
MONDAY’S RESULTS Baseball CITY LEAGUE Obama Academy 14, Carrick 0 (5) WPIAL CLASS 6A Section 1 North Allegheny 6, Central Catholic 1 North Hills...
New computer science in art degree brings worlds together at Santa Fe's IAIA
IAIA's new computer science program brings new degree offerings and a digital renaissance across the campus' disciplines.
Consumer Reports: Keeping your kids in the game
Consumer Reports has some important advice for parents on how to help prevent common and often avoidable sports injuries.
How Amazon is expanding its car-sales business
Amazon (AMZN) is expanding its car-sales business to include Jeep, Chevrolet, and other automakers. Yahoo Finance Senior Autos Reporter Pras Subramanian breaks down the details.
Kim Kardashian makes her Broadway producing debut with the criminal justice play 'The Fear of 13'
Kim Kardashian is adding Broadway producer to her resume | KCBS All News 106.9FM and 740AM
Kim Kardashian makes her Broadway producing debut with the criminal justice play 'The Fear of 13'
Kim Kardashian is adding Broadway producer to her resume | Talk Radio 1210 WPHT
Utah Royals FC Welcomes Dave Tenney as Senior Director of Player Health and Performance
HERRIMAN, Utah (Monday, April 13, 2026) – Utah Soccer President of Soccer Operations Jason Kreis - overseeing Utah Royals FC (National Women’s Soccer League), Real Salt Lake (Major League Soccer), Real Monarchs (MLS NEXT Pro) and the RSL Academy - has named highly-respected sports medicine veteran Dave Tenney as the
College of Education and Behavioral Science Names Top Graduates
The College of Education and Behavioral Science at Arkansas State University recognized 34 outstanding graduating students for the 2025-26 academic year during Convocation of Scholars
LIF-HEALTH-PEDIATRICIAN-QA-DMT
Food allergies have risen by 50% since the 1990s. With this in mind, the American Academy of Pediatrics advocates for the health of all children who must avoid certain foods
Business Buzz: Navigating the unknown economic impacts of regional water restrictions
Paul Renner calls for Obamacare repeal before GOP loses control of Congress
'We may not have a majority.'
Public Health Actions for Extreme Heat Protections
The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI), American Public Health Association (APHA), and ecoAmerica are partnering to offer the Public Health Actions for Extreme Heat Protections Training.
Following the Success of Artemis II, Scientists Will Shape What Comes Next for Lunar Exploration
NASA plans to launch more lunar missions after the success of Artemis II, signaling a renewed era for lunar exploration and science — and raising questions about what comes next. A National Academies study currently underway will identify key non-polar landing sites for future crewed lunar missions and what science goals could be achieved.
Ann Brach Appointed Executive Director of Transportation Research Board at National Academies
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine announced today that Ann Brach has been named the executive director of the Transportation Research Board (TRB).
The Ultimate Secrets of Strixhaven Limited Set Review
Ready for a second semester at Strixhaven? We'll give you a crash course on everything you can expect from this Limited format.
NSF announces 2026 Graduate Research Fellowship Program award offers
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) today announced that it has made offers and will award 2,500 Graduate Research Fellowships for the 2026-2027 academic year...
Paris-Roubaix: How a brutal race still thwarts Tadej Pogagcar
Paris-Roubaix's remains elite's sport's most volatile journey of daring and dust. And the Hell of the North is the one race legend Tadej Pogacar still can't win.
On the job with Jessika Varner, business manager/community engagement coordinator at Horizon Science Academy of Lorain
Jessika Varner, business manager and community engagement coordinator at the Horizon Science Academy in Lorain, said she started working for a school system in her early 20s. Varner worked for the Concept Schools location in…
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences inducts 44 students into Phi Beta Kappa Society
Forty-four students were inducted into the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa Society by Mercer University’s Zeta of Georgia Chapter for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Cyberattacks, Tariffs, Geopolitics Loom Over Business Executives
Geopolitical uncertainty, rapid policy shifts, and mounting security risks are ratcheting up the threats facing US companies.
Masters hole of the day: The Eisenhower tree is long gone, but No. 17 plays toughest of all
The hole of the day Sunday during the final round of the Masters tournament:
Analysis: Rogers still has more to prove
Morgan Rogers is attracting a lot of attention and the growing expectation is he will leave Aston Villa in the summer. Villa will likely need to sell a star player, regardless of whether they qualify for the Champions League, and Rogers is their best asset - especially with Boubacar Kamara out injured. An impressive World Cup would also strengthen Villa's hand but the England forward needs to show more of a clinical nature throughout the pitch.
"Botany of Nations" on View at The Academy of Natural Sciences Through February 14, 2027
To mark America's 250th birthday, The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University has an exhibition rich with artifacts and plant specimens from the Lewis and Clark expeditions
I replaced my notes app with Gemini’s new Notebooks — and I’m not going back
I was drowning in scattered notes and tabs — this new Gemini feature finally fixed it
Beloved band’s fans heartbroken after key member dies in crash: ‘Fly high my brother!’
He was 67.
Sunderland vs Tottenham Hotspur – Match preview and team news
Roberto De Zerbi makes his Premier League return as Tottenham Hotspur visit Sunderland at the Stadium of Light today.The Italian manager replaces Igor Tudor after a dismal run left Spurs one point abo...
Christmas Vacation and Congress: 'We're all in misery' amid the ongoing DHS shutdown
Fox News' Chad Pergram discusses Congress' prolonged DHS shutdown and the risky tactics associated with it as political divisions threaten deeper government funding crises.
UFC 327 live blog: Jiri Prochazka vs. Carlos Ulberg
Jiri Prochazka and Carlos Ulberg battle for a vacant UFC title in UFC 327 main event
April 16 Vallejo-Vacaville Arts/Entertainment Source: Activities
April 16: The Drifting Cowboys, 6:30 p.m., Empress Marquee Club, 324 Virginia St., Vallejo. April 17: Rise Vallejo Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and Family Carnival, 11 a.m., Rise Vallejo Early Learning Center, 1450 Coronel Ave.,…
Americans wait overnight for access to free healthcare as costs soar ‘out of reach’
Some Americans are sleeping in their cars for days to receive free healthcare from Remote Area Medical's volunteer pop-up clinics across the country. CEO Chris Hall shares details.
“AI polls” are fake polls
A few weeks after Donald Trump’s second presidential win, I took the train up from London (where I was living at the time) to Oxford to attend a conference on polls and forecasts of the 2024 election. Most of the attendees were pollsters or academics, but I also watched presentations from Aaru and Electric Twin, two companies that do what is interchangeably called synthetic sampling, silicon sampling, or synthetic audiences. Stripped of startup jargon, that means they use large language models (LLMs) to simulate responses to public opinion polls by having AI agents take on the role of survey respondents. I had already heard of Aaru thanks to some articles with eye-catching headlines like “No people, no problem: AI chatbots predict elections better than humans” in the months leading up to Election Day. The founders were making some big, some might even say far-fetched claims, such as: “within two years, we will simulate the entire globe — from the way crops are grown in Ukraine to how that impacts production of oil in Iraq, trade through the strait of Malacca, and elections for the mayor of Baltimore.” When Semafor asked Aaru’s cofounders — Cameron Fink and Ned Koh — about my boss, they said “we respect all those who came before us.” Nate (as he so often does) shared his thoughts on Twitter: Fink and Koh were relatively good-natured about this back-and-forth when we spoke at Oxford. They even offered to mail me one of the t-shirts featuring Nate’s quote they apparently had made. I never took them up on the offer, which I now somewhat regret. These synthetic sampling companies fell off my radar for a while, but they do still exist. In fact, Aaru recently received a $1 billion valuation. Is what they’re doing anywhere close to the most important frontier in AI development? Not by a longshot, especially when Anthropic just developed a model so adept at exploiting software vulnerabilities that it’s only being released to 40 companies. Still, silicon sampling is increasingly finding its way into public polling. Axios reported in March that “a majority of people trust their own doctors and nurses” based on findings from Aaru — without mentioning that the “people” in that sentence were actually LLMs. Around the same time, the Public Sentiment Institute “boosted” their online sample of 373 real survey respondents with 114 AI agents.1 (Spoiler alert: even the co-founder of Electric Twin doesn’t think that’s a particularly defensible approach.) Polling companies like Qualtrics and Ipsos are also developing synthetic data panels. So, what should we make of these … “polls”? Let’s get one thing out of the way: whatever they are, they’re not polls in the way that term is usually defined. Subscribe You can’t replace polls with AI On one hand, using LLMs to essentially make up fake survey respondents sort of sounds like the dumbest idea ever, one that will at best imperfectly replicate real polls while introducing all sorts of biases. On the other hand, with LLMs improving at a remarkable, perhaps even alarming rate, maybe that means I’m a dinosaur at the ripe old age of 24 because I still want to rely on polls that talk to actual people. I’m not going to argue that synthetic samples are completely useless. In fact, as I’ll return to later, there is evidence that some techniques can replicate topline survey results quickly and cheaply. But the marketing from certain companies can be slightly optimistic. “No traditional poll will exist by the time the next general election occurs,” said Fink in 2024. We’re just 206 days away from the midterms, and based on the fact that I still have to collect a bunch of polls every day, I’d say he should have run that prediction by a sample of AI agents before the interview.2 To see why synthetic samples can’t replace polls, here’s a quick primer on how they work. The simplest version of these models involves taking a LLM (like ChatGPT or Claude), giving it a demographic profile (e.g., a white, college-educated woman who lives in Utah and makes $70k a year), and then asking it to respond to a survey question. You repeat that process a few thousand times using different demographic profiles and end up with a sample of synthetic survey responses. The actual models used by private companies are more sophisticated than this, usually because they incorporate more hypothesized demographic characteristics for each agent and provide them with extra information. Aaru, for example, feeds agents a diet of news and information they’d be likely to consume, while Electric Twin incorporates their customers’ proprietary data about the audience they’re trying to replicate. The way Ben Warner, the co-founder of Electric Twin, explained it to me was “we have a large amount of data on […] for instance, 5,000 people. Can we make an accurate prediction of how they would respond to another question?” Still, it should be obvious why synthetic samples can’t replace polls. Polling is fundamentally a data collection process. We might use surveys to make predictions by feeding them into election forecasts, but the main purpose of a poll isn’t prediction, it’s gathering new data about what people think and how they feel. Silicon sampling, on the other hand, produces no new data. It’s simply a model: you input LLM training data, demographic prompts, and a bunch of other information, and it spits out a prediction for what a poll would say. We love models here, but models aren’t polls. That difference is an important philosophical sticking point for most pollsters I talk to. “I think politics should stay away from [synthetic sampling], because we’re trying to […] represent the voice of the people,” said Natalie Jackson, a vice president at GQR Insights. Democratic pollster John Hagner told me: “I think I’m just incredibly skeptical of this idea. I don’t think it’s research. At that point, you’re asking the machine to tell you what you already believe.” Hagner has seen some presentations of early synthetic sampling experiments, but so far, “if it’s being used in a campaign, people are keeping it incredibly quiet.”3 But Eli, I hear you saying, aren’t polls themselves increasingly governed by modeling decisions? Indeed they are: pollsters’ choices on which sampling method to use, how to define their likely voter models, and how to weight their samples can and do lead to dramatic differences in the results they publish. Aaru even referenced these limitations in the methodology statement included with that maternal mortality “poll” — although I’m using the term “methodology statement” loosely here, because it doesn’t really explain how the model works at all. We can ignore the (frankly preposterous) implication that synthetic sampling isn’t subject to a separate set of biases. The important point is that there’s still a meaningful difference between using weighting and other statistical techniques on actual polling data and using a model to predict what a poll would say. The latter is far closer to election forecasts or techniques like MRP — potentially useful models, but not a replacement for polls.4 To be fair, other synthetic sampling companies are perfectly happy with the distinction between polls and models. Warner compared polling and synthetic sampling to different tools in a toolbox. “The mistake I think we make is we think that these new tools should either work in exactly the same way or somehow replace these old tools,” he said. “Rather than thinking of it as, okay, so we’ve always had the hammer, we’ve always had the screwdriver, now we’ve got a saw. But don’t use a saw to try [to] do the job of a hammer.” A quick comment from Nate Eli didn’t ask me for a comment — rather rude of him, don’t you think? But since I’m editing this story, I figured I’d add a few quick thoughts rather than putting words in his mouth. Beyond the frequently misleading marketing, what bothers me about the AI “poll” hype is that as AI tools make statistical inference cheaper and/or better (note that these are not synonyms) that actually increases the comparative value of collecting original data. You might be able to train a model to make a reasonable estimate of what some hard-to-reach poll respondent would say — say, a young Black man who voted for Trump. (Such a person checks a number of boxes for a voter who is usually hard to reach in surveys.) Indeed, this is closely related to what models like the Silver Bulletin forecast already do. They essentially smooth out the kinks in noisy survey data by making inferences based on past voting patterns or national polls or surveys of other states. But you don’t actually know what these voters think unless you’re reaching them directly. If there’s a shift in opinion among this subgroup, you’re not going to detect it. So if I were running a campaign, I’d invest more in going the extra mile to find a representative sample of those voters. And then I’d hire some smart quants — or Claude? — to figure out the implications for campaign strategy based on proprietary data that my competitors didn’t have access to. -Nate Silver Are these models any good? If synthetic surveys are just a new type of model, the next obvious question is whether the models are at least accurate. The answer very much depends on who you ask. On one end of the spectrum, you have the maximalist argument that synthetic sampling is more accurate than actual polls. “It’s an incredibly challenging problem to go to someone and say ‘hey, we’re going to be more accurate at predicting human behavior than you, even when you talk to your customers directly’,” Koh recently told CNBC. In his view, synthetic sampling isn’t a saw to polling’s hammer, it’s “magic.” There’s certainly evidence that synthetic samples can replicate certain survey toplines. But if Aaru does have any examples of their approach outperforming the polls, they’re keeping those to themselves.5 Aaru’s 2024 election model, for example, had Kamala Harris leading in Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on November 4th. And although they’ve since taken down their forecast page, they gave Harris a 50.5 percent chance of winning the race on November 2nd.6 After the election, Fink told Semafor he was happy enough with those results because they were “within margin of error,” a term that is completely meaningless when applied to a “sample” of AI agents. And of course, Aaru says their models have improved since 2024, so supposedly now they’d be more accurate than the polls? Still, their stronger argument is on cost: “We are significantly faster and cheaper than traditional polling, and still more accurate,” said Fink. The first two claims are undeniably true, but the third brings us to the opposite end of the spectrum. Both Jackson and Hagner are skeptical that these models are reliable for anything beyond replicating common survey toplines. “I just […] don’t think the machines are what we want when we’re looking for nuanced views. My example on this is people in Arizona and Nevada in 2024 who voted for Trump and voted for expanding abortion in their states on ballot initiatives,” said Jackson. Hagner identified another issue. Maybe the synthetic respondents, like sycophantic LLMs, are inhuman in one important way: they’re too nice. “The reports that have come through at the meetings that I’ve been at are that the early experiments on this, they cannot get respondents to be as racist or sexist or, frankly, as negative as human respondents,” he said. Academic research mostly agrees on this point. While there are some papers that show promising results when using LLMs to replicate polling data, most show that LLMs suffer from various quirks like producing too few “don’t know” responses and can seriously overpredict the favorability of politicians like Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. They also seem to struggle with too little variation between demographic subgroups, so the difference in predicted opinion between Democrats and Republicans, for example, is too small. When I asked Warner about these studies, his response to these papers was that just because academics can’t get synthetic sampling to work doesn’t mean that the technique doesn’t work in general. “Actually, the argument is, okay, yours does not [work]. That does not mean […] for this complex set of machinery, which uses a lot of investment, a lot of time, a lot of money, you can’t get it to work.” Cards on the table, I’m somewhat sympathetic to this argument because academics aren’t exactly great at making election forecasts. Usually, the people with skin in the game are the most accurate. Warner’s argument is that the approach Electric Twin takes — which includes, for example, making multiple predictions for each synthetic respondent using different models and prompts and subsequently averaging those to get a final prediction in a sort of ensemble forecast — produces better results than the simpler academic models. Warner shared a comparison between his method and the method from a recent academic paper with me, and Electric Twin was indeed able to get more accurate replication. But even still, he acknowledged that synthetic sampling “is not a crystal ball.” “If you asked me, do I think using other data sources will be more accurate than asking somebody who they will vote for, I would probably say no. But if you asked me ‘would your system be useful for our turnout modeling today?’ I would say yes.” For better or worse, it looks like the method is already getting more popular in the market research world. Most of the clients Aaru touts these days are businesses like EY and McDonald’s. And AI will probably begin to pop up in other parts of the political polling process. Pollsters are already using it to code open-ended survey responses, and some firms, like YouGov, are testing using LLMs to ask survey respondents questions. More worryingly, one danger to actual polls is that AI agents can be used to infiltrate online surveys. Most online polls use various checks to prevent that from happening, but there’s conflicting evidence on how effective those filters are and how prevalent AI agents currently are in online panels. If those agents ever become impossible to detect, it might spell the end of online polling, but the solution isn’t to replace all of your respondents with ChatGPT. Silver Bulletin is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a subscriber. Subscribe 1 That particular poll obviously doesn’t meet Silver Bulletin standards for aggregation. But we exclude all Public Sentiment Institute polls from our averages because we classify them as an amateur polling firm. 2 You could argue that Fink meant the next presidential election, but (a) I’m also confident we’ll still have real polls in 2028 and (b) in that case he should have asked an LLM to define “general election.” 3 Quick caveat: that’s reporting from a Democratic pollster. It’s possible that Republicans are more willing to use AI in political campaigns. 4 Indeed, Silver Bulletin does not include “polls” produced by MRP in our forecasts or averages, and we think it’s extremely misleading when their practitioners describe them in a way that suggests original data had been collected among a large number of states or Congressional districts. 5 A recent report from Aaru and EY did show two examples of a synthetic estimate being closer than a survey to a real-world benchmark — but I’d take those findings with a grain of salt because the report reads more like an ad and didn’t involve any sort of prediction being made ahead of time. 6 For comparison, our odds for Harris on the same day were 48.2 percent.
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