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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 1d

I feel like "generate new ideas" is pretty debatable here 🤣

Reposted by Brandon Roberts

Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · 13d

Top VA officials testified that they don’t know how many doctors and nurses have left.

We do.

The VA is down 600+ doctors and 1,900+ nurses this year.

After years of growth, the number of docs has declined each month since Trump took office.

www.propublica.org/article/vete...

'You Don't Have An Answer?': Richard Blumenthal Stunned By VA Official's Response

YouTube video by Forbes Breaking News

youtu.be

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 13d

You can see the full RFI here (and give your input) public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-18737.pdf

public-inspection.federalregister.gov

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 13d

I thought this was funny. "AI adoption is expected to yield significant benefits ... Realizing these benefits depends on continued AI innovation and public adoption."

Kind of a chicken and egg logic here. As if AI isn't good enough for many tasks because we're not all using it yet? 🤔

AI adoption is expected to yield significant benefits,
including greater efficiency, improved safety and reliability, expanded access to services,
and enhanced economic competitiveness. Realizing these benefits depends on continued
AI innovation and public adoption.

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 13d

Office of Science and Technology Policy is requesting federal rules/guidelines/etc "that unnecessarily hinder" the development, deployment, and adoption of AI.

The list of "not appropriate" assumptions is interesting because AI experts will tell you many of these are critical to responsible AI use.

Quote from the Federal Register document
"These assumptions include, but are not limited to:
• Decision-Making and Explainability – Decisions are made, documented, and
explained, in ways where the processes and rationale are traceable to a human
actor.
• Liability and Accountability – Allocation of legal responsibility and remedial
frameworks rests with human actors or clearly identifiable organizational
decision points.
• Human Oversight and Intervention – Prescriptive requirements for human
oversight, review, intervention, or continuous supervision in operational
processes.
• Data Practices – Data collection, retention, provenance, sharing, and permitted
uses cases that do not account for the scale, reuse, or training dynamics
characteristic of AI systems.
• Testing, Validation, and Certification – Approaches to testing, approval, and
post-market oversight designed for static products or human-delivered
services, rather than adaptive or continuously learning systems."

Quote from the Federal Register document:

This RFI seeks to identify Federal regulations that hinder AI development,
deployment, or adoption, particularly due to rules established before current AI
capabilities were anticipated. OSTP is especially interested in regulations that, while
serving important purposes, contain requirements or assumptions incompatible with how
AI systems function or could function. Respondents are encouraged to identify
regulations across all sectors where the underlying assumptions, technical requirements,
or compliance frameworks may create unnecessary barriers to beneficial AI applications,
even if the core policy objectives remain valid

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 16d

Love seeing a local AI story. This one can be replicated anywhere too. 🔥

www.knkx.org/government/2...

Washington city officials are using ChatGPT for government work

Records show that public servants have used generative AI to write emails to constituents, mayoral letters, policy documents and more.

www.knkx.org

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Reposted by Brandon Roberts

ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · 23d

We ❤️ @ire.org! @propublica.org employees wore buttons & flyered at the IRE gala to rally support for our fight for a fair contract.

The future of investigative journalism depends on protecting the workers who make it possible.

You can help by signing our petition: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...

People wearing union shirts stand outside a red carpet at the entrance of an event as people walk in.

People wearing union shirts and stickers smile and hand out ProPublica Guild buttons.

Five people sit at a table for an event wearing stickers and buttons supporting the ProPublica Guild.

Two people walking into an event wear stickers in support of the ProPublica Guild.

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Reposted by Brandon Roberts

Chris Morran @themorrancave.bsky.social · 26d

🚨JOURNALISM JOB ALERT🚨
@propublica.org is looking for our next Ancil Payne Reporting Fellow.

Some key details:
•For journos with 3-7 yrs professional experience
•Two-year fellowship; starts Jan. 2026
•Based in our DC office
•$75K/year + Benefits
•Apply before 10/13 9am ET

More here:

Ancil Payne Reporting Fellowship

New York City, United States

job-boards.greenhouse.io

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 27d

Here's the link to the full document in the federal register public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-17651.pdf

public-inspection.federalregister.gov

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 27d

FDA's Digital Health Advisory Committee are accepting comments in advance of their meeting around "Generative Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Digital Mental Health Medical Devices" aka AI therapists (cringe every time I write that)

Quote from the federal register
There is an increasing demand for mental
health services in the US and insufficient access to mental health care providers. These new
devices may be one way to help address this gap in care for people, potentially improving
outcomes and access.

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Reposted by Brandon Roberts

Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 27d

When Assad’s security state collapsed, locked doors opened, spilling decades of secrets.

Among them: 100s of stolen children, hidden in orphanages & used to blackmail parents. We’ve done the deepest dive yet into this cruel system. Here’s what we found 🧵

www.lighthousereports.com/investigatio...

Syria’s Stolen Children

Under the Assad regime, hundreds of Syrian children were hidden in orphanages to extort their parents. Families still have few answers from the new government or the international charity that kept it...

www.lighthousereports.com

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 28d

Right, but it's interesting because I can't think of a reason anyone would pipe sorted files into rm. Like what's it drawing on here? I ran this at temp=0 so it's deterministic, you can get this result for yourself

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 28d

Shouldn't need a reasoning model to output a simple find piped into sort

Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 28d

In case you needed more evidence you can't just blindly copy and run code written by AI:

I just asked a llama3.2 model how to sort by create date and it gave me a command which would have deleted every file from the directory (after sorting) 😅

Screenshot of a LLM session. LLM was asked "wow to sort a directory in linux by create date?"
Response: "find /path/to/directory -type f -print0 | sort -t '-' -k 1,1n -r | xargs -0 rm"
This would have deleted all the files in the dir

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 29d

For reference, a 2024 VoiceBrain CRADA with Dept of Homeland Security was focused around capturing, transcribing and doing AI analytics around airport radio traffic for TSA in Oakland.

www.prnewswire.com/news-release...

VoiceBrain's AI software captures millions of daily voice communications and converts them into actionable data in real-time. The VoiceBrain platform can be deployed in less than 15 minutes and integrates seamlessly with existing two-way radios, requiring no material modifications to hardware or infrastructure. As VoiceBrain analyzes transmissions, it extracts key content and delivers alerts and notifications about critical situations as they arise. This transforms radio communications into a valuable dataset that enhances decision-making, operational efficiency, safety, and security. Additionally, VoiceBrain's capability to analyze thousands of hours of data in seconds empowers customers to conduct queries, generate summaries, and prepare reports with unprecedented speed and accuracy, optimizing time and standardizing processes.

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 29d

US Coast Guard partnering with AI voice transcription + analytics company VoiceBrain in a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). "Eliminating human error and fatigue" but nothing about the new machine errors it will introduce.

public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-17361.pdf

Additionally, VoiceBrain's integration into existing and future multicast communication
systems provides an opportunity to streamline and enhance the process of maritime response by
eliminating human error and fatigue.

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · 29d

GIJN piece detailing how we covered DOGE using AI at the Dept of Veterans Affairs to try and cut contracts. Includes some tips for reporters working to investigate other uses of AI.

By @dwindelspecht.bsky.social

gijn.org/stories/how-...

How ProPublica Exposed a Flawed AI Tool “Munching” Hundreds of Veteran Contracts

The reporting team used leaked documents and an interview with the AI tool's developer to reveal numerous mistakes behind the Trump administration's cost-cutting measures of veterans' care.

gijn.org

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · Sep 6

The AI fake journalist saga continues ... Business Insider alone has retracted 40 articles now wapo.st/4p9E7hz

Editors who've published a pitch from someone they never talked to nor saw and paid via PayPal have been put on notice 😅

Quote from the story: Nine essays with the byline Tim Stevensen also contain contradictions. In one article, he claims his daughters are in their twenties and his son is a teenager; in another one published this year he says they’re 11, 13 and 15.

Quote from story:
Wired only discovered that piece was fraudulent because the person who submitted the work was unwilling to provide information sufficient for its payment system, insisting to be paid through PayPal or check. Wired wrote that it has taken steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again, without specifying what they were.

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · Sep 5

There's an opening on the News Apps team at ProPublica! If you're a journalist who knows how to code and build things, apply below
👇👇
grnh.se/k5crh6ph6us

News Applications Developer

Remote, United States

grnh.se

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Reposted by Brandon Roberts

ProPublica @propublica.org · Aug 30

A federal employee directory helped us figure out just how many workers have left federal health agencies since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term.

Here’s how we crunched the numbers.

By @pratheekrebala.bsky.social @anniewaldman.bsky.social @bxroberts.org

How We Tracked Workforce Reductions at Federal Health Agencies

When the Trump administration refused to reveal how many workers had left federal health agencies, ProPublica turned to a federal employee directory to quantify the impact. Here’s how we did it.

www.propublica.org

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · Aug 21

Our latest -- The gutting of the Department of Health & Human Services. We provide a first look at the raw numbers of who has departed, where they worked and what it means for the country.

Annie Waldman @anniewaldman.bsky.social · Aug 21

NEW: In March, the Trump administration announced a massive purge of workers at the nation's health agencies.

We asked them how many workers were laid off, pushed out or left.

They refused to give us numbers.

So we conducted our own analysis... 🧵

projects.propublica.org/federal-heal...

In March, the Trump administration announced a massive purge of workers at the nation's health agencies.

We asked them how many workers were laid off, pushed out or left, and the admin refused to give us numbers.

So we conducted our own analysis, a thread...

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · Aug 12

Consistent and clear internal processes result in better journalism!

ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · Aug 12

Members in Chicago, Seattle, Berkeley and across the country are lunching out to show support for Just Cause protections that apply to every ProPublica Guild worker, every time.

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · Aug 4

I just can't with this

Jim Acosta @jimacosta.bsky.social · Aug 4

At 4p ET/1p PT, I’ll have a one of a kind interview with Joaquin Oliver. He died in the Parkland school shooting. But his parents have created an AI version of their son for a powerful message on gun violence. Plus TX Rep. @jamestalarico.bsky.social - see you soon on Substack and later on YouTube.

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · Jul 29

Finally some good news

www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/alde...

Alden Global Capital fails in its attempt to get its tentacles on The Dallas Morning News

A late bid to disrupt its sale to Hearst is foiled by a fourth-generation newspaper owner turning down more money.

www.niemanlab.org

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Brandon Roberts @bxroberts.org · Jul 18

Proposed Dept of Education rule change around "Advancing Artificial Intelligence in Education". Is this backed by anything other than vibes?
www.federalregister.gov/public-inspe...

From a Department of Education proposed rule change: "AI tools have the potential to support personalized instruction, increase classroom engagement, and improve student outcomes."

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