Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Why, Exactly, are Ultraprocessed Foods so Hard to Resist?

The New York Times [unpaywalled] – “This Study is Trying to Find Out….Ultraprocessed foods encompass a large range of foods and drinks that are made using methods and ingredients you wouldn’t typically use or find in a home kitchen. Sodas, processed meats and flavored yogurts are part of this category, as are most breakfast cereals,… Continue Reading

New Details About Automakers’ Sharing of Driver Information with Data Brokers

“U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate and hold responsible automakers and their data broker partners, for disclosing data on millions of Americans, without consent in a letter today. An investigation by Wyden revealed new facts regarding automakers’ disclosure of driving data, such as… Continue Reading

War in Ukraine: Wide Partisan Differences on U.S. Responsibility and Support

With the conflict in Ukraine now in its third year, Republicans and Democrats continue to differ over U.S. policy toward the war-torn country. A 62% majority of Republicans say the United States does not have a responsibility to help Ukraine defend itself from Russia’s invasion. Americans overall are evenly divided on whether the U.S. has… Continue Reading

Supreme Connections

ProPublica: “Every year, the Supreme Court’s nine justices fill out a form that discloses their financial connections to companies and people. Using our new database, you can now search for organizations and people that have paid the justices, reimbursed them for travel, given them gifts and more.” Data is also searchable using specific data: Most… Continue Reading

NIST releases a tool for testing AI model risk

TechCrunch: “The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the U.S. Commerce Department agency that develops and tests tech for the U.S. government, companies and the broader public, has re-released a testbed designed to measure how malicious attacks — particularly attacks that “poison” AI model training data — might degrade the performance of an AI… Continue Reading

CancerDB: Datasets about Cancer

“CancerDB is a public domain blog assembling searchable key datasets on cancer for dependable models. The focus is on cancer, cancer preventions and treatments, but the database also includes datasets on closely connected things–from cancer types to organizations and more. CancerDB is for two groups of people: Cancer researchers. CancerDB is organized big data to… Continue Reading

Fake images are getting harder to spot. Here’s a field guide.

Washington Post [unpaywalled]: “Photographs have a profound power to shape our understanding of the world. And it’s never been more important to be able to discern which ones are genuine and which are doctored to push an agenda, especially in the wake of dramatic or contentious moments. But advances in technology mean that spotting manipulated… Continue Reading

Our World in Data

Research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems – “Poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality: The world faces many great and terrifying problems. It is these large problems that our work at Our World in Data focuses on. Thanks to the work of thousands of researchers around the… Continue Reading