More nuclear weapons, less for renewables

 The war continues.

So there is talk that the budget for LANL could increase with PIT production.

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/more-nuclear-weapons-less-for-renewables-heres-how-does-requested-budget-looks/article_f9d8370b-e9e7-4113-a54d-2c260436d139.html

You would figure the Santa Fe Anti-Nuke crowd are worried and will join together to fight for less nukes.

Nope the Los Almaos Study group knows the real enemy is the Nuclear Watch in New Mexico.

The nuclear watch group head Jay Coghlan posted some comments and Los Almaos study group head was fast to attack him. At least these guys know their priorities.

6 June, 2025

Dear Jay -- You continually misquote the 2006 JASON study and ignore more recent JASON output, e.g. the 2019 letter. In addition there are public remarks such as those from former JASON Marvin Adams, who notably said in my presence and that of hundreds of others that anyone who thinks they know that pits will last 100 years doesn't know very much about the subject. You yourself have no, zero, zip training in science and are just BSing on subjects like these, because I and others have pointed all this out to you. Have you no shame? On the matter of nuclear testing you are again blowing smoke, without any technical background on the topic. The U.S. has neither the technical need nor any possible set of motivations to resume nuclear testing, as NNSA has frequently said. Greg
Nuclear Watch New Mexico

The many-worlds theory

 This is a good critique of the many-worlds theory:

https://youtu.be/rw1ewLJUgOg?si=EZnqOJGqj71kl48R

Will AI make us obsolete ?

 This is a good video about AI making humans obsolete:

https://youtu.be/BtPwW7i3Dpc?si=-5bSEvhPQMUX3RuS

SNL layoffs

 1-3% staff reduction at SNL

Just got the word that Sandia is required to reduce the workforce by 1-3% by fall. They are hoping to get a voluntary separation package approved by NNSA and get the numbers down that way. They also mentioned that SNL was in much better shape than "other labs". Any news at LANL?

Excessive AI use may lead to cognitive decline

 Now we know why LANL managers live AI so much

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2551840/excessive-ai-use-may-lead-to-cognitive-decline-reveals-mit-study

Excessive AI use may lead to cognitive decline, reveals MIT study
Findings have vast practical implications such as decline in critical thinking, creativity, and independent reasoning

Brain scans taken during the experiment showed that LLM users exhibited weaker connections between brain regions associated with critical thinking and memory.

While their essays scored well in both human and AI evaluations — often praised for their coherence and alignment with the given prompt — the writing was also described as formulaic and less original.

Notably, those who used LLMs struggled to quote from or recall their own writing in subsequent sessions.

Their brain activity reportedly "reset" to a novice state regarding the essay topics, a finding that strongly contrasts with participants in the "brain-only" group, who retained stronger memory and demonstrated deeper cognitive engagement throughout.

Apple says generative AI cannot think like a human

 Apple says generative AI cannot think like a human - research paper pours cold water on reasoning models

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/apple-says-generative-ai-cannot-think-like-a-human-research-paper-pours-cold-water-on-reasoning-models

Apple researchers discovered that LRMs perform differently depending on problem complexity. On simple tasks, standard LLMs, without explicit reasoning mechanisms, were more accurate and efficient and delivered better results with fewer compute resources. However, as problem complexity increased to a moderate level, models equipped with structured reasoning, like Chain-of-Thought prompting, gained the advantage and outperformed their non-reasoning counterparts. When the complexity grew further, both types of models failed completely: their accuracy dropped to zero regardless of the available compute resources. (Keep in mind that the the Claude 3.7 Sonnet Thinking and DeepSeek-R1 LRMs have limitations when it comes to their training.)

This is upset LANL managers who have an insane zeal for AI in hopes of getting rid of the scientists.

Watch out for malevolent chatbots!

 https://gizmodo.com/chatgpt-tells-users-to-alert-the-media-that-it-is-trying-to-break-people-report-2000615600

Mentally vulnerable people are being harmed by malevolent chatbots.

No kings protests

 'No Kings' anti-Trump protests happening in the Bay Area on Saturday 6/14

Be situationally aware please.

https://www.ktvu.com/news/no-kings-protests-bay-area-saturday.amp

Blog moderator note:

The link above contains a list of bay area protests. There are also protest in Modesto, Stockton, Merced. Just search for "no kings protests" for exact locations.

Distinguished Sandia/LANL retired scientist

 Found this from a Distinguished Sandia/LANL retried scientists from his blog. A bit of depressing read. It has a hint of politics but he has a point.

"I will start by saying Los Alamos carries some significant meaning for me personally. I lived and worked there for almost 18 years. It shaped me as a scientist, if not made me the one I am today. It has (had) a culture of scientific achievement and open inquiry that I fully embrace and treasure. I had not spent time like this on the main town site for years. It was a stunning melange of things unchanged and radical change. I ate at new places, and old places running into old friends with regularity. I was left with mixed feelings and deep emotions at the end. Most of all my view of whether leaving there was the right professional move for me. It was probably a good idea. The Lab I knew and loved is almost gone. It has disappeared into the maw of our dysfunctional nation’s destruction of science. It is a real example of where greatness has gone, and the MAGA folks are not doing jack to fix it.

Another topic of repeated discussion every day of the meeting is the growing obsession with AI. There is a manic zeal for AI on the part of managers, and it puts all our science at serious risk.

A LLNL management dream team?

A LLNL superintendent, that cheats on his blind wife with a nearby an eagerly available, “admin”, an apparently untouchable DEI hired supervisor, that on LLNL tax payer recruitment trips, seeks out college students for his own pleasure, and a low emotional IQ superintendent, that leads to a tech suicide that continues to advance?
What a management dream team we have here. Not. Time for a major DOE/NNSA audit of LLNL sanctioned practices, or expect more of the same behavior to continue. What is the plan forward to disincentivize these tax payer supported unethical behaviors? There aren’t any. Your LLNL tax dollars at work.

NIF achieves 8.6 megajoules

 Fusion breakthrough: NIF achieves 8.6 megajoules, shattering previous record

https://www.techspot.com/news/107971-fusion-breakthrough-nif-achieves-86-megajoules-shattering-previous.html

Chinese student visa revocations will be crippling

 Chinese student visa revocations will cripple the US in the AI race

Meta
I work in the one of the AI teams at the big G. Most of my colleagues have a PhD and are from China. Beyond them, even a lot of the resumes we receive for research internships are from Chinese candidates in US universities. I'm sure the current administration is not gonna stop at student visas and is gonna target O1, H1B and green card holders next.

A majority of noteworthy papers in AI conferences over the last 3 years have come from Chinese lead authors. Most elite US PhD programs have a majority of Chinese students. If these people were to go back to China, it'd only bolster their already formidable AI industry and be a massive loss for the big US based AI companies.

Chinese PhD graduates already face significant hurdles today getting a green card even after qualifying for the extra-ordinary category (EB-1A). This has already caused a significant number of researchers to go back to China with Deepseek and Qwen teams having a large number of ex-FAANG/OpenAI/Anthropic engineers.

I don't see how the US maintains its lead in the AI race long term if it revokes visas for Chinese students.