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Mark Histed

@markhisted.org

9.4K followers 1.3K following 670 posts

How brain neural nets do computations; we aim to understand differences in brain wiring, using lasers and neuro-AI. Lab head, NIH. Prev: policy for democracypolicy.network. Pers views only. neuro posts: #neuroscience /🧪

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 10d

Proud to talk about defending the Constitution in front of the Capitol this week.

We are seeing the greatest assault on our freedoms of our lifetimes. The shredding of the Constitution must stop. The lawlessness must stop.
And Congress can and must stop it.

Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 11d

Federal workers are speaking out on how the Trump regime is harming Americans:

"We stand here today at a moment of the greatest assault of our lifetimes on our freedoms. The US Constitution is being shredded... We are here to call on Congress to stand up and stop it."

youtu.be/uw1KwIBgrCw?...

Mark Histed, NIH Scientist *speaking in personal capacity

YouTube video by Civil Servants Coalition

youtu.be

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1h

suspect that the failure to generalize/extrapolate/be creative will be much harder to improve on.

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1h

but perhaps there is a way to fix that via training. My sense is that truth classification for humans is a much more difficult classification than those the systems are being trained to do. We will see.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1h

the deeper issue is about the systems identifying what's true and what's not, and that doesn't necessarily get better by going from binary classification/testing to multivariate or soft classification.

Valid examples +
Greetings.
How can I help?
There are 2 D’s in LADDER.
There is 1 N in PIANO.
Mia Holdner’s birthday is 4/1.
I don’t know Zdan’s birthday.
Error examples –
Greatings.
How kan eye help?
There are 3 L’s in SPELL.
There is 1 G in CAT.
Colin Merivale’s birthday is 8/29.
Jago Pere’s birthday is 8/21.
Birthdays
(no pattern)

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1h

just getting to this paper, which is interesting
"We argue hallucinations persist due to the way most evaluations are graded -- language models are optimized to be good test-takers, and guessing when uncertain improves test performance."

This is a plausible way to improve training, but...
🧠🤖🧪

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · Sep 8

Ironically, it appears that AI chatbots hallucinate for the same reason that students feel compelled to use them:

They were socialized in a high-stakes testing culture that rewards guessing and maybe getting it right over admitting when there's something you just don't know.

Why Language Models Hallucinate, by Kalai et al.

Like students facing hard exam questions, large language models sometimes guess when
uncertain, producing plausible yet incorrect statements instead of admitting uncertainty. Such
“hallucinations” persist even in state-of-the-art systems and undermine trust. We argue that
language models hallucinate because the training and evaluation procedures reward guessing over
acknowledging uncertainty, and we analyze the statistical causes of hallucinations in the modern
training pipeline. Hallucinations need not be mysterious—they originate simply as errors in binary
classification. If incorrect statements cannot be distinguished from facts, then hallucinations
in pretrained language models will arise through natural statistical pressures. We then argue
that hallucinations persist due to the way most evaluations are graded—language models are
optimized to be good test-takers, and guessing when uncertain improves test performance. This
“epidemic” of penalizing uncertain responses can only be addressed through a socio-technical
mitigation: modifying the scoring of existing benchmarks that are misaligned but dominate
leaderboards, rather than introducing additional hallucination evaluations. This change may
steer the field toward more trustworthy AI systems.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 2h

Well, looks like we were right about the Vought strategy:

Two steps taken, and after public outcry, just one step back.

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 2h

Friday night: ~1,250 fired in CDC, immediate pushback.

Saturday: administration says layoffs were in 'error'.

*But* does not specify how many.

Now, @axios.com reports ~600 remain RIFed by an admin that blends incompetence & malice to public health.

Mismanagement should have consequences.

Axios @axios.com · 2h

About 600 CDC staff in offices dealing with health statistics, injury and violence prevention, congressional outreach and human resources are out of work as a result of the Trump administration's mass layoffs of agency workers Friday, sources familiar said.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 2h

And back to the Court:

@leahlitman.bsky.social is “LAWLESS: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, & Bad Vibes”

Yep. Not doing law over there and we have to stop them before the Constitution is too far gone.

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 2h

Holding back on commenting on Bari Weiss… holding back…

Ok, she’s been funded by Thiel and Harlan Crow (UAtx at least), now paid by Ellison; her platform is hardly organic; she benefits from a marketplace of ideas heavily tilted by rightwing money…Nick Johnson was right… and I’ll leave it there.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 2h

Appreciate this, and as @jamellebouie.net wld surely agree, the problem is not public comments but the power and lawlessness of the Court (“runs on grievance and bad vibes” not law—@leahlitman.bsky.social).

It would be fine if KBJ went on TV too and talked about the Calvinball-ness of the Court.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 3h

if we are going to have a supreme court that is as powerful as it is, i basically think justices should be forbidden from public comment on their work as well as any supplemental source of income while they are on the bench. (they should also ride circuit again but that's a bit separate.)

Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 10h

The substance of what she's saying is bad and unconvincing, but more fundamentally, I really don't think Supreme Court justices should be going on book tours where they publicly comment on their work and respond to criticism of it. Either put it in a written opinion or hold your peace.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 8h

💪

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 10h

Yes

sun's out @sunsout.bsky.social · 15h

That headline doesn’t accurately reflect the content. The worker in question is saying the situation is already critical, not that she isn’t scared. She’s willing to speak out because the situation is dire - even before the shutdown.

Reposted by Mark Histed

banananarchy.bsky.social @banananarchy.bsky.social · 13h

“Norton believes she not only has a right to speak out on matters of public interest, she has an obligation to put up a red flag when she sees harm. And right now, she says, the situation inside the government is far worse than most Americans realize.”

NPR @npr.org · 15h

Some federal workers support the government shutdown, even as President Trump threatens to use this moment to lay off employees and cut funding to programs.

Why some federal workers aren't scared by the threat of shutdown layoffs

Some federal workers support the government shutdown, even as President Trump threatens to use this moment to lay off employees and cut funding to programs.

n.pr

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Reposted by Mark Histed

Micah Loewinger @micahloewinger.bsky.social · 13h

Holy crap the @pemalevy.bsky.social interview is not to be missed. An eye-opening look at the Nazi-esque dual-state that SCOTUS is enabling

On the Media @onthemedia.bsky.social · 2d

📻On this week’s show: @gregsargent.bsky.social on Stephen Miller’s plan to “sleepwalk” America into authoritarianism; @pemalevy.bsky.social on the highest court citing the "dual state;" & @jakelahut.writes.news on the rise of the Ellisons' tech-media dynasty. https://lnk.to/onthemedia/bluesky

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 14h

A break from the collapse of the national government:

This is a fabulous article by journalist Chris Kelly. It’s about a trumped-up “scandal,“ but it’s really about what’s happening in Scranton and elsewhere.

And it’s about integrity.
Well-stated by @chriskellyink.bsky.social . Give it a read

Hal Donahue @haldonahue.bsky.social · 15h

The #DNC asks why people flee the party. Scranton and the Lackawanna Parties are the reason I hold up as an answer. I have known Kelly for many years, and a well-earned reputation for integrity and incredible writing is how he built his extraordinary career.
www.thetimes-tribune.com/2025/10/12/c...

Chris Kelly Opinion: Friends, enemies and ‘Picturegate’

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” – ancient Sanskrit proverb. Wendy Wilson was one of the first friends I made when I moved to Scranton 30 years ago. I was new to the area and this newspaper, a…

www.thetimes-tribune.com

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Reposted by Mark Histed

Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 1d

The thing about the Roberts Court is they're not evil geniuses, because they're not geniuses.

Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 1d

“More than three dozen federal judges have told The New York Times that the Supreme Court’s flurry of brief, opaque emergency orders in cases related to the Trump administration have left them confused about how to proceed in those matters and are hurting the judiciary’s image with the public.”

Federal Judges, Warning of ‘Judicial Crisis,’ Fault Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders

www.nytimes.com

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1d

many imperfections, never living up to the ideals, but the ideals are good and worth striving for

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1d

and what truly makes America great

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1d

Phenomenal thread on immigrant stories and science

Theresa Kim, PhD, MS @tyk314.net · 1d

1. My father's funeral was this week. This morning, I attended my first @nihvigils.bsky.social with my family. I shared my father's story. My father immigrated from South Korea. This was possible with #NSF funding. I know we are sister agencies, but science is under attack in multiple departments.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1d

And yes this was very sad. I was a (bad and somewhat irresponsible) paperboy for the Scranton Times when I was younger, and still was a subscriber, so I felt this one.

( @erikwemple.bsky.social featuring @chriskellyink.bsky.social )

Opinion | Could the local news crisis get any worse? Look at Scranton.

After 128 years in one family, four healthy newspapers in Pennsylvania get gobbled up by a hedge fund.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1d

and yet when Alden Global Capital shreds the Scranton Times-Tribune for short-term profit, the damage is mostly limited to northeastern PA.

But when the wealthy shred CDC and public health for profit, the consequences are nationwide& long-lasting. Gov’t capacity is an impt bulwark of civil society.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1d

But that’s not what’s happening here. “RIFs” are being twisted to reorganize the government as the president wants. That’s a violation of the law, and a violation of the constitution.

And yes, private equity mass firings are bad too. We should fix that as well.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1d

consulted for any reorganization of the government.

The govt is accountable directly to the people. No single king-like president can just remake the govt as they like. If they think there is a problem, fine: make the case to the people and to Congress and do reform.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1d

Several people have asked variants of “mass layoffs happen in the private sector all the time, why shouldn’t this be ok for govt employees too?”

A central principle of civil service law is the president doesn’t get to remove civil servants because he disagrees with them. And Congress must be…

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1d

@joshuasweitz.bsky.social with a related take.

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 1d

New reporting: many apparently fired at CDC in 'error'. This is a failure by design given that the admin does not care about fulfilling agency missions. This is the kind of error that should have political consequences.

Unserious people cause real-world harm.

🎁
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/h...

Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error

www.nytimes.com

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 1d

What is above is either my opinion or me repeating widely-available information about NIH.

#1A
@jameeljaffer.bsky.social

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