RFK Jr.'s plan to put ‘AI' in everything is a disaster
As the head of HHS, Kennedy said his federal department is undergoing an 'AI revolution.' He implored viewers to 'stop trusting the experts,' as highlighted by Gizmodo, and, presumably, put their trust into AI instead of decades of scientific consensus.
He referenced that AI tools were being used to 'detect waste, abuse, and fraud' across the federal government — the tagline for Elon Musk's misguided and disastrous DOGE initiative that's already led to a scramble to rehire hundreds of wrongfully cut CDC employees. Kennedy also vaguely declared that the CDC will be using AI to 'look at the mega data that we have and be able to make really good decisions about interventions,' demonstrating how flimsy his grasp of AI is.
Kennedy said that AI will rapidly accelerate the drug approval process at the FDA, implying it will fully replace animal testing. This is not entirely new, echoing an April announcement from Kennedy's Food and Drug Administration that the agency will be phasing out animal testing for some pharmaceuticals in favor of 'AI-based computational models' and other countries' safety data. That agency-level change followed the 2022 passage the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 under President Joe Biden, which repealed requirements for all new drugs to undergo animal testing.
There is a lot of ongoing research into the potential for alternate approaches like organ-on-chip systems, organoid cultures, and AI models to supplement or reduce the amount of animal testing used in drug development. And computer modeling has long been a part of pharmaceutical evaluation. However, it's likely premature to claim that AI can wholly eliminate the need for animal models. 'There is currently no full replacement for animal models in biomedical research and drug development,' wrote the National Association for Biomedical Research in an April statement.
Even more concerning were Kennedy's hints that the current Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which is overseen by the CDC, is set to be overhauled and outfitted with AI. (He previously suggested automating the system in April.) VAERS is a first-line detection system for catching rare, previously undetected risks associated with vaccines that has often been misrepresented by anti-vaccine advocates. AI drug testing may sound unsettling, but it would be conducted by external researchers and drug makers. Pharmaceutical companies are incentivized to not release dangerous products because they lose money when they harm people; Kennedy wouldn't be so directly held to account.
Misinterpretation of VAERS data at the institutional level could sow further distrust in public health and give Kennedy's newly appointed vaccine advisory committee ammunition to change vaccine recommendations, legitimize their fringe beliefs, and limit vaccine access.
Anyone can report to VAERS (and certain providers are required to report) anytime a person experiences any negative health event in the aftermath of a vaccination. A report to VAERS does not indicate causality. 'There's nothing about VAERS that allows us to determine whether a vaccine caused the reported adverse event,' says Kawsar Talaat, an infectious disease physician and vaccine safety researcher at Johns Hopkins University. 'People report things like anger after vaccination,' she says, for which there's no biologically plausible mechanism relating back to immunization.
Even more serious events, like death following a vaccination, overwhelmingly bear out to be unrelated to the shot itself. 'The thing about vaccines is they protect against preventable diseases, not everything else that occurs in life,' says Paul Offit, a vaccine scientist, virologist, and professor of pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Yet even so, VAERS reports are followed up with CDC investigation through complementary programs like Vaccine Safety Datalink and the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment Project. The system has worked since its establishment in 1986 to generate hypotheses for potential vaccine side effects and even to detect very rare vaccine risks. For instance, VAERS did successfully pick up the myocarditis associated with mRNA covid-19 vaccines, which only showed up in about one per 30,000 doses, and the blood clotting associated with the Johnson & Johnson covid-19 shot, which affected about one in 250,000 people, Offit notes. 'You're not going to pick that up pre-licensure, so I think VAERS works well,' he says.
'The problem is that anti-vaccine activists use it to mean that anything reported in that system is a real issue, which is obviously wrong,' he adds — echoing Talaat's point that anyone can report anything.
It's not clear how Kennedy plans to introduce AI into VAERS, but presumably he means to feed VAERS data into some sort of automated system for identifying alleged vaccine side effects and risks. Earlier this year, the top US vaccine regulator at the FDA was forced out over his refusal to grant Kennedy unfettered access to the VAERS database, out of fears he and his appointees would manipulate the data. Now, with little standing in his way, Kennedy seems poised to do just that.
There is a reasonable argument to be made that the right set of machine learning algorithms or AI tools could streamline the review process for VAERS claims. But AI systems are only as good as their training and parameters. If you feed them faulty information, that's what they're going to regurgitate. If you build an AI system to validate your preexisting belief that vaccines are dangerous, that's exactly what it will do.
Despite the genuine promise that some AI approaches have in health policy and medicine, experts routinely emphasize that we need to tread carefully in building, vetting, and adopting these technologies. Bias, privacy concerns, legal challenges, and user manipulation all remain major issues, according to one 2024 review of 120 studies of generative AI in medicine. (Not to mention hallucinations: In May, the 'Make America Healthy Again Commission,' a presidential advisory committee chaired by Kennedy, released a likely AI-generated report containing false citations to studies that did not exist.)
The key question here is if an AI vaccine risk-assessment system could be developed fairly and accurately under Kennedy's leadership. Offit, at least, doesn't think so. 'Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an anti-vaccine activist, a science denialist, and a conspiracy theorist,' he says. 'He will do everything he can, as long as he is in this position, to make vaccines less available, less affordable, and more feared.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
24 minutes ago
- Fox News
North Korea lashes out after Trump DOJ exposes massive IT infiltration scheme
North Korean officials accused the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of running "an absurd smear campaign" after announcing that it had unraveled several schemes by the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea (DPRK) to fund the regime through remote information technology work for U.S. companies. Earlier this week, the DOJ said North Korean actors were helped by individuals in the U.S., China, the United Emirates and Taiwan to obtain employment with over 100 U.S. companies, including Fortune 500 companies. The scheme allegedly involved the workers getting laptops from the companies that hired them and allowing remote North Korean IT workers to remotely access the computers. In another scheme, North Korean IT workers used false identities to gain employment with a blockchain research and development company in Atlanta, Georgia, and steal over $900,000 in virtual currency. As part of its announcement about the North Korean scheme, the DOJ unsealed a five-count indictment against Zhenxing Wang, a U.S. national living in New Jersey, who has since been arrested. Wang and his co-conspirators, the DOJ said, obtained remote IT work with U.S. companies and generated over $5 million in revenue. Also charged in the indictment are Chinese nationals Jing Bin Huang, Baoyu Zhou, Tong Yuze, Yongzhe Xu, Ziyou Yuan and Zhenbang Zhou. Taiwanese nationals Mengting Liu and Enchia Liu were also charged in the indictment. Also indicted was U.S. national Kejia "Tony" Wang, also of New Jersey, who was charged separately. North Korean news agency KCNA reported that a spokesperson for the DPRK Foreign Ministry lambasted the U.S. judicial system for its actions against DPRK citizens on the suspicion of a cybercrime. "The recent incident is an absurd smear campaign and grave violation of sovereignty aimed at tarnishing the image of our state as it is a continuation of the hostile move of the successive U.S. administrations that have talked much about the non-existent 'cyber threat' from the DPRK," the spokesperson reportedly said. "The Foreign Ministry of the DPRK expresses serious concern over the U.S. judicial authorities' provocation which is threatening and encroaching on the security, rights and interests of our citizens by fabricating the groundless 'cyber' drama, and strongly denounces and rejects it." The spokesperson accused the U.S. of creating "international cyberspace instability," and not the DPRK. "The U.S. has long been posing a constant threat to the cybersecurity of the DPRK and other sovereign states by making cyber space a scene of battle and abusing the cyber issue as a political weapon to tarnish the image of other countries and impair the exercise of their legitimate rights," the spokesperson said. "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has the right to take a proper and proportionate countermeasure to thoroughly protect the security and rights of its citizens from the judicial enforcement for a sinister political purpose, and to call to strict legal account the outsiders who took malicious action," the spokesperson concluded. The DOJ said the indictment alleges that from 2021 and through most of 2024, the defendants and other co-conspirators compromised the identities of over 80 people in the U.S. to obtain remote jobs at more than 100 companies. As a result, the victim companies incurred legal fees, computer network remediation costs and other damages and losses to the tune of at least $3 million. Kejia and Zhenxing, along with at least four other U.S. facilitators, allegedly helped overseas IT workers with various parts of the scheme. Kejia and Zhenxing allegedly established shell companies with websites and financial accounts to make it appear as though the overseas IT workers were affiliated with legitimate businesses in the U.S. Once established, the two allegedly received money from U.S. companies, and the funds were transferred to co-conspirators overseas. In exchange for their services, Kejia, Zhenxing and the other four conspirators in the U.S. received at least $696,000 from the IT workers. The DOJ said one of the companies the schemers allegedly accessed data from was a defense contractor that develops artificial intelligence-powered equipment and technology. By accessing the company's data, the schemers were privy to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the DOJ said. The DOJ also announced that the FBI and Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) seized 17 web domains used as part of the scheme, along with 29 financial accounts holding tens of thousands of dollars, used to launder revenue for the North Korean regime. The DOJ unveiled another part of the scheme, which resulted in a five-count wire fraud and money laundering indictment against four North Korean nationals: Kim Kwang Jin, Kang Tae Bok, Jong Pong Ju and Change Nam II. The suspects are accused of scheming to steal virtual currency from two companies, with a value of over $900,000 at the time of the thefts, and to launder the proceeds. All four nationals, the DOJ said, are at large and wanted by the FBI.
New York Times
25 minutes ago
- New York Times
Trump Executive Order Creates Commission to Open Protected Public Land
President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday establishing a Make America Beautiful Again Commission to 'promote responsible stewardship of natural resources while driving economic growth' on historically protected public land. The commission, to be chaired by Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, and composed of top federal officials and cabinet secretaries, will expand access in parks and forests 'while promoting a wide range of outdoor recreation opportunities like hunting, fishing, hiking, biking, skiing, climbing, boating, off-roading, and wildlife viewing,' the order says. It notes that in 2023, the recreation economy supported five million jobs. The action comes as the Trump administration has pushed to open vast areas of public land and federal waters, reversing climate policies enacted by the Biden administration that restricted drilling, mining and other activities across public lands and federal waters. The administration announced plans in June to eliminate federal protections across millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness, which would allow drilling and mining in some of the last remaining pristine wilderness in the country. In April, the administration opened thousands of acres of land in Nevada and New Mexico to oil and gas drilling and hard-rock mining. Mr. Trump maintains that climate change is a hoax and has signed a barrage of executive orders to promote fossil fuels and withdraw support for renewable energy. The executive order said that 'conservation and economic growth go hand in hand' and that by boosting the outdoor recreation economy and promoting activities like hunting, fishing and hiking, 'America can preserve its natural beauty and expand outdoor recreation opportunities for future generations.'
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The House gives final approval to Trump's big tax bill in a milestone for his second-term agenda
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans propelled President Donald Trump's big multitrillion-dollar tax breaks and spending cuts bill to final passage Thursday in Congress, overcoming multiple setbacks to approve his signature second-term policy package before a Fourth of July deadline. The tight roll call, 218-214, came at a potentially high political cost, with two Republicans joining all Democrats opposed. GOP leaders worked overnight and the president himself leaned on a handful of skeptics to drop their opposition. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York delayed voting for more than eight hours by seizing control of the floor with a record-breaking speech against the bill. Trump celebrated his political victory in Iowa, where he attended the kickoff for a year of events marking the country's upcoming 250th anniversary. 'I want to thank Republican congressmen and women, because what they did is incredible,' he said. The president complained that Democrats voted against the bill because 'they hate Trump — but I hate them too.' Trump said he plans to sign the legislation on Friday at the White House. The outcome delivers a milestone for the president and for his party. It was a long-shot effort to compile a lengthy list of GOP priorities into what they called his 'one big beautiful bill,' at nearly 900 pages. With Democrats unified in opposition, the bill will become a defining measure of Trump's return to the White House, aided by Republican control of Congress. 'You get tired of winning yet?' said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., invoking Trump as he called the vote. 'With one big beautiful bill we are going to make this country stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before,' he said. Republicans celebrated with a rendition of the Village People's 'Y.M.C.A.,' a song the president often plays at his rallies, during a ceremony afterward. Tax breaks and safety net cuts At its core, the package's priority is $4.5 trillion in tax breaks enacted in 2017 during Trump's first term that would expire if Congress failed to act, along with new ones. This includes allowing workers to deduct tips and overtime pay, and a $6,000 deduction for most older adults earning less than $75,000 a year. There's also a hefty investment, some $350 billion, in national security and Trump's deportation agenda and to help develop the 'Golden Dome' defensive system over the U.S. To help offset the lost tax revenue, the package includes $1.2 trillion in cutbacks to the Medicaid health care and food stamps, largely by imposing new work requirements, including for some parents and older people, and a major rollback of green energy tax credits. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the package will add $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the decade and 11.8 million more people will go without health coverage. 'This was a generational opportunity to deliver the most comprehensive and consequential set of conservative reforms in modern history, and that's exactly what we're doing,' said Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, the House Budget Committee chairman. Democrats united against the big 'ugly bill' Democrats unified against the bill as a tax giveaway to the rich paid for on the backs of the working class and most vulnerable in society, what they called 'trickle down cruelty.' Jeffries began the speech at 4:53 a.m. EDT and finished at 1:37 p.m. EDT, 8 hours, 44 minutes later, a record, as he argued against what he called Trump's 'big ugly bill.' 'We're better than this,' said Jeffries, who used a leader's prerogative for unlimited debate, and read letter after letter from Americans writing about their reliance of the health care programs. 'I never thought that I'd be on the House floor saying that this is a crime scene,' Jeffries said. 'It's a crime scene, going after the health, and the safety, and the well-being of the American people.' And as Democrats, he said, 'We want no part of it.' Tensions ran high. As fellow Democrats chanted Jeffries' name, a top Republican, Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, called his speech 'a bunch of hogwash.' Hauling the package through the Congress has been difficult from the start. Republicans have struggled mightily with the bill nearly every step of the way, quarreling in the House and Senate, and often succeeding only by the narrowest of margins: just one vote. The Senate passed the package days earlier with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie vote. The slim majority in the House left Republicans little room for defections. 'It wasn't beautiful enough for me to vote for it,' said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. Also voting no was Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, who said he was concerned about cuts to Medicaid. Once Johnson gaveled the tally, Republicans cheered 'USA!' and flashed Trump-style thumbs-up to the cameras. Political costs of saying no Despite their discomfort with various aspects of the sprawling package, in some ways it became too big to fail — in part because Republicans found it difficult to buck Trump. As Wednesday's stalled floor action dragged overnight, Trump railed against the delays. 'What are the Republicans waiting for???' the president said in a midnight-hour post. Johnson relied heavily on White House Cabinet secretaries, lawyers and others to satisfy skeptical GOP holdouts. Moderate Republicans worried about the severity of cuts while conservatives pressed for steeper reductions. Lawmakers said they were being told the administration could provide executive actions, projects or other provisions in their districts back home. The alternative was clear. Republicans who staked out opposition to the bill, including Massie of Kentucky and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, were being warned by Trump's well-funded political operation. Tillis soon after announced he would not seek reelection. Rollback of past presidential agendas In many ways, the package is a repudiation of the agendas of the last two Democratic presidents, a chiseling away at the Medicaid expansion from Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, and a pullback of Joe Biden's climate change strategies in the Inflation Reduction Act. Democrats have described the bill in dire terms, warning that cuts to Medicaid, which some 80 million Americans rely on, would result in lives lost. Food stamps that help feed more than 40 million people would 'rip food from the mouths of hungry children, hungry veterans and hungry seniors,' Jeffries said. Republicans say the tax breaks will prevent a tax hike on households and grow the economy. They maintain they are trying to rightsize the safety net programs for the population they were initially designed to serve, mainly pregnant women, the disabled and children, and root out what they describe as waste, fraud and abuse. The Tax Policy Center, which provides nonpartisan analysis of tax and budget policy, projected the bill would result next year in a $150 tax break for the lowest quintile of Americans, a $1,750 tax cut for the middle quintile and a $10,950 tax cut for the top quintile. That's compared with what they would face if the 2017 tax cuts expired. ___ Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Joey Cappelletti and Chris Megerian contributed to this report. Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick, Leah Askarinam And Matt Brown, The Associated Press
