"Make America Healthy Again" diehards are fuming about president Donald Trump's pick for surgeon general, Casey Means — and it's for a brain-meltingly stupid reason.
It's not because Means, a self-styled "<a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/194997/trump-surgeon-general-wellness-influencer-casey-means">wellness influencer</a>," doesn't have an active medical license, never finished her surgical residency, or is an advocate of unproven "alternative" medicines and other pseudoscientific claims. Nor is it because she has previously <a href="https://x.com/lizchar/status/1920234954882986235">suggested</a> there's a link between vaccines and autism, or talked to trees and engaged in moon rituals <a href="https://x.com/patdennis/status/1920226926930588023">to find love</a>.
It's because Means — who <a href="https://x.com/CaseyMeansMD/status/1852407731983884309">once said</a> that vaccine mandates are "criminal" — isn't going far enough as an anti-vaxxer, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/casey-means-surgeon-general-trump-rfk-controlled-opposition-vaccine/">Wired reports</a>.
After Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114468502752133916">announced</a> Wednesday on Truth Social his new pick for the job as the country's leading doctor, prominent voices in the health-conspiracy-addled cohort of the MAGA movement let the world know that they weren't happy with Means, citing disqualifying skeletons in her closet, such as allegedly getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
"The new Trump nominee for US Surgeon General took the COVID JAB, so how can she be a representative for MAHA?" <a href="https://x.com/LauraLoomer/status/1920584646292877482">tweeted</a> Laura Loomer, a relentless culture warrior and conspiracy theorist, on Thursday. "How can you be MAHA when the original MAHA movement was created by parents of vaccine injured children, and then reignited by people who were anti-COVID vaccine?"
"She's not a health freedom advocate," echoed notorious anti-vaxxer Mike Adams <a href="https://x.com/HealthRanger/status/1920263718736163076">in a tweet</a> on Wednesday. "She's not a vaccine truther. She'll never recommend natural cancer cures or remedies. She's basically cosplaying as a MAHA champion. In reality, she is an establishment pick, and she'll push the establishment narrative. 100 percent guaranteed. Count on it."
The backlash illustrates how highly strung the MAHA movement is right now. Many of its professed followers are still reeling from the betrayal by their hero and current secretary of health and human services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. To them, he turned coat by doing the bare minimum of <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/07/nx-s1-5354900/hhs-rfk-endorses-mmr-measles-vaccine-stoking-supporters-fury">recommending the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine</a> to curb <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/07/health/measles-cases-one-thousand-us">one of the worst measles outbreaks</a> in the country in a quarter century.
It's also a perfect encapsulation of just how extreme the movement's views can get. As mentioned above, Means has expressed plenty of classic anti-vaccine beliefs, and has support within the MAHA movement, including from the big man himself.
"Casey has impeccable 'MAHA' credentials, and will work closely with our wonderful Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to ensure a successful implementation of our Agenda in order to reverse the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and ensure Great Health, in the future, for ALL Americans," Trump wrote in his post.
But that's the thing about predicating a movement on extreme beliefs and conspiratorial thinking: it'll never be extreme enough.
For saner voices, there's a pretty clear-cut reason why Means shouldn't get the job, even discounting her wacky beliefs, and that's her lapsed medical license.
"A medical license requires that the individual maintains her medical knowledge through mandatory continuing medical education," Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/05/09/nx-s1-5392389/casey-means-trumps-surgeon-general">told NPR</a>. "She is not licensed and therefore should be ineligible to become surgeon general of the United States."
More on the Trump administration: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/trump-children-toxic-chemicals">Trump Admin Cancels Programs to Protect Children From Toxic Chemicals</a>

Dumb and Dumber

Developments

Really sums it all up, huh?

MAHA Are Losing Their Mind At Trump's Pick for Surgeon General for the Stupidest Reason Possible

In 2021, Facebook said it was scrapping efforts to build powerful facial recognition software into its then-nascent smart glasses, citing the tech's glaring privacy and ethics concerns.
Four years later, <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/meta-renews-work-facial-recognition-tech-privacy-worries-fade?rc=st1fhw">as The Information</a> reports, the Silicon Valley behemoth has officially dusted off the effort and is once again working on transforming its wearable smart glasses into a facial recognition-infused privacy nightmare.
Meta is working on a feature internally referred to as "super sensing." In super sensing mode, the glasses' built-in cameras and sensors will remain on and recording throughout the wearer's day. It's still probably a way's off due to battery life limitations, but in Meta's imagining, it'll one day be able to do things like remind someone to drop by the store and get dinner ingredients or nudge them to grab their keys. (Because, of course, every Silicon Valley CEO really just wants to build <a href="https://ironman.fandom.com/wiki/J.A.R.V.I.S.">J.A.R.V.I.S.</a> from the "Iron Man" franchise.)
However, the super sensing feature would also combine AI with facial recognition, according to the Information — a design choice that could have far-reaching and deeply alarming implications.
Infusing facial recognition and AI into smart glasses could help you look up the LinkedIn heads you ran into at a networking event, or keep track of your roommates or family. Which — while annoying and creepy — are arguably a bit more mundane in the grand scheme of facial recognition applications.
But the nightmare scenarios are endless. A wearer could dox strangers on the street; a creep in a bar could look up the name and personal information of a woman who may or may not have wanted to talk to him; undercover law enforcement officials could go to a peaceful protest and keep a careful record of attendees.
It's not exactly hard to come up with ways this could go wrong, fast — and yet Meta, it seems, has decided to push forward.
According to the report, Meta's renewed facial recognition efforts are due in part to a more <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-private-data-deportation">surveillance-friendly political climate</a> where privacy concerns are increasingly taking a backseat in corporate and federal government decision-making.
"The pendulum swings from one side to the other," Rob Leathern, a privacy expert and former product manager at Facebook and Google, told The Information. "We're kind of on that swing where some of the things that companies like Google talked about two, three, four years ago aren’t necessarily being seen as quite as important."
More on Meta's smart glasses and facial recognition: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/smart-glasses-hack-personal-data">Terrifying Smart Glasses Hack Can Pull Up Personal Info of Nearby Strangers in Seconds</a>

Super Sensing

Privacy concerns are taking a backseat.

Years After Promising to Stop Facial Recognition Work, Meta Has a Devious New Plan

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, is building one of the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-most-powerful-ai-supercomputer">world's largest AI supercomputers</a> in Memphis, Tennessee. Since coming online in September, the facility, dubbed Colossus, has amassed an absurd arsenal of 200,000 Nvidia graphics processing units to train Musk's chatbot, <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-grok-ai-slurs">Grok</a>.
That comes with monstrous energy demands, and the way xAI is meeting them has angered environmental groups and the residents of Boxtown, a predominantly Black neighborhood just three miles south of the facility, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/06/elon-musk-xai-memphis-gas-turbines-air-pollution-permits-00317582">Politico reports</a>. 
Without obtaining a permit, Musk's company has rolled in 35 portable gas-powered turbines with enough electricity output between them to power a small city, <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-ai-fumes">spewing harmful, smog-forming pollutants</a> into the air, including nitrogen oxides and formaldehyde. And in just 11 months since xAI started operations in Memphis, it's become one of the largest emitters of smog-producing nitrogen oxides in the surrounding county, according to environmental group estimates reviewed by Politico, afflicting an area that already leads the state in emergency visits for asthma.
"I can't breathe at home, it smells like gas outside," a tearful Alexis Humphreys, a Boxtown resident, said while holding up her asthma inhaler during a public hearing about the turbines last month, per Politico. "How come I can't breathe at home and y'all get to breathe at home?"
"xAI has essentially built a power plant in South Memphis with no oversight, no permitting, and no regard for families living in nearby communities," Amanda Garcia, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), said in a <a href="https://www.selc.org/press-release/new-images-reveal-elon-musks-xai-datacenter-has-nearly-doubled-its-number-of-polluting-unpermitted-gas-turbines/">statement</a> last month.
The saga is the latest example of Musk's enterprises <a href="https://www.theverge.com/environment/652767/elon-musk-trump-tesla-spacex-epa-enforcement">flouting environmental regulations</a>. In August, his aerospace company SpaceX was accused by state and federal regulators of illegally <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/12/spacex-repeatedly-polluted-waters-in-texas-tceq-epa-found.html">dumping hazardous pollutants into water</a> in Texas. Tesla, Musk's automaker, has faced similar accusations of repeatedly <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/3/24058476/tesla-hazardous-waste-suit-settlement-california">mishandling hazardous waste</a> from its facilities in California.
xAI's environmental consultant, Shannon Lynn, said in a recent webinar that because the turbines are temporary, the company doesn't need federal permits for their emissions of hazardous pollutants like NOx or formaldehyde, per Politico. In August of last year, the Shelby County Health Department similarly said that it didn't need to issue permits because the Environmental Protection Agency had agreed that it doesn't have the authority regarding the gas-burning turbines, since they were temporary, Politico reported.
But experts don't see it that way. Bruce Buckheit, a former director of the EPA's air enforcement division, said that xAI is violating the Clean Air Act with its actions. 
"There needs to be a permit beforehand," Buckheit told Politico. "You don't just get that first year for free."
Garcia, the SELC attorney, found the county Health Department's argument to be dubious, too. The exemption for temporary turbines is intended for small machines like those used to power asphalt crushers for road construction, he said.
"xAI's position is quite suspect — I mean, they're huge," echoed John Walke, a former attorney in EPA's Office of General Counsel, to Politico. "The temporary or not temporary argument is irrelevant."
Facing significant community pressure, xAI in January said that it would seek permits for permanent installation of its turbines. At the time, the company claimed it only had fifteen pieces of the machinery onsite. But in March, <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-memphis-illegal-generators">thermal images taken of the facility</a> by environmental groups showed that xAI, in reality, had 35 turbines, with 33 giving off significant amounts of heat.
Though caught in a lie, xAI is still seeking the permits. As of April, Lynn, xAI's environmental rep, claimed that only seven of the current turbines will remain at the facility, and will be "retrofitted" with pollution reduction controls. The other 28 turbines, he added, are merely "temporary" and will be removed once xAI finishes construction of two substations to supply power from the energy grid. 
The timeline for this, though, is suspiciously hazy. Only one of the substations has approval. And at this point, many in the community are fed up with all the deception.
"The way they have come into the city, it’s like, oh, you think we are unintelligent, you think that the people in these communities aren’t able to comprehend what you are doing and will take this assault on our health lying down," 15-year-old Boxtown resident Jasmine Bernard told Politico.
More on AI: <a href="https://futurism.com/small-towns-ai-data-centers">Small Towns Are Rising Up Against AI Data Centers</a>

Smog Screen

"I can't breathe at home, it smells like gas outside."

Community Complains of Choking Fumes From Elon Musk's AI Fortress

<h2>Shadow CEO</h2>
OpenAI has poached the CEO of Instacart for a fancy new gig — but there's something weird going on with her job description.
In a <a href="https://openai.com/index/leadership-expansion-with-fidji-simo/">statement</a>, CEO and cofounder Sam Altman announced that Fidji Simo, a former Facebook executive who <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2021/07/08/instacart-taps-facebook-executive-as-ceo-names-founder-apoorva-mehta-to-executive-chairman/">took over at Instacart</a> in 2021 and became an OpenAI board member <a href="https://openai.com/index/openai-announces-new-members-to-board-of-directors/">almost exactly one year ago</a>, would be the company's first-ever "CEO of Applications."
This announcement, which came just days after OpenAI was <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-abandons-for-profit">forced to drop its plans to go for-profit</a> amid erstwhile cofounder Elon Musk's <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-sues-openai">ongoing lawsuit</a> against it.
It also comes less than 18 months after the turbulent couple of days that saw Altman's ouster and rapid reinstatement around Thanksgiving of 2023 — a brief power shift that could potentially be informing what's going on now.
<h2>Altman Alt</h2>
Though the statement itself is somewhat murky about Simo's role reporting directly to Altman, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-08/openai-recruits-instacart-ceo-fidji-simo-to-lead-app-development?sref=YfHlo0rL">Bloomberg reports</a> that her role as head of applications will alter the company's executive structure significantly, even as it frees the CEO up to focus more on strategy.
C-suiters like chief operating officer Brad Lightcap, chief financial officer Sarah Friar, and chief product officer Kevin Weil, for instance, will now report to Simo instead of Altman.
Altman, meanwhile, will remain CEO — though in a post on X, he seemed to suggest that he's taking something of a step back.
"In this new configuration," he wrote, "I'll be able to increase my focus on research, compute, and safety."
As tech reporter and <a href="https://www.wheresyoured.at/openai-is-a-systemic-risk-to-the-tech-industry-2/">noted AI skeptic</a> Ed Zitron noted on Bluesky, Altman's self-attested new job description makes it sound a lot like he's stepping down.
"Okay so Fidji Simo, now the 'CEO of Applications at OpenAI,' will be the person that the CFO, COO and CPO report to," <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com/post/3loofpbej6k2a">Zitron posted</a>. "How is this not Sam Altman stepping back? What does a CEO do if it's not 'overseeing sales, marketing and finance'?"
Indeed, in the company's statement, Altman alluded to Simo taking over OpenAI's "'traditional' company functions to scale as we enter a next phase of growth" — though he didn't outline what exact functions he meant.
All told, it appears that Altman is calling the shots on this executive realignment — but with all the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open-ai-division-for-profit-da26c24b">power struggle drama at OpenAI</a>, it remains to be seen how long it will stay that way.
More on OpenAI: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-abandons-for-profit">OpenAI Forced to Abandon Plans to Become For-Profit</a>

More Time to Compute

How convenient.

Lazy Sam Altman Hires New OpenAI "CEO" to Do All the Work for Him Without Having to Resign

NASA has revealed that it's considering reprioritizing its goals to accelerate Elon Musk’s push to send humans to Mars.
In a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/07/nasa-mars-rocket-launch-00331694">statement to Politico</a>, NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens said the agency is "evaluating every opportunity, including launch windows in 2026 and 2028, to test technologies that will land humans on Mars."
Last week, the Trump administration <a class="underline hover:text-futurism hover:no-underline transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out" href="https://www.space.com/space-exploration/trump-administration-proposes-slashing-nasa-budget-by-24-percent">released its proposed budget</a> for next year, suggesting slashing the <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-budget-proposal-brutal-cuts-nasa">space agency's science budget</a> in half, while allocating $1 billion in "new investments for Mars-focused programs."
Incoming NASA administrator Jared Isaacman — a billionaire fighter jet pilot-turned-SpaceX astronaut — has had to actively distance himself from Musk over a glaring potential conflict of interest. He's stated that the agency <a href="https://futurism.com/incoming-nasa-administrator-elon-musk-mars-plans">could be "paralleling" efforts</a> to return astronauts to the Moon as part of its Artemis program, and missions to Mars.
SpaceX wasn’t named, but the subtext was clear: the president appears to be boosting one of his closest allies' interests in settling on the Red Planet.
SpaceX has been working on a massive launch vehicle, called <a href="https://futurism.com/nasa-contract-elon-musk-spacex-starship">Starship</a> and was <a href="https://www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/spacex-gets-faa-approval-for-25-starship-launches-per-year">awarded approval for 25 launches per year</a> by the Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday.
In early April, NASA <a href="https://futurism.com/nasa-contract-elon-musk-spacex-starship">officially added</a> the enormous rocket to its roster, despite the vehicle never having completed a single (entirely) successful test flight.
Musk has repeatedly vowed to send a Starship to Mars as soon as 2026, a year when Earth and Mars' orbits align to make the trip most convenient.
But whether he can meet that extremely ambitious deadline remains to be seen. His space company's latest two Starship launches <a href="https://futurism.com/spacex-new-starship-performing-worse">have ended in enormous explosions</a>, showering countless pieces of space junk down over the Caribbean.
A doubling down on a Musk-led mission to Mars could anger lawmakers, who have repeatedly advocated for NASA's existing Artemis program. As such, Trump's controversial budget proposal could meet considerable resistance during the upcoming congressional review.
Musk has made his stance on the matter clear, <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1871997501970235656">accusing</a> NASA's Artemis program of being "extremely inefficient as it is a jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program," calling for shutting it down.
"We're going straight to Mars," he <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1875023335891026324">tweeted</a> earlier this year, calling the Moon a "distraction."
In its budget proposal, the Trump administration suggested canceling NASA's "grossly expensive and delayed" Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule" after just two crewed launches.
Which rocket will pick up the slack after that remains unclear. Will it be SpaceX's Starship — or Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hmOwYOO1G4">successfully reached orbit</a> on its first test flight in January?
Considering Musk's tremendous amount of influence in the White House — and a sizable headstart — it's far more likely to be the former.
But getting the vehicle ready for a journey to the Red Planet in roughly a year and a half, however, could prove extremely difficult.
More on Mars: <a href="https://futurism.com/jared-isaacman-nasa-defies-elon-musk-moon-mars">Incoming Head of NASA Defies Elon Musk on Order to Abandon Moon Program</a>

Road to Mars 2026

NASA is doing everything in its power to help out Elon Musk.

NASA Eyes 2026 Mars Launch as Musk Pushes to Skip the Moon

Investors are accusing UnitedHealthcare's parent group of conning the public to boost profits — and, ultimately, contributing to the murder of CEO Brian Thompson.
In a <a href="https://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/FallervUnitedHealthGroupIncorporatedetalDocketNo125cv03799SDNYMay?doc_id=X75OMJ3H4TQ866Q27MSRD9LR5OG">proposed class action lawsuit</a> filed earlier this week in New York, UnitedHealth Group investor Roberto Faller claims that the insurer profited from a series of "aggressive, anti-consumer tactics" that harmed clients and investors alike.
"UnitedHealth had, for years, engaged in a corporate strategy of denying health coverage in order to boost its profits, and ultimately, its share price," the lawsuit claims. "This anti-consumer and, at times, unlawful strategy resulted in regulatory scrutiny (as well as public angst) against UnitedHealth, which ultimately resulted in the murder of Brian Thompson."
Yes, you read that right: these investors are claiming that UHC's craven policies contributed to the murder of its CEO — a wild admission, and one that we've reached out to Faller's attorneys to get more information about.
"Animus towards UnitedHealth was such that, subsequent to the murder of Mr. Thompson, many Americans openly celebrated his death, expressed admiration for his accused killer, and/or otherwise demanded that UnitedHealth change its strategy even if they condemned Mr. Thompson’s killing," the filing continues.
Though those assertions are indeed bold, they're not, unfortunately, the heart of the suit.
The suit further alleges that in the wake of Thompson's murder, the company continued to prop up share projections of between $29.50 and $30 — projections that were, ironically enough, announced just a day before the CEO was fatally shot in Midtown Manhattan.
Along with being allegedly misled about the company's finances after the assassination, the motion also suggests that Thompson's murder resulted in a massive strategy change: that it wasn't willing to pursue its widespread claims-denying "as a result of heightened scrutiny...as well as open hostility."
Though most people would consider that shift a good thing, the proposed investor class is calling bull on the entire scheme because, ultimately, it led to them losing money.
After reaffirming its inflated share projections just over a month after Thompson was killed, UHC "shocked the market" in April when it issued revised numbers several dollars less than the $29-30 range it had proposed just ahead of the assassination. The news led to such a steep stock drop-off that the entire Dow Jones industrial average fell.
Around the same time the revised stock guidance was issued, the suit claims, UHC also announced that it would begin "allowing increased coverage and care for beneficiaries of Medicare Advantage" — a reversal of previous policies that had been investigated by media and government alike.
Instead of acknowledging what was really going on, the company stuck with its context-free changes, the investors claim. Ultimately, it seems to have opened shareholders' eyes to the true nature of the company they bought into — the same one that they're now fighting to get damages from.
More on UHC: <a href="https://futurism.com/man-with-gun-arrested-unitedhealthcare-hq">Man With Gun Arrested at UnitedHealth Headquarters</a>

Fighting Words

An absolutely wild lawsuit.

Investors Say UnitedHealth’s Greed Got Its CEO Murdered — and Cost Them Millions

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will no longer update its widely cited list of weather and climate disasters that cause billions of dollars in damage, in yet another stunning example of the Trump administration's <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/trump-seeks-end-climate-research-premier-u-s-climate-agency">hostility towards climate science</a>.
For over fifty years, NOAA has tracked extreme weather events, including tornadoes, hurricanes, and droughts. The <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/">database</a> has provided the public, media institutions, and scientists a vital way of gauging the human and economic toll of our ever-shifting climate, with its unique pool of data that other institutions don't have access to. 
But on Thursday, NOAA <a href="https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters">announced</a> that it would stop updating the database beyond 2024, "in alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes. All of its existing data is set to be archived.
To scientists, it's a gut punch.
"The NOAA database is the gold standard we use to evaluate the costs of extreme weather," Jeff Masters, a meteorologist for Yale Climate Connections, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/08/noaa-climate-crisis-extreme-weather-disasters-trump">told The Guardian</a>. "And it's a major loss, since it comes at a time when we need to better understand how much climate change is increasing disaster losses."
Since records began in 1980, the database has registered 403 of these destructive weather and climate disasters, exceeding $2.915 trillion in costs.
Grimly, the frequency of these events has steadily escalated, the database showed. Between 1980 and 2024, there were nine billion-dollar disasters each year on average. But in the past five years, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/08/climate/noaa-ends-disaster-database">CNN notes</a>, the annual average has spiked to 24. 
Part of what made the NOAA database so indispensable was that it drew on a wide range of sources that weren't available to the public, including private data from insurance companies and reports from local and state agencies.
"Without [the database], replicating or extending damage trend analyses, especially at regional scales or across hazard types, is nearly impossible without significant funding or institutional access to commercial catastrophe models," Jeremy Porter, co-founder of First Street, a climate risk financial modeling firm, told CNN.
Its shutdown follows a pattern of hostility towards climate science from president Trump, who has called climate change a "<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/markjoyella/2022/03/21/on-fox-donald-trump-calls-climate-change-a-hoax-in-the-1920s-they-were-talking-about-global-freezing/">hoax</a>" and a "<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-climate-change-scam-hurricane-helene-georgia-b2621271.html">scam</a>." Multiple federal agencies <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-climate-change-government-websites">have scrubbed all references to climate change</a> from their websites, while federal <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-pulls-funds-research-climate">research grants have been pulled</a> for even mentioning the word "climate." The administration has also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/us-judge-orders-immediate-thaw-climate-infrastructure-funds-politico-reports-2025-04-15/">frozen billions of dollars in climate spending</a>.
As part of Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency's gutting of the federal government, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/08/climate/noaa-layoffs-trump.html">has fired</a> or sought the "voluntary" resignation of over 1,300 NOAA employees, with another 1,000 workers set to follow — a total that represents nearly 20 percent of its original workforce.
NOAA's database has faced some criticism from scientists for its methodology. This year, for example, the database says that no billion-dollar disasters have occurred. But <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/05/08/billion-dollar-disaster-tracker-updates/">according to the </a><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/05/08/billion-dollar-disaster-tracker-updates/">Washington Post</a>, research from the National Centers for Environmental Information estimates that there have been six to eight of these costly disasters. How could it fail to include the devastating wildfire that razed vast swathes of Los Angeles in January, which has been widely reported as one of the costliest disasters in US history, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-01-24/estimated-cost-of-fire-damage-balloons-to-more-than-250-billion#:~:text=As%20raging%20wildfires%20continue%20to,natural%20disasters%20in%20U.S.%20history.">wreaking an estimated $250 billion worth of destruction</a>?
While that's cause for criticism and scientific debate, it doesn't warrant completely shutting the database down.
"It's absolutely important for the federal government to track the cost of disasters; there's no doubt about that," Roger Pielke, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who has been a leading critic of the database, told WaPo. 
"Yanking down the database obfuscates the discussion on natural disasters, and for this to go away and not be part of the dialogue is a big problem," echoed former NOAA Administrator and oceanographer Rick Spinrad <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/noaa-ending-billion-dollar-disasters-database/">to CBS News</a>.
More on climate change: <a href="https://futurism.com/scientists-preparing-experiments-dim-sun">Scientists Preparing Experiments to Dim the Sun</a>

Hostile Climate

"It's a major loss."

NOAA Will Stop Tracking Weather Disasters Because Trump Doesn't Believe in Climate Change

SoundCloud — a music sharing platform once so beloved by artists it spawned sub-genres named after it — updated its terms of service (TOS), forcing artists who use SoundCloud to let their music train AI.
[UPDATE: SoundCloud has provided Futurism with a statement, which we've appended in full at the end of this story.]
It looks like the change went into effect during SoundCloud's <a href="https://soundcloud.com/terms-of-use">last TOS policy update</a> in February 2024, and it's just coming to light now.
The updated terms read that "in the absence of a separate agreement that states otherwise," creators who upload content to the site "explicitly agree that your Content may be used to inform, train, develop or serve as input to artificial intelligence or machine intelligence technologies or services as part of and for providing the services."
In short, the language in the update suggests that musicians, artists, and other creators who use SoundCloud for distribution can expect their uploaded work to be funneled into AI models as training data.
It's a sweeping provision. And how SoundCloud is actually applying it isn't exactly clear. But since early 2024, SoundCloud has integrated several generative AI tools and services into its platform that largely center on creating or producing new music.
These changes started in late January 2024 (just before the TOS update), with the integration of three "assistive AI" products designed to help SoundCloud's creators. According <a href="https://press.soundcloud.com/234082-soundcloud-partners-with-fadr-soundful-and-voice-swap-to-introduce-artist-first-ai-integrations">to a press release</a>, these tools are designed to "allow artists to upload songs created with assistive AI tools directly to SoundCloud."
In November of that year, following the TOS update, SoundCloud introduced several more "assistive" AI integrations. These tools are similarly targeted at music generation and production tasks, <a href="https://press.soundcloud.com/244375-soundcloud-unveils-six-new-ai-powered-tools-to-democratize-music-creation-for-all-artists">and in a press release</a>, SoundCloud lauded them as a way to "democratize music creation for all artists."
Those services include products like Tuney, which "enables remixing, editing, and new track generation"; AIBeatz, a synthetic beat maker that allows users to "generate and customize [their] own beats like a Pro"; and Starmony, which <a href="https://help.soundcloud.com/hc/en-us/articles/31509725449243-Starmony">SoundCloud says</a> can help publishers "quickly produce high-quality tracks" and "distribute them across multiple platforms" while retaining a "large share of royalties," among others.
During the November round of AI integrations, SoundCloud said in a press release it would double down on treating musicians better, per their "commitment to responsible, innovative and ethical use of creative AI tools" by partnering with services designed to "provide all of our existing and new AI partners access to content identification solutions," which SoundCloud said would ensure "rights holders receive proper credit and compensation."
The company also entered into AI for Music's non-binding "Principles for Music Creation with AI" pledge, which, <a href="https://aiformusic.info/">according to the AI for Music website</a>, marks a commitment to the "vital contributions of human creativity and to the responsible development and application of artificial intelligence for music creation."
Pledges withstanding, not all SoundCloud users appeared to be aware of the AI training update.
We caught the wind of the update earlier today after The Flight, a musical duo who have composed music for popular films and videogames, posted about the terms change <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/theflightmusic.bsky.social/post/3loqazjjayk2u">on Bluesky</a>.
"Ok then..." read the post, which linked to SoundCloud's terms webpage, "deleted all our songs that we uploaded to Soundcloud and now closing account."
"YIKES," read a <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/adamh.ivgorchestra.com/post/3loqc5s6dnc2r">following Bluesky post</a> from the composer Adam Humphreys, "@soundcloud.dev no thank you."
"SoundCloud seems to claim the right to train on people's uploaded music in their terms," Ed Newton-Rex, a composer and the CEO of the nonprofit Fairly Trained, <a href="https://x.com/ednewtonrex/status/1920867088455135723">said on X-formerly-Twitter</a>. "I think they have major questions to answer over this."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
SoundCloud seems to claim the right to train on people&#39;s uploaded music in their terms. I think they have major questions to answer over this.
I checked the wayback machine - it seems to have been added to their terms on 12th Feb 2024. I&#39;m a SoundCloud user and I can&#39;t see any… <a href="https://t.co/NIk7TP7K3C">pic.twitter.com/NIk7TP7K3C</a>
&mdash; Ed Newton-Rex (@ednewtonrex) <a href="https://twitter.com/ednewtonrex/status/1920867088455135723?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
We reached out to SoundCloud to ask about the update and what it means for artists' work. They've since responded with a statement we've run in full at the bottom of this story.
In their statement, SoundCloud claims to have never used artist content to train AI models, and that they don't develop AI tools or allow third parties to train AI using SoundCloud content. Furthermore, that the February 2024 TOS update was instituted to "clarify" the interactions between AI technologies within SoundCloud's platform and SoundCloud content. The examples of this they provided include playlist generation, music recommendations, and fraud detection.
In response to a follow-up, SoundCloud also emphasized exemptions for licensed content “such as music from major labels” and promised to introduce clear opt-outs “in advance” should they consider training generative AI with artists’ work.
SoundCloud <a href="https://recordingarts.com/how-soundcloud-changed-music/">emerged</a> in the late 2000s as an industry-shifting digital platform that allowed artists — especially emerging and independent artists — to upload and distribute their work at a remarkably low cost without relying on record labels and other guarded industry gatekeepers. This dynamic has also historically made SoundCloud an incredible venue for music discovery, and altogether, its place as an accessible online stage for emerging acts has cemented it as an important mainstay in the music industry landscape.
But like countless other digital platforms in the AI era, SoundCloud seems to understand that the vast piles of data it's collected over its many years of operation are more valuable than ever. And as tensions between <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/nick-cave-chatgpt-song">musicians</a>, among other creative professionals, and the digital companies that platform them continue to rise over the practical and ethical implications of AI, pushback from users who didn't expect to see their creative work quietly vacuumed into AI models is anything but unexpected.
<blockquote class="c-mrkdwn__quote" data-stringify-type="quote">SoundCloud has always been and will remain artist-first. Our focus is on empowering artists with control, clarity, and meaningful opportunities to grow. We believe AI, when developed responsibly, can expand creative potential—especially when guided by principles of consent, attribution, and fair compensation.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="c-mrkdwn__quote" data-stringify-type="quote">SoundCloud has never used artist content to train AI models, nor do we develop AI tools or allow third parties to scrape or use SoundCloud content from our platform for AI training purposes. In fact, we implemented technical safeguards, including a “no AI” tag on our site to explicitly prohibit unauthorized use.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="c-mrkdwn__quote" data-stringify-type="quote">The February 2024 update to our Terms of Service was intended to clarify how content may interact with AI technologies within SoundCloud’s own platform. Use cases include personalized recommendations, content organization, fraud detection, and improvements to content identification with the help of AI Technologies.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="c-mrkdwn__quote" data-stringify-type="quote">Any future application of AI at SoundCloud will be designed to support human artists, enhancing the tools, capabilities, reach and opportunities available to them on our platform. Examples include improving music recommendations, generating playlists, organizing content, and detecting fraudulent activity. These efforts are aligned with existing licensing agreements and ethical standards. Tools like Musiio are strictly used to power artist discovery and content organization, not to train generative AI models.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="c-mrkdwn__quote" data-stringify-type="quote">We understand the concerns raised and remain committed to open dialogue. Artists will continue to have control over their work, and we’ll keep our community informed every step of the way as we explore innovation and apply AI technologies responsibly, especially as legal and commercial frameworks continue to evolve.</blockquote>
More on AI and music: <a href="https://futurism.com/suno-ai-ceo-making-music">CEO of Song-Generating AI App Says People "Don't Enjoy" Making Music With Instruments</a>

Training Season

Artists are furious at the platform's language games.

SoundCloud Quietly Updated Their Terms to Let AI Feast on Artists' Music

Tesla has officially abandoned its plan to sell a $16,000 range extender for the Cybertruck, <a href="https://electrek.co/2025/05/07/tesla-never-make-cybertruck-range-extender-achieve-promised-range/">Electrek reports</a> — the latest in the automaker's struggles with the incredibly controversial vehicle.
This week, customers who paid a $2,000 reservation fee for the extender <a href="https://x.com/SawyerMerritt/status/1920253628012470621">received emails</a> from Tesla stating it was no longer selling the add-on, but that it would fully refund their deposits. Electrek reached out to the automaker and confirmed the decision.
Per the reporting, the cancellation comes a month after Tesla quietly pulled the range extender as an add-on on its website's vehicle configurator. No official reason for the cancellation has been given. 
With a base range of 320 to 350 miles on a single charge, depending on the configuration, the Cybertruck launched with a far shorter range than the 500-plus miles that <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/21/20975475/tesla-cybertruck-announcement-musk-electric-truck-pickup-features-range-price-release-date">CEO Elon Musk once promised</a>. The range extender, a battery pack designed to be installed in the pickup bed, was supposed to make up for that failure.
However, since the accessory was <a href="https://electrek.co/2023/11/30/tesla-cybertruck-range-extender-separate-battery-pack-bed/">announced</a> around the time the Cybertruck started being delivered in late 2023, Tesla has waffled on how much of a boost the add-on would give. It first said that it would extend the Cybertruck's range to 470 miles, but it later <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/21/24275970/tesla-cybertruck-range-extender-worse-deal-delay">walked back</a> that figure to 445 miles, when the automaker delayed its release date to mid-2025. 
Symbolically, by canning the add-on entirely, Tesla has admitted defeat on ever fulfilling its original pledge.
In any case, the extender was always a questionable option. On top of costing as much as a used car, it was going to weigh a whopping 600 pounds and take up an entire third of the rear bed's room once installed.
But the dumped add-on is only the tip of Tesla's troubles with the Cybertruck, which has sold less than 50,000 units since it launched — a far cry from <a href="https://insideevs.com/news/667723/musk-estimates-tesla-could-sell-250000-500000-cybertrucks-yearly/">Musk's boast</a> that it would easily move 250,000 per year.  In reality, Cybertruck sales have continued to plummet, with only 6,400 of the electric pickups <a href="https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/q1-2025-ev-sales/">selling in the first quarter of this year</a>. Its inventory of unsold Cybetrucks, meanwhile, has reportedly piled up to a <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-unsold-cybertrucks-crisis">record high</a> of over 10,000 units.
Buyers have plenty of reasons to stay away. Fraught with quality concerns, the Cybertruck has faced eight separate recalls, with the <a href="https://futurism.com/cybertruck-held-together-glue">latest one</a> — issued because its glued-on body panels could fly off — affecting nearly all of the vehicles it had ever sold. 
The Cybertruck's image has also been irreversibly tarnished by its close association with Musk, who has become deeply reviled for his <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-rally-nazis-holocaust">far-right politics</a> and his <a href="https://futurism.com/bill-gates-elon-musk-killing-children">role in the Trump administration</a>.
While Tesla recently announced a <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-unsold-cybertrucks-crisis">cheaper version of the Cybertruck</a> with a slightly longer range and far fewer features, it seems unlikely that the bid will excite sales. Clearly, it didn't have much faith in the range extender doing well, and with reports that it's <a href="https://futurism.com/cybertruck-disaster-production">slowing down production</a> of the Cybertruck, maybe the automaker is finally seeing the writing on the wall.
More on Tesla: <a href="https://futurism.com/teslas-sales-continue-fall">Tesla's Sales Are Somehow Continuing to Fall</a>

Admitting Defeat

Is Tesla giving up on the Cybertruck?

With Sales Plummeting, Tesla Cancels Key Cybertruck Component

One of Elon Musk's government-wrecking flunkies was in for the surprise of his life when he discovered that the federal workforce is full of dedicated civil servants who run it like a tight ship.
In an <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91330297/doge-sahil-lavignia-gumroad?mvgt=rGOBmdaQxIAe">interview with Fast Company</a>, tech founder Sahil Lavingia was candid about his experience working for the billionaire's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which will continue its work despite <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/23/politics/elon-musk-doge-role-tesla-trump-what-matters/index.html">Musk's rumored exit</a> at the end of this month.
<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/doge-department-of-veterans-affairs-ai/">As Wired revealed</a> last month, Lavignia has been working without pay at the Department of Veterans Affairs under DOGE's cost-cutting mandate. Aside from his early stint at Pinterest and the creation of Gumroad, the creator-centric ecommerce marketplace he launched in 2011, Lavignia's role at the VA is only his third job ever — and according to him, it's been pretty eye-opening.
Upon arriving at the massive department that currently <a href="https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2025/03/va-plans-lay-many-83000-employees-year/403477/">employs nearly 500,000 people</a>, Lavignia was met not with bored bureaucrats lazily collecting cushy government paychecks, but with mission-driven workers who "love their jobs."
"In a sense, that makes the DOGE agenda a little bit more complicated, because if half the government took [the agency's buyout offers], then we wouldn’t have to do much more," the tech founder said. "We’d just basically use software to plug holes. But that’s not what’s happening."
Notably, that streamlining has been something of a pipe dream for Lavignia.
Years ago, the Gumroad founder began applying to the United States Digital Service, an <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/nx-s1-5270893/doge-united-states-digital-service-elon-musk-usds-trump-white-house-eop-omb">Obama-era initiative that preceded DOGE</a> in its aim to centralize government data. The labyrinthine application and vetting process turned out to be too in-depth for Lavignia's tastes, however, and he apparently gave up the ghost — but when DOGE became a thing, he jumped at the opportunity to effectively take a side door into federal work.
"[DOGE] just sent me to the VA," the tech founder told FastCo. "They just kind of helped me find the job. Which is great — I’m proud of that."
Unsurprisingly, Lavignia found that things work a lot differently in the halls of government agencies than they do in Silicon Valley.
"I would say the culture shock is mostly a lot of meetings, not a lot of decisions," he remarked. "But honestly, it’s kind of fine — because the government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins."
Yes, you read that right: a guy who so believed in DOGE's efficiency mission that he chose to work there for free is admitting that the government is more efficient than Musk suggests.
Still, Lavignia said that he chooses to continue with the work because he's "basically taking Elon at his word" — a head-scratching conclusion.
More on DOGE: <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-government-deals-trump-budget-slashed">Elon Musk Is Getting Huge New Government Deals While Everything Else Is Getting Slashed</a>