Companies making machine learning and generative software aren’t just metaphorically ripping off books. In at least one case, they’re rather literally shredding millions of physical books to feed to their chatbots. As uncovered last month by The Washington Post, AI giant Anthropic ran a massive program called Project Panama where they spent tens of millions of dollars to hoover up used books, which they then sliced, scanned, and pulped. The scanned data removed from the books was then used to train their software.

Anthropic has already been in the hot seat for getting caught pirating millions of digital copies of books. But the judge’s equivocating ruling in that piracy case created a loophole, according to Anthropic’s lawyers. If the books training AI were used in a “transformative” way, the judge ruled, it was legally aboveboard, akin to using books to teach kids or how you can do what you want with a book once you buy it—a legal precedent that allows for second hand bookstores, for example.

Project Panama capitalized on that loophole. Anthropic spent a bundle at libraries, online secondhand stores, and used bookstores like The Strand to build out a massive library—the Post’s article includes images of huge warehouses filled with books. Anthropic then hired “an experienced document scanning services vendor to convert from 500,000 to two million books over a six-month period,” according to the proposal sent out to vendors.

The process to scan these books ultimately destroyed them, as reported in Futurism:

From the way the lawsuit documents tell it, Anthropic turned literally ripping off books into an art form. It used a ‘hydraulic powered cutting machine’ to ‘neatly cut’ the millions of books it got from used book retailers, and then scanned the pages ‘on high speed, high quality, production level scanners.’ Then a recycling company would be scheduled to pick up the eviscerated volumes—because you wouldn’t want to be wasteful, after all.

According to the Post’s coverage, this program raised red flags for some inside Anthropic, who knew that tearing books apart to feed into an AI model was rather literally bringing the critiques of these companies to life. Which I guess is to their credit. It also shows they’re aware that they’re losing the PR battle to make these slop machines look cool—see also, Microsoft’s CEO wanting us to stop thinking of AI as “slop” and start thinking of it as “bicycles for the mind”. Not quite as catchy.

“Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world,” reads a newly unsealed internal planning document, according to the Post. “We don’t want it to be known that we are working on this.”

Hate to agree with an AI guy, but you’re right—trying to “destructively scan all the books in the world” is a bad look! It’s always nice to see a flicker of shame these days, but as usual with tech overreach, it’s too little, too late.

The post » Anthropic didn’t want us to know that they were destroying millions of books to feed their software. appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Robert Hamilton, 73, was rushed to Nassau University Medical Center on July 12, 2024, with stomach pains, diarrhea and high fever — just days after eating a Boar’s Head sandwich. He died six days later.

At least 61 people contracted listeria, including 10 who died from their infection after eating Boar’s Head products. Christopher Sadowski

Now, his wife of 55 years, Kathleen Hamilton, is among a growing number of grieving families and victims who have gotten a fat check from the iconic deli meats brand — as the 120-year-old company scrambles to put the scandal behind it.

“They want to keep the internal factors and root cause of this outbreak quiet,” said food safety lawyer Brendan Flaherty, whose firm has secured payouts in over a dozen cases. “They may also realize they need to take responsibility for the lives that have been shattered.”

The deadly outbreak has been linked to grossly unsanitary conditions at Boar’s Head’s shuttered Jarratt, Va. facility — where federal inspectors found mold, flying insects, rusting equipment, clogged drains, and condensation dripping on food prep areas.

The Boar’s Head plant in Jarratt, Va. where the listeria outbreak started has been closed for more than a year. AP

At least 61 people across 19 states were infected — and 10 died, including Hamilton.

“The facts in this case are explosive,” said food safety attorney Ron Simon, who represents several victims. “Every day they don’t put this behind them, it hurts their brand.”

Behind the scenes, Boar’s Head and its insurers have been cutting quick settlements with victims — including pregnant women, elderly customers, and spouses who lost their loved ones — in a desperate bid to keep the lawsuits and headlines from piling up.

“I am not to comment,” said Sue Fleming, an 88-year-old, retired psychotherapist from High Ridge, Missouri who last year had spoken to the Associated Press after she fell ill from eating her favorite Boar’s Head liverwurst sandwich – “on bread with lettuce, a little mayo, a slice of pickle.”

Sue Fleming, 88, was among more than 61 people sickened with listeria food poisoning tied to the Boar’s Head outbreak. AP

Fleming – who spent nine days in the hospital and 11 days in rehabilitation last summer after what doctors confirmed was a listeria infection – declined to confirm to The Post whether she had settled.

“Boar’s Head has taken a number of steps to responsibly address last year’s recall, including a series of concrete, organization-wide initiatives to further strengthen our food safety processes and protocols. This also includes working to reach agreements with consumers who were affected,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to The Post.

Despite the deaths, Boar’s Head also recently confirmed that it’s preparing to reopen the Jarratt facility, which has been closed for more than a year.

Boar’s Head confirmed that it plans to reopen the Jarratt, Va. meat processing plant. AP

“Our dedication to food safety is unwavering, and we continuously invest in our processes and facilities to uphold standards of quality and safety for our consumers,” the spokesperson added.

In Hamilton’s case, a $4 million settlement was filed in federal court but wasn’t sealed — despite a request by her attorney, the high-profile food safety lawyer Bill Marler, to protect her privacy. The widow had originally sued for $20 million.

Marler, who represented Hamilton, has secured 11 confidential settlements tied to the outbreak. He declined to comment on specifics.

Food safety attorney Bill Marler has settled 11 food poisoning cases with Boar’s Head on behalf of his clients. Marler Clark

In another case, the company – a privately-owned business with an estimated $3 billion in yearly revenue – quietly forked over $3.1 million to some 66,000 customers who never got refunds for products recalled after the outbreak.

“It settled even before the court certified our case as a class action,” the lead attorney Jason Sultzer told The Post.

Boar’s Head’s race to resolve the cases isn’t typical, according to lawyers.

“It’s very unusual for a company this large to settle quickly,” said Flaherty. “Most big companies make you jump through hoops. Boar’s Head seems to want these gone — fast.”

Still, dozens of cases are unresolved, and more are trickling in as the statute of limitations for food-borne illness claims ticks on. By some estimates, half of the 61 confirmed victims haven’t filed lawsuits yet.

Gunter Morgenstein died last year after eating Boar’s Head liverwurst. AP

Jeffrey Scott Cox was sick for more than 6 months from his Boar’s Head listeria infection. legacy.com

“Some [victims] are elderly and they might call many months after the fact,” said Flaherty. “We just signed a 19-year-old woman who was undergoing cancer treatment when she got sick.”

Simon, who represented the family of Gunter Morgenstein — another high-profile fatality — said the company is clearly motivated by damage control.

Other remaining cases include that of 68-year-old Angel Cloughly, of Monmouth County, NJ, who ate a Boar’s Head liverwurst sandwich in July 2024. She was hospitalized for weeks and now requires daily injections for life, according to her lawsuit.

Jeffrey Scott Cox of Huntsville, Ala., ate a bologna sandwich in June 2024 and ended up in the hospital, eventually placed on a ventilator. The 58-year-old father of six – also a grandfather to four children – died in February, six months after his suit was originally filed.

Meanwhile, 73-year-old Robert Renavitz of Clifton, NJ passed away in June 2024 after eating Boar’s Head liverwurst. His wife of 51 years is suing not only Boar’s Head but Stop & Shop, where her husband bought the tainted meat.

The post Boar’s Head is secretly paying out millions to dozens of victims of last year’s listeria outbreak appeared first on Our Story Insight.

The 19-year-old New York University student could have picked up a cool $40 million — $25 million after taxes — from the sale of digital assets by World Liberty Financial, the Trump family firm launched nine months ago after Barron persuaded his dad about the benefits of crypto, Forbes reported.

“Barron knows so much about this,” commander-in-chief said during an interview in September after the launch. “Barron’s a young guy, but he knows it — he talks about his wallet. He’s got four wallets or something, and I’m saying, ‘What is a wallet?’”

Barron Trump, seen here at his father’s second inauguration, is listed as a “co-founder” on World Liberty Financial’s website. AFP via Getty Images

World Liberty has been a financial bonanza for the family. In March, World Liberty announced that it had sold $550 million worth of tokens.

An Office of Government Ethics filing released by President Trump last week declared he had made $57 million from token sales.

It also said that the real estate mogul held a 75% stake in his umbrella company, DT Marks Defi LLC, with unnamed “third parties” holding the other 25%.

Barron Trump is listed as a “co-founder” of World Liberty Financial alongside the president, as well as Eric and Donald Trump Jr, the president’s two eldest sons.

Forbes, which provided no direct evidence for its claims of Barron Trump’s massive digital windfall, suggested that he owned a 7.5% stake in the Delaware-based umbrella firm.

The stake would mirror what the NYU freshman holds in the Trump Organization’s Washington, DC hotel, Forbes said.

The Post has approached a Trump Organization spokesperson for comment.

Trump once derided digital assets such as Bitcoin as “a scam” but he has since U-turned and embraced cryptocurrencies. REUTERS

Barron Trump’s name does not appear in the company’s solitary SEC filing from October 30 last year.

Also listed as business partners in the venture are Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and his son, Zachary.

An analysis by Bloomberg, the financial news outlet, estimates the president’s net worth has doubled since the start of his 2024 campaign, standing at just over $5.4 billion

The post Barron Trump may have made millions from family’s lucrative crypto firm: report appeared first on Our Story Insight.

After a five-year pause on penalizing borrowers for not making student loan payments, the federal government dropped the hammer. It instructed its loan servicers to start reporting late payers to credit bureaus at the start of the year.

The result: Millions of borrowers saw their credit scores plunge in recent months, and loan servicers are warning that a record number of borrowers are at risk of defaulting by the end of the year.

Only one-third of the 38 million Americans who have borrowed money to pay for college or graduate school and should be making payments actually are, according to government data.

Loan servicers estimate that this year around four million people have been reported to credit bureaus for late payments, and researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York project that number will climb past nine million by the end of June.

Those rising numbers have implications for the broader economy, which has already shown signs of slowing. Low credit scores can prevent people from renting or buying homes and push them into pricier, riskier loans for cars, emergency cash and other everyday needs.

“It’s not a problem we want to add to the pile,” Preston Cooper, an economist and senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, said of the student loan delinquencies.

And if millions of those borrowers end up defaulting, the cost will be borne by taxpayers.

Even borrowers with good credit are falling behind on their payments. More than 500,000 student loan borrowers with good to excellent ratings recently saw their scores dive by an average of 128 points — a huge drop that can knock a borrower with a good rating down to the lowest credit tier — because they are late on their payments, according to Credit Karma, a credit score tracking app.

“Many of the households required to resume paying on their student loans are also struggling with credit card debt at near-record interest rates and high-rate mortgages they thought they would be able to refinance into a lower rate, but haven’t,” said Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

The reasons so many borrowers aren’t paying are complicated, but current and former federal officials, loan servicers, borrowers’ advocates and others involved in the complex task of restarting collections point to two primary issues.

First, borrowers — as well as servicers and the Education Department, which manages the government’s student loan portfolio — have been whipsawed by frequent, major changes in their loans’ terms and repayment options.

Nine million people have their loans in forbearance, a status that pauses collections. Most of those loans are caught in lengthy processing backlogs at the Education Department or frozen by legal challenges to SAVE, a generous repayment program introduced by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. that now seems certain to be struck down by federal courts or eliminated by the Trump administration.

And second, after such a long pause, many people are unable to incorporate a three-or four-figure monthly bill into their household budgets.

“You’ve gotten people out of the habit of repaying now for the better part of five years,” said Colleen Campbell, who resigned last month as the executive director of the Education Department’s loan portfolio management office. “For some borrowers, several cohorts of them, you’ve never built the repayment habit at all.”

Elissa Jane Mastel, 55, a marketer and teacher in Denver, saw her credit score fall more than 100 points recently because of her unpaid loans, which she said are caught in bureaucratic snarls. She sought to have some or all of her debt discharged through a program that forgives teachers’ loans after several years of payments, but she has not been able to get answers from her loan servicer about why her application has not progressed.

“I’ll be on hold for like four or five hours,” she said. “And then when you get the person on the phone, they’re like, ‘oh, I can’t help you.’”

Student loans have always been riskier than most other consumer loans: Before the pandemic, around one in five federal loan borrowers defaulted.

Because the government, not banks or private lenders, is the creditor for nearly all student loans, late payments and defaults don’t pose the kind of systemic financial risk that set off the mortgage crisis more than a decade ago.

During the Biden administration, the Education Department offered a “fresh start” program that moved millions of defaulted borrowers back into good standing. It paired that with a yearlong “on ramp” for late payers, during which loan servicers were instructed to pause delinquent borrowers’ loans and not report late payments. Millions of people saw their credit scores rise because of those actions, which were intended to let borrowers emerge from the pandemic with clean slates and move smoothly into repayment.

But those moves also inflated the number of borrowers who appeared to be current on their debts, sweeping in millions of people who had long struggled to make payments. As many of those people now drift back into delinquency, they’re joined by millions of newly delinquent borrowers.

Loan servicers say their collection data is flashing red warning signs. Nelnet, the government’s largest servicer, recently circulated an analysis to lawmakers that showed a huge spike in borrowers whose loans were four to five months overdue. Right before the pandemic, less than 1 percent of Nelnet’s accounts were at that point, at the edge of default. Now, more than 9 percent have reached the brink.

“Without immediate intervention, we could face the largest wave of defaults in the program’s history,” Nelnet warned.

Federal student loans default when they are more than 270 days overdue — a point that people who never resumed paying after the pandemic pause will reach this fall. That’s when the full picture of how many borrowers are not making payments will become glaringly clear, experts predict.

“Let’s say five million of those people default. That’s a really bad outcome for the country, economically,” Ms. Campbell said.

Adding to the turmoil are the barriers confronting borrowers trying to sort through their payment options. Instead of increasing Education Department staffing to handle a work surge and clarifying the often-shifting rules of its myriad repayment programs, the government has done the opposite.

Mr. Trump instructed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to shut down her agency, though that cannot be done without congressional approval. He amplified the confusion by announcing that the student loan portfolio would move to the Small Business Administration, a change that also cannot be accomplished without Congress.

But Congress has shown no interest in that idea, and no serious planning was done before or after the president’s announcement, according to seven people familiar with the administration’s discussions, who asked for confidentiality to speak about private talks.

Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, said the administration was “working diligently” to carry out the president’s order and shift some of the Education Department’s functions to other agencies. Caitlin O’Dea, the Small Business Administration’s communications director, said her agency was coordinating transfer plans with the White House, Congress, the Education Department and the Treasury Department.

“As the government’s largest guarantor of business loans with an existing portfolio of $444 billion, the S.B.A. is well-prepared to apply its experience in responsible lending, risk management and loan servicing,” she said. The Education Department did not respond to requests for comment.

The president’s decrees, coupled with plans to fire 46 percent of the Education Department’s employees, hollowed out the agency’s already understaffed Federal Student Aid office to the point of near collapse, according to current and former agency employees.

In social media posts and discussion groups, borrowers have shared stories of hourslong waits when they try to reach their loan servicer, often only to find that customer service representatives have few answers.

Borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan are able to keep their loans paused while the legal challenges proceed, but they have no idea when they’ll have to start paying again, or how much those payments will be. More than one million borrowers have been waiting, often for months, for the Education Department to process their applications for income-driven repayment plans.

“I’m seeing people lose their minds like I have never seen in the 20 years that I’ve been doing this,” said Alan Collinge, the founder of Student Loan Justice, an advocacy group that hosts a Facebook forum on which thousands of borrowers share advice and rants.

Heather Lawton, 48, finished a master’s degree in health administration last year and then consolidated her graduate and undergraduate loans. Ms. Lawton, who lives in Gainesville, Fla., and works as a credentialing specialist for a health-care chain, applied for an income-driven payment plan. Based on the government’s repayment calculator, she anticipated a monthly bill of around $490.

Instead, she was enrolled in a 10-year payment plan and got a bill in January for $924. She called her servicer, and soon after received a revised bill, but for an even higher amount: $1,014. After hours of phone calls, stretching across weeks, she still has not resolved the issue.

“This ordeal has led me to question the entire system,” she said. “I just want to do the right thing by paying what I owe. But I also deserve a clear and correct bill.”

The post Millions of Student Loan Borrowers Are Behind on Payments appeared first on Our Story Insight.

The Millions has been doing comprehensive previews for a while. How did you come to be a part of it?

It really is amazing that The Millions has been publishing its Most Anticipated book previews for 20 years—the first one had something like 15 titles, most of which were by big-name authors. Since then, the lists have evolved to be more thorough and to spotlight emerging authors or small press books that might not enjoy the same marketing muscle as the big names at big houses. I joined The Millions as deputy editor in early 2022, and within a few months became the editor of the site, at which point I took over the Most Anticipated previews. I published my first preview at the start of 2023.

I have some sense of what it takes to pull something like this together. What is the first step as you assemble a new preview?

All throughout the year I’m constantly on the lookout for books to include in the preview, and I encounter titles of interest in all kinds of ways: in publishers’ catalogs, on social media, in pitches from publicists, from friends over coffee. Whenever I hear about a book that sparks some excitement, or even just curiosity, I add it to the giant Google sheet where the Most Anticipated lists come together. So when the time comes to sit down and start properly assembling a preview, I’ve already got a giant list of titles that I’ve been accumulating for months. At that point, it’s probably pretty unwieldy, so typically the first step is just whittling it down. 

Who else is involved in researching releases, selecting titles, and writing the descriptions?

Today In Books Newsletter

Sign up to Today In Books to receive daily news and miscellany from the world of books.

Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox.

The Millions is a one-person editorial operation, so I’m ultimately responsible for all the research and title selection. That said, I’m always asking my colleagues at Publishers Weekly—which owns The Millions, and where I’m also a news editor—to flag any notable titles that I’ve missed, and it’s those colleagues who are generous enough to help me write the blurbs for the list as well. Once I’ve finalized the list, I send it to a few of my colleagues with an invitation to blurb any books they’re particularly excited about, and they very kindly donate their time to do so. Shout out to Dani Fishman, Nathalie op de Beeck, Claire Kirch, and John Maher! A few Millions contributors—including the brilliant Jonathan Frey and Zachary Issenberg—have also generously volunteered to help blurb for past previews. I am infinitely grateful for their help, as this list quite literally could not happen without them. I guess this is also to say that I’m always looking for volunteer blurbers! 

Do you have a target for the number of included books? And for genre or other kind of classification?

Last year, I changed the preview schedule from biannual to quarterly, which of course changed the target number of titles. The biannual previews were a bit unwieldy since they were so massive—in the ballpark of 200 titles—plus I found that they tended to miss out on great books that fell toward the end of their six-month window, since a lot of them hadn’t been announced yet. Since going quarterly, I’ve played around with finding the perfect number, and I’m honestly still tinkering, but I tend to land somewhere between 90 and 100 titles—around 30 per month. I’m definitely mindful about presses and genres as the list comes together in that I’m always aiming to prioritize indies, small presses, university presses—which often means actively seeking out those catalogs—and to get an even mix of nonfiction and fiction.

What is your favorite part of the process? Least?

My favorite part of the process is discovery! There’s no better feeling than stumbling on an upcoming book that gives you something to look forward to, and then going and sharing it with the world. It’s also incredibly gratifying to hear from authors how much a shoutout in these previews means to them. These days, book publicity is something of a crapshoot—there’s no telling what moves the needle, what gets you noticed—but I think just knowing someone is excited about your book and wants to tell other folks about it, is really validating for an author. The least fun part of the process is actually producing the lists in the CMS, which is very tedious and time consuming. Luckily the intrepid Dani Fishman helps me out in that area!

For people who just see the final product, what would surprise them about making the list?

Probably how many books land on the list because I’ve organically stumbled upon them—on socials, in conversation, in the PW book room. A book never gets on the list because a publicist tells me it’s gonna be the book of the season. I have to be genuinely intrigued by it for some reason or another, whether that be what the book’s about, who wrote it, who acquired it, what have you. I also don’t really see these lists as authoritative or definitive. I know I don’t always get them right, I kick myself all the time over books that I’ve missed. I also kick myself when a book I’m anticipating turns out to be a dud—but that’s why these previews aren’t “best of” lists, they’re intended as “this book looks really cool and I think it’s worth checking out” lists. 

Do you get feedback from the wider book world (authors, readers, etc) about inclusions/exclusions?

I love seeing authors and editors celebrating the inclusion of their books in the preview on social media—it brings me so much joy. And of course seeing “A Millions Most Anticipated Book” printed on or in a book is still thrilling to me. It’s gratifying to know that a Millions shoutout is such a point of pride for so many authors, editors, and publishers. So far, I’ve yet to get any feedback about books that didn’t make the cut, which makes me hopeful that I’m being appropriately thorough and thoughtful with the research and curation. 

If you have more (infinite?) time, attention, or resources, what would you do that you cannot currently do?

Oh man—there is so much I would do. I would assign specific books to the critics I know would review them brilliantly. Give columns to the writers I admire most. Host virtual and in-person programming—author talks, panel discussions, writing workshops. Collaborate with other publications and literary organizations. Hire a team. Put out a quarterly print edition. Pay contributors the competitive rates they deserve. The possibilities are endless, and thrilling, and I think about them a lot. Until then, I’m doing the best I can with what I have.

The post How THE MILLIONS’ Seasonal Previews Get Made with Sophia Stewart appeared first on Our Story Insight.

More than 3.2 million Social Security recipients who received pensions from public service jobs will soon see a boost in their benefits. AP

The Social Security Administration announced it would immediately begin processing retroactive payments and will send increased monthly payments to people affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset, which were rescinded in the bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act that former President Joe Biden signed into law last year.

The Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset limited Social Security benefits for recipients if they got retirement payments from other sources, including public retirement programs from a state or local government.

Advocates say the Social Security Fairness Act rights a decades-old disparity, though it also puts a strain on Social Security Trust Funds, which face a looming insolvency crisis.

The Social Security Administration announced it would immediately begin processing retroactive payments and will send increased monthly payments. Christopher Sadowski

The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released last May said the program’s trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2035. The new law will hasten the program’s insolvency date by about half a year.

“Social Security’s aggressive schedule to start issuing retroactive payments in February and increase monthly benefit payments beginning in April supports President Trump’s priority to implement the Social Security Fairness Act as quickly as possible,” said Lee Dudek, acting commissioner of Social Security in a statement. “The American people deserve to get their due benefits as quickly as possible.”

Beneficiaries from the new law include teachers, firefighters, and police officers across the country and people whose work had been covered by a foreign social security system.

Most people will receive their one-time retroactive payment by the end of March, and new monthly payments will begin in April, which will be deposited into their bank account on record with Social Security, according to a statement from the Social Security Administration.

Most people will receive their one-time retroactive payment by the end of March, and new monthly payments will begin in April. Susan Tompor / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Congressional Research Service estimated that in December 2023, there were 745,679 people, about 1% of all Social Security beneficiaries, who had their benefits reduced by the Government Pension Offset. About 2.1 million people, or about 3% of all beneficiaries, were affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision.

SSA asks beneficiaries to wait until April to inquire about the status of their retroactive payment, since some payments will process incrementally into March.

The future of Social Security has become a top political issue and was a major point of contention in the 2024 election. About 72.5 million people, including retirees, disabled people and children, receive Social Security benefits.

The post Social Security announces higher payments for millions of forme workers appeared first on Our Story Insight.