General election presidential debates offer valuable, high-profile opportunitiesy for parents to talk with teens and young adults about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, but few parents take advantage of them. Nationally representative surveys by the Annenberg Public Policy Center show that while most parents or guardians of teens or young adults watched or listened to at least parts of the debates, less than 1 in 5 did so with a teen or young adult in their household or talked with them about the debate.

The SETI Artist in Residency (AIR) program announced Algorithmic Imaginings, a new residency that explores how AI technologies affect science and society. The residency focuses on creative research topics such as imaginary life, human-AI collaboration, AI futures, posthumanism, AI and consciousness, and the ethics of AI data. It also connects with current SETI Institute research, including exoplanet studies, astrobiology, signal detection, and advanced computing. The two-year program offers $30,000 in funding and an exhibition at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany.

“AI is on everyone’s mind right now, be it ChatGPT4, text-to-video generators such as Sora, and discussions surrounding fake news and copyright,” said Bettina Forget, Director of the AIR program. “AI is a phenomenal tool, but it also comes with opportunities and concerns that should be addressed. This residency allows artists working at the intersection of art and technology to explore new avenues of thinking and connect them to SETI Institute research.”

Research findings provide further evidence that early childhood education can improve educational outcomes for low-income Black children, but that subsequent experiences may erode those impacts especially for low-income Black males.

Public schools, nonprofit private schools, and residential childcare institutions can participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP), which provide federally assisted meals through the USDA. These programs aim to offer healthy meals to students, leading to benefits such as improved attendance, academic performance, and food security. A new report in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, explores the landscape of school meal charge policies, focusing on unpaid meal debt and its implications for children and their families.