Families

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Bard Alumni Matthew Wing ’06 and Adam Janos ’06 Interviewed in City & State New York

Bard alumni Matthew Wing ’06 and Adam Janos ’06 spoke with City & State New York about Hack_NY, an Instagram account they cofounded with their friend and colleague Julian Klepper to promote awareness about government programs and benefits that can improve the lives of the public. The videos produced for the account are reminiscent of Saturday Night Live skits, designed to be a lighthearted and humorous way to educate viewers about lesser known programs. “We're trying to get people to be civically engaged with public servants, public service and their government which works for them and exists to serve their needs and make their lives better,” said Wing. “At a time when the very nature and existence of government is being questioned and to some degree persecuted, I think it's good and nice to hold up beautiful pieces of art that just say, this is a nice thing that people should enjoy, that makes lives better.”

Post Date: 04-23-2025

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Vanity Fair Senior Editor Keziah Weir ’13 Covers Authors’ Copyright Lawsuits Against Meta’s AI

Vanity Fair senior editor and Bard alumna Keziah Weir ’13 wrote about a lawsuit from authors including Richard Kadrey and Ta-Nehisi Coates that challenges Meta’s use of their books to train AI, arguing that torrenting their books constituted “unlawful conduct.” Over the past two years, Meta has trained their AI, Llama, on a database of over 7 million pirated books. Newly revealed files show that Meta believes these books “are individually worthless,” and therefore fall under fair use, Weir writes. She argues that Meta reduced the books into “a pure asset, devoid of meaning” when they torrented 81.7 terabytes of data through websites like LibGen. “The cases raise existential questions about art and literature—their inherent worth and what it means to commodify them,” Weir says.

Post Date: 04-22-2025