Urban air pollution hotspots pose significant health risks, yet their detection and analysis remain limited by the sparsity of public sensor networks. This paper addresses this challenge by combining predictive modeling and mechanistic approaches to comprehensively monitor pollution hotspots. We enhanced New Delhi's existing sensor network with 28 low-cost sensors, collecting PM2.5 data over 30 months from May 1, 2018, to Nov 1, 2020. Applying established definitions of hotspots to this data, we found the existence of additional 189 hidden hotspots apart from confirming 660 hotspots detected by the public network. Using predictive techniques like Space-Time Kriging, we identified hidden hotspots with 95% precision and 88% recall with 50% sensor failure rate, and with 98% precision and 95% recall with 50% missing sensors. The projected results of our predictive models were further compiled into policy recommendations for public authorities. Additionally, we developed a Gaussian Plume Dispersion Model to understand the mechanistic underpinnings of hotspot formation, incorporating an emissions inventory derived from local sources. Our mechanistic model is able to explain 65% of observed transient hotspots. Our findings underscore the importance of integrating data-driven predictive models with physics-based mechanistic models for scalable and robust air pollution management in resource-constrained settings.

In this work, we introduce a new framework for active experimentation, the Prediction-Guided Active Experiment (PGAE), which leverages predictions from an existing machine learning model to guide sampling and experimentation. Specifically, at each time step, an experimental unit is sampled according to a designated sampling distribution, and the actual outcome is observed based on an experimental probability. Otherwise, only a prediction for the outcome is available. We begin by analyzing the non-adaptive case, where full information on the joint distribution of the predictor and the actual outcome is assumed. For this scenario, we derive an optimal experimentation strategy by minimizing the semi-parametric efficiency bound for the class of regular estimators. We then introduce an estimator that meets this efficiency bound, achieving asymptotic optimality. Next, we move to the adaptive case, where the predictor is continuously updated with newly sampled data. We show that the adaptive version of the estimator remains efficient and attains the same semi-parametric bound under certain regularity assumptions. Finally, we validate PGAE's performance through simulations and a semi-synthetic experiment using data from the US Census Bureau. The results underscore the PGAE framework's effectiveness and superiority compared to other existing methods.

Information prioritization plays an important role in how humans perceive and understand the world. Homepage layouts serve as a tangible proxy for this prioritization. In this work, we present NewsHomepages, a large dataset of over 3,000 new website homepages (including local, national and topic-specific outlets) captured twice daily over a three-year period. We develop models to perform pairwise comparisons between news items to infer their relative significance. To illustrate that modeling organizational hierarchies has broader implications, we applied our models to rank-order a collection of local city council policies passed over a ten-year period in San Francisco, assessing their "newsworthiness". Our findings lay the groundwork for leveraging implicit organizational Figure 1: Two "newsworthiness" signals that editors cues to deepen our understanding of make to guide reader attention are shown above.

Meta is making a pitch to get its AI into the UK's public health system. The Guardian reported on Tuesday that the company held a hackathon in Europe, tasking over 200 developers to use its Llama AI to improve the country's health services. The company awarded funds for developing AI that shortens wait times in Britain's A&E rooms (ERs in the US). The UK's AI minister, Feryal Clark, told The Guardian that the "government can adopt AI, such as Meta's open-source model, to support our key missions." Earlier this month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave the green light for Llama to work with the US government.

Legal immigrants are increasingly turning to high-tech solutions to help navigate America's immigration landscape. It's no secret that America's immigration policy is in desperate need of a high-tech overhaul. Most online immigration tools so far have been rudimentary, and that's often left legal immigrants complaining of long wait times, contradictory instructions, and a web presence that doesn't help with things like green card renewal or family petitions. Now President-Elect Trump is promising a big deportation push when he comes into office for his second term, and it's more important than ever for immigrants to have their paperwork in order. "Immigration, legal immigration should be efficient and accessible and affordable for everyone," says Yasaman Soroori, the co-founder and CEO of Consulta, a new A.I.-powered platform offering high-tech solutions for those immigration issues.

President Biden and China's President Xi Jinping met on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, at the APEC Summit in Lima, Peru. A federal China commission released its sprawling yearly report to Congress on Tuesday, for the first time recommending lawmakers end China's favored trade status and the provision that allows goods under 800 to enter the U.S. duty-free. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, established by Congress as a bipartisan entity to investigate and provide policy recommendations on China, is now directly advocating for Congress to end the Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) China has enjoyed since 2004. The committee will pitch its 83 policy recommendations to lawmakers on Tuesday, along with a report on China's military capabilities, its threats to U.S. allies in the region and how it is exploiting U.S. policy for its own advancement. "For decades we have engaged in whack-a-mole policy working within international organizations and guidelines to address the increasing and ambitious efforts by China to skirt laws or take advantage of trade loopholes," commission chair Robin Cleveland said. "In our hearing on the threats to American consumers this year we heard from administration and expert witnesses who were starkly clear: U.S. agencies do not know if the majority of packages coming from China include a baby toy painted with a toxic chemical--a counterfeit piece of clothing made with slave labor--or a pin head amount of fentanyl which is enough to kill the average citizen."

TL;DR: Landmines pose a persistent threat and hinder development in over 70 war-affected countries. Humanitarian demining aims to clear contaminated areas, but progress is slow: at the current pace, it will take 1,100 years to fully demine the planet. In close collaboration with the UN and local NGOs, we co-develop an interpretable predictive tool for landmine contamination to identify hazardous clusters under geographic and budget constraints, experimentally reducing false alarms and clearance time by half. The system is being tested in Afghanistan and Colombia, where it has already led to the discovery of new landmines. Anti-personnel landmines are explosive devices hidden in the ground designed to explode by proximity or contact and with the capacity to kill, disable or cause harm to humans (Figure 1). The mere threat of landmine contamination in a territory not only endangers the physical well-being of affected populations but also results in a loss of forest areas, reduction of productive land, exacerbation of social vulnerability, delay of infrastructure development, and damage of natural, physical, and social capital.

Meta's push to deploy its artificial intelligence system inside Britain's public sector has taken a step forward after the tech giant awarded development funding to technology aimed at shortening NHS A&E waiting times. Amid rival efforts by Silicon Valley tech companies to work with national and local government, Meta ran its first "hackathon" in Europe asking more than 200 programmers to devise ways to use its Llama AI system in UK public services and, one senior Meta executive said, "focused on the priorities of the Labour party". The event came after it emerged that Palantir, another US tech company, has been lobbying the Ministry of Justice and government ministers including the chancellor, Rachel Reeves. Microsoft also recently agreed a five-year deal with Whitehall departments to supply its AI Copilot technology to civil servants. Meta's hackathon was addressed by Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister and now Meta's president of global affairs based in California.

The US Patent and Trademark Office banned the use of generative artificial intelligence for any purpose last year, citing security concerns with the technology as well as the propensity of some tools to exhibit "bias, unpredictability, and malicious behavior," according to an April 2023 internal guidance memo obtained by WIRED through a public records request. Jamie Holcombe, the chief information officer of the USPTO, wrote that the office is "committed to pursuing innovation within our agency" but are still "working to bring these capabilities to the office in a responsible way." Paul Fucito, press secretary for the USPTO, clarified to WIRED that employees can use "state-of-the-art generative AI models" at work--but only inside the agency's internal testing environment. "Innovators from across the USPTO are now using the AI Lab to better understand generative AI's capabilities and limitations and to prototype AI-powered solutions to critical business needs," Fucito wrote in an email. Outside of the testing environment, USPTO staff are barred from relying on AI programs like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude for work tasks.

It bills itself as the largest gathering of police chiefs in the United States, where leaders from many of the country's 18,000 police departments and even some from abroad convene for product demos, discussions, parties, and awards. I went along to see how artificial intelligence was being discussed, and the message to police chiefs seemed crystal clear: If your department is slow to adopt AI, fix that now. The future of policing will rely on it in all its forms. In the event's expo hall, the vendors (of which there were more than 600) offered a glimpse into the ballooning industry of police-tech suppliers. Some had little to do with AI--booths showcased body armor, rifles, and prototypes of police-branded Cybertrucks, and others displayed new types of gloves promising to protect officers from needles during searches. But one needed only to look to where the largest crowds gathered to understand that AI was the major draw.