Providing feedback is widely recognized as crucial for refining students' writing skills. Recent advances in language models (LMs) have made it possible to automatically generate feedback that is actionable and well-aligned with human-specified attributes. However, it remains unclear whether the feedback generated by these models is truly effective in enhancing the quality of student revisions. Moreover, prompting LMs with a precise set of instructions to generate feedback is nontrivial due to the lack of consensus regarding the specific attributes that can lead to improved revising performance. To address these challenges, we propose PROF that PROduces Feedback via learning from LM simulated student revisions. PROF aims to iteratively optimize the feedback generator by directly maximizing the effectiveness of students' overall revising performance as simulated by LMs. Focusing on an economic essay assignment, we empirically test the efficacy of PROF and observe that our approach not only surpasses a variety of baseline methods in effectiveness of improving students' writing but also demonstrates enhanced pedagogical values, even though it was not explicitly trained for this aspect.

It didn't take long for Harshraj Ghai to respond to the impact of California's new 20 an hour minimum wage for his 3,700 fast-food employees. Ghai and his family operate 180 Burger Kings, Taco Bells and Popeyes chicken restaurants across the state, and one of the first things they did after the law took effect April 1 was to start capping workers' hours to avoid overtime pay. Also, they're closing some outlets a little earlier, and opening others a bit later to avoid paying workers for less profitable periods. But the biggest thing Ghai and his family are doing does not directly involve workers at all: They've speeded up and expanded their use of technology, especially AI. With the state's mandatory minimum wage for fast-food workers set to increase to 20 an hour, many restaurant chains are preparing to raise prices.

Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to permeate consumers' lives, so naturally, small businesses (SMBs) are following suit. For entrepreneurs and small business employers, the promise of AI technology lies in cost savings. While that could come in many forms -- from automated processes to faster identification of financial fraud and errors -- new research from LendEDU suggests entrepreneurs are turning to artificial intelligence in hopes of alleviating some of the pressure of a more expensive workforce. According to the firm's latest research, published earlier this month, more states' decisions to implement a $15-per-hour minimum wage requirement is likely to place cash pressures on SMBs. While two-thirds of small businesses surveyed by LendEDU are supportive of the wage hike, more than a quarter are concerned it will have a negative impact on their business.

A sampling of human blood has turned up a surprise: most people could be immune to one of the world's biggest advances in genetic engineering. It's in our blood: Scientists searched the blood of 22 newborns and 12 adults for antibodies to the two most important types of Cas9, the cutting protein that functions as the business end of the gene-editing tool. They found the protective molecules in more than 65 percent of the people they examined. There are big hopes for CRISPR-based gene-therapy cures. But immunity could mean those treatments won't work.