It is well known that A.I. companies have red-teaming, RLHF, and guardrail teams specialized in protecting against hate speech, bomb-making, or any crazy idea that pops into a person’s destructive mind. However, even with protection, the A.I. can be “tricked” and bypass the blockade, creating monstrosities. If there are psychopathic humans capable of manipulating and convincing crowds, just imagine a tool built with data from the entire internet.
It is no secret that America’s leadership in science and technology was not born by accident—it was built through public investment, public partnerships with academia, and government sanction of private sector monopoly. From the Apollo program to the Human Genome Project, from the internet to the transistor, the United States once treated research and development (R&D) as a cornerstone of national security and economic strength. For some time the facade has been quietly crumbling away, but last week’s FY2026 Discretionary Budget Request rocked the foundations of that legacy hard enough to bring down its edifice.
At the Kill the Cuts rally on April 8th, I gave the following speech to Caltech and USC contingents in front of the 300 North Los Angeles Federal Building. I hope its words resonate with the current scientific/political/cultural moment. They represent my truest feelings, the joyous and the vitriolic, as best as I can compress and verbalize them.
As I lean over my desk, slumped between piles of textbooks and scrawled notes, the weight of my schoolwork drags down my mind. The pressure to excel academically and carve out a niche in the competitive university environment sometimes becomes overwhelming. Yet amidst the chaos of deadlines and exams, an old song unexpectedly pierces the drudgery. The rich, sweeping sounds of “Belle” from Beauty and the Beast sweep me, in the blink of an eye, from the chill of my dorm room to one of wonder and magic. In an instant, I am no longer a struggling student trying to find her place, but a capable, independent young woman, venturing out into the world’s possibilities. The burden of academic intensity and the pressure to conform to societal norms melt away, replaced by a sense of empowerment, joy, and pure fantasy.
Here are some classes I found fun, even if they’re not everyone’s idea of a “good class.” While most of the Core and other courses are designed just to introduce the fundamentals of a subject, the ones below stood out for being especially engaging.
Caltech claims to strive to “expand human knowledge and benefit society.” A necessary requisite to accomplish this mission is a community that values intellectual diversity. One where peers challenge the preconceived notions of others, and where all can speak freely. We, thus, have a vested interest in protecting free speech. Over the 24 presidential administrations that have come and gone from Washington DC since the Institute’s inception, Caltech has historically remained politically neutral. But this present crisis transcends politics. It challenges the core assumptions that students make when choosing to entrust the Institute with their time, intellect, energy, and safety. Simply put, this is not a moment in history when Caltech can remain silent.
I have discovered that, deep down, each of us secretly cultivates the desire to be elsewhere. It’s as if, despite all the sacrifices made to get to one of the most prestigious universities in the world, we suddenly discover that complete satisfaction is an illusion.
The CGPU-UAW Bargaining Team is a group of eleven Graduate Student Workers and five Postdocs democratically elected to represent their peers in collective bargaining with the Caltech administration.
I have gathered union petition signatures, organized vote parties for union authorization, sent mass emails in support of the union, and spoken in person to most grad students and postdocs in Schlinger, Church, and Crellin for Caltech Grad Researchers and Postdocs United (CGPU). I’m about as pro-union as they come. But right now, CGPU is at best misleading and at worst outright lying about compensation gains in the recent tentative agreement (TA).
