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More data supports science funding literally pays for itself Previously I put out a post explaining “ how science funding literally pays for itself ” that takes you through the math and some data that backs it up. Now two new data points further bolster this claim. First, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the nonpartisan federal agency that provides budget and economic information to Congress, published a report entitled “ Estimating the Economic Effects of Federal Investment in Research and Development . ” Usually the CBO only projects out 10 years per their mandate, but because the effects of science funding can take longer to fully manifest, they projected out 30 years. Thanks for reading Gabriel Weinberg! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. The relevant headline takeaway is highlighted below in their primary table (Table 1), showing that over this period the effects of a $30B increase in science funding for 10 years ($300B in total and about a 33% increase from today) would result in decreasing the overall deficit over 30 years (see green arrows). The decrease is about -2% on average if the “R&D funding increase [is] financed by reducing noninvestment spending” and about -1% on average if the “R&D funding increase [is] financed by borrowing.” This means that the increased science funding would grow the economy so much that the tax revenues received from this growth alone would outweigh the spending increase, leading to an overall decrease in the budget deficit. In other words, increasing science funding (at least by this amount) is a complete no-brainer, so let’s do it already! A few years ago the CBO did a similar report for infrastructure spending and compared the two in this report, finding the ROI effects of science funding to be about seven times greater than infrastructure spending. Again, so let’s do it already! The effect on the present value of GDP over the next 30 years (discounted using Treasury rates) that a dollar increase in deficit-financed R&D spending would have is about seve...

Principles almost always have exceptions, often when they conflict with other principles (Rule 5) I try hard not to lie, but would I lie to save my family from being murdered? Of course. In that case honesty loses to protecting my family. Principles almost always have exceptions, often when they conflict with other principles (which I’m calling Rule 5 in this rules series ). This rule follows from Rule 1: Reality is always more complicated . Put another way, there are always edge cases. Often edge cases between principles (personal or otherwise) get resolved via a principle priority stack , an implicit or explicit hierarchy of principles. An example is Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics : First Law: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Asimov spent much of his robot fiction dissecting situations where these “Laws” explicitly conflict or otherwise get subverted by edge cases. While these are make-believe situations, the priority stack mental model explains a lot of otherwise seemingly irrational behavior in the real world. For example, why do politicians and political parties seem to flip-flop on supposedly strongly held principles? I do not think in all cases it is because they actually don’t have strongly held principles, but that there is something higher up in their principle priority stack, usually winning elections. The same is true with corporations, especially public ones. Most have profits (or a similar financial metric) at the top of their principle priority stack, above other customer-focused principles like sound privacy practices, good service, etc. Some corporations have it the other way around, like DuckDuckGo where we’ve forgone a lot of profits because privacy is higher on our principle priority stack, or some B corps with other elevated n...

Start collecting an AI "token tax" now; figure out exactly what to do with the funds later Large AI risks abound, including a massive wave of coming job displacement that will upend the lives of millions of people. Even if new AI jobs are ultimately created such that net job loss is minimal, many of the people who are displaced are unlikely to be the same people to get these new jobs, and the new jobs are unlikely to be created at exactly the same time the old jobs are lost. In other words, millions of displaced people will need our support, for example, to receive extended unemployment benefits while they retrain and look for new work. This support will cost real money. Meanwhile, the leading AI companies are already generating billions in revenue, with no signs of slowing down. There are many proposals that would pair a so-called “token tax” on AI usage with support for displaced workers. Every one I've seen, though, specifies disbursement mechanisms up front, such as direct payments based on specific triggers. But what shape that support should optimally take remains genuinely uncertain: the peak of displacement hasn't been reached, and we don't yet know which industries will be hit hardest, or on what timelines. Instead of trying to work any of this out up front, we can decouple the collection of the tax from how funds would be disbursed. We should start collecting an AI token tax now, and figure out exactly what to do with the funds later, holding them in a true lockbox outside general appropriations, with statutory protection limiting use of funds to supporting displaced workers in the future. We’d (at DuckDuckGo) be willing to support bills to this effect and ultimately pay a token tax, presumably collected by the leading AI companies on a usage basis, for example a 10% surcharge on token charges. That amount would roughly match the 10% employers pay in payroll taxes, which also further reduces the incentive to replace human workers with AI workers. Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts or get the audio version . Share

DuckDuckGo's New Pro Plan: 2x AI Limits, More Advanced Models DuckDuckGo News DuckDuckGo's New Pro Plan: 2x AI Limits, More Advanced Models The DuckDuckGo subscription now comes in two plans: Plus and Pro. The new Pro plan is for people who use AI for demanding tasks. On top of our VPN and other protections, it includes 2x higher usage limits than Plus, exclusive access to Claude Opus 4.6, and the highest reasoning available on Duck.ai. Christopher Calvi 4 min read

You can make a compelling narrative for almost anything untrue (Rule 4) Pick something you believe to be untrue, for example a common conspiracy theory or policy narrative. Then go to your favorite chatbot and ask, “ While I believe to be not true, some people nevertheless argue it is true, and I want to better understand their most compelling narratives. So, please list out the most compelling narrative(s) you can in favor of this position, as if you were trying to convince me. Make it compelling! Next to each, list out the best counter-narrative. ” This rule, that you can make a compelling narrative for almost anything untrue, has profound negative consequences for democratic societies. I believe that’s because: What makes a narrative compelling isn’t its truth, but that it sounds true. For example, simpler things often sound truer (making them more compelling), while actual truth is often nuanced , and increasingly so in our ever-more-complicated world. People are generally either already committed to a political tribe, or are deciding on a more case-by-case basis based on narrative. If they’re in the first camp, the tribe can concoct a compelling narrative to keep them satisfied no matter the issue. If they’re in the second camp, what they end up believing won’t necessarily be correlated to the best policy outcomes (truth) per the first proposition, as they are more likely to just choose the narrative that sounds most compelling to them. Our current state of social media amplification seems to have only made this dynamic worse. More news and political argument consumption has moved from longer-form content with robust journalistic standards to shorter-form video clips with lesser standards. There were always narratives in either form, but the former tries harder to correlate with the truth, and so, on net, as a society, we have less exposure to truth-correlated narratives. Building on this, we primarily communicate with each other, and certainly in the political sphere, via narrative. Politicians are elected on sound bites and video...

DuckDuckGo's New Pro Plan: 2x AI Limits, More Advanced Models The DuckDuckGo subscription includes our VPN , access to more advanced private AI when you want it, Personal Information Removal , and Identity Theft Restoration . It now comes in two plans: Plus, which includes all four protections , and Pro , which unlocks even more powerful AI functionality. The new Pro plan is for people who use AI for demanding tasks. On top of the VPN and other protections, it includes three Duck.ai upgrades : 2x higher usage limits than Plus, exclusive access to Claude Opus 4.6, and the highest reasoning available on Duck.ai. (Extended reasoning capabilities available on GPT-5.2 and Claude Opus 4.6.) Whether or not you’re a paid subscriber, everyone gets the same industry-leading privacy protections when you search and browse with DuckDuckGo, or chat privately with ChatGPT, Claude, and other popular AIs on Duck.ai . What is the DuckDuckGo subscription? The DuckDuckGo subscription is a four-in-one privacy service that gives you extra protection beyond what's available for free in our web browser , search engine , and private AI chat, Duck.ai . It includes our VPN to encrypt your Internet connection, access to more advanced private AI when you want it, Personal Information Removal to help combat identity theft and spam, and Identity Theft Restoration . The original DuckDuckGo subscription is now called Plus . (If you’re a current subscriber, this is what you have!) It includes all four protections and costs $9.99 USD/month or $99.99 USD/year. Enhanced with more powerful AI tools, the new Pro plan is $19.99 USD/month or $199.99 USD/year. Subscriptions are available in the U.S., Canada, the E.U., and the U.K. See this help page for international pricing and feature availability. What are the benefits of the Pro plan? On Duck.ai , anyone can chat privately with ChatGPT, Claude, and other popular AIs, whether you have a subscription or not. Text chat, voice chat, and image generation are free to use within daily limits. DuckDuckGo subscribers on th...

DuckDuckGo's New Pro Plan: 2x AI Limits, More Advanced Models The DuckDuckGo subscription includes our VPN , access to more advanced private AI when you want it, Personal Information Removal , and Identity Theft Restoration . It now comes in two plans: Plus, which includes all four protections , and Pro , which unlocks even more powerful AI functionality. The new Pro plan is for people who use AI for demanding tasks. On top of the VPN and other protections, it includes three Duck.ai upgrades : 2x higher usage limits than Plus, exclusive access to Claude Opus 4.6, and the highest reasoning available on Duck.ai. (Extended reasoning capabilities available on GPT-5.2 and Claude Opus 4.6.) Whether or not you’re a paid subscriber, everyone gets the same industry-leading privacy protections when you search and browse with DuckDuckGo, or chat privately with ChatGPT, Claude, and other popular AIs on Duck.ai . What is the DuckDuckGo subscription? The DuckDuckGo subscription is a four-in-one privacy service that gives you extra protection beyond what's available for free in our web browser , search engine , and private AI chat, Duck.ai . It includes our VPN to encrypt your Internet connection, access to more advanced private AI when you want it, Personal Information Removal to help combat identity theft and spam, and Identity Theft Restoration . The original DuckDuckGo subscription is now called Plus . (If you’re a current subscriber, this is what you have!) It includes all four protections and costs $9.99 USD/month or $99.99 USD/year. Enhanced with more powerful AI tools, the new Pro plan is $19.99 USD/month or $199.99 USD/year. Subscriptions are available in the U.S., Canada, the E.U., and the U.K. See this help page for international pricing and feature availability. What are the benefits of the Pro plan? On Duck.ai , anyone can chat privately with ChatGPT, Claude, and other popular AIs, whether you have a subscription or not. Text chat, voice chat, and image generation are free to use within daily limits. DuckDuckGo subscribers on th...

DuckDuckGo's New Pro Plan: 2x AI Limits, More Advanced Models The DuckDuckGo subscription includes our VPN , access to more advanced private AI when you want it, Personal Information Removal , and Identity Theft Restoration . It now comes in two plans: Plus, which includes all four protections , and Pro , which unlocks even more powerful AI functionality. The new Pro plan is for people who use AI for demanding tasks. On top of the VPN and other protections, it includes three Duck.ai upgrades : 2x higher usage limits than Plus, exclusive access to Claude Opus 4.6, and the highest reasoning available on Duck.ai. (Extended reasoning capabilities available on GPT-5.2 and Claude Opus 4.6.) Whether or not you’re a paid subscriber, everyone gets the same industry-leading privacy protections when you search and browse with DuckDuckGo, or chat privately with ChatGPT, Claude, and other popular AIs on Duck.ai . What is the DuckDuckGo subscription? The DuckDuckGo subscription is a four-in-one privacy service that gives you extra protection beyond what's available for free in our web browser , search engine , and private AI chat, Duck.ai . It includes our VPN to encrypt your Internet connection, access to more advanced private AI when you want it, Personal Information Removal to help combat identity theft and spam, and Identity Theft Restoration . The original DuckDuckGo subscription is now called Plus . (If you’re a current subscriber, this is what you have!) It includes all four protections and costs $9.99 USD/month or $99.99 USD/year. Enhanced with more powerful AI tools, the new Pro plan is $19.99 USD/month or $199.99 USD/year. Subscriptions are available in the U.S., Canada, the E.U., and the U.K. See this help page for international pricing and feature availability. What are the benefits of the Pro plan? On Duck.ai , anyone can chat privately with ChatGPT, Claude, and other popular AIs, whether you have a subscription or not. Text chat, voice chat, and image generation are free to use within daily limits. DuckDuckGo subscribers on th...

There should be a citizen-led path to amend the Constitution There are many issues with widespread bipartisan agreement that never go anywhere , for example limiting corporate money in campaigns and making gerrymandering illegal . As a surprise to no one, Congress is the bottleneck on these issues and many, many more. If the people on both sides generally agree for years and years, and Congress still doesn’t do anything about it, then that’s a structural governance problem. For stuck issues like these, we should have a citizen-led path to amend the Constitution as a solution to this governance problem. Now I fully agree that it should be super hard to amend the Constitution, and so we could make this path just as hard as the Congress-led one. 1 Thanks for reading Gabriel Weinberg! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. The current Congress-led path is two-thirds of both houses need to propose an amendment and then three-fourths of state legislatures need to ratify it. 2 A citizen-led path could similarly require two-thirds of states to propose an amendment (via something like signature campaigns within those states) and then a nationwide three-fourths vote to ratify it. 3 In other words the thresholds could be similar, just put directly in the hands of the people. You would still need most red and blue states working together to pass an amendment, such that nothing could pass without super-majority bipartisan support. That is, a super high bar. There are a lot of interesting structural reform proposals out there, but most require new Constitutional amendments to have lasting staying power. 4 To really unlock the possibilities for those, we need a citizen-led amendment path in place first. Of course, we would need an amendment using the old way to get this new way in place. 5 Congress won’t reform itself, but a citizen-led amendment path could. Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts or get the audio version . Share 1 I’d also argue the current path is too hard, but I’m ignoring that f...

2025 DuckDuckGo Charitable Donations: $1.1M to privacy and digital competition non-profits around the world 2025 marks DuckDuckGo's 15th year of donations—our annual program to support organizations that share our vision of raising the standard of trust online. We are proud to donate to a diverse group of organizations around the world that promote privacy and security, digital competition, and a healthier online ecosystem. This year, we’re donating $1,100,000, bringing DuckDuckGo's total donations since 2011 to $8,050,000 . Everyone using the Internet deserves simple and accessible online protection; these organizations are all pushing to make that a reality. We encourage you to check out their valuable work below. $100,000 to Public Knowledge Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy on behalf of the public interest. $75,000 to ARTICLE 19 ARTICLE 19 is an international think-do organisation, that takes its name from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and works to propel the freedom of expression movement, fighting censorship, defending dissenting voices and advocating against laws and practices that silence. $75,000 to the Digital Progress Institute The Digital Progress Institute seeks to bridge the tech-telecom policy divide through incremental, bipartisan measures in line with its principles of bringing about ubiquitous broadband, 5G and beyond, privacy for every American, real competition in digital markets, and a full-stack framework for Internet policy issues. $50,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) EFF's mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world. $50,000 to European Digital Rights (EDRi) With more than two decades of advocacy experience, European Digital Rights (EDRi) is the go-to, nongovernmental network working on EU and national laws and policies on privacy, freedom of expression, participation online, data protection and technology policy. EDRi unites over 50 orga...

2025 DuckDuckGo Charitable Donations: $1.1M to privacy and digital competition non-profits around the world 2025 marks DuckDuckGo's 15th year of donations—our annual program to support organizations that share our vision of raising the standard of trust online. We are proud to donate to a diverse group of organizations around the world that promote privacy and security, digital competition, and a healthier online ecosystem. This year, we’re donating $1,100,000, bringing DuckDuckGo's total donations since 2011 to $8,050,000 . Everyone using the Internet deserves simple and accessible online protection; these organizations are all pushing to make that a reality. We encourage you to check out their valuable work below. $100,000 to Public Knowledge Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy on behalf of the public interest. $75,000 to ARTICLE 19 ARTICLE 19 is an international think-do organisation, that takes its name from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and works to propel the freedom of expression movement, fighting censorship, defending dissenting voices and advocating against laws and practices that silence. $75,000 to the Digital Progress Institute The Digital Progress Institute seeks to bridge the tech-telecom policy divide through incremental, bipartisan measures in line with its principles of bringing about ubiquitous broadband, 5G and beyond, privacy for every American, real competition in digital markets, and a full-stack framework for Internet policy issues. $50,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) EFF's mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world. $50,000 to European Digital Rights (EDRi) With more than two decades of advocacy experience, European Digital Rights (EDRi) is the go-to, nongovernmental network working on EU and national laws and policies on privacy, freedom of expression, participation online, data protection and technology policy. EDRi unites over 50 orga...

2025 DuckDuckGo Charitable Donations: $1.1M to privacy and digital competition non-profits around the world 2025 marks DuckDuckGo's 15th year of donations—our annual program to support organizations that share our vision of raising the standard of trust online. We are proud to donate to a diverse group of organizations around the world that promote privacy and security, digital competition, and a healthier online ecosystem. This year, we’re donating $1,100,000, bringing DuckDuckGo's total donations since 2011 to $8,050,000 . Everyone using the Internet deserves simple and accessible online protection; these organizations are all pushing to make that a reality. We encourage you to check out their valuable work below. $100,000 to Public Knowledge Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy on behalf of the public interest. $75,000 to ARTICLE 19 ARTICLE 19 is an international think-do organisation, that takes its name from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and works to propel the freedom of expression movement, fighting censorship, defending dissenting voices and advocating against laws and practices that silence. $75,000 to the Digital Progress Institute The Digital Progress Institute seeks to bridge the tech-telecom policy divide through incremental, bipartisan measures in line with its principles of bringing about ubiquitous broadband, 5G and beyond, privacy for every American, real competition in digital markets, and a full-stack framework for Internet policy issues. $50,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) EFF's mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world. $50,000 to European Digital Rights (EDRi) With more than two decades of advocacy experience, European Digital Rights (EDRi) is the go-to, nongovernmental network working on EU and national laws and policies on privacy, freedom of expression, participation online, data protection and technology policy. EDRi unites over 50 orga...