The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has acquired Meta, an "AI-powered" search engine for science papers. The tool will be made free later in the year:
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's $45 billion philanthropy organization is making its first acquisition in order to make it easier for scientists to search, read and tie together more than 26 million science research papers. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is acquiring Meta, an AI-powered research search engine startup, and will make its tool free to all in a few months after enhancing the product.
Meta could help scientists find the latest papers related to their own projects, while assisting funding organizations to collaborate with researchers and identify high-potential areas for investment or impact. What's special about Meta is that its AI recognizes authors and citations between papers so it can surface the most important research instead of just what has the best SEO. It also provides free full-text access to 18,000 journals and literature sources.
Previously: David Plouffe Tapped by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to Lead its Policy and Advocacy Team
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The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has hired Uber chief advisor and former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe to increase the LLC's political and policy influence:
If you want to cure all disease and educate everyone, you're going to need the government's help, even if you're as rich as Mark Zuckerberg. Today, he and his wife Priscilla's philanthropic vehicle the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announced it's hired away Uber's chief advisor and former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe to lead its policy and advocacy team. Plouffe will remain on Uber's board.
Plouffe could help convince legislators to back or at least pave the way for CZI's programs. These include creating personalized educations systems so children are taught in the format they learn best, and its recent $3 billion investment to fight disease by supporting research collaboration through its "Biohub." The money comes from Chan and Zuckerberg pledging to donate 99 percent of Mark's Facebook shares, worth $45 billion at the time, toward improving life on earth.
Hiring Plouffe could also fan speculation that Zuckerberg wants to take a direct role in government some day. Last year, he pushed Facebook board members to allow him to retain control of the company even if he takes a leave of absence to work in government.
Also at NYT, The Verge, and USA Today:
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is also forming a public policy board that will be headed by Kenneth Mehlman, the head of global public affairs at private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts who managed President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. The news was first reported by the New York Times.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Ayn Anonymous on Thursday January 26 2017, @04:14AM
Free search (Google powered) AND free download:
http://sci-hub.cc/ [sci-hub.cc]
The first website in the world to provide mass & public access to research papers
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Thursday January 26 2017, @05:54AM
Free as in copyright infringement, that is.
http://crln.acrl.org/content/77/3/122.full [acrl.org]
https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2016/05/31/why-sci-hub-matters/ [americanlibrariesmagazine.org]
https://qz.com/616677/the-website-that-offered-47-million-pirated-academic-papers-is-back/ [qz.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 26 2017, @11:31AM
>Sci-Hub unmasked
butthurt found
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday January 26 2017, @12:40PM
Meta seems to be an attempt to make relevant papers easier to find in a more advanced way than keyword or citation based search.
If the Chanzuckmeta engine is released for free like they promise, it would be trivial to extend it to also link directly to Sci-Hub. So you could have the value of finding the papers you need as well as links to the full papers.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday January 26 2017, @06:57AM
"... and will make its tool free to all in a few months after enhancing the product."
What does that mean? Facebook integration?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 26 2017, @04:06PM
Possibly. Or data collection. After all, usually "free" doesn't really mean "free" but "paid for with your data".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 26 2017, @07:15AM
I don't want a Zuck looking anime holographic girlfriend!
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday January 26 2017, @12:21PM
Just a reminder that AI doesnt mean anything. You might as well say "Heuristic Multi-stage Genetic Algorithm" but it wouldn't evoke images of attractive rendered female assistants making flying cars and stuff, so they don't bother.
(or at least I presume AI == some neural network algorithm, the article doesnt really say)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 28 2017, @07:05AM
Isn't it lovely? There's buck to be made everywhere!