{"id":27425,"date":"2026-04-15T06:46:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T06:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=27425"},"modified":"2026-04-15T06:46:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T06:46:32","slug":"how-silicon-valley-is-turning-scientists-into-exploited-gig-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=27425","title":{"rendered":"How Silicon Valley Is Turning Scientists Into Exploited Gig Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div id=\"article-title-block_192f22992a569dd646b2ea404a6d59b8\" class=\"article-title \">\n<div class=\"article-title__container\">\n<p>                                                            <span class=\"article-title__date\">April 14, 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"acf-innerblocks-container\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">Tech elites are enriching themselves by plundering STEM institutions\u2014and offering researchers scraps.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<aside aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"ad-block ad siderail-ad float-r-w-3 break-r-4\">\n<p>                                    <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/advertising-policy\" class=\"ad-policy\" target=\"_blank\">Ad Policy<\/a><br \/>\n                                    <\/aside>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Peter Thiel and his ilk are starving public science.<span class=\"credits\">(Eva Marie Uzcategui \/ Getty)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"is-style-dropcap\">Silicon Valley would not exist without government-funded research. Foundational technologies, including the semiconductor and the Internet, emerged from Cold War\u2013era military research programs. As graduate students at Stanford, Larry Paige and Sergey Brin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/news\/origins-google\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">relied on<\/a> funding from the National Science Foundation to develop the search algorithms that would eventually become Google. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/science-matters\/pocket-sized-progress-smartphones-nsf-innovations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">touchscreens<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/10\/09\/science\/nobel-prize-chemistry.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lithium-ion batteries<\/a> that we now carry around all day were likewise developed in university labs funded by government grants. Even generative AI\u2014incessantly touted as the crowning achievement of the free market, upon which the fate of the American economy depends\u2014emerged out of decades of research underwritten by the Department of Defense (DOD). Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel Prize winner known as the Godfather of AI, left his academic position in the United States precisely because he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/05\/01\/technology\/ai-google-chatbot-engineer-quits-hinton.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wanted to avoid<\/a> Pentagon contracts. Hinton nevertheless <a href=\"https:\/\/www.utoronto.ca\/news\/geoffrey-hinton-wins-nobel-prize\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">turned to<\/a> the Canadian government to help fund his lab at the University of Toronto, which eventually produced leading AI researchers for OpenAI, Google, and Meta.<\/p>\n<p>Given how much Silicon Valley has profited from government-funded research over the years, you might expect a certain amount of reverence for the system. At the very least, even the staunchest techno-libertarian rationalists should recognize the value in not killing their golden goose. Yet Silicon Valley elites are at the very heart of the Trump administration\u2019s devastating assault on public science funding\u2014and, not coincidentally, have positioned themselves to profit off the wreckage. In particular, conservative venture capitalists Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen have parlayed their extensive ties with the president into an unabashed assault on universities and institutional science. In private text messages <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2025\/07\/12\/marc-andreessen-private-chat-universities-diversity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">leaked to<\/a> <em>The Washington Post<\/em> last year, Andreessen wrote that \u201cuniversities are at Ground Zero of the counterattack.\u201d He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2025\/07\/12\/marc-andreessen-private-chat-universities-diversity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">characterized<\/a> Stanford and MIT as \u201cmainly political lobbying operations fighting American innovation at this point\u201d and vowed that universities would \u201cpay the price\u201d after \u201cthey declared war on 70% of the country.\u201d Most troublingly, Andreessen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2025\/07\/12\/marc-andreessen-private-chat-universities-diversity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">called for<\/a> the National Science Foundation to receive \u201cthe bureaucratic death penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thiel has long set his sights on shifting federal research dollars from universities to private industry. In numerous interviews, Thiel has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoover.org\/research\/apocalypse-now-peter-thiel-ancient-prophecies-and-modern-tech\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pointed<\/a> out that we have 100 times as many science PhDs as we had a century ago, yet the rate of progress is about the same. The claim itself is dubious. He offers no clear benchmark by which to measure scientific progress, nor does he consider the possibility that science has become more complicated after a century of advancement. Could it be that more bureaucracy, however flawed, is needed to operate a Large Hadron Collider as compared to a microscope and Bunsen burner? For Thiel, the answer is a definitive no: \u201cThe average PhD is 99% less productive than people were 100 years ago,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoover.org\/research\/apocalypse-now-peter-thiel-ancient-prophecies-and-modern-tech\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">concludes<\/a> with unwavering confidence. But even he cannot ignore the successes of Cold War research programs. However much it might pain his libertarian soul, Thiel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-american-interest.com\/2012\/02\/01\/a-conversation-with-peter-thiel\/#:~:text=Peter%20Thiel:%20I%20don't,that%20there%20has%20been%20stagnation.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">acknowledges<\/a> that DARPA\u2014the research and development arm of the DOD\u2014functioned well early on, but he has conveniently <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/YHaLYtaQrbI?si=IWemCsShWGHhUJ4Q\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">decided<\/a> that it was a one-time acceleration that \u201ccame at the price of completely corrupting the institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In any case, the justifications now matter less than the actual results. Trump entered his second term with a plan to cut federal science funding and extort prominent universities with threats of targeted budget cuts. The attacks were orchestrated by Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, who previously served as the chief of staff to Thiel at his venture capital fund. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aaas.org\/news\/fy-2026-rd-appropriations-dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">proposed budget<\/a> included funding reductions of 40 percent for the National Institute of Health, 57 percent for the National Science Foundation, and 24 percent for NASA.<\/p>\n<div id=\"current-issue-block_87cab3cf5a91d2f189aed260f72e8f69\" class=\"current-issue  float-l-w-2\">\n<h4 class=\"current-issue__title\">\n                    Current Issue<br \/>\n            <\/h4>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/issue\/may-2026-issue\/\" class=\"current-issue__cover\"><br \/>\n        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cover2605.jpg\" alt=\"Cover of May 2026 Issue\" \/><br \/>\n    <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Although Congress has since attempted to roll back some of the cuts, the administration has already inflicted enormous damage. Over 10,000 federal workers with STEM PhDs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/u-s-government-has-lost-more-10-000-stem-ph-d-s-trump-took-office\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">left<\/a> the federal workforce last year. University labs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/science\/2025\/12\/american-science-2025-trump-ambition\/685467\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">have been forced<\/a> to fire researchers, cancel studies, or just shut down operations altogether. Some academics sought refuge in Europe; others retired early. An unmistakable chill has taken hold of the scientific establishment\u2014one that will linger long after the Trump presidency.<\/p>\n<p>Why would tech billionaires attack a system that made them enormously wealthy at virtually no personal cost? The most obvious explanation is that much of that newly freed-up funding can be redirected to the tech industry. Thiel and Andreessen position start-ups as the remedy to the supposedly bloated, inefficient scientific bureaucracy. They cast themselves as the true champions of science, locked in an existential battle against pencil-pushing charlatans. If Newton were around today, the thinking goes, he would be applying to Y Combinator and ordering swag for his B2B SaaS start-up. This  grandiosity is coupled with a strong sense of paranoia. In a 2025 interview, Andreessen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/17\/opinion\/marc-andreessen-trump-silicon-valley.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">described<\/a> the Biden administration as being preoccupied with \u201cthe raw application of the power of the administrative state, the raw application of regulation, and then the raw arbitrary enforcement and promulgation of regulation,\u201d concluding: \u201cAbsolutely tried to kill us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Trump took power, it was their turn to strike back. As science budgets got axed, portfolio companies backed by either Thiel or Andreessen\u2014and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/tech\/trump-palmer-luckey-relationship-0c5c407f?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqdcB-_a5Dyr-uzVfAqW3klB1rAOM6QZm0YVoEOf910ri0E6SOhLoW6phrZ2Y6I%3D&amp;gaa_ts=69b17dcf&amp;gaa_sig=HhTJtcFKBa6BbWNmz5mxzWgedZnH-NQ2HdLNSNAdlyVVc9QstscHNN3g4_Z8A-5R6P5GvsubjSU-R1ZU21Lzkg%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sometimes both<\/a>\u2014received billions of dollars in federal contracts. The administration quickly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/finance\/regulation\/justice-department-scales-back-crypto-enforcement-99863f12?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqfrCRydCreXcSaZkVlPIyuoFSFrwMYqF70z1s5u2Y6e5jWAUdVvmGL486Vpxp8%3D&amp;gaa_ts=69ac78d9&amp;gaa_sig=tlN1sdotd5w1Hk2EEM6PLq0G3_PT_Glv8gDskE0WBx2bIjhN0hfKBKEUjlLSIzrbqnPsym84z2ebWDlO-SJhkQ%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">deregulated crypto<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/12\/eliminating-state-law-obstruction-of-national-artificial-intelligence-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">threatened to punish<\/a> states that enacted \u201conerous and excessive laws\u201d relating to AI. This agenda was spearheaded by Trump\u2019s policy advisers, including the billionaire venture capitalist David Sacks, who led PayPal alongside Thiel, and Sriram Krishnan, who was previously a partner at Andreessen\u2019s investment firm.<\/p>\n<p>The attacks on science also created a new talent pool for Silicon Valley to exploit: newly displaced STEM researchers. Within the AI industry, executives frequently cite the goal of creating models that are \u201cPhD-level experts\u201d across various academic disciplines. But training those models requires actual PhD-level experts to write relevant prompts, generate training data, and verify the output. How do you get someone with a doctoral degree in physics or math to sit down and solve hundreds of challenging problems? One way is to hire them, pay a competitive salary, and offer health insurance. Another, perhaps less obvious, approach is to kill off as many of the previous job opportunities as possible, such that highly credentialed researchers might be enticed to perform mind-numbing gig work for $30 an hour.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cta-block_ae14fbacb2853e38d07265dcdc8f6a97\" class=\"cta float-l-w-3\">\n<p>A multibillion-dollar industry emerged for precisely this function. The two most prominent companies, Mercor and ScaleAI, both received venture funding from Thiel. Those early investments seemingly paid off: Mercor most recently raised funds at a $10 billion valuation, while Meta bought a 49 percent stake in ScaleAI at a $29 billion valuation. This industry has grown rapidly by emulating the playbook Uber and Lyft used to appeal to drivers in the early days of ride-sharing. Their advertisements emphasize the flexibility and freedom of gig work. Jobless academics are shown hiking through the woods, reading books on hammocks, and playing sports with friends. Their testimonial voiceovers explain that, even though the academic job market has no opportunities, gig work allows them to make money while remaining in their field\u2014even if not quite how they imagined it. \u201cFinding jobs in academia has always been a struggle,\u201d one contractor <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ojXSYTfUm4U?si=OgDJAarD3_cQ_hbI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">notes<\/a>, explaining that he turned to Mercor after his institution cut off summer funding. In an advertisement for a competing platform, a Stanford-trained chemist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/team-handshake_lawrence-berg-phd-joined-handshake-ai-activity-7430395635679260672-LfAx?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAABVxHzEBw5ibVll4GUB5Jjtv5xkzBNSRxdM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expresses<\/a> hope that working with AI will open future job opportunities, despite the otherwise bleak job market for PhD graduates.<\/p>\n<p>As with the ride-hailing industry, initial promises of easy money often give way to a more complicated reality. One doctoral student in applied mathematics was tasked with solving tournament-level math problems for roughly $90 per hour. The questions were challenging, even for someone with his expertise. Yet the company would pay for only two and a half hours of work per question\u2014and incorrect or incomplete responses received no compensation at all. This meant he faced a choice: either continue working on challenging problems for free, or give up and forfeit any payment. Other researchers reported similar experiences across gig platforms. A recent PhD graduate of an MIT engineering program recalled tabulating all of her unpaid hours for a project, only to realize the effective hourly rate was considerably lower than what had been advertised. \u201cI originally thought that was [a] very fair, generous amount,\u201d she explained, \u201cbut then I started keeping track of all the unlogged hours that I wasn\u2019t really paid for and so it ended up not being super worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n<section aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"ad fullwidth-ad contained row position-relative ad-block alignfull \">\n    <!--Ad policy starts here--><br \/>\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/advertising-policy\" class=\"mid-ad-policy\">Ad Policy<\/a><br \/>\n        <!--Ad policy ends here--><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>Silicon Valley libertarians might respond that this is merely the free market at work. After all, no one coerced the doctoral students or underemployed scientists into performing gig work. But this narrative ignores the very direct policy decisions that shaped that \u201cfree\u201d market for researchers and academics. All of the researchers interviewed for this article described turning to gig work because Trump\u2019s federal funding cuts made it much harder to find opportunities in their field. The cause and effect are abundantly clear: The Department of Energy cuts funding so a summer stipend disappears, or the Trump administration threatens a university and multiple postdoc positions close. \u201cI would say it\u2019s akin to being farmed,\u201d the doctoral student in applied mathematics said. He described the ads for AI gig work as \u201cclickbaity,\u201d explaining that, as a grad student struggling to find work amid funding cuts, it is hard to resist a job description that touts remote, flexible, asynchronous work at seemingly high hourly rates.<\/p>\n<section id=\"popular-block_a2956f0b88c0b55d5ae19cc945106cf6\" class=\"popular-articles\">\n<div class=\"swiper\">\n<h2>Popular<\/h2>\n<p>            <span class=\"swipe-msg\"><span class=\"sr-only\">\u201cswipe left below to view more authors\u201d<\/span>Swipe \u2192<\/span><\/p>\n<ol class=\"popular-articles__list\">\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<\/ol><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>As it stands, we increasingly rely on the altruism of young people who view science as a calling\u2014but that paradigm can be pushed only so far before it breaks. Most scientists are not in it for the money; the same cannot be said of Silicon Valley. Hence, the 23-year-old founder of Mercor, Brendan Foody, became a paper billionaire in a matter of months by supplying AI labs with, among others, PhD researchers scrambling to remain solvent on their long and increasingly arduous career paths. \u201cThe wealthiest companies in the world are willing to spend whatever it takes to improve model capabilities, where Mercor is sitting at the forefront and sort of the primary bottleneck,\u201d Foody <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ja6fWTDPQl4?si=adNIgl-Lu5car6x1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explained<\/a> in a recent interview. In reality, the humans training the models are the bottleneck\u2014gig platforms, to their credit, just figured out how to profit from them.<\/p>\n<p>The myth of the free market is often used to obscure what are ultimately value judgments. Even Peter Thiel\u2019s libertarianism stops wherever Palantir\u2019s interests begin. Basic science research has never been particularly profitable in its own right, but society has benefited enormously from its advancement. The new bargain struck by Silicon Valley conflates wealth generation with progress. It is akin to deciding that a tree\u2019s roots no longer need to be watered because the fruit comes only from its branches. The tech industry may suffer in the long run, but several venture capitalists will make extraordinary short-term returns. In the meantime, a generation of scientists risks getting left behind.<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-end-\" class=\"article-end \">\n<div class=\"article-end__authors\">\n<div class=\"article-end__author\">\n<h5 class=\"article-end__author-name\">\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/hirsh-chitkara\/\">Hirsh Chitkara<\/a><br \/>\n                    <\/h5>\n<div class=\"article-end__author-bio\">\n                        Hirsh Chitkara is a doctoral student based in New York. He previously covered tech policy for <em>Protocol<\/em> and <em>Business Insider<\/em>.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>        <!-- Tag ID: thenation_incontent_2 --><\/p>\n<p>        <!-- Tag ID: thenation_registration_billboard --><\/p>\n<section class=\"collections collections--col-0\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<h2 class=\"collections__title\">More from <span class=\"not-italic\">The Nation<\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"collection__row\">\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/society\/eeoc-gender-identity-discrimination\/\" aria-label=\"The EEOC Is No Longer Protecting Federal Workers From Gender Identity Discrimination\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/eeoc-door-gt-img.jpg\" alt=\"The EEOC Is No Longer Protecting Federal Workers From Gender Identity Discrimination\" \/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"collections__card-content\">\n<p class=\"dek\">\nRecent decisions mean the agency will no longer process claims regarding harassment, the denial of bathroom use, or discrimination in hiring, firing, or promotion on the basis of &#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                                            <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/bryce-covert\/\">Bryce Covert<\/a>                                    <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/society\/matthew-gallagher-silicon-valley-high-agency\/\" aria-label=\"How a \u201cNew York Times\u201d Puff Piece Missed the Toxic Creed of  the Tech Oligarchy\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AltmanBlackrock.jpg\" alt=\"OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the sociopathic poster boy for Silicon Valley's \u201chigh agency\u201d revolution.\" \/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"collections__card-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">A profile of an AI healthcare start-up overlooked the creaky business model behind it, as well as the tech sector\u2019s worship of \u201chigh agency.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                                            <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/david-futrelle\/\">David Futrelle<\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/society\/greyhound-bus-transit-decline\/\" aria-label=\"The Last Cheap Ride\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/flix-bus-line-gt-img.jpg\" alt=\"The Last Cheap Ride\" \/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"collections__card-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">The collapse of intercity bus service isn\u2019t an accident of the market. 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Did it come at the expense of his own life?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/content\/feature\/\" class=\"collections__label\">Feature<\/a><br \/>\n                                            <span class=\"collections__divider\"><br \/>\n                            \/<br \/>\n                        <\/span><br \/>\n                                                                        <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/jacob-silverman\/\">Jacob Silverman<\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/society\/princeton-housing-crisis\/\" aria-label=\"In Princeton, a Housing Plan Sparks a Neighborhood War\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/defend-historic-princeton-getty.jpg\" alt=\"Signage reading \u201cDefend Historic Princeton\u201d across the street from Albert Einstein\u2019s House in Princeton, New Jersey, on March 9, 2026.\" \/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"collections__card-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">What a battle over a mixed-use development in a historic town reveals about liberal America.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                                            <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/sophie-mann-shafir\/\">Sophie Mann-Shafir<\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/society\/yale-storage-first-gen-low-income-reimbursement\/\" aria-label=\"Yale\u2019s Summer Storage Wars\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/YaleDorm.jpg\" alt=\"An unfurnished dorm room at Yale in New Haven.\" \/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"collections__card-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">Yale just cut summer storage reimbursements for first-gen and low-income students. The university has a $44 billion endowment. What it chooses to budget for says everything.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/content\/studentnation\/\" class=\"collections__label\">StudentNation<\/a><br \/>\n                                            <span class=\"collections__divider\"><br \/>\n                            \/<br \/>\n                        <\/span><br \/>\n                                                                        <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/zachary-clifton\/\">Zachary Clifton<\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>        <!-- Tag ID: thenation_btf_medrec --><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<pre><code>    !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n    {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n    n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n    if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n    n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n    t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n    s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script', 'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n    fbq('init', '233793277040432');\n    fbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/society\/ai-silicon-valley-andreesen-thiel-stem\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April 14, 2026 Tech elites are enriching themselves by plundering STEM institutions\u2014and offering researchers scraps. Ad Policy Peter Thiel and his ilk are starving public science.(Eva Marie Uzcategui \/ Getty) Silicon Valley would not exist without government-funded research. Foundational technologies, including the semiconductor and the Internet, emerged from Cold War\u2013era military research programs. As graduate &#8230; <a title=\"How Silicon Valley Is Turning Scientists Into Exploited Gig Workers\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=27425\" aria-label=\"Read more about How Silicon Valley Is Turning Scientists Into Exploited Gig Workers\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/thiel-getty.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27427,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27425\/revisions\/27427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}