Atheendar Venkataramani

I hear you on workflow.

But that makes me wonder why the workflows (admin hurdles specifically) are so ridiculous! #AI can help entrench a bad set of workflows (and incentives -- like more dumb papers) because we now have a cosmetic fix.

I am a 90 year old man now, shaking my fist at the monorail

In #science, why do we need #AI to write our papers? If they can, it means that our papers were not very good. That #AI can replicate most papers in clinical or social science journals says more about how we are doing marginal work and less about how amazing machines are.

I'm not a degrowth person.

But do we really NEED #AI?

Is it actually going to improve our well-being?

I am reading all the #AI in #science, #health, #labormarkets stuff.

I think we are taking a wrong turn. At least we aren't stopping to question what kind of turn we are taking.

1/ Has life expectancy fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic? In a new pre-print, we find that 31 of 34 high-income countries had still not returned to their expected life expectancy trajectories five years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6... #demography

Private Equity’s Transformation of American Medicine — Implications for Health Equity | NEJM Private equity firms have gained increasing control of U.S. health care infrastructure. Along with other potential consequences, this growth threatens to undermine progress in health equity.

Our work in NEJM www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

U.S. needs a national prevention infrastructure for mental and behavioral disorders A clear blueprint for a national prevention infrastructure for mental and behavioral disorders.

www.statnews.com/2026/03/06/p...

Black hole sun

WOW.

AI + work: Understanding AI’s impact on the labor market - The Hamilton Project On March 10, the Budget Lab at Yale, The Hamilton Project, and Peterson Institute for International Economics will host an event on AI’s impact on the labor market.

On Tuesday, March 10, join @budgetlab.bsky.social, @hamiltonproject.org, and @piie.com for an event on AI’s impact on the labor market. RSVP to watch in-person or online:

Congratulations!! Great placement!

Can AI Replace Social Science Researchers? No. No it can't. Come on, now.

New post: Can AI Replace Social Science Researchers? (No. No it can't. Come on, now.)

davekarpf.beehiiv.com/p/can-ai-rep...

Four scatterplots compare variable Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) funding per rural resident to state characteristics. Graph A plots mortality rate vs funding; B plots projected Medicaid spending decreases vs funding; C plots change in hospital beds vs funding; D plots change in rural physicians vs funding.

Current allocations under the Rural Health Transformation Program are inversely associated with rural mortality and hospital bed losses, indicating that funding may not reflect clinical need.

ja.ma/3OWHk6n

Immensely grateful to share an amicus brief on birthright citizenship, submitted to SCOTUS last week.

We present esta of the impacted child population (4.8 mil children in next 20 yrs alone!) + financial contributions through 2074 under status quo ($7.7 trillion!).
Link: lnkd.in/gGXngCDY
1/7

My new article in @jhppl.bsky.social situates the current attacks on public health in a historical perspective.

What I found surprised me. We've seen this before, and it's not as unprecedented as it feels.

Thanks to @sarahgollust.bsky.social @oberlanderunc.bsky.social for editing! Read free below.

You can 100% do high-quality, controlled research about patients’ perceived mistreatment in healthcare.

In fact, we should. It’s a major barrier to keeping all Americans healthy.

Watch Dr. Green’s video!

The #income-#health gradient among working-age adults in the United States in areas with high vs. low economic opportunity

@oppforhealthlab.bsky.social

Great new paper in The Review of Economic Studies using randomized incentives to detect non-response bias, using administrative data to provide ground truth for comparison. While incentives increased participation, they didn't reliably reduce NR bias

academic.oup.com/restud/advan...

Identification K9 puts professional ethics over personal attachments

Time to repost some causality memes #IdentificationK9

Congratulations Kate!!! Incredible placement!

This is old school good politics. Clear the garbage. Clear the snow. Make like easier.

Beautiful!

A watercolour painting I did for the February 2026 Bird Whisperer challenge of two black-cheeked lovebirds sitting side by side on a branch. The lovebird on the right side of the photo has its beak slightly open and is nuzzling the lovebird on the left. The birds have mostly bright green plumage with yellow/orange necks and darker cheeks while red/brown on their crowns. Beaks are red and white at the top and hooked. The background is a mixture of soft bright yellows, pinks and greens representing the love between the pair.

Here is my entry for the #BirdWhisperer February 2026 art challenge. These two black-cheeked lovebirds found only in South-west Zambia are classified as vulnerable due to loss of habitat.
#art #watercolour #painting #sketch #drawnfreehand #lovebirds #birds #birdlover #africanbirds #nature

XVIII Premio Fronteras del Conocimiento en Economía a Charles Manski por incorporar la incertidumbre en la investigación económica y su aplicación al análisis de las políticas públicas

Congratulations to Charles Manski on winning the BBVA Frontiers Award for his foundational contributions to partial identification, semiparametric methods, subjective expectations, social interactions and policy decision-making under uncertainty
www.premiosfronterasdelconocimiento.es/noticias/xvi...

Such a good paper!! I was surprised by the finding initially and then thought its par for our course in the U.S.

"Holiday card" - study and final.

What is child stunting — and how has it changed over the last 200 years?

Stunting means being too short for one’s age due to chronic undernutrition and disease in early life.

It’s one of the clearest markers of cumulative deprivation in childhood.

1)

Also, please share for visibility!

AI-integrated research; a novel tradeoff and partial solution (part 1 of n) Moving all your project ideas forward by "one step" but also adding a new bottleneck

My Substack: AI-integrated research; a novel tradeoff and partial solution (part 1 of n) open.substack.com/pub/jasonmfl...

He will love to hear it. Thank you!