Federation of American Scientists

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Providing science-based analysis and solutions to reduce dangers from weapons of mass destruction.

08/26/2026

Over the past year and a half, nearly three dozen federal datasets have been deleted. Another couple hundred have been modified. We’re tracking these and all future data terminations over at DataIndex.US. Like Denice Ross told the Guardian: “We’re facing a future where we are not going to have the information that we need to make decisions that will save lives and benefit American communities.”

It’s important to note: data terminations happen in every administration. Agencies retire collections as industries shrink, methods improve, and budgets tighten. Judging any single termination means asking whether it is part of that ordinary churn or something above it.

But it doesn’t matter who is in charge. We’ll be watching and tracking data like a hawk.

08/24/2026

Last week the president told reporters that Kim Jong Un “has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons.” Immediately our Nuclear Information Project groupchat blew up: that’s an oddly specific number. It’s also not that far off from what our experts estimate North Korea’s nuclear warhead inventory to be. We don’t know how the president got his number (it would be very unconventional for an intelligence analyst to just say a number), but we know how we got ours.

Here is a look into how our experts take open-source and commercially-available information and turn it into a highly trusted estimate — so highly trusted that diplomats use it in conversations and during negotiations — of North Korea’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

08/18/2026

What’s with all the secret data center agreements???? Well it turns out if you opt for a contract instead of an ordinance you can totally bypass the public comment period. Which is not fantastic if you want to live in a democracy but idk maybe that’s just me. Anyway there are like 2000 data centers in development and we were only able to find EIGHT community benefits agreements — contracts that directly allow for and obligate data center developers to do something for the community.

If your local government is planning a data center, direct them to this post. NDAs are so out. CBAs are in. Read more at FAS dot ORG btw

08/14/2026

not now sweetie mommy is coming with frontier ai safety policy ideas to submit for the policy entrepreneurship fellowship at FAS dot org and also happy meme Friday

08/12/2026

No security clearance? No problem for Team FAS. Our Nuclear Information Project team has used open-source tools as powerful engines for investigation, transparency, and igniting global nuclear debates.

How good are they? In 2010 the NIP team calculated the U.S. nuclear stockpile at 5,100 warheads, using only open source data and FOIA requests. The real number? 5,113.

Despite not having access to classified information, never having held a security clearance, and never working for the U.S. government, we were only 13 warheads off.

08/10/2026

Surveillance state got you down? Good thing the face recognition technology that powers platforms like Flock and Axon isn’t notoriously unreliable and especially inaccurate in real world settings.

Here’s the scoop on how FRT works — or doesn’t — and why no amount of technological upgrades can fix it, as told to me by two AI and computer vision scientists.

08/03/2026

On July 30th, without much fanfare, Google Earth unveiled an experimental new feature: the ability to produce custom deepfake satellite imagery with its inexplicably-named “Nano Banana 2” image generation model. As the press release explains, “Just zoom in to a place in Google Earth […], tap ‘create image,’ and type whatever you want to see.”

In a world increasingly filled with AI slop, satellite imagery has been one of the bastions of ground truth because it is very difficult to manipulate it without making it look unrealistic, and Google Earth is the most accessible and universally used tool for analysts, activists, and journalists to understand what is happening in the world.

It is somewhat baffling that Google actively degrade its own product that it has spent decades perfecting, and given the overwhelming backlash following the release of this new tool, its development suggests a degree of negligence on the part of tech giants to understand their own responsibilities to limit disinformation.

07/29/2026

Before he directed the Odyssey, Christopher Nolan received the FAS Public Service Award for his depiction of nuclear scientists (and FAS founders), and bringing the global threat of nuclear weapons back into public discussion.

07/28/2026

07/27/2026

Even with an 80 year legacy, we’re still making history. Congratulations to FAS*United for ratifying the first collective bargaining agreement (and forming the first union) in FAS history. Many of our founders were proud union members, and we’re honored to see the pride in our vision and mission live on with our staff today.

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Washington D.C., DC
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+12024544660

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http://www.fas.org/

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