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Excerpts from the press release from U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) “Prohibition of Russian Kaspersky Software for U.S. Customers” can be found here in this post – along with a sampling of news coverage in the last 16 hours since the announcement from outlets as varied as Tass, The Guardian,…
I hear of many projected benefits of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). But most deal with solving big problems for humanity. Helping national security, helping defeat cancer and other horrible terminal diseases, helping ensure food, transportation, the economy are all optimized are all noble reasons to pursue AGI as fast as possible.
The death toll in Makkah in 2024 is now in a photo finish with Arizona’s confirmed 645 heat-associated deaths in metro Phoenix (Maricopa County) – over the course of 2023 – as the largest mass casualty events induced by wet bulb conditions to date of The Anthropocene.
In the runup to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, much attention has been placed on rampant influence campaigns emerging from U.S. adversaries like China, Iran, and Russia. Over the last decade, fear of influence campaigns has risen with the popularity of social media usage and the public routinely eschewing traditional media and turning to alternative sources. Unsurprisingly,…
In June 2023, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced “a national standard for blockchain technology to guide the development of the industry.” In this post: an analysis of the strategic policy initiatives in the lead-up to the June 2023 unveiling of the Chinese national blockchain standard – and future scenarios.
Wet bulb temperature is a measure that combines air temperature and humidity, indicating conditions under which the human body’s ability to cool itself through sweating and evaporation is compromised. While not a mass casualty event, over the next four days, places and pockets of the U.S. may be in wet bulb territory for a long…
Is the blockchain primarily a storage of value technology or an infrastructure for the storage of information? Or both in unequal or equal measure? And does this issue represent a business model pivot or inflection point for the web3 stack and the future of the internet? We explore these questions in this OODA Loop Original…
We continue to track notable convergences in the Global Gaming Ecosystem – like our recent analysis of North Korea’s ‘Moonstone Sleet’ hacking group using a fake tank game for ransomware attacks. In this post you will find the details of a May 2024 gaming platform-based cybercrime incident: The theft of $22 million in crypto from…
Think of the infrastructure and architecture of the Human Genome Project, then apply it to the acceleration of our “understanding of the fundamentals of material science, providing a wealth of practical information that entrepreneurs and innovators will be able to use to develop new products and processes.” For the initiated: Welcome to the Materials Genome…
There is no doubt that regulation harmonization is much needed especially given the amount of cyber regulation being developed or already on the books, and how it’s being enforced.
The convergence of exponential technological disruption with digital self-sovereignty could lead to a redefinition of personal and collective agency – and will likely profoundly transform industries and societies. In this post: an OODA Loop Original Analysis of the implications of this convergence and future scenarios.
Coinbase has a new crypto wallet which is incredibly easy to use but also very powerful. And it has security features backed up by a consortium of some of the greatest security engineers on the planet. The result is an easy to use crypto financial tool that provides powerful capabilities to anyone with a smartphone…
At the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference, we introduced Apple Intelligence, a personal intelligence system integrated deeply into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. Apple Intelligence is comprised of multiple highly-capable generative models that are specialized for our users’ everyday tasks, and can adapt on the fly for their current activity. The foundation models built into…
After just one interdisciplinary, cross-sector, cross-matrixed, and/or whole-of-government engineering or scientific touchpoint/experience on a complex project – a singular, breathtaking takeaway is always that material science is a fascinating discipline – just super cool and exciting – and THE cross-sector, interdisciplinary driver of global, strategic, competitive advantage across all exponential, deep, frontier and emerging technologies.…
Recent insights from Chris Ward’s (Senior Advisor at OODA LLC and an OODA Network Member) – “Decoding of DoD’s Pacific Missions” – have converged with our recent deep dive into The Digital Residency Program of the Pacific Island Nation of Palau and our previous tracking of activity in Guam. Following is what is blipping on…
Following DeepSeek’s release of its cutting-edge and free large language model early this year, Meta’s chief artificial intelligence scientist Yann LeCun corrected, opens new tab those who surmised China is surpassing the United States in the technology. A correct reading, he said, is “open source models are surpassing proprietary ones”. What’s less clear, though, is…
The frenzy to create Ghibli-style AI art using ChatGPT’s image-generation tool led to a record surge in users for OpenAI’s chatbot last week, straining its servers and temporarily limiting the feature’s usage. The viral trend saw users from across the globe flood social media with images based on the hand-drawn style of the famed Japanese…
The InterLock ransomware group has claimed responsibility for a March cyberattack on National Defense Corporation, a subsidiary of National Presto Industries. The company has not revealed what type of cyberattack it was victim to, but evidence suggested that ransomware was the likely perpetrator as systems were taken offline. InterLock says that it stole around 3…
Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, President Trump’s nominee to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that U.S. Cyber Command has found Chinese malware planted in Latin American nations. The malware was found in hunt-forward operations, which involve cyber protection teams visiting foreign nations to look for malicious activity on their networks.…
Microsoft’s offensive security team is warning of a critical vulnerability in some Canon printer drivers. The vulnerability could allow for the execution of arbitrary code or for an attacker to prevent printing. These types of zero-days can be a serious risk to users and organizations, and threat actors often exploit vulnerable drivers in attacks. Canon…
The U.S. military has launched another series of air attacks on Yemen to target Houthi rebels, striking near the capital, Sanaa. Reports stated that 15 raids were launched in the area. The bombing campaign has killed dozens of people thus far, but no casualties have been reported yet from the most recent strikes. CENTCOM posted…
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his counterpart Sergey Lavrov. During the talks, the allies talked about changes in the war with Ukraine, as well as relations between both of their countries. Wang said that China and Russia are “friends forever, never enemies.” His three…
Due to malfunctions in its national power grid, Syria has suffered a nationwide power outage. Technical teams are working to address the issues which began on Tuesday night. There are no initial signs that an attack was behind the outage. Power will gradually return to Syria’s provinces. The country suffers from severe power outages, and…
China’s Xiaomi, a consumer electronics giant turned automaker, said it is cooperating with a police investigation into a fatal crash involving one of its electric vehicles while the driver was using the car’s autonomous driving features. A Xiaomi SU7 sedan drove into a concrete guardrail on an expressway in eastern China late on Saturday night…
Lightmatter, a startup valued at $4.4 billion, on Monday released two pieces of technology aimed at speeding up the connections between artificial intelligence chips. Instead of moving information between computer chips as electrical signals, Lightmatter’s technology uses optical connections and what are known as silicon photonics to move the information using light. Mountain View, California-based…
The U.S. Marine Corps has officially established the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team (MCADT), a new unit tasked with integrating armed first-person view (FPV) drones into frontline operations. The move reflects a growing recognition of FPV drones as an increasingly vital component of small-unit warfare. According to the Marine Corps, MCADT was formed on January…
You might be familiar with the qubit, the fundamental unit of quantum information. As its name suggests, a qubit in a quantum computer performs the same function as a bit in a classical computer, with a major difference: Qubits can be treated as a 0 or 1 simultaneously, allowing quantum systems to process information much…
Agility Robotics, an Oregon-based robotics company, is raising $400 million at a pre-investment valuation of $1.75 billion, The Information reported. The venture arm of private equity firm WP Global Partners is leading the fundraising, in which SoftBank is also slated to participate. This investment reflects growing interest in robotics due to advancements in AI. It…
Ever since China’s ‘Salt Typhoon’ hacking operations against US telecom networks was uncovered, there’s been a lot of discussion about “hacking back”. Now, what actually constitutes hacking back is somewhat of an enigma. Some believe that the US needs to do to China what they’re doing to us, whilst others think going further and launching…
Anthropic on Monday announced updates to the “responsible scaling” policy for its artificial intelligence technology, including defining which of its model safety levels are powerful enough to need additional protections. The company, backed by Amazon, published safety and security updates in a blog post. If the company is stress-testing an AI model and sees that…
Moldova has expelled three Russian diplomats from the country. The expulsion came after Moldova accused the Russian embassy of helping a pro-Russian lawmaker escape the country. Russia has promised retaliation in response to the orders. The lawmaker, Alexander Nesterovschii was soon to be imprisoned over illegal political funding charges, but escaped to the Russian-backed Transnistria…
On Tuesday, China launched military exercises around Taiwan in what China said was a warning to Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te. In the exercises, Beijing sent warships and fighter planes around the island, practicing the seizure of Taiwan. 71 military aircraft and 21 navy ships were involved in the drills. China made clear the reasoning behind…
U.S. President Trump has announced that his upcoming reciprocal tariffs will apply to all countries. The tariffs will take place starting on April 2, and it will start with “all countries,” in lieu of only targeting economies with the biggest trade imbalances. This contrasts with what White House economics advisor Kevin Hassett has suggested earlier…
On Monday, far-right French leader Marine Le Pen was found guilty of embezzlement by a Paris criminal court. She was subsequently barred from running for public office for five years. Le Pen was the front-runner for the country’s 2027 presidential election, and is now effectively barred from participating in it. The politician was infuriated by…
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is warning of an Ivanti vulnerability being exploited by threat actors. The malicious actors are using a file called “Resurge” in the attacks, which creates a Secure Shell (SSH) tunnel for command and control (C2). The malware can modify files and manipulate integrity checks, allowing it to harvest…
Chord Specialty Dental Partners has suffered a massive data breach, impacting over 170,000 people in the incident. The breach began with suspicious activity on an employee’s email account, which in turn revealed unauthorized access to several email accounts in 2024. Compromised email accounts contained sensitive personal information including Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank…
The European Commission will allocate 1.3 billion euros to key technologies and their advancements through the 2025-2027 Digital Europe Programme work program. The program, nicknamed DIGITAL, is designed to make digital technology more prevalent. The move comes after the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war against Ukraine, both of which highlighted European vulnerabilities. DIGITAL has a…
Last August, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released the first three “post-quantum encryption standards” designed to withstand an attack from a quantum computer. For years, cryptography experts have worried that the advent of quantum computing could spell doom for traditional encryption methods. With the technology now firmly on the horizon, the new…
For the past few weeks, Chinese engineers have gathered in the factory of a luxury electric-vehicle brand to test a new technology the country’s leadership considers vital to its rivalry with the U.S. The engineers at a startup called UBTech are training humanlike robots to sort auto parts and move containers. The task looks mundane,…
Many Trump administration officials work on national security or artificial intelligence. Michael Kratsios is thinking about how they collide. Confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday to lead the Office of Science and Technology Policy, he is taking charge at a pivotal moment in the AI race with China. The Chinese startup DeepSeek rattled lawmakers in…
AI startup Runway on Monday released what it claims is one of the highest-fidelity AI-powered video generators yet. Called Gen-4, the model is rolling out to the company’s individual and enterprise customers. Runway claims that it can generate consistent characters, locations, and objects across scenes, maintain “coherent world environments,” and regenerate elements from different perspectives…
Chinese robots are being used to move parts in electric-vehicle factories and to carry out search-and-rescue operations in disaster zones. They are delighting audiences by performing complex dance routines. And robot dogs with automatic rifles attached to their backs are even being tested by the People’s Liberation Army. These are all applications of humanoid and…
Over the last 12 months, Google’s efforts to use artificial intelligence to accelerate drug design have achieved breakthroughs in mimicking human biology and won its top scientists the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Now Isomorphic Labs, the division within the software giant meant to develop and commercialize the technology, is taking another big step: raising money…
Amazon on Monday unveiled Nova Act, a general-purpose AI agent that can take control of a web browser and independently perform some simple actions. Alongside the new agentic AI model, Amazon is releasing the Nova Act SDK, a toolkit that allows developers to build agent prototypes with Nova Act. Nova Act, developed by Amazon’s recently…
The Israeli military says it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, as the United States launches intense military operations in the country, primarily targeting sites held by Houthi rebels. The Houthis, who have not yet responded to the latest Israeli claim of the missile attack, said on Thursday that they had launched two missiles, including…
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has ruled out direct negotiations with the administration of US President Donald Trump over the country’s nuclear programme but signalled a willingness for indirect talks. He stressed that while Iran is not against negotiations in principle, Washington must first rectify its past “misconduct” and rebuild trust. Trump has signalled willingness to…
President Trump threatened new economic penalties on Russia and said he was angered by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent comments, escalating his rhetoric as talks have resulted in little progress toward a real cease-fire in Ukraine. “If a deal isn’t made, and if I think it was Russia’s fault,” Trump said, “anybody buying oil from…
Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip has continued on the first day of the Muslim Eid holidays. Amid the violence, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip continues to deteriorate as Israel has halted the delivery of aid into Gaza since early March. Meanwhile, prospects for a breakthrough in ceasefire talks seem remote. On Sunday,…
Entities in Ukraine have been targeted as part of a phishing campaign designed to distribute a remote access trojan called Remcos RAT. The activity has been attributed with moderate confidence to a Russian hacking group known as Gamaredon. The threat actor, assessed to be affiliated with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), is known for its…
A threat actor has published approximately 270,000 customer records allegedly stolen from Samsung Germany’s ticketing system, cybersecurity firm Hudson Rock reports. The threat actors behind the leak gained access using the stolen credentials of a Spectos GmbH account, which were compromised in 2021. The login information was never rotated and, while dormant for four years,…
Mozilla says Firefox developers have determined that their browser is affected by a critical vulnerability that is similar to the Chrome zero-day disclosed a few days ago. The issue, described as an incorrect handle, can allow a compromised child process to cause the parent process to “return an unintentionally powerful handle, leading to a sandbox…
Blockchain developer platform Gelato is launching a new blockchain-as-a-service solution on Avalanche to meet the growing demand for sovereign blockchain infrastructure during a crucial “tipping point” for institutional adoption. Gelato, which previously developed blockchain solutions for companies such as Kraken and Animoca Brands, unveiled the new upgrade that aims to let developers deploy fully sovereign…
The U.S. has blacklisted approximately 80 foreign entities, citing heightened national security concerns. The majority are Chinese companies suspected of procuring American hardware to aid the development of military technologies. Eleven entities based in China and one in Taiwan now face trade restrictions for “engaging in the development of advanced AI, supercomputers, and high-performance AI…
Nothing is certain in the quantum realm. A particle, for example, can exist in multiple quantum states simultaneously. The same goes for a quantum bit, or qubit — the basic unit of information used in quantum computing. The act of measurement causes these objects to collapse into a single state, and usually the best you…
Imagine if a doctor could remotely do a non-invasive, highly precise medical procedure on her patients using a tiny robot, or microrobot. With a device researchers from SMU and George Washington University created, that is one step closer to reality. “Using what we call a magnetic tweezer system, an operator will be able to precisely…
China and the United States accounted for 75 per cent of all venture capital investment in the robotics space over the past six years, allowing them to build a formidable lead in a crucial emerging industry, according to a study by the analytics firm GlobalData. The scale of investment into US and Chinese robotics start-ups…
The other day, my daughter was pondering a medical question. Naturally, like many young people do nowadays, she turned to AI for answers. The chatbot’s response? A mix of useful information, some questionable recommendations, and a completely made-up fact about vitamin C. We had a good laugh, but it was also an important reminder. Just…
Alibaba Cloud launched Thursday its latest artificial intelligence model in its “Qwen series,” as large language model competition in China continues to heat up following the “DeepSeek moment.” The new “Qwen2.5-Omni-7B” is a multimodal model, which means it can process inputs, including text, images, audio and videos, while generating real-time text and natural speech responses,…
Israel’s parliament has approved parts of a proposed judicial overhaul. Israel’s parliament has approved a bill which changes how individuals are appointed to the Supreme Court. The bill shifts the balance of power on the judicial selection committee towards political appointees. Critics say the law will undermine the indepedence of the judicial branch and weaken…
South Sudan’s opposition has said that the peace agreement with the government has collapsed. South Sudan’s opposition has said that the peace agreement with the government has collapsed due to the arrest of their leader. Clashes between government forces and various groups have increased in the past few days. The UN has warned that a…
Australia has scheduled its general election for May 3rd. The Australian Prime Minister has annouced that the general election will be held on May 3rd. The Labor party is seeking to be reelected for a 3 year term. The opposition Liberal Party is seeking to return to government. Read more: https://apnews.com/article/australia-elections-may-albanese-dutton-02913607505793ad3436342c237317e3
Brazilian prosectors have ended one of several cases against former President Bolsonaro. Brazilian prosectors have dropped one of several cases currently being brough against former President Jair Bolsonaro. The dropped case concered allegations that the former President had falsified his COVID-19 vaccination status. Officials had alledged that he had tampered with official government health records…
The FBI has annouced that it disrupted a crypto-funding scheme used by Hamas. The FBI has annouced that it has disrupted and crypto-funding shceme used by Hamas to suppor its operations. The FBI said that the operation invovled individuals donating funds to accounts that would then launder the funds and transfer them to Hamas. The…
Ukrainian Railways attacked by russian forces twice in a row. The Ukrainian state-run railway has annouced that it has again been the victim of a Russian cyber attack. This attack come just hours after the organiziation annouced it had partially restored service after an earlier cyber attack. The attacks have significantly impacted the railraods operations…
Fake DeepSeek ads have been used to spread malware. Fake ads for DeepSeek AI have been found to be spreading malware on Google. The ads prompt users to click a link to visist a fake DeepSeek website. Once a user visists the site and clicks a download link, that triggers the downloading of the malware.…
The FBI is investigating a cyberattack at Oracle which may have comprimosed heathcare records. The FBI has launched an investigation into a cyberattack at Oracle. Oracle had altereted authorities about the cyberattack and informed healthcare clients that patient records may have been compromised. No group or individual has taken responsiblity for the attack. It is…
In a new paper in Nature, a team of researchers from JPMorganChase, Quantinuum, Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and The University of Texas at Austin describe a milestone in the field of quantum computing, with potential applications in cryptography, fairness and privacy. Using a 56-qubit quantum computer, they have for the first time…
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test of suicide drones with artificial intelligence (AI) technology and said unmanned control and AI capability must be the top priorities in modern arms development, state media reported on Thursday. Kim inspected new upgraded reconnaissance drones that are capable of detecting various tactical targets and enemy activities…
Somewhere out there, Jeeves is raising his teacup to the AI revolution. The tuxedoed internet butler of the late ’90s couldn’t really answer every question, but now? That’s the entry-level gig of generative-AI chatbots. Jeeves is smiling in retirement. Google’s starting to wonder about its job security. Over the past month, I quit Google Search.…
American robotics companies are pushing for a national robotics strategy, including establishing a federal office focused on promoting the industry at a time when China is making intelligent robots a national priority. Representatives of companies — including Tesla, Boston Dynamics and Agility Robotics — on Wednesday met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to show off…
OpenAI is integrating new image generation capabilities directly into ChatGPT starting today — this feature is dubbed “Images in ChatGPT.” Users can now use GPT-4o to generate images within ChatGPT itself. This initial release focuses solely on image creation and will be available across ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Team, and Free subscription tiers. The free tier’s…
One of China’s largest server makers, H3C, has flagged potential shortages of Nvidia’s H20 chip, the most advanced AI processor legally available domestically under U.S. export controls, in a client notice seen by Reuters. The potential supply crunch could create obstacles for China’s artificial intelligence ambitions at a time when its tech firms are aggressively…
There’s a new release from Google Gemini this morning: the first in the Gemini 2.5 series. Google call it “a thinking model, designed to tackle increasingly complex problems”. It’s already sat at the top of the LM Arena leaderboard, and from initial impressions looks like it may deserve that top spot. I just released llm-gemini…
Protests have taken place in Gaza calling for an end of the war. Protests have taken place in Gaza calling for an end of the war. Protests are very rare due to fears of retribution from Hamas. Protesters demanded that all sides work to bring an end to the war as quickly as possible. Renewed…
The main opposition leader in South Sudan has been arrested. The leader of the main opposition faction in South Sudan has been arrested. The opposition has said that his condition is unknown. The UN has warned that the sitution in the country is quickly worsening and that a civil war may begin. Violence has been…
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