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In the latest installment in our Exponential, Convergent Material Science Innovation Series, we continue to pull the string provided to us by OODA Loop contributor Scott Nuzum (SVP at Chicago-based Innovyz USA) – in his 2023 OODA Loop post Five Exciting Breakthroughs in Materials Science. This time, we hone in on one of the five…
If you are wondering about the strategic imperative and geopolitical incentive structures vis a vis the Red Sea, consider this: “15% of global trade passes exactly through the Red Sea.” In this post: a sampling of recent the Houthi’s internet-based viral video marketing efforts – with an eery Hollywood-style production value touting their maritime USV…
We explore the digital nomadic lifestyle and the global community of purveyors of the life of a digital nomad through the prism of our Digital Self-Sovereignty Research Initiative.
At the May 2024 OODA Network Member Meeting – held on Friday, May 17, 2024 – the network discussed their insights and takeaways from recent attendance of and field research at several notable spring 2024 conferences.
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.
Humanoid robots could “continue to transform humanity’s perception of the future of warfare”, according to an article in the official newspaper of China’s military, which examined the advantages of cutting-edge technology on the battlefield. The commentary, titled “What are the combat advantages of humanoid robots?”, published on Thursday in People’s Liberation Army Daily, said that…
The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. The agreement “will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences,” the news organization said in a statement. Besides news articles, the agreement also…
A German court has thrown out a lawsuit brought by Peruvian farmers. A German court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Peruvian farmers against RWE. The farmers alleged that RWE’s business pratices had contributed to climate changed and harmed their livelyhoods. The Court found that the plaintiff could not prove suffient damage to justify judicial…
Ghana has asked for talks with Afreximbank to discuss debt negotiations. Ghana has asked for talks with Afreximbank to discuss debt negotiations. The country asked for the talks in order to ensure that it could comply with the terms of IMF loans. Afreximbank has not yet responded to the offer from Ghana. Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/ghana-asks-afreximbank-discuss-debt-treatment-2025-05-29/
Georgian opposition leaders have said that another leading figure has been arrested. Georgian opposition leaders have said that another leading figure has been arrested by the government. The government has said he is being changed with abuse towards a law enforcement officer. Opposition groups have said that the country is moving towards an authoritarian regime.…
Syria has signed a multi-billion deal to rebuilt its power grid. Syria has signed a $7 billion deal with a Qatar led consortium to rebuild its power grid. The deal approves the construction of 4 gas plants and solar farm that together would provide half of Syria’s energy. The construction would take between 2 and…
Adidas has disclosed that it was the victim of a data breach. Adidas has disclosed that it was the victim of a data breach after hackers accessed a third party vendor. Adidas has said that the stolen data did not include any personal information. This breach is the latest in a series of attacks against…
Victoria’s Secret is the latest retail business to be the vicitm of a cyberattack. Victoria’s Secret website has been taken down following a cyber attack. The company has not publically disclosed any information yet. This comes as Adidas and other prominent retailors have had their operations disrupted by cyber attacks in recent weeks. Read more:…
The Chinese linked grouped Earth Lamia has been targeting web apps to infiltrate organizations. Researchers have found that the Chinese linked group Earth Lamia has become increasingly active in targeting industries through web apps. The group has targeted companies accross mutitple industries and coutries. The group has also been observed to be working with other…
MathWorks has disclosed that it was the victim of a ransomware attack. MathWorks has diclosed that a ransomware attack has disabled many of its apps. MathWorks is known for producing data analysis programs such as MATLAB which has millions of users. The company has said that it is working to restore service to all its…
Impulse Space, the in-space mobility leader, and SES, a global content and connectivity provider, today announced a multi-launch agreement to use Impulse’s Helios kick stage to shorten the time required for the selected SES’s satellites to reach their final orbital position, whether on geostationary (GEO) or Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), by transporting the satellites from…
India’s financial capital and one of its largest cities has experienced its wettest May in more than a century, with the unusually early arrival of the monsoon season causing a ferocious weekend downpour that turned roads into rivers and flooded a newly inaugurated underground train station. Mumbai, a city of more than 12 million, has…
A second person died from their injuries in hospital following a fire at a Chevron-operated oil platform offshore Angola, bringing the number of fatalities to three, government and company officials said late on Tuesday. Two workers were initially transferred to specialist units at hospitals in South Africa, while the body of a third worker is…
A Cambodian soldier was killed when Thai and Cambodian troops briefly fired at each other in their disputed border area Wednesday, officials said. Cambodian army spokesperson Mao Phalla said the Cambodian troops were conducting a routine patrol along the border when the Thai side opened fire. The Thai army’s statement said the Cambodian soldiers entered…
Investigators found 17 bodies in an abandoned house in a central Mexican region plagued by cartel violence, the state prosecutor’s office said, just days after seven people, including chldren, were gunned down in the same region. Ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs were used to locate the bodies last week in Irapuato in Guanajuato state, according…
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday he has appointed a team of legal experts to start working on a new constitution — which critics say could allow him to remain in power beyond 2028, when his current term ends. Erdogan, who has led Turkey as president since 2014 and was prime minister for more…
China has deployed two of its advanced H-6 long-range bombers to Woody Island in the South China Sea. This marks the first time these aircraft have landed on the island since 2020. Satellite imagery taken earlier this month confirms their presence in the Paracel Islands, a territory claimed by multiple countries. Analysts view the move…
Saudi Arabia’s new state-owned artificial intelligence company will seek investment from top US tech companies and will launch a $10bn venture capital fund as it leads the kingdom’s effort to become a global AI hub. Tareq Amin, chief executive of Humain, told the Financial Times he was in talks with American groups including OpenAI, Elon…
Elon Musk’s startup xAI is paying the Dubai-based messaging platform Telegram $300 million to roll out its Grok artificial intelligence chatbot, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced in a post on Wednesday. Durov said he and Musk struck a year-long partnership that “strengthens Telegram’s financial position.” In addition to the $300 million payment from xAI, Telegram…
Utility-scale power generator AES Corp. has signed Facebook parent company Meta to a pair of long-term power purchase agreements (PPA) to match 650 MW of energy capacity for the company’s data centers recently completed or currently under development. The PPAs are supporting solar projects which AES is interconnecting into the Southwest Power Pool market in…
DeepSeek said it has upgraded the R1 artificial-intelligence model that helped propel the Chinese startup to global prominence earlier this year. DeepSeek completed what it described as a “minor trial upgrade” and told users they can start testing it, according to a company representative’s post in an official WeChat group on Wednesday. The company didn’t…
Quantum computing, an advanced form of computation that uses the laws of quantum mechanics to solve complex problems beyond the scope of traditional computers, will shape the next global technological revolution. In the U.S., we cannot allow disconnected efforts, insufficient investment or weak commercialization to slow our progress; this is a race America must win.…
Honor Device Co., the smartphone maker spun out from Huawei Technologies Co., is developing humanoid robots as part of its push into China’s crowded artificial intelligence arena. The Shenzhen-based company’s department for new business opportunities has decided to go further with robotics including human-shaped machines, it said in a statement on Wednesday. It announced in…
Dario Amodei — CEO of Anthropic, one of the world’s most powerful creators of artificial intelligence — has a blunt, scary warning for the U.S. government and all of us: AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next one to five years, Amodei told…
A new Greenpeace report stated that Russia is attempting to link its own grid to a major nuclear plant it had captured in Ukraine. Russia is building power lines in southeastern Ukraine to make the connection, showing clear intent by Russia to restart the offline facility and ignoring risks and calls to address the status…
U.S. President Donald Trump has revoked his threat to launch a trade war with the European Union, coming just two days after he had threatened to impose tariffs. On Sunday, Trump announced that the U.S. would extend trade negotiations with the EU to July 9, and the U.S. would also not impose a 50 percent…
On Monday, Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine through another series of massive aerial bombardments. Russia is pressing in on its advantage over Ukraine as the U.S. works to remove itself from the conflict and negotiations to end it. The Monday attacks featured over 300 Russian drones and nine missiles, coming shortly after U.S. President…
Ukraine is claiming to have data confirming China’s supply of arms to Russia. Oleh Ivashchenko, the head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service, said in an interview that Ukraine has verified the provision of important materials and equipment by China to several Russian military factories. China has denied the allegations, stating that it has never provided…
Federal authorities have completed a multiyear effort to take down Danabot, a malware operation used by the Russian government to achieve state objectives through cybercriminal methods. International law enforcement and private organizations also participated in the effort. Authorities seized the botnet’s U.S.-based server infrastructure which has been associated with a group called “Scully Spider.” 16…
A security researcher has discovered critical vulnerabilities in NASA’s open source software, used in-house by the organization. The vulnerabilities could potentially be used by a malicious actor to breach NASA’s systems. During Leon Juraníc’s probing of the open source software, he discovered a series of buffer overflow vulnerabilities. The flaws could also be exploited by…
Nova Scotia Power, a Canadian electric utility company, has confirmed that it was the victim of a recent ransomware attack. The company disclosed the breach at the end of April, and in early May revealed that customer information had been stolen by hackers. The compromised data includes credit history, payment information, bank account numbers, and…
Forty-two people have been killed in four communities in central Nigeria in attacks blamed on itinerant herders, in the latest wave of violence that continues to upend life in the rural region. Reuters reports quote a local official, Victor Omnin, the chair of the Gwer West local government area in Benue state, as saying 10…
One day before President Donald Trump signed sweeping executive orders last week to streamline licensing for nuclear reactors and handling radioactive waste, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission official testified before Wyoming lawmakers highlighting the commission’s autonomy, independence and strong focus on safety. “The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent federal agency led by five Senate-confirmed commissioners.…
A car ploughed into a crowd of Liverpool fans during a parade celebrating their side’s Premier League soccer title on Monday, hospitalising 27 people, with two seriously injured, but police said they did not believe the incident was terrorism-related. Police said they had arrested a “53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area,” whom they…
Iran has unveiled a new fleet of combat drones with capabilities for vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), signaling a leap in warfare capabilities amid growing tensions with the United States, its state media reported. Newsweek has reached out to the Pentagon and Iran’s foreign ministry for comments. These drones, built for multiple military roles, highlight…
A little after 8:00 pm on May 8, red flares streaked through the night sky over the northern Indian city of Jammu as its air-defence systems opened fire on drones from neighbouring Pakistan. The Indian and Pakistani militaries have deployed high-end fighter jets, conventional missiles and artillery during decades of clashes, but the four days…
Authorities in India’s southern Kerala state have issued an alert after a ship carrying oil and hazardous cargo leaked and sank off the state’s coast in the Arabian Sea. The spill occurred in a Liberian-flagged vessel that capsized near Kochi city on Sunday. The coastal stretch is rich in biodiversity and is also an important…
At least five people have died and six more people are missing after a large explosion rocked a chemical plant in eastern China on Tuesday, according to local authorities. The blast spewed a towering plume of gray and orange smoke into the sky, damaged windows in nearby buildings and prompted a rescue operation. The incident…
Salesforce has acquired cloud data management firm Informatica in an $8 billion equity deal, marking a major move in its push to strengthen its AI and data infrastructure capabilities. The announcement, made Tuesday, comes about a year after early rumors of the acquisition sent both companies’ stock prices sliding. At the time, Informatica denied it…
A week after one of America’s largest self-driving truck companies promised the U.S. government it would stop sharing sensitive technology with Chinese partners, TuSimple transferred a trove of data to a Beijing-owned firm. “They want a lot of details,” Xiaoling Han, a U.S.-based TuSimple Holdings employee, said to a colleague. A leading Chinese commercial-truck manufacturer,…
Circle Internet Group, the firm behind stablecoin USDC, has filed for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, the firm said on Tuesday. Circle is offering 24 million of its class A shares, out of which 9.6 million is being offered by the firm, while 14.4 million shares are being offered by…
A new research paper by Google Quantum AI researcher Craig Gidney shows that breaking widely used RSA encryption may require 20 times fewer quantum resources than previously believed. The finding did not specifically mention bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, but took aim at the encryption methods that form the technical backbone used to secure crypto wallets…
With its clamp-shaped hands and legs that bend backwards, one of the latest humanoid robots tried to move a can from a supermarket shelf into a shopping basket in front of attendees at a Silicon Valley tech conference. “I missed 🙁,” the machine, made by Agility Robotics, told onlookers via an app before succeeding a…
Meta is restructuring its AI teams to speed up the rollout of new products and features, Axios has learned. Why it matters: Meta faces stiff competition in the AI race, including from OpenAI and Google as well as Chinese rivals such as TikTok parent ByteDance. In an internal memo sent Tuesday and seen by Axios,…
Today, I’m talking with Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. We recorded this conversation in person after the Google I/O developer conference last week in what’s becoming a bit of a Decoder tradition. This is the third year that we’ve done Decoder after I/O, and this one felt really different. Google is in a very…
Saronic Technologies announced the expansion of its international operations, strengthening its presence in Australia and launching its business in the United Kingdom. This increasing engagement represents the next phase of Saronic’s growth and commitment to delivering autonomous maritime capabilities to allied government and commercial customers. Saronic has enhanced its global presence with the promotion of…
Southern China has been battered by heavy rainfall over the past week, triggering landslides and flash floods, especially in Guangdong and Guangxi. As of Saturday 24 May, at least four people had died and 17 were missing, adding to a toll of seven deaths from other recent events. More than 400 emergency personnel have been…
At least 427 Rohingya, Myanmar’s Muslim minority, may have perished at sea in two shipwrecks on May 9 and 10, the United Nations said, in what would be another deadly incident for the persecuted group. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR) said in a statement on Friday that – if confirmed – the two incidents…
North Korean authorities have detained four officials over the recent failed launch of a naval destroyer, an incident that leader Kim Jong Un said was caused by criminal negligence, state media said. It’s rare for North Korea to publicly impose severe punishments against officials over botched weapons tests or military displays. The weekend arrests of…
On the surface, it was a routine closed-door meeting between Bangladesh’s interim leader and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and the chiefs of the country’s three armed forces, to discuss law and order. But the May 20 meeting came amid what multiple officials familiar with the internal workings of the government described to Al Jazeera as…
China has increased its ability to launch a sudden attack on Taiwan with faster-paced air and operations, new artillery systems and more alert amphibious and air assault units, according to Taiwanese and US officials and experts. One senior Taiwanese military official said Chinese air force and missile units that would play a role in a…
A new front for drone warfare has opened a two-hour flight south of Miami. Haiti’s besieged government is using drones strapped with explosives to strike gangs that have turned the nation’s capital into a hellscape.The government is relying on lightweight drones carrying rudimentary bombs to reach beyond the 10th of Port-au-Prince it controls. But the…
Artificial intelligence is a deep and convoluted world. The scientists who work in this field often rely on jargon and lingo to explain what they’re working on. As a result, we frequently have to use those technical terms in our coverage of the artificial intelligence industry. That’s why we thought it would be helpful to…
With rising global cancer rates necessitating new forms of diagnosis and treatment, Hong Kong-based biotech startup Phase Scientific International announced Tuesday it raised $34 million in a Series A funding round led by Asian asset management firm Value Partners Group. Under a private equity fund of Value Partners, which was cofounded by billionaire Cheah Cheng…
Anthropic publish most of the system prompts for their chat models as part of their release notes. They recently shared the new prompts for both Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4. I enjoyed digging through the prompts, since they act as a sort of unofficial manual for how best to use these tools. Here…
Quantum computing pioneer D-Wave Quantum on Tuesday announced the general availability of its sixth-generation quantum computer, the Advantage2. The company said the Advantage2 offers orders-of-magnitude greater performance compared to its prior system, expanding the tasks the company can accomplish in optimization problems. The machine even achieves the long-sought goal of quantum “supremacy,” says the company,…
OpenAI has established a legal entity in South Korea, seeking to propel further adoption of its artificial intelligence technologies. The ChatGPT-maker plans to open an office in Seoul in coming months and is hiring staff to support partnerships with companies and policymakers, it said in a release Monday. South Korea has the largest number of…
Humanoid robots from start-up Unitree Robotics showed off their fighting form at a unique kickboxing competition held in Hangzhou on Sunday, weeks after Beijing hosted the world’s first half-marathon where these machines raced alongside humans. Organised by state-owned China Media Group and broadcast live by China Central Television (CCTV), the competition saw four Unitree G1…
A group of AI researchers at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, in Israel, has found that despite efforts by large language model (LLM) makers, most commonly available chatbots are still easily tricked into generating harmful and sometimes illegal information. In their paper posted on the arXiv preprint server, Michael Fire, Yitzhak Elbazis, Adi Wasenstein,…
A new study shows that quantum error correction can help real quantum computers run chemistry algorithms, marking a step toward scalable quantum applications. In the study, researchers at Quantinuum announce they have successfully demonstrated the first end-to-end quantum chemistry computation using quantum error correction (QEC), according to a paper posted recently on arXiv. The experiment…
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