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Conspicuous, controversial and notorious is the Chinese unwillingness to participate in global benchmarking list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. So, the “top 500” list goes out – with the U.S. on top. The lack of participation by the Chinese then fuels rumors that they in fact possess capabilities that transcend all the participants in…
We have been very vocal boosters of CISA, the efforts of CISA leadership, and since its inception, the work of the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC). And we continue in our support of both organizations. The Defenders have a tough mission. In this post, however, we remain objective and sort out some of the recent…
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is best in class research and analysis, judged against both public or private sector standards. In a recent report, the CRS broke down the vital questions U.S. policymakers need to be asking vis a vis the future of the U.S. Defense Industrial Base – questions which apply to all organizations…
We take a look at the recently released Federal Reserve Board 2024 bank stress test scenarios, with an eye towards just how sensitive the stress tests are to disruptions and uncertainties created by exponential technologies – and how some disruptive markets see instability in the traditional banking system as a net positive for the strategic…
Competing cyber capabilities (on a spectrum from nation-state to non-state actors alike) and cyber-based conflict will continue to restructure, reformulate, and transform the very essence of what power, prestige, international governance, and geopolitical strategy are in the 21st century – and large language models are the new force multiplier. Microsoft and OpenAI have quantified the…
Too many times the world has been caught flat-footed by technological advances. With generative AI there has been ample expectation of its capabilities for both good and bad not to be prepared for what is already materializing.
Recent restrictions on rice exports by India prompt this analysis of the on the ground conditions of global food insecurity, returning to some of the themes we explored in The Future of Food (In)Security and Agriculture Cybersecurity: Grain Hoarding, Rice Shortages and the War in Ukraine. In 2024, we are on the lookout for technological…
According to the Robot Report, The International Federation of Robotics recently “noted that the stock of operational robots around the world attained a new record of about 3.9 million units in 2022. The average robot density, or number of robots per 10,000 human workers, rose to 151 and the trend of using artificial intelligence in robotics and…
Consistent with our recent analysis of government regulation (or overregulation?) of AI, and the introduction of the concept of the “decontrol” of AI, the recent launch of the AI Safety Institute (organized as a public/private consortium) begs the same questions: although a public/private collaboration, is the AI Safety Institute an extension of an overall climate…
As noted in the first post in this series, it has become increasingly clear that the revolution in biological science will impact most every sector of the economy.
The near term opportunities and risks of the space economy and Space Force, innovation, and national security were discussed at length at OODAcon 2023. We return here to the two panels from the conference and a compilation of our space coverage as we head into a year in space ripe with innovation, critical missions, and…
ecently, more than 35 nations have signed a new international agreement to collaborate on reigning in the “hacker for hire” commercial market, in which private interests sell tools and services to support offensive cyber activities.
Various perspectives – on Latin American nearshoring and Indo-Pacific “friendshoring” with allied nations in an effort to secure and shorten global supply chains – as well as the emergence of “China +1” – four emergent manufacturing hubs – can be found here in this post.
In a previous post we asked “Is the US Government Over-Regulating Artificial Intelligence?” We followed it with some historical context and a summary of today’s government controls in “Regulations on Government Use of AI.” This post builds on those two to examine an example on how a decontrol mindset can help speed AI solutions into…
The Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) vehicle was also used recently by the Department of Defense (DoD) to award Advanced Technology International (ATI) “to serve as the consortium manager for the Defense Industrial Base Consortium (DIBC). This DIBC OTA will enable rapid research and allow access to commercial solutions for defense requirements and innovations from industry,…
Last week, Anduril announced that it is taking over the US Army’s IVAS program from Microsoft. Anduril is the defence company Luckey founded after being fired from Oculus, currently valued at $28 billion. That initial announcement didn’t come with any specific details on the hardware or capabilities of Anduril’s IVAS solution. But in an interview…
The complexity of modern supply chains has reached a critical point. With global networks spanning multiple systems, data sources, and stakeholders, organizations face unprecedented challenges in making timely, informed decisions. While data availability has grown exponentially, the ability to transform this data into actionable insights hasn’t kept pace. A new solution is emerging in the…
Scientists at Google have revealed a new method of “quantum simulation” that uses computing power to mimic the behavior of a powerful quantum system. This approach, they argue, could lead to quantum computers that can overtake supercomputers within five years and lead to breakthroughs in drug discovery and battery development. Quantum simulation is a process…
For a growing number of Western tech companies, “Anything But China” is the order of the day. In recent years, many multinationals decided they had become overreliant on suppliers in China, prompting them to pursue a so-called “China Plus 1” strategy of augmenting China-based suppliers with those in other countries. Now, with U.S.-China tensions soaring…
While DOGE’s efforts to shutter federal agencies dominate news from Washington, the Trump administration is also making more global moves. Many of these center on China. Tariffs on goods from the country went into effect last week. There’s also been a minor foreign relations furor since DeepSeek’s big debut a few weeks ago. China has…
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI showed off the updated Grok-3 model, showcasing a version of the chatbot technology that the billionaire has said is the “smartest AI on Earth.” Across math, science and coding benchmarks, Grok-3 beats Alphabet Inc.’s Google Gemini, DeepSeek’s V3 model, Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s GPT-4o, the company said via a…
Fighting has broken out in South Sudan between the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPSF) and the “armed youth” in Nasir in Upper Nile state. The fighting began on February 14 and 15. Some civilians have been killed and a United Nations peacekeeper was wounded. The UN is now calling for calm, stating that some…
The deadline for Israeli troop withdrawal out of southern Lebanon has passed, and Israel is pulling its forces out of the area. The Israeli military continued to draw back its troops Tuesday morning, and a majority of the forces will meet the agreed upon deadline as part of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah.…
United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer has offered to send British troops to Ukraine. Starmer made the announcement on Sunday, offering U.S. peacekeeping troops to help guarantee Ukraine’s security as part of any peace deal. He and other European leaders are attempting to coordinate responses to Trump’s discussions with Russia about ending the war in…
Top delegates from the U.S. and Russia will meet this week in Saudi Arabia to discuss the war and Ukraine. The meeting has sparked concern from European leaders who are being left out of the U.S.-led effort. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov will meet with U.S. Secretary of…
It has been confirmed that a Palo Alto Networks patched firewall vulnerability is being actively exploited. CVE-2025-0108 is an authentication bypass flaw which allows unauthenticated attacks to access a device’s management interface. Threat intelligence firm GreyNoise has detected malicious activity where threat actors are trying to exploit the vulnerability. Palo Alto Networks has stated that…
Rapid7 researchers have discovered that the Chinese state-sponsored hackers suspected of being behind the U.S. Treasury attack in December leveraged a second zero-day. It was initially believed that the attackers were able to compromise the Treasury via CVE-2024-12356, an unauthenticated command injection vulnerability. However, Rapid researchers discovered that CVE-2025-1094 must also have been used in…
Microsoft is reporting that an ongoing campaign by Russian hackers is targeting government and private organizations. The global campaign uses device code phishing to compromise accounts. Impacted companies are in the government, defense, and telecoms industry, among others. The Russia-linked threat actor is tracked as Storm-2372 and has been active since at least August 2024.…
Elastic Security Labs has discovered a new post-exploitation malware kit which targets both Windows and Linux systems. The kit abuses Microsoft Outlook as a communication channel. It is likely part of an espionage campaign, and includes a loader and a backdoor. The malware has been used in attacks on a South American nation’s foreign ministry.…
Dream, an artificial intelligence company that provides cybersecurity services to governments and critical infrastructure operators such as hospitals and utilities, has raised $100 million at a $1.1 billion valuation. Bain Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Dovi Frances’ Group 11, Tru Arrow Partners, Abu Dhabi-based Tau Capital and venture firm…
China has announced that it will spurn US-led efforts to develop encryption algorithms that are resistant to quantum computers, instead choosing to develop its own standards. This may be because China doesn’t want to use algorithms developed in the US in case they contain secret “back doors” allowing access by US intelligence agencies – or…
Tesla is bracing for a potential delay in obtaining Chinese approval for its autonomous driving technology, as Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle company risks getting dragged into the escalating US-China trade war. The company has been told there is no definitive timetable for regulators to approve a licence for it to begin widespread training of its “full…
Keytruda, a cancer-immunotherapy medicine, ranks among the most lucrative drugs ever sold. Since its launch in 2014 it has raked in over $130bn in sales for Merck, its American maker, including $29.5bn last year. In September last year an experimental drug did what none had done before. In late-stage trials for non-small-cell lung cancer, it…
Something’s been bugging me about how new devs and I need to talk about it. We’re at this weird inflection point in software development. Every junior dev I talk to has Copilot or Claude or GPT running 24/7. They’re shipping code faster than ever. But when I dig deeper into their understanding of what they’re…
Figure is reportedly in talks with investors to raise $1.5 billion for its work in developing humanoid robots. The startup aims for a valuation of $39.5 billion, though the talks are ongoing and the terms could change, Bloomberg reported Friday (Feb. 14), citing unnamed sources. The company made a breakthrough in reasoning abilities and now…
The South Korean government said on Monday that it had temporarily suspended new downloads of an artificial intelligence chatbot made by DeepSeek, the Chinese company that has sent shock waves through the tech world. On Monday night, the app was not available in the Apple or Google app stores in South Korea, although DeepSeek was…
Chinese leaders meet corporate leaders amid economic challenges. Since coming to power more than a decade ago, Xi has warned against the “disorderly” expansion of the private sector. But reports last week said he was preparing to meet business luminaries. The meeting took place on Monday but state broadcaster CCTV did not immediately give details…
Top U.S. officials are leaving for Saudi Arabia for talks with Russian envoys on how to end the war in Ukraine, signaling that the Trump administration is eager to push for an agreement. The rapid push to convene U.S.-Russian talks followed a Wednesday call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump said the conversation…
Taiwan has detected 24 Chinese military aircraft near the island as a Canadian warship passed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence says. The Chinese aircraft included fighter jets and drones. China’s military radioed the Canadian frigate transiting through the Taiwan Strait and warned it to change course. The US and its…
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has fully endorsed Israel’s war aims in the Gaza Strip, saying Hamas “must be eradicated,” casting doubt on the Gaza ceasefire deal. The second phase of the ceasefire deal, where Hamas is to release dozens of remaining captives in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting truce, and the…
DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, has temporarily paused downloads of its chatbot apps in South Korea because of privacy concerns. DeepSeek’s apps were removed from the local versions of app stores and the company agreed to work with the agency to strengthen privacy protections before relaunching the apps. The South Korean privacy commission found…
Suspected Russian threat actors have been taking advantage of Microsoft Device Code Authentication to trick targets into granting them access to their Microsoft 365 (M365) accounts. The attackers usually impersonate US, Ukrainian, and EU government officials or researchers at prominent institutions, and reach out to the targets via social media or messaging apps such as…
The Trump administration has nominated Sean Cairncross for National Cyber Director. He will replace former CIA/NSA official Harry Coker, who resigned. The National Cyber Director position was created to help ensure a more streamlined strategy and coordinated response to cyberattacks that invariably pull in officials from multiple agencies. Cairncross’ previous experience includes a stint as…
New data from Gartner reveals the productivity gains generative AI is creating among supply chain employees. More than seven-in-10 (72%) of 265 global supply chain executives surveyed by Gartner in August 2024 said their organizations have deployed generative AI. However, survey results indicate that most respondents are experiencing middling results for productivity and ROI. The…
Apple Inc. is working to bring its AI features to China by the middle of this year, accelerating a complex undertaking that has required software changes and deep reliance on local partners. The iPhone maker has several teams in China and the US working to adapt its Apple Intelligence platform for the region, aiming for…
Proteins are the workhorses that keep our cells running, and there are many thousands of types of proteins in our cells, each performing a specialized function. Researchers have long known that the structure of a protein determines what it can do. More recently, researchers are coming to appreciate that a protein’s localization is also critical…
Mattermost, the leading collaborative workflow platform for defense, intelligence, security and critical infrastructure, and Qrypt, a pioneer in cryptographic quantum security solutions, today announced at the 2025 DoD Cybersecurity & SAP IT Summit a partnership to deliver quantum-secure communication capabilities. This collaboration addresses the rising cyber threats from nation-state adversaries, the impending risks posed by…
Newleos Therapeutics has closed an oversubscribed Series A financing round, raising $93.5m to revolutionise neuropsychiatric disorder treatments with new medicines. Goldman Sachs Alternatives spearheaded the funding round which also saw contributions from Longwood Fund, Novo Holdings, Arkin Bio Ventures and DCVC Bio. Newleos in-licensed its clinical-stage pipeline from Roche, which comprises several oral small molecules…
China’s biggest EV maker BYD this week unveiled a leap into driverless systems with its “God’s Eye” system for no extra cost on cars as it continues to rack up market share with less expensive electric vehicle options. BYD unveiled a new car automation system, stepping up from its existing advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) —…
Meta Platforms Inc., after pushing into augmented reality and artificial intelligence, has identified its next big bet: AI-powered humanoid robots. The company is making a significant investment into the category — futuristic robots that can act like humans and assist with physical tasks — and is forming a new team within its Reality Labs hardware…
A US aircraft carrier collided with a merchant ship near Egypt. The USS Harry S. Truman collided with a civilian merchant ship near Egypt. No major injuries or damage was reported. The carrier is part way through a deployment to the Middle East and Medditerian. Read more: https://apnews.com/article/truman-aircraft-carrier-collision-merchant-vessel-50e039f339c4658d246a08ca496a21d9
Syrian officials have begun the process of drafting a new consitution. The HTS backed government in Damascus has begun the process of drafting a new constitution. An initial committee is working to begin collecting ideas from key groups and leaders and will propose next steps to the interim government. The HTS backed government has indicated…
Hamas has announced they will free additional hostages. Hamas has announced that they will release 3 hostages this weekend as agreed to in the ceasefire talks. This comes after the group previously announced they would suspend releases due to US statements on the future of Gaza. Tensions with Israel remain high and several Israeli government…
European NATO members insist the US doesn’t leave them out of peace talks. At a meeting of defense officials at NATO Headquarters, European defense officials insisted that the United States not leave them out of talks over the future of Ukraine. The US insisted it would not leave Europe out of major decisions. The US…
PsiQuantum says it will have a commercially useful quantum computer available as soon as 2027. But whether businesses are ready to take advantage of that accelerated timeline is another story, according to a poll of tech executives at a Wall Street Journal event here. The Palo Alto, Calif., startup is working to build quantum computers…
Microsoft is proposing to hand over industry leadership of the Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System program to Anduril, the companies announced Tuesday. IVAS has been one of the service’s highest-priority modernization initiatives, with Microsoft as the prime contractor. The system — which includes ruggedized headgear and software with night-vision, thermal-sensing and augmented reality capabilities, among…
The rise of DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence (AI) models is seen providing some Chinese chipmakers such as Huawei a better chance to compete in the domestic market against more powerful U.S. processors. Huawei and its Chinese peers have for years struggled to match Nvidia in building top-end chips that could compete with the U.S. firm’s products…
OpenAI’s upcoming GPT-5 release will integrate its o3 reasoning model and be available to free users, CEO Sam Altman revealed in a roadmap he shared on X. He said the company is also working to simplify how users interact with ChatGPT. “We want AI to ‘just work’ for you; we realize how complicated our model…
The Atlantic, Politico, Vox and other major publishers are suing AI startup Cohere for copyright and trademark infringement, escalating the news industry’s legal battle over the technology. The publishers are accusing the Canadian company, which they say is valued at over $5 billion, of improperly using at least 4,000 copyrighted works to train its large…
Apple is exploring both humanoid and non-humanoid robotic form factors, according to a new scoop from longtime Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The intel comes on the heels of a research paper from the iPhone maker that explores human interactions with “non-anthropomorphic” robots — specifically a Pixar-style lamp. While Apple’s research paper highlights elements that could…
Chinese search engine leader Baidu said on Thursday it would make its artificial intelligence chatbot Ernie Bot free starting April 1, citing improved technology and reduced costs. The AI service will be accessible at no cost to all users on both desktop and mobile platforms, Baidu said in a WeChat post. Baidu faces growing competition…
Germany has notified the EU that it will extend its border controls for six months. Germany’s out going government has notified the EU that it will extend border controls for six months. The decision comes as the German elections are about to begin later this month. Germany’s main opposition party has called for border controls…
South Sudan’s cabinet reshuffle threatens a long standing peace deal. The firing of several senior government officials including cabinet ministers has threatened a long standing peace deal. The firing have reignited tensions between various factions in the government and society that had until 2018 been engaged in a civil war. The 2018 peace deal has…
Turkey’s president has arrived in Pakistan as part of a visit to boost ties between the two countires. Turkey’s president has arrived in Pakistan in order to begin talks to boost ties between the two countries. The visit will likely culminate in the two country’s signing several agreements. The visit also comes as violence within…
North Korea has shutdown a facility that has hosted family unions for several years. South Korea has said that North Korea has shutdown a facility that has hosted family reunions for years. The facility was located within North Korea and was funded by South Korea. The move comes as relations between the countries have deteriorated…
The UK has imposed sanctions on a Russian group linked to cyber crimes. The UK has imposed sanctions on the Russia group Zservers for its alleged participation in cybercrimes. The US and Australia also imposed sanctions on the group following the UK’s announcement. The group is known to be affiliated with he LockBit network. Read…
International travelers are being targeted by a sophisticated phishing campaign. A phishing group is targeting an international travelers in a phishing campaign that is designed around stealing individual’s personal information. The scam involves the group sending messages to travelers that impersonate immigration authorities and asking travelers to turn over information to process their documents. The…
Scammers have been using deepfakes of Italian government officials to scam business out of funds. A scammer group is using deepfakes of Italian government officials to get business groups to transfer funds to their accounts. Italian police have begun an investigation into the scams and has thus far been able to recover some of the…
Microsoft has said that Russian threat actors are attempting to penetrate critical internet infrastructure. Microsoft has said that known Russian threat actors have begun to attack critical interne infrastructure with the aim of establishing long term control of those systems. The report from Microsoft outlined how these attacks have been on going from several years.…
Microsoft will purchase nearly all of the power generation output generated by three new utility-scale projects developed by EDP Renewables North America. The tech giant, which has long focused on decarbonization in its pursuit of energy, will acquire the equivalent of 389 MW of electricity and renewable energy credits through long-term virtual power purchase agreements…
Artificial intelligence agents, the technology that can perform tasks on behalf of humans, are here. But businesses don’t necessarily trust them, and haven’t yet started using the technology in a widespread way. That’s according to attendees at The Wall Street Journal’s CIO Network Summit in Menlo Park, Calif. on Tuesday, which attracts the country’s top…
Engineers in Japan have switched on the world’s first hybrid quantum supercomputer. The 20-qubit quantum computer, called Reimei, has been integrated into Fugaku — the world’s sixth-fastest supercomputer. The hybrid platform will work to tackle calculations that can take classical supercomputers much longer to process. The machine, which is housed at the Riken scientific institute…
Milrem Robotics, the world’s leading robotics and autonomous systems developer, will launch its highly anticipated 8×8 Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) at IDEX 2025. Representing the pinnacle of next-generation hybrid unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) technology, the new HAVOC RCV is set to revolutionize modern combat operations. “The HAVOC RCV has been engineered to deliver unparalleled agility…
The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) today released its World Robotics R&D Programs 2025 report that analyzes strategies in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. While economies worldwide are increasingly investing in robotics, each government research and development program follows different strategies. “The 4th edition of the World Robotics R&D Programs covers the latest funding developments,…
In the nascent field of AI hacking, indirect prompt injection has become a basic building block for inducing chatbots to exfiltrate sensitive data or perform other malicious actions. Developers of platforms such as Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT are generally good at plugging these security holes, but hackers keep finding new ways to poke through…
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