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The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Commission on U.S. Quantum Leadership warns that without immediate, large-scale federal investment and policy support, the United States risks falling behind in the race for quantum supremacy, particularly against China. Why This Matters …China’s state-backed surge in funding and infrastructure threatens to outpace American efforts. Quantum technologies—from…
Ukraine has become the proving ground, and increasingly the foundry, for the future of security-related technologies. We need that learning, and we need it more quickly and at greater scale.
In 1932, Rear Admiral Harry E. Yarnell led a naval exercise that should have changed history. Commanding aircraft carriers USS Lexington and USS Saratoga, Yarnell’s planes successfully executed a simulated attack on Pearl Harbor, dropping flour sacks to represent bombs. Despite this clear demonstration of vulnerability, military leadership disqualified the results, deeming them unrealistic. Nine…
Many OODA Network Members also participate in the community of practice created by the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), which convenes this week in Washington, D.C., for the SCSP AI Expo and Ash Carter Exchange 2025. This post is a compilation of OODA Loop research, which includes references to SCSP research, researchers, and events, as…
A fascinating discussion is underway in the Artificial Intelligence channel of our slack workspace.
Amid drone strikes, shifting alliances, and unconventional diplomacy, Ukrainian Economist Alexandra Vacroux recently outlined four core scenarios for Ukraine’s future—each shaped by battlefield realities, global power dynamics, and long-term economic resilience.
apan has been a frequent target of both cybercriminals as well as nation state actors that have targeted its critical infrastructure as well as private sector with a variety of attacks that have ranged from DDoS attacks, data breaches, and state-led cyber espionage campaigns.
The May 2025 OODA Network meeting delivered a comprehensive analysis of the cyber and national security technology landscape, drawing from recent network member attendance at major conferences including RSA, the In-Q-Tel CEO Summit, and SOF Week. OODA Network members on the monthly call surfaced major trends in AI, cybersecurity, defense tech, and geopolitical influence.
Melissa Flagg argues that America’s innovation system, still guided by the frameworks established by Vannevar Bush in 1945, is failing to address the most pressing challenges of the 21st century. She calls for a fundamental reassessment of the research funding landscape, focusing not on nostalgia for past successes but on forging new connections between research,…
Experts on AI and Chinese technology policy, writing for Just Security recently, pulled the string on the AI Diffusion framework we have laid out here at OODA Loop in recent posts. Their discussion points are compelling and worth a review. We provide a summary and analysis here.
The global AI boom has triggered an unprecedented investment wave—nearly $7 trillion by 2030—to scale data centers that fuel artificial intelligence, sparking intense competition, uncertainty, and strategic risk across industries. An April 2025 report from McKinsey quantifies the monumental stakes and capital requirements to meet surging AI compute demands. The insights from the report are…
As reported by the Financial Times, the convergence of trade wars, geopolitical instability, and disruptive technologies is straining traditional scenario planning methods, forcing organizations to rethink their models for an increasingly volatile and ambiguous future. OODA Loop has been grappling with these issues for a while, which we capture in a compilation of our recent…
US chip and IT supply chains face a new era of embedded risk and legislative scrutiny, with the Chip Security Act seeking to secure on-chip supply chains against adversarial threats.
We have been on this beat for a while: as the convergence of AI chip security, zero-trust architectures, and supply chain resilience began to reshape national security imperatives, demanding a shift toward hardware-native, verifiable security models. The following post is a compilation of our tracking and analysis to date.
At least 40 people are missing after a boat capsized Sunday on a river in northwestern Nigeria, authorities said. The accident happened around the Goronyo area in Sokoto state while the boat was transporting passengers to a market, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency said in a statement late Sunday. The emergency agency said only 10…
China seeks a strategic advantage in underwater drone technology. While the surface navy is playing catch-up by emulating the still more powerful U.S. Navy, in the underwater realm China is investing more. In particular it is developing extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicles (XLUUVs) more quickly than other navies. The world has largely been oblivious to this,…
Ateam of scientists has created a groundbreaking material – a metal oxide composed of strontium, iron, and cobalt – that can literally “breathe” oxygen. When heated in a simple gas environment, the crystal releases oxygen and then reabsorbs it repeatedly without breaking down, a feature that could open new avenues for clean energy technologies. The…
The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025, a new report published by MIT’s NANDA initiative, reveals that while generative AI holds promise for enterprises, most initiatives to drive rapid revenue growth are falling flat. Despite the rush to integrate powerful new models, about 5% of AI pilot programs achieve rapid revenue acceleration; the…
China has mandated that all domestic data centers begin using more Chinese-produced processors as part of an increasing initiative to make China self-sufficient when it comes to silicon, as reported by SCMP. This comes at a time of enormous global investment in datacenters, AI, and processor production, with an increased drive towards self-sufficiency and nationalistic…
This summer, Russia’s hackers put a new twist on the barrage of phishing emails sent to Ukrainians. The hackers included an attachment containing an artificial intelligence program. If installed, it would automatically search the victims’ computers for sensitive files to send back to Moscow. That campaign, detailed in July in technical reports from the Ukrainian…
Terra Quantum has published a groundbreaking advance in quantum error correction that redefines how we scale quantum computing. In the peer-reviewed paper “QMM-Enhanced Error Correction: Demonstrating Reversible Imprinting and Retrieval for Robust Quantum Computation”, Terra Quantum scientists present QMM-Enhanced Error Correction, a hardware-validated, measurement-free method for suppressing quantum errors, based on principles derived initially from…
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. will operate a US factory owned by SoftBank Group Corp., setting up what’s in the running to be the first manufacturing site in the Japanese company’s $500 billion Stargate venture with OpenAI and Oracle Corp. SoftBank is acquiring Hon Hai’s electric-vehicle plant in Ohio but the Taiwanese company will continue…
A gentle frenzy swept through the annual World Robot Conference, held from Friday, August 8, to Tuesday, August 12, in Beijing, just ahead of the World Robot Games, taking place from Friday, August 15, to Sunday, August 17, inside Beijing’s National Stadium, which hosted the 2008 Olympic Games. As officials in shirt sleeves and black…
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman thinks the artificial intelligence market is in a bubble, according to a report from The Verge published Friday. “When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth,” Altman told a small group of reporters last week. “Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited…
Paramilitary shelling kills civilians in Darfur displacement camp. Paramilitary forces shelled the Abu Shouk camp near el-Fasher, killing at least 31 people, including children and a pregnant woman, according to the Sudan Doctors Network. It was the second attack on the camp in a week, part of the Rapid Support Forces’ push to take the…
Deadly drone threat slows aid to Ukraine’s wounded soldiers Medical teams in eastern Ukraine face growing challenges evacuating wounded soldiers due to the widespread use of Russian FPV drones. Once able to reach near the front line, medics now operate in expanding “kill zones” where drones strike with deadly precision, delaying care and increasing fatalities.…
Flooding in Pakistan kills hundreds amid warnings and blame Severe flooding in Pakistan’s Buner district has killed at least 274 people, with dozens more bodies found under collapsed homes after torrential rains and cloudbursts. Residents blamed officials for failing to issue timely evacuation alerts, while authorities defended their response and cited the unpredictability of extreme…
Bolivia heads to runoff after centrist leads in tight election Senator Rodrigo Paz unexpectedly led Bolivia’s presidential vote with 32.8%, forcing an October runoff against right-wing former president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga. The result dealt a blow to the long-dominant MAS party, fractured by infighting and protests after its founder Evo Morales was barred from running.…
Cybersecurity teams stretched as budgets shrink and risks rise Reports from IANS and Swimlane show cybersecurity budgets are growing more slowly due to global economic instability and federal policy uncertainty. This budget strain is forcing security teams to delay initiatives, rely more on automation, and reduce focus on national-level coordination. Staff shortages, reduced morale, and…
Cisco fixes critical flaw in firewall management platform Cisco released over 20 security advisories for its firewall products, including a critical vulnerability (CVE-2025-20265) in Secure FMC that allows remote code execution via crafted Radius authentication input. The flaw stems from improper input handling and affects high-privilege command execution. Cisco also patched several high-severity issues that…
Xerox patches critical flaws in FreeFlow Core print software Xerox has fixed two serious vulnerabilities in its FreeFlow Core platform that could allow unauthenticated, remote attackers to execute arbitrary code. Discovered by Horizon3, the flaws — an XXE injection and a path traversal issue — were shown to enable webshell deployment on vulnerable systems. FreeFlow…
New attack exploits HTTP/2 stream cancellation flaw Researchers discovered MadeYouReset, a new DDoS attack exploiting a design flaw in HTTP/2 stream cancellation. The vulnerability causes servers to process requests after streams are canceled, leading to unbounded concurrent requests on a single connection. Though not yet exploited in the wild, many major projects are affected, and…
Quantinuum, Ltd., a quantum computing company, has announced a Series B preferred shares subscription from Quanta Computer Inc. (Quanta), a Taiwanese hardware company. The transaction, dated August 12, 2025, is valued at approximately $50 million USD for 1,867,840 shares, and is intended as a long-term investment by Quanta. This investment follows a broader trend of…
Australia on Friday launched its largest military exercises with Philippine forces, involving more than 3,600 military personnel in live-fire drills, battle maneuvers and a beach assault at a Philippine town facing the disputed South China Sea, where the allies have raised alarm over Beijing’s assertive actions. The exercises are called Alon, meaning wave in the…
Afghan women were barred from attending celebrations marking the fourth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power on Friday. Some 10,000 men gathered across the capital, Kabul, to watch Defense Ministry helicopters scatter flowers to the crowds below. Three of the six “flower shower” locations were already off-limits to women because they have been prohibited…
A deputy to a prominent Chinese diplomat being questioned by authorities was also detained, three people with knowledge of the matter said, a further sign of uncertainty in the top echelons of China’s diplomacy. Sun Haiyan, a senior diplomat and former ambassador to Singapore, was detained in early August around the time Liu Jianchao, widely…
At least 189 people were killed in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and eight in Gilgit-Baltistan over the past 24 hours as rains and floods triggered multiple incidents, while a government helicopter carrying relief goods crashed in bad weather, killing five crew members, officials said on Friday. Pakistan, which contributes less than 1 percent…
The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday rejected plans by Sudan’s paramilitary group to establish a rival government in areas it controls, warning that the move threatens the country’s territorial integrity and risks further exacerbating the ongoing civil war. The strongly worded statement by the U.N.’s most powerful body “unequivocally reaffirmed” its unwavering commitment to Sudan’s…
Mali’s military rulers say they have arrested a group of military personnel and civilians, including two Malian generals and a suspected French agent, accusing them of attempting to destabilise the country. The security minister, Gen Daouda Aly Mohammedine, who announced the arrests on the local evening news on Thursday, told viewers an investigation was under…
The Chinese economy slowed noticeably in July, according to official statistics released on Friday, highlighting a complex set of challenges facing China amid growing global tensions over trade. The government attributed the slowdown partly to the trade war with the United States, though China’s economy is still suffering the overhang of a four-year-long crash in…
The last few months have been an exciting time for the Gemma family of open models. We introduced Gemma 3 and Gemma 3 QAT, delivering state-of-the-art performance for single cloud and desktop accelerators. Then, we announced the full release of Gemma 3n, a mobile-first architecture bringing powerful, real-time multimodal AI directly to edge devices. Our…
A U.S. analyst of Chinese technology said that the country has already solved its energy problem — at least in terms of power for its AI infrastructure. Rui Ma, founder of Tech Buzz China, posted on X that the country’s massive investments in advanced hydropower and nuclear technologies meant that its “electricity supply is secure…
AI coding startup Cognition has secured nearly $500 million in a new financing round. The deal brings the company’s valuation to $9.8 billion, more than double the level earlier this year, said a person familiar with the deal. Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, an existing backer, is the lead investor in the round, several people said.…
A new state-of-the-art quantum computer said to be the most advanced in the world has just been switched on. The full-stack computer, called Quartet, has been delivered to the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre at its Harwell campus in Oxfordshire by Oxford Ionics – a leading manufacturer in trapped-ion quantum computing. Dr Chris Ballance, Oxford…
On Thursday, I had dinner with Sam Altman, a few other OpenAI executives, and a small group of reporters in San Francisco. Altman answered our questions for hours. No topic was off limits, and everything, with the exception of what was said over dessert, was on the record. It’s uncommon to have such an extended,…
China kicked off a three-day long sports showcase for humanoid robots on Friday, looking to highlight progress in artificial intelligence and robotics with 280 teams from 16 countries competing in the World Humanoid Robot Games. Robots will compete in sports such as football, track and field, and table tennis, as well as tackle robot-specific challenges…
Sam Altman turned OpenAI into a cultural phenomenon with ChatGPT. Now, three years later, he’s chasing where the real money is: Enterprise. Last week’s rollout of GPT-5, OpenAI’s newest artificial intelligence model, was rocky. Critics bashed its less-intuitive feel, ultimately leading the company to restore its legacy GPT-4 to paying chatbot customers. But GPT-5 isn’t…
Mali has arrested several individuals suspected of planning a coup. Mail has announced the arrest of several individuals on the charge of planning to destabilize the government. They have also claimed that the French government supported the plot. The arrest come after the first pro-democracy protest was held in the country since the military coup…
Clashes between protesters and police have continued in Serbia. Police and protesters have continued to clash across Serbia. Opposition groups have claimed that the government has engaged in brutality against them as police and party affiliated groups have attacked them. Opposition parties have demanded that the President resign from office. The EU and other rights…
Israel has announced that it will move forward with the construction of new settlements in the West Bank. The Israeli government has announced that new settlements will be constructed in the West Bank. The proposed settlements will be built in area that is between two major cities, Bethlehem and Ramallah. Opposition groups and rights groups…
South Korea’s president intends to resume the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement. South Korea’s new president has said that he intends to undertake measures to reduce tensions with North Korea. Among these measures is the resumption of the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement. The agreement created an extended buffer and no fly zone around the border. North…
The U.S. Department of Energy said on Tuesday it has made an initial selection of 11 projects for a pilot program seeking to develop high-tech test nuclear reactors and get at least three of them to begin operating in less than a year. As artificial intelligence and data centers boost power demand, the U.S. is…
The North Korean leader’s powerful sister said on Thursday that the country has never taken down propaganda loudspeakers and will not do so, calling South Korea’s belief that Pyongyang was responding to its peace overtures a “pipedream.” Kim Yo Jong, who is a senior official in the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, also said adjustments made…
The U.S. State Department approved a possible $346 million weapons sale to Nigeria to help improve security in the sub-Saharan country, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Congress was notified and would need to approve the sale, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement. The agency is a division of the Department of Defense body…
At least 34 people died and more than 200 were missing following sudden, heavy rain in Indian Kashmir, officials said on Thursday, the second such disaster in the Himalayas in a little over a week. The incident occurred in Chasoti town of Kishtwar district, a stopover point on a popular pilgrimage route. It comes a…
Pakistan will create a new force in the military to supervise missile combat capabilities in a conventional conflict, apparently a move to match neighbouring arch-rival India. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the creation of the Army Rocket Force late Wednesday at a ceremony held in Islamabad to commemorate the conflict with India in May, the…
The United States is discussing the possible deployment of more missile launchers to the Philippines to strengthen deterrence against aggression in the disputed South China Sea and other Asian security hotspots, but no final decision has been reached by both sides, Manila’s ambassador to Washington said Thursday. The U.S. military delivered a mid-range missile system…
Nearly 50 protesters have been detained across Serbia and dozens of people were injured as violence erupted this week between opponents and supports of the government following more than nine months of largely peaceful demonstrations against the populist rule of President Aleksandar Vucic, police said on Thursday. Unrest on Wednesday broke out in the northern…
China may seek better coordination between its navy and coastguards and improve the quality of its coastguard ships after this week’s dramatic collision in the South China Sea, according to analysts.Footage of the incident released by the Philippines appeared to show that the Chinese coastguard ship 3104 sustained serious damage to its bow after colliding…
Nvidia has issued a flat denial of the existence of tracking chips in its hardware, following reports that the Federal Government allegedly placed tracking devices in shipments of AI server tech thought to be at risk of diversion to China. Earlier this week, Reuters reported that anonymous sources claim U.S. authorities are employing this tactic…
Artificial intelligence start-up Cohere has raised $500mn, and hired former executives from Uber and Meta, as it positions itself as a more secure alternative to rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic for business customers. The new funding round values the group, founded in 2019 by ex-Google scientists, at $6.8bn including the new cash, up from…
Google on Thursday announced a new AI-powered search tool to help travelers find flight deals — even as regulators continue to question whether the search giant’s dominance in travel discovery stifles competition. Called Flight Deals, the new tool is available within Google Flights and is designed to help “flexible travelers” find cheaper fares. Users can…
Thanks to Figure’s new Helix model, folding laundry may soon be off your to-do list. In a new video demonstration shared by the company, the system powers a humanoid robot as it carefully folds towels one by one, stacking them neatly in a basket. Helix is a generalist Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model that merges perception, language…
With help from artificial intelligence, MIT researchers have designed novel antibiotics that can combat two hard-to-treat infections: drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae and multi-drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Using generative AI algorithms, the research team designed more than 36 million possible compounds and computationally screened them for antimicrobial properties. The top candidates they discovered are structurally distinct from…
Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek delayed the release of its new model after failing to train it using Huawei’s chips, highlighting the limits of Beijing’s push to replace US technology. DeepSeek was encouraged by authorities to adopt Huawei’s Ascend processor rather than use Nvidia’s systems after releasing its R1 model in January, according to three…
Apple is developing a bunch of products and features to deliver its vision of AI, including multiple robots, a smart home display, and a revamped version of Siri with new technology powering it, according to an extensive report from Bloomberg. The company’s generative AI efforts lag those from other big tech companies, and it delayed…
Alphabet’s Google said on Wednesday it will spend an additional $9 billion in Oklahoma over the next two years to expand cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure. The company will build a new data center campus in Stillwater and expand its Pryor facility to bolster U.S. AI and cloud capacity, alongside education and workforce programs. Intensifying…
Estonia expels Russian diplomats. Estonia has expelled a Russian diplomat over accusations he violated sanctions and interfered in state affairs. Russia has vowed to retaliate against the move. Relations against the countries have been tense for several decades. Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/estonia-expels-russian-diplomat-over-sanctions-violations-2025-08-13/
South Sudan has denied reports that it had engaged in talks with Israel. South Sudan has denied that is has held talks with Israel to discuss the resettlement of Palestinians. News outlets had reported that the two countries had begun talks to discuss relocating the population of Gaza to South Sudan. The Israeli government however…
Iranian lawmakers have said they will leave the NPT if sanctions are reimposed. Iranian lawmakers have expressed their desire to leave the nuclear non-proliferation treaty if sanctions are reimposed. Iran has long threatened to leave the agreement if sanctions weren’t reduced. These recent comments were made after several European nation’s expressed their intent to reimpose…
Australia and Vanuatu have agreed to sign a security pact. Australia and Vanuatu have agreed to security and economic pact. The deal is valued at $325 million and sees Australia committing to providing Vanuatu with significant defense resources. The deal comes as China has sought to increase its presence in the South Pacific and has…
Buckle up, drone lovers—NYC’s skies are getting wild! The NYPD’s Drone as First Responder (DFR) program just notched another win, with a Skydio drone pilot nabbing a moped thief in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights. This ain’t just about cool tech; it’s about sharp-eyed pilots using drones to clean up the streets. Let’s dive into how a…
The U.S. government on Tuesday sanctioned an armed group accused of illicit trading in minerals in eastern Congo as Washington tries to spearhead peace efforts there while pushing for U.S. access to the region’s minerals. A senior U.S. government official who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the formal announcement said the State and…
No group in Lebanon is permitted to bear arms or rely on foreign backing, its president told a visiting senior Iranian official on Wednesday after the cabinet approved the goals of a U.S.-backed roadmap to disarm the Iran-aligned Hezbollah group. During a meeting in Beirut with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s top security body, Joseph…
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