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  • Francis Scott Key Bridge collapses after being hit by cargo ship: gCaptain has best context

    The Francis Scott Key Bridge in the US city of Baltimore has collapsed after being struck by a container ship. Several vehicles were crossing the bridge when the container ship made contact with one of its supports. At least seven people are believed to be in the water and a number of vehicles were detected…

  • Bitcoin ‘Halving’ Spurs Exodus of Old US Mining Computers Abroad

    About 6,000 older Bitcoin mining machines in the US will soon be idled and sent to a warehouse in Colorado Springs where they’ll be refreshed and resold to buyers overseas looking to profit from mining in lower-cost environs. Wholesaler SunnySide Digital operates the 35,000 square-foot facility taking in the equipment from a mining client. The…

  • China blocks use of Intel and AMD chips in government computers

    China has introduced new guidelines that will mean US microprocessors from Intel and AMD are phased out of government PCs and servers, as Beijing ramps up a campaign to replace foreign technology with homegrown solutions. The stricter government procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favour of…

  • The robot renaissance: How human-like machines are reshaping business

    Humanoid robots have been a science fiction staple for more than a century. Indeed, robots owe their name to Czech writer Karel Čapek, who introduced the term in his 1920 play Rossum’s Universal Robots. Čapek’s robots were synthetic humans, not machines, and he derived the term from a Czech word for serf or servant. Most of…

  • What Every CEO Needs To Know About The New AI Act

    Having recently passed the Artificial Intelligence Act, the European Union is about to bring into force some of the world’s toughest AI regulations. Potentially dangerous AI applications have been designated “unacceptable” and will be illegal except for government, law enforcement, and scientific study under specific conditions. As was true with GDPR, this new EU legislation…

  • In One Key A.I. Metric, China Pulls Ahead of the U.S.: Talent

    When it comes to the artificial intelligence that powers chatbots like ChatGPT, China lags behind the United States. But when it comes to producing the scientists behind a new generation of humanoid technologies, China is pulling ahead. New research shows that China has by some metrics eclipsed the United States as the biggest producer of A.I.…

  • US and Japan to Strengthen Military Ties as they Eye China

    Japan and the United States are in talks to boost military cooperation as they eye a growing threat from China. Reports suggest that US operations in the country will be seriously upgraded as Washington looks to counter any potential threat from China. US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will unveil a…

  • Hong Kong’s New Security Law Comes into Force Amid Human Rights Concerns

    A new national security law, Article 23,  has come into force in Hong Kong despite growing international criticism that it could erode freedoms in the China-ruled city. Currently, the new Article 23 law has expanded the British colonial-era offense of “sedition” to include inciting hatred against China’s Communist Party leadership. The United States, the European…

  • U.S. Call for Gaza Cease-Fire Runs Into Russia-China Veto at U.N.

    A U.S. bid to have the U.N. Security Council call for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Gaza Strip failed on Friday. Russia and China vetoed the American resolution that included some of Washington’s strongest language since the start of the war. The resolution reflected the Biden administration’s growing frustration both with the dire…

  • Amid Questions About Security Failures, Russian State Media Focus on a Different Narrative

    On Friday, Russia had the worst terrorist attacks in the Moscow area in more than two decades. As Russia mourns the victims, differing narratives about the attack were spreading and taking hold in the country. The attack on a concert hall near Moscow left at least 137 people dead and represented a significant security failure…

  • Over 100 Organizations Targeted in Recent ‘StrelaStealer’ Attacks

    Over 100 organizations in the US and EU have been targeted in recent large-scale phishing campaigns distributing the information stealer malware known as StrelaStealer, Palo Alto Networks reports. StrelaStealer harvests credentials from the well-known email clients and sends them to an attacker-controlled command-and-control (C&C) server specified in the malware’s configuration. The spam messages were mainly…

  • Shadow AI is the Latest Cybersecurity Threat you Need to Prepare For

    Shadow AI refers to all the AI-enabled products and platforms being used within your organization that those departments don’t know about. Personal use of AI applications can be seen as harmless and low-risk, however this is not true. The risk of shadow AI includes: putting intellectual property at risk by inputting data or content into…

  • US Organizations Targeted with Emails Delivering NetSupport RAT

    Employees at US-based organizations are being targeted with emails delivering NetSupport RAT malware via “nuanced” exploitation and by using an advanced detection evasion method. The campaign, dubbed PhantomBlu, takes the form of email messages purportedly coming from a legitimate accounting service. The phishing emails prompt recipients to download an attached Office Word file (.docx) to…

  • 39,000 Websites Infected in ‘Sign1’ Malware Campaign

    Sucuri, a website security firm, has issued a warning about a new malware family called Sign1 that has infected more than 39,000 websites. The malware, found in WordPress custom HTML widgets or the Simple Custom CSS and JS WordPress plugin, redirects visitors to scam domains and displays unwanted ads. Unlike traditional malware, Sign1 stays unnoticed…

  • Ransomware Group Takes Credit for Attack on Boat Dealer MarineMax

    The Rhysida ransomware group has claimed responsibility for a recent cyberattack on boat dealer MarineMax and is offering to sell allegedly stolen data from the company for a significant sum, starting at 15 bitcoin ($950,000). MarineMax, one of the largest retailers of recreational boats and yachts globally, reported being targeted in a cyberattack that caused…

  • UN Adopts Resolution Backing Efforts to Ensure Artificial Intelligence is Safe

    The United Nations General Assembly unanimously approved the first-ever resolution on artificial intelligence (AI), co-sponsored by 123 countries including the United States and China, aiming to ensure that AI benefits all nations, respects human rights, and is safe, secure, and trustworthy. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris hailed the resolution as historic, emphasizing the importance of…

  • Russian APT29 Hackers Caught Targeting German Political Parties 

    Security researchers at Mandiant have raised concerns after discovering that Russia’s APT29 hacking group, linked to the country’s foreign intelligence service (SVR), has begun targeting political parties in Germany. This marks a potential shift in operational focus beyond typical attacks on diplomatic figures. The attack involves multi-stage malware, including phishing emails impersonating a dinner reception…

  • OpenAI Reportedly Prepares for Upcoming Launch of Advanced GPT-5 Model

    OpenAI, the artificial intelligence (AI) company led by Sam Altman, is reportedly preparing to release GPT-5, the next generation of its multimodal large language model, in the coming months. According to a Business Insider report citing two people familiar with the company, OpenAI could introduce GPT-5 sometime over the summer. The company has reportedly offered demos…

  • UN adopts first global artificial intelligence resolution

    The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday unanimously adopted the first global resolution on artificial intelligence that encourages countries to safeguard human rights, protect personal data, and monitor AI for risks. The nonbinding resolution, proposed by the United States and co-sponsored by China and over 120 other nations, also advocates the strengthening of privacy policies.…

  • The Reinvention Of The Manufacturing Industry

    When I began my career with General Motors in the Detroit area, economies of scale were the driving force behind major technological changes in the manufacturing sphere. Large companies had a major advantage over smaller ones because they had the money and resources to maintain their advantage and extend it. The rise of traditional robotics…

  • What Nvidia’s new Blackwell chip says about AI’s carbon footprint problem

    The biggest show in AI this week is Nvidia’s GTC developer conference in San Jose, Calif. At GTC yesterday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled the company’s newest graphics processing unit (GPU), the kind of chips that have become the workhorses of AI. The forthcoming Blackwell GPU will have 208 billion transistors, far exceeding the 80…

  • Apple Held Talks With China’s Baidu Over AI for Its Devices

    Apple has held preliminary talks with Baidu about using the Chinese company’s generative artificial-intelligence technology in its devices in China, the latest example of the iPhone maker’s efforts to widen its AI capabilities. The U.S. tech giant has been exploring using external partners to help accelerate its AI ambitions. It has held discussions with companies including…

  • China’s Envoy says ‘Significant Gap’ Between Kyiv and Moscow on Peace Talks

    Li Hui, China’s special envoy for Ukraine, has said there remained a “significant gap” between Moscow and Kyiv on peace talks to end the more than two-year-long war, although both agreed it was the best way to resolve the crisis. But while China insists it remains neutral, it has attracted criticism for deepening its relationship…

  • Blinken Meets with Arab Officials, Calls for ‘Enduring End’ to Gaza Crisis

    US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has met Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and reiterated the call for a truce in the war on Gaza and support for the two-state solution, the US Department of State has said. In his talks with the Saudi crown prince in…

  • In One Key A.I. Metric, China Pulls Ahead of the U.S.: Talent

    When it comes to the artificial intelligence that powers chatbots, China lags behind the United States. However, when it comes to producing the scientists behind a new generation of humanoid technologies, China is pulling ahead. New research shows that China has by some metrics eclipsed the United States as the biggest producer of A.I. talent,…

  • Humanoid AI Smart Robots Driving New Job Realities

    General-purpose humanoid robots using AI are advancing and increasingly gaining investment support to perform tasks that humans do easily. According to SkyQuest Technology Research, the humanoid robot market size was valued at $1.48 billion in 2021, and projected to grow from $42.10 billion in 2022 to $34.96 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of…

  • Inquiry into $426 billion crypto can ‘nuke’ U.S. market, per analyst

    The Ethereum Foundation, a Swiss-based nonprofit that undergirds the second-largest digital asset valued at a $426 billion market cap, says it is facing scrutiny from an anonymous regulator. “This commit removes a section of the footer as we have received a voluntary enquiry from a state authority that included a requirement for confidentiality,” reads an…

  • Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang explains why his company is making humanoid robots

    Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC’s Jim Cramer the artificial intelligence powerhouse is making humanoid robots because much of the data used to train them comes from the human form itself. “We’re in a world where, in order to write a software for a computer, we use data, or training examples, and the computer learns from…

  • How we are using AI for reliable flood forecasting at a global scale

    People turn to Google for accurate and helpful information during crises to help them protect themselves and their families. Floods are the most common type of natural disaster and nearly 1.5 billion people, or some 19 percent of the world population, are directly exposed to substantial risks from severe flood events worldwide. Flooding also exacts…

  • Open-source AI models released by Tokyo lab Sakana founded by former Google researchers

    Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based artificial intelligence startup founded by two prominent former Google, opens new tab researchers, released AI models on Wednesday it said were built using a novel method inspired by evolution, akin to breeding and natural selection. Sakana AI employed a technique called “model merging” which combines existing AI models to yield a…

  • Leo Varadkar: Irish Prime Minister Unexpectedly Quits

    On Wednesday, Leo Varadkar announced that he would step down from his position as Ireland’s Prime Minister in a surprise statement. He continued by stating that the country’s coalition government would have improved reelection chances under different leadership. Varadkar stated that he has requested his political party, the Fine Gael party, to elect a new…

  • Vietnam’s President resigns, raising questions over stability

    On Wednesday, the Vietnamese Communist Party announced the accepted resignation of President Vo Van Thuong. This resignation comes as a signatory of political turmoil within the country that could stand to negatively impact foreign investment. The Central Party Committee is a top decision-making body within the Communist Party-ruled Vietnam which approved Thuong’s resignation. This comes…

  • Russia says it is pushing Ukrainian forces back, will create two new armies

    On Wednesday, Russia stated that it would bolster its military through the addition of two new armies and 30 new formations. It also added that its soldiers have been pushing Ukrainian forces back. Currently, Russia controls less than one-fifth of Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering troops to continue to push forward. This comes…

  • Five Eyes Agencies Issue New Alert on Chinese APT Volt Typhoon

    Government agencies within the Five Eyes countries (US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) have issued a threat warning for critical infrastructure entities of Volt Typhoon. Volt Typhoon is a Chinese state-sponsored group that has hacked thousands of organizations internationally. Five Eyes agencies are currently providing guidance for critical infrastructure organizations to protect against the…

  • White House Calls on States to Boost Cybersecurity in Water Sector

    The White House is calling on state environmental, health, and homeland security to attend a meeting to discuss safeguarding water and wastewater critical infrastructure sectors. The meeting, set for Thursday, March 21, at 1 pm EST. The virtual meeting will last one hour and will highlight US government efforts in improving cybersecurity capabilities in the…

  • Hacker Caught Stealing Personal Data of 132,000 Individuals Pleads Guilty

    A man from Meridian, Idaho, pleads guilty to hacking-related charges over cyberattacks he conducted in 2017 and 2018. Investigators found evidence that the man targeted over a dozen organizations that involved data theft and extortion. According to the Justice Department, a 44-year-old man named Robert Purbeck conducted a cyberattack in 2017 by using credentials from…

  • Russia fires 31 missiles at Kyiv in the first attack in 44 days, and 13 people are hurt

    Before dawn on Thursday, Russia fired 31 ballistic and cruise missiles toward Kyiv. This comes following a 44-day break in attacks on the capital city. While Ukrainian air defenses successfully shot down all of the incoming missiles, the damage was largely caused by falling debris. At least thirteen people, including a child, were reported injured…

  • U.S. Sanctions Russians Behind ‘Doppelganger’ Cyber Influence Campaign

    On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions against two 46-year-old Russian nationals. Sanctions were also placed on the respective companies they own. These sanctions were enacted due to engaging in cyber influence operations. Ilya Andreevitch Gambashidze (Gambashidze) is the founder of the Social Design Agency (SDA), a Moscow-based…

  • Commercial Bank of Ethiopia head warns ‘no escape’ for clients who profited from glitch

    The head of Ethiopia’s largest commercial bank, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), has issued a warning that customers who withdrew more money than they had in their accounts due to a glitch will face legal consequences if they do not return the funds. CBE President Abe Sano stated in an interview with the BBC…

  • Giorgia Meloni: Italian PM seeks damages over deepfake porn videos

    Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, is pursuing €100,000 in damages after deepfake pornographic videos of her surfaced online. Scheduled to appear in court on July 2nd in Sassari, Sardinia, Meloni aims to testify against a 40-year-old man and his 73-year-old father, who are under investigation for producing the videos. The images, digitally manipulated to depict…

  • HK security law is final nail in coffin, say critics

    The recent passage of Hong Kong’s new security law, known as Article 23, has sparked widespread criticism from Western leaders, the UN, and rights groups, who view it as a further erosion of freedoms in the city. The law, unanimously passed by Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing parliament, targets offenses deemed treasonous and allows for closed-door trials,…

  • Leo Varadkar: I am no longer best man to be Irish PM

    Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has announced his resignation as both party leader and taoiseach, expressing pride in his accomplishments during his tenure, which included advancing equality and modernization through legalizing same-sex marriage and abortion. Varadkar cited personal and political reasons for his decision, emphasizing that while he believes the current government could be re-elected,…

  • Atlassian Patches Critical Vulnerability in Bamboo Data Center and Server

    Atlassian has announced patches for two dozen vulnerabilities across its Bamboo, Bitbucket, Confluence, and Jira products, including a critical-severity SQL injection flaw (CVE-2024-1597) affecting Bamboo Data Center and Server versions. This vulnerability, with a CVSS score of 10, could allow an unauthenticated attacker to expose assets susceptible to exploitation without user interaction. Additionally, a high-severity…

  • Microsoft Hires Influential AI Figure Mustafa Suleyman to Head up Consumer AI Business

    Microsoft has appointed Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, to lead its consumer artificial intelligence business, overseeing products like Copilot, Bing, and Edge browser. Suleyman, known for advocating AI’s potential benefits and addressing its risks, will bring his expertise to Microsoft AI. The tech giant also hired Inflection’s chief scientist and top engineers, signaling its commitment…

  • 1 in 4 Organizations Shut Down OT Operations Due to Cyberattacks: Survey

    A survey by Palo Alto Networks conducted in December 2023 across 16 countries in the Americas, Europe, and the APAC region revealed that three-quarters of nearly 2,000 industrial organization respondents detected malicious cyber activity in their operational technology (OT) environment. Moreover, 24% reported shutting down OT operations due to successful attacks in the past year.…

  • Intel to receive $8.5bn in US funding for high-end chip manufacturing

    Intel will receive $8.5bn in direct funding and $11bn in loans from the US government to expand its capacity to make high-end chips, as it seeks to reinvent itself as a national champion in the sector and compete with the likes of Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung. US President Joe Biden will travel to…

  • French watchdog fines Google 250M euros for AI IP infringement

    Google has accepted a fine from the French government’s competition watchdog for a past breach of European Union intellectual property (IP) laws relating to its media publishers. The French competition authority cited concerns about Google’s AI service, Gemini, previously known as Bard, alleging it was trained on content from local publishers and news agencies without…

  • Why Microsoft’s surprise deal with $4 billion startup Inflection is the most important non-acquisition in AI

    Microsoft stunned the tech world on Tuesday when it announced that it has hired Mustafa Suleyman, the cofounder of $4 billion AI startup Inflection, to run Microsoft’s AI operations. Karén Simonyan, another Inflection cofounder, is also joining Microsoft, along with an unspecified number of staffers. Essentially, the cloud giant, worth $3.12 trillion, has nabbed one of…

  • The most innovative companies in robotics for 2024

    One of the traditional hot spots for robots has been warehouses—large facilities that often require moving heavy objects and are usually off-limits to all but authorized personnel, making them a relatively safe space to introduce robots. But robots these days are taking on tasks in more complex, dynamic, and even dangerous environments. For example, Gecko Robotics…

  • Is Microsoft Building an Unassailable Lead in A.I.?

    The heavyweight fight to dominate artificial intelligence just entered a new round. Microsoft has poached an A.I. pioneer just as Apple and Google discuss forming a united front to make up lost ground. The latest maneuvers add serious firepower to Microsoft’s bid to lead in artificial intelligence. But they could lead to more regulatory scrutiny…

  • Insider threats are AI developers next hurdle

    AI developers hiring quickly to keep pace with market demand are struggling with a new threat: spies and employees looking to steal company secrets. U.S. artificial intelligence companies are likely already prime targets for nation-state adversaries’ espionage campaigns. Experts predict that AI developers could become even bigger targets than chip manufacturers and biotechnology companies. This month,…

  • Nvidia enlists humanoid robotics’ biggest names for new AI platform, GR00T

    It’s tough to argue with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang when he notes, “Building foundation models for general humanoid robots is one of the most exciting problems to solve in AI today.” The humanoid form factor is one of the most hotly contested topics in the world of robotics at the moment, raising venture capital by…

  • Sam Altman is over GPT-4: ‘I think it kind of sucks’

    Generative artificial intelligence might be driving the markets and forcing businesses to prepare for a new potential future, but the CEO of OpenAI isn’t real impressed about where the technology stands at the moment. In an interview with computer scientist and podcaster Lex Fridman, Sam Altman had some surprising words about GPT-4, the latest AI…

  • Nvidia’s AI boom is only getting started. Just ask CEO Jensen Huang

    “In the 1920s, water went into a generator, and DC power came out. Now electrons go into a generator, and intelligence comes out.” I’m chatting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at the chip giant’s Silicon Valley headquarters, where one of its DGX H100 computing modules sits partially disassembled before us. Stuffed with blazingly fast processors and…

  • Nvidia reveals Blackwell B200 GPU, the ‘world’s most powerful chip’ for AI

    Nvidia’s must-have H100 AI chip made it a multitrillion-dollar company, one that may be worth more than Alphabet and Amazon, and competitors have been fighting to catch up. But perhaps Nvidia is about to extend its lead — with the new Blackwell B200 GPU and GB200 “superchip. Nvidia says the new B200 GPU offers up…

  • Blinken Boosts U.S. Ties to Philippines Amid China Maritime Aggression

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed Chinese security risks on Tuesday with senior Philippine leaders, as Washington and Manila seek to bolster ties in the face of increasingly aggressive Chinese action against Philippine targets in the South China Sea. The visit was the latest effort by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to fortify his…

  • Tensions High After Pakistan Launches Cross-Border Attacks into Afghanistan

    Pakistan has launched overnight air attacks inside Afghanistan, while the Taliban claimed hours later to have fired across the border. Pakistan said the attack had targeted armed groups hiding out in border regions. The Afghan defense ministry claimed later on Monday to have fired across the border at Pakistan positions. Tension has risen between Pakistan…

  • Israeli Negotiators Head to Qatar for Cease-Fire Talks, Officials Say

    Israeli negotiators arrived in Qatar on Monday to participate in a new round of in-person talks aimed at achieving a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants, a senior Israeli official said. The trip to the Qatari capital, Doha, comes after Israel and Hamas failed to reach an…

  • Chinese APT Hacks 48 Government Organizations

    An advanced persistent threat (APT) actor likely operating on behalf of the Chinese government has compromised dozens of foreign government entities worldwide, Trend Micro reports. Referred to as Earth Krahang, the hacking group appears linked to Earth Lusca, which is believed to be a penetration team within the Chinese company I-Soon. Earth Krahang, Trend Micro…

  • Nissan Breach Exposed Data of 100,000 Individuals

    Nissan Oceania has confirmed that the data breach it suffered in December 2023 affected around 100,000 individuals and has begun notifying them. At the time, they couldn’t confirm the extent nor the type of incident, but a few weeks later, the Akira ransomware group claimed responsibility for the attack and leaked data supposedly stolen from…

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