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  • Zoom Adding Post-Quantum End-to-End Encryption to Products

    Zoom announced on Tuesday that post-quantum end-to-end encryption (E2EE) has been added to Zoom Workplace. The feature is currently available worldwide in Zoom Meetings, with Zoom Phone and Zoom Rooms coming soon. Zoom claims it is the first unified communications-as-a-service company to offer a post-quantum E2EE solution for video conferencing. Post-quantum E2EE will allow Zoom…

  • AI Companies Make Fresh Safety Promise at Seoul Summit, Nations Agree to Align Work on Risks

    Leading artificial intelligence companies made a fresh pledge at the AI Seoul Summit to develop AI safely, while world leaders agreed to build a network of publicly backed safety institutes to advance research and testing of the technology. Google, Meta and OpenAI were among these companies. The companies present vowed to ensure the safety of…

  • Europe sets benchmark for rest of the world with landmark AI laws

    Europe’s landmark rules on artificial intelligence will enter into force next month after EU countries endorsed them on Tuesday (May 21), a political deal reached in December, setting a potential global benchmark on guardrails for a technology used in almost every facet of life and business. The AI Act is more comprehensive than the United…

  • AI Needs Enormous Computing Power. Could Light-Based Chips Help?

    Moore’s law is already pretty fast. It holds that computer chips pack in twice as many transistors every two years or so, producing major jumps in speed and efficiency. But the computing demands of the deep learning era are growing even faster than that — at a pace that is likely not sustainable. The International…

  • Sony’s careful robot is learning how to perform microsurgeries

    A robot just performed microsurgery on a corn kernel, which could change the game for precision surgeries. Sony has unveiled a prototype of a microsurgery assistance robot which can support surgeons operating on extremely small tissues, nerves, and veins. The compact creation includes a miniature automatic instrument exchange, designed to reduce the number of interruptions and delays…

  • Microsoft brings its lightweight Phi-3 model and OpenAI’s ‘magical’ GPT-4o to Azure AI to help devs build transformational experiences

    Microsoft is currently holding its annual developer conference, Build 2024 in Seattle. While the event is centered on AI PCs and Windows 11 on Arm, Microsoft has also made a handful of announcements around its AI efforts, particularly in its Microsoft Azure cloud service. The tech giant says the new advances in Azure will help users…

  • A.I.’s Black Boxes Just Got a Little Less Mysterious

    One of the weirder, more unnerving things about today’s leading artificial intelligence systems is that nobody — not even the people who build them — really knows how the systems work. That’s because large language models, the type of A.I. systems that power ChatGPT and other popular chatbots, are not programmed line by line by…

  • Ukraine’s Zelenskiy pushes allies to step up aid and involvement in war

    On Monday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared that Western allies are “taking too long” to make key decisions regarding military support for Ukraine. President Zelenskiy also announced that he was personally encouraging partners to become more directly engaged with the war. He continued by stating that helping intercept Russian missiles over Ukraine, as well as enabling…

  • Poland arrests nine on charges of Russian-ordered sabotage

    Late on Monday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the arrest of nine people relating to acts of sabotage in connection with the Russian services. Prime Minister Donald Tusk also announced that Poland would allocate extra funding in the form of an additional 100 million zlotys ($25.53 million) to its intelligence services to guard against the…

  • In Divided Iran, President’s death met by muted mourning and furtive celebration

    On Monday, Iran announced five days of mourning for President Ebrahim Raisi. Following the death of Iran’s President and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahain, government loyalists filled the mosques and squares with prayer. However, the majority of shops have remained open in the wake of the deaths. Opponents of the leadership posted videos of people…

  • Russia fails in rival UN bid on nuclear, other weapons in space

    On Monday, a Russian-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution failed as it split the 15-member body. The Russian-drafted resolution called on all countries to prevent “for all time” the threat, placement, or use of any weapons in outer space. The draft ultimately failed as it was unable to acquire the minimum number of votes necessary…

  • Vulnerability Found in Fluent Bit Utility Used by Major Cloud, Tech Companies

    Fluent Bit, a logging utility used by several major companies has been impacted by a severe vulnerability to its system. Fluent Bit operates as an open-source data collector and processor that handles large swaths of data from a myriad of sources. The vulnerability, detailed by cybersecurity firm Tenable, leaves the logging utility exposed to denial-of-service…

  • EPA Issues Alert After Finding Critical Vulnerabilities in Drinking Water Systems

    On Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an enforcement regarding steps to protect drinking water systems against cyber threats. According to inspections conducted by the EPA, over 70% of water systems in the U.S. are not compliant with the Safe Drinking Water Act. Inspections conducted since September 2023 revealed that critical cyber vulnerabilities…

  • Iranian MOIS-Linked Hackers Behind Destructive Attacks on Albania and Israel

    An Iranian threat actor working in collaboration with the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) has been identified as being responsible for wiping attacks targeting Albania and Israel. The cybersecurity firm Check Point has been tracking the threat actor using the moniker Void Manticore, also known as Storm-0842 by Microsoft. The threat actor has been…

  • Cyber Criminals Exploit Github and FileZilla to Deliver Malware Cocktail

    An in-depth multi-stage campaign has been uncovered wherein cyber criminals abuse legitimate services to deliver malware. Legitimate services such as GitHub and FileZilla have been utilized to deliver different stealer malware and banking Trojans. The threat actors are able to impersonate credible software such as 1Password and Pixelmator Pro to execute this campaign and effectively…

  • Artificial intelligence companies seek big profits from ‘small’ language models

    Artificial intelligence companies that have spent billions of dollars building so-called large language models to power generative AI products are now banking on a new way to drive revenues: small language models. Apple, Microsoft, Meta and Google have all recently released new AI models with fewer “parameters” — the number of variables used to train…

  • Inflection AI reveals new team and plan to embed emotional AI in business bots

    When Mustafa Sulyman, a leading figure in artificial intelligence, left Inflection AI in March to head Microsoft’s AI division, the tech world buzzed about Microsoft’s gain in the ongoing AI talent war. Less discussed, however, was the impact of this departure on Inflection AI. With Sulyman and approximately 70 team members moving to Microsoft, the…

  • Microsoft to unveil AI devices and features ahead of developer conference

    Microsoft plans to announce several pieces of hardware and software related to consumer devices on Monday at an event at its Redmond, Washington, campus. The Windows maker is expected to reveal a new version of its Surface Pro tablet and Surface Laptop that feature Qualcomm chips based on Arm Holdings’ architecture. After Intel’s processors dominated the…

  • The robots are coming

    On a sunny, balmy Tuesday in late April, a line of cars formed outside a military proving ground near Kyiv, their passengers eager to catch a glimpse of the future of warfare. As the drivers waited to enter, hosts of maybugs swarmed overhead. Above them buzzed bigger, robotic competitors: military drones crisscrossing the sky. The…

  • Google CEO Sundar Pichai on AI-powered search and the future of the web

    Today, I’m talking to Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who joined the show the day after the Google I/O developer conference last week. Google’s focus during the conference was AI, of course — Google is building AI into virtually all of its products. My personal favorite is the new AI search in Google Photos…

  • Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, hardline ally of Supreme Leader, killed in helicopter crash

    On Sunday, a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister crashed, killing the Iranian President. According to an Iranian official, the helicopter crashed while navigating through heavy fog and crossing over mountain terrain. The crash occurred on a return trip from a border visit with Azerbaijan. The official also stated that the…

  • La Ching-te inaugurated as Taiwan’s President in a transition likely to bolster island’s US ties

    On Monday, Taiwan officially inaugurated Lai Ching-te as its new President, who is a relative moderate and will continue Taiwan’s independent stance from China. The ceremony was held in the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, wherein thousands gathered to watch the arrival of the President. Lai has promised to continue to bolster Taiwan’s defenses while…

  • User Outcry as Slack Scrapes Customer Data for AI Model Training

    Slack has garnered backlash over revealing that it has used customer data, messages, and files to train machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). Slack stated that its internal systems have continuously been analyzing customer data and user information without requiring users to opt in. This default setting enables the analysis of messages, user content,…

  • Woman Accused of Helping North Korean IT Workers Infiltrate Hundreds of US Firms

    As a part of an effort to disrupt a North Korean IT workers scheme, the U.S. government announced charges, seizures, arrests, and reward incentives. A network of North Korean IT workers has earned millions of dollars for North Korea by infiltrating hundreds of companies. According to the Justice Department, North Korea has utilized the skills…

  • ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Israeli PM, defense chief and 3 Hamas leaders

    On Monday, the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s office stated it has requested arrest warrants including one for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The arrest warrants are issued on account of alleged war crimes. The prosecutor Karim Khan’s office stated that all members included in the warrant bear criminal responsibility. The arrest warrants include Netanyahu, his…

  • Julian Assange: WikiLeaks founder fights US extradition with free speech argument

    On Monday, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, was granted permission to appeal his extradition to the United States. This decision comes following an argument made at London’s High Court on Monday on the basis that Assange would not necessarily have the right to freedom of speech in the U.S. Two High Court judges stated…

  • 2.4 Million Impacted by WebTPA Data Breach

    WebTPA Employer Services has disclosed a data breach that has impacted over 2.4 million individuals through the exploitation of personal information. WebTPA is a third-party administrator that focuses on health insurance and benefits plans, based out of Irving, Texas. The data breach was first realized on December 28, 2023, wherein suspicious activity was discovered on…

  • Chinese Nationals Arrested for Laundering $73 Million in Pig Butchering Crypto Scam

    The U.S. Department of Justice has arrested and charged two Chinese nationals for allegedly orchestrating a pig butchering scam and laundering $73 million from victims. The scheme involved laundering money from victims through shell companies under the guise of an international crypto investment scam. Both individuals, Daren Li, 41, and Yicheng Zhang, 38 have been…

  • Openwashing

    There’s a big debate in the tech world over whether artificial intelligence models should be “open source.” Elon Musk, who helped found OpenAI in 2015, sued the startup and its chief executive, Sam Altman, on claims that the company had diverged from its mission of openness. The Biden administration is investigating the risks and benefits…

  • EU warns Microsoft it could be fined billions over missing GenAI risk info

    The European Union has warned Microsoft that it could be fined up to 1% of its global annual turnover under the bloc’s online governance regime, the Digital Services Act (DSA), after the company failed to respond to a legally binding request for information (RFI) that focused on its generative AI tools. Back in March, the EU…

  • Former Cruise CEO Launches Robotics Company, Alongside Ex-Tesla AI Lead

    Kyle Vogt, former CEO of General Motors’ self-driving subsidiary Cruise has launched a robotics venture, alongside the previous AI tech lead at Tesla. Vogt announced the new firm in a post on X (formerly Twitter), writing that the group, the Bot Company, would build robots “that do chores so you don’t have to.” “Our team…

  • What Do You Do When A.I. Takes Your Voice?

    Last summer, as they drove to a doctor’s appointment near their home in Manhattan, Paul Skye Lehrman and Linnea Sage listened to a podcast about the rise of artificial intelligence and the threat it posed to the livelihoods of writers, actors and other entertainment professionals. The topic was particularly important to the young married couple. They…

  • OpenAI created a team to control ‘superintelligent’ AI —then let it wither, source says

    OpenAI’s Superalignment team, responsible for developing ways to govern and steer “superintelligent” AI systems, was promised 20% of the company’s compute resources, according to a person from that team. But requests for a fraction of that compute were often denied, blocking the team from doing their work. That issue, among others, pushed several team members to…

  • Putin’s China Visit Highlights Military Ties That Worry the West

    The ties between Russia and China have grown despite, or perhaps because of, Western pressure. Mr. Putin’s visit to Harbin, a Chinese city with a Russian past, is part of a trip aimed at demonstrating that he has powerful friends even as his war against Ukraine has isolated him from the West. A statement aimed…

  • Zelenskyy in Kharkiv as Ukraine Claims to Partially Halt Russia’s Offensive

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has traveled to the city of Kharkiv and said the situation in the northeast is “under control” after the military managed to partially halt a Russian advance. The Ukrainian army said it had slowed down Russian troops during what has been described as one of the most grueling phases of the…

  • U.S. Military Installs Temporary Pier in Gaza for Humanitarian Aid

    Due to the flow of supplies through land borders coming to a halt because of Israel’s incursion into Rafah, the U.S. military anchored a temporary pier on Gaza’s coast on Thursday, creating a point of entry for humanitarian aid for the enclave. The aid will be loaded onto trucks that will begin moving ashore “in…

  • Woman Accused of Helping North Korean IT Workers Infiltrate Hundreds of US Firms

    The US government has announced charges, seizures, arrests and rewards as part of an effort to disrupt a scheme in which North Korean IT workers infiltrated hundreds of companies and earned millions of dollars for North Korea. These workers stole the identities of people living in the United States and leveraged them to get jobs…

  • Android 15 Brings Improved Fraud and Malware Protections

    Google has announced improved security features and AI-powered protections in Android 15, meant to keep users safe from fraud and malware. Play Protect, which scans 200 billion Android apps every day, and which was recently enhanced with real-time code scanning, is getting live threat detection, to expand its on-device AI capabilities and prevent fraud and…

  • Nissan Data Breach Impacts 53,000 Employees

    Nissan North America determined recently that a ransomware attack launched last year resulted in the personal information of employees getting compromised. An initial investigation of the attack showed that the files potentially accessed by the hackers only contained business information. However, in late February 2024, Nissan determined that the compromised files did include personal information,…

  • Sony Music warns global tech and streamers over AI use of its artists

    Sony Music is sending warning letters to more than 700 artificial intelligence developers and music streaming services globally in the latest salvo in the music industry’s battle against tech groups ripping off artists. The Sony Music letter, which has been seen by the Financial Times, expressly prohibits AI developers from using its music — which…

  • ElevenLabs Launches AI-Voiced Screen Reader App

    ElevenLabs Inc., a startup that makes artificial intelligence voice cloning technology, quietly launched its first general consumer app last week. The app, called ElevenLabs Reader: AI Audio, can read web pages, PDFs and other documents aloud in the user’s choice of 11 voices. The screen reader is currently free to download and use. The launch…

  • Google unveils Veo, a high-definition AI video generator that may rival Sora

    On Tuesday at Google I/O 2024, Google announced Veo, a new AI video-synthesis model that can create HD videos from text, image, or video prompts, similar to OpenAI’s Sora. It can generate 1080p videos lasting over a minute and edit videos from written instructions, but it has not yet been released for broad use. Veo…

  • OpenAI and Google are launching supercharged AI assistants.

    This week, Google and OpenAI both announced they’ve built supercharged AI assistants: tools that can converse with you in real time and recover when you interrupt them, analyze your surroundings via live video, and translate conversations on the fly. OpenAI struck first on Monday, when it debuted its new flagship model GPT-4o. The live demonstration…

  • Ampere Computing pairs with Qualcomm on AI, unveils new chip

    Ampere Computing on Thursday said it was pairing its chips with those from Qualcomm in a new offering aimed at lowering the power bills from operating artificial intelligence chips. Founded by Renee James, a former president of Intel, Ampere uses technology from Arm Holdings to make central processing chips that are used by Oracle, Alphabet’s…

  • Slovak PM Fico no longer in life-threatening condition after being shot, minister says

    On Wednesday, a government minister announced that Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has improved from his previous life-threatening condition following being shot. The assassination attempt occurred on Wednesday evening as Fico was exiting a government meeting. The gunman shot Prime Minister Fico a total of five times. As a result, Fico had to undergo surgery…

  • Putin arrives in China to deepen strategic ties with Xi

    Early on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The talks between Putin and Xi were devised with the intention of deepening the strategic partnership between the two countries. In February 2022, China and Russia announced a “no limits” partnership, following a visit by Putin to Beijing.…

  • IN First AI Dialogue, US Cites ‘Misuse’ of AI by China, Beijing Protests Washington’s Restrictions

    On Wednesday, U.S. officials highlighted concerns regarding China’s “misuse of AI”. In response, Beijing representatives criticized Washington’s “restrictions and pressure” on artificial intelligence These comments come following a meeting in Geneva between the U.S. and China regarding the risks posed by artificial intelligence. The transnational issue of the rapid development of AI technology has become…

  • FBI Seizes BreachForums Again, Urges Users to Report Criminal Activity

    For the second time within a year, law enforcement agencies have seized control over BreachForums, a platform known for peddling stolen data. BreachForums have been seized by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) following a collaborative operation conducted by Australia, Iceland, New Zealand, Switzerland, the U.K., the U.S., and Ukraine. The first iteration of…

  • US questions China’s no-first-use nuclear call given buildup

    On Wednesday, the top U.S. arms control official stated that China has not responded to U.S. nuclear weapons risk-reduction proposals. Subsequently, Washington is left questioning Beijing’s call for no-first-use talks despite building up its own arsenal. According to the Under Secretary of State Bonnie Jenkins, the U.S. estimation of the Chinese nuclear weapons arsenal sits…

  • Taiwan’s incoming President faces angry China, fractured parliament

    On Monday, Lai Ching-te assumed the office of Taiwan’s President, facing a China that refers to him as a “dangerous separatist”. Simultaneously, Lai Ching-te also faces problems on the home front as he reconciles with a fractured parliament with no majority political party. Previously serving as the Vice President for four years, Lai succeeds former…

  • Personal Information Stolen in City of Wichita Ransomware Attack

    In early May, the city of Wichita, Kansas revealed that personal files were stolen in a ransomware attack. On May 5, the city revealed the cyber attack and stated that as a security measure, certain city systems were shut down to contain the lifting of sensitive information. The attack was conducted via file-encrypting ransomware. At…

  • Third Chrome Zero-Day Patched by Google Within One Week

    On Wednesday, Google announced the release of Chrome 125 with patches for nine vulnerabilities. One of the most significant bugs known as CVE-2024-4947, has already been exploited. This bug is a high-severity type confusion flaw located in the V8 JavaScript engine. The successful exploitation of this vulnerability would enable a remote hacker to execute arbitrary…

  • AI will hit the labor market like a ‘tsunami,’ IMF chief warns.

    Artificial intelligence will hit the labor market like a “tsunami,” according to International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva. Since the onset of AI, experts have debated its pros and cons for the workforce. Essentially, could a tool capable of supercharging productivity by automating scores of routine tasks put millions of peopleout of a job? Or…

  • Chinese firms make headway in producing high bandwidth memory for AI chipsets

    Two Chinese chipmakers are in the early stages of producing high bandwidth memory (HBM) semiconductors used in artificial intelligence chipsets, according to sources and documents. The progress in HBM – even if only in older versions of HBM – represents a major step forward in China’s efforts to reduce its reliance on foreign suppliers amid…

  • Meet Thunderbolt Share, Intel’s ultra-fast sneakernet replacement

    With Thunderbolt Share, Intel is turning the Thunderbolt cable into a way to connect two PCs to one another, sharing files or controlling a PC. Simple, huh? Well, except that Intel isn’t exactly making it available to everybody. Thunderbolt Share is a new Intel specification that connects two PCs via a cable, one to each…

  • OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever is officially leaving

    Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s co-founder and chief scientist who helped lead the infamous failed coup against Sam Altman and then later changed his mind, is officially leaving the company. Both Altman and Sutskever have posts announcing the news: Ilya and OpenAI are going to part ways. This is very sad to me; Ilya is easily one of…

  • Generative AI is speeding up human-like robot development. What that means for jobs

    ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence is speeding up research and bringing humanoid robots closer to reality in China, home to many of the world’s factories. AI has been around for decades. What’s changed with the emergence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot is the ability of AI to better understand and generate content in a human-like way. While the…

  • Will A.I. Ever Live Up to Its Hype?

    It’s a little hard to believe that just over a year ago, a group of leading researchers asked for a six-month pause in the development of larger systems of artificial intelligence, fearing that the systems would become too powerful. “Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?” they asked. There was no pause. But now,…

  • Ukraine troops pull back in Kharkiv after Russia offensive

    Ukrainian troops have retreated from several villages in the Kharkiv region amid intensified pressure from Russian forces, with soldiers relocating to more strategic positions following heavy fire. President Zelensky has canceled upcoming foreign trips as the country faces a new cross-border incursion, with towns and villages coming under significant attack. Moscow claims to have seized…

  • China-Russia relations: What is Xi Jinping prepared to pay for Putin’s war?

    Russian President Vladimir Putin is visiting Beijing amidst what he calls an “unprecedented” level of ties between Russia and China, despite growing pressure on China to distance itself from Moscow due to its invasion of Ukraine. While China has refrained from condemning the war and continues to trade with Russia despite sanctions from the US…