Think about grasshopper fries, a protein bar made of crickets or silkworm cocoons. As unconventional as it may sound, Singapore is trying to make insect food mainstream. The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has given approval to 16 species of insects, such as crickets, silkworms and grasshoppers for human consumption.
Among the many unique experiences of reporting on A.I. is this: In a young industry flooded with hype and money, person after person tells me that they are desperate to be regulated, even if it slows them down. In fact, especially if it slows them down.
What they tell me is obvious to anyone watching. Competition is forcing them to go too fast and cut too many corners. This technology is too important to be left to a race between Microsoft, Google, Meta and a few other firms. But no one company can slow down to a safe pace without risking irrelevancy. That’s where the government comes in — or so they hope.
A place to start is with the frameworks policymakers have already put forward to govern A.I. The two major proposals, at least in the West, are the “Blueprint for an A.I. Bill of Rights,” which the White House put forward in 2022, and the Artificial Intelligence Act, which the European Commission proposed in 2021. Then, last week, China released its latest regulatory approach.
In this weeks episode of Minutes With we sat down with Mustafa Al-Bassam, a former member of Anonymous and one of the founders of LulzSec.
Mustafa tells us how he got in to hacking and how he ended up getting involved in attacks on The Sun, The Westboro Baptist Church and even the US Government.
But that’s not true. There are concrete things regulators can do right now to prevent tech companies from releasing risky systems.
In a new report, the AI Now Institute — a research center studying the social implications of artificial intelligence — offers a roadmap that specifies exactly which steps policymakers can take. It’s refreshingly pragmatic and actionable, thanks to the government experience of authors Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West. Both former advisers to Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan, they focus on what regulators can realistically do today.
The big argument is that if we want to curb AI harms, we need to curb the concentration of power in Big Tech.
One thing that is not really making the news is that South Korea is becoming a major military power. For example, France has recently committed to providing 2,000 155 mm shells to Ukraine per month, as reported at https://kyivindependent.com/france-to-double-supply-of-155-m…o-ukraine/. Meanwhile, South Korea has just committed to providing 500,000 155 mm shells to Ukraine in one big batch as reported at https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/south-korea-to-lend-500…r-AA19LIgJ. (They are giving the shells to the U.S. who will then give the same quantity of shells to Ukraine.
By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters)-South Korea has reached an agreement to lend the United States 500,000 rounds of 155mm artillery shells that could give Washington greater flexibility to supply Ukraine with ammunition, a South Korean newspaper reported on Wednesday. The DongA Ilbo newspaper cited unidentified government sources as saying South Korea decided to “lend” the ammunition instead of selling, to minimise the possibility of South Korean shells being used in the Ukraine conflict.
WASHINGTON — The ground terminals used to operate U.S. military and intelligence satellites are running out of capacity and in dire need of upgrades, warns a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
GAO auditors spent more than a year investigating the state of the Satellite Control Network, operated by the U.S. Space Force. The network of 19 parabolic antennas, first established in 1959, is distributed across seven locations around the world.
The SCN is facing “obsolescence challenges and potential capacity gaps as DoD and other agencies launch more satellite systems that will rely on the network,” says GAO in the report released April 10.
More than 60 scientists work to convert research into practical applications too.
The government of China has provided funding to set up a leading laboratory to study brain-machine interfaces, much like Elon Musk’s Neuralink has been working on. The recently inaugurated Sixth Haihe Laboratory in the northeast port city of Tianjin to “drive innovation and create new areas for economic growth”, the South China Morning Post.
In 1942 The Manhattan Project was established by the United States as part of a top-secret research and development (R&D) program to produce the first nuclear weapons. The project involved thousands of scientists, engineers, and other personnel who worked on different aspects of the project, including the development of nuclear reactors, the enrichment of uranium, and the design and construction of the bomb. The goal: to develop an atomic bomb before Germany did.
The Manhattan Project set a precedent for large-scale government-funded R&D programs. It also marked the beginning of the nuclear age and ushered in a new era of technological and military competition between the world’s superpowers.
Today we’re entering the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI)—an era arguably just as important, if not more important, than the age of nuclear war. While the last few months might have been the first you’ve heard about it, many in the field would argue we’ve been headed in this direction for at least the last decade, if not longer. For those new to the topic: welcome to the future, you’re late.
Researchers from multiple security companies have reported that a massive supply chain attack on users of 3CX, a widely utilized voice and video calling desktop client, was carried out by computer hackers working on behalf of the government of North Korea. The attack targeted users of the Windows and macOS operating systems. 3CX users may make calls, examine the status of colleagues, chat, plan a video conference, and check voicemails all from the desktop program by using the 3CXDesktopApp, which is accessible for Windows, macOS, Linux, and mobile devices.
The attack resulted in the compromising of the software build system that was used to generate and distribute versions of the app for Windows and macOS. The app delivers VoIP and PBX services to “over 600,000 clients,” some of which include American Express, Mercedes-Benz, and Price Waterhouse Cooper. Since the attackers controlled the software development system, they were able to insert malware into 3CX applications, even though those applications had been digitally signed using the official signing key for the firm.
Ambassador Dr. John-Arne Røttingen, MD, Ph.D. (https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/people/john-arne-rottingen) is Ambassador for Global Health, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway, and a Visiting Fellow of Practice, at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University.
Ambassador Dr. Røttingen has previously served as the Chief Executive of the Research Council of Norway; the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI); Executive Director of Infection Control and Environmental Health at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health; founding Chief Executive of the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services; Professor of Health Policy at the Department of Health Management and Health Economics, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo; and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
