Google boosts in-house chip efforts amid AI arms race | Biden Administration to block Russian software use over security concerns | Eurovision condemns social media campaigns against Israel
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Google's new chip, Axion, aims to diminish reliance on Intel and Nvidia, tackling the escalating costs of AI. Aligning with the trend among tech giants, Axion pledges performance enhancements and signifies Google's venture into chip development to meet the burgeoning demand for AI computing. The Wall Street Journal
The Biden administration is set to block US companies and citizens from using Kaspersky Lab software due to national security worries. This move extends existing bans on government agencies and reflects concerns about potential ties between Kaspersky and the Russian government, despite the company's denial. CNN
Eurovision organizers condemn social media attacks on Israel's representative, Eden Golan, amid reports of death threats. Despite controversy, EBU asserts its sole authority in including Israel in the contest. Israel was asked to modify song lyrics deemed too political. Eurovision emphasizes creating a safe environment and calls for respectful discourse. The Guardian
Australia
Defence secretary sets record straight on AUKUS arrangements
The Mandarin
Melissa Coade
If you thought the AUKUS trilateral security partnership was an alliance, Greg Moriarty has news for you. The Defence boss told a national security audience in Canberra that the two-and-a-half-year AUKUS agreement was not an alliance. AUKUS would contribute significantly to Australia’s deterrence capability relating to submarines and advanced technology, he said. But it is definitely not an alliance.
Healthcare could be one of AI’s greatest beneficiaries
The Mandarin
Dan Holmes
As artificial intelligence matures as a technology, policymakers are thinking more about how it can be used in the public interest instead of against it. Leading the charge in Australia is the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, and they think they’ve hit a winner in healthcare. The latest version of the national science agency’s AI Trends in Healthcare report highlights the rapid growth of AI as a tool for diagnosis and treatment.
USA
Biden administration preparing to prevent Americans from using Russian-made software over national security concern
CNN
Sean Lyngaas
The Biden administration is preparing to take the unusual step of issuing an order that would prevent US companies and citizens from using software made by a major Russian cybersecurity firm because of national security concerns, five US officials familiar with the matter told CNN. The move, which is being finalized and could happen as soon as this month, would use relatively new Commerce Department authorities built on executive orders signed by Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump to prohibit Kaspersky Lab from providing certain products and services in the US, the sources said.
Extortion group threatens to sell Change Healthcare data
CyberScoop
AJ Vicens
When the payment processor Change Healthcare was breached in a ransomware attack last month as part of an incident that crippled parts of the U.S. health care system, the group that claimed responsibility said it had stolen some 6 terabytes of data. Now, a data extortion site is giving Change Healthcare until April 20 to buy the majority of that data before it’s sold to the highest bidder. The operators of RansomHub, a site on the dark web used to auction off previously stolen data or conduct new ransomware attacks, posted a notice on Sunday saying they were in possession of “over 4 TB of highly selective data” that came from the Feb. 21 attack on Change Healthcare.
House hurtles toward showdown over expiring surveillance tools
CyberScoop
Tim Starks
Privacy advocates and national security hawks in the House of Representatives are at loggerheads over how to overhaul and extend a controversial set of surveillance powers that expire next week, in what is the latest in a series of showdowns over Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The latest act in that drama comes on Tuesday afternoon, when the House Rules Committee is scheduled to consider which amendments it will send to the House floor for a vote, when that body takes up a bill to renew the surveillance authorities under Section 702.
Official says commercial space strategy is driven by imperative to maintain warfighting edge
U.S. Department of Defense
As the space domain increasingly becomes an essential warfighting domain, it is imperative that the Defense Department seize on the commercial sector's ability to rapidly develop and field technology, the Pentagon's top space policy official said last week. John F. Plumb, assistant secretary of defense for space policy, said those factors serve as the driving force behind DOD's Commercial Space Integration Strategy, released earlier this month. "It is very clear, not just in the department but across, possibly, the country and the globe in the wake of the Ukraine invasion, how essential space is to warfighting," Plumb told reporters during a meeting of the Defense Writers Group in Washington.
2 men fined $1.25 million for Robocall scheme to suppress black vote
The New York Times
Lola Fadulu
Two right-wing political operatives who used a robocall campaign to try to discourage Black New Yorkers from voting in the 2020 election will pay up to $1.25 million for their actions, the New York State attorney general’s office announced on Tuesday. During the summer of 2020, around 5,500 New Yorkers received robocalls falsely claiming that if they voted by mail, their personal information would be sent to law enforcement agencies, debt collectors and the government. The calls were made at a time when many states were encouraging voters to cast their ballots by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic.
China
America is losing its GPS dominance to China’s BeiDou satnav
Space News
Sean Gorman
In the 20th century, the United States vied with the Soviet Union for space supremacy. Now, in the new century, America has a different rival — China — and a key battle is already brewing in the critical area of satellite navigation. Right now, the U.S. is falling behind. While GPS was once the undisputed king of satnav (and a key instrument of American soft power), it now has a growing list of Global Navigation Satellite Systems competitors – from China’s BeiDou to the European Union’s Galileo, Russia’s GLONASS and even India’s regional system, NavIC.
Why the Chinese government is sparing AI from harsh regulations—for now
MIT Technology Review
Zeyi Yang
The way China regulates its tech industry can seem highly unpredictable. The government can celebrate the achievements of Chinese tech companies one day and then turn against them the next. But there are patterns in how China approaches regulating tech, argues Angela Huyue Zhang, a law professor at Hong Kong University and author of the new book High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy. The way Chinese policies change almost always follow a three-phase progression: a lax approach where companies are given relative flexibility to expand and compete, sudden harsh crackdowns that slash profits, and eventually a new loosening of restrictions.
Americas
Brazil judge opens inquiry into Musk after refusal to block accounts on X
Reuters
Anthony Boadle
A standoff between Elon Musk and Brazil escalated on Sunday when a Supreme Court judge opened an inquiry into the billionaire after Musk said he would reactivate accounts on the social media platform X that the judge had ordered blocked. Musk, the owner of X and a self-declared free speech absolutist, has challenged a decision by Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordering the blocking of certain accounts. He has said X, formerly known as Twitter, would lift all the restrictions because they were unconstitutional and called on Moraes to resign.
North Asia
Japan's Kishida expects more U.S. chip collaboration opportunities
Nikkei Asia
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday he saw opportunities for more collaboration with the United States in next-generation computer chips. Kishida made the comment a day before a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden that will focus on boosting economic and defense ties to offset China's growing might. U.S. tech giant Microsoft said on Tuesday it would invest $2.9 billion over two years to expand its cloud and AI infrastructure in Japan, its largest investment in the 46 years it has operated in the Asian country.
Southeast Asia
Vietnam’s legal framework for personal data protection initiated
ASEAN Briefing
Giulia Interesse
On February 29, 2024, the Vietnam Ministry of Public Security announced the development of the Law on Personal Data Protection. This initiative, marked by the publication of a dossier on the government’s official website, is aimed at enhancing data privacy measures within the country. The objective of the proposed PDP Law is to establish robust frameworks and regulations designed to guarantee the secure management, processing, and utilization of personal data. By doing so, the PDP Law aims to uphold citizens’ privacy rights and cultivate confidence in the country’s rapidly evolving digital environment.
South & Central Asia
Technology use shouldn’t undermine free, fair elections
Human Rights Watch
Voters in India will cast their ballots in a six-week general election beginning April 19, 2024, amid concerns that Indian authorities exert considerable control over the digital ecosystem that can make for an uneven playing field, Human Rights Watch said in a question-and-answer document released today. The party or coalition of parties that wins a majority of 543 seats in the lower house of Parliament will nominate a candidate for prime minister and form a government.
Ukraine - Russia
How Ukraine is using AI to fight Russia
The Economist
In the run-up to Ukraine’s rocket attacks on the Antonovsky Bridge, a vital road crossing from the occupied city of Kherson to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, security officials carefully studied a series of special reports. It was the summer of 2022 and Russia was relying heavily on the bridge to resupply its troops west of the Dnipro. The reports contained research into two things: would destroying the bridge lead the Russian soldiers, or their families back home, to panic? And, more importantly, how could Ukraine’s government maximise the blow to morale by creating “a particular information environment”?
Europe
Eurovision hits out at ‘targeted social media campaigns’ against artists
The Guardian
AFP in Geneva
Organisers of the Eurovision song contest have hit out at “targeted social media campaigns” against competitors amid reports of threats against the singer for Israel. This year’s competition, to take place in May in Sweden, has been rocked by controversy over Israel’s participation at a time when its war with Hamas has left Gaza in tatters. The European Broadcasting Union acknowledged in a statement “the depth of feeling and the strong opinions that this year’s Eurovision song contest – set against the backdrop of a terrible war in the Middle East – has provoked”.
EU to investigate Chinese turbine suppliers to wind parks
Nikkei Asia
The European Commission has opened a new investigation into subsidies received by Chinese suppliers of turbines destined for wind parks in Europe, in its latest action against manufacturers of clean tech products in China. The commission will look into the conditions for the development of wind parks in Spain, Greece, France, Romania and Bulgaria, European Union Commissioner Margrethe Vestager plans to say in a speech to be delivered on Tuesday.
Middle East
Google workers revolt over $1.2 billion contract with Israel
TIME
Billy Perrigo
In midtown Manhattan on March 4, Google’s managing director for Israel, Barak Regev, was addressing a conference promoting the Israeli tech industry when a member of the audience stood up in protest. “I am a Google Cloud software engineer, and I refuse to build technology that powers genocide, apartheid, or surveillance,” shouted the protester, wearing an orange t-shirt emblazoned with a white Google logo. “No tech for apartheid!”
Iran’s drones are remaking global warfare
The Economic Times
In January, rebels fighting the Sudanese army shot down a drone near Khartoum. As jubilant gunmen posted video of the wreckage on social media, they offered a fresh data point on how Iranian technology is remaking the global weapons trade. The drone in the video, which is clearly modeled after Iran’s Ababil model — the workhorse of paramilitaries across the Middle East since it was developed in the 1990s — reflected a design tweak: Its two front tires, instead of the usual one, provided actual battlefield evidence that Sudan is modifying the Iranian drone into its own weapon, which it calls the Zagel-3.
Israel deploys C-Dome defence system for the first time
The Jakarata Post
Israel for the first time deployed its ship-mounted defence system, called the C-Dome, against a ""suspicious"" target that entered the country's airspace near the southern city of Eilat, the military said Tuesday. The C-Dome is a naval version of the Iron Dome air defence system used to shield against rocket and missile attacks.
Gender & Women in Tech
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recounts horror of seeing herself in ‘deepfake porn’
The Guardian
Edward Helmore
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has described her horror at discovering – midway through a discussion with aides during a car journey in February – that she had been transposed into a “deepfake porn” simulation generated by artificial intelligence and posted on X. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the progressive congresswoman said the experience of coming up close to a depiction of herself performing a sex act had shown her that being deepfaked was “not as imaginary as people want to make it seem”.
Teen girls confront an epidemic of deepfake nudes in schools
The New York Times
Natasha Singer
In October, some 10th-grade girls at Westfield High School — including Ms. Mani’s 14-year-old daughter, Francesca — alerted administrators that boys in their class had used artificial intelligence software to fabricate sexually explicit images of them and were circulating the faked pictures. Five months later, the Manis and other families say, the district has done little to publicly address the doctored images or update school policies to hinder exploitative A.I. use.
Big Tech
Google expands in-house chip efforts in costly AI battle
The Wall Street Journal
Miles Kruppa and Asa Fitch
Google is making more of its own semiconductors, preparing a new chip that can handle everything from YouTube advertising to big data analysis as the company tries to combat rising artificial-intelligence costs. The new chip, called Axion, is a type of chip commonly used in big data centers. It adds to Google’s efforts stretching back more than a decade to develop new computing resources, beginning with specialized chips used for AI work. Google has leaned into that strategy since the late 2022 release of ChatGPT kicked off an arms race that has threatened its dominant position as a gateway to the internet.
Microsoft employees exposed internal passwords in security lapse
TechCrunch
Zack Whittaker and Carly Page
Microsoft has resolved a security lapse that exposed internal company files and credentials to the open internet. Security researchers Can Yoleri, Murat Özfidan and Egemen Koçhisarlı with SOCRadar, a cybersecurity company that helps organizations find security weaknesses, discovered an open and public storage server hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service that was storing internal information relating to Microsoft’s Bing search engine. The Azure storage server housed code, scripts and configuration files containing passwords, keys and credentials used by the Microsoft employees for accessing other internal databases and systems.
Google injects generative AI into its cloud security tools
TechCrunch
Kyle Wiggers
At its annual Cloud Next conference in Las Vegas, Google on Tuesday introduced new cloud-based security products and services — in addition to updates to existing products and services — aimed at customers managing large, multi-tenant corporate networks. Many of the announcements had to do with Gemini, Google’s flagship family of generative AI models. For example, Google unveiled Gemini in Threat Intelligence, a new Gemini-powered component of the company’s Mandiant cybersecurity platform. Now in public preview, Gemini in Threat Intelligence can analyze large portions of potentially malicious code and let users perform natural language searches for ongoing threats or indicators of compromise, as well as summarize open source intelligence reports from around the web.
Artificial Intelligence
AI-operated fighter jet will fly Air Force secretary in a test of military’s future drone warplanes
The Associated Press
Tara Copp
The Air Force is betting a large part of its future air warfare on a fleet more than 1,000 autonomously operated drones, and later this spring its top civilian leader plans to climb into an artificial intelligence-operated warplane and let it take him airborne. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told senators on Tuesday at a hearing on the service’s 2025 budget that he will enter the cockpit of one of the F-16s that the service has converted for drone flight to see for himself how the AI-controlled plane performs in the air.
Meta downplays AI disinformation threat in big election year
Bloomberg
Mark Bergen
Meta Platforms Inc. is under immense pressure to ensure that social media content created by artificial intelligence doesn’t cause havoc with elections this year. The company’s top leaders say they haven’t seen that happen yet on their services. “So far, it’s been very striking how little these tools have been used on a systemic basis to try to subvert or disrupt these elections,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said at an event on the company’s AI strategy in London on Tuesday.
Misc
Backdoor in XZ Utils that almost happened
Lawfare
Bruce Schneier
Last week, the internet dodged a major nation-state attack that would have had catastrophic cybersecurity repercussions worldwide. It’s a catastrophe that didn’t happen, so it won’t get much attention—but it should. There’s an important moral to the story of the attack and its discovery: The security of the global internet depends on countless obscure pieces of software written and maintained by even more obscure unpaid, distractible, and sometimes vulnerable volunteers. It’s an untenable situation, and one that is being exploited by malicious actors. Yet precious little is being done to remedy it.
Research
2024 Taiwan Election: The Increasing Polarization of Taiwanese Politics — Reinforcement of Conspiracy Narratives and Cognitive Biases
Medium
Doublethink Lab
Past Doublethink Lab’s research reports and observations indicate that foreign information manipulation has shifted towards applying more conspiracy theory strategies and reinforcing ”cognitive biases” through “narratives.” This makes false and controversial information increasingly difficult to clarify and increases the cost of public discussion. In the long term, its main objectives not only include increasing distrust among citizens towards the government and democratic institutions but also exacerbate conflicts between supporters of different camps. This undermines the democratic resilience of Taiwanese society and fosters an overall skepticism towards international democratic allies.
Events & Podcasts
The Sydney Dialogue
ASPI
The Sydney Dialogue was created to help bring together governments, businesses and civil society to discuss and progress policy options. We will forecast the technologies of the next decade that will change our societies, economies and national security, prioritising speakers and delegates who are willing to push the envelope. We will promote diverse views that stimulate real conversations about the best ways to seize opportunities and minimise risks.
Jobs
Data Scientist
ASPI
ASPI is looking for an inquisitive and problem-solving open-source data scientist who will be responsible for developing and implementing automated techniques for a variety of open-source data collection requirements. We are open to experienced data scientists and those beginning their career. Role equivalency would be between levels 3 – 7 of Data Science category of SFIA 8. The closing date for applications is 15 April 2024– an early application is advised as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if suitable applications are received.
Director of Cyber, Technology & Security (CTS)
ASPI
ASPI is looking for an exceptional and experienced leader to lead our largest team focused on emerging security challenges, particularly in cyberspace and the information domain. Director CTS leads ASPI’s largest team to develop and deliver a range of applied research projects on existing and emerging security challenges. CTS’ projects range across cyber and critical infrastructure security, critical and emerging technologies, national resilience and social cohesion, and hybrid threats. The closing date for applications is 22 April 2024 – an early application is advised as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if suitable applications are received.
China Analyst or Senior Analyst
ASPI
ASPI has an exciting opportunity for an analyst or senior analyst to explore China's evolving foreign and security policy, political economy and impact on the Indo-Pacific and the world. ASPI’s China analysts conduct rigorous data-driven research, publish impactful reports that shape the public policy discourse and contribute to the wide catalogue of influential China work published by ASPI. The difference between the analyst and senior analyst levels will depend on experience level and demonstration of past work. The closing date for applications is 10 May 2024– an early application is advised as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if suitable applications are received.
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