TOP OF THE DAY 

Meta’s AI chief says world models are key to ‘human-level AI’ — but it might be 10 years out

(Maxwell Zeff – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) Are today’s AI models truly remembering, thinking, planning, and reasoning, just like a human brain would? Some AI labs would have you believe they are, but according to Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun, the answer is no. He thinks we could get there in a decade or so, however, by pursuing a new method called a “world model.”. Earlier this year, OpenAI released a new feature it calls “memory” that allows ChatGPT to “remember” your conversations. The startup’s latest generation of models, o1, displays the word “thinking” while generating an output, and OpenAI says the same models are capable of “complex reasoning.”. That all sounds like we’re pretty close to AGI. However, during a recent talk at the Hudson Forum, LeCun undercut AI optimists, such as xAI founder Elon Musk and Google DeepMind co-founder Shane Legg, who suggest human-level AI is just around the corner. – Meta’s AI chief says world models are key to ‘human-level AI’ — but it might be 10 years out | TechCrunch

Sounding the Alarm on Digitally Enabled Sanctions Evasion

(Alex O’Neill, Amanda Wick – Lawfare – 16 October 2024) The geopolitical tumult of the past several years has brought renewed attention to the national security threats illicit finance and sanctions evasion represent. Russia has sustained the brutal invasion of Ukraine despite an unprecedented campaign to choke off its war machine, in significant part because of the Kremlin’s ability to erect alternative trade channels and procure banned goods. Washington has wielded novel export controls in a bid to restrict China’s access to advanced chips, but a complex network of illicit traders has blunted their impact. From Venezuela to the Iran-backed “Axis of Resistance” to North Korea, rogue actors have survived punishing international sanctions, and many continue to pose unacceptable threats to U.S. security. Those who find themselves in the crosshairs of U.S. economic statecraft have sought workarounds to continue buying and selling arms, oil, dual-use electronics, and other illicit goods with national security implications. Increasingly, sanctions evaders have been drawn to virtual payment technologies that operate outside the traditional U.S.-dominated financial system. – Sounding the Alarm on Digitally Enabled Sanctions Evasion | Lawfare (lawfaremedia.org)

Cyber Threats Escalating Beyond Ability to Defend, New NCSC Head Warns

(James Coker – Infosecurity Magazine – 16 October 2024) Cyber-threats are escalating beyond the collective ability to defend against them, new UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) head Dr Richard Horne has warned. In his first international speech at Singapore International Cyber Week, Horne said that increased dependence on technology is widening the gap between the escalating threats to societies, critical services, and businesses, and the ability to defend and be resilient against these threats. – Cyber Threats Escalating Beyond Ability to Defend, New NCSC Head Warns – Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Ethical Hackers Embrace AI Tools Amid Rising Cyber Threats

(Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine – 16 October 2024) A sharp rise in hackers’ confidence in AI technologies has been revealed in the Inside the Mind of a Hacker 2024 report, published today by Bugcrowd. The study, which gathered insights from 1300 ethical hackers and security researchers, shows that 71% now believe AI increases the value of hacking, compared to just 21% in 2023. This significant shift highlights the growing role of AI within the hacking community, both as a tool and as a potential risk. Generative AI tools have also seen increased use among hackers, with 77% of respondents reporting adoption, up from 64% in 2023. – Ethical Hackers Embrace AI Tools Amid Rising Cyber Threats – Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

AI Models in Cybersecurity: From Misuse to Abuse

(Etay Maor – SecurityWeek – 16 October 2024) Artificial intelligence is on everyone’s mind right now, especially the cybersecurity industry. In a constant game of whack-a-mole, both defenders and attackers are harnessing AI to tip the balance of power in their respective favor. Before we can understand how defenders and attackers leverage AI, we need to acknowledge the three most common types of AI models currently in circulation. – AI Models in Cybersecurity: From Misuse to Abuse – SecurityWeek

A new playbook offers guidance for AI leadership

(Alexandra Kelley – NextGov – 16 October 2024) A new playbook sheds light on the role chief artificial intelligence officers will play in the coming years for public sector firms looking to safely and effectively incorporate AI and machine learning into their operation flows. In a white paper authored by the International Data Corporation and sponsored by Google Cloud, IDC analysts Adelaide O’Brien and Ruthbea Yesner highlighted four actions as particularly vital for advancing AI responsibly in government sectors: assessing AI maturity; addressing risk, governance and compliance needs; developing an AI-ready workforce; and investing in innovation to scale AI use cases. – A new playbook offers guidance for AI leadership – Nextgov/FCW

Sidewinder Casts Wide Geographic Net in Latest Attack Spree

(Elizabeth Montalbano – Dark Reading – 16 October 2024) The elusive, India-based advanced persistent threat (APT) group SideWinder has unleashed a new flurry of attacks against high-profile entities and strategic infrastructure targets that span numerous countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and even Europe, signaling an expansion of its geographic reach. The attacks also show the group is using an advanced post-exploitation toolkit dubbed “StealerBot” to further its cyber-espionage activity, researchers have found. – Sidewinder Casts Wide Geographic Net in Latest Attack Spree (darkreading.com)

Geostrategies

(IISS – October 2024) With substantial government and foreign investment in its technology sector, the United Arab Emirates is poised to become a major player in the global market for artificial intelligence, data infrastructure and cloud services. Yet it also faces risks in these areas due to great-power rivalries and competition from ambitious and capable neighbours. – The UAE’s technology ambitions (iiss.org)

Governance

(Pablo Vera Antón – The Parliament – 16 October 2024) Financial services companies are likely to see increased regulation regarding their use of AI in the coming European Commission mandate, as policymakers try to balance the new technology’s benefits against risks to financial stability and consumer safety. There is consensus in the industry that AI will drive a profound transformation in financial services by fostering innovation, improving risk management and reshaping capital markets in the EU. AI can also predict market trends and enhance investment decisions, among various other uses. Companies that don’t deploy AI risk falling behind. – Op-ed: Why Europe’s financial sector needs strong regulatory collaboration to harness AI innovation (theparliamentmagazine.eu)

(Daphne Keller – Lawfare – 16 October 2024) There’s a revolution happening inside platforms like YouTube and Instagram, and it is changing the way those companies govern speech on the internet. Small armies of platform employees, consultants, and vendors are overhauling the daily operations of trust and safety teams—the people who apply platforms’ content rules and decide what speech will remain online. The goal is to make every decision about users’ speech standardized, trackable, and ultimately reviewable by government regulators or courts. Deciding what people can say and do on the internet is increasingly becoming, in corporate-speak, a “compliance” function—like following the laws that govern financial transactions at a bank, or safety inspections at a factory—under laws like the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). Whether that fundamental reframing of speech governance will be a net positive for internet users or society remains to be seen. – The Rise of the Compliant Speech Platform | Lawfare (lawfaremedia.org)

(Théophane Hartmann – Euractiv – 16 October 2024) Fifteen French NGOs are suing the public body that distributes allowances for families, youth, housing, and inclusion (CNAF) at the French state council over the use of a risk-scoring algorithm, which impacts almost half of France’s population, according to a Wednesday (16 October) press release. – French NGOs sue public body over scoring algorithm – Euractiv

(Natasha Lomas – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) Elon Musk’s X won’t be regulated under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) the Commission decided Wednesday, despite the social media platform hitting usage thresholds earlier this year. The decision means X won’t be subject to the DMA’s list of operational ‘dos and don’ts’ — in areas like its use of third party data and user consent to tracking ads — for the foreseeable future. The pan-EU regime targets Big Tech with up-front rules that are generally aimed at ensuring fairer dealing with individual and business users (so far seven companies have been designated as DMA gatekeepers for a total of two dozen “core platform services”, including other social media giants like Meta and TikTok). – Elon Musk’s X dodges EU’s DMA as bloc decides platform isn’t important enough for fairness controls | TechCrunch

(JoAnn Stonier, Lauren Woodman, Stephanie Teeuwen, Karla Yee Amezaga – World Economic Forum – 16 October 2024) Data equity is a shared responsibility that needs collective action to create data systems that promote fair and just outcomes for all. Given the ever-expanding role of data-driven systems in today’s digital societies, considering the human impact of data usage is crucial. The Global Future Council on the Future of Data Equity has developed a framework to encourage reflection, guide research and prompt corrective actions for responsible data practices. – A framework for advancing data equity in a digital world | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)

(Ho, C. – The Jamestown Foundation – 15 October 2024) The Beijing Algorithm Registration Center—also known as the Model Share Center—has opened as the PRC’s first physical algorithm registration center, marking a significant step in regulating AI development. The center is co-established by the local government, Zhongguancun Development Group, and Huawei through the Ascend AI Computing Center. Supported by the massive computing power of the Western Beijing AI Valley AI computing center, the algorithm registration center collaborates with the Beijing Municipal Intellectual Property Office and Beijing International Data Exchange, which was founded by a state-owned enterprise, to enforce the PRC’s latest data property measures. This initiative symbolizes the PRC’s growing state intervention in AI, with algorithm registration becoming a key regulatory tool, and reflects the PRC’s broader strategy to create a distinct data property rights system. – PRC Launches First Algorithm Registration Center, Strengthening AI and Data Regulation – Jamestown

Security

(Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine – 16 October 2024) The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has published the third edition of Framing Software Component Transparency, a key document aimed at improving the clarity and usage of the Software Bill of Materials (SBOM). This latest version, developed by CISA’s SBOM Tooling & Implementation Working Group, introduces refined guidelines on SBOM creation and software component identification. These updates are intended to help organizations address the growing challenges of software supply chain transparency and security. – CISA Urges Improvements in US Software Supply Chain Transparency – Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

(Eduard Kovacs – SecurityWeek – 16 October 2024) Apparel giant Varsity Brands this week disclosed a data breach impacting a significant number of individuals. Varsity provides uniforms, apparel and services for sports teams, schools, and student-athletes. The company was recently acquired by investment firm KKR, reportedly for $4.75 billion. – Varsity Brands Data Breach Impacts 65,000 People – SecurityWeek

(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine – 16 October 2024) Security experts have urged caution after a stream of doom-laden reports in recent days claimed Chinese researchers have cracked military-grade encryption using quantum computing technology. First surfacing in the South China Morning Post last week, the reports are based around a paper published in the Chinese Journal titled Quantum Annealing Public Key Cryptographic Attack Algorithm Based on D-Wave Advantage. – Experts Play Down Significance of Chinese Quantum “Hack” – Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine – 16 October 2024) The UK government has announced a new AI safety research program that it hopes will accelerate adoption of the technology by improving resilience to deepfakes, misinformation, cyber-attacks and other AI threats. The first phase of the AI Safety Institute’s Systemic Safety Grants Programme will provide researchers with up to £200,000 ($260,000) in grants. – Government Launches AI Safety Scheme to Tackle Deepfakes – Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

(Beth Maundrill – Infosecurity Magazine – 16 October 2024) A wave of emails masquerading as Starbucks offers have been circulating, promising coffee drinkers a free Starbucks Coffee Lovers Box. Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud and cyber reporting center, said it has received over 900 reports about the scam in the past two weeks. – Coffee Lovers Warned of New Starbucks Phishing Scam – Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

(Kevin Poireault – Infosecurity Magazine – 16 October 2024) Passkeys are rapidly gaining momentum and offer significant advantages over traditional passwords, with many security authorities and major tech companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft promoting their use. Today, more than 12 billion online accounts can today be accessed with passkeys, according to the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance. – FIDO Alliance Proposes New Passkey Exchange Standard – Infosecurity Magazine (infosecurity-magazine.com)

Defense, Intelligence, and War

(Riley Ceder – Defense News) An artificial intelligence company that contracts with the U.S. government says its AI system’s analysis of large data sets can produce nearly flawless results. PrimerAI announced on Oct. 14 that an update to its AI platform can achieve a near-zero hallucination rate, a result that the company believes has broader implications for the Defense Department and defense industry as a whole. – PrimerAI introduces ‘near-zero hallucination’ update to AI platform (defensenews.com)

Frontiers

(Devin Coldewey – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) Wildfires aren’t going away, but our ability to detect and track them — and maybe catch them early enough to prevent serious damage — is getting better. OroraTech is taking a space-based approach to “wildfire intelligence,” and just raised $25 million to grow its market and cover more of the Earth. The German startup currently has two thermal-infrared imaging satellites in orbit, watching over a number of locations around the world and some 160 million hectares of forest land. – OroraTech’s space-based wildfire detection brings in $25M to put more imaging satellites in orbit | TechCrunch

(Kate Park – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) Back in 2011, the world held its breath after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan suffered a failure of its cooling systems, in the wake of the country getting hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami. The worry was not unfounded: the resulting meltdown — which spread highly radioactive material in multiple directions — became one of the worst nuclear-related disasters of all time. More than a decade on, the clean-up is still in progress. Last month, the Japanese government began a testing procedure to remove radioactive debris in and around the plant — a significant step in the plant’s decommissioning process, expected to be completed by 2051. A groundbreaking startup from Japan, Ookuma Diamond Device (ODD), is playing a fascinating part in the process, by way of diamond chips that are being used in efforts to remove radioactive debris, by way of diamond-chip-powered amplifiers. And now, it has raised 4 billion yen, equivalent to approximately $27 million, to build the world’s first diamond semiconductor manufacturing facility in nearby Ookuma, also in Fukushima. – ODD taps $27M for diamond chips to clear radioactive debris at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant | TechCrunch

(Tim De Chant – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) Amazon today became the latest big tech company to throw its weight behind nuclear power, joining Microsoft and Google, which both previously announced long-term promises to buy nuclear power from startups to power their data centers. The company revealed three deals, including an investment in startup X-Energy and two development agreements that aim to add around 300 megawatts worth of capacity in both the Pacific Northwest and Virginia, two data center hotspots. – ​​Amazon jumps on nuclear power bandwagon by investing in X-Energy and promising small reactors | TechCrunch

(Aria Alamalhodaei – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) SpaceX has filed a lawsuit against a California agency this week after the body rejected a proposal to increase the company’s launches from the state’s coastline to 50 per year. The California Coastal Commission (CCC) made its decision at an October 10 meeting, despite the U.S. Air Force endorsing the plan on the grounds that more launches of Starlink and Starshield, the defense-focused unit, are critical to national security. – SpaceX sues California agency, alleging political bias against Musk and regulatory overreach | TechCrunch

(Rebecca Bellan – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) General Motors is working with Forge Nano, a materials science startup, to find new ways to enhance the performance and lifetime of electric vehicle battery cells. The automaker’s investment arm, GM Ventures, on Wednesday injected $10 million into Forge Nano, which is developing a thin coating the startup says will help improve safety and increase the lifetime of cathode-active materials, reducing overall battery costs. – GM partners with startup Forge Nano to improve EV battery life, performance, and safety | TechCrunch

(Tage Kene-Okafor – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) Africa’s blockchain and crypto space is receiving a much-needed venture boost during a tough time for startups, some of which have retreated from specific markets or completely shut down due to issues like harsh regulatory environment, macros or downright mismanagement. The boost involves Yellow Card, the U.S.-founded crypto platform launched in Nigeria in 2019, which has since become the continent’s most-funded cryptocurrency exchange. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it has raised $33 million in Series C investment led by decade-old venture firm Blockchain Capital, whose bets include Coinbase, Kraken, OpenSea, and, more recently, Worldcoin. This brings Yellow Card’s total funding to at least $88 million. – African crypto startup Yellow Card raises $33M led by Blockchain Capital to scale its B2B pivot | TechCrunch

(Rebecca Szkutak – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) When Hurricane Helene hit Asheville, North Carolina in September, the city’s police department reached out to public safety drone startup Paladin for help. The startup’s 30-member team jumped into action working nights and through the weekend to assist Asheville’s police department with locating people and dropping off supply. Asheville was a Paladin customer and its team was able to help because its software could control drones remotely from the company’s Houston headquarters, Paladin founder and CEO Divy Shrivastava told TechCrunch. This allowed Paladin’s tech to make a big difference in spite of Asheville’s closed roads and lack of cell phone or internet service on the ground. – How Paladin’s drones helped Asheville during Hurricane Helene | TechCrunch

(Brian Heater – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) Boston Dynamics and Toyota Research Institute (TRI) Wednesday revealed plans to bring AI-based robotic intelligence to the electric Atlas humanoid robot. The collaboration will leverage the work that TRI has done around large behavior models (LBMs), which operate along similar lines as the more familiar large language models (LLMs) behind platforms like ChatGPT. – Boston Dynamics teams with TRI to bring AI smarts to Atlas humanoid robot | TechCrunch

(Kyle Wiggers – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) French AI startup Mistral has released its first generative AI models designed to be run on edge devices, like laptops and phones. The new family of models, which Mistral is calling “Les Ministraux,” can be used or tuned for a variety of applications, from basic text generation to working in conjunction with more capable models to complete tasks. – Mistral releases new AI models optimized for laptops and phones | TechCrunch

(Devin Coldewey – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) Photonic computing startup Lightmatter has raised $400 million to blow one of modern datacenters’ bottlenecks wide open. The company’s optical interconnect layer allows hundreds of GPUs to work synchronously, streamlining the costly and complex job of training and running AI models. The growth of AI and its correspondingly immense compute requirements have supercharged the datacenter industry, but it’s not as simple as plugging in another thousand GPUs. As high performance computing experts have known for years, it doesn’t matter how fast each node of your supercomputer is if those nodes are idle half the time waiting for data to come in. – Lightmatter’s $400M round has AI hyperscalers hyped for photonic datacenters | TechCrunch

(Tim De Chant – TechCrunch – 16 Octrober 2024) The U.S. is facing a shortage of electricians, with unfilled jobs in the field expected to grow by 11% per year over the next decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But because prospective electricians in the U.S. typically need to log 8,000 hours before they can get their license, the shortage won’t ease anytime soon. In normal times, the shortage may pose an inconvenience while the labor market shifts in response. But the U.S. is in the midst of a tectonic shift in how people and businesses use electricity. Adding solar panels, swapping furnaces for heat pumps, and adding electric vehicle chargers — they all require electricians, piling projects on the limited number in the workforce today. “That pipeline takes a long time to build, and there’s not going to be a lot of relief coming in the next five to ten years,” Erik Owski, co-founder and CEO of Treehouse, told TechCrunch. “We have to make the existing workforce more efficient.” – Treehouse uses AI to help electricians install tech like EV chargers and heat pumps more cheaply | TechCrunch

(Devin Coldewey – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) Fable has gained a reputation as the go-to startup for helping companies build digital products that are more accessible to people with disabilities. After raising $25 million in new funding, the Toronto-based startup is now expanding the communities it supports and working to make AI training data more inclusive. – Fable adds cognitive and hearing impairments to its accessibility tools with $25M round | TechCrunch

(Natasha Lomas – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) While most countries’ lawmakers are still discussing how to put guardrails around artificial intelligence, the European Union is ahead of the pack, having passed a risk-based framework for regulating AI apps earlier this year. The law came into force in August, although full details of the pan-EU AI governance regime are still being worked out — Codes of Practice are in the process of being devised, for example. But, over the coming months and years, the law’s tiered provisions will start to apply on AI app and model makers so the compliance countdown is already live and ticking. Evaluating whether and how AI models are meeting their legal obligations is the next challenge. Large language models (LLM), and other so-called foundation or general purpose AIs, will underpin most AI apps. So focusing assessment efforts at this layer of the AI stack seem important. Step forward LatticeFlow AI, a spin out from public research university ETH Zurich, which is focused on AI risk management and compliance. – LatticeFlow’s LLM framework takes a first stab at benchmarking Big AI’s compliance with EU AI Act | TechCrunch

(Annie Njanja – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) As calls for urgent climate action persist, technologies to help remove the heat-trapping greenhouse gases from the atmosphere are also emerging globally. In Africa, Octavia Carbon, a Direct Air Capture (DAC) startup is leading the efforts. Octavia, founded in Kenya two years ago, builds DAC machines that it uses to capture carbon, a greenhouse gas that is the biggest contributor of global warming, from the air for storage underground. Octavia, which begun capturing carbon in February after a period of developing the tech, now plans to build more machines to add to its existing two devices with a carbon capture capacity of 50 tonnes per year. This comes as the startup plans to scale carbon removal in Kenya after closing a $3.9 million seed round and, it says, $1.1 million in the advance sale of carbon credits. – Kenya’s Octavia gets $3.9M seed to remove carbon from air | TechCrunch

(Rebecca Bellan, Brian Heater – TechCrunch – 16 October 2024) At Tesla’s robotaxi reveal event last week, several Optimus humanoid robots mingled with guests, pouring drinks and cracking jokes. Impressive technology, but the vocals and some of the gesticulations appear to have been remotely controlled by humans, something Tesla did not disclose. – Tesla’s bot non-disclosure and why humanoid robots are taking off | TechCrunch