Exactly two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Alexander Karp, the CEO of data analytics company Palantir, made his pitch to European leaders. With war on their doorstep, Europeans ought to modernize their arsenals with Silicon Valley’s help, he argued in an open letter. Militaries are responding to the call. NATO announced on June […]
Monthly Archives: July 2022
End-to-end encryption’s central role in modern self-defense
reader comments 4 with 4 posters participating Share this story A number of course-altering US Supreme Court decisions last month—including the reversal of a constitutional right to abortion and the overturning of a century-old limit on certain firearms permits—have activists and average Americans around the country anticipating the fallout for rights and privacy as abortion […]
Why business is booming for military AI startups
Militaries are responding to the call. NATO announced on June 30 that it is creating a $1 billion innovation fund that will invest in early-stage startups and venture capital funds developing “priority” technologies such as artificial intelligence, big-data processing, and automation. Since the war started, the UK has launched a new AI strategy specifically for […]
Another undersea cable to link us to the world
Peter Griffin, Editor. 07 July 2022, 1:03 pm Southern Cross Cables has launched the SX NEXT fibre cable spanning 15,840km and linking Sydney to Los Angeles via Auckland, Fiji, Tokelau and Kiribati. The cable is capable of carrying 72 terabits of data per second, “effectively doubling New Zealand’s direct international connectivity capability to the USA,” […]
Why Lockdown mode from Apple is one of the coolest security ideas ever
reader comments 66 with 45 posters participating Share this story Mercenary spyware is one of the hardest threats to combat. It targets an infinitesimally small percentage of the world, making it statistically unlikely for most of us to ever see. And yet, because the sophisticated malware only selects the most influential individuals (think diplomats, political […]
The Download: Tweaking AI for energy efficiency, and China’s leaked data
What’s the news?: Deep learning is behind machine learning’s most high-profile successes. But this incredible performance comes at a cost: training deep-learning models requires huge amounts of energy. Now, new research shows how scientists who use cloud platforms to train algorithms can dramatically reduce the energy they use, and therefore the emissions they create. How […]
These simple changes can make AI research much more energy efficient
Since the first paper studying this technology’s impact on the environment was published three years ago, a movement has grown among researchers to self-report the energy consumed and emissions generated from their work. Having accurate numbers is an important step toward making changes, but actually gathering those numbers can be a challenge. “You can’t improve […]
The cryptopocalypse is nigh! NIST rolls out new encryption standards to prepare
Enlarge / Conceptual computer artwork of electronic circuitry with blue and red light passing through it, representing how data may be controlled and stored in a quantum computer. Getty Images reader comments 32 with 28 posters participating Share this story In the not-too-distant future—as little as a decade, perhaps, nobody knows exactly how long—the cryptography […]
Google allowed sanctioned Russian ad company to harvest user data for months
reader comments 30 with 24 posters participating Share this story ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. The day after Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner sent a letter to Google warning it to […]
The Download: India’s deadly heatwaves, and the need for carbon removal
The residents of Nagla Tulai, a farming village in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, have always had to endure hot summers, but the past few years of punishingly cruel heat have tested their strength. This May it hit 49°C (120°F), the highest India has recorded in 122 years. Since then, local news reports […]