Wired [unpaywalled]: “Jason Matheny is a delight to speak with, provided you’re up for a lengthy conversation about potential technological and biomedical catastrophe. Now CEO and president of Rand Corporation, Matheny has built a career out of thinking about such gloomy scenarios. An economist by training with a focus on public health, he dived into… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Defense
U.S. Intelligence Community’s 2024 Annual Threat Assessment
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) [March 11, 2024] released the 2024 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community. This report reflects the collective insights of the Intelligence Community, which is committed every day to providing the nuanced, independent, and unvarnished intelligence that policymakers, warfighters, and domestic law enforcement personnel need… Continue Reading
An Action Plan to increase the safety and security of advanced AI
“In October 2022, a month before ChatGPT was released, the U.S. State Department commissioned the first-ever assessment of proliferation and security risk from weaponized and misaligned AI. In February 2024, Gladstone completed that assessment. It includes an analysis of catastrophic AI risks, and a first-of-its-kind, government-wide Action Plan for what we can do about them…”… Continue Reading
Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community
February 5, 2024 – Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI): “This annual report of worldwide threats to the national security of the United States responds to Section 617 of the FY21 Intelligence Authorization Act (Pub. L. No. 116-260). This report reflects the collective insights of the Intelligence Community (IC), which is committed every… Continue Reading
House Committee Approves Bill Restricting Sales of Sensitive Data to Foreign Adversaries
EPIC: “March 7, 2024 the House Energy & Commerce Committee approved H.R. 7520, the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024, sponsored by Representative Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). The bill prohibits data brokers from selling, transferring, or providing access to Americans’ sensitive data to certain foreign adversaries… Continue Reading
A.I. Joe: The Dangers of Artificial Intelligence and the Military
Public Citizen: “The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the military-industrial complex are rushing to embrace an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven future. There’s nothing particularly surprising or inherently worrisome about this trend. AI is already in widespread use and evolving generative AI technologies are likely to suffuse society, remaking jobs, organizational arrangements and machinery. At the… Continue Reading
How much money has each country spent, each year, on its military?
Data is Plural: “Different datasets have different answers, cover different timeframes, and use different methodologies. Miriam Barnum et al.’s Global Military Spending Dataset attempts to bring them together. By uniting “76 variables from 9 dataset collection projects,” the authors write, “we provide the most comprehensive and complete set of published datasets on military spending ever… Continue Reading
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, March 2, 2024
Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, March 2, 2024 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on… Continue Reading
Biden Issues Executive Order to Protect Americans’ Sensitive Personal Data
“President Biden issued an Executive Order to protect Americans’ sensitive personal data from exploitation by countries of concern. The Executive Order on Preventing Access to Americans’ Bulk Sensitive Personal Data and United States Government-Related Data by Countries of Concern, marks the most significant executive action any President has ever taken to protect Americans’ data security, authorizes the… Continue Reading
Every Awful Thing Trump Has Promised to Do in a Second Term
Rolling Stone: “Donald Trump reportedly did not expect to win the presidency in 2016, which isn’t surprising considering how ill-prepared he and his team were to take control of the country. He appointed established conservatives to key positions before learning some had personal principles that extended beyond indulging the president’s ego. Trump wreaked havoc on… Continue Reading
European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2023
Europol: The European Union (EU) Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT) 2023 is a situational overview, presenting figures, major developments and trends in the terrorism landscape in the EU in 2022. The report is based on qualitative and quantitative data provided by Member States on terrorist attacks, arrests and court decisions issued for terrorist offences.… Continue Reading
Old books that are newly relevant
The Economist: “In an episode of our podcast “The Intelligence” recorded at the end of 2023, some of our journalists talked about books of the past that are strikingly relevant to the present. The themes that inspired our choices include artificial intelligence, climate change, war and threats to democracy. The prescient books include a science-fiction… Continue Reading
