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Popping the chatbot hype balloon

Understanding how chatbots work and the human labor and data involved can better help evaluate the validity of concerns about them—which although innovative, are hardly the stuff of science fiction.
China surveillance

The future of technology: Lessons from China—and the US

The technological competition between the US and China has been portrayed as a simplistic battle between democracy and authoritarianism. The reality is that people everywhere—including in both these two countries—are all living in a digital world, where surveillance is ubiquitous and accountability for human rights abuses more challenging.
Exterior of Supreme Court building.

After Roe’s overturn: the abortion surveillance state

The Supreme Court may be turning back the clock 50 years on civil rights, but cutting-edge digital surveillance technologies will bring us an even darker future. In 1973, police didn’t have the surveillance tools that have become commonplace today — and every phone, laptop, and smart device could become a potential policing tool, with pregnant people’s location data and search histories mined for evidence, says a report from the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.
Cow. Credit: Roboiitgrs. Accessed via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Who hacked the slaughterhouse? When robots and AI take over farms

Advanced tech in farming promises to maximize crop yields, minimize the impact of climate change, and fight global food insecurity. Yet swift adoption without consideration of the risks may increase food-system vulnerabilities, intensify socio-economic inequality, and harm the environment.

Will splashy philanthropy cause the biosecurity field to focus on the wrong risks?

The Open Philanthropy Project is a generous funder of organizations doing work on biosecurity risks. But is the group training its substantial financial firepower on a narrow band of risks that aren't likely to occur? As the organization focuses on risks with global catastrophic consequences, is it skewing the focus of the biosecurity field away from more probable, if more mundane, concerns?

David Sanger on the perfect weapon

The longtime New York Times national security reporter talks about his new history of cyberwar, why we need a public debate, and how cyberattacks make nuclear war more likely.

Mind the climate gap

New pledges to reduce emissions and fund climate action are not enough to stave off danger. Not even close. Here’s what’s really needed.

Facing nuclear reality, 35 years after The Day After

The made-for-TV movie The Day After had an enormous impact on America’s national conversation about nuclear weapons in 1983. Resuming that conversation today is essential, and the movie holds some lessons about what that would take.

Putting the cost of going green in context

Editor's note: The following column was coauthored by Benjamin Urquhart, a research associate at Harvard University's Center for the Environment, and Mark Winkler, a PhD student at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Russian nuclear weapons, 2024

Russia is modernizing all its Soviet-era nuclear-capable systems. We estimate that Russia now possesses about 4,380 nuclear warheads.
President Biden and VP Harris meeting with business leaders to discuss AI safety

How politics and business are driving the AI arms race with China

Commercial competition, politics, and public opinion are driving AI development in the United States—and unnecessarily escalating the AI arms race with China.

Alan Miller: How the News Literacy Project teaches schoolchildren (and adults) to dismiss and debunk internet disinformation

In this interview, Alan Miller explains how the News Literacy Project came to be and what he thinks needs to happen if the worst impacts of the disinformation tsunami that has swamped the internet in recent years are to be mitigated.

JAIC: Pentagon debuts artificial intelligence hub

The Defense Department is initiating a whole new approach to artificial intelligence, and maybe even to technology development and procurement. But in the long run, the new program’s most important implications may concern ethics and safety.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announces the complete John A. Simpson Archive

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is pleased to announce the creation of the complete John A. Simpson Archive, a searchable archive of the Bulletin containing every issue published since our founding in 1945. The archive is named in honor of John Alexander Simpson, a key Bulletin founder and longtime member of its Board of … Continued
Illustration of robot holding ripped picture of a person's face

Spotting AI-generated content is too hard. Look for credible sources instead.

The public should be educated on the capabilities of AI models and on trusting content only from verified sources.

Nuclear Notebook: Indian nuclear forces, 2020

We estimate that India currently operates eight nuclear-capable systems: two aircraft, four land-based ballistic missiles, and two sea-based ballistic missiles. At least three more systems are in development, of which several are nearing completion and will soon be combat-ready. Beijing is now in range of Indian ballistic missiles.
By the end of 1943, the US Navy had installed 120 electromechanical Bombe machines like the one above, which were used to decipher secret messages encrypted by German Enigma machines, including messages from German U-boats. Built for the Navy by the Dayton company National Cash Register, the US Bombe was an improved version of the British Bombe, which was itself based on a Polish design. Credit: National Security Agency

Keeping classified information secret in a world of quantum computing

The “race” for quantum supremacy against China is significantly overstated. Analysts should redirect attention to protecting classified information against future attacks by quantum computers, a more pressing and manageable problem.
sun rising over power lines in California

Cut emissions, save 317,000 people: What a nationwide clean electricity standard could do

Adopting a proposed federal standard that calls for 80 percent of the nation’s electrical power to be composed of renewables by 2030 would swiftly cut planet-heating emissions and save hundreds of thousands of lives from deadly air pollution, says new report.
The Sycamore processor

Quantum supremacy: not a Jason Bourne movie

In a development at the edge of scientific advance and journalistic descriptive capabilities, a group of Google researchers say they have achieved the science fiction-sounding feat known as “quantum supremacy.” In a paper published in Nature, members of Google’s AI Quantum team describe their successful efforts to create a computer that capitalizes on the laws … Continued

Silicon Valley defense contracts will really hit ‘em where it hurts

Won't someone please think of the shareholders? The tech industry’s controversial defense contracts may soon cost them.