• U.S., Artificial Intelligence Companies Work to Mitigate Risks

    Can artificial intelligence wipe out humanity? A senior U.S. official said the United States government is working with leading AI companies and at least 20 countries to set up guardrails to mitigate potential risks.

  • Roles and Implications of AI in the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging as a significant asset in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Specifically, it has become a key data analysis tool that helps operators and warfighters make sense of the growing volume and amount of information generated by numerous systems, weapons and soldiers in the field.

  • Six Ways AI Can Make Political Campaigns More Deceptive Than Ever

    Political campaign ads and donor solicitations have long been deceptive. These days, the internet has gone wild with deceptive political ads. Ads often pose as polls and have misleading clickbait headlines. Campaigns are now rapidly embracing artificial intelligence for composing and producing ads and donor solicitations, even as there are growing fears that AI will make politics more deceptive than ever.

  • Protecting Health Security from Potential Threats Arising from Advances in Biotechnology

    The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security said it was applauding congressional leaders in health security for their introduction of two pieces of legislation to strengthen security around emerging threats from advances in biotechnology.

  • An American View on U.S. Investment in Critical-Mineral Mining in Australia

    In May, the United States and Australia signed a compact which, among other things, aims to coordinate policies and investments to support the expansion and diversification of critical minerals supply chains. In this case, diversification basically equates to reducing dependence on China, in which various links in the critical-mineral supply chain are heavily concentrated.

  • Paying the Costs of Climate Resilience

    The idea that climate pollution can be eliminated by political edict overestimates political power and underestimates economic power. It is not simply powerful economic interests that influence public policy, but the sense of economic well-being perceived and experienced by the mass public. The maintenance of that sense of well-being is a critical foundation of political stability. The transition to a renewable resource-based economy must be careful to reinforce and not undermine that sense of well-being.

  • One- to Four-Family Properties with Multiple Losses Insured by the National Flood Insurance Program

    What are the characteristics of properties that have experienced multiple flood losses (e.g., percentage of overall claims payments, number of losses, and structure characteristics)? What are the socioeconomic characteristics of multiple loss property (MLP) households and the communities in which they are located? What percentage of MLPs have been mitigated, what are the socioeconomics characteristics of neighborhoods where MLPs have been mitigated, and how effective has mitigation been in reducing risk?

  • U.S. Tech Leaders Want Fewer Export Curbs on AI Chips for China

    Intel Corp. has introduced a processor in China which is designed for AI deep-learning applications despite reports of the Biden administration considering additional restrictions on Chinese companies to address loopholes in chip export controls. Intel’s move is part of an effort by U.S. technology companies to bypass or curb government export controls to the Chinese market as the U.S. government, citing national security concerns, continues to tighten restrictions on China’s artificial intelligence industry.

  • Scent Dogs Can Detect COVID-19 More Rapidly, Accurately Than Current Tests

    Scent dogs may represent a cheaper, faster and more effective way to detect COVID-19, and could be a key tool in future pandemics, a new review of recent research suggests. The review found that scent dogs are as effective, or even more effective, than conventional COVID-19 tests such as RT-PCR.

  • The Ground Is Deforming, and Buildings Aren’t Ready

    There is a “silent hazard” lurking underneath our major global cities, and our buildings were not designed to handle it. With Chicago as a living lab space, Northwestern study links underground climate change to variations beneath urban areas.

  • Can You Trust AI? Here’s Why You Shouldn’t

    Across the internet, devices and services that seem to work for you already secretly work against you. Smart TVs spy on you. Phone apps collect and sell your data. Many apps and websites manipulate you through dark patterns, design elements that deliberately mislead, coerce or deceive website visitors. This is surveillance capitalism, and AI is shaping up to be part of it.

  • Florida’s Home Insurance Crisis Isn’t Going Away

    It’s hard to make money selling home insurance in Florida. For one thing, the state is very vulnerable to hurricanes, and those hurricanes are getting stronger thanks to climate change. A legal loophole has made the state a hotbed for fraudulent litigation over insurance claims, and companies lose even more money fighting those lawsuits. And reinsurers are charging insurance companies much higher fees owing to climate change-driven disaster losses.

  • Earth Just Had Its Hottest June on Record

    The world just sweltered through its hottest June in the 174-year global climate record. Additionally, Earth’s ocean surface temperature anomaly — which indicates how much warmer or cooler temperatures are from the long-term average — were the highest ever recorded.

  • Events That Never Happened Could Influence the 2024 Presidential Election – a Cybersecurity Researcher Explains Situation Deepfakes

    The basic idea and technology of a situation deepfake are the same as with any other deepfake, but with a bolder ambition: to manipulate a real event or invent one from thin air. Situation deepfakes have already been used in recent weeks – the first in a Republican National Committee’s ad against President Joe Biden, the second in an anti-Trump ad by Ron DeSantis’s campaign.

  • Bolstering Cyber Safety on Roads and Highways

    A new research center is helping prevent potential cyberattacks that could threaten to impede the safe and efficient movement of people and goods in the United States and throughout the world.