Press review EX - 29 March

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Come l'Occidente miope ha perso la sfida cinese alla globalizzazione? (italian)

Money.it

G e N Iuvinale

È giunto il momento di adeguare le normative, trovare nuove alleanze tra Paesi che la pensano allo stesso modo e mettere in sicurezza le relative economie.

China

South China Sea: China have deployed a long-term ocean observation platform

Extrema Ratio

Chinese scientists have deployed a long-term ocean observation platform in the South China Sea, with continuous video and data captured, the project leader told the Global Times on Monday. It is actually a dual use technology. It must be remembered that all apparently non-military investments from part of Chinese companies, especially state-owned enterprises, provide the PLA with the opportunity to exploit resources foreign civilians for military use.

China urges Apple to strengthen data security Reuters Ella Cao and Meg Shen China has urged Apple to strengthen its data security and personal privacy protection, the country's state planner said in a statement on Tuesday.

Android app from China executed 0-day exploit on millions of devices ArsTechnica Dan Goodin Android apps digitally signed by China’s third-biggest e-commerce company exploited a zero-day vulnerability that allowed them to surreptitiously take control of millions of end-user devices to steal personal data and install malicious apps, researchers from security firm Lookout have confirmed.

China plans to improve national blockchain tech standards system by 2025 Reuters China plans to improve its blockchain tech standards by 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the country's industry watchdog, said on Tuesday.

Ernie Bot, China’s answer to ChatGPT, is delayed — again The Washington Post Lyric Li and Meaghan Tobin While the American-made chatbots are mainly judged by how accurate and humanlike their responses are, chatbots developed in China must overcome an additional layer of scrutiny: the country’s strict censors. At least some of these challenges appear to have confounded the Chinese tech giant again, with the company on Monday morning saying it was canceling the public launch of Ernie Bot planned for that afternoon. Instead, it said it would hold a closed-door meeting with corporate clients to allow them to “better serve the strong demand.”

China to crack down on malicious online comments damaging reputation of businesses Reuters Kevin Yao China's cyberspace regulator vowed on Tuesday to clamp down on malicious online comments that damage the reputation of businesses and entrepreneurs, amid an official drive to shore up the private sector and spur economic growth.

Huobi’s new boss shakes up crypto firm with China plan The Wall Street Journal Weilun Soon and Elaine Yu Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun is attempting to revive the fortunes of digital-assets exchange Huobi by shifting its focus back to China—with the aid of a digital citizenship program from a tiny Caribbean island.

US charges Sam Bankman-Fried with bribing Chinese officials Financial Times Scott Chipolina and Joe Miller The US has accused former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried of paying a $40mn bribe to one or more Chinese government officials in a revised indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday.

Alibaba breaks up … itself

GZERO

Now we know the real reason Alibaba founder Jack Ma resurfaced in China this week. On Tuesday, the Chinese e-commerce giant announced it would spin off its different businesses into six units with separate CEOs under a single holding company. Each unit will be allowed to seek outside capital or go public independently.

Alibaba claims that the Chinese government did not order the restructuring, but it's an open secret that Xi Jinping thought the company had become too rich and powerful. The restructuring plan was unveiled the day after Ma made his first public appearance in the country since late 2020 to boost confidence in the tech company and within the broader sector. (His public criticism of regulators set off a broader crackdown against China's tech sector that hit Alibaba hard.)

Politics aside, Alibaba is just following in the footsteps of its main rivals, Tencent and JD.com, which had already demonstrated that they got the memo from Xi: Break yourself up before you become too big to fail, or it'll be worse if we have to do it for you. The question is, would this ever happen in the US to curb the power of Big Tech?

USA

US police have run nearly 1M Clearview AI searches, says founder The Register Brandon Vigliarolo US police have used Clearview AI facial recognition tech to conduct nearly one million searches since the company launched in 2017 – but its founder and CEO said he's still unwilling to testify to its accuracy.

Biden: GOP policies would surrender tech economy to China Associated Press Aamer Madhani President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Republicans’ ideas for cutting the budget could undermine U.S. manufacturing and help China dominate the world economy.

TikTok represents 'strategic' challenge, says top US cyber official Reuters Stephen Nellis The head of the U.S. National Security Agency's cybersecurity directorate on Monday said TikTok represents a "strategic issue" rather than an immediate "tactical" threat to the United States.

• Congress had a lot to say about TikTok. Much of it was wrong. The Washington Post Taylor Lorenz On Thursday, Republican Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter of Georgia lambasted TikTok CEO Shou Chew for alleged viral challenges he attributed to TikTok. With a board behind him featuring so-called “sleepy chicken” (chicken sautéed in NyQuil), he claimed that the Chinese Communist Party was engaging in “psychological warfare through TikTok to deliberately influence U.S. children” specifically through TikTok challenges. NyQuil chicken was never a “TikTok challenge.”

• Why TikTok users are making thirst trap memes after CEO Shou Zi Chew's congressional hearing ABC Rachel Rasker US lawmakers are trying to ban TikTok. So, naturally, the app's users have responded with memes and thirst traps. TikTok's CEO Shou Zi Chew faced a US House committee on March 23, where he was grilled by both parties about data security and safety concerns. His appearance at the hearing has since gone viral on — you guessed it — TikTok, where he's now known as 'daddy' or 'oppa' Shou.

Pentagon prepares for space warfare as potential threats from China, Russia grow The Wall Street Journal Doug Cameron The Pentagon is gearing up for a future conflict in space as China and Russia deploy missiles and lasers that can take out satellites and disrupt military and civilian communications.

CISA director says cutting agency’s budget would return it to ‘pre-SolarWinds world’ CyberScoop Christian Vasquez Pointing to the growing cybersecurity threat from China and the need to better safeguard U.S. critical infrastructure, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly defended the administration’s request to increase her agency’s funding by around 5% over last year to $3.1 billion.

• The Biden administration is calling for the creation of a joint tribunal in which Ukraine and international allies would try Russian leaders for crimes of aggression, Beth Van Schaack, the State Department’s ambassador, said on Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin could be immune from prosecution. Van Schaack acknowledged the administration’s reluctance to create a precedent that could pave the way for a similar court to prosecute U.S. leaders. Several former diplomats and academics want the U.N. General Assembly to set up a purely international judicial institution like the International Criminal Court at The Hague, which has ruled that it need not honor immunity for sitting heads of state. Glenn Thrush and Charlie Savage report for the New York Times.

• The U.S. has informed Russia that it will no longer exchange key data on its strategic nuclear forces following Moscow’s decision to suspend its participation in the New START treaty, U.S. officials said yesterday. The U.S. data being withheld include detailed information on the number of bombers, missiles, and nuclear warheads deployed at specific U.S. bases that had been exchanged every six months under New START. Michael R. Gordon for the Wall Street Journal.

• Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen today said, “external pressure will not stop Taiwan from engaging with the world” as she left for the U.S. after China threatened retaliation if she met House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. While not officially confirmed, Tsai is expected to meet McCarthy in California. Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said that such a meeting “will be another provocation that seriously violates the one-China principle, harms China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and destroys peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” and that China would “resolutely fight back.” Fabian Hamacher and Bernard Orr report for Reuters.

• The Biden administration yesterday imposed new trade restrictions on five Chinese companies for allegedly aiding in the repression of the Uyghur Muslim minority. At least four companies facing new curbs belong to a Chinese surveillance camera maker. Reuters reports.

• A Russian intelligence operative in the guise of a Brazilian student attempted to penetrate the U.S. security establishment, according to an indictment the Justice Department filed in federal court on Friday. Sergey Cherkasov studied at Johns Hopkins University and was offered a position at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Cherkasov is serving a 15-year prison sentence in Brazil, after being deported from the Netherlands, for document fraud related to his fake identity. Greg Miller reports for the Washington Post.

• At least 38 people have died at a migrant processing center in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in a fire that officials say started during a protest against deportations on Monday. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said migrants had set mattresses ablaze “when they learned that they’d be deported.” A statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection said they were “prepared to receive and process those who were injured in the fire and are being transported via ambulance from Mexican to U.S. medical facilities for treatment.” Vanessa Buschschlüter reports for BBC News.

• Biden to Host Argentine Leader at White House. Biden and Argentine President Alberto Fernández will celebrate (Buenos Aires Times, AFP) two hundred years of bilateral relations and discuss shared interests including critical minerals, climate change, and technology, the White House said. The meeting was originally set for last July but was postponed because Biden had COVID-19

Full Steam Ahead: Enhancing Maritime Cybersecurity

CSC 2.0

Since its inception, the United States has been a maritime nation dependent on its maritime transportation system (MTS) as vessels evolved from manpower-intensive wooden sailing ships to highly automated container ships. The U.S. MTS consists of approximately 25,000 miles of navigable waterways, 250 locks, 3,500 marine terminals, 29 container ports, thousands of recreational marinas, as well as the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway.

This infrastructure supports the tens of thousands of container ships, oil and gas carriers, chemical tankers, tugs and barges, cruise ships, ferries, and other vessels that drive a large portion of the U.S. economy and global trade. In this vital subsector of U.S. transportation, operators rely on technologies and industrial control systems to navigate, communicate, and control various aspects of maritime operations vital to national security and prosperity. It is a highly distributed, diverse subsector composed of subsystems — ships, ports, shipping lines, shipbuilders, cargo handlers, traffic controllers, and many more — each of which represents a network of systems on its own. A cyberattack against a complex maritime ecosystem could be devastating to the stability of the global economy. U.S. government and industry efforts to protect against such attacks, however, are lagging.

Idaho Bill To Restrict China Tech Advances to State Affairs Committee

China Tech Threat

In 2016, China was Idaho’s number two trade partner, and its rank has now dropped to number seven. At the same time, the Idaho State Legislature is also acting to restrict the use of dangerous China tech that opens the doors to intrusion as China Tech Threat’s recent report shows that the state of Idaho spent over $33 million on restricted Chinese technology. from Lexmark and Lenovo between 2015 and 2022. Introduced by Idaho Representatives Edward H. Hill and Sage G. Dixon, House Bill 294 adds to existing law to prohibit public entities from entering into certain contracts with companies owned or operated by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The bill passed the House by a vote of 62-7-1 and will next be taken up by the Senate State Affairs Committee.

Taiwan

Viewpoint: As an angry China looms, Taiwan’s president seeks support in the Americas

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Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen will travel to the US, Guatemala, and Belize from March 29 to April 7 against a backdrop of deepening tensions with China, which regards Taiwan as a breakaway province. In the US, Tsai is expected to meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and in Guatemala and Belize she aims to shore up relations with two of the last 13 countries in the world that recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty. We asked experts at Eurasia Group to explain the motivations behind Tsai’s visit.

Americas

Meta, Google defend Brazilian law on Internet platform responsibility for content Reuters Anthony Boadle Meta and Alphabet Inc's Google defended before the Supreme Court on Tuesday a Brazilian law that holds Internet platforms are not responsible for content posted by users unless they are subject to a court order.

Mexico will not prohibit Chinese-owned TikTok app, says president Reuters Valentine Hilaire The Mexican government will not ban the popular video sharing social media application TikTok, the country's president said on Monday, even as the United States moves closer to a possible prohibition on the Chinese-owned app due to security concerns.

• Colombia/Venezuela: Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he will convene an international conference (Anadolu) to promote dialogue between Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela’s opposition. Prominent opposition figure Juan Guaidó said internationally mediated talks are already underway but that Maduro lacks the will for progress.

North Asia

North Korean hackers turn to ‘cloud mining’ for crypto to avoid law enforcement scrutiny CyberScoop Tonya Riley A North Korean espionage unit suspected of impersonating journalists and faking LinkedIn accounts to collect intelligence is using a novel way to fund their international hacking operations: renting out cloud-based power to mine for cryptocurrency.

China's response to U.S. curbs a risk for Taiwan: MediaTek chairman Nikkei Asia Lauly Li Taiwan's smaller chip design companies are likely to be hit by China's refocus on older chip technologies amid a crackdown by the U.S., the chairman of the world's largest mobile chip design company has warned.

Myanmar

• Myanmar Junta Dissolves Forty Political Parties Ahead of Elections.The junta said the parties failed to meet a registration deadline (AP). One of the dissolved parties was the National League for Democracy of Myanmar’s former de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. It had previously said it would not register because it viewed the elections as a sham.

Pakistan

• Pakistan: Authorities have closed some stores owned by Chinese nationals after intelligence alerts showed that the stores could soon be targeted by terrorist attacks, Nikkei reported. Separatists and terrorist groups have frequently targeted Chinese residents in recent years.

Central Asia

• Kazakhstan poised to intensify vetting of re-exports to Russia. In a fresh attempt to avoid getting stung for enabling Russia to circumvent Western-imposed sanctions, Kazakhstan will on April 1 introduce an online system to track all goods entering and exiting the country. Kazakh traders have been helping fill Russian demand for high-tech consumer goods and other items hard to obtain under Western sanctions.

• Taliban take control of Tajik consulate. The Afghan consulate in the eastern Tajikistan city of Khorog has passed under the control of the Taliban regime, while staff at the main embassy in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, are still considering their options, a diplomatic source has told Eurasianet. It is an intriguing development; Tajikistan’s president is no fan of the Taliban.

• Uzbekistan pursues dialogue with Afghanistan on fraught canal project. The Taliban government is building a massive canal across northern Afghanistan that will divert water from the dying Amu Darya river. Uzbekistan should be alarmed.

• Turkmenistan: Canal fixation. Elections that don’t matter, Russia sows paranoia, and trouble upstream for Turkmen farmers: Our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.

Caucasus

• Azerbaijani armed forces advance to close off Armenia-Karabakh road. Armenians had been using the road to bypass a blockade in the Lachin Corridor. Baku’s move drew a rare rebuke from the Russian peacekeepers.

• International diplomacy picks up amid rising fears of violence in Karabakh. The U.S. and Russia have both made high-level contact with Armenian and Azerbaijani officials as the rhetoric from Baku grows increasingly bellicose.

• Armenia embarks on healthcare reform with costs unclear. Details are sparse on how the government plans to pay for the reform, and how it plans to improve the quality of care in parallel.

• Deaths of Islamic figures highlight political and religious divide in Azerbaijan. There were widely different reactions to the passing of the cleric and the Islamic activist, who were on opposite sides of the political spectrum.

Georgia

• Major hydropower project caught up in Georgia's "foreign agent" turmoil. The ruling party says Western-funded NGOs aided what it called Russia-sponsored protests against the construction of a hydropower plant.

• Russian responds to Georgian protests. Russian officials and propagandists had several reactions to the recent crisis in Georgia: gloating, echoing the Georgian government's rhetoric, and casually threatening to bomb Tbilisi into the ground.

• Germany's Baerbock arrives in Tbilisi amid EU uncertainty. Before her visit, the top diplomat spoke about "attempts to divert the country from its pro-European course."

• Pro-government TV targets sexual harassment victim as allegations mount. One of Georgia's most prominent pro-government propagandists is using his TV channel to hound a women who won a sexual harassment case against him.

Europe

Belgian intelligence puts Huawei on its watchlist POLITICO Samuel Stolton and Laurens Cerulus Belgium's intelligence service is scrutinizing the operations of technology giant Huawei as fears of Chinese espionage grow around the EU and NATO headquarters in Brussels, according to confidential documents seen by POLITICO and three people familiar with the matter.

Polish council recommends banning TikTok on public administration phones - media Reuters Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk A Polish government advisory body has recommended banning the use of Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok on the work phones of public administration employees, Polish media reported on Monday.

• Russia’s economy is predicted to enter a long-term regression as oil and gas exports to Europe stop and the labor force shrinks due to young people joining the military or fleeing. There is no sign that the economic difficulties pose a short-term threat to Russia’s ability to wage war. However, state revenue shortfalls may make it challenging to reconcile ballooning military expenditure with the subsidies and social spending that shield civilians from hardship. “Despite Russia’s resilience in the short term, the long-term picture is bleak: Moscow will be much more inward-looking and overly dependent on China,” said Maria Shagina, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank in London. Georgi Kantchev and Evan Gershkovich report for the Wall Street Journal.

• Greek authorities foiled a terrorist attack against Jewish and Israeli targets in Greece and arrested two Pakistanis over an alleged plot that Israel’s foreign minister blamed on Iran, officials said yesterday. According to a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, Israeli intelligence service Mossad helped Greek authorities unravel the alleged terror network and identified the link to Iran. Laurence Norman reports for the Wall Street Journal.

• Brussels: After settling concerns from Germany, the European Union approved a plan (Politico) to phase out sales of new combustion-engine cars and vans by 2035. Germany had sought an exception for vehicles that use synthetic fuels, a greener alternative to gasoline that will now be regulated in follow-on legislation.

UK

UK government drops plans for NFT made by Royal Mint The Guardian Alex Hern The UK government has dropped its plans to produce a non-fungible token for sale through the Royal Mint, just under a year after it first announced the project.

Australia

Latitude hack prompts possible class action after millions of records stolen The Australian Sarah Ison and Joseph Lam Latitude Financial Services is facing a potential class action over the theft of 14 million consumer records following a cyber attack this month, as the Coalition says the incident is a “test” for the government’s new laws ramping up maximum fines on companies that fail to protect customer data.

Iran

Iran-Backed Athens Attack Foiled With Mossad Help

FDD

With the help of the Mossad, Greek authorities have foiled an Iranian-backed terrorist attack on Jews and Israelis in Athens, officials said on Tuesday. Two Pakistani nationals are under arrest on suspicion of planning the attack against an Israeli restaurant in the Greek capital, local police said. According to Greek media reports, the suspects also had an Athens synagogue in their sights.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed the reports and said Mossad sleuths helped the Greeks uncover the suspects’ network and working methods. In doing so, the investigators determined that Iran was running them. A March 20 advisory by Israel’s National Security Council recommended caution while traveling abroad for Passover due to ongoing Iranian efforts to strike at Israelis and Jews. The advisory cited such plots uncovered over the past two years in Georgia, Turkey, and Cyprus.

Iran Obtains Advanced Cyber Warfare Capabilities from Russia

FDD Russia is helping Iran advance its cyber warfare and digital surveillance capabilities, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The cooperation comes as the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that Russia likely has continued to receive regular shipments of Iranian drones, such as the Shahed-136 suicide drone, and has launched 71 Shahed-style drones against targets in Ukraine in March following a two-week pause in late February.

Saudi Arabia

• Saudi Arabia’s cabinet today approved a decision to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (S.C.O.) as Riyadh builds a long-term partnership with China despite U.S. security concerns. The S.C.O. is a political and security union of countries spanning much of Eurasia, including China, India, and Russia. It is intended to act as a counterweight to Western influence in the region. Reuters reports.

Israeli

• The Israeli government and the opposition yesterday began the first direct negotiations to reach a compromise on the controversial judicial overhaul. Four government negotiators and eight opposition counterparts held a meeting hosted by Israel’s figurehead president, Isaac Herzog. Participants said the meeting was mainly a preliminary effort to set ground rules for future discussions. Patrick Kingsley reports for the New York Times.

• The government and opposition yesterday held their first talks (Times of Israel) aimed at finding a compromise on controversial judicial reforms. The planned overhaul has raised tensions (CNN) between U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with Biden saying yesterday that Israel “cannot continue down this road.”

Africa

• Ethiopia’s Abiy Says He Seeks a Peace Deal With Oromia Rebels. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said he hoped his administration and fighters from the Oromia region could hold talks (AP) similar to those that the government held with rebels from the Tigray region last year, which resulted in a peace agreement. A spokesperson for the Oromo Liberation Army rebel group said negotiations would require an international mediator.

• Senegal: Opposition activists in Dakar said they would defy a protest ban (France 24, AFP) to denounce this week’s defamation trial of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko.

North Korea

• North Korea is engaging in an increasingly prolific cyberespionage operation that uses social engineering and fraudulent personas to gather intelligence, according to a new report released yesterday by cybersecurity firm Mandiant. North Korean hackers, known as Advanced Persistent Threat 43, play the “long con” through unusually aggressive social engineering targeting South Korean, Japanese, and American individuals with insight into international negotiations and sanctions affecting North Korea, and stealing cryptocurrency to sustain their operations, according to Mandiant researchers. Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Tim Starks report for the Washington Post.

• How North Korea is laundering stolen crypto

• The process conceals the pilfered coins while unearthing new ones. (Wired $)

• + Crypto venture capitalists are going back to basics. (The Information $)

• + Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly tried to bribe Chinese officials. (CNN)

• Chinese Ambassador Takes Up Post in North Korea. Ambassador Wang Yajun is the first foreign diplomat to arrive (SCMP) in the country since January 2020. His posting is seen as a sign that North Korea is relaxing (AP) its pandemic-related restrictions.

Big Tech

Twitter to promote only paying users’ tweets, Elon Musk announces The Guardian Alex Hern Twitter’s feed will promote only the tweets of users paying its £8 monthly subscription service, Elon Musk, the site’s owner and chief executive, has tweeted.

Twitter is dying TechCrunch Natasha Lomas Since Musk took over he has set about dismantling everything that made Twitter valuable — making it his mission to drive out expertise, scare away celebrities, bully reporters and — on the flip side — reward the bad actors, spammers and sycophants who thrive in the opposite environment: An information vacuum.

• Twitter is getting closer to finding out who leaked its code

• A court is allowing it to subpoena GitHub for leaker data. (Bloomberg $)

• + Bafflingly, Twitter has stopped showing replies properly. (The Verge)

• + The company has reversed its recent For You page changes. (Insider $)

• + Certain celebrity accounts receive special treatment. (Platformer $)

Artificial Intelligence

AI could replace equivalent of 300 million jobs - report BBC Chris Vallance Artificial intelligence could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs, a report by investment bank Goldman Sachs says. It could replace a quarter of work tasks in the US and Europe but may also mean new jobs and a productivity boom.

Microsoft’s latest use for GPT4: Stopping hackers The Washington Post Gerrit De Vynck Microsoft’s rapid campaign to integrate new artificial intelligence technology into its broad range of products continued Tuesday as the tech giant announced a new cybersecurity “co-pilot” meant to help companies track and defend against hacking attempts, upping the ante in the never-ending arms race between hackers and the cybersecurity professionals trying to keep them at bay.

Who’s winning the AI race? It’s not that simple. Foreign Policy Rishi Iyengar The United States is no stranger to technological arms races, having spent much of the Cold War in a two-pronged one-upmanship effort against the Soviet Union to build bigger rockets and land those on the moon. Its rivalry now is with China, and the latest battleground is artificial intelligence.

AI computing startup Cerebras releases open source ChatGPT-like models Reuters Jane Lee Artificial intelligence chip startup Cerebras Systems on Tuesday said it released open source ChatGPT-like models for the research and business community to use for free in an effort to foster more collaboration.

Chinese creators use Midjourney’s AI to generate retro urban “photography”

MIT

Across social media, a number of creators are generating nostalgic photographs of China with the help of AI. Even though these images get some details wrong, they are realistic enough to trick and impress many of their followers.

The pictures look sophisticated in terms of definition, sharpness, saturation, and color tone. Their realism is partly down to a recent major update of image-making artificial-intelligence program Midjourney that was released in mid-March, which is better not only at generating human hands but also at simulating various photography styles.

It’s still relatively easy, even for untrained eyes, to tell that the photos are generated by an AI. But for some creators, their experiments are more about trying to recall a specific era in time than trying to trick their audience.

• AI Experts, Tech Entrepreneurs Call for Pause on ChatGPT to Weigh Risks to Society. An open letter signed by hundreds of artificial intelligence (AI) experts, tech businesspeople, and scientists called for a six-month pause (Wired) on the development and testing of AI languages stronger than the GPT-4 technology used by ChatGPT so that the risks to society can be studied. Goldman Sachs estimates that as many as three hundred million jobs around the world could be automated (CNN) by the latest wave of AI languages.

Misc

Disney eliminates its metaverse division as part of company’s layoffs plan The Wall Street Journal Robbie Whelan and Joe Flint Walt Disney Co. has eliminated its next-generation storytelling and consumer-experiences unit, the small division that was developing metaverse strategies, according to people familiar with the situation, as part of a broader restructuring that is expected to reduce head count by around 7,000 across the company over the next two months.

Photo: La Cina di Xi Jinping - Verso un nuovo ordine mondiale sinocentrico? Gabriele e Nicola Iuvinale

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