Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

How should the tech industry approach the topic of AI safety? Increasingly, high-level executives are weighing in on this question, as a debate rages over whether incidents like the Hugging Face incident — in which an OpenAI agent hacked several different companies — suggest that AI is on the verge of throwing our world into chaos. In recent weeks, prominent labs have called for a slowing of the AI advancement. Most dramatically, CEO Dario Amodei penned a nearly 4,000 word essay in which he laid out the case for why AI development should be decelerated so that adequate guardrails can…

OpenAI has presented new examples of what they call “AI model misalignment” from the past six months, including unauthorized file uploads, following self-generated instructions, hiding mistakes, and leveraging exposed API keys. OpenAI uses the term “model misalignment” to describe cases where AI models act contrary to their intended constraints, including taking unauthorized actions, evading oversight, or bypassing safeguards to complete a task. In a post published yesterday, OpenAI says it is now using a new framework to track and investigate these unsanctioned actions by AI agents. “We are sharing a new framework for tracking, investigating, and disclosing instances of model misalignment at…

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has expanded regulatory relief for “passive software” providers that connect users to regulated derivatives firms and exchanges.In a no-action position issued Thursday, the agency’s Market Participants Division said it would not recommend enforcement against qualifying providers or their personnel for failing to register as introducing brokers or associated persons when facilitating trading with CFTC-registered firms and exchanges.The position could make it easier for crypto wallets and other apps to offer access to regulated derivatives, including perpetual contracts and prediction markets, without becoming CFTC-regulated introducing brokers themselves.Source: CFTCTo qualify, providers must meet conditions limiting their…

Nepal plans to use a new study linking climate change to the deadly floods last month as the basis of a financial request from a United Nations fund.The BBC understands that Nepal hopes to claim around $20m (£15m) from the UN Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, which helps countries affected by climate change.Around 1,400 people have died in the disaster while 6,150 people remain missing in Nepal as of Wednesday, according official data.The study by research group World Weather Attribution, published on Thursday, says climate change was a likely contributing factor in the avalanche of rock and ice…

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Heavy rain caused flooding across parts of northern Vietnam on Thursday, disrupting travel, inundating homes and pushing several rivers above dangerous levels, authorities and state media said. Rain has fallen across northern and north-central Vietnam this week, with some areas receiving more than 50 centimeters (19.7 inches), according to the disaster prevention department. More than 2,000 homes have been submerged, many key transportation routes blocked and more than 1,000 households isolated. Ninh Binh and Thanh Hoa provinces, which include lowland and hilly areas south of the capital Hanoi, have been among the hardest hit.…

The wife of a US scholar imprisoned in China on charges of spying and endangering national security has asked President Donald Trump to secure his release when he meets Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House next week. U Min Zin, the director at a think tank focused on Myanmar, was arrested on 3 June after travelling to the Chinese city of Kunming for an academic conference. “I’m deeply hopeful that President Trump will raise my husband’s case with President Xi Jinping at the summit next week,” his wife, Sylvia Zin, testified to Congress on Wednesday.Xi is due to…

For the first time since worries about AI eradicating humanity sparked a wave of calls for immediate regulation, the companies were all under one roof. Charles addressed the dire warnings in his remarks to his guests.  “There seems urgency in adequately considering the existential dangers of such technologies falling into the wrong hands and being used in potentially catastrophic ways,” he said. “Surely, then, we need sufficient means of control before it is all too late.”  But after weeks of fervent debate about the need to increase oversight and slow the pace of development, tech leaders at the event were…

Prime Minister Andy Burnham is facing calls to set a national waiting-time target for dementia care in England.An Alzheimer’s Society proposal to set an 18‑week referral‑to‑treatment target has been backed by Professor Sir Mike Richards, England’s former national cancer director, and Baroness Louise Casey, who’s leading a major review of adult social care.In a report, Alzheimer’s Society and the King’s Trust said a “cancer-style revolution” was needed to improve dementia care, which they described as being “stuck in the 20th century”.In a speech at Alzheimer’s Society conference on Thursday, Social Care Minister Alison McGovern expressed support for the report, external.She…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldA top Florida Republican lawmaker warned that Hispanic voters felt “betrayed” by Donald Trump, issuing a stark rebuke of the president’s immigration crackdown ahead of the midterm elections.María Elvira Salazar broke with Trump in a 30-second ad filmed in front of the White House as a growing cast of Republicans distance themselves from the president and his policies to avoid defeat in the November vote. “Mr President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” Salazar, a member…

Half a year after Iranian drone strikes knocked out multiple Amazon data centers, the US tech company has acknowledged the permanent loss of some customer data that was hosted in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.Amazon Web Services was “unable to restore access to the resources and data” hosted in some of the war-damaged data centers, according to an AWS dashboard update posted on September 15. The development was first reported by Reuters and suggests that the Iranian strikes inflicted catastrophic damage on the data centers.Customer data was irretrievably lost in one of three AWS availability zones in the United…