Science, Technology, and Public Policy

The xz Utils backdoor incident reveals that the security of the global internet depends on countless obscure pieces of software written and maintained by even more obscure unpaid, distractible, and sometimes vulnerable volunteers. It’s an untenable situation, and one that is being exploited by malicious actors. Yet precious little is being done to remedy it.

Who should pay for massive, state-sponsored cyberattacks that cause billions of dollars’ worth of damage?

The collection and sale of consumer data is too lucrative for companies to say no to participating in the data broker economy. New rules proposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may help eliminate the incentive for companies to buy and sell consumer data.

Sensors, actuators, and IoT devices will enable AI to interact with the physical plane on a massive scale. The question is, how does one build trust in its actions?

Spying has always been limited by the need for human labor. A.I. is going to change that, says Bruce Schneier.

Teaching generative AI systems to manipulate tools has the potential to supercharge AI applications - and comes with tremendous risks.

ChatGPT and other natural language models have recently sparked considerable intrigue and unease. Governments and businesses are increasingly acknowledging the role of Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) in shaping the cybersecurity landscape. This article discusses the implications of using GPTs in software development and the potential impact on cybersecurity in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). While GPTs can improve efficiency and productivity for programmers, they will not replace human programmers due to the complex decision-making processes involved in programming beyond simply writing code. And while they may help in finding shallow bugs to prevent short-lived vulnerabilities, GPTs are unlikely to change the balance of power between offense and defense in cybersecurity.

Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders propose six milestones that will herald a new era of democratic politics driven by AI in the near future.

An April seminar co-organized by the Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative and the Arctic Mayors’ Forum, “Building Climate Resilience in the Urban Arctic,” brought together mayors and climate officials from the municipalities across the Arctic to discuss how climate change was impacting their cities and how their cities were responding to those impacts. The speakers also drew out lessons that other climate-vulnerable cities elsewhere in the world could learn from the Arctic experience.

AI is shaping up to be part of surveillance capitalism, warn Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders.