Science & Technology

598 Items

Rohit Chopra and Pete Buttigieg

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File

Analysis & Opinions - cyberscoop

CFPB’s Proposed Data Rules Would Improve Security, Privacy and Competition

| Jan. 24, 2024

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.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks about government regulations on artificial intelligence systems during an event in the East Room of the White House, Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, in Washington.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Policy Brief

Action on AI: Unpacking the Executive Order’s Security Implications and the Road Ahead

| Nov. 08, 2023

On October 30, 2023, President Biden issued the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, aimed at realizing the benefits of AI, while mitigating critical risks. This article provides an overview of its key national security initiatives and explores issues relevant to implementation.

Neural net completion for "artificial intelligence"

Wikimedia Commons

Analysis & Opinions - Georgetown Journal of International Affairs

GPTs, Software Engineering, and a New Age of Hacking

| Aug. 16, 2023

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.

A lighthouse, battered by waves, sits at the center of this dark and stormy seascape.

AP Photo/Matt Dunham

Report - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Democracy and the Liberal World Order Amid the Rise of Authoritarianism

| Aug. 14, 2023

The entanglement and feedback loops among the domestic and the geopolitical cycles of distrust have resulted in a cohesive threat to democracy: a downward political spiral that is pulling societies towards enmity. This spiral feeds on and generates destructive human emotions at massive scale, such as outrage and hatred, that lead to violence, war, and autocracy, so it can be better understood as a dangerous global maelstrom of distrust, which could sink democracy worldwide. As showcased by historical evidence, domestic and international forces do not act in isolation from each other. Democratic backsliding, the rise of authoritarianism and totalitarianism, and the politics of aggression generated feedback loops in the 1930s, that resulted in WWII. Similar forces are again working in the 2020s. If massive distrust can wreck democracy worldwide, it follows that the regeneration of trust is the path to democratic revitalization.