Governance
Mayor-Elect Mamdani Can Build a Tech Agenda for New York and a Model for the Country
(Rebecca Williams – Tech Policy Press – 5 November 2025) New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has already proven he knows how to build power from the ground up. When he assumes office in January, he has the opportunity to translate that power into a clear tech policy agenda that is consistent with his campaign. The platform that voters endorsed in Tuesday’s election includes bold commitments around housing, transit, and justice—but it offers only a few surface mentions of technology. Few have yet laid out the specifics he will need to make tech work for people rather than for extraction and exploitation. As a New York state legislator, Mamdani supported the STOP FAKES Act to curb government deception online and backed Bill A1755 under the ConnectAll initiative to expand internet access for residents in temporary housing. The Democratic Socialists of America, of which Mamdani is a member, call for city-owned broadband and universal access, curbs on police surveillance tech and data-sharing, a Data Bill of Rights, public alternatives to Big Tech (including platform co-ops), and stronger worker power in tech; his administration can advance these goals. And today, Mamdani announced that former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan, a luminary in the fight for economic and social justice, to his transition team, which suggests tech will be at the forefront of his administration’s concerns. – https://www.techpolicy.press/mayor-elect-mamdani-can-build-a-tech-agenda-for-new-york-and-a-model-for-the-country/
Inclusive Digital Public Infrastructure Expands Public Power and Value
(Emrys Schoemaker, Siddharth Peter De Souza – Tech Policy Press – 5 November 2025) On Tuesday, Solly Malatsi, the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies for South Africa, which currently holds the Presidency of the G20, welcomed delegates to the Global Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Summit in Cape Town. He described a vision for DPI in which digital systems could ‘realize human dignity’ and ‘cross-border interoperability’ could help strengthen regional associations and relations. As leaders from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the World Bank opened the conference, a diverse group of governments, technical experts, civil society representatives and funders met to explore how to realize the ambition of the conference: “Implementing Tomorrow’s Digital Society Today.”. Along with the emphasis on design and implementation of DPI among the practitioners at the summit, a third stream of discussion on governance is acquiring prominence. Governance can quite easily become a catch-all phrase, depoliticized and reduced to a check box exercise. But how can governance frameworks engage with multi-polarity and multi-culturality to redistribute power that comes with digital infrastructures? Further, in what ways can governance serve the interests of diverse publics, and how can they negotiate the links between the functions of DPI and sovereign interests? – https://www.techpolicy.press/inclusive-digital-public-infrastructure-expands-public-power-and-value/
What a New Study Reveals About the ‘Production-Consumption Gap’ on Social Media
(Prithvi Iyer – Tech Policy Press – 5 November 2025) Research into the impact of social media on issues such as information integrity and political polarization has frequently surfaced a pattern: a tiny minority of highly active users produce the vast majority of political content, while most users are passive observers. For instance, previous research on the spread of fake news on Twitter found that a tiny minority of users—supersharers—disproportionately contributed to its spread in the lead-up to the 2020 US election. A new preprint research paper by social scientists Lisa Oswald, William Small Schulz, Ralph Hertwig, David Lazer, and Sebastian Stier analyzes this “production-consumption gap” and explores how this may lead citizens and scholars alike to “draw incorrect inferences regarding the submerged mass of public opinion.” The phenomenon has important implications, in particular, for the study of the relationship between social media and political polarization and for the design of policy interventions. – https://www.techpolicy.press/what-a-new-study-reveals-about-the-productionconsumption-gap-on-social-media/
UNESCO and CANIETI promote responsible AI adoption in Mexico
(DigWatch – 5 November 2025) UNESCO and CANIETI, with Microsoft’s support, have launched the ‘Mexico Model’ to promote ethical and responsible AI use in Mexican companies. The initiative seeks to minimise risks throughout AI development while ensuring alignment with human rights, ethics, and sustainable development. – https://dig.watch/updates/unesco-and-canieti-promote-responsible-ai-adoption-in-mexico – https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-and-canieti-microsoft-support-implement-model-ethical-and-responsible-artificial-intelligence
Salesforce report shows poor data quality threatens AI success
(DigWatch – 5 November 2025) A new Salesforce report warns that most organisations are unprepared to scale AI due to weak data foundations. The ‘State of Data and Analytics 2025’ study found that 84% of technical leaders believe their data strategies need a complete overhaul for AI initiatives to succeed. – https://dig.watch/updates/salesforce-report-shows-poor-data-quality-threatens-ai-success – https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/data-analytics-trends-2026/
OpenAI introduces IndQA to test AI on Indian languages and culture
(DigWatch – 5 November 2025) The US R&D company, OpenAI, has introduced IndQA, a new benchmark designed to test how well AI systems understand and reason across Indian languages and cultural contexts. The benchmark covers 2,278 questions in 12 languages and 10 cultural domains, from literature and food to law and spirituality. – https://dig.watch/updates/openai-introduces-indqa-to-test-ai-on-indian-languages-and-culture – https://openai.com/index/introducing-indqa/
Cloudflare chief warns AI is redefining the internet’s business model
(DigWatch – 5 November 2025) AI is inserting itself between companies and customers, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince warned in Toronto. More people ask chatbots before visiting sites, dulling brands’ impact. Even research teams lose revenue as investors lean on AI summaries. – https://dig.watch/updates/cloudflare-chief-warns-ai-is-redefining-the-internets-business-model
Claude arrives in Icelandic classrooms through national teacher pilot
(DigWatch – 5 November 2025) Anthropic and Iceland’s Ministry of Education will give teachers across the country access to Claude, training, and support. The pilot tests how AI can aid lesson preparation, differentiation, and feedback while safeguarding the Icelandic language. Participation spans Reykjavik to remote villages. – https://dig.watch/updates/claude-arrives-in-icelandic-classrooms-through-national-teacher-pilot – https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-and-iceland-announce-one-of-the-world-s-first-national-ai-education-pilots
AI Alignment Cannot Be Top-Down
(Audrey Tang – AI Frontiers – 3 November 2025) In March 2024, I opened Facebook and saw Jensen Huang’s face. The Nvidia CEO was offering investment advice, speaking directly to me in Mandarin. Of course, it was not really Huang. It was an AI-generated scam, and I was far from the first to be targeted: across Taiwan, a flood of scams was defrauding millions of citizens. We faced a dilemma. Taiwan has the freest internet in Asia; any content regulation is unacceptable. Yet AI was being used to weaponize that freedom against the citizenry. Our response — and its success — demonstrates something fundamental about how AI alignment must work. We did not ask experts to solve it. We did not let a handful of researchers decide what counted as “fraud.” Instead, we sent 200,000 random text messages asking citizens: what should we do together? Four hundred forty-seven everyday Taiwanese — mirroring our entire population by age, education, region, occupation — deliberated in groups of 10. They were not seeking perfect agreement but uncommon ground — ideas that people with different views could still find reasonable. Within months, we had unanimous parliamentary support for new laws. By 2025, the scam ads were gone. This is what I call attentiveness: giving the people real, ongoing power to steer technology. It is the foundation of how Taiwan has aligned AI with our society. And it is the missing ingredient in global AI alignment efforts. – https://aifrontiersmedia.substack.com/p/ai-alignment-cannot-be-top-down
Geostrategies
Blackwell stance on China exports holds as Washington weighs tech pace
(DigWatch – 5 November 2025) AI export policy in Washington remains firm, with officials saying the most advanced Nvidia Blackwell chips will not be sold to China. A White House spokesperson confirmed the stance during a briefing. The position follows weeks of speculation about scaled-down variants. – https://dig.watch/updates/blackwell-stance-on-china-exports-holds-as-washington-weighs-tech-pace – https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/nvidia-cant-sell-most-advanced-093000731.html
AWS launches Fastnet, a subsea cable to strengthen transatlantic cloud and AI connectivity
(DigWatch – 5 Novembre 2025) Amazon Web Services has announced Fastnet, a high-capacity transatlantic subsea cable connecting Maryland and County Cork. Set to be operational in 2028, Fastnet will expand AWS’s network resilience and deliver faster, more reliable cloud and AI services between the US and Europe. – https://dig.watch/updates/aws-launches-fastnet-a-subsea-cable-to-strengthen-transatlantic-cloud-and-ai-connectivity – https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/transatlantic-subsea-cable-us-ireland-fastnet-aws
Microsoft invests $15 billion in AI growth across the UAE
(DigWatch – 5 November 2025) Microsoft will invest $15.2 billion in the UAE by 2029 to expand AI infrastructure, develop talent, and build trust across the region. The investment encompasses a $1.5 billion stake in G42, significant AI and cloud data centre spending, and local operating costs to bolster the UAE’s digital economy. – https://dig.watch/updates/microsoft-invests-15-billion-in-ai-growth-across-the-uae – https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2025/11/03/microsofts-15-2-billion-usd-investment-in-the-uae/
Microsoft partners with Lambda in multibillion AI infrastructure deal
(DigWatch – 5 November 2025) Lambda has announced a multibillion-euro agreement with Microsoft to expand AI infrastructure powered by tens of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs, marking one of the largest private cloud computing collaborations to date. The multi-year deal aims to accelerate the deployment of AI supercomputers at scale, enhancing the capacity for enterprise and research applications across industries. – https://dig.watch/updates/microsoft-partners-with-lambda-in-multibillion-ai-infrastructure-deal – https://lambda.ai/blog/lambda-announces-multibillion-dollar-agreement-with-microsoft-to-deploy-ai-infrastructure-powered-by-tens-of-thousands-of-nvidia-gpus
Security and Surveillance
ICE’s Reckless Reliance on Facial Recognition Puts Us All In Danger
(Jake Laperruque – Tech Policy Press – 5 November 2025) Could errors from an AI surveillance tool cause Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to grab and detain you? The agency’s use of facial recognition — and alarming new details on its reckless procedures for doing so — make that sci-fi-sounding nightmare an all too real risk for anyone walking down the street. This year, ICE began deploying facial recognition in the field for the first time, a departure from past practices where it was only used in investigatory settings. Use of facial recognition during field operations (rather than in-office) inherently creates risks given the technology’s temperamental and error-prone nature. The accuracy of facial recognition systems can vary significantly based on lighting, angle, distance, camera quality, system settings, and numerous other factors; some algorithms are even less accurate based on individuals’ skin color. For this reason, it’s imperative that any law enforcement use of facial recognition subjects potential matches to rigorous human review and independent confirmation. – https://www.techpolicy.press/ices-reckless-reliance-on-facial-recognition-puts-us-all-in-danger/
Major crypto fraud network dismantled across Europe
(DigWatch – 5 November 2025) European authorities have dismantled one of the continent’s largest cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering schemes, arresting nine suspects across Cyprus, Spain, and Germany. The network allegedly defrauded hundreds of investors through fake crypto platforms, stealing over €600 million. – https://dig.watch/updates/major-crypto-fraud-network-dismantled-across-europe – https://www.occrp.org/en/news/europe-wide-crackdown-targets-crypto-fraud-600m-euros-stolen
Threat actors manipulating AI to “enhance all stages” of malicious attacks, Google intel warns
(Cybernews – 5 November 2025) From ransomware and credential stealing to new malware strains, even posing as capture-the-flag (CTF) participants to manipulate chatbots, threat actors are officially embracing AI tools like never before, enhancing all stages of the cyberattack lifecycle, Google threat intelligence warns. – https://cybernews.com/ai-news/threat-actors-abuse-ai-tools-cyberattacks-google-intel-warns/
Crooks now using AI to generate convincing pharmaceutical scams
(Cybernews – 5 November 2025) Scammers are now impersonating licensed physicians and medical clinics to promote counterfeit or unsafe medications. They frequently leverage AI and deepfake technology to generate convincing fake photos, videos, and endorsements, putting people’s lives at risk. According to researchers at Check Point, a cybersecurity firm, this new online threat combines fraud, social engineering, and genuine health risks. That’s because victims are persuaded to purchase and consume unapproved or potentially dangerous substances marketed as legitimate prescriptions. – https://cybernews.com/security/pharmaceutical-scams-health-risks-ai/
Operation Chargeback: 4.3 million cardholders affected, EUR 300 million in damages
(Europol – 5 November 2025) On 4 November 2025, an international coordinated action day targeted three major fraud and money laundering networks as part of Operation “Chargeback.” Led by the Cybercrime Department (Landeszentralstelle Cybercrime) of the General Prosecutor’s Office (Generalstaatsanwaltschaft) in Koblenz, Germany, and the German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt), the operation has been investigating these networks since December 2020. More than 60 house searches were conducted and a total of 18 arrest warrants executed. The criminal networks are suspected of misusing credit card data from over 4.3 million cardholders across 193 countries. In total, the estimated damage from the fraud scheme exceeds EUR 300 million, with attempted damages amounting to over EUR 750 million. – https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/operation-chargeback-43-million-cardholders-affected-eur-300-million-in-damages
Third-party leak exposes Stanford Health Care staff details, passwords
(Cybernews – 5 November 2025) Names, payroll data, hashed passwords, and thousands of other sensitive records belonging to Stanford Health Care’s staff were exposed after a third-party contractor, Perfectshift, left an unprotected database accessible to the public. The Cybernews research team discovered the leak in late August, after noticing an unprotected MongoDB database hosted by Perfectshift, a healthcare workforce management services provider. According to our team, the exposed database included employee and contractor account details for Stanford Health Care (SHC) and Hillsboro Medical Center (HMC). SHC is a prestigious hospital system affiliated with the Stanford University School of Medicine. HMC is a medical care facility located in Oregon. – https://cybernews.com/security/perfectshift-data-leak-payroll-data/
ChatGPT spews more Russian propaganda than other chatbots
(Cybernews – 5 November 2025) Popular chatbots cite sources controlled by the Russian state when inquired about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine about 18% of the time, a study finds. Although only a small fraction of Americans (9%) get news from chatbots, they can still influence users’ opinions due to their persuasive nature, especially given the declining trust in news organizations. Russia, which launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has reportedly used the strategy of “large language model (LLMs) grooming,” aimed at manipulating LLMs into including Russian misinformation in their responses. – https://cybernews.com/ai-news/chatgpt-russian-propaganda/
UK government cracks down on choking porn
(Cybernews – 5 November 2025) Online pornography showing strangulations and choking will be made illegal in the UK. Mainstream pornography sites have a multitude of videos containing choking content, which the UK government is now attempting to curb by making it illegal. The proliferation of this type of content is supposedly normalizing this behaviour in real life and is particularly influential among younger people. This practice has become a “sexual norm” particularly among younger people who may not be “aware of the long-term harm,” the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology said in a statement. – https://cybernews.com/tech/uk-bans-choking-porn/
The password for the Louvre’s video surveillance system was “Louvre”
(Cybernews – 5 November 2025) The Louvre Museum in Paris was warned about serious security shortcomings as far back as 2014, which came to light in the aftermath of the “heist of the century.”. Last month’s jewellery heist at the Louvre museum sent shockwaves globally, proving that even the world’s most-visited museum is not immune to a robbery in broad daylight. In the wake of the heist, the country’s minister of culture, Rachida Dati, assured the Louvre’s security systems didn’t fail. – https://cybernews.com/news/louvre-password-heist/
Frontiers
AI tool on smartwatch detects hidden structural heart disease
(DigWatch – 5 November 2025) An AI algorithm paired with smartwatch sensors has successfully detected structural heart diseases, including valve damage and weakened heart muscles, in adults. The study, conducted at Yale School of Medicine, will be presented at the American Heart Association’s 2025 Scientific Sessions in New Orleans. – https://dig.watch/updates/ai-tool-on-smartwatch-detects-hidden-structural-heart-disease – https://newsroom.heart.org/news/an-ai-tool-detected-structural-heart-disease-in-adults-using-a-smartwatch
MIT and Adobe create AI software for sustainable fashion design
(DigWatch – 5 November 2025) Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and AI Lab (CSAIL) are collaborating with Adobe to create Refashion, a new AI-driven design tool promoting sustainable fashion. The software deconstructs clothing into modules, allowing designers and consumers to reimagine garments for reuse or transformation. – https://dig.watch/updates/mit-and-adobe-create-ai-software-for-sustainable-fashion-design – https://www.edtechinnovationhub.com/news/mit-researchers-working-on-ai-powered-refashion-software-that-brings-eco-friendly-apparel-to-life
Humanoid robot Neo arrives for homes
(DigWatch – 5 November 2025) Neo, developed by US-based 1X Technologies, is the first humanoid robot designed for direct home use. Measuring 5′6″ and weighing 66 lb (≈30 kg), it can perform household chores such as folding laundry, tidying, and fetching items, lift heavy objects, and respond to natural voice commands. – https://dig.watch/updates/humanoid-robot-neo-arrives-for-homes – https://parametric-architecture.com/neo-by-1x-worlds-first-humanoid-robot/?srsltid=AfmBOopquvuvLAf0Pl-RquKKYbRn0uRRqmBskQocXgkxebJ7gRPyVSBj