Governance, Legislation, and Geostrategies
The 2025 AI Index Report
(Stanford HAI – April 2025) AI is poised to be the most transformative technology of the 21st century. But its benefits won’t be evenly distributed unless we guide its development thoughtfully. The AI Index offers one of the most comprehensive, data-driven views of artificial intelligence. Recognized as a trusted resource by global media, governments, and leading companies, the AI Index equips policymakers, business leaders, and the public with rigorous, objective insights into AI’s technical progress, economic influence, and societal impact. – https://hai.stanford.edu/ai-index/2025-ai-index-report
States in the Vanguard: Social Media Policy Today
(Olivier Sylvain – Just Security – 15 April 2025) Louis Brandeis famously observed that, in the United States’ system of government, the states are the laboratories of experimentation. But, given the paralysis of federal congressional leadership today, the states have proven to be so much more. Right now, they are in the vanguard of tech policy, enacting laws addressed to issues at the forefront of voters’ minds. Over the past couple of years, dozens of U.S. states have enacted laws aimed at regulating social media. These statutes can be lumped into three categories: content moderation, data protection, and child online safety laws. – https://www.justsecurity.org/110193/states-social-media-policy-today/
Quantum Matters: What World (Dis) Order Means For Quantum Technologies
(Quantum Insider – 15 April 2025) The National People’s Congress (NPC) session in Beijing last month allocated an 8.3% increase year on year for Chinese technology spend. In the US, technology spending is due to increase by 6.1% in 2025 to $2.7 trillion, according to Forrester. Before the upheaval brought about by the new US administration, forecasts from firms like Forrester’s were relied upon, while those from the NPC and any China institute were deemed untrustworthy, subject to government manipulation. In April 2025, with the Trump government well ensconced and Elon Musk in charge of taking a “chainsaw” to government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), forecasting for the US is inevitably less accurate than for China. This is only one example of the global economic earthquake caused by the US government, with daily after-shocks as tariffs are applied/suspended/modified. With federal spending cuts ranging from a pre-election goal of $2 trillion to a recent claim of $150 billion in 2026, there is no point in putting numbers to how quantum technologies will be affected by the new world disorder. – https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/04/15/quantum-matters-what-world-dis-order-means-for-quantum-technologies/
Spotify launches Ads Exchange and Gen AI ads in India
(DigWatch – 15 April 2025) Spotify has introduced its Ads Exchange (SAX) and Generative AI-powered advertisements in India, following a successful pilot in the US and Canada. The SAX platform aims to give advertisers better control over performance tracking and maximise reach without overloading users with repetitive ads. – https://dig.watch/updates/spotify-launches-ads-exchange-and-gen-ai-ads-in-india
Samsung brings AI-powered service tool to India
(DigWatch – 15 April 2025) Samsung, already the leading home appliance brand in India by volume, is now enhancing its after-sales service with an AI-powered support tool. The tech company from South Korea has introduced the Home Appliances Remote Management (HRM) tool, designed to improve service speed, accuracy, and overall customer experience instead of sticking with traditional support methods. – https://dig.watch/updates/samsung-brings-ai-powered-service-tool-to-india
QpiAI Launches 25-Qubit Superconducting System Under India’s National Quantum Mission
(Quantum Insider – 15 April 2025) QpiAI’s launch of the 25-qubit superconducting system directly supports India’s National Quantum Mission goals of building core infrastructure and advancing domestic quantum technologies. The system aligns with NQM targets for developing intermediate-scale quantum computers and contributes to India’s broader quantum ecosystem. As one of the eight startups selected under NQM, QpiAI plays a key role in bringing together research and industry, helping translate quantum innovation into scalable, application-ready technologies. – https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/04/15/qpiai-launches-25-qubit-superconducting-system-under-indias-national-quantum-mission/
Zhipu AI launches free agent to rival DeepSeek
(DigWatch – 15 April 2025) Chinese AI startup Zhipu AI has introduced a free AI agent, AutoGLM Rumination, aimed at assisting users with tasks such as web browsing, travel planning, and drafting research reports. The product was unveiled by CEO Zhang Peng at an event in Beijing, where he highlighted the agent’s use of the company’s proprietary models—GLM-Z1-Air for reasoning and GLM-4-Air-0414 as the foundation. – https://dig.watch/updates/zhipu-ai-launches-free-agent-to-rival-deepseek
X faces EU probe over AI data use
(DigWatch – 15 April 2025) Elon Musk’s X platform is under formal investigation by the Irish Data Protection Commission over its alleged use of public posts from EU users to train the Grok AI chatbot. The probe is centred on whether X Internet Unlimited Company, the platform’s newly renamed Irish entity, has adhered to key GDPR principles while sharing publicly accessible data, like posts and interactions, with its affiliate xAI, which develops the chatbot. – https://dig.watch/updates/x-faces-eu-probe-over-ai-data-use
Trump eyes tariffs on semiconductors in push to boost US tech manufacturing
(DigWatch – 15 April 2025) US President Donald Trump is preparing to introduce new tariffs on semiconductor imports, aiming to shift more chip production back to the United States. Semiconductors, or microchips, are essential components in everything from smartphones and laptops to medical devices and renewable energy systems. – https://dig.watch/updates/trump-eyes-tariffs-on-semiconductors-in-push-to-boost-us-tech-manufacturing
Nvidia brings AI supercomputer production to the US
(DigWatch – 15 April 2025) Nvidia is shifting its AI supercomputer manufacturing operations to the United States for the first time, instead of relying on a globally dispersed supply chain. In partnership with industry giants such as TSMC, Foxconn, and Wistron, the company is establishing large-scale facilities to produce its advanced Blackwell chips in Arizona and complete supercomputers in Texas. Production is expected to reach full scale within 12 to 15 months. – https://dig.watch/updates/nvidia-brings-ai-supercomputer-production-to-the-us
Nvidia expands AI chip production in the US amid political pressure and global shifts
(DigWatch – 15 April 2025) Nvidia is significantly ramping up its presence in the United States by commissioning over a million square feet of manufacturing space in Arizona and Texas to build and test its powerful AI chips. The tech giant has begun producing its Blackwell chips at TSMC facilities in Phoenix and is developing large-scale ‘supercomputer’ manufacturing plants in partnership with Foxconn in Houston and Wistron in Dallas. – https://dig.watch/updates/nvidia-expands-ai-chip-production-in-the-us-amid-political-pressure-and-global-shifts
Meta to use EU user data for AI training amid scrutiny
(DigWatch – 15 April 2025) Meta Platforms has announced it will begin using public posts, comments, and user interactions with its AI tools to train its AI models in the EU, instead of limiting training data to existing US-based inputs. The move follows the recent European rollout of Meta AI, which had been delayed since June 2024 due to data privacy concerns raised by regulators. The company said EU users of Facebook and Instagram would receive notifications outlining how their data may be used, along with a link to opt out. – https://dig.watch/updates/meta-to-use-eu-user-data-for-ai-training-amid-scrutiny
Meta under fire for scrapping diversity and moderation policies
(DigWatch – 15 August 2025) The NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) has withdrawn from Meta’s civil rights advisory group, citing deep concerns over the company’s rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion policies and changes to content moderation. – https://dig.watch/updates/meta-under-fire-for-scrapping-diversity-and-moderation-policies
UN forum on People of African Descent examines reparations and AI challenge
(UN News – 14 April 2025) The fourth session of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent opened on Monday at United Nations Headquarters in New York. Organised by the UN human rights office, the week-long session “Africa and people of African descent: United for reparatory justice in the age of Artificial Intelligence,” will echo global calls for reparations for the historical legacies of enslavement and colonialism. “Let us recommit to ending racism -everywhere, in all its forms- in defence of the dignity and equality of every human being,” said Philemon Yang, President of the UN General Assembly during his opening remarks on Monday. – https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/04/1162221 (Secretary-General’s remarks to the Fourth Session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent [as delivered] – https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2025-04-14/secretary-generals-remarks-the-fourth-session-of-the-permanent-forum-people-of-african-descent-delivered)
Security
Encrypted app intelligence exposes sprawling criminal networks across Europe
(Europol – 15 April 2025) Law enforcement authorities across Europe and Türkiye have dismantled four major criminal networks responsible for fuelling the flow of drugs into the EU and Türkiye, following a series of coordinated raids supported by Europol. These results were made possible by the continued exploitation of encrypted communication platforms, including Sky ECC and ANOM, which remain powerful tools in the hands of investigators. – https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/encrypted-app-intelligence-exposes-sprawling-criminal-networks-across-europe
Taiwan Plans Cybersecurity Center to Counter Quantum And AI Threats
(Quantum Insider – 15 April 2025) Taiwan will open a national cybersecurity center in August to counter threats from quantum computing, AI, and state-sponsored cyberattacks, according to The Tribune India. The center will coordinate efforts across four cybersecurity pillars, including protection of infrastructure and safe AI use, and implement policies like zero trust and quantum-resistant encryption. The initiative comes amid growing pressure from China and global concern over quantum-era threats such as future decryption of harvested encrypted data. – https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/04/15/taiwan-plans-cybersecurity-center-to-counter-quantum-and-ai-threats/
With AI’s Help, Bad Bots Are Taking Over the Web
(Kristina Beek – Dark Reading – 15 April 2025) Automated traffic now accounts for most of the traffic traversing the Web, according to a recently released study. Thales/Imperva’s 2025 “Bad Bot Report” found that 37% of all Internet traffic is conducted by bots, a 5% increase compared with 2024. The ByteSpider Bot was responsible for 54% of all artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled attacks last year; the bot is a legitimate Web crawler operated by ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok. Applebot followed at 26%, ClaudeBot at 13%, and ChatGPT User Bot at 6%. – https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/ai-bad-bots-are-taking-over-web
AI-Powered Presentation Tool Leveraged in Phishing Attacks
(Dark Reading – Alexander Culafi – 15 April 2025) An AI-powered presentation tool named Gamma is being used in phishing attacks to trick targets into thinking an email is legitimate. That’s according to researchers at security vendor Abnormal Security, which published research today dedicated to Gamma and how threat actors are misusing it to reach targets in a new campaign. Gamma is an otherwise legitimate graphic design product used by customers to generate presentations with generative AI models, but Abnormal researchers detailed how Gamma can be used to deliver a link to a fake Microsoft portal. – https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/ai-powered-presentation-tool-leveraged-phishing-attacks
Defense, Intelligence, and Warfare
Air Force Research lab awards PsiQuantum $10.8M for experimental quantum chips
(Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. – Breaking Defense – 15 April 2025) As the US and China race to build the first practical quantum computer, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has issued a $10.8 million contract to quantum chip-maker PsiQuantum, the company announced this morning. While there are many competing approaches to building quantum chips, PsiQuantum specifically uses photons, the massless particles that make up waves of light. Their intangibility makes them much less sensitive to outside interference than other particles, PsiQuantum Founder Peter Shadbolt told Breaking Defense, and — unlike alternative, more esoteric quantum bits (qubits) — the company’s “photonic” chips can be built in existing semiconductor foundries, with only modest modifications to the equipment. “The deep silicon photonics expertise of PsiQuantum is critical in our mission,” said Michael Hayduk, who oversees AFRL’s quantum science efforts, according to the company’s statement. – https://breakingdefense.com/2025/04/air-force-research-lab-awards-psiquantum-10-8m-for-experimental-quantum-chips/
Frontiers
Google DeepMind Plans Gemini-Veo Integration to Advance AI’s Understanding of the Physical World
(AI Insider – 15 April 2025) Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis has revealed plans to integrate the company’s Gemini foundation models with its Veo video-generating systems, aiming to enhance Gemini’s grasp of real-world physics through multimodal AI. – https://theaiinsider.tech/2025/04/15/google-deepmind-plans-gemini-veo-integration-to-advance-ais-understanding-of-the-physical-world/
New AI tool helps spot cataracts in babies
(DigWatch – 15 April 2025) A groundbreaking medical device designed to detect cataracts in newborns is being enhanced with the help of AI. The Neocam, a handheld digital imaging tool created by Addenbrooke’s eye surgeon, Dr Louise Allen, allows midwives to take photos of a baby’s eyes to spot congenital cataracts — the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness. – https://dig.watch/updates/new-ai-tool-helps-spot-cataracts-in-babies