Governance, Legislation, Regulation, Geostrategies

Who should set the rules for AI? The UN is pushing for a safer digital future– Artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly, raising questions about how societies and governments can capture its benefits while managing risks that often extend beyond national borders. Those concerns intensified after a former researcher at the AI company Anthropic warned on 8 September that AI could pose an existential threat to humanity. For the UN, the best way to address AI’s global risks is to bring countries together to adopt shared principles and commitments on AI governance. – https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/09/1168353

Tech giants launch flexible-power coalition for data centers – A new coalition launched Wednesday is seeking a triple win for a data center industry that lately has struggled to notch any wins at all. Tech giants Google and Nvidia are partnering with startup Emerald AI to back data centers that can flex their power demand — a strategy they say could curb electricity prices, mollify angry neighbors and grow the economy with more AI infrastructure. The launch comes amid mounting backlash to data centers centered on their resource impacts and power prices, and new polling shows the public-opinion challenge is getting steeper. “It’s really a win-win-win solution,” said Josh Parker, head of sustainability at Nvidia, in a call with reporters Monday ahead of the official launch of the coalition, called the AI Energy Management Alliance. The coalition brings together 20 companies and organizations spanning the AI and energy sectors, including Anthropic, utilities National Grid and AES, and power producers Constellation, NRG and RWE. – https://www.axios.com/2026/09/16/tech-giants-launch-flexible-power-coalition-data-centers

‘We don’t need any new laws’: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang doubles down after Trump call – Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the AI industry doesn’t need any new laws Tuesday during San Francisco’s annual Dreamforce megaconference hosted by Salesforce billionaire Marc Benioff, doubling down on arguments that have also been voiced by President Donald Trump. “We don’t need any new laws. We don’t need new regulations,” Huang, one of the leading luminaries of the AI industry as head of one of the most profitable companies, said during an interview with the Salesforce CEO. His comments at one of San Francisco’s biggest tech conferences highlighted the divide among industry leaders over AI safety, after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei set off a political firestorm over the weekend with his calls to slow the pace of AI development. Huang made the comments just minutes after Amodei spoke with Benioff, who congratulated him on his company’s development of AI technology being increasingly plugged into Salesforce. – https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/15/nvidia-jensen-huang-ai-safety-01078081

OpenAI backs bipartisan push to address AI biothreats – OpenAI is supporting a slate of bills that the company says will help prevent artificial intelligence models from supercharging the threat of biological weapons and synthetic viruses. The bills aim to improve access to data needed to build AI defenses against synthetic and naturally occurring biothreats, and establish standards for the safe development of those tools. The company exclusively told POLITICO that it is issuing new endorsements for three bipartisan bills surrounding the issue: the Web of Biological Data Act, and the AI-Ready Bio-Data Standards Act and the SCALE Biology Act. The first two proposals were previously introduced in both the House and Senate, the latter in the House. – https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/15/openai-backs-bipartisan-push-to-address-ai-biothreats-01077755

OpenAI boss says world ‘right to be afraid’ but ‘should trust’ AI firms – OpenAI boss Sam Altman thinks people should have more faith in his company and others like it to do the right thing when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) development amid rising public concerns about all the risks. “The world should trust that we are going to do the right thing because it’s the right thing and we feel the magnitude of this,” Altman said on Tuesday during a conference in San Francisco. However, Altman noted that people were justified in their fears around AI, as the capability of the tools has progressed rapidly. “It doesn’t take as much imagination as it used to for [us] to imagine how this could go wrong,” he said. “I think the world is right to be afraid of this”. Altman’s comments came during an appearance at an annual conference hosted by software firm Salesforce. It was the first time he had spoken publicly since a post went viral last week by a researcher who quit the AI firm Anthropic. The researcher claimed AI could kill all humans by the end of the decade if left unchecked. A handful of other AI executives and experts responded by saying they agreed with the assessment, though they didn’t explain how they came to their conclusions or how exactly AI could accomplish such a thing. The fervor over the claims has led to more scrutiny of AI development in recent days, and in response, Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei called for the pace of all AI development to slow and urged governments to regulate the industry. –  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqx2zpj4y525o

EU closes consultation on data sovereignty and cross-border flows – The European Commission’s targeted consultation on safeguarding the EU’s data sovereignty closed on 15 September 2026. Launched on 8 July, the consultation sought views from actors across the data value chain on challenges affecting EU organisations in an international context, particularly dependencies linked to access, use and movement of data across borders. The consultation focused on barriers to accessing or using data held in third countries, obstacles to transferring data into the EU and risks associated with third-country access to sensitive information. The Commission also highlighted concerns about unjustified data localisation requirements, discriminatory rules and data leakage to third countries, while reaffirming its support for trusted international data flows. – https://dig.watch/updates/eu-data-sovereignty-and-cross-border-flows

Google data reveals major differences in workplace AI adoption – New data from Google’s AI & Economy ATLAS project shows substantial differences in how workers across occupations and countries are using artificial intelligence, while separate research suggests that AI is also changing how scientific work is organised. According to Google, computer, mathematical, business, and financial occupations account for the largest shares of work-related AI use in OECD countries. In non-OECD countries, office and administrative support, arts and media, and education-related occupations are among the leading categories. Google also reports significant geographic differences, including higher-than-average AI use for manual tasks such as equipment diagnostics and troubleshooting in Brazil and Germany. – https://dig.watch/updates/google-data-workplace-ai-adoption

Security and Surveillance

Revolut Data Leak May Trace Back to Compromised Italian Government Accounts – The Revolut data exposure may be part of a much broader cyber incident involving compromised Italian government infrastructure. Revolut has confirmed that its systems were not breached. Instead, the company received fraudulent requests that appeared to originate from a legitimate Italian government domain. The attackers allegedly abused an authentic institutional communication channel to obtain sensitive information on Revolut customers. According to information reported so far, the compromised account was allegedly associated with the Prefecture of Reggio Calabria and used the pec.interno.it domain. The mailbox was reportedly abused by individuals posing as Italian Postal Police officers. – https://securityaffairs.com/199180/data-breach/revolut-data-leak-may-trace-back-to-compromised-italian-government-accounts.html

NCSC and Allies Warn of Iranian Spyware Campaign – The UK and its allies have warned opponents of the Iranian regime that they may be subject to targeting by a Tehran-backed spyware campaign. An advisory published on September 15 by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the FBI and the Netherlands’ General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) is designed to help dissidents, activists and journalists critical of the regime. It warned that, in some cases, information stolen by the spyware has appeared on pro-Iranian leak sites, increasing the risk to victims’ personal safety. “The details of this cyber campaign reveal how Iran ruthlessly uses digital surveillance in pursuit of its aim to repress critics of the regime, stealing emails and messages and accessing devices,” said NCSC director of operations, Paul Chichester. “With our international partners, we strongly encourage individuals at risk to familiarize themselves with the social-engineering techniques described in the advisory, and to act on the mitigation advice”. The campaign itself revolves around the delivery of Chosen Brick: spyware designed to harvest targets’ contacts, emails and social media messages, to enable tracking of their movements, repression or worse. The malware itself uses Windows registry keys for persistence and adds exclusions to Microsoft Defender antivirus in order to evade detection, the report revealed. It connects to Telegram for command & control (C2) and has a wide variety of functionality including enumeration of running processes and system info, screen capture, harvesting Telegram and WhatsApp data from browsers, stealing emails and enabling the device mic for audio capture. It can also delete files, download additional malware, and wipe the entire system, the NCSC said. Chosen Brick is delivered via social engineering. The threat actor builds rapport with their victim on social media – usually by impersonating a contact or social messaging technical support. Then they persuade the victim to download a legitimate app (eg Pictory, RunwayML, Norton Antivirus, Telegram, Adobe Flash Player) or file (e.g. MRI scan). – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ncsc-allies-warn-iranian-chosen/

BambooToken: The Malware That Speaks MQTT to Stay Under the Radar – BambooToken is a new malware family that uses MQTT, a lightweight messaging protocol commonly found in smart devices and industrial systems, to quietly control infected Windows and Linux machines. Most malware connects directly to a command-and-control server to receive instructions. BambooToken takes a different approach. It uses MQTT to exchange commands through a broker, making the communication less direct and potentially harder to detect. Researchers found that the malware has been used to control compromised Windows and Linux systems and has been active since at least 2023. “Lumen researchers at Black Lotus Labs identified a multiplatform campaign using the MQTT system for communications targeting Windows and Linux systems.” reads the Lumen report. “Based on technical artifacts, we believe this campaign was active since at least February 2023 and continued through July 2026.” – https://securityaffairs.com/199205/malware/bambootoken-the-malware-that-speaks-mqtt-to-stay-under-the-radar.html

Texas Utility CenterPoint Energy Confirms Data Breach After Hacker Claims 7.49M Records Stolen – CenterPoint Energy admitted on Monday that an intruder stole personal information belonging to some of its customers. The Houston-based utility, which supplies electricity and gas to about 7 million accounts across Texas, Indiana, Minnesota and Ohio, disclosed the breach in an SEC filing after a hacker started advertising the data online. “In September 2026, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (the “Company”) became aware of an online post by a third party claiming to have obtained a data set containing certain of the Company’s customer information.” reads the FORM 8-K report filed with SEC.”While the investigation remains ongoing, the Company has determined that an unauthorized third party obtained personal information relating to a portion of the Company’s customers through one of the Company’s external facing systems (the “Incident”)”. CenterPoint said its energy services were not affected. The company is investigating the breach, assessing exposed data, and will notify affected customers, regulators and law enforcement as required. – https://securityaffairs.com/199170/data-breach/texas-utility-centerpoint-energy-confirms-data-breach-after-hacker-claims-7-49m-records-stolen.html

US issues security guidance for cloud identity systems – The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published final guidance, NIST IR 8587, on protecting digital identity tokens and assertions from forgery, theft and misuse. Developed with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the guidance is aimed at federal agencies and cloud service providers and covers identity tokens, access tokens and assertions used in single sign-on, federation, application programming interfaces and workload access. – https://dig.watch/updates/us-cloud-identity-security-guidance

Defence, Intelligence, Warfare

There are American weapons in space – Space weapons are real, and the U.S. has them in orbit right now, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said this week at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. Meink’s statement is the first time the U.S. government has acknowledged deploying weapons in space — a significant change in how the world discusses these highly sensitive, provocative systems. “We are increasing readiness against existing threats, and the United States has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action,” Meink said Monday. – https://www.axios.com/2026/09/16/us-space-weapons-meink-china

Frontiers and Markets

India launches digital platforms to track climate action – India has launched two national digital platforms designed to improve the disclosure and monitoring of climate action, including voluntary net-zero commitments and progress under the country’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). The Net Zero Portal allows entities across sectors to voluntarily register their net-zero commitments, disclose greenhouse gas emissions, set targets, and provide annual progress updates. Participants are encouraged to report Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, while Scope 3 reporting remains voluntary. Public access to participating entities’ declarations will create a central repository of voluntary net-zero commitments. – https://dig.watch/updates/india-digital-platforms-track-climate-action

UK researchers use AI to forecast air pollution nationwide – Researchers at the University of Manchester have adapted generative AI models developed for weather and climate forecasting to model air pollution across the UK, using the country’s Isambard-AI supercomputer to train the system. The researchers worked with NVIDIA’s Earth-2 team to train the Earth-2 CorrDiff model using data generated from existing chemistry-climate simulations. According to NVIDIA, a year of hourly UK pollution data was used to produce a nationwide model with a spatial resolution of around 2–3 square kilometres, with the training process taking two days on a single eight-GPU node of Isambard-AI. – https://dig.watch/updates/uk-researchers-ai-air-pollution

Meta reportedly plans camera free AI glasses – Meta is reportedly preparing to launch a new pair of AI powered smart glasses without a camera, as the company expands its wearable device portfolio amid scrutiny over the privacy implications of camera equipped glasses. The device, internally code named Luna, could be unveiled at Meta’s annual Connect developer conference next week, with shipments targeted for October, according to The Information, which first reported the plans citing people familiar with the project. Reuters subsequently reported the details and said Meta had not responded to a request for comment. Meta has therefore not publicly confirmed the product or its reported specifications. According to The Information, Luna would remove the camera found on Meta’s existing smart glasses while retaining six microphones, open ear speakers and a button providing quick access to Meta AI. The microphones would allow users to interact with Meta’s AI systems, including Muse, the company’s recently launched personal AI agent. Meta said when launching Muse that the agent can carry out tasks on a user’s behalf and learn from conversations and other information users choose to make available to it. – https://dig.watch/updates/meta-plans-camera-free-glasses

SK Hynix reportedly in talks with Intel to produce chips in United States – According to three sources familiar with the situation, SK Hynix is in talks with Intel to negotiate a deal that would allow for the South Korean semiconductor giant to produce memory chips in the United States. Such a project could be a significant step in addressing the worsening global semiconductor shortage as well as in helping Intel to build up the American semiconductor industry. Amongst the potential scenarios for such a deal, one option would be a joint venture between SK Hynix and Intel. This would help alleviate the supply-chain pressures that are currently creating shortages of memory chips. Another scenario could be for SK Hynix to lease part of Intel’s long-planned chipmaking facility in Ohio, allowing the South Korean company to retain control over the production process. – https://dig.watch/updates/sk-hynix-with-intel-to-produce-chips-in-us