Governance, Legislation
More customers asking for Google’s Data Boundary, says Cloud Experience boss
(DigWatch – 20 August 2025) Google’s Cloud Experience lead Hayete Gallot says developer interest in sovereign cloud solutions is rising sharply amid AI concerns. More clients are asking to control how and where their data is stored, processed, and encrypted within public cloud environments. Microsoft said it could not guarantee full cloud data sovereignty in July, increasing pressure on rivals to offer stronger protections. – https://dig.watch/updates/google-sees-growing-demand-for-cloud-data-sovereignty– https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/19/critical_thinking_and_sovereign_cloud
Meta urged to ban child-like chatbots amid Brazil’s safety concerns
(DigWatch – 20 August 2025) Brazil’s Attorney General (AGU) has formally requested Meta to remove AI-powered chatbots that simulate childlike profiles and engage in sexually explicit dialogue, citing concerns that they ‘promote the eroticisation of children.’. The demand was made via an ‘extrajudicial notice,’ recalling that platforms must remove illicit content without a court order, especially when it involves potential harm to minors. – https://dig.watch/updates/meta-urged-to-ban-child-like-chatbots-amid-brazils-safety-concerns – https://today.rtl.lu/news/business-and-tech/a/2329590.html
Zimbabwe to launch national AI policy by October to boost digital sovereignty
(DigWatch – 20 August 2025) Zimbabwe’s Information and Communication Technology Minister, Tendai Mavetera, revealed the second draft of the National AI Policy during the AI Summit for Africa 2025 in Victoria Falls, hosted by Alpha Media Holdings and AIIA. Though the policy was not formalised during the summit, Mavetera stated it is expected to be launched by 1 October 2025 at the new Parliament building, with presidential presence anticipated. – https://dig.watch/updates/zimbabwe-to-launch-national-ai-policy-by-october-to-boost-digital-sovereignty – https://www.newsday.co.zw/local-news/article/200045137/zimbabwe-to-launch-ai-policy-to-accelerate-adoption
Pakistan launches national AI innovation competition
(DigWatch – 20 August 2025) Pakistan’s Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives has launched a national innovation competition to drive the development of AI solutions in priority sectors. The initiative aims to attract top talent to develop impactful health, education, agriculture, industry, and governance projects. Minister Ahsan Iqbal said AI is no longer a distant prospect but a present reality that is already transforming economies. He described the competition as a milestone in Pakistan’s digital history and urged the nation to embrace AI’s global momentum. – https://dig.watch/updates/pakistan-launches-national-ai-innovation-competition– https://english.news.cn/asiapacific/20250819/25451505a3194da6ae1702db399d21c5/c.html
AI platforms under scrutiny for overstating mental health support capabilities
(DigWatch – 20 August 2025) Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas has initiated a civil investigative demand targeting Meta AI Studio and Character.AI over alleged deceptive trade practices in promoting their chatbots as mental health support tools, despite lacking medical credentials. The investigation probes whether these platforms mislead users, including vulnerable children, by portraying themselves as private, trustworthy sources of emotional support while lacking professional oversight. – https://dig.watch/updates/ai-platforms-under-scrutiny-for-overstating-mental-health-support-capabilities – https://www.verdict.co.uk/texas-probing-ai-chatbots-mental-health/?cf-view
How US Officials Are Pressuring Europe Over Its Platform Regulations
(Cristiano Lima-Strong, Ramsha Jahangir – Tech Policy Press – 19 August 2025) In recent months, top Republicans in Washington have banded together with US tech industry leaders to mount an escalating pressure campaign against the European Union’s landmark platform regulations, claiming they are tantamount to foreign “censorship.”. The broadside has spanned across trade negotiations, diplomatic overtures, and congressional investigations, and at the moment shows no signs of letting down, particularly as European regulators set their sights on allies to US President Donald Trump, like Elon Musk. The standoff pits some of the world’s most powerful companies, coupled with the backing of the US government, against sweeping EU rules widely hailed as the most significant global attempt to grapple with online harms, known as the Digital Services Act (DSA). – https://www.techpolicy.press/how-us-officials-are-pressuring-europe-over-its-platform-regulations/
Trump’s AI Plan Promises Jobs, Not A Seat at the Table
(Henry Wu – Tech Policy Press – 19 August 2025) On July 23, United States President Donald Trump revealed his administration’s plan for AI. In contrast to the years of doom and gloom about how robots will take all the jobs, the plan promises to center American workers. Alongside proposals to export the US AI stack and roll back regulations on energy and data center infrastructure, it highlights new apprenticeships, AI‑literacy initiatives, and retraining for workers. The race to advanced AI would mean, as Trump promised in a summit on AI and energy in Pennsylvania last month, “lots of jobs.”. But promising jobs is not the same as building worker power. Experts predict that AI won’t just lead to some job losses, but will reshape the American economy on a scale far greater than the offshoring of manufacturing in the last decades. Despite the label as worker-centered, Trump’s plan avoids the hard questions about how AI will reshape the future of work, and who will have a say in that process. Who decides if a job is to be created or eliminated? Who protects workers who warn of out of control AI? And who ensures that the benefits of AI are shared? – https://www.techpolicy.press/trumps-ai-plan-promises-jobs-not-a-seat-at-the-table/
Why We Need a Carnegie Moment for the Age of AI
(Stefaan G. Verhulst – Tech Policy Press – 19 August 2025) At the turn of the 20th century, Andrew Carnegie was one of the richest men in the world. He was also one of the most reviled, infamous for the harsh labor conditions and occasional violence at his steel mills. Determined to rehabilitate his reputation, Carnegie embarked upon a number of ambitious philanthropic ventures that would redefine his legacy, and leave a lasting impact on the United States and the world. Among the most ambitious of these were the Carnegie Libraries. Between 1860 and 1930, Carnegie spent almost $60 million (equivalent to around $2.3 billion today), to build a network of 2,509 libraries globally — 1,689 in the United States and the rest in places as diverse as Australia, Fiji, South Africa, and his native Scotland. Carnegie supported these libraries for a number of reasons: to burnish his own reputation, because he thought it would help support immigrant integration into the US, but most of all because he was “dedicated to the diffusion of knowledge.” For Carnegie, greater knowledge was key to fostering all manner of social goods — everything from a healthier democracy to more innovation and better health. Today, many of those libraries still stand in communities across the country, a testament to the lasting impact of Carnegie’s generosity. The story of Carnegie’s libraries would seem to offer a happy story from the past, a quaint period piece. But it has resonance in the present. Today, we are once again presented with a landscape in which information is both abundant and scarce, offering tremendous potential for the public good yet largely accessible and reusable only to a small (corporate) minority. This paradox stems from the fact that while more and more aspects of our lives are captured in digital form, the resulting data is increasingly locked away, or inaccessible. – https://www.techpolicy.press/why-we-need-a-carnegie-moment-for-the-age-of-ai/
DARPA aims for interoperability between classic and quantum communication
(Alexandra Kelley – NextGov – 18 August 2025) The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is angling to lay the groundwork for a computational network that can integrate both traditional and quantum-powered systems ahead of further breakthroughs in quantum information sciences and technology. The QuANET program — an abbreviation for quantum augmented network — was started in March 2024 with the goal of marrying the benefits of traditional and quantum networking on existing U.S. computing infrastructure and network protocols. QuANET Program Manager Allyson O’Brien told Nextgov/FCW that networking is the “black sheep” within the quantum technology realm, despite a pressing need for more fundamental infrastructure that can support quantum-enabled systems. – https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2025/08/darpa-aims-interoperability-between-classic-and-quantum-communication/407520/?oref=ng-homepage-river
Tech & Democracy
Algorithmic Foreign Influence: Rethinking Sovereignty in the Age of AI
(Angelo Toma – Lawfare – 20 August 2025) In early 2022, TikTok users in Kenya saw their feeds flooded with political disinformation—including content laced with ethnic hate speech and violent threats ahead of the general elections. Researchers at Mozilla documented how the platform’s recommendation system amplified ethnic tensions, suppressed dissenting voices, and subtly promoted pro-government narratives. They found no foreign directive, no cyber operation—just the platform’s algorithm, trained abroad, optimized for engagement, and operating without oversight. This isn’t an isolated case. Recommender systems, large language models, and machine translation tools now shape civic discourse around the world. They promote certain narratives, erase others, and define what information is available to users—often in ways that reinforce inequality or favor dominant voices. Crucially, they do this without any intention to interfere. They act through infrastructure, not ideology. This raises a difficult question: If artificial intelligence (AI) can reshape a nation’s public sphere without direction from a foreign power, is it foreign interference? At first glance, the answer seems obvious: Interference requires intent. Under international law, the principle of non‑intervention is grounded in the assumption that harmful acts are purposeful and attributable to a state. Algorithms are neither. They lack agency, identity, and motive. But if the outcomes—distorted political discourse, marginalized languages, eroded cultural autonomy—are functionally equivalent to classic interference, shouldn’t the law take effect to address it as such? Dominant frameworks of sovereignty and non-intervention are being outpaced by a new mode of global influence: one that is stateless, ambient, and infrastructural. As AI systems trained and deployed across borders come to shape the terms of public life, they constitute a new class of foreign actors—not because they intend harm, but because they systematically reorganize civic and epistemic space across jurisdictions. At present, international law is not prepared to respond. – https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/algorithmic-foreign-influence–rethinking-sovereignty-in-the-age-of-ai
Geostrategies
EU and Bangladesh strengthen cooperation on cybersecurity and digital economy
(DigWatch – 20 August 2025) The EU has engaged in talks with the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to strengthen cooperation on data protection, cybersecurity, and the country’s digital economy. The meeting was led by EU Ambassador Michael Miller and BTRC Chairman Major General (retd) Md Emdad ul Bari. – https://dig.watch/updates/eu-and-bangladesh-strengthen-cooperation-on-cybersecurity-and-digital-economy – https://www.bssnews.net/news/303405
Security, Intelligence
Massive Allianz Life data breach impacts 1.1 million people
(Sergiu Gatlan – Bleeping Computer – 19 August 2025) Hackers have stolen the personal information of 1.1 million individuals in a Salesforce data theft attack, which impacted U.S. insurance giant Allianz Life in July. Allianz Life has nearly 2,000 employees in the United States and is a subsidiary of Allianz SE, which has over 128 million customers worldwide and ranks as the world’s 82nd largest company based on revenue. As the company disclosed last month, information belonging to the “majority” of its 1.4 million customers was stolen by attackers who gained access to a third-party cloud CRM system on July 16th. – https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/massive-allianz-life-data-breach-impacts-11-million-people/
UK ‘agreed to drop’ backdoor encryption demand for Apple, DNI says
(Edward Graham – NextGov – 19 August 2025) The United Kingdom has dropped its push to require that tech giant Apple provide the country’s security officials with backdoor access to users’ encrypted iCloud backups, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Monday. The Washington Post first reported in January that the UK issued a secret order to Apple that directed the company to provide its law enforcement and intelligence personnel with the “blanket capability” to access customers’ encrypted files worldwide. The order would have affected Apple users across the world, including those in the U.S. Under the UK’s 2016 Investigatory Powers Act — known colloquially as the Snooper’s Charter — Apple received the order to provide cloud data without any judicial review. – https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2025/08/uk-agreed-drop-backdoor-encryption-demand-apple-dni-says/407556/?oref=ng-homepage-river
Defence, Warfare
US secret military space plane to embark on new mission with undisclosed goal
(Interesting Engineering – 20 August 2025) A secret space plane is set to embark on its new mission. The X-37B orbital test vehicle of the U.S. Space Force will fly on its eighth mission on August 21, 2025. The plane is set to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The uncrewed, autonomous spacecraft is developed by Boeing. The plane is used by the U.S. military to conduct experiments in high and low Earth orbits. However, most of the plane’s functions remain secretive despite the widespread information about its presence. – https://interestingengineering.com/military/us-secret-military-space-plane-to-embark-on-new-mission-with-undisclosed-goal
Frontiers
IBM and NASA Release Open-Source AI Model to Predict Solar Weather And Help Protect Critical Technology
(AI Insider – 20 August 2025) IBM and NASA released Surya, an open-source AI model designed to predict solar weather and protect technology on Earth and in space. The model, trained on nine years of NASA solar observations, uses self-supervised learning on the largest curated heliophysics dataset to improve forecasting accuracy. Surya is openly available on Hugging Face, enabling researchers worldwide to build applications for mitigating risks from solar storms. – https://theaiinsider.tech/2025/08/20/ibm-and-nasa-release-open-source-ai-model-to-predict-solar-weather-and-help-protect-critical-technology/
World-first dual-robot surgery in Sydney removes throat tumor, saves patient’s voice
(Interesting Engineering – 20 August 2025) In a big leap for robotic surgery, doctors in Australia have pulled off a world-first procedure by pairing two advanced robotic systems to remove a throat tumor while preserving the patient’s ability to speak and swallow. The landmark surgery at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney marks a breakthrough in precision medicine, showing how integrating robotics can achieve outcomes once thought impossible. Combining the da Vinci robot with the Symani robotic surgery system, surgeons at Australia’s largest not-for-profit health provider successfully operated on a 27-year-old man with a sarcoma in his throat, just above his voice box. – https://interestingengineering.com/health/dual-robots-throat-tumor-surgery-sydney
US scientists steer robot dog with graphene brain organoids in lab breakthrough
(Interesting Engineering – 20 August 2025) Scientists in the U.S. have used graphene and light to control a robot dog and develop new groundbreaking method that stimulates and matures lab-grown human brain organoids. The researchers from the University of California San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute utilized a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon to introduce a method called Graphene-Mediated Optical Stimulation (GraMOS). According to Alysson Muotri, PhD, a pediatrics professor and director of the institute’s Integrated Space Stem Cell Orbital Research Center, the technique is biocompatible and noninvasive. – https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/scientists-steer-robot-graphene-brain-organoids
Microchipped cyborg jellyfish may reveal secrets of Earth’s darkest ocean frontiers
(Interesting Engineering – 20 August 2025) Moon jellyfish could become humanity’s eyes in the ocean’s most inaccessible depths. Engineers at the University of Colorado, Boulder, have developed a way to harness their efficiency, which could make certain aquatic research much easier. She fits the jellies with microelectronic devices that activate key swimming muscles, enabling researchers to steer them toward remote ocean areas. Eventually, sensors will gather critical data on temperature, pH, and other environmental characteristics. – https://interestingengineering.com/science/moon-jellyfish-cyborg-ocean-sensors
FieldAI Raises $405 Million to Scale Advanced Robotics Foundation Models
(AI Insider – 20 August 2025) FieldAI raised $405 million in two consecutive oversubscribed funding rounds, backed by Bezos Expeditions, BHP Ventures, Canaan Partners, Emerson Collective, Intel Capital, Khosla Ventures, NVIDIA’s NVentures, Prysm, Temasek, with earlier investors including Gates Frontier and Samsung. The California-based company develops Field Foundation Models (FFMs), a hardware-agnostic “software brain” for robots, enabling safe, autonomous operation in complex environments across industries such as construction, energy, manufacturing, delivery, and inspection. Capital will accelerate FieldAI’s global expansion, support development in locomotion and manipulation, and double headcount by year-end, leveraging a team of veterans from DeepMind, Google Brain, Tesla Autopilot, NASA JPL, SpaceX, Zoox, Cruise, Amazon, DARPA, and Toyota Research Institute. – https://theaiinsider.tech/2025/08/20/fieldai-raises-405-million-to-scale-advanced-robotics/
MetaMo-tivated: Study Proposes New Framework for Safer, More Adaptable AGI Motivation
(AI Insider – 20 August 2025) Researchers at AGI-25 introduced MetaMo, a formal motivational framework designed to make artificial general intelligence systems stable, adaptable, and safe. The study outlines five principles—covering appraisal, decision-making, stability, compositionality and gradual goal adjustment—that aim to prevent AGI from drifting into erratic or unsafe behavior. A companion paper connects MetaMo to existing systems such as OpenPsi and MAGUS within the OpenCog Hyperon platform to test whether the theoretical guarantees can be realized in working software. – https://theaiinsider.tech/2025/08/20/metamo-tivated-study-proposes-new-framework-for-safer-more-adaptable-agi-motivation/
IBM Ventures Balances AI Push With Rising Quantum Bets
(AI Insider – 20 August 2025) IBM Ventures is prioritizing artificial intelligence while elevating quantum computing to an equal long-term focus, according to Global Venturing. The unit is backing enterprise AI startups such as Not Diamond, alongside quantum firms like Qedma, QunaSys, and Strangeworks, to build ecosystems around IBM platforms. IBM’s dual-track strategy ties investments to its AI Watsonx suite and its roadmap for a fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029. – https://theaiinsider.tech/2025/08/20/ibm-ventures-balances-ai-push-with-rising-quantum-bets/
WIRobotics Unveils ‘ALLEX,’ a General-Purpose Humanoid with Human-Like Responsiveness
(AI Insider – 20 August 2025) WIRobotics unveiled the upper body of its first general-purpose humanoid robot, ALLEX, at KOREATECH’s Robot Innovation Hub, highlighting advanced compliance, force control, and humanlike interaction capabilities. ALLEX features a 15-degree-of-freedom robotic hand, ultra-low-friction actuators, a gravity-compensated waist, and whole-body force control without external sensors, enabling safe and precise interaction across services, manufacturing, and home applications. WIRobotics plans to expand ALLEX into a modular commercial platform and is partnering with AI startup RLWRLD, as well as institutions including MIT, UIUC, UMass, KIST, and Maxon, to build an open innovation ecosystem for robotics and AI convergence. – https://theaiinsider.tech/2025/08/20/wirobotics-unveils-allex-a-general-purpose-humanoid-with-human-like-responsiveness/
Pudu Robotics Launches AI-Powered 3D Perception Robotic Sweeper for Complex Large-Scale Environments
(AI Insider – 20 August 2025) Pudu Robotics launched the PUDU MT1 Max, an AI-powered 3D perception robotic sweeper designed for complex, large-scale cleaning in environments such as underground parking garages and semi-open atriums. The MT1 Max features next-generation 3D LiDAR with multi-sensor fusion, dual-chip AI computing, adaptive cleaning strategies, automated filter cleaning, and advanced obstacle avoidance with multi-dimensional safety systems. As the third model in the MT1 series, following the MT1 and MT1 Vac, the MT1 Max expands Pudu’s intelligent cleaning portfolio, delivering 24/7 operation, IoT integration, and tailored solutions for global commercial and industrial cleaning needs. – https://theaiinsider.tech/2025/08/20/pudu-robotics-launches-ai-powered-3d-perception-robotic-sweeper-for-complex-large-scale-environments/
Mitsui Works With Quantinuum and QSimulate to Launch Quantum-Integrated Chemistry Platform
(Quantum Insider – 19 August 2025) Mitsui & Co., Quantinuum, and QSimulate have launched QIDO, a hybrid quantum-classical chemistry platform aimed at accelerating the discovery of new materials and pharmaceuticals. The system integrates QSimulate’s QSP Reaction software with Quantinuum’s InQuanto platform to enable high-precision chemical simulations, while Mitsui plans to market it first to Japanese chemical manufacturers before expanding globally. Beta testing with companies including JSR, Panasonic and Chugai Pharmaceutical showed improved usability and efficiency, though technical challenges remain for complex molecular calculations. – https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/08/19/mitsui-works-with-quantinuum-and-qsimulate-to-launch-quantum-integrated-chemistry-platform/
IQM to Integrate Quantum Computer Into Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s HPC Systems
(Quantum Insider – 18 August 2025) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has selected the IQM Radiance as its first-ever purchased on-premises quantum computer, marking a milestone in its efforts to integrate quantum computing with high-performance computing (HPC) systems. The 20-qubit superconducting quantum computer, scheduled for delivery in the third quarter of 2025, will support hybrid quantum-classical application development and is designed to be upgradeable to larger qubit counts. The acquisition aligns with ORNL’s long-standing leadership in quantum-HPC integration and follows its Quantum Computing User Program’s earlier adoption of IQM’s Resonance cloud platform for advanced quantum research. – https://thequantuminsider.com/2025/08/19/iqm-to-integrate-quantum-computer-into-oak-ridge-national-laboratorys-hpc-systems/