Top of the Day
UNESCO surveys women on AI fairness and safety
(DigWatch – 29 October 2025) UNESCO’s Office for the Caribbean has launched a regional survey examining gender and AI, titled Perception of AI Fairness and Online Safety among Women and Girls in the Caribbean. The initiative addresses the lack of data on how women and girls experience technology, AI, and online violence in the region. – https://dig.watch/updates/unesco-surveys-women-on-ai-fairness-and-safety – https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-conducts-regional-survey-gender-and-ai
Governance
The geography of AI compute: Mapping what is available and where
(Vili Lehdonvirta, Boxi Wu, Celine Caira, Lucia Russo, Zoe Hawkins – OECD.AI – 29 October 2025) Countries count AI compute infrastructure as a strategic asset without systematically tracking its distribution, availability and access. A new OECD Working Paper presents a methodology to help fill this gap by tracking and estimating the availability and global physical distribution of public cloud compute for AI. – https://oecd.ai/en/wonk/the-geopgraphy-of-ai-compute-mapping-what-is-available-and-where
BSI Warns of Looming AI Governance Crisis
(Phil Muncaster – 29 October 2025) A leading standards body has warned of a growing “AI governance gap” as business leaders rush to adopt the new technology without first putting the requisite controls and processes in place. The British Standards Institution (BSI) made its remarks in a new report compiled from AI-assisted analysis of 100+ annual reports from multinationals and two global polls of more than 850 senior business leaders. On the one hand, nearly two-thirds (62%) of business leaders plan to increase AI investment over the coming year, to boost productivity, efficiency and cost reduction. Over half (59%) said they consider AI critical to future growth. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/bsi-warns-of-looming-ai-governance/
Ontario updates deidentification guidelines for safer data use
(DigWatch – 29 October 2025) Ontario’s privacy watchdog has released an expanded set of deidentification guidelines to help organisations protect personal data while enabling innovation. The 100-page document from the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) offers step-by-step advice, checklists and examples. – https://dig.watch/updates/ontario-updates-deidentification-guidelines-for-safer-data-use – https://iapp.org/news/a/ontario-s-ipc-updates-internationally-renowned-de-identification-guidelines
Meta and TikTok agree to comply with Australia’s under-16 social media ban
(DigWatch – 29 October 2025) Meta and TikTok have confirmed they will comply with Australia’s new law banning under-16s from using social media platforms, though both warned it will be difficult to enforce. The legislation, taking effect on 10 December, will require major platforms to remove accounts belonging to users under that age. – https://dig.watch/updates/meta-and-tiktok-agree-to-comply-with-australias-under-16-social-media-ban – https://japantoday.com/category/tech/meta-and-tiktok-to-obey-australia-under-16-social-media-ban
Automation and the Fight for Healthcare
(Miriam Osman, Emily Paul, Emma Weil – Tech Policy Press – 28 October 2025) The Trump administration recently announced plans to use AI to decide whether Medicare enrollees in some states can receive medical care through a process called prior authorization. Private insurers have been using automated prior authorizations to deny care for years, including for Medicare Advantage plans. But the move is deeply unpopular. With opposition from doctors, patients, lawmakers, and the general public to the rollout of privatized automated prior authorization denials in Medicare, there is a chance to push back against this expansion of automation. Policy responses to new uses of automation often focus on addressing the immediate impacts to individuals, whether it’s to fight denial of services, privacy violations, or lack of transparency. But this focus, while important, ignores significant collective harms. The introduction of automation into public healthcare also circumscribes people’s power to fight for their right to care. – https://www.techpolicy.press/automation-and-the-fight-for-care/
How Major Labor Unions are Positioning on AI
(Chris Mills Rodrigo – Tech Policy Press – 28 October 2025) As industries rush to integrate artificial intelligence tools into their daily operations, labor unions may well serve as workers’ best hope of shaping how this trend affects their jobs. Whether by securing contract provisions, lobbying for protections or resisting major changes, unions are set to play a critical role in the pace and reach of AI adoption across workplaces. So far, unions in the United States have adopted a fairly consistent tone on AI: that the technology has the potential to improve productivity and benefit society, but workers need to be involved in where and how it is deployed. The AFL-CIO, a federation of 63 unions representing roughly 15 million workers, typified that posture in a report published earlier this month. – https://www.techpolicy.press/how-major-labor-unions-are-positioning-on-ai/
Courts and Litigation
Clearview AI faces criminal complaint in Austria over GDPR violations
(DigWatch – 29 October 2025) On 28 October 2025, European privacy NGO noyb (None of Your Business) submitted a criminal complaint against Clearview AI and its management to Austrian prosecutors. The complaint targets Clearview’s long-criticised practice of scraping billions of photos and videos from the public web to build a facial recognition database, including biometric data of EU residents, in ways noyb claims flagrantly violate the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). – https://dig.watch/updates/clearview-ai-faces-criminal-complaint-in-austria-over-gdpr-violations – https://noyb.eu/en/criminal-complaint-against-facial-recognition-company-clearview-ai
Security and Surveillance
Open Source “b3” Benchmark to Boost LLM Security for Agents
(Phil Muncaster – Infosecurity Magazine – 29 October 2025) The UK AI Security Institute (AISI) has partnered with the commercial security sector on a new open source framework designed to help large language model (LLM) developers improve security posture. The backbone breaker benchmark (b3) is a new evaluation tool created by the AISI, Check Point and Check Point subsidiary Lakera. It’s designed to help developers and model providers improve the resilience of the “backbone” LLMs which power AI agents. “AI agents operate as a chain of stateless LLM calls – each step performing reasoning, producing output, or invoking tools,” Lakera explained in a blog post announcing the release. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/open-source-b3-benchmark-security/
How Businesses Should Approach the Post-Quantum Cryptography Transition
(Kevin Poireault – Infosecurity Magazine – 29 October 2025) Recently standardized by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), post-quantum cryptography (PQC) empowers organizations to secure their systems against the ‘harvest now, decrypt later’ threat. This threat consists in threat actors collecting encrypted files and data today in order to break the encryption algorithms using quantum computers in the future. Shahram Mossayebi, co-founder of Crypto Quantique, spoke during ISACA Europe 2025 conference about some of the myths surrounding these threats. He provided recommendations for organizations on how to approach their transition to PQC – also known as quantum-safe cryptography. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/interviews/how-businesses-approach-pqc/
Npm Malware Uses Invisible Dependencies to Infect Dozens of Packages
(DigWatch – 29 October 2025) An ongoing npm credential harvesting campaign operating since August 2025 has been discovered by researchers at Koi Security. The malware, dubbed PhantomRaven by the researchers, is actively stealing npm tokens, GitHub credentials and CI/CD secrets from developers worldwide, with 126 npm packages infected, totalling 86,434 downloads. At least 80 of them were still active when the Koi Security report was published on October 29. While the attacker’s infrastructure was described in the report as “surprisingly sloppy” because a simple analysis led the researchers to a single individual, they commented that the delivery mechanism is “clever.” – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/npm-malware-invisible-dependencies/
PHP Servers and IoT Devices Face Growing Cyber-Attack Risks
(Alessandro Mascellino – Infosecurity Magazine – 29 October 2025) A sharp increase in attacks targeting PHP servers, internet of things (IoT) devices and cloud gateways has been identified by cybersecurity researchers. The latest report by the Qualys Threat Research Unit (TRU), published today, attributes the rise to botnets such as Mirai, Gafgyt and Mozi, which are exploiting known CVEs and cloud misconfigurations to expand their reach. With PHP powering over 73% of websites and 82% of enterprises reporting incidents linked to cloud misconfigurations, the digital attack surface continues to grow. This makes servers running PHP-based applications, such as WordPress, especially attractive to attackers seeking remote code execution (RCE) or data theft opportunities. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/php-servers-and-iot-devices-cyber/
New Atroposia RAT Surfaces on Dark Web
(Beth Maundrill – Infosecurity Magazine – 19 October 2025) A new remote access trojan (RAT) dubbed Atroposia has been discovered by security researchers at Varonis. The RAT uses encrypted command channels, hidden remote access, credential and wallet theft and persistence. It forms part of a growing market of criminal toolkits. It was first identified by the cybersecurity firm on October 15 and has been observed being promoted on underground forums as a modular RAT with a full complement of offensive capabilities. – https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/new-atroposia-rat-surfaces-on-dark/
Defence, Military, and Warfare
20-kilowatt powerful laser weapon that can fry enemy drones delivered to Germany
(Interesting Engineering – 29 October 2025) A demonstrator laser weapon, which can fry enemy drones, has been delivered to Germany. The weapon is expected to be deployed for operational use starting in 2029. Developed by Rheinmetall and MBDA, the laser weapon could serve as a powerful and cost-effective addition to conventional guided missiles. The weapon’s effectiveness and precision have been proven under real operational conditions in over 100 firing tests. – https://interestingengineering.com/military/20-kilowatt-laser-weapon-delivered-germany
Frontiers
OpenAI and Microsoft sign new $135 billion agreement to deepen AI partnership
(DigWatch – 29 October 2025) Microsoft and OpenAI have signed a new agreement that marks the next phase of their long-standing partnership, deepening ties first formed in 2019. The updated deal builds on years of collaboration in advancing responsible AI, positioning both organisations for long-term success while introducing new structural and operational changes. Under the new arrangement, Microsoft supports OpenAI’s transition into a public benefit corporation (PBC) and recapitalisation. The technology giant now holds an investment valued at around $135 billion, representing about 27 percent of OpenAI Group PBC on an as-converted diluted basis. – https://dig.watch/updates/openai-and-microsoft-sign-new-135-billion-agreement-to-deepen-ai-partnership – https://openai.com/index/next-chapter-of-microsoft-openai-partnership/
Google commits to long-term power deal as NextEra advances nuclear restart
(DigWatch – 29 October 2025) NextEra Energy and Google have launched a major collaboration to accelerate nuclear energy deployment in the United States, anchored by the planned restart of the Duane Arnold Energy Centre in Iowa. The plant has been offline since 2020 and is slated to be back online by early 2029. Under their agreement, Google will purchase the plant’s energy output through a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA). Additionally, NextEra plans to acquire the remaining minority stakes in Duane Arnold to gain full ownership. – https://dig.watch/updates/google-commits-to-long-term-power-deal-as-nextera-advances-nuclear-restart – https://newsroom.nexteraenergy.com/NextEra-Energy-and-Google-Announce-New-Collaboration-to-Accelerate-Nuclear-Energy-Deployment-in-the-U-S?l=12
Nvidia and Deutsche Telekom plan €1 billion AI data centre in Germany
(DigWatch – 29 October 2025) Plans are being rolled out for a €1 billion data centre in Germany to bolster Europe’s AI infrastructure, with Nvidia and Deutsche Telekom set to co-fund the project. The facility is expected to serve enterprise customers, including SAP SE, Europe’s largest software company, and to deploy around 10,000 advanced chips known as graphics processing units (GPUs). – https://dig.watch/updates/nvidia-and-deutsche-telekom-plan-e1-billion-ai-data-centre-in-germany
NVIDIA and Nokia join forces to build the AI platform for 6G
(DigWatch – 29 October 2025) Nokia and NVIDIA have announced a $1 billion partnership to develop an AI-powered platform that will drive the transition from 5G to 6G networks. The collaboration will create next-generation AI-RAN systems, combining computing, sensing and connectivity to transform how the US mobile networks process data and deliver services. However, this partnership marks a strategic step in both companies’ ambition to regain global leadership in telecommunications. – https://dig.watch/updates/nvidia-and-nokia-join-forces-to-build-the-ai-platform-for-6g – https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-nokia-ai-telecommunications
New artificial neurons replicate real brain chemistry for smarter AI hardware design
(Interesting Engineering – 29 October 2025) Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the School of Advanced Computing have built artificial neurons that physically replicate the electrochemical behavior of real brain cells. The study marks a major step toward more efficient, brain-like hardware that could one day support artificial general intelligence. Unlike existing neuromorphic chips that digitally simulate brain activity, USC’s new neurons use real chemical and electrical processes to compute. – https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/usc-artificial-neurons-ai-hardware
World’s smallest 3D bioprinting robot delivers healing gels to damaged vocal cords
(Interesting Engineering – 29 October 2025) A team of biomechanical engineers and surgeons has created a 3D-printing soft robot that could transform vocal cord surgery. Designed to deliver hydrogels directly to damaged tissue, the device measures just 2.7 millimeters across, making it the smallest bioprinter ever reported. The study details how this flexible, surgeon-controlled tool could help patients recover their voices after surgery by reconstructing delicate vocal tissues more accurately than ever before. – https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/precision-bioprinting-in-vocal-cord-surgery
AI-driven diabetes prevention matches human-led programs in clinical trial
(DigWatch – 29 October 2025) Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health report that an AI-driven diabetes prevention program achieved outcomes comparable to traditional, human-led coaching. The results come from a phase III randomised controlled trial, the first of its kind. The trial enrolled participants with prediabetes and randomly assigned them to one of four remote human-led programs or an AI app that delivered personalised push notifications guiding diet, exercise and weight management. Over 12 months, both groups were evaluated against CDC benchmarks for risk reduction (e.g. achieving 5 % weight loss, meeting activity goals, or reducing A1C). – https://dig.watch/updates/ai-driven-diabetes-prevention-matches-human-led-programs-in-clinical-trial – https://hub.jhu.edu/2025/10/27/ai-powered-diabetes-prevention/
Fabric muscles thinner than hair could reshape wearable robotics design
(Interesting Engineering – 29 October 2025) A new breakthrough from South Korea could soon make wearable robots feel as natural as clothing. Researchers from the Advanced Robotics Research Center at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) have built an automated weaving system that continuously produces ultra-thin, shape memory alloy coil yarn, thinner than a human hair. This breakthrough allows large-scale production of lightweight, flexible artificial muscles for next-generation wearable robots. – https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/kimm-fabric-muscle-wearable-robot
Yuan says AI ‘digital twins’ could trim meetings and the workweek
(DigWatch – 29 October 2025) AI could shorten the workweek, says Zoom’s Eric Yuan. At TechCrunch Disrupt, he pitched AI ‘digital twins’ that attend meetings, negotiate drafts, and triage email, arguing assistants will shoulder routine tasks so humans focus on judgement. Yuan has already used an AI avatar on an investor call to show how a stand-in can speak on your behalf. He said Zoom will keep investing heavily in assistants that understand context, prioritise messages, and draft responses. – https://dig.watch/updates/yuan-says-ai-digital-twins-could-trim-meetings-and-the-workweek – https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/27/zoom-ceo-eric-yuan-says-ai-will-shorten-our-workweek/