The Defense Department is seeking tech experts to help manage its Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), the cornerstone of the department's efforts to develop A.I. technologies and share them with other defense agencies. The JAIC is seeking "highly technical" contract personnel from up to two small businesses to provide software architecture, operations and systems analysis, technical writing, and subject matter expertise, according to an April 23 request for information. The turnaround time on this opportunity is short: small businesses have only until April 30 to submit a response. There is an immediate need for 18-40 contract personnel in fiscal year 2020, all of whom will be required to hold a Top Secret security clearance. Interim security clearances are available.

Intelligence agencies need to use artificial intelligence to help deal with threats from criminals and hostile states who will try to use AI to strengthen their own attacks. Intelligence and espionage services need to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) in order to protect national security as cyber criminals and hostile nation states increasingly look to use the technology to launch attacks. The UK's intelligence and security agency GCHQ commissioned a study into the use of AI for national security purposes. It warns that while the emergence of AI create new opportunities for boosting national security and keeping members of the public safe, it also presents potential new challenges, including the risk of the same technology being deployed by attackers. "Malicious actors will undoubtedly seek to use AI to attack the UK, and it is likely that the most capable hostile state actors, which are not bound by an equivalent legal framework, are developing or have developed offensive AI-enabled capabilities," says the report from the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI).

Cornell CS Ph.D., Daniela L. Rus '93, who was supervised by IBM Professor of Engineering and Applied Mathematics, John Hopcroft, has been named to Donald J. Trump's President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The council provides advice to the White House on topics critical to U.S. security and the economy, including policy recommendations on the future of work, American leadership in science and technology, and the support of U.S. research and development. PCAST operates under the aegis of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), which was established in law in 1976. However, the council has existed more informally going back to Franklin Roosevelt's Science Advisory Board in 1933. "I'm grateful to be able to add my perspective as a computer scientist to this group at a time when so many issues involving AI and other aspects of computing raise important scientific and policy questions for the nation and the world," says Rus. Rus is the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and the deputy dean of research for the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing.

A relatively obscure video conferencing app has found itself the go-to way for people and businesses to connect while under lockdown. In the space of just a few weeks, Zoom has seen its user numbers sky-rocket as hospitals, schools and even governments make use of its free service to host virtual meetings and remain operational. The huge surge in popularity has brought with it a new level of scrutiny, with the US-based firm now forced to juggle lawsuits and federal warnings alongside the massive strain on its servers brought about by new users. Questions have inevitably been raised about how safe Zoom actually is and whether it can be trusted. Zoom's website and security white paper state that security is "the highest priority in the operations of its suite of products and services".

The development of 4G's successor began before the fourth-generation wireless network had even rolled out. In 2008, less than a year after Steve Jobs unveiled the first ever iPhone, Nasa started work on 5G in the hope that the futuristic technology would one day facilitate "a new economy in space". It would take another year before 4G became commercially available, which together with the iPhone led the way for a decade of new apps, devices and innovation. But while 4G was an era-defining technology that boosted the speed and utility of already existing products and platforms, the fifth generation feels to some like a solution in search of a problem. While Nasa's research foreshadowed the development of a space-based internet built on 5G networks, there have yet to be any revolutionary applications that people can actually use.

Nasa has found an "intriguing" planet that could be home to life in old data from a retired space telescope. The Earth-sized exoplanet orbits around its star's habitable zone, meaning that the temperature is mild enough to allow a rocky planet to support liquid water. The distant world was discovered when scientists were picking through old observations that came from the Kepler space telescope, which stopped its work in 2018 but provided a vast trove of data from the stars before it did. The planet had previously been discarded by a computer algorithm that misidentified it. But as part of new research, scientists were able to have another look at the information in the Kepler data and see that it really was a previously undiscovered planet.

Zoom is "not safe", Indian officials have said. The government warned employees not to use the chat app, warning that it was an insecure platform. It is just the latest of a run of countries and companies who have expressed concern about the security of the app, which has surged in popularity as people under lockdown work and study from home. With the new popularity has come an increased focus on its privacy and security failings. Issues have included "Zoombombing, where strangers will drop into video conferences and often show offensive or otherwise troubling messages.

Zoom calls are being interrupted by attackers who broadcast child abuse imagery, users say. The reports are just the latest example of the phenomenon of "Zoombombing", where strangers break into calls and show often distressing images and videos. The National Crime Agency (NCA) has now confirmed that it is investigating the reports and following up with other instances of such attacks. The BBC reported that several users of video calling app Zoom had recently experienced incidents where their meeting had been interrupted by abuse footage. It said one of the meetings in question had been publicised on social media - something a number of online safety groups and Zoom itself urge users not to do.

Telegram has announced plans to introduce secure group video call functionality for all of its users in response to the global coronavirus lockdown. The new feature was revealed by Telegram founder Pavel Durov in a blog post celebrating the messaging app passing 400 million users. There is no set date for when the update will be implemented, though Mr Durov said it would happen before the end of the year. "The current global lockdown highlighted the need for a trusted video communication tool," he wrote. "Video calls in 2020 are much like messaging in 2013. There are apps that are either secure or useable, but not both. We'd like to fix that, and we will focus on bringing you secure group video calls in 2020."

This post is part of our symposium on legal, operational, and ethical questions on the use of AI and machine learning in armed conflict.] I am grateful for the invitation to contribute to this online symposium. The preservation of international legal responsibility and agency concerning the employment of artificial-intelligence techniques and methods in relation to situations of armed conflict presents an array of pressing challenges and opportunities. In this post, I will seek to use one of the many useful framings in the ICRC's 2019 "Challenges" report's section on AI to widen the aperture further in order to identify or amplify four areas of concern: detention, humanitarian services, uninhabited military maritime systems, and legal advice. While it remains critical to place sufficient focus on weapons and, indeed, on the conduct of hostilities more widely, we ought to consider other (sometimes-related) areas of concern as well.