Switzerland’s military faces a critical dilemma: 90% of its data seems to be too sensitive for Microsoft’s US cloud, highlighting the tension between the efficiency of a cloud solution and digital sovereignty. This raises questions about whether open-source alternatives can match proprietary solutions, how to balance interoperability with protection from foreign legal jurisdiction (e.g. the (…)
Innovation Policy
Modern infrastructure management increasingly relies on infrastructure-as-code (IaC), which is the paradigm of automatically managing computing infrastructure using programming languages such as Ansible. Furthermore, there is an increasing interest to leverage Large Language Models (LLMs) to 1) automatically generate the specification code that provisions the desired infrastructure, and 2) to periodically check if the infrastructure (…)
One of the increasingly popular paradigms for managing the growing size and complexity of modern ML models is the adoption of collaborative and decentralized approaches. While this has enabled new possibilities in privacy-preserving and scalable frameworks for distributed data analytics and model training over large-scale real-world models, current approaches often assume a uniform trust-levels among (…)
This project proposes to design metrics, methods, and scalable algorithms for detecting anomalies in dynamic networks. The temporal evolution of the structure of dynamic networks carries critical information about the development of complex systems in various applications, from biology to social networks. Deviations from regular network structure evolution may also provide critical information about anomalies (…)
Damit die Regierung das Vertrauen der Bevölkerung behalten kann, ist es wichtig, so transparent als möglich zu sein. Deshalb begrüsse ich es sehr, dass vier von fünf Verträgen von 2023 mit den offiziell anerkannten Cloud-Providern offengelegt wurde. Für mich ist es interessant zu sehen, dass in den Verträgen das Offenlegungsprinzip klar erwähnt wird. Weshalb haben (…)
noyb’s latest victory may sound like a technicality – who is responsible for complying with the GDPR – but it is actually very important, because if no one knows who is responsible, no one really is responsible. All the more important that the ruling clearly holds Microsoft U.S. as the company actually selling the product (…)
For security reasons, people want code to be ‘formally verified’, for example for libraries doing cryptographic operations. But what does this actually mean? And is ‘formally verified’ the panacea for secure and correct code in all situations? Of course not. Hillel gives some very easy examples where even the definition of ‘correct’ is not easy (…)
Companies are beginning to incorporate AI agents into their workstreams, even as they play catch up (or are falling behind, depending on how you look at it) to articulate frameworks to assign accountability for AI-driven decisions and weigh the trade-off between human oversight and explainability. This article nicely summarizes the findings of a survey of (…)
Without defending any party or attacking the other, I find this article interesting because it somehow presents a new situation whose implications we should carefully consider: First, can Microsoft’s logic be extended from the use of cloud storage and AI to the use of operating systems? What about communications services or even hardware? Can this (…)
Zyklus-Apps sind eine praktische Hilfe, um den eigenen Zyklus zu beobachten und besser verstehen zu lernen, und können sogar bei der Familienplanung unterstützen. Die dabei geteilten Daten sind sehr sensibel, aber auch gleichzeitig sehr begehrt, denn sie geben einen Hinweis darauf, dass sich Konsumgewohnheiten ändern könnten, wenn sich eine Schwangerschaft andeutet. Deswegen besteht das Risiko, (…)
This issue explores the rapid spread of AI-powered video surveillance, from supermarkets to large public gatherings, and examines the legal, ethical, and societal challenges it raises. With insights from Sébastien Marcel (Idiap Research Institute) and Johan Rochel (EPFL CDH), it looks at Switzerland’s sectoral approach versus the EU’s new AI Act, and what this means (…)
From supermarket checkouts to Olympic stadiums, smart surveillance technologies are spreading rapidly, raising new questions about privacy, trust, and oversight. How should societies balance the benefits of AI-powered cameras with the risks of bias, misuse, and erosion of democratic freedoms? And how will the upcoming European AI Act reshape the governance of biometric surveillance, both in the EU and in Switzerland? This edition of C4DT Focus examines these pressing issues by offering a legal and ethical perspective on intelligent video surveillance, with insights from Sébastien Marcel (Idiap Research Institute) and Johan Rochel (EPFL CDH).
I like this article because it offers a thought-provoking perspective. It discusses how digital payment and identity systems are closely linked and can help countries become more independent, inclusive, and resilient—in other words, more sovereign. By linking digital trust to infrastructure ownership and policy-making, the article encourages reflection on whether societies truly control their digital (…)
This is a nice reminder of the state of the foundation upon which our public key infrastructure stands. Depending on the angle you’re looking at, it is either stable or shaky. The incident in question was a certificate authority that emitted a rogue certificate for “test purposes.” What ensued and how Cloudflare responded shows how (…)
Semiconductors power nearly all modern devices, so controlling their production is strategically crucial. By revoking TSMC’s authorization to export advanced US chipmaking tools to China, the US hinders China’s ability to produce state-of-the-art chips (though TSMC only makes less advanced chips there). While this may curb China’s capacities in the short run, in the long-term, (…)
A comprehensive policy is necessary to unlock the economic and social potential of data in our country’s and its citizens’ interest, a study from EPFL Center for Digital Trust concludes.
While it was to be expected that Anthropic will also use the users’ chats for training, I think the way they’re approaching this is not too bad. Perhaps the pop-up is not clear enough, but at least past chats will not get in the LLM training grinder. One of the big question will be of (…)
I appreciate this second, more critical, take on the E-ID from dnip for moving beyond a purely technical discussion or a legal dissection, and instead exploring the broader societal impact of the E-ID.
A successful—and almost uplifting—example of collaboration across law enforcement, government agencies, and businesses against cybercrime is exemplified by the Cybercrime Atlas project. In a sweeping INTERPOL-coordinated operation, authorities across Africa arrested 1,209 cybercriminals who targeted nearly 88,000 victims. The crackdown recovered USD 97.4 million and dismantled 11,432 malicious infrastructures. This operation demonstrates how cross-border collaboration (…)
This SDSC Connect conference explores through keynotes, panels, and case studies how AI can meet clinical needs. It connects researchers, practitioners, and data scientists to foster insight, innovation, and collaboration.
As the speed that articles can be generated has increased with the rise of LLMs, Wikipedia just increased the speed it can delete them. If an article has obvious signs of having been created by an LLM, it can be deleted quickly with only two approvals. I think this is a good way of making (…)
The AI Policy Summit advances to its sixth edition in 2025!
The AI Policy Summit brings together a growing global expert community to foster cross-sectorial and cross-regional collaboration in AI policy, and is recognized as a leading AI policy event in Europe.
From a cryptographer’s point of view, the big breakthrough in quantum computing would be if it can successfully factorize numbers in the 1000-digit range. As it turns out, this is actually quite difficult. The record from 2012 of factorizing the number 21 is still unbeaten! And all reports of factorizing bigger numbers used very, very (…)
