Should we use the tools that can destroy us to help us? This high-school student developed a tool to flag potential extremists on Reddit and then engage with them to de-radicalize them. According to the student, he never actually employed the chat function on real persons, only on fake accounts. Reddit’s terms forbid using AI (…)
Melanie Kolbe-Guyot und Matthias Finger diskutieren die Notwendigkeit einer umfassenden Datenpolitik für die Schweiz, um das Potenzial von Daten durch klare Regeln und Anreize zu nutzen und die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit langfristig zu sichern. Es formuliert 6 Handlungsempfehlungen für die Politik.
In diesem Paper diskutieren Melanie Kolbe-Guyot und Matthias Finger die Notwendigkeit einer umfassenden Datenpolitik für die Schweiz, um das Potenzial von Daten durch klare Regeln und Anreize zu nutzen und die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit langfristig zu sichern. Es formuliert 6 Handlungsempfehlungen für die Politik.
Supply chain attacks are improving through automation. Adding new libraries to a software project has always been a point of vulnerability, but now that tools like ‘Cursor’ can add libraries automatically, developers are paying less attention to what gets installed. Some tools add libraries that send API keys of LLMs to attackers and load other (…)
Machine Learning in molecular medicine
November 7th, 2025, 09h00-12h30, EPFL Introduction Agentic AI—capable of autonomously handling tasks, coordinatingworkflows, and interacting with people and systems—continues totransform how organizations operate. Unlock the potential of agentic AI with our course, “Agentic AI Unveiled: Myth, Reality, and Trust.” Designed specifically for decision makers, this 2.75-hour program provides a clear and comprehensive overview of AI (…)
Interested in this theme? Looking to participate or collaborate on an initiative? The increasing prevalence of AI-powered systems and autonomous agents requires a shift in how we approach software development. It is critical to explore technologies, policies, and collaborations that enhance trust in software applications, particularly in an era where AI agents play an active (…)
Interested in this theme? Looking to participate or collaborate on an initiative? In an increasingly digital society, trust in democratic processes, institutions, and identity systems is fundamental to maintaining social stability and governance. Digital democracy relies on resilient e-governance infrastructures such as secure and privacy-preserving digital identities, trusted online platforms for citizen participation and cybersecure (…)
Carnegie Mellon University Africa, through its Upanzi Network initiative, has launched the Digital Experience Centre (DEC). The DEC serves as a hub for exploring and testing digital public infrastructure, digital public goods, cybersecurity, public health, agriculture and more. It demonstrates how key digital solutions—such as digital identity, digital payments and secure infrastructure—interoperate in real-world scenarios.
If you’re into vibe-coding (programming entirely through interactions with an LLM) or are looking to use LLMs for your coding, here is a list of the latest projects, including both paid and free tools. However, when using these tools, it’s essential to consider the potential security and privacy risks. LLMs may generate code with vulnerabilities (…)
We all heard that big AI companies need petabytes of data for training their new models. And we all heard that they don’t really care where they get their data from. Besides potential copyright infringement, this crawling takes another toll on some Open Source projects: Continuously requesting data over and over is similar to a (…)
If the revelation that Trump administration officials accidentally added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal group chat about sensitive military plans for airstrikes in Yemen wasn’t alarming enough, new reports now show that multiple Venmo accounts linked to former Trump officials were left publicly accessible, exposing sensitive connections and financial transactions. While the data leaked (…)
Ein schöner Überblicksartikel über wichtige Projekte der Digitalpolitik der EU in den letzten Jahren und ob und wie sie sich auf die Schweiz auswirken. Besonders interessant fand ich, dass gerade beim Konsumentenschutz die Schweiz eben nicht automatisch mitprofitiert wenn die EU eine härtere Gangart gegen Big Tech einschlägt.
This investigation highlights a crucial cybersecurity reality: while we often focus on sophisticated zero-day exploits, the greater threat comes from known vulnerabilities and misplaced trust. One million Android devices weren’t compromised through cutting-edge techniques but through traditional means – preinstalled backdoors and users installing unvetted apps outside official stores. The victims were vulnerable because they (…)
We often hear or talk about ‘IT for good’ and ‘responsible behaviour’ in the digital world, assuming a single universal common understanding of what’s good and what’s responsible. Things start to get confusing when we think about for whom a service or action is good or responsible: for all humanity, including the ‘bad guys’? for (…)
My colleague Melanie’s pick last week about Swiss supermarket chain Coop using AI-supported video surveillance in its stores for security purposes reminded me of the recent revelation that American supermarket chain Kroger may be engaging in surveillance pricing, i.e., using algorithms and data collected on customers (including through facial recognition technology) to determine the highest (…)
Undersea telecommunication cables are an invisible but integral part of the central nervous system of our digital society. With digitalization encroaching on ever more parts of our day-to-day lives, we become ever more dependent on telecommunication infrastructure. All the more worrying is the string of ‘incidents’ involving the undersea cables in recent years, many of (…)
Developed from EPFL research, in collaboration with MIT and Yale, the combination of secure computation and distributed algorithms opens a new era for data collaborations in medical research.
Last week, I had numerous conversations about the decision by Coop, a major Swiss supermarket chain, to implement AI-supported video surveillance technology. What struck me was that everyone—from NGOs to official delegates—was in the dark about this until the news broke. I am even more surprised that there has been less public outcry compared to (…)
The article reports that the US may have paused its offensive cyber operations against Russia, suggesting it is likely part of a broader diplomatic strategy to encourage talks over the Ukraine conflict, or to possibly focus more on addressing cyber threats posed by China. Scaling back offensive actions without reciprocal guarantees risks exposing critical infrastructure (…)
‘Quantum computing applications may become practical within the next 5 years’, according to recent claims by Microsoft and Google, both of which released statements within days of each other. The fact that these two rival tech giants made the same prediction at the same time lends credibility to the statement, especially given the ongoing global (…)
In our latest edition of the C4DT Digital Governance Book Review, we discuss Marietje Schaake’s book which explores the deep intertwining of Big Tech with politics, highlighting its threat to democracy and proposing practical regulatory solutions to reclaim democratic processes and safeguard state sovereignty.
Schaake, Marietje (2024). The Tech Coup – How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley. Princeton University Press, 336 pages. By Melanie Kolbe-Guyot It is safe to say that probably no other book should more be on your reading list this year than Marietje Schaake’s 2024 “The Tech Coup – How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley”. (…)
The European Summit on Applied Generative AI. 2025 Edition.
