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.
We’re eagerly gearing up for the third annual Summit of Centers this August 2025! This year’s spotlight is on collaborations with industry and private foundations. Stay tuned for announcements of our external guests!
Here is an article, in Cory Doctorow’s signature style, discussing social networks and what drives them and what makes people leave or stay. I like specifically how he dissects the way the once-good services these platforms used to provide got untethered from the profits their creators and CEOs were chasing over the years. Towards the (…)
The Ethics of Privacy and Surveillance by Carissa Véliz, Oxford University Press – 256 pages by Hector Garcia Morales “Privacy matters because it shields us from possible abuses of power”. Such a strong statement opens the introduction of the book, setting the grounds for the following pages. The thesis is that, in digital societies, there (…)
For a long time, Google dominated the search market, but this may be changing with new search habits emerging. Instead of googling multiple sites, I now primarily use two AI chatbots, challenge them to avoid hallucinations, and, if needed, click on their suggested links. For me, this is a more concise and much faster way (…)
In a sea of unsettling news, the US’s new Cyber Trust Mark labelling program is a welcome beacon of light. With consumers’ personal and home office spaces increasingly populated by connected devices, from door locks and doorbells, to baby monitors, vacuums, and TVs, the security of “smart home ecosystems” has never been more important. The (…)
Say cheese! This artist has created a whimsical website that allows New Yorkers to take selfies with traffic surveillance cameras installed all over the city. Maybe it can be used to track Santa’s whereabouts?
