Yesterday in a new blog, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith urged the Trump administration to ease AI export rules that undermine U.S. AI leadership. Smith writes that the current federal AI Diffusion Rule “imposes quantitative limits on the ability of American tech companies to build and expand AI datacenters” in many allied nations. A policy course correction would help protect national security and promote American AI. See coverage of this development in the Wall Street Journal and the Hill.
This Week in Washington
- CyberScoop: A push is gearing up to renew an expiring 10-year-old cybersecurity law – the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. The law provides safeguards for companies that voluntarily share threat intelligence data with the government, but reauthorization of the law faces several hurdles.
- Wall Street Journal: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated an inquiry into technology companies’ use of censorship. The aim of this inquiry is to understand how technology companies determine what content to block users from seeing.
- CyberScoop: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it was changing its Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit to the “Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit.” Some of the unit’s focuses will be fraud committed using emerging technologies, the dark web, or false websites.
- Business Insider: The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency co-published a security advisory that said a ransomware hacker group called “Ghost” indiscriminately attacked organizations in more than 70 countries since 2021.
Article Summary
- Nature: A team of Microsoft researchers revealed a generative AI engine that can create coherent, immersive video game worlds that respond to player inputs in a recent study published by Nature.
- New York Times: Five universities are teaming up for a five-year effort, called the Human Virome Program, to inspect thousands of saliva, blood, and other samples with AI systems. The hope is to learn about how the human virome influences human health.
- Bleeping Computer: To settle allegations that Health Net Federal Services (HNFS) falsely certified compliance with cybersecurity requirements, HNFS and its parent company, Centene Corporation, agreed to pay over $11 million.
- Broadband Breakfast: Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and the Massachusetts Broadband Institute debuted a new statewide initiative to expand internet access, device distribution, and digital literacy training. The new initiative, known as the Launchpad Program, will provide financial support to organizations interested in addressing digital access gaps.
Featured Podcast
- Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson
“You have to evolve cybersecurity practices as you evolve operational practices,” says Igor Tsyganskiy, Microsoft’s Global Chief Information Security Officer. Discover how AI is shaping the future of defense strategies and hear about the critical role collaboration plays across industries in this episode. (“The Power of Partnership in Cyber Defense” – February 25, 2025)