PLA builds AI using Meta's technology | Australian politicians utilise Chinese rising social media Red | Russian actors circulate fake videos to influence US election
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Top Chinese research institutions linked to the People's Liberation Army have used Meta's publicly available Llama model to develop an AI tool for potential military applications called "ChatBIT". It was fine-tuned and "optimised for dialogue and question-answering tasks in the military field", the paper said. It was found to outperform some other AI models that were roughly 90% as capable as OpenAI's powerful ChatGPT-4. Reuters
Some Australian politicians are using the emerging Chinese social media platform Red to engage with Chinese-speaking constituents. An ABC analysis has found they appear to be strongly tailoring what sort of posts they publish on the platform, avoiding the "normal Punch and Judy show of politics" and contentious topics often found on their Instagram posts. ABC News
The US government says “Russian influence actors” are behind a viral video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant illegally voting for Kamala Harris in the presidential election. Election experts warn foreign disinformation could proliferate in particular on Musk’s X after the billionaire entrepreneur dramatically cut the platform’s moderation teams as part of his pledge to allow for greater freedom of speech. Financial Times
ASPI
A new risk on the horizon: organised criminals as mercenaries of disinformation
The Strategist
John Coyne and Liam Auliciems
At a time when controlling the narrative is power, are organised crime groups acting as mercenaries of disinformation, using their skills to manipulate minds for profit? A recent Australian Federal Police operation suggests an intersection is forming between crime, disinformation and technological exploitation. Last month, the AFP arrested six members of a Sydney-based criminal syndicate implicated in drug importation as part of Operation Kraken. The operation targeted Ghost, an encrypted messaging app designed for illicit communications. It played a crucial role in the syndicate’s activities, used to send more than 125,000 criminal messages.
Don’t give a free pass to Beijing for its aggressive behaviour
The Strategist
Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan and Justin Bassi
The type of influence China exercises is not something we can accept as simply ‘what great powers do’. It launched a cyber attack on the Pacific Islands Forum, spreads online disinformation in the Pacific to undermine democracies and weaken Pacific partnerships, sought security agreements that lack public transparency, and undertaken various other malicious activities—such as hybrid and grey zone operations. And that’s just in the Pacific—China is carrying out this malicious activity globally, not to mention being the main supporter enabling Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Australia
How Australian politicians are using emerging Chinese social media app Red
ABC News
Jenny Cai and Iris Zhao
Some Australian politicians are using the emerging Chinese social media platform Red to engage with Chinese-speaking constituents. This super app has grown popular among global Chinese-speaking communities in recent years. Of its more than 150 million active users, almost 700,000 are based in Australia. An ABC analysis has found politicians appear to be strongly tailoring what sort of posts they publish on the platform. Experts say differences in messaging between Chinese and English social media from politicians is creating a vacuum for misinformation to fill and it could leave some voters ill-informed.
CSIRO opens $6.8m printing facility to make flexible solar panels
ABC News
Ben Christensen
The CSIRO has opened a new $6.8m printing facility that can make continuous rolls of flexible solar panels. Leader of CSIRO's Renewable Energy Systems Group Dr Anthony Chesman believes the printing facility will bridge the gap between testing and industrial production. CSIRO is seeking application ideas and industry partners to take the flexible solar panel technology to full-scale production. They foresee uses in recreation, defence, disaster relief and agriculture.
Australia is building a telecoms network that relies on Starlink and Elon Musk's goodwill
ABC News
James Purtill
Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service has become an indispensable part of the national telecoms network, used by 200,000 customers and integrated into emergency services. Some defence strategists and communications analysts worry this reliance presents a growing security threat and Mr Musk could abruptly deny access "in a crisis". Competition would lessen the risk but commercial alternatives to Starlink are still years away.
The people who mistook their lives for an app
The Monthly
Anna Krein
As Australian schools began to roll out e-safety lesson plans, I heard it again from the then chief executive of a children’s wellbeing charity that had partnered with Google in 2015 to provide eSmart digital citizen licences to Year 6 students. I’d asked why there were no modules teaching students how to recognise commercial intent, resist persuasive design and disconnect. “The future is digital,” she declared. I’d queried the partnership with Google: whether it was the best look for digital citizenship, particularly when Google had been accused of breaching anti-trust law in the United States, and its Australian company was notoriously resisting paying tax here.
China
Chinese researchers develop AI model for military use on back of Meta's Llama
Reuters
James Pomfret and Jessie Pang
Top Chinese research institutions linked to the People's Liberation Army have used Meta's publicly available Llama model to develop an AI tool for potential military applications, according to three academic papers and analysts. In a June paper reviewed by Reuters, six Chinese researchers from three institutions, including two under the PLA leading research body, the Academy of Military Science, detailed how they had used an early version of Meta's Llama as a base for what it calls "ChatBIT".
China’s People’s Liberation Army weaponizing Meta’s AI
Asia Times
Gabriel Honrada
China’s military may have found a new weapon: a repurposed version of Meta’s open-source AI, Llama, retooled for battlefield intelligence. Last month, Reuters reported that according to three academic papers, top Chinese research institutions linked to the PLA have adapted Meta’s Llama AI model for military applications. Reuters reports that in June, six researchers from three institutions, including two under the PLA’s Academy of Military Science, detailed their use of an early version of Meta’s Llama to create “ChatBIT,” an AI tool optimized for military intelligence and decision-making.
China’s ‘mind-boggling’ space capabilities worry US, says Space Force chief
POLITICO
Joshua Posaner
China's rapid development of space-based military systems is more concerning to Washington than possible Russian space nuclear weapons, U.S. Space Force chief General B. Chance Saltzman told POLITICO. Saltzman said attention has often focused on Russia and its development of a kind of space nuclear weapon as the "closest alligator to the boat" when it comes to European security, but the bigger challenge is posed by China.
Ex-Baidu AI scientist becomes a billionaire after shares of his self-driving tech startup jump 16%
Forbes
Zinna Lee
Yu Kai, an AI scientist who started an autonomous driving project at Baidu, has joined the billionaire ranks after shares of his startup, Horizon Robotics, jumped almost 16% to a record high on Wednesday. Yu, chairman and CEO of Horizon Robotics, is the company’s largest shareholder with a 13% stake through his family trust and a wholly-owned investment vehicle. Based on his stake, Forbes estimates his net worth to be just over $1 billion.
Drones become newest front in China-US economic security fight
Nikkei Asia
Shunsuke Akagi
Tensions between the US and China have spread to the drone industry, as American startup manufacturer Skydio -- which supplies Taiwan and Ukraine -- says its battery supply chain in China has been targeted by sanctions from Beijing. "Right now we don't expect new [battery] sources to come online until the spring of next year," the company said in a statement released on Wednesday. It criticized the sanctions, saying "this action makes clear that the Chinese government will use supply chains as a weapon to advance their interests over ours."
USA
US says ‘Russian influence actors’ are behind viral election video hoax
Financial Times
Joe Miller and Hannah Murphy
The US government says “Russian influence actors” are behind a viral video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant illegally voting for Kamala Harris in the presidential election. They said Russian actors had “also manufactured a video falsely accusing an individual associated with the Democratic presidential ticket of taking a bribe from a US entertainer”, and cautioned Moscow planned to release more such content in the final days of the election campaign.
Georgia official asks social media sites to take down Russian disinformation video
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
Georgia’s secretary of state asked X and other social media sites to take down a fake video being pushed by accounts with ties to a prominent Russian disinformation network. On Thursday afternoon, a video began circulating on X purporting to show Haitian immigrants being given US identification documents allowing them to vote in the state of Georgia. The post was quickly debunked and disinformation experts immediately were able to link it to the disinformation group Storm-1516.2 more Russian disinformation videos targeting US election are circulating online, sources say
CBS News
Margaret Brennan, Robert Legare, James LaPorta, Rhona Tarrant
Antibot4Navalny, a team of anonymous volunteers monitoring Russian disinformation efforts, said the videos cited by the FBI match recent footage released by a Russian disinformation group known for impersonating media organisations and US government entities. The group released 47 fabricated videos this week alone as the presidential election approached, researchers said. Other videos targeted Vice President Kamala Harris, promoted Trump, or sought to erode confidence in election integrity and undermine support for Ukraine.
Biden’s high-tech legacy fraying even before Election Day
POLITICO
Christine Mui and Brendan Bordelon
In October, Biden signed a law rolling back a key environmental review standard that companies would have been required to follow. And the first binding award to be issued — $123 million to the Minnesota-based chipmaker Polar Semiconductor — came under sealed terms, leading many initial supporters to worry that tech companies will get what they want without any real public oversight. With former President Donald Trump attacking the CHIPS program in a recent interview, a signature Biden achievement now has an opponent.
House Speaker Johnson says GOP may try to repeal CHIPS Act, then walks it back
Associated Press
Stephen Groves
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that Republicans “probably will” try to repeal legislation that spurred U.S. production of semiconductor chips, a statement he quickly tried to walk back by saying he would like to instead “streamline” it. Johnson made the initial comment while campaigning for a vulnerable New York GOP congressman in a district that is anticipating a large new Micron semiconductor manufacturing plant. Johnson, who voted against the legislation, later said in a statement that the CHIPS Act, which poured $54 billion into the semiconductor manufacturing industry, “is not on the agenda for repeal.”
US fines GlobalFoundries for shipping chips to sanctioned Chinese firm
Reuters
Alexandra Alper, Jasper Ward and David Ljunggren
The US said on Friday it imposed a $500,000 penalty on New York-based GlobalFoundries, the world's third-largest contract chipmaker, for shipping chips without authorization to an affiliate of blacklisted Chinese chipmaker SMIC. In a statement, the Commerce Department said GlobalFoundries sent 74 shipments worth $17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor, an affiliate of SMIC, without seeking a license. Both SMIC and SJ Semiconductor were added to a trade restriction list known as the entity list in 2020 over SMIC's alleged ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. SMIC has denied wrongdoing.
Americans, your calls and texts can be monitored by Chinese spies
The Washington Post
Josh Rogin
The Chinese hackers, who the United States believes are linked to Beijing’s Ministry of State Security, have burrowed inside the private wiretapping and surveillance system that American telecom companies built for the exclusive use of US federal law enforcement agencies — and the U.S. government believes they likely continue to have access to the system. Millions of mobile-phone users on the networks of at least three major U.S. carriers could thus be ongoingly vulnerable to Chinese government surveillance.
Americas
No Tesla dealership? No problem. Uruguayans import the EVs from China
Rest of World
Lucía Cholakian Herrera
Tesla’s inroads in South America have been slow. The company’s only official store in the region is in Chile. Other countries, like Colombia and Peru, have only a handful of Tesla cars. Private car dealerships in Uruguay are importing Teslas from China, where half of the brand’s EVs are made. Uruguay’s small size and nationwide charging network make it ideal for EV adoption.
How researchers are using geospatial technology to uncover Mexico's clandestine graves
WIRED
Geraline Castro
There are more than 114,000 missing persons in Mexico, and that number is continuing to rise. Criminal violence in the country is at a record level, largely driven by gangs and drug cartels. Many of those missing are buried in clandestine graves all across the country. To contribute to the solution of this complex problem, a group of scientists from the Center for Research in Geospatial Information Sciences put technology and data analysis at the service of the searches.
North Asia
Flying taxi tested for 1st time in Japan
Nikkei Asia
Takayuki Yao
Toyota Motor has conducted a test flight of a flying car in Japan, the Japanese automaker said Saturday, a first for the company. The aircraft used in the late October test was a prototype developed by US start-up Joby Aviation, in which Toyota invests. Test flights have already been conducted successfully in the US.
Southeast Asia
Malaysia and Ukraine’s joint venture in drone technology
OpenGov Asia
Alita Sharon
In recent developments, Ukraine has recognised Malaysia as a crucial entry point for expanding collaborations in the unmanned aerial vehicle and drone sectors within the ASEAN region. The recognition of Malaysia’s technological capabilities is significant as it highlights the country’s strategic position in the evolving landscape of innovation in Southeast Asia. During the Joint Trade Committee meeting co-chaired by Deputy Minster Kachka and Deputy Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Liew Chin Tong, discussions spanned multiple key sectors, including agriculture, aerospace, sustainable palm oil, medical devices, and tourism.
Indonesia Police Force bust international online gambling ring run by Chinese national
Jakarta Globe
Ricki Putra Harahap
Police have dismantled another online gambling ring, this time operated by a Chinese national. Previously, authorities arrested several suspects allegedly linked to the Communications Ministry, who were facilitating gambling sites. The Indonesian National Police’s Criminal Investigation Agency has uncovered an international online gambling network generating billions of rupiah, arresting seven suspects, including one foreign national.
South & Central Asia
Mauritius suspends social media until after election amid wiretapping scandal
Reuters
Villen Anganan
Mauritius's communications regulator ordered all internet service providers to suspend access to social media platforms on Friday to Nov. 11, a day after the upcoming general election, as the country reels from a wiretapping scandal. Some 20 conversations involving politicians, police, lawyers, journalists and members of civil society have been leaked on social media since mid-October, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders says. The Information and Communication Technologies Authority said the temporary social media ban was in response to "illegal postings".
Tajikistan bans Counter-Strike, GTA and plans raids on gaming centers
The Record by Recorded Future
Daryna Antoniuk
Tajikistan has imposed a ban on distributing the popular video games Counter-Strike and Grand Theft Auto, labeling them as violent and immoral. According to a statement by the country’s interior ministry, police in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, “will conduct raids and inspections in computer gaming centers” suspected of selling these games. Earlier in August, Turkey blocked access to the video game platform Roblox over concerns about content “that could lead to the exploitation of children.”
Countries seeking to gain an edge in AI should pay close attention to India’s whole-of-society approach
Fortune
Arun Subramaniyan
Over the next 10 years, AI is projected to add just south of a trillion dollars to India’s economy. This is in no small part due to the Indian government’s ongoing efforts to foster a more active, open relationship between government, private enterprise, and academia in the AI space. Under the banner of what they’ve termed “AI for All,” the Indian authorities have designed a range of initiatives to harness AI’s potential for society while keeping the country competitive on the global stage. It’s an approach that is already paying off. India recently ranked first in the Stanford AI Index Report in Skill Penetration and Quantity of GitHub AI projects.
Ukraine-Russia
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy urges allies to act before N Korean troops reach front
Al Jazeera
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged its allies to stop “watching” and take steps before North Korean troops deployed in Russia reach the battlefield. Western leaders have described the North Korean troop deployment as a significant escalation that could also jolt relations in the Asia Pacific region, and open the door to technology transfers from Moscow to Pyongyang that could advance the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program.
Russian drone attack on Kyiv damages buildings, power lines, Ukraine says
Reuters
A Russian air attack on Kyiv damaged buildings, roads and several power lines in the city, the capital's military administration said early on Sunday, after the military said air defences were trying to repel a drone attack. It was Russia's second drone attack on Kyiv in as many nights. According to preliminary information, all of the attack drones were destroyed, Popko added. Kyiv, its surrounding region and the vast majority of the eastern half of Ukraine were intermittently under air raid alerts for most of the night, according to alerts issued on social media by the Ukrainian military.
Europe
Moldovans vote in presidential runoff amid claims of Russian interference
The Guardian
Pjotr Sauer
Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Moldova has gravitated between pro-western and pro-Russian courses. But under Sandu, a former World Bank adviser, the impoverished country has accelerated its push to escape Moscow’s orbit as its war in neighbouring Ukraine continues. Cybersecurity agency reports the Central Election Commission’s voter education site was temporarily down this morning due to a DDoS attack. Officials believe that Moscow invested approximately $100m (£77.2m) before the first vote and had reportedly smuggled in some of the funds by “money mules” detained by police at the main airport while carrying bundles of €10,000 (£8,390) in cash.
Ransomware attack hits German pharmaceutical wholesaler, disrupts medicine supplies
The Record by Recorded Future
Alexander Martin
AEP, a German pharmaceutical wholesaler based in Bavaria, said it was hit by a ransomware attack that could disrupt the supply of medicine to thousands of pharmacies. In a statement on the AEP website, the company described the cyberattack as “targeted and criminal” and resulting in the partial encryption of AEP’s IT systems.
Vatican, Israel implicated in Italy hacking scandal, leaked files reveal
POLITICO
Hannah Roberts and Antoaneta Roussi
A massive hacking scandal that has engulfed Italy is now threatening to spill beyond its borders, sucking in Israel, the Vatican, the United Kingdom and Lithuania. New claims have been made via police wiretaps that foreign powers were among those using a Milan-based private investigative firm to penetrate state security databases with the aim of obtaining secret information about financial activity, private bank transactions and police investigations.
Denmark: The giant supercomputer built to transform an entire country—and paid for by Ozempic
The Wall Street Journal
Ben Cohen
he world’s latest AI machine is powered by the success of two products: Nvidia’s chips and Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drugs. It was named Gefion after the goddess of Norse mythology who turned her sons into oxen so they could plow the land that would become Denmark’s largest island. As it turns out, that’s the plan for Gefion the AI supercomputer: to take something and turn it into something else entirely.
UK
UK vows to ‘closely monitor all our supply chains’ after collapse of hypersonic supplier
Breaking Defense
Tim Martin
Reaction Engines, which is also part of the $1.3 billion Hypersonic Technologies & Capability Development Framework effort to build and deliver a first UK hypersonic missile, was plunged into administration after failing to secure a rescue deal. The company reportedly conducted weeks of talks with potential buyers, including an unsuccessful attempt to win over £20 million from the United Arab Emirate’s Strategic Development Fund, the investment agency of the UAE’s Tawazun Council.
Portsmouth among councils hit by cyber attack
BBC
Portsmouth City Council has become the latest local authority to be hit by a cyber attack. The unitary council said it was among those affected by a distributed denial-of-service attack by a group calling itself NoName057(16). Pro-Russian hackers have claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have also affected Salford and Middlesbrough, among others. Portsmouth said no council services were affected and that residents' data was not at risk.
Middle East
Iranian cyber group targeted Summer Olympics with attack on French display provider
The Record by Recorded Future
Jonathan Greig
The FBI and other agencies accused Iranian cyber actors of targeting the 2024 Summer Olympics, including an attempt to take over display boards to denounce Israel. The US Department of Treasury and Israel National Cyber Directorate joined the FBI in publishing an advisory this week about the operations of Emennet Pasargad — a well-known Iranian cyber operation previously implicated in hacking attempts targeting Israel and the 2020 US presidential election. The group has been using a company named Aria Sepehr Ayandehsazan as cover for operations that researchers have tagged under various names, including “Cotton Sandstorm” and “Haywire Kitten.”
Big Tech
Google is winning the AI search wars
Financial Times
Richard Waters
Despite widespread expectations that the arrival of ChatGPT nearly two years ago would bring upheaval to the internet search market, not much has changed. Another strong set of quarterly earnings this week showed that Google has absorbed generative AI technology into its search engine and, if anything, is going from strength to strength. The company is facing greater competition when it comes to the emerging world of chatbots and assistants.
AWS nuclear power deal blocked by US regulator
The Information
Anissa Gardizy
US energy regulators on Friday rejected a proposal related to Amazon Web Services’ deal to buy nuclear power for several data centers for artificial intelligence in Pennsylvania, according to a public filing. In a split vote, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission denied a request to increase the amount of power that would supply the data centers, putting the project in limbo. The agency said it had concerns that offloading a large amount of power from the energy grid, which AWS’ plan entails, could negatively affect customers and the grid’s reliability.
Digital ad market booms for Big Tech
Axios
Sara Fischer
The world's biggest digital advertising companies saw significant sales growth last quarter, driving momentum for the U.S. stock market ahead of the 2024 election and foreshadowing a lucrative holiday season. After years of pandemic-driven volatility, the global ad market is finally starting to stabilize this year. Investments in generative AI ad products, an influx of political ad dollars tied to the upcoming U.S. election, and healthy consumer spending drove strong revenue and profit growth for the world's biggest tech giants last quarter.
Apple is challenging hackers to break into the company’s servers: If you’re successful, you could earn up to $1 million
Fortune
Jane Thier
Apple is taking its server safety very seriously. The $3.5 trillion software giant is challenging hackers to break into the company’s tech—and a $1 million cheque is up for grabs to those who succeed. The “security research challenge” coincides with Apple’s rollout of its new AI-powered Apple Intelligence offering, as part of iOS 18.1. The server on which many of the Intelligence commands are run is called the Private Cloud Compute server—and Apple is desperate to protect that server from any cyber attacks, hacks, or security breaches.
Artificial Intelligence
Wall Street frets over Big Tech’s $200bn AI spending splurge
Financial Times
Richard Waters and Tim Bradshaw
Big Tech’s capital spending is on track to surpass $200bn this year and rise even further in 2025, as anxiety grows on Wall Street about the returns on soaring investment in artificial intelligence. The four biggest US internet groups — Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Google’s parent Alphabet — this week offered investors brief glimpses into the benefits they are seeing from their headlong rush into generative AI, arguing that it was boosting the performance of core services and helping to hold down operating costs.
What if AI is actually good for Hollywood?
The New York Times
Devin Gordon
AI software changes all the accounting. By using every available frame of Hanks’s movie career to capture his facial movements and the look of his skin under countless lighting conditions, physical environments, camera angles and lenses, Metaphysic’s artists can generate a digital Tom Hanks mask with the click of a few keystrokes. And what we see onscreen is just one factor in AI’s ascendancy. “It’s the quality, and it’s the speed, and it’s the cost,” Ulbrich said. No six-month production lag, no fortune spent.
Misc
BIS to leave cross-border payments platform Project mBridge
Reuters
The Bank for International Settlements is leaving the cross-border payments platform Project mBridge, which can be taken forward by the central banks behind it, BIS General Manager Agustin Carstens said. Project mBridge, a collaboration launched in 2021 between the BIS and the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, was joined by the Saudi Arabian central bank in June. The project has many more observing members.
Research
MIT debuts a large language model-inspired method for teaching robots new skills
TechCrunch
Brian Heater
MIT this week showcased a new model for training robots. The team introduced a new architecture called Heterogeneous Pretrained Transformers, which pulls together information from different sensors and different environments. A transformer was then used to pull together the data into training models. The larger the transformer, the better the output.
Events & Podcasts
Diversity and national security with Arfiya Eri
Stop the World
ASPI
In the latest edition of the Sydney Dialogue Summit Sessions, ASPI Analyst Daria Impiombato interviews Japanese politician Arfiya Eri. Arfiya is a Japanese woman of Uyghur and Uzbek heritage. She talks about her experiences in Japanese politics, her experiences online and the importance of diversity in politics. They discuss Japan’s place in the world as well as identity, diversity and national security.
Raisina Down Under
ASPI & ORF
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute is delighted to partner with India’s Observer Research Foundation for Raisina Down Under on 5-6 November in Canberra. Raisina Down Under will focus on geostrategic trends, regional partnerships, economic security, development and innovation. Importantly, it will tackle the challenges presented by rising strategic competition to which regional cooperation and advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum, semiconductors and 6G are central.
Australian AI Award 2024
Momentum Media
Held on 6 November in Sydney, the inaugural black-tie gala event will showcase the depth of talent in our nation’s AI community, recognising leaders and businesses that have driven innovation in AI and transformed how Australians live and work. The inaugural Australian AI Awards recognises the professionals, organisations, and solutions that have transformed the Australian economy – from banking, law, accounting, and wealth management through to defence, aerospace, cyber, and many more.
The Daily Cyber & Tech Digest is brought to you by the Cyber, Technology & Security team at ASPI.