The 2026 National Defence Strategy was recently released and I have had a skim through the document and pulled out the notable references to AI 🧵 www.defence.gov.au/about/strate...

Nuclear power plants carry risks that don’t stay contained. When they’re damaged, the consequences can spread across borders, across generations, and across the environment we all depend on. That’s why the rules of war set strict limits: to prevent harm that cannot be undone.

🛰️ UNIDIR’s Space Security Programme is hiring: 🔹 Researcher to conduct research and lead projects 🔹 Research Assistant to support research, manage digital tools and coordinate programmes 🗓️ Apply by 6 May: unidir.org/jobs

Fantastic news, throwing phones away when the battery dies is quite ridiculous. We don't need super thin phones, we need phones we can repair.

When the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran started two months ago, online accounts linked to Tehran tried building sympathy with defiant and emotional appeals. Then, as the war dragged on, Iran shifted tactics. It began circulating short animated videos that scorched President Trump with biting satire.

🚨IMPORTANT 🚨 Your phone, car and apps are tracking more than you think. And the U.S. government is buying up data from private companies it couldn’t legally gather itself, enabling it to take mass surveillance to unprecedented levels. theconversation.com/us-governmen...

📢 Call for abstracts for the AUKUS Pillar II forum are now open. Abstracts of 300 words are due 16 May to [email protected]. They are looking for contributions from across disciplines including : law, engineering, computer science, ethics, international relations.

I do a lot of writing for both academic and general publications. To stay up to date with my writing, you can subscribe to my newsletter (this is a non-monetised subscription) 👉🏽 www.zenaassaad.com/newsletter

I did some digging on the missing names of Southern Lebanese towns and villages from Apple maps and I've shared my thoughs on what I've found in my latest blog 👉🏽 www.zenaassaad.com/blog/did-app...

Palantir's ImmigrationOS endangers democracy and the rule of law, according to a new law review paper from Fordham Law School’s Chinmayi Sharma and Sam Adler. In this week’s podcast, they break down the risks of AI-powered surveillance in immigration enforcement.

Well crap

So Palantir have just dropped a mini manifesto, and it's a 22 point list called "The Technological Republic". I have copied each item into this thread 🧵

Love France 🇫🇷 They understand the importance of the battery life of a Nokia 3310

• Israel killed 2 UNICEF drivers transporting WATER in Gaza • Israel killed 3 UN peacekeepers & wounded others in Lebanon • Israel has murdered almost 400 UN personnel since 7Oct2023 • Israel has murdered more UN personnel in the last 3 years than in the entire history of the UN. #IsraeliTerrorism

Microsoft and other US tech companies successfully lobbied the EU to hide the environmental toll of their data centers, Investigate Europe reports in collaboration with Tech Policy Press and other media partners.

I've had quite a few people messaging me about the news that Apple allegedly removed the names of towns in Southern Lebanon amid Israeli occupation, with this image coming up more than once, so I did a little research 🧵

It’s not just about Israel: In taking a harder line, Seoul is signaling political confidence and a growing readiness to shape its own external posture separately from the United States.

U.S leadership has been heavily in the spotlight in the last year & the recent Artemis II trip has surfaced even more questions about U.S leadership in the context of lunar resources. @artcotterell.bsky.social unpacks these concerns in his latest article 👇🏼 theconversation.com/as-artemis-i...

"‘I’ll Die Here in My House’: In Southern Lebanon, Many Simply Can't or Refuse to Flee" Zeteo speaks to several families who are risking their lives to stay in the area as Israel escalates its bombing and ground invasion.

Assessing the available evidence, Jonathan Stray considers what policies changed after Elon Musk bought Twitter, how much hate speech is on the platform now known as X, and what we can and cannot know about such questions without access to platform data.

Four months after her premature departure as vice-chancellor of the Australian National University, Genevieve Bell was suspended from her ongoing role as a distinguished professor and barred from entering the campus or speaking to staff. satpa.pe/2uSk0Zu

hell yeah www.msn.com/en-us/money/...

Yes!

Why is anyone surprised by the US and Israel’s latest war? It’s only what the world allowed them to do in Gaza | Owen Jones

Impossible to disagree with a single word that Ben Rhodes (Obama era NSC official) is saying here:

Difficult to describe how unusual it is for @icrc.org to speak publicly like this. "Heavy explosive weapons with wide-area effects struck densely populated urban areas, including the capital Beirut, without effective advance warnings." ICRC Outraged by Deadly Strikes in Densely Populated Areas

Geneva Cyber Week is almost here! With 5️⃣ days, 3️⃣ themes, and 8️⃣6️⃣ events, it’s time to lift the curtain on the understanding risks 🔴 sub-theme and its unmissable programme. 🔗 Find details on all events and secure your in-person access badge: bit.ly/GCW-Agenda

The ceasefire was supposed to include Lebanon, but instead, Israel attacked Lebanon 100 times in 10 minutes and massacred hundreds of people under the tired and unsubstantiated guise of a war on terror. apnews.com/article/iran...

Every time they photograph this man he looks more shocked that he’s getting away with it.

Lebanon’s health ministry said that Israeli strikes on Wednesday killed 182 people, the highest single-day death toll in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

The Israeli military launched what it described as its most powerful attacks on Lebanon, reportedly killing hundreds.

Canva says the acquisitions add strengths in agentic AI, data infrastructure, marketing automation, and customer engagement.

Frontier AI companies are hiring chemical and biological weapons experts to prevent destructive misuse of their platforms, but these mitigation systems have no external oversight — leaving critical risk governance subject to the whims of the companies and market forces, writes Javaid Iqbal Sofi.

A State Department cable endorses X as an "innovative" tool for embassies and consulates to counter "disinformation"—while also urging coordination with military psyops. Law professor & Lawfare senior editor Kate Klonick spoke to Justin Hendrix about what the incident says about platforms and power.

Advanced chip packaging is suddenly at the center of the AI boom. Intel is going all in. www.wired.com/story/why-ch...

Over 100 experts warn that US strikes against Iranian civil infrastructure may be war crimes www.justsecurity.org/135423/profe...

"Meta has told members of its independent Oversight Board that the company may stop funding it after 2028, sources familiar with the situation told Platformer."

Israel wants to take control of southern Lebanon. These maps and videos show how the Israeli military is doing it. nyti.ms/4bRz8xw

We do not have to, quote, “accept artificial intelligence” anymore than we have to use a “word processor” or a “typewriter” or a “ball point pen”, if I want to write my goddamn novel with a stylus on wet clay you can’t stop me

"The Critical AI Literacy (CAIL) project provides new scientific insights and innovative ways of thinking based on expert critical perspectives on AI in science and society.” — @olivia.science @marentierra.bsky.social www.ru.nl/en/research/...

In the last few weeks commercial data centres have been targeted in response to the illegal attacks on Iran by the U.S & Israel. If you're wondering about the legitimacy of data centres as military targets this @justsecurity.org unpacks the issue really well 👉🏼 www.justsecurity.org/133685/irani...

"Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Tuesday that it plans to target major US technology companies across the Middle East, including Apple, Microsoft and Google, on Wednesday amid the ongoing war." Iran accuses the companies of being involved in planning & tracking targets for US attacks.

I wrote about Zuckerberg's texts with Musk and how they undermine the principles of a fair and equal platform for everyone www.platformer.news/zuckerberg-m...

AI hype is everywhere. Today’s guests on the Tech Policy Press podcast are studying this phenomenon from a variety of perspectives, building out a line of inquiry they call "Hype Studies." They want to understand the social and political dimensions of tech hype, and what it portends.

On 28 Feb the U.S. targeted & struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in Iran killing ~165-180 people between the ages of 7 & 12. Many reports have questioned if AI is to blame. In my latest blog post I explain why this is a misdirected question 👇🏼 www.zenaassaad.com/blog/subhl6k...

As legal challenges mount and courts take a closer look at platform recommendation systems, the question is shifting from whether platforms are allowed to make editorial decisions to whether those decisions foreseeably incentivize behavior toward the edge of real-world harm, writes Dylan Moses.

So glad this is finally out! More than a year in the making, 70 key informant interviews, hundreds of written resources, two workshops. A full breakdown of the key findings and recommendations will follow, but for now this is the main takeaway: the AI label is a distraction. 1/4

New #ResponsibleBytesPodcast 🎙episode is now live, featuring Simon Chesterman chatting about AI, power and governance. You can listen to this episode anywhere you get your podcasts. You can also watch the full episode on our YouTube channel.

AI has been central to the war in the Middle East & it is against this backdrop that Aus Defence released their AI strategy. Netta Goussac & I have outlinined what the policy includes, what it misses & how it stacks up against policies from other countries 👇🏼 theconversation.com/australias-n...

Iran military spokesperson says US is negotiating with itself reut.rs/4lMP9YC