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sexymemecoin · 11 months ago

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The Metaverse: A New Frontier in Digital Interaction

The concept of the metaverse has captivated the imagination of technologists, futurists, and businesses alike. Envisioned as a collective virtual shared space, the metaverse merges physical and digital realities, offering immersive experiences and unprecedented opportunities for interaction, commerce, and creativity. This article delves into the metaverse, its potential impact on various sectors, the technologies driving its development, and notable projects shaping this emerging landscape.

What is the Metaverse?

The metaverse is a digital universe that encompasses virtual and augmented reality, providing a persistent, shared, and interactive online environment. In the metaverse, users can create avatars, interact with others, attend virtual events, own virtual property, and engage in economic activities. Unlike traditional online experiences, the metaverse aims to replicate and enhance the real world, offering seamless integration of the physical and digital realms.

Key Components of the Metaverse

Virtual Worlds: Virtual worlds are digital environments where users can explore, interact, and create. Platforms like Decentraland, Sandbox, and VRChat offer expansive virtual spaces where users can build, socialize, and participate in various activities.

Augmented Reality (AR): AR overlays digital information onto the real world, enhancing user experiences through devices like smartphones and AR glasses. Examples include Pokémon GO and AR navigation apps that blend digital content with physical surroundings.

Virtual Reality (VR): VR provides immersive experiences through headsets that transport users to fully digital environments. Companies like Oculus, HTC Vive, and Sony PlayStation VR are leading the way in developing advanced VR hardware and software.

Blockchain Technology: Blockchain plays a crucial role in the metaverse by enabling decentralized ownership, digital scarcity, and secure transactions. NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and cryptocurrencies are integral to the metaverse economy, allowing users to buy, sell, and trade virtual assets.

Digital Economy: The metaverse features a robust digital economy where users can earn, spend, and invest in virtual goods and services. Virtual real estate, digital art, and in-game items are examples of assets that hold real-world value within the metaverse.

Potential Impact of the Metaverse

Social Interaction: The metaverse offers new ways for people to connect and interact, transcending geographical boundaries. Virtual events, social spaces, and collaborative environments provide opportunities for meaningful engagement and community building.

Entertainment and Gaming: The entertainment and gaming industries are poised to benefit significantly from the metaverse. Immersive games, virtual concerts, and interactive storytelling experiences offer new dimensions of engagement and creativity.

Education and Training: The metaverse has the potential to revolutionize education and training by providing immersive, interactive learning environments. Virtual classrooms, simulations, and collaborative projects can enhance educational outcomes and accessibility.

Commerce and Retail: Virtual shopping experiences and digital marketplaces enable businesses to reach global audiences in innovative ways. Brands can create virtual storefronts, offer unique digital products, and engage customers through immersive experiences.

Work and Collaboration: The metaverse can transform the future of work by providing virtual offices, meeting spaces, and collaborative tools. Remote work and global collaboration become more seamless and engaging in a fully digital environment.

Technologies Driving the Metaverse

5G Connectivity: High-speed, low-latency 5G networks are essential for delivering seamless and responsive metaverse experiences. Enhanced connectivity enables real-time interactions and high-quality streaming of immersive content.

Advanced Graphics and Computing: Powerful graphics processing units (GPUs) and cloud computing resources are crucial for rendering detailed virtual environments and supporting large-scale metaverse platforms.

Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI enhances the metaverse by enabling realistic avatars, intelligent virtual assistants, and dynamic content generation. AI-driven algorithms can personalize experiences and optimize virtual interactions.

Wearable Technology: Wearable devices, such as VR headsets, AR glasses, and haptic feedback suits, provide users with immersive and interactive experiences. Advancements in wearable technology are critical for enhancing the metaverse experience.

Notable Metaverse Projects

Decentraland: Decentraland is a decentralized virtual world where users can buy, sell, and develop virtual real estate as NFTs. The platform offers a wide range of experiences, from gaming and socializing to virtual commerce and education.

Sandbox: Sandbox is a virtual world that allows users to create, own, and monetize their gaming experiences using blockchain technology. The platform's user-generated content and virtual real estate model have attracted a vibrant community of creators and players.

Facebook's Meta: Facebook's rebranding to Meta underscores its commitment to building the metaverse. Meta aims to create interconnected virtual spaces for social interaction, work, and entertainment, leveraging its existing social media infrastructure.

Roblox: Roblox is an online platform that enables users to create and play games developed by other users. With its extensive user-generated content and virtual economy, Roblox exemplifies the potential of the metaverse in gaming and social interaction.

Sexy Meme Coin (SEXXXY): Sexy Meme Coin integrates metaverse elements by offering a decentralized marketplace for buying, selling, and trading memes as NFTs. This unique approach combines humor, creativity, and digital ownership, adding a distinct flavor to the metaverse landscape. Learn more about Sexy Meme Coin at Sexy Meme Coin.

The Future of the Metaverse

The metaverse is still in its early stages, but its potential to reshape digital interaction is immense. As technology advances and more industries explore its possibilities, the metaverse is likely to become an integral part of our daily lives. Collaboration between technology providers, content creators, and businesses will drive the development of the metaverse, creating new opportunities for innovation and growth.

Conclusion

The metaverse represents a new frontier in digital interaction, offering immersive and interconnected experiences that bridge the physical and digital worlds. With its potential to transform social interaction, entertainment, education, commerce, and work, the metaverse is poised to revolutionize various aspects of our lives. Notable projects like Decentraland, Sandbox, Meta, Roblox, and Sexy Meme Coin are at the forefront of this transformation, showcasing the diverse possibilities within this emerging digital universe.

For those interested in the playful and innovative side of the metaverse, Sexy Meme Coin offers a unique and entertaining platform. Visit Sexy Meme Coin to explore this exciting project and join the community.

#crypto #blockchain #defi #digitalcurrency #ethereum #digitalassets #Sexy Meme Coin #bitcoin

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justforbooks · 3 months ago

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House of Huawei by Eva Dou

A fascinating insight into a Chinese telecoms giant and its detractors

Huawei is not exactly a household name. If you’ve heard of it, you either follow the smartphone market closely – it is the main China-based manufacturer of high-end phones – or else consume a lot of news, because the company is at the centre of an ongoing US-China trade war.

But this enormous business is one of the world’s biggest producers of behind-the-scenes equipment that enables fibre broadband, 4G and 5G phone networks. Its hardware is inside communications systems across the world.

That has prompted alarm from US lawmakers of both parties, who accuse Huawei of acting as an agent for China’s government and using its technology for espionage. The company insists it merely complies with the local laws wherever it operates, just like its US rivals. Nevertheless, its equipment has been ripped out of infrastructure in the UK at the behest of the government, its execs and staffers have been arrested across the world, and it has been pilloried for its involvement in China’s oppression of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

Into this murky world of allegation and counter-allegation comes the veteran telecoms reporter Eva Dou. Her book chronicles the history of Huawei since its inception, as well as the lives of founder Ren Zhengfei and his family, starting with the dramatic 2019 arrest of his daughter Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, at the behest of US authorities.

Dou’s command of her subject is indisputable and her book is meticulous and determinedly even-handed. House of Huawei reveals much, but never speculates or��grandstands – leaving that to the politicians of all stripes for whom hyperbole about Huawei comes more easily.

At its core, this book is the history of a large, successful business. That doesn’t mean it’s boring, though: there’s the story of efforts to haul 5G equipment above Everest base camp in order to broadcast the Beijing Olympics torch relay. We hear about the early efforts of Ren and his team, working around the clock in stiflingly hot offices, to make analogue telephone network switches capable of routing up to 10,000 calls; and gain insights into the near-impossible political dance a company must perform in order to operate worldwide without falling foul of the changing desires of China’s ruling Communist party.

Dou makes us better equipped to consider questions including: is this a regular company, or an extension of the Chinese state? How safe should other countries feel about using Huawei equipment? Is China’s exploitation of its technology sector really that different to the way the US authorities exploited Google, Facebook and others, as revealed by Edward Snowden?

Early in Huawei’s history, Ren appeared to give the game away in remarks to the then general secretary of the Communist party. “A country without its own program-controlled switches is like one without an army,” he argued, making the case for why the authorities should support his company’s growth. “Its software must be held in the hands of the Chinese government.”

But for each damning event, there is another that introduces doubt. The book reveals an arrangement from when Huawei operated in the UK that gave GCHQ unprecedented access to its source code and operations centre. US intelligence agencies seemed as able to exploit Huawei equipment for surveillance purposes as China’s. While Huawei’s equipment was certainly used to monitor Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, it was hardware from the US company Cisco that made China’s so-called Great Firewall possible.

Anyone hoping for definitive answers will not find them here, but the journey is far from wasted. The intricate reporting of Huawei, in all its ambiguity and complexity, sheds much light on the murky nature of modern geopolitics. The people who shout loudest about Huawei don’t know more than anyone else about it. Eva Dou does.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

#just for books #Eva Dou #House of Huawei #book review

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darkmaga-returns · 5 months ago

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by #TBOT: Take Back Our Tech

Ever drive a new car and see that it slows itself down when you get close to the car in front of you? That's an automatic emergency braking (AEB) system, something that automakers 'voluntarily' started putting in all vehicles.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is requiring all cars to be able to stop and avoid contact with the car in front of them at 62 mph. Automakers see this as an impossible task.

Large auto insurance co-op AAA released a research report showing that newer cars with AEB (2024) were twice as likely to avoid a collision than a 2017 vehicle at speeds of 34 mile per hour.

These newer systems use both camera and radar. What most people don't realize is the radar emits extremely high frequency mmWave technology typically above 50 Ghz.

Doing some research I found AEB radar companies advertising anywhere from 60-80 GHz. The average radiation coming from a microwave oven is about 2.5 GHz - most people are sitting next to something emitting far more dense radiation. And type of radiation is going to be all over our roadways.

Yes the NHTSA suggests in their studies that AEB systems can lower rear-end crashes by 49%, but at what cost to our long term health?

As Bioinitiative 2012 points out, "Health consequences have not been identified nor been factored into public safety limits" for new 5G wireless technologies. There is already a mountain of studies indicating negative bioeffects for the lower frequencies.

Can we find a better way to prevent accidents besides surveillance and extreme radiation?

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jcmarchi · 7 months ago

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Reimagining Telecom: GenAI’s Role in Elevating Customer Experiences

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/reimagining-telecom-genais-role-in-elevating-customer-experiences/

Reimagining Telecom: GenAI’s Role in Elevating Customer Experiences

As GenAI continues to transform the business landscape, we’re experiencing firsthand the emergence of technological advancements that are more rapid, more innovative, and more profound than anything else we’ve ever witnessed as a society.

The impacts of GenAI are so pervasive that it’s not just spurring a technical revolution, it’s ushering in a new age where arguably every domain – from how we work to how we live our everyday lives –will transform to some degree. While many industries have been working to reap GenAI’s benefits as quickly as possible, one industry has taken a slower approach to adoption: telecommunications. In fact, data shows only 22% of communication service providers (CSPs) have implemented GenAI solutions.

Despite telcos seemingly taking their GenAI journey at a slower pace compared to other companies in other industries who have accelerated their journeys, telecom’s steady approach isn’t the reflection of an industry that’s unable to see the technology’s benefits. Instead, it’s the result of an industry so deeply engrained in modern society, trying to strike a careful balance between honoring its core standards while also evolving to keep pace with the innovation of emerging technologies.

The impacts of GenAI usage in telecom go far beyond just the industry. Telecom is well-primed to experience immense benefits from GenAI, but the path forward requires a better understanding of the potential disruptions the tech presents and a clear view of how it will transform telecom as we know it.

GenAI in Telecom: A Classic Case of Steady Wins the Race

When technical advancements arise, industries immediately view becoming an early adopter as the initial goal. While a certain level of speediness is essential for the business landscape to keep up with our ever-changing world, it’s crucial to not lose sight of the most important consideration: the rate of implementation should never come at a cost. This is especially true for GenAI.

Telecom is a longstanding industry that is not only greatly depended upon, playing a massive role in contemporary society, but also one that can’t deviate from the truth and requires robust security. Given this, telecom can’t afford to take a “move quick, fix later” mentality with GenAI. For this industry, implementation needs to be flawless out of the gate.

With telecom being the powering source behind many of our daily experiences, the biggest challenge of GenAI has been ensuring the right data, and the right framework to support it, are in place to enable use cases. This has been a major obstacle that has heavily contributed to the industry needing to take a more cautious, and subsequently slower, approach to adoption relative to others.

Data is the foundation behind AI-powered experiences, and the quality of output from GenAI systems are directly tied to the data input that they’re trained on. In telecom, GenAI use cases are extremely high stakes and the wrong input can result in a detrimental output.

Picture a use case where a provider is using a GenAI agent to power their customer service offerings: a customer will rely on this agent to help solve for issues. Now say a customer runs into an instance where they need to fix their network; in this kind of interaction, there is no room for error. Should a hallucination occur (which was a common challenge other industries saw after their rapid deployment of GenAI) the wrong answer or action won’t just cause a minor inconvenience. Instead, it has the potential to shut down the network for hundreds of thousands, even millions, of people. The repercussions of this kind of widespread blackout would leave masses without connectivity, which many can’t afford in today’s digitally connected world. This kind of disruption isn’t small-scale; it could prevent people from having the ability to communicate and all of the sudden an attempt to solve a problem has spurred a hallucination into a national security issue.

To ensure this kind of instance is prevented, the telecom industry has had to prioritize taking preventative measures before focusing on GenAI implementation. Addressing this obstacle has required the industry to place weight behind new sets of trainings for large language models (LLMs) specific to telecom-data, which has been a major hurdle for CSPs in their GenAI journeys.

While other industries raced to set up their GenAI solutions, telecom had to focus on the backend to ensure the most accurate and secure frameworks were being developed to properly support these solutions. By launching GenAI at its own pace, and establishing the essential groundwork to enable it, telecom is now equipped to experience its innovation at an exponential rate.

How GenAI Will Reshape Telecom

Taking a look at the telecom landscape, the industry’s progression has been pretty linear. Moving from 3G to 4G to now 5G, there has been a clear-cut path forward. This linearity has driven tight competition within the industry, which up until recently, caused growth to remain stagnant.

Despite being a technology that’s external to telecom, the introduction of GenAI has the ability to change the industry’s trajectory and reignite profitability. With the right foundation in place, GenAI offers providers increasing opportunities to generate new revenue (51%), reduce time to market (40%) and improve employee productivity (39%).

As we see the rates of GenAI deployment rise, we can expect that this will also result in further changes across the industry including:

New relationships between vendors and providers: Partnerships have always played an integral role within telecom, but GenAI will bring a new meaning to the relationships partners have with their vendors. GenAI can empower providers by generating new revenue streams and helping to reduce the time-to-market for solutions. Gaining access to these capabilities can be costly, to address this challenge we’re already seeing vendors expanding into foundation model offerings to make GenAI services more accessible for CSPs, making these vendor relationships more critical than ever.

The telecom talent landscape: Not only will use of GenAI help to improve productivity by alleviating the burden of redundant tasks off employees, but these solutions are also powering the future of a new telecom workforce. Previously telecom has been an industry that requires a very longstanding and particular set of skills. GenAI is now re-visioning what it means to work within the field, allowing for new talent to break into the industry. GenAI can be used to equip employees with different experiences to tackle tasks that previously required a telecom background. At the same time, it will also power experts within telecom to become “super experts,” letting them step away from the more mundane tasks of their roles to focus on more strategic areas. This workforce shift will also spur a deeper focus within telecom on GenAI trainings and reskilling to ensure employees are properly utilizing the tech.

When it comes to telecom, GenAI deployments aren’t just changing how companies operate – as the base to today’s essential interactions, the technology is also sparking a broader transformation across the industry.

As the AI revolution continues, we’ve entered what is only comparable to a second Industrial Revolution. We’re not only attempting to harness the powers of a technology that is increasingly intelligent, but one that has also found a way to infiltrate essentially every possible domain. GenAI has pushed telecom to the cusp of great transformation and by taking a steady and secure approach to deployment, the industry is prepared to enter its next phase.

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khalid-albeshri · 7 months ago

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In 2024, 750 Chinese companies are working in Saudi Arabia. I will write about some aspects of the business collaboration between China and KSA

China and Saudi Arabia have deepened their collaboration across multiple sectors, driven by Saudi’s Vision 2030 and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Key Areas of Collaboration:

- Energy: China is a major importer of Saudi oil, and joint ventures like YASREF strengthen their energy ties.

- Infrastructure: Chinese companies, such as CSCEC, are involved in major projects like Neom and railway development.

- Technology: Huawei plays a key role in deploying 5G and advancing AI in Saudi Arabia.

- Manufacturing: Collaboration in industrial zones supports Saudi’s diversification efforts.

- Renewable Energy: Chinese firms are engaged in solar and wind projects.

- Cultural & Tourism: Growing cultural exchanges, tourism, and language programs strengthen ties.

- Defense: Cooperation in arms and military technology is growing, though less publicized.

- Finance: Chinese banks operate in Saudi Arabia, with mutual investments bolstering financial ties.

This partnership supports both nations' economic goals and strengthens their strategic positions.

#KhalidAlbeshri #خالدالبشري

#advertising #artificial intelligence #autos #business #developers & startups #edtech #education #finance #futurism #marketing

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frank-olivier · 6 months ago

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Semiconductors: The Driving Force Behind Technological Advancements

The semiconductor industry is a crucial part of our modern society, powering everything from smartphones to supercomputers. The industry is a complex web of global interests, with multiple players vying for dominance.

Taiwan has long been the dominant player in the semiconductor industry, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) accounting for 54% of the market in 2020. TSMC's dominance is due in part to the company's expertise in semiconductor manufacturing, as well as its strategic location in Taiwan. Taiwan's proximity to China and its well-developed infrastructure make it an ideal location for semiconductor manufacturing.

However, Taiwan's dominance also brings challenges. The company faces strong competition from other semiconductor manufacturers, including those from China and South Korea. In addition, Taiwan's semiconductor industry is heavily dependent on imports, which can make it vulnerable to supply chain disruptions.

China is rapidly expanding its presence in the semiconductor industry, with the government investing heavily in research and development (R&D) and manufacturing. China's semiconductor industry is led by companies such as SMIC and Tsinghua Unigroup, which are rapidly expanding their capacity. However, China's industry still lags behind Taiwan's in terms of expertise and capacity.

South Korea is another major player in the semiconductor industry, with companies like Samsung and SK Hynix owning a significant market share. South Korea's semiconductor industry is known for its expertise in memory chips such as DRAM and NAND flash. However, the industry is heavily dependent on imports, which can make it vulnerable to supply chain disruptions.

The semiconductor industry is experiencing significant trends, including the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), and the increasing demand for 5G technology. These trends are driving semiconductor demand, which is expected to continue to grow in the coming years.

However, the industry also faces major challenges, including a shortage of skilled workers, the increasing complexity of semiconductor manufacturing and the need for more sustainable and environmentally friendly manufacturing processes.

To overcome the challenges facing the industry, it is essential to invest in research and development, increase the availability of skilled workers and develop more sustainable and environmentally friendly manufacturing processes. By working together, governments, companies and individuals can ensure that the semiconductor industry remains competitive and sustainable, and continues to drive innovation and economic growth in the years to come.

Chip War, the Race for Semiconductor Supremacy (2023) (TaiwanPlus Docs, October 2024)

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Dr. Keyu Jin, a tenured professor of economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, argues that many in the West misunderstand China’s economic and political models. She maintains that China became the most successful economic story of our time by shifting from primarily state-owned enterprises to an economy more focused on entrepreneurship and participation in the global economy.

Dr. Keyu Jin: Understanding a Global Superpower - Another Look at the Chinese Economy (Wheeler Institute for Economy, October 2024)

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Dr. Keyu Jin: China's Economic Prospects and Global Impact (Global Institute For Tomorrow, July 2024)

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The following conversation highlights the complexity and nuance of Xi Jinping's ideology and its relationship to traditional Chinese thought, and emphasizes the importance of understanding the internal dynamics of the Chinese Communist Party and the ongoing debates within the Chinese system.

Dr. Kevin Rudd: On Xi Jinping - How Xi's Marxist Nationalism Is Shaping China and the World (Asia Society, October 2024)

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Tuesday, October 29, 2024

#semiconductor industry #globalization #technology #innovation #research #development #sustainability #economic growth #documentary #ai assisted writing #machine art #Youtube #presentation #discussion #china #taiwán #south korea

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mariacallous · 10 months ago

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In a sunlight-filled classroom at the US State Department’s diplomacy school in late February, America’s cyber ambassador fielded urgent questions from US diplomats who were spending the week learning about the dizzying technological forces shaping their missions.

“This portfolio is one of the most interesting and perhaps the most consequential at this moment in time,” Nathaniel Fick, the US ambassador-at-large for cyberspace and digital policy, told the roughly three dozen diplomats assembled before him at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia. “Getting smart on these issues … is going to serve everyone really well over the long term, regardless of what other things you go off and do.”

The diplomats, who had come from overseas embassies and from State Department headquarters in nearby Washington, DC, were the sixth cohort of students to undergo a crash course in cybersecurity, telecommunications, privacy, surveillance, and other digital issues, which Fick’s team created in late 2022. The training program—the biggest initiative yet undertaken by State’s two-year-old cyber bureau—is intended to reinvigorate US digital diplomacy at a time when adversaries like Russia and China are increasingly trying to shape how the world uses technology.

During his conversation with the students, Fick discussed the myriad of tech and cyber challenges facing US diplomats. He told a staffer from an embassy in a country under China’s influence to play the long game in forming relationships that could eventually help the US make inroads there. He spoke about his efforts to help European telecom companies survive existential threats from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei in the battle for the world’s 5G networks. And he warned of a difficult balancing act on AI, saying the US needed to stave off excessive regulation at the UN without repeating past mistakes.

“We really screwed up governance of the previous generation of tech platforms, particularly the social [media] platforms,” Fick said. “The US essentially unleashed on the world the most powerful anti-democratic tools in the history of humanity, and now we’re digging our way out of a credibility hole.”

Restoring that credibility and expanding American influence over digital issues will require tech-savvy diplomacy, and the State Department is counting on Fick’s training program to make that possible. To pull back the curtain on this program for the first time, WIRED received exclusive access to the February training session and interviewed Fick, the initiative’s lead organizer, five graduates of the course, and multiple cyber diplomacy experts about how the program is trying to transform American tech diplomacy.

Fick has called the training program the most important part of his job. As he tells anyone who will listen, it’s a project with existential stakes for the future of the open internet and the free world.

“Technology as a source of influence is increasingly foundational,” he says. “These things are more and more central to our foreign policy, and that’s a trend that is long-term and unlikely to change anytime soon.”

Maintaining an Edge

From Russian election interference to Chinese industrial dominance, the US faces a panoply of digital threats. Fighting back will require skillful diplomatic pressure campaigns on every level, from bilateral talks with individual countries to sweeping appeals before the 193-member United Nations. But this kind of work is only possible when the career Foreign Service officers on the front lines of US diplomacy understand why tech and cyber issues matter—and how to discuss them.

“The US needs to demonstrate both understanding and leadership on the global stage,” says Chris Painter, who served as the first US cyber ambassador from 2011 to 2017.

This leadership is important on high-profile subjects like artificial intelligence and the 5G war between Western and Chinese vendors, but it’s equally vital on the bread-and-butter digital issues—like basic internet connectivity and fighting cybercrime—that don’t generate headlines but still dominate many countries’ diplomatic engagements with the US.

Diplomats also need to be able to identify digital shortcomings and security gaps in their host countries that the US could help fix. The success of the State Department’s new cyber foreign aid fund will depend heavily on project suggestions from tech-savvy diplomats on the ground.

In addition, because virtually every global challenge—from trade to climate—has a tech aspect, all US diplomats need to be conversant in the topic. “You’re going to have meetings where a country is talking about a trade import issue or complaining about a climate problem, and suddenly there’s a tech connection,” says Justin Sherman, a tech and geopolitics expert who runs Global Cyber Strategies, a Washington, DC, research and advisory firm.

Digital expertise will also help the US expand coalitions around cybercrime investigations, ransomware deterrence, and safe uses of the internet—all essentially proxy fights with Russia and China.

“We are in competition with the authoritarian states on everything from internet standards … to basic governance rules,” says Neil Hop, a senior adviser to Fick and the lead organizer of the training program. “We are going to find ourselves at a sore disadvantage if we don't have trained people who are representing [us].”

Diplomats without tech training might not even realize when their Russian and Chinese counterparts are using oblique rhetoric to pitch persuadable countries on their illiberal visions of internet governance, with rampant censorship and surveillance. Diplomats with tech training would be able to push back, using language and examples designed to appeal to those middle-ground countries and sway them away from the authoritarians’ clutches.

“Our competitors and our adversaries are upping their game in these areas,” Fick says, “because they understand as well as we do what’s at stake.”

Preparing America’s Eyes and Ears

The Obama administration was the first to create a tech diplomacy training program, with initial training sessions in various regions followed by week-long courses that brought trainees to Washington. Government speakers and tech-industry luminaries like internet cocreator Vint Cerf discussed the technological, social, and political dimensions of the digital issues that diplomats had to discuss with their host governments.

“The idea was to create this cadre in the Foreign Service to work with our office and really mainstream this as a topic,” says Painter, who created the program when he was State’s coordinator for cyber issues, the predecessor to Fick’s role.

But when Painter tried to institutionalize his program with a course at the Foreign Service Institute, he encountered resistance. “I think we kind of hit it too early for FSI,” he says. “I remember the FSI director saying that they thought, ‘Well, maybe this is just a passing fad.’ It was a new topic. This is what happens with any new topic.”

By the time the Senate unanimously confirmed Nate Fick to be America’s cyber ambassador in September 2022, tech diplomacy headaches were impossible to ignore, and Fick quickly tasked his team with creating a modern training program and embedding it in the FSI’s regular curriculum.

“He understood that we needed to do more and better in terms of preparing our people in the field,” Hop says.

The training program fit neatly into secretary of state Antony Blinken’s vision of an American diplomatic corps fully versed in modern challenges and nimble enough to confront them. “Elevating our tech diplomacy” is one of Blinken’s “core priorities,” Fick says.

As they developed a curriculum, Fick and his aides had several big goals for the new training program.

The first priority was to make sure diplomats understood what was at stake as the US and its rivals compete for global preeminence on tech issues. “Authoritarian states and other actors have used cyber and digital tools to threaten national security, international peace and security, economic prosperity, [and] the exercise of human rights,” says Kathryn Fitrell, a senior cyber policy adviser at State who helps run the course.

Equally critical was preparing diplomats to promote the US tech agenda from their embassies and provide detailed reports back to Washington on how their host governments were approaching these issues.

“It's important to us that tech expertise [in] the department not sit at headquarters alone,” Fick says, “but instead that we have people everywhere—at all our posts around the world, where the real work gets done—who are equipped with the tools that they need to make decisions with a fair degree of autonomy.”

Foreign Service officers are America’s eyes and ears on the ground in foreign countries, studying the landscape and alerting their bosses back home to risks and opportunities. They are also the US government’s most direct and regular interlocutors with representatives of other nations, forming personal bonds with local officials that can sometimes make the difference between unity and discord.

When these diplomats need to discuss the US tech agenda, they can’t just read monotonously off a piece of paper. They need to actually understand the positions they’re presenting and be prepared to answer questions about them.

“You can’t be calling back to someone in Washington every time there’s a cyber question,” says Sherman.

But some issues will still require help from experts at headquarters, so Fick and his team also wanted to use the course to deepen their ties with diplomats and give them friendly points of contact at the cyber bureau. “We want to be able to support officers in the field as they confront these issues,” says Melanie Kaplan, a member of Fick’s team who took the class and now helps run it.

Inside the Classroom

After months of research, planning, and scheduling, Fick’s team launched the Cyberspace and Digital Policy Tradecraft course at the Foreign Service Institute with a test run in November 2022. Since then, FSI has taught the class six more times—once in London for European diplomats, once in Morocco for diplomats in the Middle East and Africa, and four times in Arlington—and trained 180 diplomats.

The program begins with four hours of “pre-work” to prepare students for the lessons ahead. Students must document that they’ve completed the pre-work—which includes experimenting with generative AI—before taking the class. “That has really put us light-years ahead in ensuring that no one is lost on day one,” Hop says.

The week-long in-person class consists of 45- to 90-minute sessions on topics like internet freedom, privacy, ransomware, 5G, and AI. Diplomats learn how the internet works on a technical level, how the military and the FBI coordinate with foreign partners to take down hackers’ computer networks, and how the US promotes its tech agenda in venues like the International Telecommunication Union. Participants also meet with Fick and his top deputies, including Eileen Donahoe, the department’s special envoy for digital freedom.

One session features a panel of US diplomats who have helped their host governments confront big cyberattacks. “They woke up one morning and suddenly were in this position of having to respond to a major crisis,” says Meir Walters, a training alum who leads the digital-freedom team in State’s cyber bureau.

Students learn how the US helped Albania and Costa Rica respond to massive cyberattacks in 2022 perpetrated by the Iranian government and Russian cybercriminals, respectively. In Albania, urgent warnings from a young, tech-savvy US diplomat “accelerated our response to the Iranian attack by months,” Fick says. In Costa Rica, diplomats helped the government implement emergency US aid and then used those relationships to turn the country into a key semiconductor manufacturing partner.

“By having the right people on the ground,” Fick says, “we were able to seize these significant opportunities.”

Students spend one day on a field trip, with past visits including the US Chamber of Commerce (to understand industry’s role in tech diplomacy), the Center for Democracy and Technology (to understand civil society’s perspective on digital-rights issues), and the internet infrastructure giant Verisign.

On the final day, participants must pitch ideas for using what they’ve learned in a practical way to Jennifer Bachus, the cyber bureau’s number two official.

The course has proven to be highly popular. Fick told participants in February that “there was a long wait list” to get in. There will be at least three more sessions this year: one in Arlington in August (timed to coincide with the diplomatic rotation period), one in East Asia, and one in Latin America. These sessions are expected to train 75 to 85 new diplomats.

After the course ends, alumni can stay up-to-date with a newsletter, a Microsoft Teams channel, and a toolkit with advice and guidance. Some continue their education: Fifty diplomats are getting extra training through a one-year online learning pilot, and State is accepting applications for 15 placements at leading academic institutions and think tanks—including Stanford University and the Council on Foreign Relations—where diplomats can continue researching tech issues that interest them.

Promising Results, Challenges Ahead

Less than two years into the training effort, officials say they are already seeing meaningful improvements to the US’s tech diplomacy posture.

Diplomats are sending Washington more reports on their host governments’ tech agendas, Fitrell says, with more details and better analysis. Graduates of the course also ask more questions than their untrained peers. And inspired by the training, some diplomats have pushed their bosses to prioritize tech issues, including through embassy working groups uniting representatives of different US agencies.

State has also seen more diplomats request high-level meetings with foreign counterparts to discuss tech issues and more incorporation of those issues into broader conversations. Fick says the course helped the cyber officer at the US embassy in Nairobi play an integral role in recent tech agreements between the US and Kenya. And diplomats are putting more energy into whipping votes for international tech agreements, including an AI resolution at the UN.

Diplomats who took the course shared overwhelmingly positive feedback with WIRED. They say it was taught in an accessible way and covered important topics. Several say they appreciated hearing from senior US officials whose strategizing informs diplomats’ on-the-ground priorities. Maryum Saifee, a senior adviser for digital governance at State’s cyber bureau and a training alum, says she appreciated the Morocco class’s focus on regional issues and its inclusion of locally employed staff.

Graduates strongly encouraged their colleagues to take the course, describing it as foundational to every diplomatic portfolio.

“Even if you're not a techie kind of a person, you need to not shy away from these conversations,” says Bridget Trazoff, a veteran diplomat who has learned four languages at the Foreign Service Institute and compares the training to learning a fifth one.

Painter, who knows how challenging it can be to create a program like this, says he’s “heard good things” about the course. “I’m very happy that they've redoubled their efforts in this.”

For the training program to achieve lasting success, its organizers will need to overcome several hurdles.

Fick’s team will need to keep the course material up-to-date as the tech landscape evolves. They’ll need to keep it accessible but also informative to diplomats with varying tech proficiencies who work in countries with varying levels of tech capacity. And they’ll need to maintain a constant training tempo, given that diplomats rotate positions every few years.

The tone of the curriculum also presents a challenge. Diplomats need to learn the US position on issues like trusted telecom infrastructure, but they also need to understand that not every country sees things the way the US does. “It's not just knowing about these tech issues that’s so essential,” Sherman says. “It's also understanding the whole dictionary of terms and how every country thinks about these concepts differently.”

The coming years could test the course’s impact as the US strives to protect its Eastern European partners from Russia, its East Asian partners from China and North Korea, and its Middle Eastern partners from Iran, as well as to counter Chinese tech supremacy and neutralize Russia’s and China’s digital authoritarianism.

Perhaps the biggest question facing the program is whether it will survive a possible change in administrations this fall. Officials are optimistic—Fick has talked to his Trump-era counterparts, and Painter says “having an FSI course gives it a sense of permanence.”

For Fick, there is no question that the training must continue.

“Tech is interwoven into every aspect of … American foreign policy,” he says. “If you want to position yourself to be effective and be relevant as an American diplomat in the decades ahead, you need to understand these issues.”

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thatstormygeek · 3 months ago

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Q: How did the AI hype start? A: OpenAI became the first American company to demonstrate that if you take a snapshot of the whole known internet and all digitized books in existence without worrying too much about copyright law, you can create a model so good that its output would be almost indistinguishable from that of a DC bureaucrat with mediocre intelligence.

Q: How is China involved? A: As a part of its larger effort to contain China, the U.S. government has been on a mission of stopping Chinese companies from becoming leaders in different areas of technology. It has done so by wielding control over global supply chains and protecting American tech companies from competition in the process. The U.S. blocked Huawei’s entry into the United States just as it was overtaking Apple to become the second biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world; it stopped European countries from installing Huawei manufactured 5G infrastructure when it was clearly more economical; and most recently, it passed legislation banning TikTok, a Chinese social media app that had become massively popular in United States and whose recommendation algorithm no American social media app had been able to outperform. The U.S. claim that Huawei and other Chinese tech companies are inextricably linked to China’s geopolitical strategy and put Western companies and people at heightened risk of surveillance and corporate espionage is, of course, grounded in reality. DeepSeek isn’t shy about how much data it collects on its platform, including even your keystrokes ... However, because DeepSeek is open source and can run locally on a separate device, Chairman Xi Jinping’s prying eyes can be shielded. Maintaining global technological dominance is one of the key concerns U.S. policymakers have repeatedly cited, and have identified AI as a crucial technology in maintaining that dominance. In 2018, when the U.S. government was in the process of banning Huawei, it realized that it would need to do the same with downstream technologies like semiconductor chips, the main component used in CPUs and GPUs. The severe chip shortage due to global supply chain disruptions during Covid-19 showed that advanced chips are a global supply chain bottleneck and a scarce resource. By 2022 the Biden administration had put comprehensive sanctions on China, stopping the export of these chips to the country and preventing Chinese AI companies from accessing the latest and most efficient GPUs. At the same time, it passed the CHIPS act, subsidizing national semiconductor manufacturing with over $50 billion.

#us politics #ai #deepseek #drop site #tech bubble

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bintangchipblog · 23 days ago

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What is a Foundry? Why It’s the Key to Chip Manufacturing

In the heart of the global electronics industry lies a quiet giant—the semiconductor foundry. While companies like Apple, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm design the chips that power your favorite devices, it's the foundries that physically bring those designs to life. But what exactly is a foundry, and why is it so critical to chip manufacturing?

What is a Semiconductor Foundry?

A semiconductor foundry, or simply "foundry," is a manufacturing facility that fabricates integrated circuits (ICs). These ICs, also known as microchips or chips, are the brains behind modern electronics—everything from smartphones and laptops to cars and industrial machinery.

Foundries specialize in manufacturing chips designed by other companies, a business model known as pure-play foundry. For example, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is the world’s largest and most advanced foundry, producing chips for tech giants without competing with them in design.

There are also IDMs (Integrated Device Manufacturers) like Intel, which both design and manufacture their own chips. However, the pure-play foundry model has become dominant due to the increasing complexity and cost of chip manufacturing.

The Role of a Foundry in Chip Manufacturing

Chip design is only half the equation. Once a design is finalized using software and simulations, it must be turned into physical silicon wafers through a meticulous and highly precise process involving:

Photolithography: Transferring microscopic circuit patterns onto silicon.

Etching and Deposition: Carving and layering materials to form transistors and interconnects.

Ion Implantation: Modifying electrical properties at the atomic level.

Packaging and Testing: Encasing chips and validating their performance.

This process takes place in ultra-clean, billion-dollar facilities where even a speck of dust can ruin a chip. Foundries provide the scale, expertise, and cleanroom environments necessary to execute this complex task at nanometer precision.

Why Foundries Are the Key to the Chip Industry

Enabling Innovation Through Specialization Foundries allow fabless companies (those that only design chips) to focus on innovation without the burden of operating expensive fabrication plants. This division of labor has accelerated technological progress.

Advanced Process Technology Leading foundries invest billions into R&D and process nodes (like 5nm, 3nm, or 2nm technology), pushing the boundaries of performance and power efficiency.

Scalability and Global Supply Foundries serve a wide range of industries: consumer electronics, automotive, medical, aerospace, and more. Their capacity and scalability make them vital to maintaining the global tech supply chain.

Geopolitical and Economic Importance Countries now consider foundries as strategic assets, essential for national security and economic resilience. Supply chain disruptions in recent years have spotlighted their critical role.

Conclusion

Foundries are the unsung heroes of the digital era. While designers craft the vision for future chips, it’s the foundries that make those visions a reality with unmatched precision and scale. As chip demands surge across AI, IoT, and 5G, the importance of foundries in the semiconductor ecosystem will only grow.

Whether you're holding a smartphone or driving a smart vehicle, chances are a chip built in a foundry is powering the experience—quietly but powerfully behind the scenes.

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