In an interview, national security journalist Annie Jacobsen says biological weapons rank as a close second to nuclear weapons on a Defense Department threat spectrum, despite being less destructive overall. She attributes this to the low barrier to entry for creating bioweapons compared to nuclear arms, which require state-level resources like fissile material and delivery systems.
wired.com
· 2026-09-30
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng announced plans for an AI notification system that would let Washington and Beijing warn each other of AI-related national security incidents. Trump administration officials say key details, including what qualifies as a reportable incident and formal Chinese commitment, remain unresolved, though they hope to have a framework ready by the time Bessent and He meet again in Shenzhen in two months.
wired.com
· 2026-09-23
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States has proposed a 'notification mechanism' allowing the U.S. and China to alert each other about AI incidents that could threaten national security. The proposal emerged from weekend talks between Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York, held ahead of a Thursday meeting between President Trump and Xi Jinping. Officials also said they had agreed to operationalize a new 'Board of Trade' first discussed in May and were exploring tariff reductions on nonsensitive goods like agriculture, energy and medical devices.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-21
Prediction market platform Kalshi reportedly took down a tool tracking AI compute prices after the U.S. Commerce Department raised national security objections. Details on the exact nature of the concern have not been fully disclosed, but the removal followed direct government pushback.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-09-15
The US Air Force publicly confirmed it has placed weapons in orbit capable of offensive action, a rare admission for a domain traditionally shrouded in secrecy. Officials suggested the disclosure was intentional, signaling capability to rival nations rather than an accidental leak.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-09-15
The Trump administration filed a court brief supporting OpenAI in its ongoing copyright dispute with publishers over AI training data. Officials argued that restricting AI firms' access to content for training purposes could pose national security risks.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-02
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released a report assessing U.S. counterterrorism progress since the September 11, 2001 attacks, warning that advanced AI systems could help terrorists or hostile actors build weapons of mass destruction and plan deadly attacks. The panel called on intelligence agencies and policymakers to prepare for so-called 'Black Swan' scenarios in which frontier AI models lower the barrier for rogue actors seeking to cause mass casualties.
cnbc.com
· 2026-08-31
Nigeria has introduced a set of financing, procurement, and infrastructure measures aimed at establishing a sovereign cloud computing capability. The initiative is designed to keep more government and citizen data within national borders while building up local technical expertise.
darkreading.com
· 2026-08-26